Godo, Bandit Warlord Helm Combo

Commander Overview

Godo is here to cast Helm and beat our opponents out of the game! Godo is one of the longest CEDH decks to have been out there, and for good reason! Don’t let the mono-red fool you; this deck can hang with some of the best decks in the format. Being able to end the game with just our commander allows us to be fast and efficient and stay on the same track that many other decks in the format do. Godo can get going and win the game very quickly. This deck can have some tough matchups in the format, but has decent matchups against pretty much everything. There are very few auto-loss matchups for this deck. We are a speedy deck, and turn 1-3 wins are quite consistent. Godo is a true powerhouse, and I am very excited to showcase them today!

How to Play the Deck

The name of our game is speed. We go as fast as possible. Turns 1-3 are where we are almost always, with turn three typically a slow game. We are on a fast mana version of the deck that looks to speed out Godo as quickly as we can. We don’t care about stax or slowing the game down, since our commander essentially creates a one-card combo with Helm of the Host. We want to be as quick as possible.
If the Helm combo gets stopped through something like Praetor’s Grasp, there is still hope for us. We do have a litany of combos with Dualcaster Mage that can easily end the game as well. For a backup plan, if we are in a situation where Godo gets hated/targeted out of the game, we can win with Combat Celebrant and Helm of the Host. Certainly not ideal, but a win is a win! If we don’t get our helm hated out of the game, we can attempt the combo multiple times in a game. Getting stopped does not mean we have to pivot immediately; it’s all about adapting to what is happening at the table.
Additionally, if we have infinite colorless mana through Rings of Brighthearth and Basalt Monolith, we can still totally win the game by using Diviner’s Wand to protect Godo and then draw our whole deck; at that point, we will have one of our combo pieces!
In a typical hand, we are looking for fast mana and a quick path to get our commander out as soon as possible. Having some cards like Tibalt’s Trickery can be helpful as well. We do typically aggressively mulligan for good stuff because a strong five or six is a lot better than a do-nothing seven.

Synergy’s in the deck

We don’t have synergies like a typical deck, but everything is built to combo off. Even if we draw Helm of the Host and can’t play off of Godo, Bandit Warlord, we can still tutor for Hammer of Nazahn and use that to auto-equip it. We are an artifact and fast mana deck in every way, which is that we have rocks like Mox Diamond, Mox Opal, and Mana Vault, and support cards like Metalworker. This deck is really built to combo off as quickly as we can. With all of our fast mana, it is quite easy for us to get and equip Helm and swing out infinitely.

Phases of the Game

Early-Game: Turns 1-3 is where we shine, we always start with trying to drop as much fast-mana as we can so we can prepare for a turn two godo, if we can land that the and keep our helm the game is pretty much ours, now of course this is easier said then done but we do have cards like Pyroblast and Red Elemental Blast to stop those pesky counterspells.

Mid-Game: Like the other phases of the game, we try to win during the mid-game. If able, we can try to tutor for one of our Dualcaster Mage combos, but usually during the mid-game, we are either looking for Godo/Helm or trying to stop our opponents from doing crazy stuff. Which is certainly easier said than done, because we are in mono-red, but we have more interaction than you might initially think.

Late-Game: We typically don’t get into what is normally considered the late-game but if we are playing against a commander like Ellivere of the Wild Court who is “staxing” like crazy the game can go longer, when it does we typically try to win through a Dualcaster Mage combo if the helm combo gets stopped, we really don’t like it if we get to the late-game but we can win.

Card Breakdowns

Ramp

We have an absolute ton of ramp in the deck, not really through our spells but through our mana rocks being able to drop cards like Grim Monolith, Mana Vault, Mox Diamond, Mox Opal since our deck wants to get out Godo as soon as possible having access to mana early and often is key to the deck. The deck plays a ton of artifacts that produce colorless, but when it’s time to cast Godo, we need red, so we have Mox Opal, Fire Diamond, and Lotus Petal as cheap and easy ways to get red.

Card Draw/Card Advantage

We don’t have a ton of card draw in the deck, mostly because we dont really care about card draw, we would much rather win the game through our combo, this is also why our opening hand is so important for us, having a strong opening hand so we don’t have to rely on the card draw we don’t relaly have.

Removal

We don’t have a lot of removal in the traditional sense, except Abrade, which we can use on a smaller creature, but for the most part, we use it against artifacts to stop our opponents from going off. Just like with our card draw, we don’t really care about removing opponents’ stuff since we are so focused on our own combo.

Protection

Protection is another thing that we don’t have a ton of, but that’s because we are really combo-focused; we don’t really care about protecting anything but our combo pieces. But we do have both Pyroblast and Red Elemental Blast, which are great ways to stop blue decks from messing with us.

Utility / Support

We have a ton of support pieces in the deck that allow us to execute our combo much easier, like Magnetic Theft, which can allow us to win the turn we get Helm/Godo out, and we don’t have to worry about having the mana to equip it. Final Fortune is another powerful card for the deck that allows us to get the extra turn we need to win. It’s also really easy to cast off cards like Rite of Flame. Final Fortune is extremely strong since we can cast it at instant speed and take our extra turn after an opponent’s, effectively skipping other players’ turns, perfect if we are very close to a win. Im also a big fan of stopping our opponents from even interacting with us with cards like Defense Grid which doesnt fully stop them but it makes it quite tough, i also really like Cursed Totem and Conqueror’s Flail which can really shut down opponents and stop them from preogressing their gameplan or messing with us which is really nice. Blood Moon is another that excels in the deck. CEDH is filled to the brim with non-basic lands, and since we are mono-red, we really don’t care about losing our non-basic lands. In my testing games, this card was devastating, especially since we can get it out as early as turn one.

Mana Base

Godo is definitely a style I’m not used to in CEDH. It feels weird running so many basics, but it does make total sense since we are in mono-red. But don’t worry, we have many strong lands that can help us ramp out our game plan and get to the combo as quickly as we can! Lands like City of Traitors, Ancient Tomb, and Mishra’s Workshop allow us to speed out our artifacts at a breakneck pace and really set the pace and tone for the game. We have some powerful utility lands too, like Cavern of Souls, which allows us to cast Godo without fear of them getting countered, which is extremely strong. I also really like Boseiju, Who Shelters All because it lets us cast an instant or sorcery without fear of being countered. Having one or both of these allows us to play very fast and loose and not have to worry about the combo being stopped. If the game goes long and Godo has been killed multiple times, it can be quite tough for us to cast him, which is why we have Command Beacon as an easy way to get him into our hand and avoid an expensive commander tax. Like most CEDH decks, our mana base is very low in terms of land count, but we make up for it through all of our artifact ramp.

Strengths of the Deck

We can do our combos multiple times in a game.

We are a speedy deck and can attempt the combo as early as turn two, which allows us to compete with some of the fastest decks in the format.

Weaknesses of the Deck

We can struggle against decks running Praetor’s Grasp since they almost always take our helm. We do have backups, but they do take our primary game plan out.

We need to mulligan very aggressively to get a good hand. If we have to mull low, it can be a tough game for us; we don’t have the same options as decks that are running multiple colors do.

Combos explained

Conclusion

Thanks so much for reading to the end! I hope you all see how strong and versatile this commander is in the CEDH format. Even though it’s only mono-red, it has much more going on than you might think. Now go out there and ruin some CEDH tables with some Godo!