Zedruu the Greathearted: All Fun and Games (EDH / Commander)

"If you know exactly what you're going to do, what's the good in doing it?"
—Pablo Picasso

=== I N T R O D U C T I O N ===

I have been playing Commander on a fairly regular basis over the course of a few years now, and among the things I learned during that time is that control decks can be a problem in a casual format like this. Naturally, the strategy of a control deck is a) to minimize disruption of my own shenanigans and b) maximize disruption of my opponents' shenanigans; but in EDH, locking everybody else in your playgroup down ("Nobody is playing Magic but me!") takes the fun out of the game. People want to play with their cards, see them in action and enjoy it if their game plan works out. On the other hand, there are players who enjoy control strategies and want to play that deck archetype. How to solve this dilemma?

Enter Zedruu the Greathearted.

After reworking it completely, her deck is now a "chaotic control deck". It mainly consists of spells which create a lot of interaction at the table by asking opponents to make decisions. And of course, Zedruu brings a decent group hug package with her to speed the game up and make it fun for everyone!

=== S T R A T E G Y ===

I browsed a lot of forums and blogs before assembling my deck, and noticed that chaos has a bad reputation among Commander players. While looking at other players' lists online I understood why - a lot of people play chaos like stax. Some clearly Izzet-aligned madmen find it amusing to play Hive Mind and subsequently Grip of Chaos, followed by Lightning Bolt and Reverberate. While this may sound epic, it will make many players concede out of frustration, because putting all of these effects on the stack and resolving them will take a tremendous amount of time, slowing the game down to a crawl.

The only bad EDH decks are those that won't allow others to play EDH, so I'm avoiding the "bad" chaos cards and only use "good" chaos cards.

What are good chaos cards?

Good - or fun - chaos cards are those that create interaction between players and mess with the board state or the game by only a little, without slowing the pace down too much. That said, Thieves' Auction is a bad - or unfun - card, while Whims of the Fates is excellent. The latter doesn't mess with everyone's cards and doesn't take 10 minutes to resolve. For pretty much the same reason Grip of Chaos pales in comparison to Psychic Battle. While Grip of Chaos completely randomizes the target(s) of each spell and ability, Psychic Battle randomizes the player who gets to choose the target(s). Not only is this effect faster to resolve, but is also a thrilling "minigame" in itself (basically all players clash with each other) that leaves its winner with a choice. My last example of a fun chaos card is Bludgeon Brawl. All players are faced with a whole new tactical situation when this enchantment enters the battlefield; it warpes the game in an entertaining way, without breaking it in half.

Control strategies are perceived as less oppressive by players if they are left with something. Proteus Staff provides a powerful removal effect, but will give the victim a new toy in return; and it can be used politically, e.g. by "upgrading" someone's Plant Token with it. Noggle Ransacker is hand disruption, but since everybody gets to draw two cards, most players won't complain. Capricious Efreet is enchantment removal in red (!); but it will hit one out of three permanents at random, so no one will get the impression that I'm picking on them.

If I intend to evoke that impression I use Curse of Verbosity, Fractured Identity or Death by Dragons. They're political instruments, meant to punish the player who's ahead and to help the players who are behind. Diaochan, Artful Beauty, Hunted Dragon and Dawnbreak Reclaimer also fall into this category.

You may ask yourself now, "but what is this deck's win condition?" The answer is: Drawing cards.

My ideal opening hand consists of three different lands, a mana rock and something to give away with Zedruu: Pyxis of Pandemonium, Howling Mine, Sphere of the Suns, Oath of Lieges, Unifying Theory, Crown of Doom, the aforementioned Bludgeon Brawl, Teferi's Puzzle Box, Territorial Hellkite, Ruhan of the Fomori, Psychic Battle and Possibility Storm are perfect gifts. Rainbow Vale, Gilded Drake, Humble Defector, Loxodon Peacekeeper, Act of Authority and Akroan Horse hand themselves over to an opponent and thus are also appropriate to get early card advantage.
Drawing two or more extra cards per turn allows me to keep the board state in check with my control spells while generating additional value with Hoofprints of the Stag, Chasm Skulker, Psychosis Crawler, The Locust God and Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind. This process is tremendously sped up by spells like Whirlpool Warrior, the aforementioned Teferi's Puzzle Box, Alhammarret's Archive and Time Reversal, which will also help me dig for my threats or for much needed answers.
The deck can also win by old-fashioned beatdown. It contains some heavy, evasive hitters; and just in case those won't cut it, I have means to get nice things from my opponents which may.

The list is completed by utility spells like Gamble, Lightning Greaves and Wild Research, and some cards that are only in there for hilarity: No one wants to block Volatile Rig, and Braids, Conjurer Adept, Boldwyr Heavyweights and Coveted Jewel bring a ton of action to the table.

=== C O N C L U S I O N ===

I already had multiple opportunities for extensive playtesting, and I can say that of all my Zedruu brews, this one is the most fun so far. I'd like to hear your thoughts on it, so please leave a comment if you care. Thanks!