Nothing better than throwing a dragon into your opponents face! And it comes back!
Art: Ziatora, the Incinerator
by Chris Rahn
Table of Contents
Welcome to another installment of Brewed EDH:
Todays Featured Commander is:
Ziatora, is a very interesting Jund commander allowing us to throw our creatures straight our opponents combined with some of the biggest creatures in the game we can straight one shot people on their upkeep. Combined with a large scale ramp and reanimation package we can keep throwing our largest creatures. Ziatora reminds me a lot of Kresh and is a ton of fun for Jund commander!
The Deck:
Ziatora's Discus
Why Ziatora, the Incinerator?
As mentioned previously there are many great options for Jund commanders such as Kresh the Bloodbraided
. Ziatora is very much a Jund commander with a heavy emphasis on sacrifice creatures for your benefit. In the case of Ziatora instead of using sacrifice effects to buff our creatures we throw that damage straight to our opponents. Ziatora is a great choice for a multi-faceted deck combining Sacrifice, Reanimation and Ramp to break down your opponents. With Ziatora we can utilize a lot of creatures that don’t see a lot of play just because they are large.
Deck Overview:
As a jund commander we have access to a wide array of tools including our ability to reanimate our big creatures and gain an advantage early through ramp effects. In addition to that we have a lot of mini-Ziatora effects such as Voldaren Thrillseeker
and Orthion, Hero of Lavabrink
to throw our big creatures without Ziatora. Orthion and Voldaren Thrillseeker also combo really with cards like Mr. Orfeo, the Boulder
allowing us to attack double the power and then throw the creature at our opponent this works great with creatures like Malignus
. Another creature that is great for throwing is Xenagos, God of Revels
which not only creates a dangerous attacker but we can throw the buffed creature as needed. For our reanimation package we have Living Death
and Reanimate
we also play some cards to give our creatures undying like Feign Death
and Undying Evil
. Our ability to make tokens allows for us to throw multiple copies of our non-legendary creatures. We have many large and impactful creatures at the top of our curve like Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
not only are these easy to cast but throwing them at an opponent is great as well. Since we often throw our creatures it is easy for us to play large creatures that have drawbacks early such as Rotting Regisaur
not only does the discard assist with our reanimation plan it also is a 3 mana 7/7. With Ziatora we are able to have a fun and efficient deck with creatures that can end games quickly!
Strengths of the Deck:
- Ramp package allows us to get our big permanents out quickly
- Graveyard recursion allows us to throw creatures frequently
- Ramp package lets us get threats out early
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- Weak against Graveyard Hate
- Weak against quick / combo decks
- Can be hard to close out games if we don’t have Ziatora or one of our Mini-Ziatora’s
Deck Stats:
Sample hands:
Main Win Conditions:
While we dont play any real combos there are still some great ways to win!
Throwing any of our large creatures whether that be in our upkeep with Ziatora or before or after combat with our Mini-Ziatoras. We are at our core a combat deck mostly winning through the combat phase or with throwing creatures.
Conclusion:
In conclusion Ziatora is a fun and weird way to play Jund, Ziatora enables us to play a deck with a ton of creatures that are uncommon in commander. You will likely have your opponent asking to read what you just cast. Ziatora is great in creature Meta’s and one without a ton of graveyard hate floating around.
Thanks for reading to the end!