vraGGs

Sedris, EDH primer

April, 2016 - Version 6.5

Introduction
For quite a while, I wanted to write a primer for my Sedris deck that Ive been running for
about last 5 years. While the deck changed and evolved a lot throughout the versions, Ive
learned a lot about the grixis base and its matchups, as well as this particular general in
general. No pun intended.

If you have any questions or comments, use the comment feature here, on google docs
and Ill make my best efforts to answer. I also suggest switching to Viewing mode in the
top right corner.

Pros and cons

While this particular list is fairly versatile, it still retains
Pros

Cons
Combos
Grave interaction
Control

No solid enchantment removal

Medium/weak board state
Susceptible to grave hate and
heavy instant creature removal
Little to no land ramp

Index
Introduction

Pros and cons

Index

The list
By card type
Statistics
By functionality
Card by card mechanics
Draw/advantage
Tutors
Reanimation
Targeted Removal
Ramp
Counterspells
Grave hate
Artifact/Enchantment hate
AoE removal
Misc
Core creatures package
Noteworthy lands
Maybeboard
Deck versions
Version analysis
Playing the deck
Game plan
Opening hand and early game
Card synergies
Engines

4
4
5
7
8
8
11
13
14
15
17
18
18
19
20
21
22
24
24
25
26
26
27
28
28

The meta
30 Starting life
Matchups
Sliver Queen: 5color Boonweaver combo
Riku of Two Reflections: Kiki-Mite
Thraximundar: Artifact combo deck
Karador: Boonweaver and hatebears
Prossh: Beater
Edric: Extra turns
Azami: Extra turns
Karona, False God: 5c elves
Finishing the game
How to choose the right finisher
Infinite combo list
Closing words
FAQ
Version history

29
29
30
30
30
31
31
31
32
32
32
33
33
33
34
35
36

The list
The primer is written for version 6.4, which runs the cards below. If you are more of a
visual type, or if you want to sort in another way etc., you can see the deck on deckbox
following this link.

By card type
Land (32)
Badlands
Blood Crypt
Bloodstained Mire
City of Brass
Command Tower
Desolate Lighthouse
Dimir Aqueduct
Dragonskull Summit
Drownyard Temple
Exotic Orchard
Flooded Strand
Forbidden Orchard
Island
Izzet Boilerworks
Minamo, School at Water's Edge
Mountain
Phyrexian Tower
Polluted Delta
Reflecting Pool
Scalding Tarn
Steam Vents
Sulfur Falls
Swamp
Thawing Glaciers
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Verdant Catacombs
Volcanic Island
Watery Grave
Planeswalker (3)
Dack Fayden
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Tezzeret the Seeker
Enchantment (2)
Animate Dead
Necromancy

Instant (24)
Brainstorm
Chain of Vapor
Entomb
Mystical Tutor
Pongify
Pyroblast
Red Elemental Blast
Spell Pierce
Stifle
Swan Song
Vampiric Tutor
Arcane Denial
Cyclonic Rift
Muddle the Mixture
Rakdos Charm
Shred Memory
Corpse Dance
Frantic Search
Intuition
Thirst for Knowledge
Fact or Fiction
Force of Will
Murderous Cut
Dig Through Time
Artifact (11)
Mana Crypt
Mox Diamond
Sensei's Divining Top
Skullclamp
Sol Ring
Grim Monolith
Mesmeric Orb
Basalt Monolith
Crucible of Worlds
Rings of Brighthearth
Thran Dynamo

Sorcery (13)
Faithless Looting
Reanimate
Rolling Earthquake
Vandalblast
Demonic Tutor
Exsanguinate
Pyroclasm
Buried Alive
Toxic Deluge
Victimize
Wheel of Fortune
Deep Analysis
Treasure Cruise
Creature (15)
Gilded Drake
Phantasmal Image
Snapcaster Mage
Deceiver Exarch
Squee, Goblin Nabob
Trinket Mage
Notion Thief
Phyrexian Metamorph
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
Peregrine Drake
Zealous Conscripts
Deadeye Navigator
Great Whale
Palinchron

Statistics
Looking at the deck curve online is a bit off, since many spells can be casted for free and
have delve. Here is the adjusted breakdown:

Basically, spells like Palinchron, Force of Will and Frantic Search have been adjusted to
cost 0 - since they essentially do after you untap lands. Sedris is included in the 6 CMC
category. Spells that with X in their cost have been removed from the count. Average CMC
in that case is 2.17, which illustrates why I dont run as much ramp - partly to also avoid losing it.
Looking at the color distribution, it reveals that the deck is predominantly blue - which fits
its playstyle.

Since the deck is predominantly blue, and we already know that we sort of a control deck,
you can see that a huge portion of spells can be played at instant speed.

Take into the account that it also includes all the ramp, creatures and other utility spells
which are usually sorcery speed.

By functionality
Draw/advantage (17)
Brainstorm
Sensei's Divining Top
Skullclamp
Faithless Looting
Squee, Goblin Nabob
Frantic Search
Thirst for Knowledge
Wheel of Fortune
Crucible of Worlds
Rings of Brighthearth*
Dack Fayden*
Notion Thief
Fact or Fiction
Deep Analysis
Jace, the Mind Sculptor*
Dig Through Time
Treasure Cruise
Tutors (10)
Entomb
Mystical Tutor
Vampiric Tutor
Demonic Tutor
Trinket Mage
Buried Alive
Muddle the Mixture*
Shred Memory*
Intuition
Tezzeret the Seeker*

Reanimation (5)
Reanimate
Animate Dead
Necromancy
Victimize
Corpse Dance
Targeted removal (6)
Chain of Vapor*
Pongify
Pyroblast*
Red Elemental Blast*
Murderous Cut
Gilded Drake
Cyclonic Rift*
Jace, the Mind Sculptor*
Ramp (10)
Mana Crypt
Mox Diamond
Sol Ring
Grim Monolith
Basalt Monolith
Thran Dynamo
Tezzeret the Seeker*
Thawing Glaciers*
Drownyard Temple*
Rings of Brighthearth*
Counterspells (8)
Pyroblast
Red Elemental Blast
Spell Pierce
Stifle
Swan Song
Arcane Denial
Muddle the Mixture*
Force of Will

Grave hate (2)

Rakdos Charm*
Shred Memory*
Disenchantment (5)
Chain of Vapor*
Cyclonic Rift*
Dack Fayden*
Vandalblast*
Rakdos Charm*
AoE removal (4)
Cyclonic Rift*
Rolling Earthquake
Pyroclasm
Toxic Deluge
Misc (4)
Phantasmal Image
Snapcaster Mage
Mesmeric Orb
Phyrexian Metamorph
Exsanguinate
Rakdos Charm
Creatures core (9)
Deceiver Exarch
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
Peregrine Drake
Zealous Conscripts
Deadeye Navigator
Great Whale
Palinchron

Card by card mechanics

Draw/advantage

Brainstorm - Just a very solid 1 CMC draw, that works exceptionally well

with shuffle effects. Sure, this deck could use more fetch lands, but I dont
have them at the moment. Most often, you tuck excess lands or combo
pieces since you usually dont want them in hand.

Sensei's Divining Top - Similar as top, with the added advantage of being

used in a combo. If you have Basalt Monolith and Rings of Brighthearth, you
can draw entire deck. Also fetchable through Trinket Mage and Tezzeret.

Skullclamp - Just another very good card. Even if it draws 2 cards, it already
pays off. This deck does not utilize it as well as some other, but it needs

draw. You can fetch it the same way, and it works exceptionally well with
Squee.

Faithless Looting - Goes 2 deep, can get your combo pieces into graveyard,
even has flashback and it only costs 1 mana. Again, it generates card
advantage with Squee.

Squee, Goblin Nabob - This card is used for card advantage. It will often fall
into the graveyard on its own, and it can provide a chump blocker to guard

your planeswalkers since our board position isnt the strongest. Works well
with Skullclamp, Dack fayden, Faithless Looting, Frantic Search, Desolate
Lighthouse.

Frantic Search - Its a free cantrip on instant speed. It works well with Karu
lands and Thawing Glaciers (provides ramp).

Thirst for Knowledge - A solid, instant speed draw.

Wheel of Fortune - Initially, this deck was much more combo oriented and it
ran more wheel effects. People started abusing them, so I cut down to only
one in case I am really out of fuel. Its fine to also ramp in early stages and
then wheel it. It also works great with Notion Thief.

Crucible of Worlds - just a simple card advantage card. We will often

discard lands with looting effects and its just really nice to be able to play
them through that. For each land you play from graveyard, you have another
card in hand.

Rings of Brighthearth - This card doesnt look as amazing at first glance,

but it offers a lot to this deck. There are very few ways to ramp into lands in
grixis colors and rings offer that - by duplicating fetch effect. We also run 3
planeswalkers, so doubling those effects isnt bad either. Last but not least,
it also offers for infinite colorless mana with Basalt Monolith and if you add
Top to the mix, you can draw the whole deck.

Dack Fayden - This guy offers periodic looting every turn. It can provide card
advantage through Squee and Crucible of Worlds, but going 2 deep every

turn is nothing to shrug at on its own. His second ability is not bad either can offer artifact removal, or advantage, however you look at it. At the end
of the day, he can also soak some damage, which isnt too bad either
(assuming well be mostly looting with him).

Notion Thief - One of the better cards to hold enemies in check, but can

result in a game wining interaction whenever anyone pops wheel effect.

Instead of a windfall, I rather run him and ad the very least, hell usually draw
me 2-3 cards. Playing it when enemy has 2 cards in hand and plays
Faithless looting OUCH!

Fact or Fiction - Another one of the better draws which you can pop at the
end of the turn. The drawback of it putting the rest of the cards into the
grave isnt even a drawback here.

Deep Analysis - Just a very decent draw spell, since we can cast it from the
grave to generate some advantage. Often times, I grab it with Intuition or
Entomb as a bonus if I dont want to make big plays.

Dig Through Time - Instant speed, cheap because of full graveyard, goes
very deep.

Treasure Cruise - Ancestral recall, anyone?

Tutors

Entomb - Just a very cheap grave tutor. Often doesnt search for anything

major, but it CAN if needed for a combo piece. Common targets are Squee
and Deep Analysis.

Mystical, Demonic, Vampiric <Tutor> - I dont think I need to explain those. I

had my doubts about mystical, but searching for a reset when needed is just
too useful.

Trinket Mage - Can search for many things and offers some board presence
for chump blocking. I might include some grave hate into this search engine
just to keep some matchups in place - most decks on my meta have some
sort of grave interaction.

Buried Alive - Read entomb. Is a bit worse, but covers more when you want
to go off.

Muddle the Mixture and Shred Memory - Both cards are fairly solid on their
own, but can also search for most core concepts in my deck. See 2 CMC
category. It can search for solution to almost everything.

Intuition - I am having a bit of a hard time with this one, since enemy has the
last word, but its just a really great situational card. I do not really have

pre-defined card trios, but I might make them. Often goes for Deep Analysis.

Tezzeret, the Seeker - Can search for various things. If nothing else, it can
provide decent ramp.

Reanimation

Reanimate - Just a very solid reanimation spell. Most often targets

something like a Palinchron to get that mana boost and finish the game.
Can target enemy players targets as well, to disrupt their game plan and get
a good board position.

Animate Dead - Another very solid reanimation, but this one can be

searched with Muddle/Shred Memory too. I used to run Kederekt Leviathan

with it, but I dropped it (for now). Earlier versions also ran Worldgorger, but I
found it too volatile.

Necromancy - Like instant speed Animate Dead. Often used to disrupt

enemy reanimation.

Victimize - This card can be 1 card win if you have Kiki-Jiki and Deceiver
Exarch/Zealous Conscripts in grave. Works well with Snapcaster Mage,
creature can also be provided through Squee.

Corpse Dance - With a sacrifice outlet like Phyrexian Tower, and

Palinchron/Great Whale/Peregrine Drake, this can go infinite mana.

Targeted Removal

Chain of Vapor - One of the few ways to deal with enchantments. 1

CMCisnt bad either

Pongify - Again, 1 CMC removal without restrictions. Does pop out a

monkey, but well We can deal with that, rather than a Jin-Gitaxias.

Pyroblast and Red Elemental Blast - Work as counterspells, can rid of blue
permanents, including enchantments. My meta is fairly blue and many
dangerous spells are also blue.

Murderous Cut - Non restricting creature removal. It has a medium sized

drawback, but I rather run this then Rapid Hybridization.

Gilded Drake - One of the few ways to deal with creatures that keep coming
back. Also can be searched with transmutes.

Cyclonic Rift - Not only does it target everything (sometimes I wish I could
also target my own stuff though), but it can also mass reset. Searchable
through transmute this card is just too good to not include.

Jace, the Mind Sculptor - Generally gives card advantage, but people often
forget about bounce, which often isnt bad.

Ramp

Mana Crypt and Sol Ring - EDH staples.

Mox Diamond - Also a staple, but we take it further with Drownyard Temple
and Crucible of Worlds.

Grim Monolith - Gives a moderate resource burst, and since we are often
untapped for answers, we can untap it EoT if nothing happens.

Basalt Monolith - Decent card on its own, but also mills entire deck with

Mesmeric Orb, or gives infinite mana with Rings of Brighthearth. Also not
bad with Tezzeret.

Thran Dynamo - Just some ramp. Debatable if it should be Gilded Lotus, but
this one is a bit cheaper.

Tezzeret the Seeker - Provides other things too, but with aforementioned
cards it also ramps.

Thawing Glaciers* - Ramps with Rings of Brighthearth and Karu lands.

Drownyard Temple* - Can be replayed from graveyard at instant speed.

Rings of Brighthearth* - Doubles fetching effects or Tezzeret untap.

Counterspells

Pyroblast and Red Elemental Blast - 1 CMC counterspells, the sweet stuff.
Also counters for opponents counters on combo turn.

Spell Pierce - Hits most relevant things, 1 CMC, usually good enough to
prevent devastating plays, as well as decent card for opening hand
(countering various Sol Rings etc.).

Stifle - Can stifle grave hate effects, or EoT reanimation triggers, Thawing
Glaciers EoT trigger, prevent combos just a very useful card in general.

Swan Song - 1 CMC unconditional counterspell, that also targets

enchantments.

Arcane Denial - 2 CMC unconditional with a draw added.

Muddle the Mixture - Can work as counterspell, but more often used for
transmute.

Force of Will - A staple, with amount of blue we run, we can afford it.

Grave hate

Rakdos Charm - Instant speed, has other usages as well, searchable

through transmute, can also stop kiki-mite combo. An exceptionally
versatile card.

Shred Memory - Usually used for transmute, but instant speed grave hate
isnt bad either.

Artifact/Enchantment hate

Chain of Vapor - One of few cards that can deal with enchantments.

Cyclonic Rift - Already discussed.

Dack Fayden - Can take an artifact on demand.

Vandalblast - 1 CMC or mass removal.

Rakdos Charm - Instant speed, other usages.

AoE removal

Cyclonic Rift - Already discussed.

Rolling Earthquake - Scalable, also hits planeswalkers.

Pyroclasm - Meta choice against popular green mana dork decks.

Toxic Deluge - A scalable AoE removal that goes even through the most
resilient creatures for only 3 CMC. Life cost is usually worth it.

Misc

Phantasmal Image - 2 CMC clone - searchable through transmute. It can

also be used as a ramp if you copy land untapping creatures.

Snapcaster Mage - The deck runs a lot of instants and sorceries, as well as
grave fill, so there is usually something to use.

Mesmeric Orb - Probably the most volatile card in deck. Fills grave in no
time. Also works exceptionally well with land untapping creatures .

Phyrexian Metamorph - Similar to phantasmal image, only it can also be

searched through Tezzeret and can copy ramp.

Exsanguinate - Finisher after infinite mana, searchable with transmute.

Rakdos Charm - I will mention it here next to exsanguinate, because it can

also be win con, if you have Forbidden Orchard, which will give your enemies
infinite amount of tokens.

Core creatures package

Deceiver Exarch - Combo with Kiki-Jiki. In my opinion, better then

pestermite, because he has 4 toughness, which means he can block better

too.

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker - Combo with Deceiver Exarch/Deadeye

Navigator/Zealous Conscripts/Minamo, School at Waters edge.

Peregrine Drake, Great Whale, Palinchron - Core untap package, that is

abused with pretty much everything, including general.

Zealous Conscripts - Similar to Deceiver Exarch, but can often be used to

steal any permanent from enemy as well. Very often sorts out creature
issues, and can kill players well too.

Deadeye Navigator - A very comblicious creature - mana untap creatures,

Kiki...

Noteworthy lands

Desolate Lighthouse - It is a colorless land, but you can use it to dig. If you

have infinite mana/untap, you can also cycle through the deck, so it kind of
works like a semi wincon.

Drownyard Temple - Simple ramp land, which you can recall from grave on
EoT trigger.

Dimir Aqueduct and Izzet Boilerworks - Those two lands technically give

card advantage at the cost of coming into play tapped. With untap, though,
they provide ramp, and they can be used to recall Thawing Glaciers to hand
before EoT trigger, which is essentially ramp as well.

Forbidden Orchard - If you can tap this unlimited times, you can give your
enemies enough tokens to kill them with Rakdos Charm.

Minamo, School at Water's Edge - With Kiki and an untap creature, this
generates infinite mana and infinite creatures.

Phyrexian Tower - Infinite mana with Corpse Dance and untap creature.

Thawing Glaciers - Ensures you have land progression and can be used for
ramping in conjunction with karu lands, untap effects and Rings of
Brighthearth by copying the effect.

Maybeboard

This deck has gone through several iterations and subthemes. It is hard to say which one
is better, but feel free to go through earlier iterations. Vaguely, the first few versions were
more manual creature damage based around general. That was followed by heavy
wheeling and ritual version. Then came the version with more control, counter magic etc.
After that, I started experimenting with wizard and artifact subtheme.

Deck versions1
1.0
2.0
2.1
2.3
2.4
2.5
2.6
2.7
2.8
2.9 - French version
3.0
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4 - EDH League Kr. 2013 tournament version

BONUS: Budget version dirt cheap

3.5
4.0
5.0
6.0
6.1
6.2
6.3
6.4 - Primer version
6.5
6.6 - EDH League Kr. 2016 tournament version
6.7
6.7 - Cockatrice blind meta version
6.8
6.9
7.0 - Current version

Version analysis

Some versions introduced new cards, only to drop them in the next version. Some versions
were only minor tweaks. To compare versions easier, here is a similarity graph from
version to version and comparison with the latest version (the one featured in this primer).

Since google docs dont seem to be able to import image without losing quality, you can
see the graph in a normal way on this link.

Playing the deck

Game plan
Lets get first thing out of the way: At first, it may seem like this is straight up linear combo
deck. It is not. There are better and faster alternatives if you want to do that, including
some earlier versions of the deck.

In my opinion, being straight up combo will win you less games than a combo-control
deck. If you play straight up fastest possible combo deck, people will learn the works of
your deck and the easiest thing for them to do is to just not tap out and throw a
counterspell or two your way on your combo turn (3 or 4 if we are going fast combo
mode). In my opinion, this is one of the worst ways to go about it, since it will also leave
you without further game plan and an empty hand.
With this in mind, the deck runs enough answers to interact with the table, as well as a
bunch of advantage engines, while still having plenty of combos to finish the game when
the time is right.
Understanding that you are not playing a 1v1 game is in my opinion a very crucial key to
playing multiplayer commander. You dont need to have an answer to everything, and you
are not only playing against one opponent. Each opponent can also be your ally, if you can
enforce the right board situation. Knowing this will bring you more victories than the
fastest combo deck in universe.

Opening hand and early game

Our opening hand should support as many of the following points:

It should support a land drop every turn until turn 7 - this is the critical mass for
untaping with Great Whale/Palinchron and should produce at least 4 mana if
Unearthed with sedris.

It should preferably have some sort of acceleration or counter acceleration - you

dont want to stay behind your enemy. Naturally, green decks will try to ramp out
heavy and there isnt much you can do about it. You can Vandalblast their artifact
ramp and Pyroclasm their mana dorks (or similar), or you can try abusing one of
our ramp mechanics2 .

It should have some draw to refill hand and get the right cards in hand. You just
want to dig far enough to have right answers and land drops.

Should have at least 2 or 3 lands, depending on ramp and draw effects you have
with it.

Here are the percentages of lands in two opening hands of 7 (according to the current
mulligan rules).

At least n lands

Initial draw

After mull

94.16%

99.66%

72.71%

92.55%

40.53%

64.63%

14.99%

27.74%

3.42%

6.73%

0.43%

0.86%

0.02%

0.05%

Described here

Card synergies
Engines

Thawing Glaciers and

Izzet Boilerworks / Dimir Aqueduct - After using glaciers, they stay on the

field until EoT. You can return them earlier for karu and that will ramp you.

Deceiver Exarch / Palinchron / Peregrine Drake / Great Whale / Frantic

Search - Lets you use glaciers the second time, because the return to hand
trigger is at the end of turn. This essentially ramps you for 1.

Squee, Goblin Nabob and

Dack Fayden lets you get 1 card of advantage each turn by going 2 deep. Its
better than Phyrexian Arena and comparable to Jace, the Mind Sculptor.

Faithless Looting / Frantic Search same way as Dack, except not recurring
Skullclamp - Draw 2 per turn for 4 mana. Not too bad.

Good as a sacrifice outlet for Phyrexian Tower and Victimize

Rings of Brighthearth and

Fetch lands allow you to ramp for 1 for 2 mana. This is exceptionally good

for this deck, since we do not have the access to green and pretty much one
of the few ways to effectively ramp.

Senseis Divining Top lets you draw 1 for 3 mana. Its not too bad since
each of those cards are pretty good on their own.

Planeswalkers to get more value out of them. It doesnt additionally add

loyalty, but its still good.

Notion Thief and

Wheel of Fortune will discard your enemys hands and let you draw 7 times
the number of players at the table. Usually this means wining the game. It
can also work as a response to opponents wheel effects.

Dack Fayden instead of draw 2, discard two, it becomes draw 2, opponent

discards 2, which is an insane 4 cards of advantage per turn.

The meta
30 Starting life
The first important thing to note is that we play with 30 starting life total. At the first
glance, this does not seem like much, but it drastically changes how the game is played.
Lets look at an average scenario; 3 fetches, a shock land or two, perhaps a Vampiric
Tutor, a Force of Will, that already means 10 life. Thats of your total life pool - we can all
agree that at about 20 life, you start feeling the pressure when playing EDH.
It forces you to use your life as a resource. Cards like Sylvan Library, Ad Nauseam, Dark
Confidant, Necropotence retain their name of being strong, however, you have to use them
more conservatively.
Having 30 life enables alternative win (or lose) cons, namely dying to creature attacks. The
3/3 Ape that jumps out of Pongify and the damage from Ancient Tomb is no longer
negligible.

Matchups
Since we play on 30 life, our decks tend to have a bit stronger board position. Green is very
dominant color in the meta, and we even have two non-combo decks that usually win
through Overrun effects (Ezuri, Garuuk, Craterhoof Behemoth, Decimator of Provinces,
Karona). So lets get into it;

Sliver Queen: 5color Boonweaver combo

Ill start with Kahnos Sliver Queen build, since he also wrote an excellent primer on

the topic. Since he covered the deck in-depth and hes the creator, Ill just say a few words
from my perspective. The deck is well balanced in terms of responses, ramp, advantage
and combo pieces. The main issue with the matchup for me is that its faster because he
runs turn 1 mana dorks and all the same fast mana, as well as the fact he can take the

best cards from all colors, meaning his curve is as low or lower than mine. In the end, I feel
at comfort playing against this deck, as its not degenerate in any direction.

Riku of Two Reflections: Kiki-Mite

Satyras deck, similarly, focuses on manadorks and cheap ramp, but since its only

3-color deck, it can also utilize more linear color sources, notably Mana Vault, Orcish
Lumberjack (I think he runs it), Mana Drain, as well as other goodies, such as Exploration
and Carpet of Flowers. The decks goal is to get to Kiki-mite variant of combo through
excellent tutors green color provides. Most notable cards would be Birthing Pod, Imperial
Recruiter, Eldritch Evolution and Yisan. He uses untap effects to gain more mana or speed
up the chain, as well as protection, namely Quirion Ranger and Scryb Ranger,
Pestermite/Deceiver Exarch, with which he can untap Pod/Yisan to tutor faster. If above
doesnt work, his second resort is to go for Sneak attack and Blighsteel Colossus. As a
matchup, this deck feels similar to Kahnos 5c deck, except with less wincons, but greater
consistency.

Thraximundar: Artifact combo deck

Piloted by Noon2dusk (The Joker on MTGS), this deck is easily the fastest in terms

of resources. Here is the list. As if by some magic, he usually opens with 2+ rocks on

turn one, followed by a big refill spell. As opposed to other two competitors, he doesnt run
mana dorks, but he packs similar package as me in terms of dealing with them
(Pyroclasm, Rolling Earthquake), as he has virtually no board presence barring his general.
This deck also packs some stax elements, most notably Ensnaring Bridge, Magus of the
Moon, Blood Moon and Back to Basics, Ruination and Torpor Orb. From my perspective,
this deck is very unpredictable - either very explosive and hardly stoppable, but other
games, he just sits there with a lot of mana and no follow up except beating peoples faces
with general.

Karador: Boonweaver and hatebears

Also piloted by Noon2dusk. Unfortunately, I have not had the chance to play

against it as Ive changed my deck at the same time as he switched to this one. Never the
less, here is the list. I think my Sedris would have huge problems against it, simply due to
amount of resilience and hatebears, preventing me to go off.

Prossh: Beater
This deck usually starts the game with prossh on t2/3 and then proceeds to abuse

the dorks as a resource. Heavily relies on mana dorks, as well, so spells like Pyroclasm are
a very good response to this deck. His most notable cards would be Null Rod, Priest of
Titania, Craterhoof Behemoth and Xenagos, the Reveler which seems to be glued to his
hand, being drawn almost every game (a running joke). The general idea playing against
this deck is comboing before he can beat your face.

Edric: Extra turns

I hope this doesnt require an explanation.

Azami: Extra turns

Piloted by the same player, this is a mana rock fueled early azami drops, who goes

into extra turns. Very proactive, almost no interaction. Killing azami on the spot helps, but
he usually has enough mana to recast it the turn after. The matchup is similar to edric,
except that you cant block to prevent draws and you arent receiving damage from
attacks.

Karona, False God: 5c elves

The dynamic is very similar to Prossh, but even more elf centred. Drops many elves,

has a few infinite engines (untaping Priest of Titania), but usually wins through Overrun
effects on Karona or Behemoth.

Other decks that I may or may not match against include:

Jori En control

Ghave hatebears

Brago Stax

Horde of Notions 5c combo

control Zur

5c Child of Alara ETB shenanigans

Titania, Protector of Argoth

Prime Speaker Zegana ramp+draw

Daretti, Scrap Servant

Tasigur control

Shu Yun kiki-mite/control

Two different but similar Meren decks

Purphoros burn

Karlov of the Ghost Council voltron

All that I might have forgotten, please excuse me. I might expand this section later, but I
think the primer is already long enough as it is, so I just mentioned my most common
matchups.

Finishing the game

How to choose the right finisher
This is what most people seem to struggle with - trying to find the one preferred
combo, while another path is more accessible. This deck packs many wincons, so the key
is to chose the one that youll most likely assemble. Often times, you prepare two for the
same turn, so that first one eats removal, and second one wins you the game. So to chose
the right one, its good to know them.
Infinite combo list

Kiki Jiki + Deceiver Exarch/Zealous Conscripts - Probably the most

standard, well known combo for red and blue color combination. This
generates infinite amount of copies of Exarch or Conscripts.

Kiki Jiki + Peregrine Drake/Palinchron/Great Whale3 + Minamo, School at

Waters Edge - This is the variation of above combo, but this time, we are
using a land to fuel it. Its a bit more concealed and easier to do from

graveyard with Sedris; first reanimating one of the trio, giving you extra
mana so that you can Unearth Kiki-Jiki. This not only generates infinite
amount of tokens, but also infinite amount of mana..

Deadeye Navigator + The Trio - Generates infinite amount of mana. That

also means you can get all the creatures from graveyard after casting

sedris. You can also use his ability to bypass the Unearth drawback, so that
can also be infinite Snapcaster Mage triggers (meaning you can cast all
instants and sorceries from your graveyard). This is not a straight up win,
but its pretty close. Using Zealous Conscripts can also mean you steal all
enemy permanents in their upkeeps.

Basalt Monolith + Mesmeric Orb - You can put your entire library in
graveyard. Technically, it is an infinite combo.

Further referred to as the trio

Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth - Generates infinite amount of

colorless mana. From there, you can finish with Exsanguinate. If you have
Senseis Divining Top, that also mean you can draw your entire library.

Rakdos Charm + Forbidden Orchard - If you can produce an infinite amount

of mana through lands untaping, and one of them is Forbidden Orchard, you
can cast Rakdos Charm afterwards to kill all of your enemies.

Corpse Dance + Phyrexian Tower + The Trio - Means you can generate
infinite mana. You use Corpse Dance with Buyback to reanimate any of

these creatures which will give you a minimum of 6 mana with Phyrexian
Tower sacrifice outlet, which also gives your creature back into the
graveyard.

This is it, unless I forgot something. As you can see, there are plenty of options to chose
from, so you have to play wisely to choose the right one. Also make sure to keep tabs on
whats exiled and whats not. We run a bit of redundancy, but its still advisable to keep
tabs on your exile.

Closing words
Id like to thank everyone from my playgroup for helping me tune and test my deck, as well
as providing a fairly healthy and stable meta. Id also like to thank cEDH subreddit for
ideas and feedback

FAQ

What are your thoughts on running world gorger dragon as a combo finisher?

Worldgorger is a double edged sword, as you are probably already aware of. Yes, it is fast,
and fairly easy to assemble, but it can backfire really hard. And if you think about it, it's not
even that easy to assemble. Let's say we do it turn 2. It's likely we won't have enough other
resources, be it in grave, or simply enough draw to get to our finisher. Besides, thats a
perfect turn to run into hands full of removal, which would more often than not lose you
the game, or put you on a significantly worse start.
Pros:

Fast

Cons:

You can lose everything

Your opponents can use it too (P2 does [[Windfall]] and proceeds to tap out, P3
casts [[Necromancy]] and either you have mana and answer, or you could very
easily lose to your own threat)

Fairly dead card outside the combo

I found it to just not be worth the risks. If I wanted to win faster, I'd probably opt for a
different type of deck.

Version history
1.

Initial version

vraGG_

1.1.

Replaced a plot chart with bar chart

1.2.

A bunch of cosmetic changes

October 2016