“My Curse Will Never Be Broken. This Is My Fate. You Must Let Me Go.”
Art:Tana, the Bloodsower
by Magali Villeneuve
Art:Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator
by Eric Deschamps
Table of Contents
Todays Featured Commanders Are:
Tana and Malcolm are some really sweet partners! While we don’t typically use Tana for much beyond the fact that she lets us be Temur, they are both really cool. Malcolm is a key combo piece in our deck and part of our main win condition. This deck is fast and efficient allowing us to ramp and assemble combos with ease. It does not take much to make our combos work, and have protection to back them up! Without further adieu lets get it!
The Deck:
Malcolm and Tana Temur Pirate Combo!
Why Malcolm and Tana?
Like stated previously there is not much use to Tana besides the color identity that she brings to the table, in testing I typically never casted her and she just chilled in the command zone all game. Malcolm on the other hand is the workhorse in our deck, because they are apart of one of our main combos and even if not being used in the combo can be a decent way to provide some extra mana through the created treasure tokens.
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:
Since we are a pod deck we have a lot of creatures at specific mana costs that allow us to grab combo pieces specifically 1 and 2 drops with some 3 drops. This range of cost allows us to get exactly what we need! All of these cards provide a decent amount of value before they are sacrificed to the pod effects.
Some 1 mana cards that are great ways to mana ramp and great ways to grab our best combo-piece Glint-Horn Buccaneer
include Tinder Wall
, Elvish Mystic
and Llanowar Elves
. All of these can be decent ways to float mana before sacrificing them to a pod effect. We also have Siren Stormtamer
who is a great way to counter removal towards Malcolm. Allosaurus Shepherd
which can prevent our green spells from getting countered not too important but not a drawback either. We also have Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
which can be a great way to get some extra cards and have an early creature.
We have Corridor Monitor
which can be a great way to untap something like a Mana Vault
and is also a combo piece with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
. We are playing Dockside Extortionist
because well we can and its really good! Snapcaster Mage
is a great way to get Kiki out with flashing back a Neoform
to get Glint-Horn Buccaneer. Spellskite
is a great “free” way to get a removal spell off one of our key creatures. We also have Elvish Spirit Guide
/ Simian Spirit Guide
for some free mana!
Battles:
Invasion of Ikoria // Zilortha, Apex of Ikoria
is a hot “new” card on the scene since it is a great way to grab a creature and put it straight on the battlefield this can be a great way to grab either one of our combo pieces. We pretty much never attack and flip the battle but it is a great way to grab a creature real quick.
Instants:
We have a couple sweet ways to protect our combos the turn we are going to go off like Veil of Summer
and Autumn's Veil
. Which is basically a Silence
in our deck and turns off our opponents counterspells / most of their interaction.
We are a blue deck so of course we have a bunch of counterspells some of the best being Force of Will
, Mental Misstep
and Fierce Guardianship
and Pact of Negation
all of these are great counterspells that help us protect the combo and win the game!
We also have Final Fortune
which can be a great way to take an extra turn once we have a win setup. This works best with the Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker combo. Chord of Calling
is another great way to grab a combo piece creature and begin to set up the win!
Sorceries:
Warrior's Oath
is basically our sorcery speed copy of Final Fortune and lets us guarantee that win on our extra turn. In many cases it is better to just take the extra turn and have backup / protection instead of going all in and getting stopped! Finale of Devastation
is a great way to tutor our creatures up and set up the combat win. Bring to Light
is pretty cool since if it was cast with 3 colors we can grab either combo piece in our deck. We also have Wheel of Fortune
and Timetwister
which are great ways to reset our hand and grab a new seven.
Artifacts:
We are a pod deck so of course we have Birthing Pod
other than that our artifact package is full of ramp. We have CEDH staples like Chrome Mox
, Mana Crypt
and Mana Vault just to name a few. We are trying to ramp as much as possible to tutor and cycle through the deck to find our combos!
Enchantments:
We are playing blue and green so Mystic Remora
, Rhystic Study
and Sylvan Library
which are all great draw engines that are just plain good. Carpet of Flowers
is our only other enchantment that also allows us to gain a decent amount of mana depending on the table we are up against!
Land Base:
Since we have so much mana production from artifacts / creatures and we truthfully don’t need that many mana sources we are running below average at only 29 lands, this doesn’t really matter when we have cards like Ancient Tomb
and City of Traitors
are both great ways to produce a bunch of mana. We also have Otawara, Soaring City
and Boseiju, Who Endures
which are both great channel lands that we can use to blow up an artifact or enchantment and Bounce an opponents permanent to their hand!
Strengths of the Deck:
- Consistent turn 2 – 3 wins
- Very easy to assemble and protect our combo
- Can easily tutor through the deck to get exactly what we need
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- Very weak to cards like Opposition Agent
- Weak to Stax strategies
- Weak to Storm / Naus strategies since they can often be a bit faster
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
We are combo deck and here are the combos in our deck explained! These are our go-to ways to end the game! Even though we don’t have a ton of combos we enough counterspells and recursion that we can easily protect the few that we have!
Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator + Glint-Horn Buccaneer
Requires:
All permanents on the battlefield. You have at least one card in hand. You have at least two opponents. You have more cards in library than opponents life total. 1R available.
Steps:
- Attack with Glint-Horn Buccaneer.
- Holding priority, activate Glint-Horn Buccaneer by paying 1R and discarding a card, draw a card.
- Glint-Horn Buccaneer triggers, dealing 1 damage to each opponent.
- Malcolm triggers, creating a Treasure token for each opponent that was dealt damage.
- Activate two Treasure tokens by tapping and sacrificing those, adding R and one mana of any color.
- Repeat from step 2.
Results:
Near-infinite damage. Near-infinite colored mana. Near-infinite looting.
Requires:
Both cards in hand. At least one creature on the battlefield. 2RRR available.
Steps:
- Cast Twinflame by paying 1R.
- Holding priority, cast Dualcaster Mage by paying 1RR.
- Dualcaster Mage enters the battlefield, copying Twinflame.
- Resolve the Twinflame copy, creating a token copy of Dualcaster Mage.
- Repeat from step 3.
Results:
Infinite creature tokens with haste. Infinite ETB. Infinite magecraft triggers.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Pestermite
Requires:
All permanents on the battlefield.
Steps:
- Activate Kiki-Jiki by tapping it, creating a token copy of Pestermite.
- The Pestermite token enters the battlefield, untapping Kiki-Jiki.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite creature tokens with haste. Infinite ETB. Infinite LTB. Infinite death triggers. Infinite sacrifice triggers.
Conclusion:
In Conclusion Malcolm and Tana are a really sweet Temur combo deck that is very well positioned in CEDH. Consistently threatening turn 2 to 3 wins with protection. Being a hybrid pod deck allows us to assemble combos and wins out of nowhere and there is many ways to tutor through our deck and get exactly what we need. Combine this with ramp and protection and we have a winning recipe. Hope you enjoyed this CEDH article, don’t forget that you can always request a commander for CEDH, PDH and EDH on our twitter and on our discord! Thanks for reading to the end!