Edric, Spymaster of Trest | Flying Men

[Toshi]

Edric, Spymaster of Trest

Last Deck Update: 13.09.21, Avg. CMC: 1,74

Disclaimer

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• My decklists are actual paper lists, unusual includes/excludes might be meta calls, pet cards or overlap and budget considerations.
• The deck is supposed to do well against optimized to competitive list. Please keep that in mind when giving advice.

Bird's-Eye View Control

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Commander

1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest

Creatures (27)

1 Artificer's Assistant

1 Cloud Pirates

1 Cloud Sprite

1 Cloudfin Raptor

1 Faerie Miscreant

1 Faerie Seer

1 Flying Men

1 Galerider Sliver

1 Gudul Lurker

1 Hope of Ghirapur

1 Hypnotic Siren

1 Jace's Phantasm

1 Mausoleum Wanderer

1 Merfolk Windrobber

1 Mist-Cloaked Herald

1 Pteramander

1 Scryb Sprites

1 Silver Raven

1 Siren Stormtamer

1 Slither Blade

1 Spectral Sailor

1 Spellstutter Sprite

1 Spire Tracer

1 Treetop Scout

1 Triton Shorestalker

1 Wingcrafter

1 Zephyr Sprite

Instants (27)

1 Arcane Denial

1 Beast Within

1 Concerted Defense

1 Counterspell

1 Cyclonic Rift

1 Delay

1 Fierce Guardianship

1 Flusterstorm

1 Force of Will

1 Lofty Denial

1 Lose Focus

1 Mana Drain

1 Mana Leak

1 Memory Lapse

1 Mystical Tutor

1 Nature's Claim

1 Negate

1 Noxious Revival

1 Pact of Negation

1 Pongify

1 Rapid Hybridization

1 Reality Shift

1 Reclaim

1 Remand

1 Resculpt

1 Return to Nature

1 Spell Pierce

Sorceries (5)

1 Notorious Throng

1 Solve the Equation

1 Temporal Manipulation

1 Time Warp

1 Triumph of the Hordes

Enchantments (5)

1 Beastmaster Ascension

1 Druids' Repository

1 Earthcraft

1 Exploration

1 Guardian Project

Artifacts (1)

1 Throne of the God-Pharaoh

Lands (34)

1 Barkchannel Pathway // Tidechannel Pathway

1 Breeding Pool

1 City of Brass

1 Command Tower

1 Flooded Grove

5 Forest

1 Hinterland Harbor

19 Island

1 Mana Confluence

1 Rejuvenating Springs

1 Waterlogged Grove

1 Yavimaya Coast

Approximate Total Cost:

History, Summary & Power Level

I always enjoyed having a wide range of play styles and power levels and since i "only" had Prossh, Skyraider of Kher as an absolute top tier deck at the time, i felt like i need another one that's vastly different though. Edric, Spymaster of Trest is a lot quicker and comes in gu, a color combination i didn't have a deck with yet.

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Best case scenario: 1 drop on turn 1, two 1 drops on turn 2, Edric, Spymaster of Trest on turn 3, draw 3 off him and take it from there. So nothing unusual about it.

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The deck is as good as it gets in my roster and one of the major powerhouses in my meta. If you don't get interfered with early and continously, you win. Simple as that.

Power Level:

Let me know what you think of the deck! I'm always happy to get input.

[Toshi]

With Covid denying me and my playgroup a lot of opportunities to play, we decided to evualuate our meta and pods over several Discord sessions.

Up until recently our deck building aimed to assemble pods that were supposed to allow for most to all decks to compete. Unfortunately that doesn't work too well. As far as our adjustments go, we decided to limit future pod entries to 2 tiers at most (e.g. Casual & Focused, Focused & Optimized, Optimized & Competetive) opening up to a lot stronger decks at the top end and way more yank below.

Hence, i made the obvious decision to turn this deck into my major threat. There are still some of the most prolific counterspell and time walk variants missing, yet the deck has gotten a big bump in strength. We'll see, if i ever splash money on Capture of Jingzhou and Mana Drain, but there'll be some other upgrades in the near future, for sure.

In:
+ Concerted Defense
+ Dispel
+ Flusterstorm
+ Memory Lapse
+ Miscast
+ Mystical Tutor
+ Negate
+ Spell Pierce
+ Merchant Scroll
+ Part the Waterveil
+ Time Warp
+ Walk the Aeons
+ Merfolk Windrobber
+ 7 Islands

Out:
- Cloud of Faeries
- Rattlechains
- Sakura-Tribe Scout
- Skyshroud Ranger
- Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive
- Wirewood Symbiote
- Heroic Intervention
- Unwind
- Lightning Greaves
- Curse of the Swine
- Guardian Project
- Soothsaying
- Reliquary Tower
- 6 Forests

[Toshi]

Just some slight adjustments. Cut some suboptimal 2 drop creatures and a nonrecurable Time Walk effect.
Other cheap Counterspells found their way in, as well as the most recently released dual.

In:
+ Arcane Denial
+ Cloud of Faeries
+ Lofty Denial
+ Temporal Manipulation
+ Rejuvenating Springs

Out:
- Dimensional Infiltrator
- Faerie Duelist
- Merchant Scroll
- Part the Waterveil
- Island

[Toshi]

Still in the process of optimizing. Better counters are always great, though the remaining ones after these will be on the expensive side of things (Fierce Guardianship, Mana Drain and Pact of Negation).
I'm very curious to see if Mystic Sanctuary can be consistent enough for this level of play. In theory my mana base is one-sided enough and yet another "free" Noxious Revival effect sounds very tempting.

In:

+ Delay
+ Miscast
+ Remand
+ Skullclamp
+ Mystic Sanctuary

Out:

- Biomass Mutation
- Dispel
- Forbid
- Burgeoning
- Island

[umtiger]

I haven't seen Skullclamp played in many lists because paying 1 and losing a creature typically isn't worth it for 2 cards in the short term.

To help you get the lands out of your hand, you can play Exploration.

Unsubstantiate is a cheap, versatile interaction spell. Same with Mental Misstep since you're deck is very soft to Swords and Path.

I don't know if there are personal choices in the mana base, but this is one of the decks where fetch+dual and Also, playing the rainbow lands like City of Brass and Mana Confluence in manabase makes a big impact. Flying men Edric builds rely heavily on marginal gains.

[Toshi]

Thanks for your input!

I wanted to give Skullclamp a spin to see if it helps drawing aggressively into a first extra turn spell. Going down a creature doesn't sound great initially, i know, but my guess is that if i equip a tapped one post combat and draw a replacement plus gas that's not too shabby either. Will have to find out, i guess.

Exploration is most certainly on my list, especially since the Double Masters Reprint. I am yet to order cards from someone with an acceptable price though. Unsubstantiate is a good catch! I'll have to sift through my boxes, if i have a copy left.
Mental Misstep is likely not finding its way into the deck. I'm playing this deck in very powerful, yet no cEDH pods, there just aren't enough targets for it aside from Sol Ring, Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares regularily. I did just cut Dispel for the lack of flexibility, to give you an idea.

The price tag of a full fetch suite and Tropical Island is just unreasonably high. With only 17 green cards and 2 ones with double symbols, the ROI is even more questionable.
City of Brass, Flooded Grove, Mana Confluence and Waterlogged Grove will all find their way into the deck soon-ish to complete the mana base for now.

[umtiger]

Edric is a great deck power-level-wise for the price. You definitely don't need Tropical Island. The "power" is really in the Time Walks and the pitch-counters (force of will/negation).

But you still might want to consider Chrome Mox.

My dream hand is 2 lands, Exploration, mana dork, with Force backup.

[Toshi]

Edric is a great deck power-level-wise for the price. You definitely don't need Tropical Island. The "power" is really in the Time Walks and the pitch-counters (force of will/negation).

Oh, that's for sure!
I think an entry level deck with all basics and budget friendly counters would be a real force already, as long as the curve's right.

[benjameenbear]

@NoNeedToBragoBoutIt
Have you tried a full-scale mana dork package? I know that it would cause your deck to flirt dangerously close to cEDH caliber level (which I'm not sure you're fully wanting), but I remember building an Edric list and being disappointed with mana dorks, even though they were obviously good at their job. They often just sat around looking bad, but getting an early Edric was incredible.

[Toshi]

@NoNeedToBragoBoutIt
Have you tried a full-scale mana dork package? I know that it would cause your deck to flirt dangerously close to cEDH caliber level (which I'm not sure you're fully wanting), but I remember building an Edric list and being disappointed with mana dorks, even though they were obviously good at their job. They often just sat around looking bad, but getting an early Edric was incredible.

Full-scale as in they can deal damage, yes - so no Birds 1.0 & 2.0. I ran Arbor Elf, Boreal Druid, Elvish Mystic, Fyndhorn Elves, Joraga Treespeaker (doesn't ramp into Edric, obviously) and Llanowar Elves in my initial build and the results were questionable. Unless i hit them in my starting hand they were more or less aweful.
Elvish Pioneer was a tad better, due to the ramp sticking through wraths, but could still easily be chump blocked. The only 1 drop ramp creatures that stuck around a lot longer were Sakura-Tribe Scout and Skyshroud Ranger, since consistent additional land drops are just sick combined with the drawing power of the deck. I was just not looking for that sort of effect and play style as much, as i would love more 1 drop evasive creatures.

As far as my approach goes, i want to build decks as strong as possible within the overall mindset of my playgroup and fitting certain power levels. All of us have more than a dozen decks and this deck is an obvious one for our top power pods. Most of us being in college or on their first jobs, we don't want to build cEDH decks in a sense of "big wallets win" or create enviroments that require full fetches and duals just to partake. That's not to say our decks aren't worth much and that i'll never splash the money on Capture of Jingzhou, yet we just don't want to force it upon us to spend an extra few 100 bucks as a requirement, for just a few percent of more deck strength.
As a result, we've seen much more creativity with us spreading our investment over several builds instead of overloading single ones.

[Toshi]

City of Brass, Flooded Grove, Mana Confluence and Waterlogged Grove will all find their way into the deck soon-ish to complete the mana base for now.

I used some of my birthday and christmas money to get closer to what i consider the final form of the deck pending releases.

In:

+ Exploration
+ Fierce Guardianship
+ Mana Drain
+ Unsubstantiate
+ City of Brass
+ Flooded Grove
+ Mana Confluence
+ Waterlogged Grove

Out:

- Cloud of Faeries
- Harvest Season
- Muddle the Mixture
- Skullclamp
- Mystic Sanctuary
- 2x Forest
- Island

With that out of the way, i'll have to look into getting a Pact of Negation - likely when i'm going to pick up Singles from the Kaldheim release.

[Toshi]

In:

+ Guardian Project
+ Lose Focus
+ Pact of Negation
+ Resculpt
+ Silver Raven
+ Solve the Equation
+ Barkchannel Pathway // Tidechannel Pathway

Out:

- Deglamer
- Miscalculation
- Miscast
- Unravel the Aether
- Unsubstantiate
- Walk the Aeons
- Forest

As for the cuts, the deck is now down to only Flusterstorm as a counter that isn't able to counter at least noncreature spells.
This is due to more varied combo decks coming up in my meta, with several of them not utilizing many instants and sorceries (Godo, Bandit Warlord, Saffi Eriksdotter, Heliod, Sun-Crowned etc).

Overall, the deck is in great shape. Especially the addition of more recent one drops in Faerie Seer, Merfolk Windrobber and Silver Raven has made the deck even more consistent.