Zirda, the Dawnwaker - OwO What's This? Notices Bowos

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KitsuLeif
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Post by KitsuLeif » 4 years ago




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Table of Contents



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Introduction

Spoiler season for Ikoria/Commander 2020 was weird. Not because of the global pandemic, or the fact that the spoiler season was delayed because of it. It was something different. When the first Legendary Creatures were revealed, both from the Commander precons and the regular set, I kinda felt bummed out by their abilities. They were either straightforward, with a building instruction almost written on them, or they were keyword soup; undercosted allrounders with no real place to start. Maybe it's just me, getting tired of the next new Atraxa, Praetors' Voice or Chulane, Teller of Tales. But this time it felt like there was no Commander in the whole two sets that spoke to me. But then came Zirda, the Dawnwaker. And suddenly, I was hyped.

The first idea was to generate infinite mana with Basalt Monolith/Grim Monolith, slam every Fireball-esque effect into the deck and call it a day. Of course, in the end, the deck turned out completely different and way more complex than what I had planned initially.
The infinite mana plan still stands, but there are backup plans now. And no Fireballs in sight...


Warning:
This primer is aimed at cEDH newcomers. I started playing cEDH in late 2019, so I don't have that much experience as well (I hate playing online, but managed to play a few cEDH games before the Covid-19 situation and then a couple more games in Tabletop Simulator to test an earlier version of this deck), but I hope this doesn't disqualify me from writing an elaborate primer.
If you are a more experienced cEDH player, you can skip most of the Card Choice Discussion (you probably know most of the staples).




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Commander Analysis

"When I was told the sun resides in Raugrin, I expected to find a monster of intense heat and power. Instead I found a creature of immeasurable beauty. I approached it and it allowed me to briefly stroke its fur. It felt like the warmth of a perfect sunbeam." - Vivien Reid, Field Notes
Zirda, the Dawnwaker is one of the first Boros Commanders that is strong enough to be worth building a cEDH-tiered deck around, because she is a combo-piece in the Command Zone that just needs one of two cards to create infinite mana with: Basalt Monolith and Grim Monolith.
But Zirda is Boros-colored! The two worst colors in EDH combined! Why is she worth to be built?

Why Play This Commander

First of all: Zirda is a fox! That means, we finally have a decent Legendary Fox!
Second: It is about time that Boros gets a decent combo-focused Commander. Let's make the best of it!

No really. You should consider building this fluffy fox fella from ferocious Ikoria, if you:
  • want to surprise your playgroup with a color combination that most people underestimate in EDH and in cEDH anyway
  • want a Training Grounds effect in the Command Zone, without having to play Blue and isn't restricted to creatures
  • enjoy creating infinite mana
  • like a more control-based and adaptive play-style
But maybe you should silently leave this thread, if you:
  • prefer creatures higher in the Food Chain, Scalies (The First Sliver) for example
  • still laugh about the thought that a Boros-colored deck can ever be justified to be played at cEDH level
  • want to win via combat (found you, Najeela, the Blade-Blossom player!)
  • like to play proactive or disruptive, but nothing in between
Other Viable Boros cEDH-Commanders

Wow, the last months have been really generous with Boros cEDH-Commanders. From nothing to four viable Commanders in just one and a half years, Boros really begins to shine. Winota, Joiner of Forces is the one that got in the cedh-decklist-database as the first Boros cEDH Commander and not Zirda, but let's not be mad about that. We made it into it a bit later! Alongside Koll, the Forgemaster, we finally appear in the database. At least in the Brewer's Corner. But hey, it's a partial success!
Zirda and Koll were followed by a new addition to the Brewer's Corner that should be mentioned here as well: Osgir, the Reconstructor.
With the September 2021 Update, Zirda got removed from the database without a warning. Before making it in, I heard other people saying the database was pretty biased, with the instant inclusion of Winota and now with the removal of Zirda I feel validated in that regard. To be honest, I don't really care anymore for appearing in the database with my list, but I'll still use it to analyze the other Boros decks in it.



So, let's break down Winota, Joiner of Forces.
Comed-Ian's Winota list seeks to snowball from non-human attacking creatures into human creatures that are also stax pieces. She triggers for each non-human creature that attacks, so a few cheap creatures in the early game can fill up her board rather quickly with an avalanche of Stax pieces to slow down her opponents, once Winota hits the table. After slowing her opponents down, Winota tries to win with Conspicuous Snoop lines or various Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker/Splinter Twin combos.
The deck seems to be great at generating both card and mana advantage and it probably deserves its place in the database, although I think that it is vulnerable to cards like Containment Priest (creatures not being cast with Winota are exiled), Drannith Magistrate (the deck relies on Winota a lot, so without her, it's just a suboptimal stax list), but the worst nightmare of Winota seems to be Grafdigger's Cage and Weathered Runestone which shut off the deck completely. The current list plays only one artifact removal (Abrade), so if the meta adapts to Winota, I can see it having a hard time against such cards.



A new challenger appears. And his name is Koll, the Forgemaster.
Koll seeks to play 0 mana creatures to kill them off while equipped with cheap equipment to generate value or shoot infinite damage. Lines like Goblin Bombardment + Shuko + Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh are very common, but also cost reducers like Auriok Steelshaper in combination with Skullclamp are pretty deadly on a 1-toughness creature, once Koll is out.
This deck seems to be great at winning out of nowhere, as its combo pieces are all pretty cheap. As far as I can tell, it looks vulnerable to Rest in Peace and Leyline of the Void, but also to stax pieces like Trinisphere which shut of the combo plan completely. Cost increasers in general can hurt the deck a lot, even though it plays some removal to deal with it.



Strixhaven spawned a new Boros Lorehold General with Osgir, the Reconstructor.
He sits at the helm of a heavy-layered Stax deck. The deck tries to slow down the game with Rule of Law and other Stax effects and then win the game with copying Ugin's Nexus twice with Osgir's last ability. With just 6 mana and Ugin's Nexus in the graveyard, Osgir can take two extra turns and tries to loop this line over and over again with Mirror of Fate and then assemble a win from there. It plays around its own Rule of Law effects, but is vulnerable to cards like Null Rod, Rest in Peace and any opposing Dockside Extortionist will cackle with joy when they see this deck.




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Deck History

Originally, I wanted to stay with my Mono-U Fblthp, the Lost/God-Eternal Kefnet interchangeable cEDH build for a while, because it still needs a few cards to be completed. But then I saw Zirda. And to the drawing board I went.

The version of the deck I present to you here is the version I'm currently working on and it will get updates over time.




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Current Decklist
OwO What's This? Notices Bowos - By Function
Approximate Total Cost:





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Synergies and Combos
Infinite Mana
Outlets/Wincons
The Usual Route:
With infinite mana we normally have two cards to win the game. Goblin Cannon and Walking Ballista.
We can use Staff of Domination to draw through our deck and find either of the two cards to assemble a table kill. Or we can use Cogwork Assembler for creating a huge amount of tokens with Haste for lethal combat damage.
But we also have a lot of other options.

Let's Play Bomberman
Bomberman Combo #1 – The Original:
With Auriok Salvagers and Lion's Eye Diamond, we have the option to use Pyrite Spellbomb over and over again from our graveyard to shock all opponents to death.
Bomberman Combo #2 – Bow to Me:
If we don't have a Pyrite Spellbomb at our disposal, but a Blind Obedience in play, we can use the infinite mana to extort Lion's Eye Diamond with every cast to drain our opponents to death.

From the Underworld I Wheel Return

From the Underworld I Wheel Return #1 – Eye of the Lion:
This isn't a combo for which we need to assemble infinite mana. In fact, we just need to cast Underworld Breach, Lion's Eye Diamond and Wheel of Fortune to cycle through our deck, but we have to make sure that we have at least 6 other cards in our graveyard that we can exile for the Escape cost, the first time we cast Lion's Eye Diamond and Wheel of Fortune from our graveyard. After that, we can go on with wheeling and if our opponents have fewer cards in their library than we do, we can mill them out with that. If not, we can at least assemble our wincon from our graveyard.
From the Underworld I Wheel Return #2 – Make them Pay:
This one requires a bit more mana then #1, but makes it easier to dig for wincons. We need Smothering Tithe, Underworld Breach and Wheel of Fortune to start the combo. If our opponents can't pay for all the cards they draw, we can easily go on with cycling through our deck, but we only have to exile three cards from our graveyard every time we want to cast Wheel again. Also, we assemble a lot of mana from treasures that we can use for casting our combo pieces for the win.
From the Underworld I Wheel Return #3 – I Promised I Will Wheel:
Another variation of the combo that comes with Commander Legends. This requires either 5RRR or 3RR plus an opponent with at least 6 cards in their hand to start.
Option #1: Play Underworld Breach, after that play Wheel of Fortune and play Jeska's Will from your graveyard, netting RRRRRRR from it, then cast Wheel again and so on until you find a wincon.
Option #2: Play Underworld Breach, then cast Jeska's Will and target the opponent with 6 or more cards in their hand, then cast Wheel of Fortune and repeat from there.

Fiddle with the Library

Oswald himself isn't a combo, but he synergizes great with the cards we want to play anyway. If you manage to keep him on the board for multiple turns, he will unfold his true power.
These are the usual Oswald lines I'd take:

Starting from a 0-mana artifact: Getting either Codex Shredder, Esper Sentinel, Grafdigger's Cage or Sensei's Divining Top should be a good choice in almost every situation. 1-mana Mana Rocks are also valuable, but I wouldn't prioritize them. If you have Auriok Salvagers in your hand and have Lion's Eye Diamond on the board or in the grave, you can grab Pyrite Spellbomb to go into the Bomberman Combo as soon as possible.

Starting from a 1-mana artifact: If you have Zirda already on the board or if you are able to play her this turn, you could grab Grim Monolith, to create infinite mana. If you don't have an outlet for it, then you should probably prioritize something else first. Ethersworn Canonist, Sphere of Resistance, Thorn of Amethyst and Weathered Runestone are all good Stax pieces, depending on the situation.

Starting from a 2-mana artifact: Again, if you have Zirda already out or are able to play her this turn, Basalt Monolith would be a great choice. If you already used Grim Monolith to create infinite mana, you can sac the Monolith to grab Staff of Domination, which then can be used to either draw the deck or to untap Oswald. For example if there is a Narset, Parter of Veils on the battlefield, you won't be able to draw the deck, but you can still win by using Staff of Domination to untap Oswald and then use him again, sacrificing the Staff to grab Goblin Cannon, which you can activate to kill the table.
Another powerhouse is Cogwork Assembler which gets around Narset.
If you still don't have infinite mana available at your disposal, you can also grab Trinisphere for more Stax.

Starting from a 3-mana artifact: I already kind of explained this line before. Since there is only one 4-mana artifact in the deck that Oswald can grab, you should only use him when you have the mana to activate Goblin Cannon over and over again to win the game.

I Mastered All the Lines
With Fervent Mastery, the basic plan is the following:
We want to get Underworld Breach to cast Fervent Mastery from the graveyard a second time to get into the Bomberman Combo #1. To ensure that we get it on the board, we need Sevinne's Reclamation, because we can Flashback it if it is discarded. Of course, this line takes a lot of mana and/or cards in our graveyard, and since we don't have to care about our hand, we search for Lion's Eye Diamond. Now, what can happen is that either 0, 1, 2 or all 3 of these pieces go into the graveyard. I'll now go over each of the eight scenarios and sum up the total costs at the end of it, with an evaluation.

To keep things simple, I will stick to the following rules for this write-up:
1. Underworld Breach requires cards to exile from the graveyard. I will keep that to a minimum, so no casting Lion's Eye Diamond from the graveyard if not absolutely necessary, otherwise the calculation would need a chart. This will result in the raw mana cost being higher at the end of the calculation. Just remember, the more cards you have in your graveyard that you can exile to cast Lion's Eye Diamond, the less mana from other sources you need.
2. Since Fervent Mastery has an alternative cost to cast, I decided to go with the original cost of 3RR. If you dare to take the consequences of casting it for 1 less, feel free to subtract the 1 from each Fervent Mastery cast.

And now, the different scenarios:

1.) All pieces stay in your hand: Initial Fervent Mastery cast (-3RR). You discarded three other cards (+3 cards in grave) and now Sevinne's Reclamation is useless. Cast Underworld Breach (-1R) and Lion's Eye Diamond, crack it (+RRR; +1 card in grave) and cast Fervent Mastery from the graveyard again (-3 cards in grave; +1 card in grave; -3RR). This time all the cards you tutor for will end in the grave thanks to cracking LED. Find Auriok Salvagers, Pyrite Spellbomb and any other card (+1 card in grave). Cast Auriok Salvagers from your graveyard, exile Fervent Mastery, Sevinne's Reclamation and the other card you tutored for that is not Pyrite Spellbomb (-3 cards in grave; -3W), use its ability to return Lion's Eye Diamond to your hand (-1W) and then you have the Bomberman Loop assembled. Initial requirements: RRRWW + at least 3 cards in your hand/grave.

2.) Two pieces stay in your hand:
2a.) Sevinne's Reclamation gets discarded: Just follow the steps as if all pieces stayed in your hand.
Initial requirements: RRRWW + at least 3 cards in your hand/grave.
2b.) Lion's Eye Diamond gets discarded: If you have cards in your grave to spare, you can just follow the steps as if all pieces stayed in your hand with the difference that you'd have to cast Lion's Eye Diamond from your graveyard, so another 3 cards that are needed. If you don't have 3 cards to spare, you'd need an additional 2W to cast Sevinne's Reclamation to get Lion's Eye Diamond back onto the battlefield. Then everything is the same as in 1.)
Initial requirements: Either RRRWWW + at least 3 cards in your hand/grave OR RRRWW + at least 3 cards in your grave + at least 3 more cards in your hand/grave.
2c.) Underworld Breach gets discarded: You need to cast Sevinne's Reclamation to get Breach into play, but you won't have to cast Breach, so you'd need R less and 1W more. Rest follows 1.)
Initial requirements: RRWWW + at least 3 cards in your hand/grave.

3.) One piece stays in your hand:
3a.) Only Sevinne's Reclamation stays in your hand: Same as with 2c.), you need to get Underworld Breach into play first, the only difference is, that you either need 4W more to Flashback Sevinne's Reclamation to get Lion's Eye Diamond back as well, which would require an additional card in your graveyard since Sevinne's Reclamation got exiled to Flashback, or you cast Lion's Eye Diamond from your graveyard by exiling 3 more cards.
Initial requirements: RRWWWW + at least 4 cards in your hand/grave OR RRWWW + at least 3 cards in your grave + at least 3 more cards in your hand/grave.
3b.) Only Lion's Eye Diamond stays in your hand: Initial Fervent Mastery cast (-3RR). You discarded Sevinne's Reclamation and Underworld Breach, but have Lion's Eye Diamond in your hand. Cast and crack it (+WWW) and cast Sevinne's Reclamation with Flashback (-1 card in grave; -4W), targeting Underworld Breach and Lion's Eye Diamond. Crack Lion's Eye Diamond again (+RRR) and cast Fervent Mastery from your graveyard (-3 cards in grave; -3RR), then get Auriok Salvagers, Pyrite Spellbomb and another card. Cast Auriok Salvagers (-3W) and activate it (-1W), to get Lion's Eye Diamond back and you are in the loop.
Initial requirements: RRWWW + at least 4 cards in hand/grave.
3c.) Only Underworld Breach stays in your hand: Initial Fervent Mastery cast (-3RR). You discarded Sevinne's Reclamation and Lion's Eye Diamond, but have Underworld Breach in your hand. Cast Underworld Breach (-1R) and either cast Sevinne's Reclamation with Flashback (-1 card in grave; -4W) to get Lion's Eye Diamond back, or you cast Lion's Eye Diamond from your graveyard by exiling 3 more cards (-3 cards in grave). Then do as in 3b.)
Initial requirements: RRWWW + at least 4 cards in grave/hand OR RRWW + at least 3 cards in your grave + at least 3 more cards in your hand/grave.

4.) All pieces go to the grave: Initial Fervent Mastery cast (-3RR). The first thing you want to do is to Flashback Sevinne's Reclamation (-1 card in grave; -4W) to get Underworld Breach and Lion's Eye Diamond into play. You crack Lion's Eye Diamond (+RRR) and cast Fervent Mastery (-3 cards from grave; -3RR) from your grave again. That will get you Auriok Salvagers, Pyrite Spellbomb and any other card into your graveyard. Cast Auriok Salvagers (-3 cards from grave; -3W), activate it (-1W) and win the game with the Bomberman Combo #1.
Initial Requirements: RRWWW + at least 4 cards in hand/grave.




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Card Choice Discussion

I will go through this card by card (except for basic lands), so it will probably be the longest part of this primer.

Artifacts
Artifacts
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  • Arcane Signet – An auto-include mana rock that comes untapped and produces R/W
  • Basalt Monolith – The first Monolith that goes infinite with Zirda
  • Chrome Mox – This 0-mana rock turns useless cards in our hand into mana
  • Codex Shredder – A multi-functional artifact that can shut off cards like Vampiric Tutor and can get us back crucial cards from our graveyard
  • Goblin Cannon – Our first wincon, activate it with infinite mana, hold priority and activate it again. Repeat this process to deal infinite damage to each opponent
  • Grafdigger's Cage – Even though Flash is banned, Cage is still a valuable card against Pod-decks or Commanders like Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy and Winota, Joiner of Forces
  • Grim Monolith – The second Monolith that goes infinite with Zirda
  • Jeweled Lotus – Makes T1-2 wins more possible and is a great card in general to get Zirda out soon, because we can spend our "real" mana on other stuff
  • Lion's Eye Diamond – Part of multiple combos and a great way to get Zirda out, when our hand is empty anyway
  • Lotus Petal – A one-time use mana rock
  • Mana Crypt – Another 0-mana rock for explosive starts. Just be careful that you don't lose too much life from it
  • Mana Vault – It's a bit more risky than Mana Crypt, because we can only untap it in our upkeep, but it's still a worthy inclusion in almost every cEDH deck
  • Mind Stone – Ramp and card draw in one card that can also act as a combo piece
  • Moonsilver Key – It's not a Monolith, but it's a straight-up tutor for both Basalt Monolith and Grim Monolith. It can also be used to find Lion's Eye Diamond for combo purposes
  • Mox Diamond – If we have any spare lands in our hand we can easily discard one into the Diamond for more speed
  • Mox Opal – Metalcraft should be easy to accomplish with all the artifacts, so it's another 0-mana rock
  • Pyrite Spellbomb – Part of the Bomberman Combo and a way to deal with small creatures
  • Sensei's Divining Top – Top deck manipulation, so we know when to fetch to shuffle, or to rearrange the cards so we get to our combo faster
  • Sol Ring – Come on... you know why
  • Sphere of Resistance – A nice Stax piece to slow down everyone, shuts off Food Chain based combos as well as taxing "free" spells like Force of Will
  • Staff of Domination – THE infinite mana outlet to draw the deck and win the game with it
  • Talisman of ConvictionBattlefield Forge as an artifact for 2? I like it
  • Thorn of Amethyst – Doesn't really affect our game plan, but slows down noncreature-spell-heavy decks
  • Trinisphere – An early game Trinisphere is awesome to slow everyone down and with all the low-cost spells in our format, it's a great Stax piece
  • Weathered Runestone – It's basically a Grafdigger's Cage #2 with the upside that its first ability isn't limited to creature cards. Downside is obviously the cost of 2. But I think it's worth testing.


Creatures
Creatures
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  • Archivist of Oghma – Opponents's fetchlands and tutors will gain us so much life! And of course draw us so many cards as a nice bonus!
  • Auriok Salvagers – Part of the Bomberman Combo, can also get us back Walking Ballista in addition to mana rocks and utility artifacts
  • Aven Mindcensor|AKH – Anti tutor Stax piece
  • Cogwork Assembler – Another outlet that paired with infinite mana can create infinite tokens of itself with Haste, ending the game with combat damage. Without infinite mana, it can still do good work, creating copies of Stax pieces, opposing Monoliths or other stuff.
  • Containment Priest|58303 – Another Stax piece against Pod-decks and everything that tries to cheat creatures into play without casting them
  • Dockside Extortionist – Red ramp. Need I say more?
  • Drannith Magistrate – Shuts off opponents Commanders, graveyard shenanigans and Food Chain combos
  • Esper SentinelMystic Remora and Rhystic Study had a love child and it's white, an artifact creature and as such it is easily tutorable AND recurrable! Finally, some good freaking white card draw!
  • Ethersworn Canonist – Anti storm Stax piece that doesn't affect us as much as it does our opponents (hopefully)
  • Flamescroll Celebrant // Revel in Silence – I put this in the creature section, because of its front side, which is not bad at all. But most of the time, we want to use the Revel in Silence backside to secure our combo or stop opponents from winning.
  • Goblin Engineer – Trust me, I'm an engineer. It can search for any of the two Monolith to get them out of the graveyard next turn for easy infinite mana with Zirda, but it can also tutor up other artifacts into our graveyard for them to be returned
  • Grand Abolisher – Hinders opponents from reacting in our combo turn
  • Imperial Recruiter – Can search for a lot of creatures, most importantly Walking Ballista
  • Linvala, Keeper of Silence – Shuts off mana dorks as well as some Commanders like Urza, Lord High Artificer
  • Magus of the Moon – Considering the high amount of non-basic lands that are played in cEDH and the small amount of red cEDH decks, this should be a valuable Stax piece that can lock out opponents completely from the game, depending on the decks they play
  • Oswald Fiddlebender – This bad boy only works with Sorcery speed, but it's a threat that can't be left unhandled. It turns 1- and 2-mana artifacts into Grim Monolith/Basalt Monolith and in the turn after that he can search for the wincon.
  • Ranger of Eos – Can search for Walking Ballista and that is all it needs to do.
  • Ranger-Captain of Eos – Can search for the same cards as Ranger of Eos (I wonder why) but also acts as a Silence-effect in our combo turn
  • Recruiter of the Guard – Can search for a lot of creatures, most importantly Walking Ballista
  • Simian Spirit Guide – Surprise fast mana from our hand, when we need it, but also a good candidate to Imprint in Chrome Mox
  • Strict Proctor – It's an EtB hindering Stax piece that we can play around pretty well. It can stop Thassa's Oracle, Isochron Scepter imprints etc. so it should be a good inclusion
  • Walking Ballista – Our main wincon. With infinite mana, we can put an infinite number of counters on Ballista and then shoot down our opponents with it. But we can also use it for removing Creatures/Planeswalkers if we can't win with it on the spot


Enchantments
Enchantments
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Instants
Instants
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  • Cathartic Pyre – Either removal or rummaging for two at instant speed
  • Deflecting Swat – Directing a counterspell back to Deflecting Swat can save our combo from getting interrupted
  • Enlightened Tutor – A versatile tutor for all of our needs
  • Heliod's Intervention – Can get rid of X opposing Stax pieces, mana rocks or combo pieces with instant speed and if you have infinite mana available, you could gain a lot of life from this, maybe to survive a one-time damage effect, like a Fireball
  • Pyroblast|SS3 – Red Counterspell #1 that can destroy a blue permanent if necessary
  • Red Elemental Blast|A25 – Red Counterspell #2 that can destroy a blue permanent if necessary
  • Swords to Plowshares – Lifegain is irrelevant, creature removal is not
  • Tibalt's Trickery – Unconditional counterspell. Sure, when it pulls a second wincon after countering the first, it's GG, but better gambling than not trying at all.
  • Valakut Awakening // Valakut Stoneforge – I really hope we never come into a situation where we need a land that enters the battlefield tapped, but hey... the spell side is pretty cool. It's giving us the choice what to put at the bottom of our library, so we can keep what we need while getting new cards in exchange for those we didn't want. In the worst case it's still a 2R for drawing a single card.
  • Wear // Tear – Destroying two things at once for a MV of 3 sounds good


Lands
lands
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Planeswalkers
Planeswalkers
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  • Karn, the Great Creator – Doubles as a Stax piece to shut off mana rocks or utility artifacts, but can also get us back exiled artifacts


Sorceries
Sorceries
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Cards to consider
Cards to consider
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  • Alms Collector – An anti-wheel effect that works well with our own Wheel of Fortune, but also shuts down Timetwister effects at instant speed. I won't go as far and say it is a white Narset, Parter of Veils but it gets very close to being one.
  • Angelic Ascension – Exiling a Karn, the Great Creator or Collector Ouphe for 1W and giving the opponent a 4/4 Angel sounds like a small price to pay
  • Boros Signet – Another Signet to speed up our game
  • Burnout – Isn't it fun to counter the color that is known for Counterspells with a color that shouldn't have them at all? I think it is. But it only counters blue instant spells and "Draw a card." for 1R doesn't sound too appealing most of the time.
  • By Force – A little worse than Heliod's Intervention, but still good enough to use as a mana sink. Right now, I'm playing Vandalblast instead of it
  • Diviner's Wand – Another outlet that paired with infinite mana can draw your deck, but can also turn Zirda into a flying dealer of Commander Damage if needed
  • Eldrazi Displacer – Can flicker our creatures to save them from spot removal or to trigger their EtBs again. As long as the current Hybrid Mana rule exists, we can't play Emiel the Blessed (which I think is the better option), so this one is the next best thing; for now it's too gimmicky
  • Fellwar Stone – It probably won't produce R/W as often as Arcane Signet does, but it's still a 2-mana artifact that produces mana
  • Flame Sweep – Instant Speed Pyroclasm that spares our Aven Mindcensor|AKH
  • Goblin Welder – The original Goblin Engineer, but unfortunately it feels kinda underwhelming in comparison to his tutoring brother.
  • Gorilla Shaman – Artifact removal on a stick that gets discounted by Zirda. So it would be 1 mana to destroy a Mana Crypt, but also only 1 mana to destroy a Sol Ring. For now I've cut it, because targeting artifacts with MV 2 or more gets too expensive.
  • GrapeshotZirda, the Dawnwaker + Auriok Salvagers + Lotus Petal + 1R would make Grapeshot another wincon, because of an infinite storm count, but I feel like this would be too much
  • Heliod, Sun-Crowned – Goes infinite with Walking Ballista and is kind of a backup plan, for keeping our life total high, but right now, I don't feel he's needed.
  • Jailbreak – Can be used for returning an opponent's unwanted stax piece back to battlefield while working as a cheap reanimation spell for our own cards
  • Juntu Stakes – Another Stax piece that hates on mana dorks
  • Mirage Mirror – This is a flex slot card that enables some combos with infinite mana already at our disposal, but can also copy a Stax piece in our opponents' upkeeps to slow them down more.
  • Mishra's Workshop – Because I don't play with proxies, I'm not playing this card (at the moment) because it's hella expensive. If you and your playgroup is fine with proxies, I would cut a Mountain for it, I think.
  • Oblation – Shuffling in a problematic permanent sounds like Chaos Warp, but the opponent doesn't get to put another (maybe problematic) piece onto the battlefield. But they draw two cards off of it and being down three cards in Boros is... not optimal
  • Path to Exile|SS2 – With a bit of luck, your opponent doesn't have a basic land left in the deck, when you exile a key creature with this
  • Pyroclasm – Gets rid of mana dorks and other small creatures, but only at sorcery speed and it kills most of my creature based Stax pieces
  • Rebuff the Wicked – White 1-mana Counterspell that protects our crucial pieces and isn't limited to countering blue spells.
  • Rings of Brighthearth – Goes infinite with Basalt Monolith if Zirda won't stick on board and is also a versatile piece that can double Fetch land activations and other shenanigans
  • Serra Ascendant – Early game pressure, a 6/6 flyer with Lifelink can be enough to keep opponents at bay at first
  • Silence – Stops our opponents from interacting with our combo. For now, I deem Revel in Silence the better option.
  • Sword of Fire and Ice – Protection from red and blue sounds awesome and shocking a creature every time, we deal combat damage plus drawing a card is nice. But "nice" doesn't seem to be good enough in cEDH, so I've cut it.
  • Thalia, Guardian of ThrabenThorn of Amethyst with First Strike but very fragile since it's a creature
  • Voltaic Key – Untaps Basalt Monolith, Grim Monolith and Mana Vault, for another burst of mana and can be used in an infinite combo with Rings of Brighthearth. Without Rings it isn't really needed, though.
  • Weathered Wayfarer – It doesn't specify a land type, so it can search a Blast Zone, Inventor's Fair or another land that suits our current situation, but ultimately it feels too slow and unreliable
  • Wheel of Misfortune – This one is a little tricky to operate, because we have to read our opponents a little to estimate if they want to refill their hands or not. If so, what number will they choose? It would feel bad to spend 3 mana only to be the one with the lowest number. But betting too much is hurting us as well. Apart from that, it's another great Wheel effect





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Deck Philosophy

The main goal of this deck is to win through one of various combos early in the game. If that fails, it runs a good amount of Stax pieces to slow our opponents down, so we can try again. This makes the deck adaptive in nature and if we are lucky, our opponents underestimate Boros enough so we can sneak in a win from out of nowhere.
This deck is from a cEDH newbie for other cEDH newbies, but I hope that even more experienced and competent players than me can enjoy it as well.




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Deck Strategy
Opening Hands and Mulligans
To pilot Zirda well, we should be able to win as early as possible. That means, our starting hand should ideally consist of 1-3 lands, 1-2 other mana sources, 1-2 pieces of Stax or disruption in general and 1-2 tutors. Probably a combo piece as well.
This part is possibly the hardest when playing the deck. Deciding which hands to keep and which to shuffle away.
To make things easier, I've drawn some example starting hands.
Let's start with a hand that we will most likely never get:
The God Hand
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Let's be honest, even if we swap out Plateau for any other land that comes in untapped and produces W, Mox Opal or Lotus Petal for Simian Spirit Guide and Staff of Domination for Cogwork Assembler, it's very unlikely to be this kind of lucky and draw a hand like this.
With a hand like this you can start of by playing Plateau and Silence, so no Force of Will or whatever first turn shenanigans your opponents have can interrupt you. After that you cast Mana Crypt, tap it and play Grim Monolith. Cast Mox Opal and Lotus Petal, tap Grim Monolith for 3 and use Opal and Petal for RW to cast Zirda. You still have 2 floating, so you untap Monolith and generate infinite colorless. Cast Staff of Domination and draw your deck until you find Walking Ballista/Goblin Cannon. Win.
Let's all appreciate this possible T1 win for a short time and then move on to hands that are more common.
Sample Hand #1
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This hand might look appealing at first glance, but I feel like it has a bit too much disruption in it. What bugs me the most is that there is not a single tutor or at least an option to draw more cards. My advice: Shuffle it in and take a new hand.
Sample Hand #2
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This is a tough one to decide. I'd probably say keep it when not going first, shuffle it in, when going first. In my eyes this hand lacks a tutor and/or a Stax piece and has one land too much, but when not going first, we can start the game with Gemstone Caverns in play (for which I would exile one of the fetch lands) and cast a Sol Ring from it. With Lotus Petal and Simian Spirit Guide we can then cast Zirda and play Mikokoro and activate it for 1, which is probably not the worst T1 play we can do.
Sample Hand #3
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Another one with both Lotus Petal and Simian Spirit Guide but also one that is pretty risky. No lands means, we have to rely on Dockside Extortionist to create enough treasure tokens on Turn 1 or 2, which means, we either have to go last or wait a turn cycle. They payoff can be huge though, as we have all the combo pieces in our hand already. This hand really depends on your opponents' decks. If you know they play heavy artifact/enchantment based strategies, this hand can give you a lot of treasure tokens by turn 1 or 2 and probably win you the game with it, by being able to cast Zirda, the Dawnwaker and Basalt Monolith from it and then killing the table with Cogwork Assembler. But if we are unsure about our opponents' strategies, I would rather shuffle it away. The risk might be too high, getting Dockside Extortionist Stifled could kill this opening.
Sample Hand #4
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This one seems decent. It's not fantastic but also not horrible. You probably don't even need to play Mana Crypt turn 1. Use one of the fetch lands to get out Plateau and wait until the end step before your turn to play Enlightened Tutor to search for whatever the situation requires.
I'd probably keep this hand.
The Early-Game (Turn 1-3)
Even though we are able to win as early as Turn 1 this is not the norm and so we should be able to establish a good board position early on, which means some mana rocks and the possibility to hinder our opponents. We don't have to rush putting Zirda out. She is a combo piece and unless we have juicy targets for her cost reduction, we don't need to put her in danger of being removed early on.

A Drannith Magistrate to deny our opponents from playing their Commanders is possible on turn 1. And the Food Chain deck will love this card for sure. Shutting down early game tutors with Aven Mindcensor|AKH is also a fun thing to do.
Or we can start tutoring for our combo pieces to aim for an early combo win.
The Mid-Game (Turn 3-5)
By the time we enter mid-game we either probably already have a failed attempt to combo off or we didn't find our combo yet. Hopefully by this point we are able to hose our opponents from winning themselves. That's the reason we have removal like Swords to Plowshares, but also Heliod's Intervention, Wear // Tear and Silence. We have to be careful with it and not waste it until someone threatens to go off.

We can get try and get destroyed combo pieces back with Goblin Engineer, Sevinne's Reclamation, Codex Shredder or Underworld Breach for another try. Exiled combo pieces are not gone forever though, as Karn, the Great Creator can get artifacts back from exile.
We have many ways to start another combo, so we take a defensive position and try to recover while keeping our opponents at bay.
The Late-Game (Turn 5+)
By this time we should have assembled our combo pieces (again) in our hand at least and just wait for the protection for it to finally win the game. Deflecting Swat is an awesome way to protect your combo, but again, Silence comes in handy as well. Don't forget Ranger-Captain of Eos's activated ability, it can also save your combo from being disrupted.

We have to be careful about our opponents, though. This far in the game, they may have multiple ways to win and just wait for others to combo off first, so that they spend their resources and won't be able to interrupt their own next combo. Prepare your Red Elemental Blast, Pyroblast and Burnout if you are facing a lot of blue and try to further disrupt your opponents with Stax pieces and removal.

And we don't have to worry. Even if we don't have infinite mana, we can still use Pyrite Spellbomb together with Auriok Salvagers as long as we have 2RW (or 1RW with Zirda out) to shock problematic creatures, sometimes multiple times in a turn.

Hopefully all of this disruption can keep us in the game long enough to assemble a combo win which should be our goal, because it is the easiest to achieve.




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Opposing Commander Match-Ups & Weaknesses

Yeah... I can't really say much for this section right now, because I haven't played enough games with this deck yet. I could only give educated guesses, but this isn't what I want to do here. So this section will receive updates whenever I manage to play some games with Zirda.
Food Chain Sliver
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Turns out, this version of the deck is well-prepared for Food Chain Sliver. Sphere of Resistance shuts down the combo, while other early game Stax pieces like Trinisphere can hit the mana dorks hard and slow their game down. Blood Moon kills their manabase almost completely and Pyroclasm can be used against the mana dorks as well. If they use their Extract on us to exile one of our combo pieces from our library, we can still get it back with Karn, the Great Creator.
If you face a Food Chain Sliver player, keep opening hands with Sphere of Resistance, Drannith Magistrate, Trinisphere, Blood Moon or Magus of the Moon in it. Ethersworn Canonist is also a valuable option.
Watch out for Abrupt Decay, Assassin's Trophy, Chain of Vapor and be prepared to counter Thassa's Oracle, when they cast it, or destroy Laboratory Maniac/Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, when they attempt to deck themselves.
My advice here: Choose the disruptive play-style and only try to combo off if you can protect your combo or have shut them down with enough Stax pieces.
General Weaknesses
Null Rod – This card shuts down every single combo in our deck, so when you see this card, it has to go immediately. Same goes for Karn, the Great Creator, Collector Ouphe and every other effect that shuts down artifacts.
Cursed Totem – Almost as disruptive as Null Rod, but we can still use Goblin Cannon with it, so it's not quite as bad. It's still a juicy target to destroy when given the chance, to use the full potential of our deck, but only if there are no other threats, like Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy for example that are kept in check by it.
Back to Basics – This one can hit us pretty hard. With only four basics in the deck, it's a Stax piece that shuts us down quite well. With mana rocks out we can at least try and destroy it.
Narset, Parter of Veils – This doesn't necessarily shut down our combo, but if we don't have our pieces together already, we can't use Staff of Domination properly, so Narset has to die.




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Discord Channel

I've created a Discord Channel for discussing the deck and other users' lists as well:
https://discord.gg/6xjwZhm




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Credit & Thanks

First of all, I want to thank darrenhabib who more or less forced me to open this thread after a lot of discussion about Zirda. I wouldn't have written this primer without your encouragement.

Also I'd like to mention the Playing With Power MTG Youtube channel and also the Casually Competitive MTG Youtube channel. They showed off multiple Zirda lists and gameplays which showed how powerful this fantastic fox can be in a competitive environment. Also Playing With Power MTG has created a very helpful Playlist of Introduction videos to the cEDH format that is worth of being checked out. It helped me a lot.

Thanks to everyone from the German mtg-forum, for suggesting cards that I didn't think of!
  • benjameenbear for this Primer template and the great advice you gave me
  • Mike-The Eternal Optimist for being an incredible helpful source of advice and a great discussion partner on Discord and even though our lists differ, it's awesome to have a second opinion on possible inclusions/exclusions
  • All of you who read this primer and discuss with me. Thanks a lot!




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Change Log

06/22/2022 - Battle for Baldur's Gate Update
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06/22/2022 Changes
Approximate Total Cost:

I have always considered Flame Sweep a flex slot in this list, a meta choice and ready to get cut if there are better cards to include. Archivist of Oghma is such an auto-include that I'll gladly take out the Removal that would kill it as well.
05/09/2022 - Kamigawa & New Capenna Updates
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05/09/2022 Changes
Approximate Total Cost:

Added Jailbreak to the "Cards to consider" section and finally brought that section into alphabetical order.
09/11/2021 - A Cog for a Wand
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Diviner's Wand isn't really doing anything except for drawing the deck with infinite mana. So I've put in Cogwork Assembler instead which can win the game with infinite mana as well by creating copies of itself or other wincons that are already on the battlefield. It's a bit like Mirage Mirror, but it makes actual token copies.
09/11/2021 Changes
Approximate Total Cost:

08/10/2021 - Those combo lines are making my head explode
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Added lines for Oswald Fiddlebender and Fervent Mastery in the Synergies&Combos section. Coming up with the Fervent Mastery stuff took me wayyy too long, but I hope it's worth it.
Also formatted some minor things and will keep improving the primer whenever I find the time to do so. I need to get the "Cards to consider" sorted by alphabetical order and stuff like that...
08/04/2021 - This whole D&D thing is a disappointment... except...
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Oswald Fiddlebender. That's it. This will take a while to update the primer accordingly with all the new lines that are made possible by him. With Hullbreacher being banned, it feels safe to remove an Instant removal.
08/04/2021 Changes
Approximate Total Cost:

06/21/2021 - Strixhaven/Modern Horizons 2 belated Update
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Am I an idiot for forgetting to update the changes in the changelog? Maybe! With so many sets coming out there's so much stuff to keep track of -.-
Anyway, better late than never.
Esper Sentinel is probably the best white card draw that has been released in a while. Fervent Mastery serves as another combo enabler (and I still haven't updated the primer with the line for it x.x). Revel in Silence replaces Silence and Strict Proctor is a great hoser for Thassa's Oracle and stuff like that.
06/21/2021 Changes
Approximate Total Cost:

03/14/2021 – Kaldheim's Toys
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Kaldheim doesn't give us a lot of new stuff, but at least two pretty juicy cards with Tibalt's Trickery and Weathered Runestone. Runestone needs testing and for now I've cut the underwhelming Goblin Welder for it. Rebuff the Wicked needs to go for Tibalt's Trickery. An unconditional counterspell in red is just awesome. Needs testing, though.
03/14/2021 Changes
Approximate Total Cost:

12/16/2020 – Commander Legends and breaking the Mirror
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With the release of Jeweled Lotus, another Wheel effect and a mana ritual that doubles as pseudo card draw, it's probably safe to say that this is the last big update for this list in the year of 2020. I still hope for Jeweled Lotus getting banned, but it's probably not going to happen, so playing it is the best thing to do. For now, Boros Signet is replaced by it, but will be slotted back in if the Lotus gets hammered. Mirage Mirror was a flex slot from the beginning and the line with it was wonky at best. Sure, it could copy an opposing Thrasios, Triton Hero for a surprise win, bun in the end Wheel of Misfortune will hopefully do a better (consistent) job. Fellwar Stone... honestly, how often do we run into other cEDH decks with red/white in it? It's probably safer to replace the card with a mana ritual that punishes lots of card draw and is able to create another Breach line if Lion's Eye Diamond isn't available and Jeska's Will does that.
12/16/2020 Changes
Approximate Total Cost:

I have moved the Mirage Mirror line here for future reference:
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall
With Basalt Monolith/Grim Monolith and Zirda already on the battlefield we sometimes are in a situation of having infinite mana, but no outlet for it, so we are in a weird spot. Mirage Mirror is another possible outlet to fix this kind of problem, but is also good on its own. Combined with the following card on the other hand, it can be a real powerhouse:
Codex Shredder
Let me explain how Mirror combos with Shredder and either Monolith:
  1. Activate copy ability, targeting Monolith, hold priority, activate copy ability, targeting Shredder, hold priority, activate copy ability, targeting Monolith again, hold priority, activate copy ability, targeting Shredder again, hold priority... Repeat this an infinite number of times.
  2. Let the last copy ability on the stack resolve, so the Mirror becomes a copy of Shredder for the first time now (you won't be able to copy anything else again after that in this turn, so be careful).
  3. Activate the first activated ability of Shredder.
  4. Let the ability resolve, then let the next copy ability resolve, Mirror is now a Monolith.
  5. Activate the untap ability and let it resolve, then let the next copy ability resolve, the untapped Mirage Mirror is now a copy of Shredder again.
  6. Repeat this process until you have milled your wincon into your graveyard. Then get it out with Shredder's second activated ability, cast it and win.
09/15/2020 – Zendikar Rising Changes
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After a lot of discussion, Gorilla Shaman and Sword of Fire and Ice have to go. Gorilla Shaman I thought would be nice with Zirda, destroying 1 and 0 cost mana rocks for just {1}, but I don't want to have Zirda out before the combo turn normally. Vandalblast will take its place.
Sword of Fire and Ice... it's just not a cEDH card, I fear. Yes, it was the best card in the Playing With Power video, but I might have seen things through rose-colored glasses back then. Attacking just to draw a card when connecting isn't worth it. The added bonus of protection from red and blue is cool and shooting 2 damage at a target each time is nice as well... just not in cEDH. I will replace it with a card that sounds even more wonky at first: Mirage Mirror. It's a flex slot for testing purpose, so it's not final that this card stays in, but my reasoning behind this is:
Whenever I have infinite mana already, but no outlet, I wish that I could do something with it. And Mirage Mirror, paired with infinite mana (plus the chance to untap it, when it becomes a copy of a Monolith) is great. Not only can I copy an opponent's Thrasios, Triton Hero with it to draw my deck in search of wincons, I can also utilize some of the more overlooked cards in my list like Codex Shredder, Mikokoro, Center of the Sea or Geier Reach Sanitarium with it, for a win (will explain the basic line in a few seconds), plus I can copy my own Stax pieces in each opponent's upkeep for added staxing, while on my own turn I'm less affected by them.
Combo line with Mirage Mirror + infinite mana from a Basalt Monolith/Grim Monolith and one of the three cards I mentioned before (called X) is:
Activate copy ability, targeting X, hold priority, activate copy ability, targeting Monolith, hold priority, targeting X again, hold priority, targeting Monolith again. Repeat this an infinite number of times.
Let the last copy ability on the stack resolve, so the Mirror becomes a copy of X for the first time now (you won't be able to copy anything else again after that in this turn, so be careful).
Activate the activated ability of X (for Shredder, it should be the first one, use the card draw ability of one of the lands).
Let the ability resolve, then let the next copy ability resolve, Mirror is now one of the Monoliths.
Activate the untap ability and let it resolve, then let the next copy ability resolve, the untapped Mirage Mirror is now a copy of X again.
Repeat this process until you have drawn into the wincon or have it milled into your graveyard. If milled, get it out with Shredder's second activated ability, if drawn, let the whole stack resolve, cast it and win. Be careful with Mikokoro and Geier Reach, though, your opponents will draw cards with them as well, so a backup Silence or Ranger-Captain of Eos are adviced in these lines.

Needleverge Pathway // Pillarverge Pathway will replace a Mountain.
Valakut Awakening // Valakut Stoneforge will replace Alms Collector.

09/10/2020 Changes
Approximate Total Cost:

08/27/2020 – Key for Protection
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Removed Voltaic Key as it isn't needed anymore after cutting Rings of Brighthearth, added Rebuff the Wicked because it is another 1-mana counterspell that protects crucial pieces from things that aren't exclusively blue.
Put the description for Voltaic Key into the Cards to Consider section.
08/27/2020 Changes
Approximate Total Cost:

08/16/2020 – Rings Lines had to go
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Removed Rings of Brighthearth and Oblation for Flame Sweep and Angelic Ascension. With the removal of Rings, I'm going to move the Rings combos here for future reference:
[*]Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth – To start this combo, we need an additional 2. Tap Basalt Monolith, untap it for 3 and copy the untap ability. Tap it again after the first untap, so we end up with 3 in your mana pool and an untapped Basalt Monolith. Repeat this for infinite colorless.
Two Rings to Activate them All
With infinite mana, Rings of Brighthearth becomes a powerhouse that can be used to create additional infinite combos that will result in a win.
With Codex Shredder we can copy Shredder's ability to get a card and Shredder itself back from the graveyard. Yes, that means, we can cast Shredder again and get every single card back from our graveyard to our hand.
If we add Voltaic Key to that, we can mill ourselves out completely by tapping Shredder to mill ourselves, then use Voltaic Key to untap Codex Shredder and itself. And after that, we can return all the cards we need to our hand.
Or if we add Mind Stone, we can draw a card, retrieve it with Codex Shredder and go on with that, until we have drawn our deck.
With Rings of Brighthearth and infinite mana Sensei's Divining Top becomes a "Draw your deck" card as well.
08/16/2020 Changes
Approximate Total Cost:

08/14/2020 – We don't need the help of a God
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Fixed some wrong card link issues in the primer and made some changes to the list again, after helpful input from reddit. Moved the cut cards into the
"Cards to consider" section and removed Gorilla Shaman and Sword of Fire and Ice from it, because they are in the deck now.
08/14/2020 Changes
Approximate Total Cost:

With Heliod, this section in the primer will be taken out, but I'm keeping it here in the Changelog for future reference:
Gods and their Gats
We don't need infinite mana to assemble a win with Walking Ballista, although it's quite expensive to do so manually. We need Heliod, Sun-Crowned out and at least another 5W to cast Ballista for x=2, then give it Lifelink with Heliod and use Ballista's ability to ping our opponents down.
08/04/2020 – The first testing
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Played two games vs. Food Chain Sliver and updated the Match-ups & Weaknesses section with my experience from these games
07/31/2020 – Functioning list
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By Function deck list is created
07/30/2020 – It's here
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Deck updated to latest version; primer is live
Last edited by KitsuLeif 1 year ago, edited 82 times in total.

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darrenhabib
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Post by darrenhabib » 4 years ago

KitsuLeif wrote:
4 years ago
darrenhabib, see, I made a thread. Happy now? :D
I am indeed. I think this list has real potential to win games.

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Post by KitsuLeif » 3 years ago

I still wasn't able to test the list, but I decided that I want to write a primer for it nonetheless. So I designed a cringy header and when I find some time, I will begin to write the primer for it.
Also, I want to run Sequestered Stash for more recursion. Probably I will replace a Mountain with it.

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Post by KitsuLeif » 3 years ago


The Zirda list in this video shared a lot of similarities with my own and I decided to take some inspiration from it. I don't want to play the whole equipment-package, but I replaced some cards in my list and added a Sunforger, because I think it is a great addition for the deck.

I also began writing the primer a while ago and finally I feel pretty content with the list right now, so I will move on to the SCD section in the primer soon. (Still wasn't able to test the list, though.)

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Post by benjameenbear » 3 years ago

That header tho... hilarious.

I actually watched that video you referenced and I think it's a great case of poor threat assessment. Kinnan came into the game with bias which allowed Zirda to pull ahead. I felt like Zirda was able to just constantly dump their hand without fear of reprisal or interaction and, after a certain point, just had too many resources to take down.

HOWEVER, I noticed the suffocating amount of Stax pieces and gave it a nod. cEDH lists can get overwhelmed with Stax pieces, so I think maintaining a heavy Stax element will be useful in breaking the advantages that Dimir based lists have over any other non Dimir list. So, I like your base and approve of it. I don't know how to find more Card Advantage in these colors though, but that was the pressing issue I saw from the video linked.

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Post by KitsuLeif » 3 years ago

Glad you like the header :D

Should I play even more stax pieces? Armageddon maybe or a Grafdigger's Cage?

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Post by benjameenbear » 3 years ago

With the banning of Flash, Grafdigger's Cage isn't as mandatory as a Stax piece anymore. The suite you have is excellent, frankly, and the only thing I'd suggest is maybe adding in a small equipment subtheme. Sword of Fire and Ice was the MVP of the Youtube video you linked and I think it's totally worth including in the list. But I think that would require a restructuring of the decklist. Conqueror's Flail also looks like a great way to ensure your combo turn and would lean into the equipment theme as well.

Also, I think that replacing the Mandate of Peace with Aurelia's Fury is a safe switch in the list while adding another outlet for infinite mana.

Mentor of the Meek looks like a decent way to get a card advantage engine going. And with the new update to Commander dies triggers, Skullclamp is actually a viable method of card draw again as well.

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Post by KitsuLeif » 3 years ago

I don't think I want to go with a real equipment sub-theme, even though I like Sword of Fire and Ice and Conqueror's Flail.

Mandate of Peace is castable with Sunforger, but Aurelia's Fury is another game-ender. I don't know which one I prefer. I guess, I'll have to test the list, once I get all the cards for it and then decide which one is more worth to be played.

I didn't think of Mentor of the Meek yet, but it seems to be decent in this list indeed with most of the creatures meeting his trigger condition. The question is, what do I want to cut for him? Pyroclasm maybe?

Also, I replaced Serra Ascendant with Goblin Matron for tutoring out Goblin Engineer/Goblin Welder.

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Post by benjameenbear » 3 years ago

Maybe Pyroclasm or Karn, the Great Creator? It's tough because your list is really tight.

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Post by KitsuLeif » 3 years ago

Then Pyroclasm it is. I love Karn for being artifact hate and also for being a way to get my exiled artifacts back if everything else fails.


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Post by KitsuLeif » 3 years ago

Took me a while, but finally the primer is created. I hope, you like it.

Also, can anyone please tell me, how I can link the borderless full-art Containment Priest from Jesper Ejsing with [cardimg]? I don't find the right code. |M21 just links the boring normal version.
EDIT: Found it. Someone should write a little tutorial for this kind of stuff here...

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Post by KitsuLeif » 3 years ago

And I played my first two games with this list! My opponents was a Food Chain Sliver, the same player and deck that has slain me a few weeks ago with an outdated version of Zirda. Oh, how the turns have tabled...

I kept a 6-card hand and my opponent started with 7. No problem, because Turn 1 I played Ancient Tomb and used Simian Spirit Guide to Wheel of Fortune for 7 new cards. That already messed with Sliver's plans quite well.
Next turn I played Grim Monolith and Lotus Petal. From the Monolith I cast Trinisphere to shut Sliver down further. They had a rather explosive start but fortunately for me, my Stax plan worked out. At some point they used Vampiric Tutor to search for Abrupt Decay to get rid of my Trinisphere. I just sat there and grinned, when I used my Codex Shredder on them.
But I was short on mana as well, so I needed to do something. I used Recruiter of the Guard tutoring up Dockside Extortionist (I already had Staff of Domination in my hand) and created a measly 2(!!!) Treasure Tokens with it. But that was enough to cast Zirda, the Dawnwaker and untap Grim Monolith next turn, going infinite. Then I used Staff for drawing my deck and won with Goblin Cannon (their Extract exiled my Walking Ballista the turn before).

Second game, I started with another 6-card hand. And it wasn't optimal either. I kept it, because it had a Plains, Geier Reach Sanitarium and Sphere of Resistance in it, which is awesome to shut the Food Chain combo down. I played Sphere on turn 2, only to get it bounced two turns later by Chain of Vapor. I drew into Smothering Tithe and cast it. My opponent was unexperienced and they played Timetwister on their turn. And suddenly I had a lot of mana. I used most of it to cast stuff like Drannith Magistrate, Sensei's Divining Top and then used Top to find Wheel of Fortune, drew it and used my last three Treasure Tokens to cast it. And I had mana and cards to play again :D
But still no combo piece. At least I found a Serra Ascendant and a few turns later a Heliod, Sun-Crowned. My Blood Moon kept the Sliver player from doing anything and I had a lot of time to win with simple beatdown. I was sceptical about Serra Ascendant before, but now I think, it's a good inclusion.

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Post by benjameenbear » 3 years ago

Congrats on the win! It seems like these were strictly 1v1 games, which Stax decks are heavily favored towards. Any game/experiences in a multi-player setting? I'm revising my Memnarch Primer myself and am critically looking at specific Stax pieces, so I'm generally curious about multi-player Stax effects. My wife's Kaalia deck is already a known commodity to me, but I'm intrigued by outside experiences as well.

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Post by KitsuLeif » 3 years ago

Yeah, it was 1v1.
I didn't have had any multiplayer-games yet, but hopefully my new EDH group warms up to the idea of trying out cEDH, so I can play Zirda in a multi-player setting without having to look for strangers over the internet.
Also, there are other Stax pieces I want to try, like Aura of Silence for example, because it only affects opponents and can act as removal for a Combo piece.
Alms Collector could act as an anti-wheel effect and as such as a Narset, Parter of Veils replacement in our colors.

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Post by KitsuLeif » 3 years ago

After a lot of consideration and help from reddit, I made the following changes to the list:
08/14/2020 Changes
Approximate Total Cost:

I'm still pondering if I should keep Rings of Brighthearth in or not. At the moment I don't have a lot of other options I want to play instead of it, but knowing that it can be a dead card sometimes doesn't feel good :/

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Post by benjameenbear » 3 years ago

I like the changes. And the Primer is looking quite lovely too. Is Oblation really that important? I would think that By Force or Vandalblast would perform the same role of removal but with slightly more relevance.

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Post by KitsuLeif » 3 years ago

benjameenbear wrote:
3 years ago
I like the changes. And the Primer is looking quite lovely too. Is Oblation really that important? I would think that By Force or Vandalblast would perform the same role of removal but with slightly more relevance.
Thank you :D
Someone on reddit said the following:
Finally, I'd recommend some universal answers that can hit Null Rod, Collector Ouphe, and Karn, the Great Creator, as well as responses to Thassa's Oracle besides countering the oracle (which is useless if it's Dread Returned). Oblation and Unexpectedly Absent are two examples of cards that can fulfill both categories.


And it totally makes sense to me to have some kind of instant-speed removal for Karn, Ouphe or Oracle, so I want to give it a try at least.

EDIT: I just got another suggestion what to play instead of Oblation. Angelic Ascension. Totally forgot about that card being a thing.
And I'm replacing Rings of Brighthearth with Flame Sweep for now, I think. Get's rid of Ouphe as well :D

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Post by KitsuLeif » 3 years ago

Commander Legends gives Zirda a new toy in form of a Crowd Land: Spectator Seating. I'm not quite sure what it will replace (can't decide between a basic or Inspiring Vantage) but it will go in the deck for sure! Can't wait for more goodies in Commander Legends!
Also... was the name for Spectator Seating chosen on purpose, because Boros is often just a spectator in EDH, because they are so weak?

Also with removing Rings of Brighthearth, I feel like Voltaic Key becomes useless as well. The only things I might want to untap with it are Basalt Monolith/Grim Monolith (both combo with Zirda anyway) and maybe Boros Signet, Mana Crypt, Mana Vault and Sol Ring. Maybe another Stax piece can take its place?

EDIT: Rebuff the Wicked is a card I didn't know about, until a few minutes ago. And because I don't want to play Burnout anymore, because it is too limiting, this card sounds like a perfect replacement. It's better than Lapse of Certainty (2W is a lot) and Mana Tithe (because who won't pay the 1?).

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Post by WolfWhoWanders » 3 years ago

Seen this deck (or one similar to it) out in the wild a couple times. Seems pretty good and refreshing from all the striving for Oracle wins. I wondered if book of rass could be a consideration as an infinite Mana outlet. Obviously you can't completely draw your deck with it but it could certainly help dig for the win
Responds well to spells and abilities

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Post by KitsuLeif » 3 years ago

@WolfWhoWanders
Book of Rass would be awesome if it didn't cost 6 to play. Without infinite mana, 6 is oftentimes too much to spend on and if we do we didn't get a single activation out of it, yet. Best case scenario is that you have Zirda out and only pay 1 and 2 life for drawing a card, but that's still 7 and 2 life for a single card, 8 and 4 life for the second and so on. I fear that it will be a dead card most of the time (and I really don't want to play a lot of dead cards). In comparison to Diviner's Wand and Staff of Domination it's soo clunky and it doesn't even draw the entire deck with infinite mana. So no, not a huge fan of Book of Rass.

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Post by WolfWhoWanders » 3 years ago

KitsuLeif wrote:
3 years ago
@WolfWhoWanders
Book of Rass would be awesome if it didn't cost 6 to play. Without infinite mana, 6 is oftentimes too much to spend on and if we do we didn't get a single activation out of it, yet. Best case scenario is that you have Zirda out and only pay 1 and 2 life for drawing a card, but that's still 7 and 2 life for a single card, 8 and 4 life for the second and so on. I fear that it will be a dead card most of the time (and I really don't want to play a lot of dead cards). In comparison to Diviner's Wand and Staff of Domination it's soo clunky and it doesn't even draw the entire deck with infinite mana. So no, not a huge fan of Book of Rass.
I totally see that, it just seems like the infinite mana combos are fairly easy to assemble and perhaps all you need is some oomph to draw into your real wincon. Staff/wand definitely seem like the way to go once hit. I dunno, I have never tried the deck as a pilot just seen it as an observer. The list looks pretty tight as is, and maybe not any room for a possibly dead mana sink like book of rass.

EDIT: grammar
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Post by KitsuLeif » 3 years ago

Updated the primer again, removed Voltaic Key and added Rebuff the Wicked.

Next Update will probably be the review for Zendikar Rising, when the full set is spoiled.

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Post by benjameenbear » 3 years ago

It looks like the set is pretty promising for the Boros LEgion. The fact that they printed a White creature card that legit says "draw a card" is pretty awesome. Otherwise, Rebuff the Wicked should do a decent impression of a Counterspell for your list.

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Post by KitsuLeif » 3 years ago

benjameenbear wrote:
3 years ago
It looks like the set is pretty promising for the Boros LEgion. The fact that they printed a White creature card that legit says "draw a card" is pretty awesome.
I'm not yet sold on that. Farsight Adept is just a worse Wall of Omens and I obviously don't want to play that one^^°
Needleverge Pathway // Pillarverge Pathway on the other hand looks super cool.

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