“Walking the path of exile”
Art:Tasigur, the Golden Fang
by Igor Kieryluk
Table of Contents
Todays Featured Commander Is:
The banana man is back, from terrorizing standard, modern and legacy he is ready to take on CEDH as well! Tasigur has been a prevalent force in magic for a really long time and this trend is continuing. While he is typically played in graveyard strategies, for CEDH we are using him in a control base with a birthing pod shell for extra value. This deck is as Sultai as they come and features the best elements of 3 of magics strongest colors! Without Further Adieu Lets Get It!
The Deck:
Tasigur Control CEDH!
Why Tasigur, the Golden Fang?
We chose Tasigur for many reasons, one that does not come up that often that can be pretty important is that in an instance where all of our combos are countered or gone we can use him to beat down our opponents and get a commander damage kill. Besides that we can cast him pretty early through our artifact ramp and start activating him and getting cards back. While they are cards that our opponents give us more cards are more cards and we can never say no to that. Tasigur is a really strong commander who is a ton of fun to pilot!
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 are a pod deck so our creature package is of course on curve, for our 1 drops we have the all-star in Deathrite Shaman
which is not only good for our deck but good against a multitude of decks! We also have Elves of Deep Shadow
who is just a strong mana dork, not to much to say about them.
For our 2 drops we have Dauthi Voidwalker
which can be really strong against a pod that has some reanimator strategies in it. Gilded Drake
is a really strong card in really any CEDH deck and it is just as good here. We also have Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy
who is really good since a lot of our mana comes from our artifacts and nonland permanents! Snapcaster Mage
is another really great two drop that allows us to flashback really anything we want, in testing I did this with Tainted Pact
, Swan Song
and everytime the card felt really good!
Our top end of the curve includes Toxrill, the Corrosive
who is really any good against any creature strategy but is pretty much good against any deck, just a house when he comes down! Seedborn Muse
can help us a ton with interacting with our opponents after we had a big turn and tapped out! Koma, Cosmos Serpent
is a great card especially if we are behind against an aggressive deck and need to get some blockers up, its also great if we want to lock down an opponents pesky permanent!
Planeswalkers:
Another boogeyman of the other format joins our planeswalker package! Oko, Thief of Crowns
is a great way for us to ruin one of our opponents artifacts or creatures! We rarely utilize Oko’s other abilities, there is typically not many scenarios where we want to use them! Not too much to say about Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
he is our backup wincon if something happens to Thassa's Oracle
.
Teferi, Master of Time
is a planeswalker who has recently started to see more CEDH play, drawing a card on every turn is just a really strong effect and since with our artifact mana we can easily get him out on the 2 or 3rd turn we can take full advantage of the card draw! We dont tend to use his other abilities he is just a draw engine!
Instants:
This is a Sultai deck so of course we have a bunch of counterspells like An Offer You Can't Refuse
, Pact of Negation
and Force of Will
these are just a few of the many counterspells in our deck. We are a control deck so we are of course pretty heavy on the counters!
Besides our counters we also have great ways to search through our deck like Vampiric Tutor
, Mystical Tutor
, both great cheap ways to tutor for our combo pieces. We also have some sweet interaction pieces like Toxic Deluge
which can be an easy way to get a full board clear, or Force of Vigor
which is a great way to stop an infinite combos for free! Assassin's Trophy
and Abrupt Decay
are also both great ways to disrupt your opponents and take out key permanents or combo pieces!
Sorceries:
Our sorcery package is much smaller compared to our instant package but we still have a lot of impactful sorceries, one of the biggest being Demonic Tutor
this card has been good for a really long time and that has not changed a bit! Praetor's Grasp
is a great way to take away an opponents combo piece and get it for ourselves! Culling Ritual
is a pretty expensive board wipe but since it generates mana it effectively negates this cost and just targets a bunch of stuff! Gitaxian Probe
is just an all around great card, its nice to know what you will be facing and a card out of it is pretty cool as well.
Artifacts:
Most of our artifact package consists of mana rocks and we of course have the classics Mana Crypt
, Mana Vault
, Mox Diamond
and Sol Ring
there is of course a bunch of other rocks but we can really get ahead early if we can get one or two of these!
We also have some other cool artifacts like Wishclaw Talisman
, Birthing Pod
are key artifacts in our deck. Pod is great since we are a pod deck, and Wishclaw allows us to tutor for one of our combo pieces, wishclaw does have a downside but it can often be the last piece we need to grab our combo!
Enchantments:
Our enchantment package consists of CEDH staples like Rhystic Study
and Mystic Remora
which are both great ways to draw cards, these cards are both good against really any deck but against turbo naus or storm strategies you can draw a bunch of cards! Carpet of Flowers
is a great way to generate some mana and help us get ahead! Necropotence
and Sylvan Library
are both great ways to filter the deck and get what we need!
Land Base:
We are a little light on lands at only 30 but we can supplement through our creatures and our artifact package, we have a lot of impactful lands in addition to a lot of lands that you would expect, for expected lands we of course have the duals, fetches and shocks for our colors. The most intresting part of our deck is Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
, Otawara, Soaring City
and Boseiju, Who Endures
I orignally did not have all 3 of the channel lands in the deck but I found that they were pretty good in the deck and helped a ton, especially in the late game when you are getting cards back and opponents are just giving you these backs!
Strengths of the Deck:
- Able to interact a ton with our opponents and the stack
- Control shell heavily benefits against creature heavy decks (Magda, Winota)
- Pod Shell allows us to ramp into our bigger threats with ease
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- Slower than most CEDH combo decks
- Outside of a few cards not a ton of ways to draw cards
- Can be weak to some of the stax decks in the format
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
Below are the main combos in the deck explained, while not all of these combos win the game on their own they sure help!
Maralen of the Mornsong
+ Opposition Agent
Requires:
All permanents on the battlefield.
Steps:
- At the beginning of your draw step, Maralen triggers, causing you to lose three life, then search your library for a card and put it into your hand.
- During each opponent’s draw step, Maralen triggers, causing them to lose three life, then causing you to search their library for a card and exile it.
- You may play cards exiled this way due to Opposition Agent.
Results:
Players cannot draw cards. Tutor for any card in an opponent’s library during their draw step with the ability to play that card.
Tainted Pact + Thassa's Oracle
Requires:
All cards in hand. No two cards in library share a name. 1UUB available.
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.
Demonic Consultation
+ Thassa's Oracle
Requires:
All cards in hand. UUB available.
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:
Win the game. Exile your library.
Demonic Consultation + Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
Requires:
Jace on the battlefield. Demonic Consultation in hand. B available.
Steps:
- Cast Demonic Consultation by paying B, naming Jace, Wielder of Mysteries and thus exiling your library due to you not having a card named Jace, Wielder of Mysteries in your library.
- Activate Jace’s first loyalty ability by putting a loyalty counter on it, causing target player to mill two cards and you to win the game due to drawing from an empty library.
Results:
Win the game. Exile your library.
Tainted Pact + Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
Requires:
Tainted Pact in hand. Jace on the battlefield. No two cards in library share a name. 1B available.
Steps:
- Cast Tainted Pact by paying 1B, exiling your library.
- Activate Jace’s first ability by putting a loyalty ability on it, causing target player to mill two cards and you to win the game due to drawing from an empty library.
Results:
Win the game.
Dramatic Reversal
+ Isochron Scepter
Requires:
Isochron Scepter on the battlefield. Dramatic Reversal exiled by Isochron Scepter. Nonland permanents you control can tap to produce at least 3.
Steps:
- Activate all mana-producing nonland permanents you control by tapping them, adding at least 3.
- Activate Isochron Scepter by paying 2 and tapping it, casting a copy of Dramatic Reversal without paying it’s mana cost.
- Resolve Dramatic Reversal, untapping all nonland permanents you control.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite mana nonland permanents you control can produce. Infinite storm count. Infinite magecraft triggers. Infinite untap of nonland permanents you control.
Conclusion:
In conclusion Tasigur Control is a really powerful and fun deck, even though it may be a little bit unconventional with some of the card choices this deck absolutely plays and feels like a classic Sultai CEDH deck. Tasigur is such a fun commander to play and is very well positioned against some of the most popular decks in the format!
Thanks for reading to the end!