I consider myself a combo enthusiast and Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle certainly begged the question, "How to break this commanders synergy?".
Before I leap into the content of the deck, it's important to look at mono-white color strategies in general. Often running "hate-bear" type creatures, things that slow all players down, especially opponents, is a common theme. However this is a combo deck, and looks to play infinite spells in a turn, which is counter-productive to play cards like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, as it will lock you out.
So now that we have the "hate-bears" vs combo situation out of the way, this is a combo deck, that has a variety of infinite's at it's disposal.
How do they work?
Well they all start with Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle being on the battlefield. With any artifact, legend or saga , we can get any creature with converted mana cost 3 or less from our graveyard to the battlefield.
With this in mind any zero cost artifact will trigger Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle and if we have cards that get artifacts back from graveyard then we can look to get loops going, for zero mana.
Before we head straight into infinite's, let's look at an example of a non-infinite value using Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle and Restoration Specialist or Salvage Scout.
Sacrifice the creature, spending W to get an artifact back from graveyard to hand. You can then replay that artifact triggering Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle, to return the Restoration Specialist to the battlefield. You can loop this for as much W, plus the cost of the artifact, as you have available.
If you have a creature sacrifice outlet like: Altar of Dementia, Blasting Station, Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar then we can look to always have a target creature for Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle, by sacrificing one of these graveyard/to hand recursion creatures.
With zero costing artifacts or artifacts produce mana to recast themselves, (Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Grim Monolith, Basalt Monolith), means that you can cast meeting mana requirements. The other very important aspect is that we also want artifacts that we can naturally sacrifice, for the sake of going to graveyard, so that the graveyard recursion creatures also have a target. For the creatures that return artifacts to hand, you only need zero costing artifacts, but for the sake of better synergy there are only a few of these.
There are some infinite combos that only require having one zero costing artifact and there are some that require having two zero costing artifacts[1].
Please note that when referencing "zero cost artifacts" that this also includes Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Grim Monolith and Basalt Monolith, as they can tap to recast themselves and probably net you mana. For the sake of short notation, I just say "zero cost artifacts".
If it's one of the creature cards that trigger when "enter the battlefield", then you need two zero cost artifacts.
The reason is because Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle ability triggers when cast. The trigger goes on the stack and Teshar has to target a creature immediately. This will mean the creature comes into play, before the artifact is on the battlefield. Because your zero costing artifact isn't in play, you won't get a chance to bounce it as a permanent or sacrifice it if you were wanting it to go to your graveyard to be the target of the "entering the battlefield" trigger.
If you have one of the creature cards that return artifacts to hand when "dies", then you only need one zero costing artifact.
For example, you have Myr Retriever and Tormod's Crypt. You can always sacrifice the zero costing artifact (Tormod's Crypt) before the creature that triggers when "dies". This will means that you will always have a target.
Return artifact from battlefield
There is another loop sequence that involves creatures returning artifacts/permanents to hand from play. These are:Glint Hawk, Kor Skyfisher, Aviary Mechanic.
It's the same principle, you need a sacrifice outlet for the creature, but rather than getting our artifacts back from graveyard, they go back to hand from the battlefield.
You need two zero cost artifacts[2], as when you cast an artifact, it will still be on the stack when Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle triggers, so will need a second target for when your creature returns to the battlefield.
The outcome of infinite loops
OK, so we can do all these loops, but what does this actually do? Well it's all going to come down to what your sacrifice outlet is and also possibly what your zero cost artifacts might do well.
You can use them with your artifact graveyard recursion creatures; Myr Retriever, Junk Diver, Scrap Trawler, Workshop Assistant. This is only 1/3 of your combo creature recursion package. But you do have the added advantage that you have the ability to not only use zero costing artifacts, but also some other options.
Arcbound Ravager also has an inbuilt win condition, as it will give you infinitely large artifact creatures.
Grinding Station you can mill your own library until you get the type of win you want.
Krark-Clan Ironworks works that same way, but you have further options as when you sacrifice an artifact you get CC, meaning any 2 or less costing artifact can be used for infinite recursion. So that is an additional 8 artifacts that can be used. Artifacts that cost 1 or less will give you infinite colorless mana. Which means that it actually has a higher chance of getting an infinite combo than the other creature sacrifice outlets.
Insta-Wins Altar of Dementia, can put any number of cards from libraries into graveyard. When done on self means access to other creatures and artifacts in graveyard, getting the combination win you want.
With the graveyard artifact retrievers, you will be able to get all artifacts back from your graveyard.
With this in mind, Mind Stone, Scarecrone, Skyscanner, Memory Jar will also allow you to draw your deck.
If you sacrifice Citanul Flute to an artifact sacrifice outlet, then you can also reuse it to draw all your creatures.
Paradox Engine along with some artifacts that produce mana will normally do it if you are able to combo with Teshnar and a loop creature. You can probably recur even non-zero costing artifacts as Paradox Engine will generate mana.
Citanul Flute can be used to get a zero cost artifact creature straight away, if you only have the 5 mana available to cast it. This gets you all the cards you need to win.
All the creatures that search are excellent for blocking, as you are happy for them to go to graveyard for possible extra value off Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle.
There are some value creatures in the deck, just to get some card advantage before you might assemble a combo, Scarecrone, Sacred Guide. Any artifact you cast will trigger Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle, for them to come back to battlefield and gain more advantage.
There are some protection and disruption creatures than have converted mana cost of 3 or less, which can be used to get recurring value.
Mesmeric Orb allows you to potentially put some key creature and artifact cards into your graveyard, so that you have more options.
Memory Jar not only might be able to draw into most of your combos that you need, but also has the advantage of discarding creatures and artifacts.
Because the deck operates at low casting cost margins, there are only 32 lands in the deck. Basically instead of lands, mana rocks have been introduce as you can potentially gain value with a Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle trigger, so worthwhile trading land drops for artifact plays.
I was inspired from a recent discussion on mono-white struggling in the general meta of Commander, with some of the main issues being quality card draw and mana acceleration in mono-white being limited.
So I took the challenge to see if I could configure a mono-white deck that can consistently produce effective card draw and mana ramp, for more impressive battle-cruiser styled games.
I've been running the gauntlet with the deck, and it certainly does not disappoint in potential.
This deck still has combo elements, but is more focused on mid to late game good stuff, with big draw and big mana producing cards.
If you've read through the "Mono-White Combo" deck primer, then this deck has a lot less focus on "off to the races" with trying to infinite combo.
Instead there is more focusing on setting up your mana base, as well as trying to draw a lot more cards throughout the game, without necessarily needing to setup infinite loops.
We still have creatures that can recur artifacts from the graveyard, but the focus is more on value and resilience, rather than infinite's.
Often your finishing will come from infinite's from Paradox Engine, or one of the classic combos mentioned in the original primer, but the journey is a lot more in the style of battle-cruiser commander.
So with a lot of the focus in the deck being around artifacts, there are some key cards for gaining lots of mana.
There are of course all the artifacts that tap for mana, but there is also the mana doublers; Extraplanar Lens, Gauntlet of Power, Caged Sun. This is backed up with Candelabra of Tawnos to untap lands that produce more than one mana, to generate even more.
A central sub-theme to the deck is Unwinding Clock that can give you pseudo extra turns if you have enough artifact mana and some other utility cards that can generate advantages.
You can setup Citanul Flute, Planar Bridge, Planar Portal to get you cards each players turn.
Mono-White has very little in the way a land ramp. So a major focus of the deck is using Burnished Hart to ramp you a lot of lands. Often your plan should be using Recruiter of the Guard to get it.
You're looking to play a more patient game and simply get a strong mana base, so that you can push a lot of spells in single turns.
So often I'll be using Burnished Hart as the creature of choice to return when Teshar triggers for a creature to return. Because you get more mana into play it has a nice cascading effect that every subsequent turn, you'll be able to do those cycles a little bit more.
Emeria Shepherd is a backup to Teshar for graveyard recursion.
There is a combo where you can sacrifice Solemn Simulacrum or Knight of the White Orchid to one of the Altars in response to the search, so that with the landfall trigger you can return the creature, to then repeat.
You can only get as many lands as opponent with the most with Knight of the White Orchid, but you can get all your Plains with Solemn Simulacrum. Who said mono-white doesn't have land ramp?
There are infinite combo cards with Altar of Dementia, Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar, Krark-Clan Ironworks, but the goal is much less around finding these early and trying to win from these. If you draw them great, and sometimes you are forced to try go infinite because the game has gotten out of hand.
But there are a lot less cards that you use in conjunction to go absolutely infinite, like zero costing artifacts. There are only three in Mishra's Bauble, Urza's Bauble and Welding Jar.
But honestly the Teshar engine is so broken that you can string things together pretty efficiently with Ashnod's Altar and Phyrexian Altar gaining you mana. You can cast out your artifacts, seemly for free, as when you combine with the Teshar bringing the creatures back into play, to then be able to sacrifice again for further mana, etc.
White is known for it's board control sorcery spells. However this deck is lot looking to be a sorcery spell control deck.
There is Wrath of God and Austere Command to have outs to games that get out of control, but there is more of a focus on being able to recover from board wipes that opponents play. Most metas you're guaranteed to have a big board wipe at least once each game, so rather than being the player who tries to clear all the permanents, you're spending resources on subsequently building your board back up from it.
Teshar along with the graveyard recursion creatures are particular good at doing this.
Kami of False Hope can really help to keep your opponents big attacks at bay.
Sac the 0 CMC artifact to Ironworks, then sac Retriever to Ironworks: you have 4 mana and the artifact is back to your hand. Cast Teshar, play the artifact, Retriever returns to the field. Sac the artifact, sac Retriever, the artifact returns to your hand, so you can play it, reviving Retriever. Repeat ad infinitum.
I did look at Krark-Clan Ironworks. You can use it as a sacrifice outlet for Junk Diver, Scrap Trawler, Myr Retriever. Plus it does allow a little additional infinites with these: Everflowing Chalice, Mana Crypt, Mox Opal, Lodestone Bauble, as you can sacrifice, where ordinarily these don;t help with the graveyard recursions creatures, just the bounce permanents to play.
However it is a limited set of cards. The sacrifice outlets that allow for any creature I think are better: Demonmail Hauberk, Fanatical Devotion, etc, so at this stage keeping it to a certain number. These will alter as I test. I suspect I should put Demonmail Hauberk in the deck.
No Auriok Salvagers? Goes infinite with Lion's Eye Diamond and let's you get every 3cmc creature and 0-1cmc artifact from your graveyard with your commander. Generally useful with bunches of low cost artifacts anyway.
No Auriok Salvagers? Goes infinite with Lion's Eye Diamond and let's you get every 3cmc creature and 0-1cmc artifact from your graveyard with your commander. Generally useful with bunches of low cost artifacts anyway.
Bomberman is in there. I put it under "Good stuff" section of deck list rather than "Graveyard recursion creatures", as I didn't want people getting confused that Auriok Salvagers is part of the Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle infinite's.
The Shimmer Myr can be used when you have Urza's Bauble or Mishra's Bauble as one of the combo pieces, as they allow you to draw your deck in next upkeep. You can then do an infinite sized Walking Ballista, etc to kill opponents in that upkeep. Previously you'd have to wait until your turn, which leaves room for opponents. I don't think the instant speed nature of it will help with naviagting disruption much, but for the reason I mentioned, I think it's worth including.
Not sure about Conjurer's Bauble, because I feel that once GY hate has been cast, then you're really wanting that card to return to play or go back to hand. So going back into library doesn't really help. By that stage you've been successfully disrupted.
[edit]
Made a few other changes. Grim Monolith allows for another infinite with Arcbound Ravager, plus just having mana accelleration to cast/recast Teshar is super important as this deck does not much without him. Mother of Runes for further protection for this reason
Hey man, I love your lists. I think that this mono-W deck is awesome and has a lot of merit.
Thanks. You know we've always wondered if you could make a mono-white deck that can win any game of commander. I've played against Stax mono-white, but it's never been able to win games. Although they lock you out for a good time, they can't finish 3 opponents. It's creature base just can't apply enough pressure.
This is fragile on Teshar remaining in play, but because it has soo much redundancy in the deck, it's pretty much winning if you have a sacrifice outlet. We will add this deck to our competitive league, as it just has the ability to steal games.
I can see your point, and yes, Hauberk does indeed look like a badass card. I for one know for a fact that I will be using the combo I mentioned in my Breya deck, as of the cards involved, Teshar looks like it would be useful in Breya's deck regardless of whether or not I use him in infinite loops, and all the others I already run anyway.
Well I've added Arcbound Ravager and Krark-Clan Ironworks. I ran the card combinations and figured out that as far as compared to the creature sacrifice outlets, Arcbound Ravager only run 2 cards shorter, and KCI in fact runs 3 cards higher. I've done a run down in the original post of combinations.
For the same reason as above, Grinding Station give access to a number of other card combinations, even though you can't use it with the non-artifact creatures. Grinding Station has the added bonus that you can mill yourself, which means that you can get your actual win condition.
I've added 2 more win conditions. I found that there is not a lot of action cards for the return artifacts from the battlefield to hand creatures: Kor Skyfisher, Emancipation Angel, Aviary Mechanic, Glint Hawk. So it's better to trim on the zero costing artifacts creatures, and simply have some more cards that give you advantages.
The trick doesn't actually work with Hope of Ghirapur, since after the first sacrifice, the game treats your recurred Hope of Ghirapur as a new game object that has not dealt combat damage to any player, which translates to you not being able to activate its ability because there are no valid targets for it. However, this would work with many cards that you don't have in the list like Bottle Gnomes (also arbitrary lifegain), Coretapper (more charge counters than you can shake a stick at), Lurebound Scarecrow (pick a permanent color you don't have), Phyrexian Dreadnought (lol), Thermal Navigator, or Ticking Gnomes (arbitrary damage).
The trick doesn't actually work with Hope of Ghirapur, since after the first sacrifice, the game treats your recurred Hope of Ghirapur as a new game object that has not dealt combat damage to any player, which translates to you not being able to activate its ability because there are no valid targets for it. However, this would work with many cards that you don't have in the list like Bottle Gnomes (also arbitrary lifegain), Coretapper (more charge counters than you can shake a stick at), Lurebound Scarecrow (pick a permanent color you don't have), Phyrexian Dreadnought (lol), Thermal Navigator, or Ticking Gnomes (arbitrary damage).
I wanted to calculate what the probability of drawing cards for a combo finish, if you had only had 4 turns. So in theory only drawing 11 cards in total. It assumes no extra mulligans or extra draw, just a single card a turn.
So I calculated within 4 turns, you have a 90% chance of drawing either 3 or 4 of the cards you would need to win the game. That means 9 out of 10 games you will have the ability to attempt to win the game within 4 or 5 turns.
It's not completely precise, but it does represent around the lowest figure, as there are extra combinations of winning cards I could factor in, but for complexity and time sake is accurate enough.
This is super consistent, arguably one of the most consistent ratios of combo decks that exists for commander with natural draws. It's not the potential fastest, but it must be noted that it does follow a mana curve which enables you to potentially play out each combo piece sequentially through the first 4 or 5 turns consistently, as most of the key pieces cost around 2 to 4 mana. So the ability to play them out for a turn 4 or 5 win, will mean that 90% of your games will have the exact pattern of having the cards to win and being able to deploy them in a manner to win.
This is in a goldfish environment, your opponents can of course disrupt you. But I wanted to get the mathematical figures on the deck, as far as % of cards acquired to combo within a certain amount of draws. I felt 4 turns was a good number to base it around, as games can often finish around there with combo decks in general.
I think Thrasios & Tymna Breakfast Hulk is the fastest combo deck clocked in at winning on average on turn 2.81, tested with 100 goldfish runs. Meaning that most games win on turn 3, but you do get a percentage that win on turn 2. However after watching some games on stream with it, if it gets disrupted, has a long recovery time. It specifically revolves around a few cards, so getting the combo cards back from graveyard or exile is a challenge.
My argument for the advantage of this Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle combo deck, is that if disrupted there is likely to be another combo card to replace it within a short time frame, if not immediately. It has an exceedingly high redundancy rate. It's not quite as simply as that. Mono-white, lacks for disruption itself, while limited in quality and quantity of draw and search effects. But I really want to impress on the sheer mathematical consistency this deck actually has. The simply fact that because of the redundancy, the likely source to disrupt the deck is to remove Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle. But always having access to it, means this deck is always just a Teshar away from winning.
I've encountered a slightly weird problem with Urza's Bauble. I was playing against a friend and in order to combo him on his upkeep I had to resolve 70 triggers, which required picking a random card from his hand 70 times. I checked with a judge and I do actually need to choose a random card 70 times unless my opponent explicitly allows me to shortcut this action (in this case it was just a friendly game, so I was able to do this). They are allowed to require you to resolve each trigger, though, which means Urza's Bauble might be a little problematic in tournaments if your opponent dislikes you. There are no special rules for choosing yourself - you might still be required to perform n die rolls to choose a card.
I don't know how relevant this actually is, but I thought it was kind of neat. Maybe every judge you ask would rule in favour of allowing the infinite, maybe some judges would give you a warning for slow play.
I've encountered a slightly weird problem with Urza's Bauble. I was playing against a friend and in order to combo him on his upkeep I had to resolve 70 triggers, which required picking a random card from his hand 70 times. I checked with a judge and I do actually need to choose a random card 70 times unless my opponent explicitly allows me to shortcut this action (in this case it was just a friendly game, so I was able to do this). They are allowed to require you to resolve each trigger, though, which means Urza's Bauble might be a little problematic in tournaments if your opponent dislikes you. There are no special rules for choosing yourself - you might still be required to perform n die rolls to choose a card.
I don't know how relevant this actually is, but I thought it was kind of neat. Maybe every judge you ask would rule in favour of allowing the infinite, maybe some judges would give you a warning for slow play.
I guess not much you can do except roll the die really quickly, and not have opponent reshuffle their hand. But nothing you can do if they want to slow play it for spite.
I've made a few adjustments, decided to add 2 more land, better to be able to deploy cards in a timely fashion, rather than totally go for thresholds of combo cards. Also Basalt Monolith is just another "zero costing artifact" and can actually help to cast cards.
Abeyance and Orim's Chant are seriously worth including. It's quite often the first person to try and combo off in a game, is the first to get disrupted. So sometimes a little patience is needed and even having opponents tapped out, will often be met with a Force of Will or Pact of Negation.
Matter Reshaper is nice, but honestly needed to be an artifact to be worthwhile in my opinion.
Waiting a turn for a win is not where you want to be at. It sucks because I absolutely love Monastery Mentor, but you just open up the doors too much for a board sweep.
i'm having a seriously tough time trying to find a LED, and it seems like it's a pretty important ritual effect for the deck.
I haven't played the deck a whole lot. The thing is that I play Magic Online, and people hate infinites. The other thing is that infinites with software where you have to manually click through each loop every time is not much fun either.
But the deck does exactly as advertised, you can get loops going very easily.
About the only thing I might look at changing is adding a land. The starting mulligans are quite important as you want to have at least some part of a combination, and so if you can take out "mulling for land", which happens a lot, which means that you don't get to select hands on quality so much.
Yeah unfortunately LED is one of the most desired cards in Magic. It sees play across all constructed formats that it is legal in. So it's $$$. But it is the best card in this deck, and a number of cards are designed around it. Let me know if you don;t get hold of one, and I can give you a version which will trim out some cards in it's stead.
I consider myself a combo enthusiast and Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle certainly begged the question, "How to break this commanders synergy?".
Before I leap into the content of the deck, it's important to look at mono-white color strategies in general. Often running "hate-bear" type creatures, things that slow all players down, especially opponents, is a common theme. However this is a combo deck, and looks to play infinite spells in a turn, which is counter-productive to play cards like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, as it will lock you out.
So now that we have the "hate-bears" vs combo situation out of the way, this is a combo deck, that has a variety of infinite's at it's disposal.
How do they work?
Well they all start with Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle being on the battlefield. With any artifact, legend or saga , we can get any creature with converted mana cost 3 or less from our graveyard to the battlefield.
With this in mind any zero cost artifact will trigger Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle and if we have cards that get artifacts back from graveyard then we can look to get loops going, for zero mana.
4 Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle
Zero cost artifacts
(sacrifice at no cost, go to graveyard)
0 Lion's Eye Diamond
0 Lotus Petal
0 Mox Diamond
0 Tormod's Crypt
0 Urza's Bauble
0 Mishra's Bauble
0 Welding Jar
0 Dark Sphere
0 Delif's Cone
Zero cost artifact creatures
0 Walking Ballista
0 Hangarback Walker
Zero cost artifacts
(no self sacrifice, no go to graveyard)
0 Mana Crypt
0 Mox Opal
0 Mox Amber
Honorary zero cost artifacts
(no self sacrifice, no go to graveyard)
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
2 Grim Monolith
3 Basalt Monolith
Artifact mana
5 Gilded Lotus
Graveyard recursion creatures
1 Salvage Scout
2 Restoration Specialist
2 Myr Retriever
2 Leonin Squire
3 Treasure Hunter
3 Trusty Packbeast
3 Junk Diver
3 Scrap Trawler
3 Workshop Assistant
1 Glint Hawk
2 Kor Skyfisher
2 Aviary Mechanic
Creature sacrifice outlets
2 Altar of Dementia
3 Blasting Station
3 Ashnod's Altar
3 Phyrexian Altar
Artifact sacrifice outlets
2 Arcbound Ravager
2 Grinding Station
4 Krark-Clan Ironworks
Combo finishers
1 Skullclamp
1 Sacred Guide
1 Altar of the Brood
2 Mind Stone
3 Mentor of the Meek
3 Scarecrone
3 Skyscanner
3 Gate to the Afterlife
4 Aetherflux Reservoir
5 Memory Jar
5 Citanul Flute
5 Paradox Engine
Tutor creatures
2 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Recruiter of the Guard
4 Ranger of Eos
Disruption creatures
2 Grand Abolisher
Protection creatures
1 Mother of Runes
1 Benevolent Bodyguard
2 Selfless Spirit
2 Conqueror's Flail
2 Scroll Rack
2 Mesmeric Orb
Instants
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Apostle's Blessing
1 Silence
3 Oblation
Enchantment
1 Land Tax
Lands 33
19 Plains
1 Arid Mesa
1 Marsh Flats
1 Windswept Heath
1 Flooded Strand
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Command Beacon
1 Gemstone Caverns
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Buried Ruin
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Inventors' Fair
1 Sequestered Stash
1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
1 Strip Mine
Before we head straight into infinite's, let's look at an example of a non-infinite value using Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle and Restoration Specialist or Salvage Scout.
Sacrifice the creature, spending W to get an artifact back from graveyard to hand. You can then replay that artifact triggering Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle, to return the Restoration Specialist to the battlefield. You can loop this for as much W, plus the cost of the artifact, as you have available.
What are your infinites?
There are 8 creatures that retrieve artifacts from graveyard to hand: Restoration Specialist, Salvage Scout, which require mana to active, and Treasure Hunter, Junk Diver, Scrap Trawler, Leonin Squire, Myr Retriever, Workshop Assistant, Trusty Packbeast.
Some of these trigger when "enter the battlefield" and some trigger when "dies".
There are 3 creatures that return artifacts to hand from the battlefield: Glint Hawk, Kor Skyfisher, Aviary Mechanic.
If you have a creature sacrifice outlet like: Altar of Dementia, Blasting Station, Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar then we can look to always have a target creature for Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle, by sacrificing one of these graveyard/to hand recursion creatures.
With zero costing artifacts or artifacts produce mana to recast themselves, (Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Grim Monolith, Basalt Monolith), means that you can cast meeting mana requirements. The other very important aspect is that we also want artifacts that we can naturally sacrifice, for the sake of going to graveyard, so that the graveyard recursion creatures also have a target. For the creatures that return artifacts to hand, you only need zero costing artifacts, but for the sake of better synergy there are only a few of these.
There are some infinite combos that only require having one zero costing artifact and there are some that require having two zero costing artifacts[1].
Please note that when referencing "zero cost artifacts" that this also includes Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Grim Monolith and Basalt Monolith, as they can tap to recast themselves and probably net you mana. For the sake of short notation, I just say "zero cost artifacts".
If one of them is Sol Ring or Grim Monolith, Mox Amber, Mox Opal then you can use a 1 or less artifact
If it's one of the creature cards that trigger when "enter the battlefield", then you need two zero cost artifacts.
The reason is because Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle ability triggers when cast. The trigger goes on the stack and Teshar has to target a creature immediately. This will mean the creature comes into play, before the artifact is on the battlefield. Because your zero costing artifact isn't in play, you won't get a chance to bounce it as a permanent or sacrifice it if you were wanting it to go to your graveyard to be the target of the "entering the battlefield" trigger.
If you have one of the creature cards that return artifacts to hand when "dies", then you only need one zero costing artifact.
For example, you have Myr Retriever and Tormod's Crypt. You can always sacrifice the zero costing artifact (Tormod's Crypt) before the creature that triggers when "dies". This will means that you will always have a target.
Return artifact from battlefield
There is another loop sequence that involves creatures returning artifacts/permanents to hand from play. These are:Glint Hawk, Kor Skyfisher, Aviary Mechanic.
It's the same principle, you need a sacrifice outlet for the creature, but rather than getting our artifacts back from graveyard, they go back to hand from the battlefield.
You need two zero cost artifacts[2], as when you cast an artifact, it will still be on the stack when Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle triggers, so will need a second target for when your creature returns to the battlefield.
If one of them is Sol Ring or Grim Monolith, Mox Amber, Mox Opal then you can use a 1 or less artifact
It must be noted that for infinite's because Restoration Specialist and Salvage Scout require mana to active, can only be used if you have one of the following, Phyrexian Altar or Lion's Eye Diamond or Lotus Petal.
The outcome of infinite loops
OK, so we can do all these loops, but what does this actually do? Well it's all going to come down to what your sacrifice outlet is and also possibly what your zero cost artifacts might do well.
With Lion's Eye Diamond or Lotus Petal you can get infinite mana.
Delif's Cone can give you infinite life if you attack with a creature that is not blocked. Teshar has flying, so a likely target for this.
If we are using Ashnod's Altar or Phyrexian Altar, then we are going to get infinite mana.
Grinding Station, Arcbound Ravager and Krark-Clan Ironworks need to be specifically worked with artifacts.
Arcbound Ravager or Grinding Station can be also used with Mana Crypt, Mox Opal, Mox Amber, Mana Vault, Sol Ring, Grim Monolith. You can sacrifice these to make them the targets in graveyard. Each one producing enough mana that not only can you cast them again, but also get infinite mana. Basalt Monolith also provides infinite loops.
Arcbound Ravager also has an inbuilt win condition, as it will give you infinitely large artifact creatures.
Grinding Station you can mill your own library until you get the type of win you want.
Krark-Clan Ironworks works that same way, but you have further options as when you sacrifice an artifact you get CC, meaning any 2 or less costing artifact can be used for infinite recursion. So that is an additional 8 artifacts that can be used. Artifacts that cost 1 or less will give you infinite colorless mana. Which means that it actually has a higher chance of getting an infinite combo than the other creature sacrifice outlets.
If you are using one of the bounce artifact to hand creatures, Glint Hawk, Kor Skyfisher, Aviary Mechanic, then any of these artifacts Mana Crypt, Sol Ring or Grim Monolith, Mox Amber, Mox Opal, will give you infinite mana.
Insta-Wins
Altar of Dementia, can put any number of cards from libraries into graveyard. When done on self means access to other creatures and artifacts in graveyard, getting the combination win you want.
Blasting Station, infinite damage.
With Mishra's Bauble or Urza's Bauble we can draw as many cards as we want in the next upkeep.
With infinite recursion Monastery Mentor and Aetherflux Reservoir will trigger as many times as we choose.
Restoration Specialist or Salvage Scout and Lotus Petal, with Teshar in play, will allow for infinite looping.
With one of the artifact sacrifice outlets, Arcbound Ravager, Grinding Station, Krark-Clan Ironworks with Mox Amber or Mox Opal and Restoration Specialist or Salvage Scout.
What can we do with infinite mana?
Walking Ballista infinite damage.
Hangarback Walker infinite Thopters.
Skullclamp, Diviner's Wand, Mentor of the Meek, will allow you to draw as many cards as you want.
With the graveyard artifact retrievers, you will be able to get all artifacts back from your graveyard.
With this in mind, Mind Stone, Scarecrone, Skyscanner, Memory Jar will also allow you to draw your deck.
If you sacrifice Citanul Flute to an artifact sacrifice outlet, then you can also reuse it to draw all your creatures.
Sacred Guide can draw you into one of your white card finishers; Mentor of the Meek, Monastery Mentor, Stoneforge Mystic, Recruiter of the Guard, Ranger of Eos.
Other ways to get infinite mana
You can also get infinite mana using Auriok Salvagers with Lion's Eye Diamond.
Restoration Specialist or Salvage Scout with Teshar, will also get you infinite mana with Lion's Eye Diamond.
Paradox Engine along with some artifacts that produce mana will normally do it if you are able to combo with Teshnar and a loop creature. You can probably recur even non-zero costing artifacts as Paradox Engine will generate mana.
Scrap Trawler infinites with Teshar
Scrap Trawler allows for a couple of other subtle loops without needing a sacrifice outlet. There are currently 2 artifact creatures that can sacrifice themselves, Scarecrone and Arcbound Ravager.
With Scarecrone and Lotus Petal or Lion's Eye Diamond, you can sacrifice the Scarecrone to get back one of these cards. Recast, get the Scarecrone back into play and repeat for infinite mana with Lion's Eye Diamond.
Other cards to help assemble combos
Stoneforge Mystic will allow you to get win conditions in the form of Skullclamp and Diviner's Wand. If you are against heavy disruption decks, then you can get Conqueror's Flail.
Recruiter of the Guard and Ranger of Eos can get many of your combo pieces.
Citanul Flute can be used to get a zero cost artifact creature straight away, if you only have the 5 mana available to cast it. This gets you all the cards you need to win.
All the creatures that search are excellent for blocking, as you are happy for them to go to graveyard for possible extra value off Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle.
There are some value creatures in the deck, just to get some card advantage before you might assemble a combo,
Scarecrone, Sacred Guide. Any artifact you cast will trigger Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle, for them to come back to battlefield and gain more advantage.
There are some protection and disruption creatures than have converted mana cost of 3 or less, which can be used to get recurring value.
Mesmeric Orb allows you to potentially put some key creature and artifact cards into your graveyard, so that you have more options.
Memory Jar not only might be able to draw into most of your combos that you need, but also has the advantage of discarding creatures and artifacts.
Because the deck operates at low casting cost margins, there are only 32 lands in the deck. Basically instead of lands, mana rocks have been introduce as you can potentially gain value with a Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle trigger, so worthwhile trading land drops for artifact plays.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
I was inspired from a recent discussion on mono-white struggling in the general meta of Commander, with some of the main issues being quality card draw and mana acceleration in mono-white being limited.
So I took the challenge to see if I could configure a mono-white deck that can consistently produce effective card draw and mana ramp, for more impressive battle-cruiser styled games.
I've been running the gauntlet with the deck, and it certainly does not disappoint in potential.
This deck still has combo elements, but is more focused on mid to late game good stuff, with big draw and big mana producing cards.
If you've read through the "Mono-White Combo" deck primer, then this deck has a lot less focus on "off to the races" with trying to infinite combo.
Instead there is more focusing on setting up your mana base, as well as trying to draw a lot more cards throughout the game, without necessarily needing to setup infinite loops.
We still have creatures that can recur artifacts from the graveyard, but the focus is more on value and resilience, rather than infinite's.
Often your finishing will come from infinite's from Paradox Engine, or one of the classic combos mentioned in the original primer, but the journey is a lot more in the style of battle-cruiser commander.
So with a lot of the focus in the deck being around artifacts, there are some key cards for gaining lots of mana.
There are of course all the artifacts that tap for mana, but there is also the mana doublers; Extraplanar Lens, Gauntlet of Power, Caged Sun. This is backed up with Candelabra of Tawnos to untap lands that produce more than one mana, to generate even more.
A central sub-theme to the deck is Unwinding Clock that can give you pseudo extra turns if you have enough artifact mana and some other utility cards that can generate advantages.
You can setup Citanul Flute, Planar Bridge, Planar Portal to get you cards each players turn.
Paradox Engine is another key card, this can be used in the same way with cards like Citanul Flute, Planar Bridge, Planar Portal to get you all the cards you need.
Aetherflux Reservoir is normally the easiest win condition.
The big singular draw cards in the deck are; Mind's Eye, Memory Jar, Book of Rass, Mentor of the Meek, Sandstone Oracle, Kozilek, the Great Distortion.
Staff of Nin and The Immortal Sun can produce you a lot of draw over the course of turns.
There are other combinations with Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle ability to recur creatures, and combining this with artifact graveyard recursion as well.
You can look for Mind Stone or Scarecrone to draw you an extra card each turn if used with Salvage Scout or Restoration Specialist.
Mono-White has very little in the way a land ramp. So a major focus of the deck is using Burnished Hart to ramp you a lot of lands. Often your plan should be using Recruiter of the Guard to get it.
You're looking to play a more patient game and simply get a strong mana base, so that you can push a lot of spells in single turns.
So often I'll be using Burnished Hart as the creature of choice to return when Teshar triggers for a creature to return. Because you get more mana into play it has a nice cascading effect that every subsequent turn, you'll be able to do those cycles a little bit more.
Same deal with Salvage Scout or Restoration Specialist that you might be looking to combine them with Burnished Hart or Wayfarer's Bauble to get extra lands into play each turn.
Emeria Shepherd is a backup to Teshar for graveyard recursion.
There is a combo where you can sacrifice Solemn Simulacrum or Knight of the White Orchid to one of the Altars in response to the search, so that with the landfall trigger you can return the creature, to then repeat.
You can only get as many lands as opponent with the most with Knight of the White Orchid, but you can get all your Plains with Solemn Simulacrum. Who said mono-white doesn't have land ramp?
There are infinite combo cards with Altar of Dementia, Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar, Krark-Clan Ironworks, but the goal is much less around finding these early and trying to win from these. If you draw them great, and sometimes you are forced to try go infinite because the game has gotten out of hand.
But there are a lot less cards that you use in conjunction to go absolutely infinite, like zero costing artifacts. There are only three in Mishra's Bauble, Urza's Bauble and Welding Jar.
But honestly the Teshar engine is so broken that you can string things together pretty efficiently with Ashnod's Altar and Phyrexian Altar gaining you mana. You can cast out your artifacts, seemly for free, as when you combine with the Teshar bringing the creatures back into play, to then be able to sacrifice again for further mana, etc.
There is even a counterspell suite with Lapse of Certainty, Null Brooch, Kozilek, the Great Distortion.
Mono-White certainly not known for this type of game plan, gives this deck an edge in that once you are setup, you can be prepared for anything.
You can use Planar Portal with Kozilek, the Great Distortion to counter any spell, searching up the right converted mana cost needed.
White is known for it's board control sorcery spells. However this deck is lot looking to be a sorcery spell control deck.
There is Wrath of God and Austere Command to have outs to games that get out of control, but there is more of a focus on being able to recover from board wipes that opponents play. Most metas you're guaranteed to have a big board wipe at least once each game, so rather than being the player who tries to clear all the permanents, you're spending resources on subsequently building your board back up from it.
Teshar along with the graveyard recursion creatures are particular good at doing this.
Kami of False Hope can really help to keep your opponents big attacks at bay.
I will point out that this decks ability to recur creatures from the graveyard for value put decks like Meren of Clan Nel Toth and Glissa, the Traitor to shame.
1 Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle
Creatures
1 Benevolent Bodyguard
1 Mother of Runes
1 Salvage Scout
1 Kami of False Hope
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Knight of the White Orchid
1 Restoration Specialist
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Myr Retriever
1 Mentor of the Meek
1 Monastery Mentor
1 Recruiter of the Guard
1 Junk Diver
1 Workshop Assistant
1 Burnished Hart
1 Scarecrone
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Sandstone Oracle
1 Emeria Shepherd
1 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
1 Kozilek, the Great Distortion
Artifact mana
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Opal
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Grim Monolith
1 Mind Stone
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Candelabra of Tawnos
1 Extraplanar Lens
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Caged Sun
1 Skullclamp
1 Scroll Rack
1 Endless Atlas
1 Memory Jar
1 Mind's Eye
1 Staff of Nin
1 The Immortal Sun
1 Book of Rass
Artifacts
1 Mishra's Bauble
1 Urza's Bauble
1 Welding Jar
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Null Brooch
1 Trading Post
1 Unwinding Clock
1 Aetherflux Reservoir
1 Citanul Flute
1 Paradox Engine
1 Planar Bridge
1 Planar Portal
Combo
1 Altar of Dementia
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Phyrexian Altar
1 Krark-Clan Ironworks
Enchantments
1 Land Tax
1 Smothering Tithe
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Lapse of Certainty
1 Oblation
1 Teferi's Protection
Sorcery
1 Wrath of God
1 Austere Command
Lands (34)
24 Snow-Covered Plains
1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
1 Mishra's Workshop
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Inventors' Fair
1 Isolated Watchtower
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Arid Mesa
1 Flooded Strand
1 Marsh Flats
1 Windswept Heath
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
However it is a limited set of cards. The sacrifice outlets that allow for any creature I think are better: Demonmail Hauberk, Fanatical Devotion, etc, so at this stage keeping it to a certain number. These will alter as I test. I suspect I should put Demonmail Hauberk in the deck.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain
B Toshiro Umezawa
BG Pharika, God of Affliction - Necromancy and Politics
WWW The Church of Heliod
WBR Zurgo, Helmsmasher
RG Wort, the Raidmother
UBR Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge
UG Vorel of the Hull Clade
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Grafted Wargear seems the worst of the sac outlets, because you need two creatures + Teshar to 'go off' instead of one with Demonmail Hauberk.
Conjurer's Bauble lets you save your graveyard from graveyard hate that isn't a Relic of Progenitus effect, and cantrips as well.
You're right, Demonmail Hauberk is just a little better.
Not sure about Conjurer's Bauble, because I feel that once GY hate has been cast, then you're really wanting that card to return to play or go back to hand. So going back into library doesn't really help. By that stage you've been successfully disrupted.
Add
- Demonmail Hauberk
- Shimmer Myr
RemovedNiv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Scrap Trawler allows for a couple of other subtle loops without needing a sacrifice outlet. There are currently 3 artifact creatures that can sacrifice themselves, Hope of Ghirapur, Scarecrone and Arcbound Ravager.
With Hope of Ghirapur and Lotus Petal or Lion's Eye Diamond, you can sacrifice the Hope of Ghirapur to get back one of these cards. Recast, get the Hope of Ghirapur back into play and repeat for infinite mana. If you use Scrap Trawler and Hope of Ghirapur with Urza's Bauble or Mishra's Bauble you can draw your deck in the next upkeep. Tormod's Crypt can also be used to get infinite graveyard removals.
You can also do the same thing with Scarecrone and Scrap Trawler with Lotus Petal or Lion's Eye Diamond, but you'll be using the mana to use the activated ability of Scarecrone. You can draw your deck with this combination.
I've decided to add Arcbound Ravager. I already talked about why Krark-Clan Ironworks can be a little narrow in this deck, and obviously Arcbound Ravager is the same. However unlike KCI, it does have a win-condition built in, cost 2 mana less, and can go infinite with Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle + Scrap Trawler + any zero cost artifact.
Added
Arcbound Ravager
Removed
Null Brooch
[edit]
Made a few other changes. Grim Monolith allows for another infinite with Arcbound Ravager, plus just having mana accelleration to cast/recast Teshar is super important as this deck does not much without him. Mother of Runes for further protection for this reason
Added
Grim Monolith
Mother of Runes
Removed
Kuldotha Forgemaster
Scrabbling Claws
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
This is fragile on Teshar remaining in play, but because it has soo much redundancy in the deck, it's pretty much winning if you have a sacrifice outlet. We will add this deck to our competitive league, as it just has the ability to steal games.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Added
Krark-Clan Ironworks
Removed
Teferi's Protection
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Added
Grinding Station
Remove
Phyrexian Furnace
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Added
- Genesis Chamber
- Golem Foundry
- 2 Plains
RemovedNiv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
The trick doesn't actually work with Hope of Ghirapur, since after the first sacrifice, the game treats your recurred Hope of Ghirapur as a new game object that has not dealt combat damage to any player, which translates to you not being able to activate its ability because there are no valid targets for it. However, this would work with many cards that you don't have in the list like Bottle Gnomes (also arbitrary lifegain), Coretapper (more charge counters than you can shake a stick at), Lurebound Scarecrow (pick a permanent color you don't have), Phyrexian Dreadnought (lol), Thermal Navigator, or Ticking Gnomes (arbitrary damage).
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
So I calculated within 4 turns, you have a 90% chance of drawing either 3 or 4 of the cards you would need to win the game. That means 9 out of 10 games you will have the ability to attempt to win the game within 4 or 5 turns.
It's not completely precise, but it does represent around the lowest figure, as there are extra combinations of winning cards I could factor in, but for complexity and time sake is accurate enough.
This is super consistent, arguably one of the most consistent ratios of combo decks that exists for commander with natural draws. It's not the potential fastest, but it must be noted that it does follow a mana curve which enables you to potentially play out each combo piece sequentially through the first 4 or 5 turns consistently, as most of the key pieces cost around 2 to 4 mana. So the ability to play them out for a turn 4 or 5 win, will mean that 90% of your games will have the exact pattern of having the cards to win and being able to deploy them in a manner to win.
This is in a goldfish environment, your opponents can of course disrupt you. But I wanted to get the mathematical figures on the deck, as far as % of cards acquired to combo within a certain amount of draws. I felt 4 turns was a good number to base it around, as games can often finish around there with combo decks in general.
I think Thrasios & Tymna Breakfast Hulk is the fastest combo deck clocked in at winning on average on turn 2.81, tested with 100 goldfish runs. Meaning that most games win on turn 3, but you do get a percentage that win on turn 2. However after watching some games on stream with it, if it gets disrupted, has a long recovery time. It specifically revolves around a few cards, so getting the combo cards back from graveyard or exile is a challenge.
My argument for the advantage of this Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle combo deck, is that if disrupted there is likely to be another combo card to replace it within a short time frame, if not immediately. It has an exceedingly high redundancy rate. It's not quite as simply as that. Mono-white, lacks for disruption itself, while limited in quality and quantity of draw and search effects. But I really want to impress on the sheer mathematical consistency this deck actually has. The simply fact that because of the redundancy, the likely source to disrupt the deck is to remove Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle. But always having access to it, means this deck is always just a Teshar away from winning.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
I don't know how relevant this actually is, but I thought it was kind of neat. Maybe every judge you ask would rule in favour of allowing the infinite, maybe some judges would give you a warning for slow play.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Added
Removed
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
There's a 3 cmc eldrazi that rolls the top card of your library when it dies. I can not, for my life, remember the name.
Matter Reshaper is nice, but honestly needed to be an artifact to be worthwhile in my opinion.
Added
+ Abeyance
+ Orim's Chant
Removed
- Genesis Chamber
- Monastery Mentor
Waiting a turn for a win is not where you want to be at. It sucks because I absolutely love Monastery Mentor, but you just open up the doors too much for a board sweep.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
i'm having a seriously tough time trying to find a LED, and it seems like it's a pretty important ritual effect for the deck.
Legacy - Solidarity - mono U aggro - burn - Imperial Painter - Strawberry Shortcake - Bluuzards - bom
But the deck does exactly as advertised, you can get loops going very easily.
About the only thing I might look at changing is adding a land. The starting mulligans are quite important as you want to have at least some part of a combination, and so if you can take out "mulling for land", which happens a lot, which means that you don't get to select hands on quality so much.
Yeah unfortunately LED is one of the most desired cards in Magic. It sees play across all constructed formats that it is legal in. So it's $$$. But it is the best card in this deck, and a number of cards are designed around it. Let me know if you don;t get hold of one, and I can give you a version which will trim out some cards in it's stead.
Added
+ Plains
Removed
- Shimmer Myr
A lot of the infinite mana involve sorcery speed, so Shimmer Myr has been a bit limited.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith