Oona Infinity (EDH / Commander)

Oona Infinity - tier 1 / 1.5

Based very loosely on a Doomsday Oona cEDH that I found somewhere on the internet circa 2018. This deck has been modified and morphed into the form I present today.

How to Play:

Start with 2-3 lands, preferably one basic island and two fetches, but utilities will be ok. Don't take a hand without at least 1 basic of any kind (preferring Islands over the one Swamp ). Also, try to get at least 1 tutor, 1 of the infinite combo pieces, and a cantrip and/or counterspell. These aren't hard rules, but you'll hate your cEDH life if you don't stick to them.

Play fetches and crack them almost immediately. It's ok to wait until the end of the player's turn before your next turn, but generally, the faster you can crack them the better, which seems to be an antipattern to cEDH play, but after extensive play-testing, this appears to be the better bet.

Don't play any mana rocks immediately turn 1. This targets you with massive hate from the table. Wait until at least 1 other player has a mana rock out, preferably two. If by turn 3 there are no rocks out, then cast one, but beware the hate it generates. Don't play the Mana Crypt until you are ready to win.

By turn 4, try to have lands that produce at least 3x(U), a mana rock that can produce (2) or more, another immediately-usable land to drop for turn 5, and a free counterspell to back up casting the final piece of the combo you're building. You don't want to overextend yourself by tapping out your mana, but try to coax out other peoples' counters and artifact/enchantment destruction by casting a Rhystic Study , Consecrated Sphinx , or Notion Thief on this turn.

Turn 5, if you aren't winning on your turn this round, then switch to defensive play and make as few plays as possible. Let people blow up your board, but don't let more than 1 land get nuked. You need to let the other players hate on each other as much as possible while you turtle and defend. Let damage through unless it causes you to discard useful cards or allow players to steal cards from your deck.

Ways to win:

Primary method: 3x(U/B) + infinite (C) + Oona = infinite mill of opponents.

Secondary method: Infinite (C) + Oona = infinite mill of opponents.

Tertiary method: 2x(B) + infinite (C) + Exsanguinate = dead opponents.

Quaternary method: whittle opponents' decks down with Oona and swing out with a horde of faeries.

Notes:

Basalt Monolith almost never sticks around when opponents first notice it. Tutor visibly for it (using something like Tezzeret the Seeker , Trophy Mage , Fabricate , or Whir of Invention ) and gauge the response from players. If they nuke it immediately after it hits the battlefield or shortly thereafter, then you should try to sneak out one of the Palinchron combos or the Grim Monolith + Power Artifact combo immediately in response to Basalt Monolith going away.

Caged Sun almost never gets hated on, so try to get it out and name Blue.

Memory Jar is a fantastic way to protect a combo. Make sure to get it out the turn before trying to win. You can also use it to prevent another player from winning if they are required to have something in hand first - such as using it in response to an Isochron Scepter 's Imprint trigger going on the stack. Additionally, it can cause a huge Tatyova draw glut to fail or protect your win condition from a Windfall or other wheel effect.

Counterbalance and As Foretold are good things to have on the battlefield so as to sneak hate away from other more useful things like Dark Confidant , Search for Azcanta , and Propaganda , though most times they stick around until the third or forth successful use.

Use Vampiric Tutor and Demonic Tutor to get a secondary combo set up in your hand while you have the first combo out or mostly out already. If things are going awry, then search for Toxic Deluge , Capsize , The Elderspell , All Is Dust , Cyclonic Rift , Yawgmoth's Will , or in the worst case scenario: Time Spiral .

Infinite Mana combos:

Preferred: Deadeye Navigator + Palinchron

Secondary preferred: Caged Sun + Palinchron or High Tide + Palinchron

Alternates: Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth , Basalt Monolith + Power Artifact , and Grim Monolith + Power Artifact

On using Rings of Brighthearth to win: You need to have enough mana to initiate an untap of the Basalt Monolith (3) and pay for the trigger from the Rings (2). This means you cannot create infinite just by having an untapped Basalt Monolith and Rings together on the field. You need two more mana to start it off. Keep this in mind when you consider how much mana you need to get Oona out 3x(U/B) and pay the colored mana requirement (U/B) in her ability... especially if you need to get 3 opponents milled out in the same turn. This means you need at least 6x(U/B) and (2) more free, not to mention any additional (U/B) needed to protect Oona or the mana generators.