“Drink deep of what magic remains”
Big thank you to RylandL who wrote out these lines and helped a ton when building this deck their primer is awesome! I fell in love with Ryland’s list and made tweaks to my playstyle / meta! Thanks again to Ryland, check them out they make sweet CEDH decks! (link to their list: Moxfield Tayam) Also check out the Tayam Discord!
Art:Tayam, Luminous Enigma
by Sam Burley
Table of Contents
Todays Featured Commander Is:
Tayam is a really sweet commander who is an infinite combo machine! While we don’t typically use his second ability we can get him out pretty early and use our infinite mana combos to cycle through our entire deck! Now I know what you are thinking, we aren’t playing blue, can we really go off on turn 2 to 3 and we absolutely can. Since we aren’t playing blue we need to stop our opponents by using our stax effects and we can play through our own stax with our creature combo! Without further adieu lets get it!
The Deck:
Tayam, Luminous Enigma Stax Creature Combo!
Buy This Deck!
Tcgplayer link to buy this deck: Tayam, Luminous Enigma Stax Creature Combo Brewed CEDH
Why Tayam, Luminous Enigma?
The main reason that we chose Tayam is how easy it is to cycle through our deck and we can easily use mana rocks like Lion's Eye Diamond
and Lotus Petal
to get infinite mana going. We can also easily play through our own stax pieces so that they only effect our opponents! Tayam’s first ability truthfully isn’t very useful for us since we dont often go into the beatdown plan, but in the case we need to vigilance definitely wont hurt!
Deck Overview:
This section contains information about cards in the deck and how they function within the deck! For explanations of the combos please refer to the “Main Win Conditions” section below!
Creatures:
We have a lot of creatures, to start we have some sweet mana dorks like Elvish Mystic
, Birds of Paradise
and Avacyn's Pilgrim
all of these are great early game ways to get some mana early and help us to get ahead a little bit! Ranger-Captain of Eos
and Recruiter of the Guard
are both really good creatures that allow us to tutor a combo piece and get it set up very quickly!
We also have a bunch of stax creatures like Drannith Magistrate
which is a great way to stop a lot of the cheated out ways to get creatures or spells back! Aven Mindcensor
is a great way to make our opponents search effects whiff a good amount of the time! Collector Ouphe
against the right deck can make it almost game over, it is super strong! While not directly a stax creature Endurance
can be super good against a reanimator style deck!
Instants:
One of the best instants in our deck is Ad Nauseam
since it allows us to cycle through our deck at breakneck speeds! Crop Rotation
is another awesome instant that can easily grab one of our lands for the combos! Entomb
is a really cool card that we can use to get back a card with Tayam very easily! Noxious Revival
is another cool card that can be great to cast in response to some graveyard hate. Since we are not in blue we dont have a ton of ways to stop our opponents from countering so cards like Veil of Summer
and Silence
are basically like pseudo counters for us! Now speaking of a real counter we also have Imp's Mischief
which does cost a little life but it is absolutely worth it!
Sorceries:
Since we are a combo focused deck we need ways to grab our combos and cards like Demonic Tutor
, Diabolic Intent
and Imperial Seal
which are all great ways to grab our combo pieces with relative ease! Eldritch Evolution
and Green Sun's Zenith
are both great ways to tutor a specific creature like a Devoted Druid
to set up a combo!
Artifacts:
Mana, Mana, Mana is the theme of our artifact package with legendary rocks like Jeweled Lotus
, Chrome Mox
and Mox Diamond
just to name a few! All of our artifact package focuses on solely more mana to cast more and get those combos ready, and in the case of Lotus Petal and Lion's Eye Diamond can be great ways to make infinite mana when we begin to combo!
Enchantments:
There is one card in our enchantment that can come out if you know you wont encounter many islands and that is Carpet of Flowers
at certain tables this can be super strong and at others can be pretty weak and not worth the slot! Deafening Silence
and Rule of Law
are two great stax effects that we can easily play through but really hurt a ton of the fast decks in the format! Kenrith's Transformation
is a card that has recently burst on to the CEDH scene and is actually a heater against so many decks for only 1G!
Sylvan Library
is another great card in the deck that allows us to draw a bunch which traditionally is not very easy to do in Abzan! Survival of the Fittest
is a great way to grab our combo piece cards and start to assemble our combo! Earthcraft
is not only a great way to get some mana but is also a part of a few of our combos!
Land Base:
Our land base is pretty much what you expect for a CEDH land base, fast and efficient! Our land base is highlighted by sweet cards like Bayou
, Verdant Catacombs
and Temple Garden
we only play 1 basic and it is a forest but other than that are land base is all gas!
Strengths of the Deck:
- Early wins most come “from out of nowhere”
- Many ways to lock down our opponents while barely affecting us
- Commander is really easy to cast and involved in most of our combos
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- Weak to spellpile decks if we cant get our stax down early
- Not being in Blue does make our deck weaker since we dont have countermagic access
- Not as fast as other Naus style decks
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
We are a CEDH deck, of course we have a ton of combos! Below are all of the combos in the deck explained. Also big thank you to RylandL who wrote out these lines and helped a ton when building this deck their primer is awesome! (link to their list: Moxfield Tayam) Also check out the Tayam discord linked on that page for some additional great info!
Tayam, Luminous Enigma + Devoted Druid + Allosaurus Shepherd
Requires:
All permanents on battlefield
Steps:
Chain of Smog
+ Witherbloom Apprentice
Requires:
- Tap Devoted Druid for G
- Put a -1/-1 counter on Druid to untap it.
- Repeat process three times to float GGG , and have three -1/-1 counters on Druid.
- Activate Tayam, spending the three mana and removing the counters from Druid. Return a permanent with mana value 3 or less.
- Repeat Process infinitely
Results:
Cycle through Entire deck, Recast any permanent with CMC 3 or less infinitely
The Above process can be done with the following cards: Shield Mate
, Centaur Garden
(if we have Threshold) Hashep Oasis
, Wax // Wane
Chain of Smog in hand. Witherbloom Apprentice on the battlefield. 1B available.
Steps:
- Cast Chain of Smog by paying 1B, targeting yourself.
- Witherbloom Apprentice triggers, causing each opponent to lose 1 life and you to gain 1 life.
- Resolve Chain of Smog, discarding two cards and choosing to copy it, targeting yourself with the copy.
- Repeat from step 2.
Results:
Infinite lifegain. Infinite lifegain triggers. Infinite lifeloss. Infinite magecraft triggers.
Requires:
All permanents on the battlefield. Squirrel Nest is attached to a basic land you control.
Steps:
- Activate the enchanted basic land by tapping it, creating a 1/1 green Squirrel creature token.
- Activate Earthcraft by tapping an untapped creature you control, untapping the enchanted basic land.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite tapped creature tokens. Infinite ETB.
Earthcraft + Phyrexian Tower
+ Sylvan Safekeeper
Requires:
Tayam on Battlefield, Phryexian Tower on battlefield, Sylvan Safekeeper on battlefield. Creature with mana value 3 or less to return
Steps:
- Put a creature in play with Tayam
- Tap it with Earthcraft to untap a basic
- Tap the basic for mana
- Use Phyrexian Tower to sacrifice the creature
- Use Sylvan Safekeeper to sacrifice the Tower.
- In response to Safekeeper, use Tayam to bring them both back and repeat on the stack so Safekeeper’s ability doesn’t resolve. If you don’t, you’ll eventually run out of targetable creatures and have to go through extra loops.
Results:
Infinite Mana
Sylvan Safekeeper + Gaea's Cradle
Requires:
All Permanents + Tayam on battlefield
Steps:
- Tap Gaea’s Cradle for mana equal to the number of creatures you have.
- Use Sylvan Safekeeper to sacrifice the Cradle, targeting a creature
- In response, use Tayam to return the Cradle and repeat
Results:
Infinite Mana
With infinite mana acquired we can easily cast huge spells like Finale of Devastation
to end the game!
Conclusion:
In conclusion Tayam is a really sweet Abzan commander, many of you of might be surprised to hear Abzan and CEDH in the same sentence but this deck is absolutely competitive and can hang with some of the best decks in the format! Hope you enjoyed this article, don’t forget you can request a commander for CEDH, EDH, Budget EDH and PDH on our twitter or discord! New Wilds of Eldraine articles and box openings coming on Friday, Tap In! Thanks for reading to the end!