“Keep friends close and enemies guessing.”
Art:Atraxa, Grand Unifier
by Marta Nael
Wanna skip the primer? Moxfield Link
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Atraxa, Grand Unifier, is an awesome commander who is a menace in many formats, and the same is true for CEDH. We are primarily a food chain deck, but because we are in every color but red, we can play some of the best and most classic combos in the format. We also have a ton of controlling elements, but we are a midrange deck at heart and can establish combo lines and wins pretty quickly. While we rarely end the game on the second or third turn with the right hand, anything is possible. I have been having a ton of fun and success with this one and I am excited to share with you my take on a very awesome list. Without further adieu lets get it!
The Deck:
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Atraxa, Grand Unifier Food Chainl!
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Why Atraxa, Grand Unifier?
Atraxa is a key part of our deck because once we have infinite mana from the food chain combo, they are an outlet to allow us to draw our entire deck. Even in a non-combo or infinite cast capacity, if we can ramp Atraxa out, they provide a ton of card selection for the deck and can help us set up for any of our combos. Even though Atraxa has a complicated mana cost we have a strong land-base / mana rocks as well as having some fast mana like Dark Ritual
which can help cover the cost easily.
Deck Overview:
This section contains information about cards in the deck and how they function within the deck! I also highlighted some of my favorite cards in the deck! The infinite combos and loops in the deck are listed below in the “Main Win Conditions” Section.
Creatures:
Destiny Spinner
is not a card that every Atraxa deck runs, but in the counterspell and control-heavy meta I typically play in, I find it to be very strong. We have a ton of mana dorks like Birds of Paradise
, Elves of Deep Shadow
, and Delighted Halfling
, which is the best because it makes our Atraxa uncounterable. We have some control pieces like Drannith Magistrate
, Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
, and Archivist of Oghma
, while these are not sexy pieces they can help us get ahead and Drannith Magistrate can shut down many strategies.
Planeswalkers:
Teferi, Time Raveler
is a very strong planeswalker that is mostly used as a combo piece, but we get a ton of value out of Teferi’s passive. Even though Teferi’s passive is very strong, we need to be careful about when we play them because they can draw a lot of attention/removal, and we typically want to play them the same turn we are going to go off.
Battles:
We only have one Battle in Invasion of Ikoria // Zilortha, Apex of Ikoria
, which is nothing more than a strong creature tutor for the deck and can grab pretty much anything, but we mostly use it to grab either Misthollow Griffin
or Eternal Scourge
. We almost never flip it or attack it, but it is a great piece of utility.
Instants:
We have a lot of the cards you would expect with a ton of counters like An Offer You Can't Refuse
, Mental Misstep
, and Miscast
, which are all very strong and cheap counterspells. Culling the Weak
and Dark Ritual are great ways to get ahead on mana, and they can help us cast Atraxa early or let us get an early Beseech the Mirror
. Noxious Revival
is a great way to play through removal for only two life or one green, but more often two life. Force of Vigor
is another great card we can use to take out key artifacts of our opponents, whether we are trying to take down something like a Defense Grid
or just slowing our opponents down it is very strong.
Sorceries:
We have two very strong tutors like Imperial Seal
and Demonic Tutor
which are two very strong tutors. My favorite card in the deck is Beseech the Mirror, which we can easily Dark Ritual into and grab anything in the deck, whether a Food Chain
or a Thassa's Oracle
this card is great. Eldritch Evolution
is another amazing card that we can use to grab combo pieces and creatures within the deck for not a ton of mana. Once we have infinite mana, we can use Finale of Devastation
as an effective way to end the game.
Artifacts:
Our artifact package mostly consists of rocks, but we do have a couple of non-rocks in the form of The One Ring
, which needs no introduction, but this is a combo piece in the deck and can make us unkillable through combat means. We also have Wishclaw Talisman
which is an awesome way to grab the last piece needed for one of our combos, we do need to be careful when using this because we will have to give it to an opponent. Beyond that, we have an absolute ton of rocks, not too much to say about any of these, just great ways to get ahead on mana and keep on casting.
Enchantments:
Mystic Remora
and Rhystic Study
are two of the best ways to draw additional cards in the entire format, and if the deck has blue, you have to include both of these. We also have Smothering Tithe
, which, through mana rocks, we can speed out and use to get all of our colors and just gain a large mana advantage over our opponents. Carpet of Flowers
is rarely bad since almost every CEDH table has someone running blue, and it can be a great way to get some extra mana on our turn. Dress Down
is a card that not every Atraxa deck runs but I love it, it is a great way to shut down many commanders and creatures in the format and can be enough to let us go off on the subsequent turn.
Land Base:
We have a highly optimized land base full of fetches, duals, and just one Island; in case you are wondering, the island is for any type of Assassin's Trophy
style effects. We have all of the original on-color duals, their shock land counterparts, and the on-color fetch lands. All of these allow us to be very quick and establish all of our colors with relative ease. City of Traitors
and Ancient Tomb
are great ways to help us speed out Atraxa. There isn’t a ton of stuff to say about this landbase, it is very strong and quick and allows us to get all four colors established quickly.
Strengths of the Deck:
- One of our best outlets to draw our entire deck is in the command zone.
- We have a ton of ways to assemble our various combos and can end the game in many different ways. This flexibility is a strength especially against cards like Praetor's Grasp
. - We are very well-positioned against the other mid-range decks in the format and many of them late-game decks, we can play through many different strategies.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- We need to be very aggressive when mulliganing; even if we are playing midrange, a typical hand needs to be able to lead to a win or allow us to speed out Atraxa, which is a huge value swing.
- We can be weak against the fastest decks in the format since we typically fall into midrange and spend our early turns “setting up” our combos and getting them ready.
- Our commander can be slower to come out than many decks, which is why we don’t run cards like Fierce Guardianship or Deadly Rollick. Now, don’t get me wrong, we can have some early Atraxa’s, but we are much slower than other decks, and since Atraxa provides a ton of card selection/utility, it can hurt if we don’t have a speedy Atraxa hand.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
We are a food chain deck through and through, and we are built to assemble the food chain combo as quickly as possible. Once we have infinite mana, we can infinitely cast Atraxa and get every card in our deck. While we are primarily on the food chain plan, we have other classic combos like Teferi/Kitten and Thoracle as strong ways to win. Below are all of the combos in the deck explained.
Requires:
Eternal Scourge must be on the battlefield. Food Chain must be on the battlefield.
Steps:
- Activate Food Chain by exiling Eternal Scourge, adding four mana of any one color that can only be spent to cast creature spells.
- Cast Eternal Scourge from exile by paying 3.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite colored mana that can only be spent to cast creature spells. Infinite ETB. Infinite LTB. Infinite storm count.
Misthollow Griffin + Food Chain
Teferi, Time Raveler + Displacer Kitten
+ Sol Ring
Requires:
Food Chain must be on the battlefield. Misthollow Griffin must be on the battlefield.
Steps:
- Activate Food Chain by exiling Misthollow Griffin, adding UUUUU that can only be spent to cast creature spells.
- Cast Misthollow Griffin from exile by paying 2UU.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite colored mana that can only be spent to cast creature spells. Infinite ETB. Infinite LTB. Infinite storm count.
Requires:
Teferi, Time Raveler must be on the battlefield. Displacer Kitten must be on the battlefield. Sol Ring must be in hand. Mana needed: 1
Steps:
- Cast Sol Ring by paying 1.
- Displacer Kitten triggers, blinking Teferi.
- Activate Sol Ring by tapping it, adding CC.
- Activate Teferi’s second loyalty ability by removing three loyalty counters from it, returning Sol Ring from the battlefield to your hand and drawing a card.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite card draw. Infinite draw triggers. Near-infinite colorless mana. Near-infinite storm count.
Teferi, Time Raveler + Displacer Kitten + Mana Crypt
Requires:
Teferi, Time Raveler must be on the battlefield. Displacer Kitten must be on the battlefield. Mana Crypt must be in hand.
Steps:
- Cast Mana Crypt by paying 0.
- Displacer Kitten triggers, blinking Teferi.
- Activate Mana Crypt by tapping it, adding CC.
- Activate Teferi’s second loyalty ability by removing three loyalty counters from it, returning Mana Crypt from the battlefield to your hand and drawing a card.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite card draw. Infinite draw triggers. Near-infinite colorless mana. Near-infinite storm count.
Teferi, Time Raveler + Displacer Kitten + Mox Opal
Requires:
Teferi, Time Raveler must be on the battlefield. Displacer Kitten must be on the battlefield. Mox Opal must be in hand. You control at least two artifacts.
Steps:
- Cast Mox Opal by paying 0.
- Displacer Kitten triggers, blinking Teferi.
- Activate Mox Opal by tapping it, adding one mana of any color.
- Activate Teferi’s second loyalty ability by removing three loyalty counters from it, returning Mox Opal from the battlefield to your hand and drawing a card.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite card draw. Infinite draw triggers. Near-infinite colored mana. Near-infinite storm count.
Teferi, Time Raveler + Displacer Kitten + The One Ring
Requires:
The One Ring must be in hand. Displacer Kitten must be on the battlefield. Teferi, Time Raveler must be on the battlefield. Mana needed: 4 each turn
Steps:
- Cast The One Ring by paying 4.
- Displacer Kitten triggers, blinking Teferi.
- When The One Ring enters the battlefield, its first ability triggers, causing you to gain protection from everything until your next turn.
- Activate Teferi’s second loyalty ability by removing three loyalty counters from it, returning The One Ring to your hand from the battlefield and causing you to draw a card.
- Repeat during each of your turns.
Results:
Prevent all damage that would be dealt to you. You gain protection from everything.
Thassa's Oracle + Tainted Pact
Requires:
Tainted Pact must be in hand. Thassa’s Oracle must be in hand. No two cards in library share a name. Mana needed: 1UUB
Steps:
- Cast Tainted Pact by paying 1B, exiling your library.
- Cast Thassa’s Oracle by paying UU.
- Thassa’s Oracle enters the battlefield, causing you to win the game.
Results:
Win the game.
Thassa's Oracle + Demonic Consultation
Requires:
Demonic Consultation must be in hand. Thassa’s Oracle must be in hand. Mana needed: UUB
Steps:
- Cast Demonic Consultation by paying B, naming Thassa’s Oracle and thus exiling your library due to you not having a card named Thassa’s Oracle in your library.
- Cast Thassa’s Oracle by paying UU.
- Thassa’s Oracle enters the battlefield, causing you to win the game.
Results:
Exile your library. Win the game.
Conclusion:
Atraxa, Grand Unifier, is a very fun commander who is a powerhouse in many formats and, to no one’s surprise, quite a strong contender for CEDH. We are a very strong four-color midrange deck that can close out games in common CEDH ways but with a ton of flair on top! I have jammed this deck an absolute ton and enjoyed it, I would definitely say I play a little bit of an unconventional list but I enjoy it and have found success with it. Thanks for reading to the end and for all of your support!