This is a combo/stax build that I have been tweaking from its early stages as a modified budget precon, to a fully optimized competitive list. It utilizes various Derevi strategies and houses numerous win cons and play lines to give players flexibility to adapt to different scenarios. Currently it is still being run in several local tournaments that help evolve and influence deck list choices for different metas.
While the build drifts quite a bit from the precon I started with, I found it very easy to slowly transition into its current incarnation a few cards. The first wave of changes focused on acquiring Winter Orb/Hokori, Dust Drinker, Deadeye Navigator, the reanimator combos parts (Reveillark, Saffi Eriksdotter, Blasting Station, and Sun Titan) and any budget draw/tutors and ETB creatures I could get. I mainly cut the combat oriented spells and opted for the Roon of the Hidden Realm sub-theme to make use of all the ETB effects. I also splashed a few more token options for the Derevi triggers and to feed an Edric, Spymaster of Trest.
Through extensive testing and acquiring better draw/tutors, like Birthing Pod, I started to add silver bullet hate cards based on problems I couldn't seem to beat. Gaddock Teeg was one of the deck's biggest turnarounds against higher tier decks winning before I could even set up and started the idea of using hate bears as both preemptive defensive solutions and amassing creatures for Derevi triggers. Along the way I also encountered a few decks that were ran competing hate cards of their own like Humility and Torpor Orb, so I still made a push for non-creature answers as well. It took a bit of time to figure out the right mix of hate bears/answers for my meta and likely your list may need to be a bit different than mine, so experiment!
The final phases of the deck build was to tighten up the casting cost and speed of the deck and focus more on tempo. I wanted to lay down something good Main Phase 1, attack to untap, then have answers ready with free mana or keep building. This meant cards like Acidic Slime became Reclamation Sage because the cheaper casting cost was more practical than the extra option to destroy land for 2 more mana. This also meant throwing down some extra money to get better land fixing and a few other optimal cards.
This deck is built with competitive in mind, but new players will likely find it easy to use the precon as a base since nearly every card added works well with the precon itself. It'll be a bit before it has the same feel, but there are plenty of budget options that served me well along the way.
Derevi is a card designed with Commander in mind. While alone she is not that powerful, combined with a few cards and she suddenly becomes one of the best commanders around. She plays favor to various strategies and gives players a lot of room to build a deck to their liking. Overall she's probably one of the most flexible commander options with how many ways her abilities can be abused, making her a great choice for players wanting to run something unique even if another player is already running her.
One of her most alluring features is the ability to cheat Commander Tax and bring her back into play at instant speed. For many people, not having your commander or being too afraid to play them can make it feel like you're not playing your deck optimally, but Derevi gets around that and we get to play with spells dedicated toward her without fear of losing her for the interactions. This ability also is an open invitation for creating sac/replay loops that wouldn't be possible with Commander Tax.
Her other abilities focus on tap/untaps and leads to many ways to abuse her and often where the creative element of a Derevi deck spawns from; you can go infinite, lock out opponents, free up mana, etc... You'll find deciding on which direction to go can sometimes be overwhelming in the deck design (But that's what guides are for right?).
The last reason is that Bant simply is one of the strongest colors in EDH and will give you access to solid answers to multiple matchups. You have removal and counters for nearly any spell/permanent in the game since you can target all permanent types and every zone (Except Commander Zone of course). Bant also holds some of the strongest assortment of hate cards and global control effects that become very powerful as they are able to effect multiple opponents. The build options are also very flexible since aggro, control, combo, toolbox, voltron, etc... are all proven viable in this wedge, giving you freedom to alter your deck and reuse your Bant staples. There's really not a whole lot Bant can't do, it just might not do some things as optimally as red or black in some areas, but you're rarely left with a glaring weakness to the color's limitations (EX: Red/Black trying to remove Enchantments).
Beyond Derevi, Bant only offers a few other commanders most consider viable in this format:
Jenara, Asura of War - Focuses on dealing evasive Commander Damage. She's fast, but requires cards to defend her to achieve her goals. Usually a voltron deck, but can also stretch to just raw damage as well.
Phelddagrif - Fun for troll hug builds or players trying to push hardcore politics. A very different deck.
Rafiq of the Many - Really strong Commander Damage themed deck. Has many of the same pro/cons of Jenara, but focuses mostly on single attackers and ways to ensure they'll deal damage unhindered. These decks are very explosive, dealing lethal in single swings unexpectedly and often taking multiple attack phases.
Roon of the Hidden Realm - A great option for ETB centric decks, but I do have concerns over his speed. You'll want to play more ramp and bigger spells in this deck. Overall he will play many cards we run, so he can also be a good "fun" commander swap for this (we're not running optimal Roon, but it is functional with all the ETB and "Bant Good Stuff")
You don't like drawing hate. You play several cards that will make you a huge target and must attack continuously for triggers.
You don't like stax or lockouts that prevent opponents from playing. This deck is extremely oppressive and opportunistic. It can lead to many "feel bads" or slow, but inevitable wins for opponents which can be aggravating.
You don't like managing tons of triggers and objects on the stack. This deck can get very complex, very quickly with its multicard synergies and combos.
You dislike infinite combos.
(Thankfully many of these "negatives" can be remedied in casual metas by omitting key cards, as many of the other cards are still functional outside the more degenerate combos and locks. I ran a fun build with Roon where I took out about 10-12 cards and added more ETB goodness).
I Want it All
Bant has a great arsenal of cards and flexibility; Derevi, probably the most unique of the Bant commanders since she fits so many different strategies. She has 4 key notes to focus on with some common leanings to exploit those benefits:
She taps/untaps as an ETB - permanents that use tapping, flickering, recursion, "orb" lock
Combat with all your creatures triggers taps/untaps - cheap creatures, tokens, evasion, permanents that use tapping at instant speed, "orb" locks
She is a bird wizard - tribal
She can be cheated into play at instant speed to avoid Commander Tax - sac outlets, instant speed spells for reactive options
This is a lot of potential for different ideas and many Derevi decks opt to push one or two of those to abuse. Rather than pick a few, we're going to make most of them a point of interest by creating a toolbox to find cards that can make the best use of Derevi with the current board state. Bant thankfully has a great arsenal of draw spells and tutors that can put cards into various zones of play, including the battlefield. The great benefit of a toolbox is it plays to the nature of a singleton format as we can forgo tutorable redundant effects and opt for a more diverse pallet of cards to give our decks more room to maneuver.
Give in to Hate
Hate cards can be a great, preemptive, persisting solution to problems and be of more value than a reactionary answer that requires open mana and potential tempo loss. They also punish decks with narrow strategies and can completely shut down an opponent until they can deal with it, which plays an interesting role in politics. While there are many types of hate cards in our colors, Bant has a great arsenal of creature based one's we'll be running. Affectionately dubbed "Hatebears", these cards play favor to a lot of synergies in the build since they advance the board state with bodies for Derevi triggers and can be easily tutored, copied, reanimated, etc...
Tempo and Curve
It's easy to get tunnel vision and go for expensive casting costs in these colors, as many flavorful cards like Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger seem like they're awesome in this build. However, Derevi comes down early and frees up mana after combat, which plays favor to a tempo strategy. To exploit that we want several cards at a low mana cost so that we can always cast something in our main phase and then have mana open for main phase 2 or holdout with answers as we pass. You want every turn to advance board state, but not leave yourself vulnerable or unable to stop an opponent to get ahead of you. Cheaper bodies also means you can get more combat triggers in early phases of the game. Our deck aims to be a problem starting turn 4-5, but is very capable of answering problems before that if someone decides to race us.
I Say Nay
There's no permanent or spell we can't deny in our colors that doesn't say "Split Second" on it. Since we run many low mana cost permanents to advance board state, a commander we can always cast for 4cc, and often free mana after all that, it's a good strategy to always have an answer in hand to make that open mana relevant. So we want to run many answers to make use of that and ensure we can protect our board and deny people as we see fit. When you combine this with our arsenal of hate cards, we can be very oppressive to decks without any loss in tempo trying to deal with multiple opponents. We're not a normal deck with control characteristics that has to wait patiently till they can secure the big wincon, we get to be aggressive and oppressive at the same time.
We want our mana ramp to mostly focus on artifact/creature ramp as opposed to putting more lands in play, mainly to help us play around our Winter Orb and survive other land hate effects. We also focus on various forms of permanent based ramp to make ourselves less vulnerable to mass removals/hate of one type.
Mana Crypt - It's not colored accel, but it's too good not to run in just about every EDH deck. It makes a great target for Derevi triggers when you don't need colored mana and is an awesome target for Tezzeret The Seeker or sometimes even Wargate. The damage you take is negligible and you can easily remove it from play in dire situations. You run a lot of great 2-3 mana drops that you can throw down turn 1 with this for explosive starts.
Avacyn's Pilgrim - Cheap mana dork that provides a color we might not already have.
Birds of Paradise - Color fixing is really important for this deck and we want to not put all our stock in non-basic land in case of a Blood Moon, so a 1cc mana dork for all colors is perfect. You can even tutor it with Green Sun Zenith early if you need the ramp. With Prophet of Kruphix it has the advantage over artifacts mana rocks since it will get to untap.
Sol Ring - EDH staple for good reason. Nearly as good as Mana Crypt for a mere 1 more, but doesn't hurt you.
Bloom Tender - One of the best mana sources you run. The general idea is to get Derevi out to allow it to tap for GWU, then untap it again to net you tons of mana. If you're lacking your 3 colors of permanents for Bloom Tender, but have enough other mana sources to get Derevi into play, the optimal way to get the most mana is to play Derevi, target Bloom Tender with Derevi's ETB trigger, then in response tap Bloom Tender to get GWU now that Derevi in in play, then Bloom Tender untaps. This is a main component in a few infinites where you use looping Derevi ETB triggers to constantly untap it.
Talisman of Progress - 2cc mana rock that produce 2 of your colors is hard to beat. The damage drawback is rarely of issue and later on the colorless mana can be used if needed.
Chromatic Lantern - Color fixing is extremely important in our deck, so this is a must.
Gilded Lotus - Heavy costed, but very abusable with Derevi triggers. This is also a key component in several infinites where we use looping Derevi ETB tricks to constantly untap it, similar to how we use Bloom Tender, but often easier to put together.
Stax/Hate
You'll often win the game by combo and lockouts, so it's vital to shut down or slow opponents to give you the time and freedom to set up. Hate cards are very strong value since the effects persist in an often global way and you can play around most of them with ease. Beyond just hindering your opponents moves, some of these can out right punish decks with a limited selection of win cons and card types. Often decks with a single gimmick can get be turned off entirely if you can cast and protect the right hate cards. Outside of combo/lock pieces, these will be your best targets for tutors. Most of them are cheap creatures with low power, making them relevant targets for several tutors and reanimator effects as well as great bodies to have ready to attack for Derevi or Edric, Spymaster of Trest triggers.
Gaddock Teeg - This is arguably one of the strongest hate cards in our deck since many powerful cards in commander are 4+/x casting non-creature spells and many of ours are not. Having him out can defend you from most board wipes, big "win spells", Time Warps, planeswalkers, etc... leaving most opponents with a desperate need to get rid of him to even be able to win or stop you. In politics he becomes even more interesting with a deck that isn't bothered by it, as they may actually help defend him or not kill you to ensure the other players are locked out. It's often wise to get him on the field against non-creature based deck ASAP unless your hand really has need to not be hindered by his draw back to you. In cases where he's blocking cards in hand, the deck runs lots of way to remove him from the field (bounces, sacs, etc...) to cast your spell and then ways to get him right back in there if needed.
Grand Abolisher - Originally this was a Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, but play testing showed that it's actually better if your opponents can still counter other players, even at a loss of the "flash" perk. You'll often want him out as early as possible and for as long as you can, using reanimators when needed to get him back when removed to ensure you can set up combos and lock pieces uncontested. With many cards that are relevant the turn we cast, making players try to remove permanents after they are cast rather than counter them is often not a true 1 for 1 for them since we likely still netted value.
Kataki, War's Wage - We do run artifacts, but the nature of Derevi helps offset the drawback of this card. Artifact ramp is such a huge part of most decks, simply having this can shut down what normally would be a great opening hand from opponents. As well it helps thwart opponents using artifact ramp to escape Winter Orb's control.
Winter Orb - Probably the most feared card you run. Orb becomes very one sided the second you get Derevi in play to begin untapping your mana source or tapping your opponents. You can essentially lock players out of the game while still advancing your board state or have mana open for answers if they find a way to deal with it. You often need a few creatures on board for Derevi triggers and/or ramp to justify casting it, so you'll have to learn to know when to drop it. We also run a few cards that force opponents to pay more for spells to encourage opponents to tap out into this such as Rhystic Study. Our deck also runs many ways to remove it, giving you the ability to destroy it if things don't go according to plan or to be the first person to get an untap. You can tutor it into play with Tezzeret The Seeker or Wargate for a mere 5 mana total and if it's removed Sun Titan can bring it back (and then later your fetch lands untapped when it attacks!). This card is especially broken when Prophet of Kruphix is in play, as you become the only player that can fully untap. A side effect of playing this is that opponents will sometimes play much slower to avoid tapping out, allowing your tempo theme to get you ahead uncontested.
Aura of Silence - Slows down all of your opponents while giving you artifact/enchantment removal if needed. Will keep most opponents from playing strong targetable cards, hoping that someone else will make that mistake first. This also antagonizes players to tap out for "Orb Locks" or waste their mana that could be saved for answer spells. The saccing ability works particularly well with a Sun Titan in play.
Aven Mindcensor - A lot of decks run tutors in EDH and this can really hurt opponents who depend on them for consistency. The "Flash" is particularly nice to lure opponents into a false sense of security that they can tutor safely, as most opponents expect answers to the card they're searching for, not the tutor itself. Another sweet perk is that it is a Bird Wizard that plays with all our tribal cards.
Grand Arbiter Augustin IV - Acts as pseudo ramp and helps to oppress opponent's mana bases even further. He's incredible for setting up and exasperating the "Orb Lock" strategy and is just good to help speed you up while slowing them down.
Hokori, Dust Drinker - Nearly the same as Winter Orb (untaps a land in upkeep, not untap step, leading to a possible 2 untaps if both are in play), however it comes with legs for Derevi triggers. The other benefit is it is easier to tutor, reanimate, and remove from play than Orb is. It's good to run both since it vastly improves our ability to get one of them out and keep it out, as well as gives better options against the potential answers opponents are running.
Linvala, Keeper of Silence - Turns off a lot of relevant creature abilities in EDH, particularly many for infinite loops and even other commanders. This can sometimes shutdown entire deck if unanswered. In cases where opponents use creature based mana ramp, this can turn most of them off to make "Orb Lock" more effective against them. The 3/4 flying body is also pretty solid.
Llawan, Cephalid Empress - A major meta choice, but still widely useful due to blue's popularity and some of the popular infinites and wincons that revolve around blue creatures. This is a free slot based on your play group, but very viable in a large and diverse meta. This will often kill most blue creature based decks and is a great way to get at ones that are untargetable or hard to remove otherwise.
Spike Weaver - Hoses all combat based decks cold, particularly when you have a way to recur it to reset the counters. Having this card can play some very strong politics in forcing opponents to attack other targets, rather than waste their turn getting "fogged". This card also has some small synergy with Glen Elendra Archmage to remove the -1/-1 counter and with Sage of Fables to draw more cards. There's some small combat tricks with moving counters as well, but often not as relevant as the "fog effect". In some cases this can also be used in a few reanimator infinite mana loops to pump creatures infinitely when lacking a better win con.
Tangle Wire - We're running a very low mana curve that allows us to get permanents out quick and cheap then make use of Derevi untaps. This allows us to be resistant to the effects by still being able to advance our board state while other likely cannot for a few turns. This results in a huge tempo swing in most matchups and punishes decks that base around powerful cards in hand or enchantments, as the become forced to tap their mana sources. For a little extra momentum early game, you can also abuse Derevi's ability in upkeep by floating all your mana, resolving the tap triggers, activating her, then untapping a land with her ETB trigger. This is also great for pushing people into "Orb Locks" that are refusing to tap out.
Reanimator
We run reanimator as both utility and as an engine to feed a few of our infinites. Running reanimator allows us to play threatening cards early and now worry if they're killed off, as we can bring them back when needed. We also run some interesting sac engines and ways to abuse creatures dieing and rentering play. Nearly every creature we play is a valid target for most if not all of these cards listed, as well as even a few non-creatures.
Saffi Eriksdotter - A good insurance policy on creatures you want to protect from removal, such as our hate bears that can potentially shut off some opponents. As a cheap costed green creature with low P/T, she's an easy target for tutors and reanimating for utility or several infinites. She can even be a sneaky way to steal back creatures from other players you lost when they die.
Eternal Witness - You're going to lose a lot of creatures to your grave, either through removal or putting them their yourself, so she becomes very valuable in recovering those when you need them again later. We're also running a ton of good instants/sorceries that can be prime targets. Overall she's just awesome utility mid-late game and can be heavily abused with reanimator and flicker effects to reuse her ETB effect.
Karmic Guide - We're very likely to always have a good target in grave or a way to put something there to be a target for value. He functions as utility to recover lost creatures, but is also a key piece in reanimator and flicker infinites. Being a 2/2 flying body with problack can also be surprisingly useful at times. His one drawback is his echo cost, but oddly enough that can be good for us since Saffi Eriksdotter, Mimic Vat, and Reviellark can all make effect use of letting it die intentionally.
Reveillark - Like many of the others, this is a core infinite reanimator piece. Most our creatures are 2 or less power specifically to interact with this card, giving it great value and constant relevance. The card rocks a ton of utility simply because the trigger requires it to simply leave play, making i abusable with sac outlets, flicker effects, it's own evoke, combat trades, etc... It can even be played as a board wipe deterrent since you can target cards that were in just in play as they hit the graveyard. In a few cases, you can even let Derevi intentionally go to grave when you are lacking a second target and want the free ETB trigger. The 4/3 flying body is also pretty good and can make you very undesirable to attack.
Sun Titan - Infinite reanimator piece, powerful body, and repeating reanimator effect that can grab even non-creature permanents. Many of your permanents are all under 3cc which gives him a lot of strong and valid targets. The vigilance is also pretty solid since we're often untapping mana with Derevi and not our creatures for defense unless needed. With Winter Orb his ability to bring back fetches can be really useful to keep putting in more untapped mana and race you ahead even further.
Draw
In our deck we want to opt for draw permanents rather than one time use instants and sorceries. The main reasons for this is they become tutorable and reanimation targets with spells we're already running for other functions to give use better overlap. All of them also have synergy in other areas that benefit from staying on the field till the time is right to give us the best value for the card slot.
Sensei's Divining Top - Commander staple. Beyond just being universally good in just about every EDH deck we have some unique uses as well. For starters it's our 1 off artifact draw that we can tutor for with Tezzeret the Seeker which can be handy in a lot of situations. The ability to look at the top is also useful for not accidentally drawing a target that is better cheated into play from the library with cards such as Birthing Pod. Since we're a toolbox, we wind up shuffling our library quite a bit and can reset the top 3 to help you dig deeper for what you need. Finally, when putting Derevi into play at instant speed, you can use her ETB trigger to untap top in response to tapping it to draw a card, then tapping it again to draw. This lets you draw a card and put top on top, then draw the top again. With an infinite mana loop and a way to recur Derevi, you can draw your entire library to grab a win con or lock.
Sylvan Library - Cheap draw engine that can net tons of cards for a cost. You usually don't care about the life loss for drawing all 3 cards, since we have a lot of ways to avoid taking damage or tap out attackers preemptively. Similarly to Sensei's Divining Top we can also use this to make sure we don't accidentally draw targets we want to cheat into play. You can use a few of you other draw engines to draw cards before this triggers. What this does is allows you to see more cards before you are penalized for keeping them. So if you draw a card in your upkeep with an effect, then draw for turn, then trigger Library, you get to look at 4 cards instead of 3 and can keep 2 of them before it hurts you. This also lets you return cards to you library you drew earlier in the turn if you want.
Edric, Spymaster of Trest - Being cheap and green makes him our easiest draw engine to tutor. He'll likely net value the turn he's played since we run a few 2 drop creatures. While his ability to let opponents draw can be bad for us, it can also help us not be a target of combat and increases his chance of staying on the board. It's likely most decks wont reap as much benefit as we will, but in cases where an opponent is drawing too much you can remove him from play (sometimes during their attack phase to encourage hitting someone else and catching them off guard with the assumption they'll be getting free cards).
Rhystic Study - Very annoying draw engine that can harass opponents mana base if they keep denying you the draw. This puts them in a uniquely bad situation in our deck since it puts them in constant fear of "Orb Locks" if they deny you draw and can make them short of mana for answers to you.
Sage of Fables - At first glance it seems a bit weak, but has some really strange interactions with several cards. For starters, we run a small set bit of Wizard tribal including our commander to make it constantly relevant. Since we constantly have mana open, having the 2 to draw is pretty common and will net you a few cards. The +1/+1 counters often are not impactful but never a bad thing, however with Glen Elendra Archmage this card become MUCH more dangerous. The +1/+1 counter can remove -1/-1 counters from persist to give you an unkillable Negate on legs. With a sac engine you can infinite by saccing the Archmage. Incases where you have infinite mana and a way to recur a Wizard, she can draw your entire library.
Azami, Lady of Scrolls - We run a few Wizards, including Derevi, to give this constant value. With Derevi triggers and Prophet of Kruphix untapping your creatures can turn this into huge card advantage. In any case that you have an infinite recursion loop with a Wizard, she can draw your entire library.
Tutors
We run creature based combos and hate bears, so most of our tutors are aimed at grabbing creatures but can also grab a few other spells if needed.
Eladamri's Call - Being able to grab any creature for cheap is very powerful in this deck. Beyond the normal benefits of this being instant speed in a deck with instant speed answers for options, we also get optimal ways to cast it with Derevi triggers. If you intend to cast this before Derevi combat triggers, you can actually wait till you have already attacked and targeted untapped GW sources, then tap them in response to cast this, your mana sources untap, etc... The benefit of this is opponents won't be savvy to the tutor before you can secure your untaps from Derevi and attempt to stop it to deny you the mana to cast the creature you tutored main phase 2.
Intuition - We run reanimation effects so often we can give out opponents "non-choices" by looking for the card we want, anything else playing a similar role, and filling the rest with ways to grab the cards we really want out of our graveyard (EX: having the creatures for an infinite loop then looking for Blasting Station, Phyrexian Altar, and Sun Titan. Both artifacts likely give you the infinite and a way to win, and Titan will grab either one). This puts your opponents in a super awkward situation since they're all bad choice and give you the reanimator...while it may cost you more mana, can often give you new opportunities they can't predict. In many cases you can just look for 2 dangerous cards and 1 lesser with to force your opponent to give you the last one with the full intention of grabbing the 2 others with a reanimation spell later, essentially being a tutor for 3 cards at instant speed for cheap.
Birthing Pod - One of the scariest cards in your deck. The mana cost of many of our creatures is very intentional with this card in mind to ensure the ability to staircase up to the targets we needed. Derevi's ability to constantly recur her self for cheap makes this amazing at grabbing our 4cc creatures reliably, giving us access to Hokori, Dust Drinker and several other key spells. This also give us a great options of ways to chain such as: Sac Derevi for a 4cc creature, recast Derevi, untap Pod, (optional attack for more untaps), sac the 4cc creature for Karmic Guide to get back the 4cc creature we just sacced. Saffi Eriksdotter can also do some neat stuff in a similar sense too by bringing back the sacced creature, including a Derevi that you let hit grave to trigger. [c]Glen Elendra[c/] is also another great target to tutor and then sac due to her Persist effect.
Bribery - Since we're a creature based deck, there's likely a high potential of grabbing powerful EDH staples that will play favor to our strategies. It's rare this is a dead card in a healthy meta and can punish opponents that pack exceptionally dangerous cards such as Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur and become it's own win con. You can even use it to remove key win cons of decks that use only a handful of tutorable creatures to combo off with cards like Tooth and Nail or something similar.
Tezzeret The Seeker - We're really just running him for his tutor ability, but the untap ability can be handy at times too. Our artifacts are some of the strongest cards we run and all but Gilded Lotus are fetchable the turn he lands. Beyond searching for key combo pieces and utility, he has great interaction with [c]Winter Orb[/] by cheating it into play, then next turn you can search for mana rocks or untap the one's you have in play.
Green Sun's Zenith - Won't grab everything you want, but has enough good targets and can even retrieve a tucked Derevi. Works as an early ramp spell by fetching Birds of Paradise or Bloom Tender and will tutor right back into your deck to be drawn again later.
Wargate - We base largely in permanents to win and lock out opponents, so this a crucial piece to nabbing cards for numerous situations.
Permission/Removal
Bant offers a REALLY strong assortment of answers for nearly every kind of spell and permanent. With Derevi we mainly want to focus on cheap spells since she's constantly freeing up small amounts for use and just as a good rule of thumb to be able to play stuff early and still be able to afford answers. We don't need many board nukes since our deck strives to try and be oppressive enough to not let opponents establish a board state to begin with or be able to do anything with it if they do.
Nature's Claim - Artifacts/Enchantments are commonly abused for ramping and quick combos, so having a disenchant for :g: at instant speed is incredibly useful for keeping those decks in check. The 4 life is rarely ever relevant.
Swan Song - Often underrated by many players, it's one of the best counters in the format. In multiplayer, you're rarely gonna find this dead in hand and for a mere 1 mana it can constantly put opponents in fear when you leave a U open. The bird token is often negligible because Derevi is a 2/3 and you can likely attack other players to get your triggers.
Swords to Plowshares - Cheap RFG at instant speed can save you from a lot of "instawin" creature combos and beat downs. Pretty essential given its efficiency for cost. In desperate times you can also use it to gain life.
Cyclonic Rift - Overpowered on sided board wipe staple. The ability to play it for just the 1U can save you from an early blow out and Eternal Witness can recover it when you can afford to Overload it. You can abuse Derevi triggers to cast this in the attack phase super early by floating mana and untapping those mana sources to then cast it.
Mana Drain - Stupidly strong counter and easily the best you can run for 2cc since it counters everything. The extra mana can be hit or miss as we're very color dependent, but can still lead to blows outs with the right cards in hand.
Qasali Pridemage - Cheap removal you can tutor on legs for Derevi triggers and is even a Wizard for tribal perks. The exalted is rarely relevant, but never bad. The fact that he sacs for his ability can be useful in a few situations such as having a Mimic Vat in play.
Unexpectedly Absent - One of the best removals in EDH. Can hit any nonland permanent for 2 mana and often that is enough since we can deny it's recast or shut off mana to even be able too. If the opponent fetches it becomes even stronger and is ideal from removing other commanders. You can even target your own things defensively to dodge removal or prevent decking out to combos such as Helm of Obedience + Leyline of the Void.
Voidmage Prodigy - Super abusive with Derevi and several other Wizards. Can easily create board locks with large mana bases or a Prophet of Kruphix. This is especially great for counter wars because the ability is hard to counter back. Reanimator effects allow you to cast him early despite the kneejerk reaction to kill him on sight and allows you to sac him instead of Derevi or another Wizard.
Aura Shards - Artifacts and enchantments are always relevant in EDH and this is the best way to remove tons of them since we run creatures. Derevi, tutors, and reanimations can net huge value with multiple and constant triggers. This is particularly useful for destroying opponents mana sources when we want to start going for "Orb Locks".
Beast Within - 3 mana instant speed removal on any permanent is huge. The 3/3 beast likely won't be of issue either, especially since we run decent evasion.
Capsize - Good bounce card that is easy to buyback with. At infinite mana or with Prophet of Kruphix it will win games. You can focus multiple Derevi untap triggers on a single multi-mana producing mana source, such as Gilded Lotus, to generate tons of mana to cast this multiple times since it is instant speed. You have Eternal Witness if you fail to Buyback or it gets countered.
Krosan Grip - Unrespondable artifact/enchantment removal. Makes opponents fear dropping combo pieces, even if they have a counter spell.
Oblivion Stone - A button when things get rough. Derevi's untap ability comes in very hand for giving this the needed mana and untaps to make efficient use of it. You can grab it with Tezzeret The Seeker, Wargate, and Sun Titan to push its presence in any game.
Reclamation Sage - Solid artifact/enchantment removal on a cheap body for Derevi triggers. The ETB makes it great to recur as well.
Glen Elendra Archmage - One of your best counter walls you run. At worst a 2 for 1 if it resolves, can be reanimated or have persist reset, hard to remove, evasion, ability often can't be recountered, can finite, and is even a Wizard. Having this out can win games and has some great synergy with many cards such as Sage of Fables.
Sower of Temptation - Steals creatures you can use. Your sac outlets and access to reanimation spells lessen the fear of it dieing and returning the creature. A few combos will turn this into a repeating theft/kill engine. I prefer this over Gilded Drake since having more evasion bodies helps Derevi and there's tons of synergy with sac outlets and recursion that benefit from having it remain in your possession. The 4cc body makes it ideal as a Birthing Pod target by saccing Derevi and the 2 Power means you can grab it with Reveillark.
Venser, Shaper Savant - Bounces anything, even uncounterable spells. He can be abused with ways to recur him for ETB and form a lock out on opponents with too much momentum or if you infinite. His 2/2 body, 4cc, and being a Wizard runs with several of our creatures themes as well.
Force of Will - Staple "free" counter spell. You run enough blue to validate it since it's your most common color. Be aware that Gaddock Teeg will shut this off.
Willbreaker - Use either Derevi's combat triggers or her ETB to steal opponent's creatures and snowball the effect harder the larger you board gets. The drawback of removing Willbreaker can be offset by saccing stolen creatures to things like Phyrexian Altar in response. Also being a 2/3 Wizard works with several deck synergies as well.
Bane of Progress - We run many cards that are in danger of being hit by this, but it's too powerful in most metas not to run. Having the ability to tutor this when needed can be a great way to reset a board state you are losing, while giving you a large creature to beat down with. It is also a 2/2 which makes it a great [c]Reviellark[c/] target to recur.
Combo/Utility
These are cards that require a few things to be relevant on board but provide invaluable utility and win con outlets.
Blasting Station - Key card in infinite damage combos and serves as a sac outlet for Derevi and other cards in soft combos. Can target small creatures on opponents board to harass them as well. When you have free mana you don't have much to do with, you can keep saccing Derevi and putting her back in play at the end of opponents turns to net a few free points of damage. The sac ability is great for dodging tucks, theft, exile, etc... and can keep those creatures in your graveyard to become reanimation targets. You can even kill off a Hokori, Dust Drinker before your turn to be the first person to get a full untap of lands or remove a Gaddock Teeg preventing a crucial card from being played.
Phyrexian Altar - The sac utility works nearly identical to the role Blasting Station plays but we opt for mana instead of damage. We want this over Ashnod's Alter because we need colored mana to do our combos and then do something with the mana. Since it's producing mana when we sac, this can give us a few other infinites since we're saving a bit more mana per turn. A Bloom Tender with a Derevi out can cause an infinite recursion loop that won't produce infinite mana (unless you have a red or black permanent too), but can be abused with Azami, Lady of Scrolls or Aura Shards.
Clever Impersonator - In a format with overpowered permanents, this is amazing for copying our own awesome targets or opponents. The beauty of it being a creature means we can tutor it and reanimate it if it dies. If it happens to copy a creature, we can interact with it such as flickering it with Deadeye Navigator to copy new things instead.
Prophet of Kruphix - This is a powerhouse in almost every situation where you have at least a few lands of color. Getting her out in play can often fuel numerous expensive loops to become super oppressive, such as recasting Derevi with a sac outlet to tap opponents mana out in their upkeep. Her ability to enable Flash lets you play strategic hate cards and combo pieces at the most threatening point and always have the mana each turn to do it again if there's more. She's green, 2 Power, 5cc, and a Wizard to fit a lot of our qualifications for tutoring and reanimating. The biggest threat she presents is in "Orb Locks" where only you get untaps and further ability to oppress with the open mana while they're tapped out.
Deadeye Navigator - We run a lot of ETB creatures to make him constantly relevant, but mostly he does stupid things with Derevi that can produce easy infinites. You'll often infinite by Soul Bonding to Derevi, then re-Soul Bond him back onto an ETB creature like Venser, Shaper Savant to completely shut opponents out of the game and win.
Lands
We run a lot of multi-color lands to feed our heavy color dependency, but also a few basics we can fetch to not be helpless to a cards that punish non-basic lands.
We only run a few colorless lands that have heavy synergy with the goals of the deck.
Alchemist's Refuge - Gives all spells instant speed. Since we're leaving mana open all the time, we can often afford the cost and it is a great way to sneak combo pieces and hate cards in when ideal.
Ancient Tomb - We run enough artifacts and spells with in need of 2 colorless mana to validate running this over more colored sources. The damage likely won't be a major issue.
Flooded Grove, Mystic Gate - Decent fixing and allows Bloom Tender infinites to access infinite blue mana since she'll often only have infinite GW otherwise.
Gaea's Cradle - It's very easy for us to break this card. We always have access to Derevi to makke it produce 1, leaving us in need of only 1 more creature to start tap/untapping this for huge amounts of mana.
High Market - This is another sac outlet with utility similar to Phyrexian Altar and Blasting Station. The life gain is often arbitrary unless you go infinite, but can help in a bind or if your go to time.
Seaside Haven - Derevi is a bird. Sac her for card draw.
So starting off, this deck is a bit unusual in the sense that it doesn't inherently focus on one path to victory. Being a tad toolboxy, it's very open to multiple paths and many of our cards have overlapping synergies to create a very dynamic flow of how the deck will play. People may see the same win con take the game, but how you get there is often varied and free to personal creativity. Essentially there are 3 core strategies and various sub strategies. The 3 main lines are: Combo, Permission/Removal Lockout, Orb Lock.
Opening Hand
Due to the multiple pathing, how we mulligan is extremely important. Before dedicating to a play line, look at the matchups. Consider your potential to disrupt explosive openers and theirs to mess with yours. Don't always pick the most aggressive way to play your hand if it will leave you in top deck mode if something goes wrong. Often your play line will be reflective of what opponents are doing, not so much how geared your hand is toward it. It's very common for me to mulligan away powerhouse cards like Winter Orb or Deadeye Navigator since I can draw/tutor them later when they're needed and I can't rely on their usefulness early on. Your hand should be thinking about your first 3-4 turns only. A major thought should also be on how Derevi will help you untap mana to accel into those turns as well. Having a cheap creature turn 1-2, that can attack the turn Derevi is played, can be viewed as mana dork in your calculations.
I tend to opt for the balanced hand where I'm looking for: 1 removal/answer, 1 tutor/draw, 2-3 land, 1-2 ramp, 1 cheap creature. You want your 3 mana colors, something to work with Derevi attack triggers, a way to stop someone from winning, and then a spell to get more cards or something useful once you establish Derevi. I almost don't care if a clear path doesn't present itself, I just know with this type of hand I'll get to play and very likely top deck into ideas to branch out from with the overlapping synergies later.
It's a bit hard to really go over all the paths and what to keep specifically for them, as numerous factors can arise with playability and what your opponents can potentially do. Knowing your opponents and later covering how to play those lines will help better understand if you have a good play line to shoot for. There are however a few cards that you desperately want in every opening hand almost regardless of what opponents are doing. These spells can be devastating early drops, constantly relevant cards, or ways to immediately take the control after establishing Derevi's presence:
When to Put Derevi Down
Part of your early game is determining when you want Derevi in play. Your first thought is almost immediately centered around optimizing your use of mana with her ETB trigger and combat triggers. Don't feel you need to cast her as early as possible, as she alone is not that powerful of a presence. It's often better to cast cards that can interact with her first, then reap rewards next turn when you put Derevi in play. A common example is playing a 3cc creature like Sage of Fables turn 3 (with 3 mana sources) instead of Derevi. If you cast Derevi you would only have a land untapped from her ETB, meaning only a 1cc spell would be your possible followup. With the other creature first, Derevi has the option next turn of casting or flashing in with her ability (if you played the 4th land), getting an untap from ETB, attacking with Sage, getting a combat ETB, and now you have 2-3 mana open for things like counters and removal. You net potentially 1 more mana and have an option of cheating Derevi into play, which saves her from Commander Tax later if you want her at sorcery speed for 3 instead of 4.
The order can often be swayed by safety too. You almost never care if Derevi is countered or Stifled so it's wise to sneak key cards into play when answers are less of an immediate threat and opt to cast/activate Derevi when those answers are available. Getting Derevi down early however can also give you the option to tap opponents down to allow for spells to be unchallenged, so plan carefully.
Snowballing
The pace of your game will be determined by many factors: How much ramp you get? How fast your opponents are accelerating? Do you already have combos and lock pieces ready to drop earlier than expected? Do you only have answers? etc... However, the most common tactic you'll find is snowballing, inching forward progressively while constantly keeping mana open for defensive options or playing something preemptively to stay ahead. Derevi nets us amazing mana efficiency, often in cases she lets us cast something we want, attack, untap mana sources, then either cast something else or leave mana open for counters/answers. The end result is we get to build while keeping opponents who can get ahead in check. Once we amass enough permanents on field, a snowball effect begins to form. The more creature we keep, the more combat triggers we get, and we begin to get the ability to begin to tap opponents out and cast more and more spells with our mana. Once we establish a card advantage engine or a permission wall such as Glen Elendra Archmage, we can slowly take the game away from opponents who can't keep up with our ability to control and build simultaneously. In short the lesson here is often don't play your hand as hard as you can and risk tapping out to opponents or putting yourself in a situation where you can be punished for overextending. Only tap out if there is a defensive plan in order such as casting a Tangle Wire to turn off opponents on their turn or casting Reveillark to dissuade a boardwipe. Having a tutor, a form of card advantage, or value synergy (like sac recursions with ETBs or Derevi engines) are usually essential to this strategy.
Building a Path
Regardless of what path your hand says you're on, how you get there is key. The spells and combos we've chosen follow some basic rules of being relevant within the rotation of turns they are played (exception with mana dorks) and are good utility without their combo/lock partners. What we end up with is the ability to play cards that are useful at all stages of the game and seeing how it plays out without telegraphing you have the other piece.
Say we have in our hand a Winter Orb, Gilded Lotus, Deadeye Navigator. We have an infinite with Derevi on board and a lock with mana ramp; 2 paths. So what do we generally want to do first if we're fearing answers, assuming we can play all of these this turn? Well we know that Gilded Lotus helps both these paths so we want to get that out first as it is least likely to be countered if we already have mana open. Next we likely want to attempt the infinite with Deadeye next. Why? Because we either get it and potentially win, or our opponents will tap out to stop it and pave the way for us to follow up with Winter Orb and trap them while we have a great mana producing rock.
You generally want to get out the most flexible and unintimidating pieces first rather than the most devastating ones that will likely be answered. This gives you options to make adjustments. It's often wise to hold tutors once you have flexible pieces like this in play, rather than waste them early to force a path if it's not certain.
Opposite that strategy you can jam threats ASAP and repair them later with recursion effects. Say early-mid game you have a reanimator infinite in hand (Karmic Guide, Saffi Eriksdotter, and Phyrexian Altar) but you also have a lock out + infinite path as well like Sage of Fables and Glen Elendra Archmage. Your priority should be to get the Glen Elendra out first, followed by the [/c]Sage of Fables[/c] then Phyrexian Altar. Getting out Glen Elendra allows you to provide counter cover to your follow up combo pieces. If your opponents disrupt this infinite simply transition to the reanimator infinite while simultaneously attempting to repair the Glen/Sage.
Using Derevi Triggers Defensively
Derevi is an engine that can help accelerate your board with untaps, but it can also be used to oppress opponents. You can use her abilities to tap out opponents holding mana open for counters or answers, then move to another phase and cast a key spell safely. You can also take advantage of Derevi's instant speed to tap down opponents on their turns or at the end of the turn before you take yours. With lots of mana and a sac outlet, this strategy is very abusable and can make people hesitant to build in fear of being denied mana for answers when normally they'd have enough for both. It also puts pressure on people who are afraid of tapping into an "Orb Lock".
Silver Bullets
We run lots of hate cards that have devastating effects on narrow themes of play. Sometimes rather than building a lock with multiple card interactions, it's best to just hate on the dominant threat by digging for those cards. Spells like Gaddock Teeg can completely shaft decks that rely on 4cc+ noncreature spells and turn the game into a 3 man pod till it's removed. When you notice a vulnerability to a deck, it's wise to keep tutors in hand or gain access to the immediately. Sometimes you can delay casting them to your favor such as letting a green player build and casting a Spike Weaver to encourage them to attack your other opponents for you, or letting a blue player build a wizard army only to be bounced back to hand with a Llawan, Cephalid Empress.
This deck boasts an impressive amount of freedom in play style and win cons, but there are some fundamental routes that you'll likely follow in game.
Infinite Combos
This deck houses several infinites that are very easy to fall into just by playing the deck passively, then tutoring out the missing piece when ready. Listed further down are some of the more practical infinites where you'll notice a few key cards that have many possible combinations to achieve the same result. This makes it hard for opponents to disrupt, as you can simply repair the combo later with reanimators or build into another variant with what you still have. Infinites abuse flickering, graveyard reanimations, and Derevi sac loops. Only a few cards can shut off your combos completely and you have several answers to those yourself. Your infinites can do infinite: mana, draw, damage, creature theft, permanent destruction, permanent bounce, life, tap/untaps, counters, grave tutors, rebuild library, tokens, creature pump.
High Market (w/ infinite mana + derevi = infinite life)
There are more, but situational to other circumstances and etc...but this will give you the key ones to follow.
"Winner" Orb Lock Down
Derevi allows you to abuse taps and untaps with the more creatures you have in play. With a Winter Orb or Hokori, Dust Drinker in play, the game can become very one sided as you are in control of denying opponents even more mana or accessing more of your own. There are many cards to destroy and slow opponent's other forms of non-land mana accel, denying them further, and then "hate bears" to limit even more cards. It's tough to know when to go for this strategy, as it requires a board state that you can take advantage of while your opponents can't go all in on you or trap you in it as well. You play this as more of an opportunistic win when you see an opening, such as opponents all tapping out with limited non-land mana sources and you have Derevi, Prophet of Kruphix, or etc... to abuse the situation. In desperate situations, it can be used as a way to slow the game if you simply have nothing going for you while your opponents are beginning to get out of hand, just make sure you have a plan. Once set up, you can pretty much control the board until you draw a win or slowly beat them down over several turns. This often themes well with lots of artifact/enchantment removal to remove nonland mana sources, so keep that in mind when building toward this path. Once established you will continue to attack with Derevi and other creatures to repeatedly tap opponents out and slowly keep building your board state to do more combat damage or infinite for the kill.
Denial Wall Lock Outs
Through use of hate cards and permission walls, there are several ways to turn the game off for your opponents. This is a list of some of common synergies:
You'll typically want to focus on ramping out to fund these effects. Many of them transition to infinites with a few more pieces as well, but you can also win through combat over several turns.
Beatdown
This is not the deck's primary goal, but certainly a threat if left unanswered. You will constantly be attacking in game, simply to abuse Derevi triggers, and over time opponents can easily come in range of commander damage or low life that can be targeted by you and other players. You run a lot fliers and cheap creatures that can keep swinging and easily put players in dangerous range. A smart strategy is to play politics and spread the damage, but focus one person with Commander Damage and determine which player will be able to deal with flyers the best later on.
Using Opponent's Decks Against Themselves
Another auxiliary plan, when things are not going according to plan we have a few cards to make up new plans. Bribery, Sower of Temptation, Clever Impersonator, and Mimic Vat are all cards that can turn opponent's win cons into your win cons and punish them for using strong single cards in their deck.
The build you see is optimized to my meta and easily has room for meta adjustments. This will more target our answers than the combo and utility of the deck with some minor exceptions.
Hate
Most of our hate cards are very specific and picked for a healthy size meta. In a more narrow one you can make some more fine tuned calls.
Loxodon Gatekeeper - Pushes the Stax/Orb theme more, but is very useful for stopping combos that need their win cons untapped the turn they're played. Very solid Against things like Tooth and Nail into Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker.
Scavenging Ooze - Hates on graveyards without hating on yours. The draw back is needing free mana always open to validate it, but certainly has it's uses.
Stonecloaker - Another targetable graveyard hate with the ability to bounce a creature back to safety or to be reused for ETB effects.
Windborn Muse - Good for fighting combat heavy metas.
Alternative Combos and Win Cons
Our combos are pretty solid and well rounded, but there are some cards that can still hate on us like Containment Priest. So here are combos you can swap in if feeling too much hate.
Fiend Hunter - This serves two goals: It acts as tutorable spot removal and it gives you access to other infinite combos with Sun Titan and Karmic Guide.
There's some flexibility with the deck listed where you can switch a few cards based on preference, but if you wanted to go a more focused route while reusing much of the same card pool, these options can be considered:
Stasis Lock
A common card associated with Derevi decks is Stasis. A card like this lends itself to adding a few more taxing/tap/orb type cards such as Loxodon Gatekeeper, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, etc.... The drawback however is we need to add more cards to help escape our own lockdown since we'll be pushing this as a main strategy, not an opportunistic lock down. For this build we need tokens, double strike, vigilance, instant speed flicker/bounce effects to make these lockdown effects extremely one sided and allow us to snowball while our opponents are trapped. Cards like Surgespanner, Heliod, God of the Sun, Earthcraft/Squirrel Nest, etc... can provide us awesome synergy.
Tokens
Another strategy is to simply push the ability to amass Derevi triggers and make use of the untaps to feed mana dumps such as token generators and pump spells. Card's like Kamahl, Fist of Krosa and Garruk Wildspeaker can become very dangerous in this build as finishers. You can still splash Winter Orb since the triggers still play to your favor, but you'll likely take out many of the other stax effects to make room. Chord of Calling is also a great tutor to run in this variant since the Convoke will be easy to access. This build also will commonly use equipment such as Sword of Fire and Ice, Sword of Feast and Famine, and Skullclamp with Stoneforge Mystic to fetch them.
How do feel about Mana Vault and those colorless lands you play? I find this deck extremely mana hungry and I ended up cutting Vault since I found my self not willing to untap it even with derevi triggers. The only colorless land I play is Riptide Laboratory. I ran Alchemist's Refuge but I never found use for it so it got a cut.
Mana Vault works out pretty well, but it needs to be a Mana Crypt (one day). I do find myself untapping it with Derevi often even though I agree that Derevi is very color hungry and minimal colorless mana rocks are warranted, but the advantage of 3mana for 1 is worth it.
I have debated Riptide Laboratory, but I can't find a great use that isn't super mana intensive. bouncing a Venser, Shaper Savant seems to be the most practical abuse, but 7 mana for a reusable "bounce" counter is a bit costly. All other wizards do little work in hand and I'd rather go with graveyard tactics. Alchemist's Refuge on the other hand is VERY needed. The ability to sneak wincons and hate/utility cards on the field at instant speed can easily let you win out of nowhere from a seemingly innocent board state (instant speed Bribery is terrifying). It also turns you into an opportunist by playing key cards you need in play when people tap out. You definitely need High Market too. Sac engines are extremely important for both loops and tuck/exile evasion. The lifegain can also pay off in tight spots and is overall great when you have spare mana and just want to sac derevi for some smaller combo.
Quote from umfta »
How has Sage of Fables performed for you? I have been thinking about acquiring the card but I fear it really doesn't do enough.
Surprisingly well. It's mainly in for the Glen Elendra Archmage infinites, but the use of the card draw has really payed off. It's pretty common to drop a Derevi with a free counter and draw an extra card on the final passing turn with mana open. It also serves as a way to draw your entire library FTW if you get an infinite mana loop. I would suggest only running this if you're doing the same infinites. I think the draw ability and 3cc puts it above the other persist infinite enablers.
Quote from umfta »
Is Aura of Silence really worth a slot since you already run quite a lot of artifact/enchantment hate? What a about Spike Weaver? I find fog-effect quite narrow but obviously it's also a meta specific question.
YES, oh my god yes. Aura of Silence is a house and one of those cards that becomes insanely obvious once you see it in action. enchantments and artifacts are extremely dense in commander so tons of removal is good (I constantly attribute my high win record to this and point out how few most people like to run). The best part is that it is affecting the board while acting as a button. No one will drop any high value art/enchants when this is in play because the cost and risk of loss is too high and it creates a very uncomfortable spot for opponents. This with Winter Orb becomes even more problematic since it stops new mana rocks from getting them out of the lockdown. Even when they aren't casting art/enchants, they're likely being slowed down immensely which plays to your favor. It is never dead and one of the best cards in the deck.
Spike Weaver is a misleadingly good card. It looks like a random throw in, but it hoses combat based decks. There's a lot of abuses to reset the counters too, potentially giving you an infinite fog wall and infinite pump in some cases. You run a heavy toolbox, so simply having one space allocated to turn off any aggro or commander damaged based deck is valuable and I feel overall worth it in a healthy meta.
Quote from umfta »
Have you ever considered dropping those 2 and 3 mana rocks for one mana manadorks like Noble Hierarch, Avacyn's Pilgrim and such? It would allow you to play Derevi on turn 2 and would open the possibility to play artifact ramp suppression in the form of Energy Flux and Kataki, War's Wage. Just an idea i'v got from some other Derevi thread. I indeed would run hierarch my self it didn't cost so much. I recently added some cheaper mana dorks to see if I can tolerate them in late game.
I'm always on the fence with that. I try not to put all my ramp in one spot and I'm more afraid of creature board wipes than mass artifact hate. However I think maybe dropping 1-2 might be worth testing. I would probably opt to drop the 2 mana ones over the 3 mana ones, since the 3 mana ones provide invaluable utility and fixing.
Quote from umfta »
And finally, what do you think of running Garruk Wildspeaker? I think garruk looks like everything we want but haven's tested him myself since I don't own the card. Walkers are just weak in general in multiplayer.
Garruk is very good, but I find it hard for him to make the cut within the 99. If we were more combat/token based I think it would be worth is since the "overrun" ult would be relevant on top of the other abilities. There are builds I would say yes, but not this one once we're talking fully optimization.
Made a few changes based on some comments and recent testing on art-ramp into win decks. Took out some of the slower cards in place of more optimal hate/permission. Think an unfortunately overcosted Noble Hierarch also needs to fit in (what I would do for a non-exalted printing for the sake of cost and it's lack of relevance in this deck). Trying Llawan, Cephalid Empress due to my meta having many dangerous creature based threats:
So far the new adjustments are proving very solid. Managed to win/trade my way to a Noble Hierarch as well. I'm still fussing over sneaking in one more counter or Swords to Plowshares and Loxodon Gatekeeper is becoming very tempting for it's Winter Orb synergy and ability to stop certain win cons cold. It's the usual matter of what to drop. I'll be testing Muddle the Mixture tonight.
I'm also musing over the land base and debating how many basics to run since my meta hasn't been abusing Blood Moon and similar effects. Oboro, Palace in the Clouds is holding a spot I'm beginning to think may be better off as another fetch, likely in W color to round off the off color fetches (Marsh Flats currently being cheapest). No real other utility land comes into play. I've heard mentions of Gaea's Cradle but I find I never really have that many creatures nor a great need for that much G.
Thanks for the write up. I played a more Stax version of Derevi that has royally pissed off my play group. I'm going to sleeve this up and see how it works for me.
Thanks for the write up. I played a more Stax version of Derevi that has royally pissed off my play group. I'm going to sleeve this up and see how it works for me.
Keep updating!
Thanks, tell me how it plays and post things from your build if you want that might help. Currently I'm testing:
What are your thoughts on Scry lands in this deck? In EDH in general?
I typically avoid all tap lands like the plague. On a budget build they're fine, but ultimately you need a bit more power to justify them than a scry. The "karoo" lands and Thawing Glaciers are an exception due to the abuse with Derevi. Commander offers so many ways to mess with your top deck, draw, and tutor, that often scrying is not that impactful in this format. You mainly need the untap reliability to make sure you don't ever fall a turn behind since this deck is very tempo oriented. The other reason is when you play Winter Orb, you want to make sure all you lands come into play untapped to maintain the advantage. Scrying can work in some EDH builds though, decks that theme around multi-land drops and sac/replay can get some mileage out of these for sure. Ultimately they're budget dual options. The hierarchy for duals you can run in this deck go: True Duals/Fetches > Shocks > Check Lands > Fast Lands > Pain Lands > Scry Lands. So base it on your collection and budget, but try to follow that order of preference when you can upgrade.
On another note. Testing shows Spike Weaver is too good to remove. The politics of the card make it not only defensive, but pretty much a redirect of aggro onto everyone else. Fighting over what to remove to squeeze it in since I really like the idea of Loxodon Gatekeeper. Muddle the Mixture might not make the cut.
I think DTK's only possible considerations would be Silumgar Sorcerer and Collected Company. I don't think either is good enough. Thoughts?
DTK has a lot of great EDH cards, sadly none really make the cut in this deck, but those were the exact 2 I was mulling over as possible. Silumgar Sorcerer has awesome synergies, but is a bit to conditional to be better than Mystic Snake which already got cut.
So I've done some testing and with my meta these are some of the changes notes.
Loxodon Gatekeeper is indeed good, but I always felt a more broken stax card could fulfill it's slot more. While I could not find a better creature, I'm looking at Tangle Wire which I'll be testing tonight. This card is frequently mentioned in Derevi builds and I avoided it in the past due to the nature of the build at the time not allowing for great ways to abuse it. Now that the mana curve has been drastically lowered and tempo has become a main priority, this card is really obvious that it needs to be in the deck. The ability to throw it out and play around it is overwhelming and even late game it is powerful for countering opponents who rely on spells in hand and not permanents on the board.
Kataki, War's Wage is still good, but the meta for me has drifted away from heavy artifact based ramp and etc... As well I've been adding more. So I'll be meta boarding her off to the side to make way for a better hate card for the meta: Ethersworn Canonist. I was worried how Rule of Law effects would hurt us, and I found that the deck is quite resistant to it and we run plenty of ways to destroy it in an emergency.
I took out Mana Vault upon acquiring my Mana Crypt, but the early lead out is too good still so I opted to drop a basic land to fit it back in. Other color fixing mana rocks and fixers may be added later if I see more nonbasic land hate like Blood Moon.
Hmm, Oblation. Did it just became better or worse here? It'n no more a way to deal with troublesome generals, but now targeting Derevi is a valuable option while it still answers permanent threats quite effectively.
I think slightly worse. I'm already weary on ever giving my opponents free cards so I'm not a huge fan of the card given how many cards Bant has that can remove permanents for 1-3cc. The ability to hit your own stuff is often too situational to be great since your wasting tempo and resources to gain 1 card advantage and possibly not replacing an answer in hand with those 2 drawn. Hitting your own Derevi isn't too bad of a perk, but unless you have a LOT of mana to abuse, the tempo loss is a bit too harsh for the gain.
Right now the only cards affected in this list are Bant Charm and Unexpectedly Absent, but given their broad uses, I think they'll both stay in the list since their inclusion was never really for tucking Commanders (it was just really awesome that they could). I'll still be looking around given the nerf however. This rule change could easily change the metas to adapt new answers that impact this deck as well, and I may need to prepare for that.
After some testing, gonna test removing the Mana Vault and yet another basic land and run two 1-3cc ramp spells. I really fear hate on producing the mana colors I need, so I'm pushing for a few more early spells to to get me ahead and color correct. I'm deciding which direction I want to go with those slots since ideally artifact ramp is most reliable and great against "Orb Locks" I set up, but I may be setting myself up to lose to artifact hate. So gonna test a few creatures, enchantments, or land ramp as well to see what's best. Likely it will be Talisman of Unity and Talisman of Progress but I'm very open to suggestions. Mana curve and fixing is very meta dependent so I may add a listing of these cards for other builds as changes are natural.
Gonna be testing a new direction, less basic land, more ramp. I have a deep fear of early Blood Moon type effects, but testing is starting to show that pushing the amount of 1-2cc ramp spells is improving early game to such a point that it's often hard to punish you in time to make it matter. Bant offers various amount of ramp so you can keep a diverse mix to make you more resilient to silver bullets such as Stony Silence. We already run a low curve, so it'll be replacing land with ramp. Also, on whim I acquired a Gaea's Cradle for trade fodder, but it's so obvious to use in this deck I'm a bit embarrassed I resisted it before over some terrible logic...testing shows this thing gets dumb super quick. Another meta card, looking at Carpet of Flowers since blue is still a popular choice and a single Island in play completely validates running it.
Carpet of Flowers is often awesome, but my meta recently started getting too diverse and most blues shifted to tricolor..meaning more nonbasic, non-island lands. It'll stay in my meta board as it can be AMAZING, but I like reliability. It only needs 1 island to validate itself, 2 to be good...but people have been playing around even when in color. Tossed in another Snow-Covered basic to help against nonbasic land hate.
Elesh Norn...it is amazing and wrecks most decks. It also wrecks ours. The issue I ran into was people constantly targeting it for theft, and while we have answers, it can sometimes take a few turns and we likely had some good stuff cleared of our board. Point being the tempo loss becomes huge. The issue with theft is that it is put into opponents play often for 1 card at a discount, making it a low risk to run those cards to get at it and punish us for running it. Against decks that run it themselves, there's often more that goes into getting it in play that can create weaknesses or value for us if we destroy it (EX: Reanimator will need a card to discard it and a card to cheat it in play, making a well timed counter spell or removal have more value than a 1 for 1 trade like Bribery). I'm on the look out for another card that fulfills her role without being such a power play against our own deck. Admittedly she was not always relevant and acted more as a situational hate card to wipe small creatures since we aren't a combat centric deck looking for max damage and trades. Decks that comboed or had utility creatures with 3+ toughness didn't really care.
Nature's Claim. Not dramatic, but always good. 1cc removal is hard to beat and right now I fear fast artifacts more than creatures.
I notice you have added Willbreaker to the list. Any results with this wizard yet?
It's been great. The card has to be dealt with in many cases or you will win. It has become a great pod target since the 5 slot was all utility, no answers. The 2 power and wizard tribal also has been great with cards like Azami and reveillark. Definitely a card that should belong in most Derevi decks.
This is a beautiful deck, and a great primer. I was trying to make up my mind on what my next competitive deck would be, and I just found it. Thank you!
I notice you're not running survival, with the amount of non green creatures in this deck, I feel it could easily replace Green Sun. Though it doesn't play well with the tempo plan, like Green Sun does.
Also, Winter Orb, and Hokori, Dust Drinker: If you have both in play everyone will still only untap 1 land. Winter Orb allows you to untap 'all but one land' during your untap step, Hokori's wording prevents you from untapping any lands during your untap step, thus negating the untap step completely, then you get to untap one land during upkeep. So with both cards out, each player will still only get to untap one land, and only during their upkeep. I thought this was relevant.
Also, Winter Orb, and Hokori, Dust Drinker: If you have both in play everyone will still only untap 1 land. Winter Orb allows you to untap 'all but one land' during your untap step, Hokori's wording prevents you from untapping any lands during your untap step, thus negating the untap step completely, then you get to untap one land during upkeep. So with both cards out, each player will still only get to untap one land, and only during their upkeep. I thought this was relevant.
Edit for grammar.
Great catch. I never considered this rule situation.
I haven't update the list in awhile as I took a hiatus from comp EDH. The current list still holds very strong as a template, but feel free to experiment with Bant staples as my list has slightly shifted as well. I tend to carry around a "meta board" of cards i keep on the side and alternate based on known play group info (or lack thereof), fun factors, my preference for aggressive/passive play, and simply having a slight rotation of cards to throw repeat players off. That said cards like survival/fauna shaman are indeed playable in this deck. I had a friend copy the list and after a month of testing he built a more aggressive build using those as well as boonweaver giant combo kits. He took out some of the slower lock outs like voidmage prodigy. The deck did very well in tournament, the difference in feel was his was faster and able to snipe wins better, but less defensive. Good luck with your build!
I'll be doing tournaments again soon, so hopefully that will include an updated list since the mulligan change and prophet ban has a dramatic impact on this deck (dammit sheldon...just ban the dumb cards and let me have sculpting back).
Thats cool, I've actually moved on to French EDH, and am playing Animar at the moment, since Derevi is banned in that format. I just wanted to note, that during my time with this list, I substituted Coalition Relic for Gilded Lotus and the switch was amazing. Relic's cost and its ability to tap inorder to add counters to itself was amazing with Derevi, I've had massively explosive turns because of this interaction. Stacking Derevi's triggers to untap Relic, and getting massive amounts of mana the turn after feels almost as good as taking extra turns.
Thanks Droptimal. Love this deck. How do you feel about adding Tamiyo, Field researcher. She seems like a good fit on all accounts of her powers. But Mainly the up ticks. It's a one sided Edric that can actually target an opponent's creature. It's down tick helps protect or lock something for a turn. And the ultimate is a Ancestral Recall with an omniscience to boot. It's easy and cheap to get out with a Bloom tender and Derevi on the board and can come out fairly early. I'm thinking of adding her as soon as she's release and testing with her before hand. It feels like a good fit but not sure what to cut. Would love some feedback from any other Derevi players. Thanks.
Favourite Deck: Elves (Modern & Legacy)
Standard: New Perspectives Combo
Modern: GW Hatebears | Death and Taxes | Eldrazi and Taxes | Abzan Liege | Abzan Company
Commander: The Gitrog Monster (Combo) | Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper (Control) | RIP Leovold Sultai (Elvestorm, no unfair locks) | Mono G (Yisan or Titania)
Tiny Leaders: Too many decks to keep track of
Pauper: RIP UR Drake | Mono B | GBx Goodstuff | Jund "Melira"
Sadly no. After 2 years of cEDH with this deck I retired from the scene when the mulligan rules shifted and moved on to create Modern Commander. The mulligan change was incredibly bad for this deck and altered the cEDH meta in a very bad way (which is not what the RC caters too or should for that matter). In short the mana base was disrupted, many of the niche cards become risky to draw in openers (with Partial Paris you would mulligan away irrelevant matchup cards), and you lost precious space for toolbox because redundancy matters way more (basically you need a deck that's built like a constructed in a singleton now to be top tier).
The version I ran at my last tournament win basically limited the more obscure hatebears and combos, threw in more 1 drop mana dorks, added more cheap removal, and turned the deck into a more linear combo route. Basically the deck is more greedy and all in, versus the stax-nature of this list. This is basically because with Vancouver, no one typically has enough answers in time to stop an all in strategy (including you) and whoever is faster and more consistent wins. The format is simply too volatile and fast to run a deck that embraces diverse playlines.
I hate to make a post like this but it is the unfortunate reality. This deck had an amazing run prior to the mull change. A lot of the theory still stands though as a base, but it needs about 10-15 cards altered to be vancouver compliant. It's still a good deck...but as of now the meta of 2016 is 1-2 color ramp into combo turn 1-4. If a cEDH format emerges and returns Partial Paris (which is absolutely necessary for a 1 round, 99 card singleton where certain colors and strats have a vastly unfair advantage of cardpool redundancy), I'll be back to update this list. I'd say this deck is tier 2 now in cEDH (whereas before I would argue that it was one of the best decks you could build)
However in Modern Commander it is still amazing and is easy to transition to! (moderncommander.com shameless plug!!!)
Derevi - Combo Stax
Introduction
Deck History
Why Derevi
Reasons to Play
Reasons Not to Play
Build Theory
The Deck
Card Breakdown
Piloting the Deck
Paths to Victory
Meta Adjustments
Alternate Builds
Change Log
Mana Vault works out pretty well, but it needs to be a Mana Crypt (one day). I do find myself untapping it with Derevi often even though I agree that Derevi is very color hungry and minimal colorless mana rocks are warranted, but the advantage of 3mana for 1 is worth it.
I have debated Riptide Laboratory, but I can't find a great use that isn't super mana intensive. bouncing a Venser, Shaper Savant seems to be the most practical abuse, but 7 mana for a reusable "bounce" counter is a bit costly. All other wizards do little work in hand and I'd rather go with graveyard tactics. Alchemist's Refuge on the other hand is VERY needed. The ability to sneak wincons and hate/utility cards on the field at instant speed can easily let you win out of nowhere from a seemingly innocent board state (instant speed Bribery is terrifying). It also turns you into an opportunist by playing key cards you need in play when people tap out. You definitely need High Market too. Sac engines are extremely important for both loops and tuck/exile evasion. The lifegain can also pay off in tight spots and is overall great when you have spare mana and just want to sac derevi for some smaller combo.
Surprisingly well. It's mainly in for the Glen Elendra Archmage infinites, but the use of the card draw has really payed off. It's pretty common to drop a Derevi with a free counter and draw an extra card on the final passing turn with mana open. It also serves as a way to draw your entire library FTW if you get an infinite mana loop. I would suggest only running this if you're doing the same infinites. I think the draw ability and 3cc puts it above the other persist infinite enablers.
YES, oh my god yes. Aura of Silence is a house and one of those cards that becomes insanely obvious once you see it in action. enchantments and artifacts are extremely dense in commander so tons of removal is good (I constantly attribute my high win record to this and point out how few most people like to run). The best part is that it is affecting the board while acting as a button. No one will drop any high value art/enchants when this is in play because the cost and risk of loss is too high and it creates a very uncomfortable spot for opponents. This with Winter Orb becomes even more problematic since it stops new mana rocks from getting them out of the lockdown. Even when they aren't casting art/enchants, they're likely being slowed down immensely which plays to your favor. It is never dead and one of the best cards in the deck.
Spike Weaver is a misleadingly good card. It looks like a random throw in, but it hoses combat based decks. There's a lot of abuses to reset the counters too, potentially giving you an infinite fog wall and infinite pump in some cases. You run a heavy toolbox, so simply having one space allocated to turn off any aggro or commander damaged based deck is valuable and I feel overall worth it in a healthy meta.
I'm always on the fence with that. I try not to put all my ramp in one spot and I'm more afraid of creature board wipes than mass artifact hate. However I think maybe dropping 1-2 might be worth testing. I would probably opt to drop the 2 mana ones over the 3 mana ones, since the 3 mana ones provide invaluable utility and fixing.
Garruk is very good, but I find it hard for him to make the cut within the 99. If we were more combat/token based I think it would be worth is since the "overrun" ult would be relevant on top of the other abilities. There are builds I would say yes, but not this one once we're talking fully optimization.
Thanks for the compliments and feedback!
Prophet of Kruphix
Prime Speaker Zegana
Deadeye-Navigator
Palinchron
Narset, Enlightened Master
Reaper King
Momir Vig, Simic Viosonary
Azami, Lady of Scrolls
Child of Alara
Bruna, Light of Alabaster
Riku of Two Reflections
Oona, Queen of the Fae
I'm also musing over the land base and debating how many basics to run since my meta hasn't been abusing Blood Moon and similar effects. Oboro, Palace in the Clouds is holding a spot I'm beginning to think may be better off as another fetch, likely in W color to round off the off color fetches (Marsh Flats currently being cheapest). No real other utility land comes into play. I've heard mentions of Gaea's Cradle but I find I never really have that many creatures nor a great need for that much G.
Keep updating!
-1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
-1 Austere Command
-1 Spike Weaver (still a meta sideboard card though)
+1 Marsh Flats
+1 Muddle the Mixture (logic being i can tutor Cyclonic Rift for the Austere spot as well as its other uses)
+1 Loxodon Gatekeeper (Mooooar stax!)
On another note. Testing shows Spike Weaver is too good to remove. The politics of the card make it not only defensive, but pretty much a redirect of aggro onto everyone else. Fighting over what to remove to squeeze it in since I really like the idea of Loxodon Gatekeeper. Muddle the Mixture might not make the cut.
So I've done some testing and with my meta these are some of the changes notes.
Right now the only cards affected in this list are Bant Charm and Unexpectedly Absent, but given their broad uses, I think they'll both stay in the list since their inclusion was never really for tucking Commanders (it was just really awesome that they could). I'll still be looking around given the nerf however. This rule change could easily change the metas to adapt new answers that impact this deck as well, and I may need to prepare for that.
After some testing, gonna test removing the Mana Vault and yet another basic land and run two 1-3cc ramp spells. I really fear hate on producing the mana colors I need, so I'm pushing for a few more early spells to to get me ahead and color correct. I'm deciding which direction I want to go with those slots since ideally artifact ramp is most reliable and great against "Orb Locks" I set up, but I may be setting myself up to lose to artifact hate. So gonna test a few creatures, enchantments, or land ramp as well to see what's best. Likely it will be Talisman of Unity and Talisman of Progress but I'm very open to suggestions. Mana curve and fixing is very meta dependent so I may add a listing of these cards for other builds as changes are natural.
Gonna be testing a new direction, less basic land, more ramp. I have a deep fear of early Blood Moon type effects, but testing is starting to show that pushing the amount of 1-2cc ramp spells is improving early game to such a point that it's often hard to punish you in time to make it matter. Bant offers various amount of ramp so you can keep a diverse mix to make you more resilient to silver bullets such as Stony Silence. We already run a low curve, so it'll be replacing land with ramp. Also, on whim I acquired a Gaea's Cradle for trade fodder, but it's so obvious to use in this deck I'm a bit embarrassed I resisted it before over some terrible logic...testing shows this thing gets dumb super quick. Another meta card, looking at Carpet of Flowers since blue is still a popular choice and a single Island in play completely validates running it.
Test Changes
-2 Island
-1 Plains
-1 Thawing Glaciers
-1 Mana Vault
+1 Ancient Tomb
+1 Gaea's Cradle
+1 Carpet of Flowers
+1 Talisman of Unity
+1 Talisman of Progress
-1 Carpet of Flowers
-1 Elesh Norn, Grandcenobite
+1 Snow-Covered Plains
+1 Nature's Claim
Carpet of Flowers is often awesome, but my meta recently started getting too diverse and most blues shifted to tricolor..meaning more nonbasic, non-island lands. It'll stay in my meta board as it can be AMAZING, but I like reliability. It only needs 1 island to validate itself, 2 to be good...but people have been playing around even when in color. Tossed in another Snow-Covered basic to help against nonbasic land hate.
Elesh Norn...it is amazing and wrecks most decks. It also wrecks ours. The issue I ran into was people constantly targeting it for theft, and while we have answers, it can sometimes take a few turns and we likely had some good stuff cleared of our board. Point being the tempo loss becomes huge. The issue with theft is that it is put into opponents play often for 1 card at a discount, making it a low risk to run those cards to get at it and punish us for running it. Against decks that run it themselves, there's often more that goes into getting it in play that can create weaknesses or value for us if we destroy it (EX: Reanimator will need a card to discard it and a card to cheat it in play, making a well timed counter spell or removal have more value than a 1 for 1 trade like Bribery). I'm on the look out for another card that fulfills her role without being such a power play against our own deck. Admittedly she was not always relevant and acted more as a situational hate card to wipe small creatures since we aren't a combat centric deck looking for max damage and trades. Decks that comboed or had utility creatures with 3+ toughness didn't really care.
Nature's Claim. Not dramatic, but always good. 1cc removal is hard to beat and right now I fear fast artifacts more than creatures.
It's been great. The card has to be dealt with in many cases or you will win. It has become a great pod target since the 5 slot was all utility, no answers. The 2 power and wizard tribal also has been great with cards like Azami and reveillark. Definitely a card that should belong in most Derevi decks.
RIP Karn EDH
RIP Karn EDH
RIP Karn EDH
Edit for grammar.
RIP Karn EDH
I haven't update the list in awhile as I took a hiatus from comp EDH. The current list still holds very strong as a template, but feel free to experiment with Bant staples as my list has slightly shifted as well. I tend to carry around a "meta board" of cards i keep on the side and alternate based on known play group info (or lack thereof), fun factors, my preference for aggressive/passive play, and simply having a slight rotation of cards to throw repeat players off. That said cards like survival/fauna shaman are indeed playable in this deck. I had a friend copy the list and after a month of testing he built a more aggressive build using those as well as boonweaver giant combo kits. He took out some of the slower lock outs like voidmage prodigy. The deck did very well in tournament, the difference in feel was his was faster and able to snipe wins better, but less defensive. Good luck with your build!
I'll be doing tournaments again soon, so hopefully that will include an updated list since the mulligan change and prophet ban has a dramatic impact on this deck (dammit sheldon...just ban the dumb cards and let me have sculpting back).
RIP Karn EDH
Favourite Deck: Elves (Modern & Legacy)
Standard: New Perspectives Combo
Modern: GW Hatebears | Death and Taxes | Eldrazi and Taxes | Abzan Liege | Abzan Company
Commander: The Gitrog Monster (Combo) | Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper (Control) | RIP Leovold Sultai (Elvestorm, no unfair locks) | Mono G (Yisan or Titania)
Tiny Leaders: Too many decks to keep track of
Pauper: RIP UR Drake | Mono B | GBx Goodstuff | Jund "Melira"
The version I ran at my last tournament win basically limited the more obscure hatebears and combos, threw in more 1 drop mana dorks, added more cheap removal, and turned the deck into a more linear combo route. Basically the deck is more greedy and all in, versus the stax-nature of this list. This is basically because with Vancouver, no one typically has enough answers in time to stop an all in strategy (including you) and whoever is faster and more consistent wins. The format is simply too volatile and fast to run a deck that embraces diverse playlines.
I hate to make a post like this but it is the unfortunate reality. This deck had an amazing run prior to the mull change. A lot of the theory still stands though as a base, but it needs about 10-15 cards altered to be vancouver compliant. It's still a good deck...but as of now the meta of 2016 is 1-2 color ramp into combo turn 1-4. If a cEDH format emerges and returns Partial Paris (which is absolutely necessary for a 1 round, 99 card singleton where certain colors and strats have a vastly unfair advantage of cardpool redundancy), I'll be back to update this list. I'd say this deck is tier 2 now in cEDH (whereas before I would argue that it was one of the best decks you could build)
However in Modern Commander it is still amazing and is easy to transition to! (moderncommander.com shameless plug!!!)