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So make your opponent draw cards till they are sick of drawing cards. Then punish them for having a large hand.
This deck is great for most power levels. Is someone playing a new deck? Whip out this one. A table full of "7s"? Whip out this one. Want to just have a good time? Whip out this one.
That brings me to the card that inspired the whole deck!
I'll never forget the way this card drew me in as I read it for the first time. I found the idea of punishing hand sizes to be such a novel idea that I just had to build a deck around it.
As stated before our game plan is to make everyone draw multiple cards every turn to ensure a full grip or more. No stax, counterspell tribal, or infinite combo here, just lots of card draw synergy. Everyone gets a good chance to play their decks, but you also put a timer on the game thanks to this being a "death by 1000 cuts" kind of deck.
Our deck being helmed by Queza and not Nekusar is simply a case of the deck being built first and then finding a commander to fit it afterward. With access to white instead of red, we get powerful cards like Smothering Tithe and exile removal. As well as cards that actually fill hands and not just keep hand parity.
She acts as a cog in our deck's game plan but doesn't lead its direction. She takes full advantage of all the draw that we are doing, providing us with a source of damage and lifegain. Unfortunately, there is a lot of competition for the turn 4 play in this deck, but she is never a wrong choice.
A secondary reason for running Queza over Nekuzar is the reputation that the commander brings. Nekuzar is a well-known boogie man in the format. If he is at the helm of the deck, everyone knows what's up and to kill me first. When people see Queza, it's less of an "oh shit" reaction around the table. Additionally, the deck is sort of a "group hug" deck. I want to let the table have fun; not sweat while looking for removal.
The first step in our plan is to fill hands everyone's hands. We will make use of symmetrical draw effects to ensure this.
Cards like Kami of the Crescent Moon and Howling Mine will be our main source of draw. Stacking multiple of these will result in large hands around the table.
Forced Fruition won't benefit us directly, but will result in our opponents potentially decking themselves out. It also has the unintended benefit of screwing over any storm player thanks to them typically only being able to storm a hand full of times before they deck themselves.
Our one-off draw spells can also function as emergency kill spells, whether it be through damage thanks to an enchantment, our commander, or decking out an opponent.
When we have a big enough grip we'll use windfall-type effects to fuel our draw triggers.
There are three repeatable and three nonrepeatable windfalls.
Repeatable
Nonrepeatable
This section is where half of our win conditions sit. Fate Unraveler & Psychosis Crawler deal damage whenever we draw a card. Psychic Corrosion & Sphinx's Tutelage mills for every card we draw.
Chasm Skulker & Ominous Seas give us much-needed board presence.
The last two cards The One Ring and Smothering Tithe are tempo pieces. They give us the ability to really make the deck function at higher power tables.
Once we draw cards we want to be able to keep 'em.
We are running 8 cards that give no maximum hand size, 3 of those being table-wide. I like to keep at least 2 on the board at all times. Because often people will try and blow up one of them in an attempt to stop you from running away with the game or from making big plays.
Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur is also in this category because he reduces hand size. This gets canceled out by cards like Folio of Fancies and if the opponents have their own Reliquary Tower-type effect. What we will mostly use him for though is the 7-card draw at the end of the turn.
This section is all about keeping you alive.
Ivory Tower and Venser's Journal for steady lifegain. Union of the Third Path is used in a pinch when we have a large grip. Often this is cast after Peer into the Abyss.
Here is where I will mention Marauding Blight-Priest. She is mostly used to turn our commander's targeted damage into tablewide damage. However, she also gets triggered by Tower and Journal.
Last but not least is Meishin, the Mind Cage, one of the best cards in the deck. I go over this card more in the 5 Cards That You Should Know About! section. Is safe to say that this is an auto-cast if you have the mana for it.
Here is the other half of the deck win cons live!
Black Vise, Iron Maiden, Viseling, and Price of Knowledge will deal damage to opponents if they have more than 4 cards in hand. These easily are our deck's biggest damage dealers. With Folio out we can easily rack up to 10 dmg per artifact per upkeep.
There are two Alt win-cons in the deck: Approach of the Second Sun and Triskaidekaphile
Triskaidekaphile also doubles as another way to get "no max hand size". Both cards are relatively easy to achieve, and the nice thing is that they are obvious enough that people can't complain about it coming out of nowhere. It is their own fault for forgetting about the cards after they've been cast.
Removal: This is your typical Esper removal package nothing too fancy. Because you only have 10 spells in total, they will be used defensively. Despite being in control deck colors, we don't have the removal spell count to play that way. So keep your counterspells and targeted removal ready for only when your opponents' spells affect you.
Mana Accelerants: Again nothing fancy here, just a typical Esper ramp package. There are fewer ramp cards than what most people would like in a deck (myself included). However, the amount of draw that the deck generates allows you to hit land drops fairly consistently.
Lands: This is a simi budget mana base. With 37 lands total in the deck you should be hitting those land drops fairly consistently. We are running Sea Gate Restoration // Sea Gate, Reborn in here as it really synergizes with the deck.
These are 5 cards that I think really exemplify the deck's ideals or are some cool tech that I don't want you to miss out on.
Arguably one of the strongest cards in the deck. This thing shuts down the table and lets you run wild until it is removed. The earlier you can cast this card the better. In my games, I'll have an average hand size of about 11 effectively neutralizing most creature-focused decks.
One of my favorite finishers, It is almost always worth cutting your life total in half to draw 30+ cards on average. This combined with any of our draw-triggered wins-cons will knock out most of the table. And for the last guy that you didn't kill? You now have half your library in your hand. There usually is a way to kill them in there.
Also, Peer into the Abyss + Folio of Fancies = one dead opponent.
THE strongest card in the deck. Big woop, no surprise that Smothering Tithe is an OP card. Well in this deck it is extra powerful thanks to all the symmetrical draw. If it doesn't get answered immediately you will 100% run away with the game.
I want to point out that Wizard Class at lv3 combos with the cards Walking Archive and Chasm Skulke.
Walking Archive + Wizard Class at lv3 = Exponentially larger card draws every upkeep.
Chasm Skulker Wizard Class at lv3 = givs us even more squids.
The one combo piece in the deck. The combo goes something like this:
FOLIO OF FANCIES + SMOTHERING TITHE + CLOCK OF OMENS
Prerequisites
All permanents on the battlefield. At least 6 mana open; the more the better. 4+ player game (three or more opponents)
Combo result
Draw most of your library. Non-infinite mill, but typically sufficient to mill out opponents.
Surprisingly there aren’t many bad matchups for this deck, but there are two strategies that you should be wary of and they both start with C.
Control: Most of the time you will be ignored by the control player. They like you. However, the thing that holds control decks back is how long it takes to set up. But with this deck at the table? You are gassing up the control player. So be sure to focus them with your damage and mill first.
Combo: For the same reasons as control; focus the combo player first. Be sure to save that counter spell for when they try to pop off!
Spirit of the Labyrinth & Narset, Parter of Veils: These Stax pieeces shut down the entire deck. If you know someone is running these in their deck then they should be your #1 priority at all times.
Tales of the Ancestors: This is a potential finisher for the deck when you have a high enough hand size. However, I chose to run another wheel over this card.
Drogskol Reaver/Lich's Mastery: My playgroup/meta doesn’t do 2 card infinite combos.
Please see the Upgrades & Budget Options section on how to go infinite with this. Also please read the second question of the FAQ for why the deck doesn't.
The Rack/Rackling: Because of us giving everyone cards, very very rarely will there be anyone with less than 4 cars in hand. These cards will be dead draws every time.
Sheoldred, the Apocalypse: Price is a big reason for sure. "But you are running the one ring, that card is also around $60" I was lucky enough to pull it from a pack. Also, it pulls the deck away from being hand-sized focused to being more card draw/wheel-focused.
Underworld Dreams: I chose to run the creature version of the card because I wanted blockers.
Body of Knowledge: This card used to be in the deck. It was cut because at 5 mana I always had something else that I would rather be casting. Also this deck rarely ever goes to the attack step so it was just sitting in my hand in most games.
Alhammarret's Archive & Faerie Mastermind: A very good cards that I really should be running. The only reason that I am not running it in here is I don't own one IRL.
Fellwar Stone: I personally do not like this card. The number of times that I've had it not make a color that is useful to me has left a bad impression. If I going to be running a rock that gives me a colorless mana and occasionally a color I need for two CMC I'd rather run one with better upside.
Notion Thief: I am looking to fill the hands of the others at the table. This actively stops that.
Rhystic Study: I really don't need the draw that this provides. If I am running more card draw in the deck, I want it to also put cards into other's hands as well.
Sanguine Bond: I honestly don't gain enough life for this to be effective.
Teferi's Ageless insight: I should be running this for the same reasons that I should be running Alhammarret's Archive, however If I am going to be adding one of the two to the deck I'll be adding the archive other this one.
Teferi's Puzzle Box: A really silly card that I think would help churn through decks. The only problem is that It doesn't increase the amount of cards in hands just changes them.
The Second Doctor: A new(er) card that I'd love to add to the deck If I ever get my hands on one.
If you need to power up the deck add the cards Laboratory Maniac and Drogskol Reaver. Combined with Queza, they go infinite and will win you the game.
Drogskol Reaver will go infinite on its own with Queza. Draw one card. Gain one life. Draw one card. Repeat. Funnily enough, this will kill you unless you have lab man out. Because it’s not a ‘may’ trigger. You must draw a card if you gain life.
Thassa's Oracle you can very easily draw out most of your deck, so add-in this card to give another alt win con,
Sheoldred, the Apocalypse: This is a must. It would turbo your damage output and make you nigh impossible to kill with damage.
Mind Over Matter: This is another way to combo off with Folio of Fancies. it works in the same way as Clock of Omens.
Tutors, of course, with the amount of draw that you have in the deck is safe to say that you will naturally come across your combo pieces. But you can guarantee those combos by just tutoring for the last piece when you need it.
If you play in a control-heavy meta then add more counter spells to the deck.
Rule of Law / Archon of Emeria / Eidolon of Rhetoric / Deafening Silence / Arcane Laboratory: These Stax Pieces will make it so your opponent can only cast 1 spell per turn. Stopping them from being able to play with all the cards that you are drawing them.
Unfortunately, outside of like 2 cards, this deck runs a lot of cards in the $10 range. So it will be a fairly pricy deck
And of course, any special variant (i.e. Secret Layers, full arts, foils) of cards that I run should be just replaced with the basic version of the card. That should drop it by a decent chunk.
Q: You have cards in the sideboard, but commander doesn't have a sideboard. So what are they doing here?
A: I put cards that I am currently playtesting in the deck into the sideboard.
Q: Why are there no infinite combos in the deck? // If you just add X card you can go infinite, why don't you?
A: My playgroup's meta has something of a soft ban on infinite combos. We are fine with a combo that can go near infinite, but not actually infinite.
For example Zimone, Quandrix Prodigy + Retreat to Coralhelm + Lotus Cobra + Simic Growth Chamber = Infinite landfall triggers. This is not cool within our meta.
However, the combo of Zimone, Quandrix Prodigy + Retreat to Coralhelm + Simic Growth Chamber = as many landfall triggers as I have mana. This is perfectly fine. According to our playgroup's founder, it's to make players think outside the box and be more creative with their combos.
Swapped out Thran Dynamo for Hedron archive
Swapped out Murder for Hero's Downfall
Swapped out Archmage Ascension for Iron Maiden
Swapped out Liliana's Caress for Approach of the Second Sun
Swapped out Sturmgeist, Telepathy, Body Of Knowledge for Counterspell, Iron Maiden, and Union of the Third Path
Swapped out Graceful Adept for The One Ring
Playtesting swapping out Nyx Lotus for Clock of Omens
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