Ezuri, Claw of Progress - Compleation Compleat - Write-up In Progress

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Guerte
Posts: 73
Joined: 5 years ago
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Post by Guerte » 5 years ago

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Introduction


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Deck History


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Why play Ezuri?

Cost:

Power/Toughness:

Abilities:
You might like Ezuri if:
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2)
3)
4)
5)

You might dislike Ezuri if:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
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Other Possible Commanders:
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The Deck

Ezuri - Compleation Compleat

//Commander (1):

//Artifacts (5):

Approximate Total Cost:

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Card Analysis

While there are many options for cards that could be included in a deck, there is only room for 100. In the spoiler below, I will give a card-by-card explanation as to why I specifically chose to have a certain card in in the deck.
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Creatures

Walking Ballista: Ballista is our Swiss Army knife of sorts. With enough mana, or a few experience counters, we can control a board full of little guys for a while. We do have the ability to generate infinite experience counters, and with that, we can ping the entire board to death.

Arbor Elf/Birds of Paradise/Elvish Mystic/Fyndhorn Elves/Llanowar Elves: Our 1-CMC mana dorks. These guys help power out all of our spells, and enable us for a turn three Ezuri. All but one of these are Elf creatures, so they will also help power up Priest of Titania/Elvish Archdruid.

Joraga Treespeaker: Another mana dork. She takes an additional 1G in order for her to start creating mana, but after that initial investment, she makes GG. If you have mana to spare, you can keep leveling her up in order for all Elves to generate GG.

Joraga Warcaller: One of our Elf lords. With Ezuri out, you only really want to use his Multikicker once in order to get an Experience counter. You can continue to dump +1/+1 counters on him from Ezuri, and in turn he will boost all of your Elf creatures.

Mausoleum Wanderer/Siren Stormtamer/Sylvan Safekeeper:

Shrieking Drake: This guy is an experience-generating monster! As long as you have blue mana open, you can keep bouncing him repeatedly to gain experience. He is part of a combo, which will be discussed in the Combo section below.

Wirewood Symbiote: We use this card to untap one of our mana dorks that produce a ton of mana in order to cast more spells. However, we can also use it to protect Ezuri or another Elf in a pinch. Returning an Elf is the cost to activate the ability, so it can't be responded to, which means we can protect any Elf without fear of them playing another piece of removal.

Devoted Druid: A mana dork that deals in counters. She can tap for GG on her own by adding a -1/-1 counter to untap herself. When you add Ezuri into the mix with a bunch of experience counters, she can tap for far more than that.

Duskwatch Recruiter:

Eladamri, Lord of Leaves: Another Elf lord, although he does something a bit different. He doesn't boost power/toughness like a normal lord does. He grants forestwalk, but more importantly, shroud. He protects Ezuri and our other Elves from spells and abilities that target. Do note, however, the Ezuri's ability also targets, so you won't be able to target an Elf to add counters to as long as Eladamri is out.

Fauna Shaman: Survival of the Fittest on a body. One of the downfalls of her ability is that she has to tap, so you cannot activate her the turn she comes down, and is therefore susceptible to removal. If she does stick, she can tutor for any creature in your deck at the cost of one creature from your hand. Most of the time she will try to go for Sage of Hours in order to go for the win, but she can tutor up whatever you need for the situation at hand.

Incubation Druid:

Kiora's Follower: Follower can untap any permanent, whether it's Gaea's Cradle, Priest of Titania, Birthing Pod, or even a creature for a surprise blocker.

Plaxmanta: Another key piece to our protection suite. Grants all creatures shroud, and is a creature so it can trigger Ezuri if he is out.

Priest of Titania/Elvish Archdruid/Marwyn, the Nurturer: Our big-mana producing dorks. Titania adds mana for each Elf on the battlefield, Archdruid adds mana for each Elf you control, and Marwyn adds mana equal to her power. Her power grows each time an Elf enters under our control, and Ezuri can increase her power with counters.

Sage of Hours: Our main win condition. Once we have four experience counters and Ezuri out, we can get him onto the battlefield, gain our 5th experience, head to combat, add the counters and then take an extra turn. If left unanswered, we can take an infinite amount of turns, and slowly build up our army, and swing for lethal.

Sakura-Tribe Elder/Wood Elves: Our land-fetching creatures. Not much to be said about these, except they gives us mana in the form of lands, which are most of the time longer lasting than creatures. They will also trigger Ezuri upon entering.

Vedalken Aethermage: Mainly used to tutor for Sage of Hours, but it can also grab Sylvan Safekeeper, Cephalid Constable, and Fathom Mage. It is also almost uncounterable, as it is an ability, and would need a Stifle-like effect for it to be countered.

Cold-Eyed Selkie: Card draw creature. In order to draw, we have to connect with damage. It has islandwalk, so this helps a little bit if anyone has an Islandout. With enough counters on it, however, we can draw an absurd amount of cards, especially if we are able to make it unblockable another way in case the islandwalk ability won't work.

Eternal Witness: A staple card for the green color. Regrowth on a 2/2 body for 1GG is nothing to scoff at. She can be tutored up via one of our many available tutors. Ideally, we'd want to save her in case one of our win conditions ends up in the graveyard.

Manglehorn/Reclamation Sage/Viridian Corrupter: Our ETB artifact removal. Sage will also hit enchantments, while Manglehorn causes all opponents artifacts to enter tapped. This is especially useful for any artifact ramp or artifacts that require tapping to activate.

Sage of Fables:

Trygon Predator: Another piece of artifact/enchantment removal. It will have to deal combat damage in order to remove something, but it has built-in evasion in the form of Flying, so it shouldn't be too difficult to connect.

Yisan, the Wanderer Bard: Another tutor for us, Yisan is a different kind of tutor. He can only tutor creatures based on the number of verse counters on him. With one verse counter, we usually want to find some sort of cheap protection such as Wirewood Symbiote or Sylvan Safekeeper. If protection isn't needed, we can access a mana dork or another utility creature. On two verse counters, we will almost always want to grab Sage of Hours, as long as have enough experience counters to take an extra turn. On three verse counters and on, we will usually just grab whatever it is we need, whether it's more ramp, removal, evasion, protection, draw, etc.

Beast Whisperer: One of the newest additions to the deck. We run a high creature count, so we can essentially draw a good amount of cards off of this guy. It's also nice to not have to go to combat like you would if we ran Edric, Spymaster of Trest or something similar.

Fathom Mage: Fathom Mage is the ideal draw engine in this deck. Our deck is based on +1/+1 counters, and so is her draw ability. She also has Evolve, so she will gain a few counters and card draws off of that alone, but when we have a high number of experience counters, she can draw a ton of cards.

Glen Elendra Archmage:

Mystic Snake: Counter spell on a body. Will trigger Ezuri if he's out and counter a spell at the same time. Can be tutored via Chord of Calling/Yisan, the Wanderer Bard directly to the battlefield for a surprise counter.

Spike Weaver: Weaver is our combat damage prevention technician. As long as we can keep putting counters on him and leaving up enough mana, we can fog all combat until we find a way to win the game.

Whirler Rogue: Rogue is currently a flex spot in the deck for me. It can gain us three experience counters, gives us flying attackers/blockers, and allows some unblockability, but other than that, doesn't do much else.

Cultivator of Blades: Another combat win condition. With the Fabricate ability, we get three experience counters. This in turn will give our creatures +4/+4 during combat with Cultivator alone, but by the time he comes down, we should have more than 3 experience.

Craterhoof Behemoth: The big game ender. Craterhoof gives all of our creatures +X/+X for each creature we control on the battlefield. If that wasn't enough, he also gives them trample, so the excess damage will go through. We can easily tutor him out with Chord of Calling or Natural Order, making him the perfect way to end a game, especially with the number of creatures we run.

Artifacts

Mana Crypt/Sol Ring/Simic Signet: The mana rocks of the deck. Crypt/Ring will allow us to facilitate a turn 2 Ezuri, while Signet will allow for turn 3, unless combined with one of the other two rocks or Ancient Tomb.

Skullclamp: We run a lot of x/1 creatures, between mana dorks and tokens that can be produced, so this will be good card draw for us.

Birthing Pod: Another tutor card that will bring the creature directly to the battlefield. You are able to search for a creature that has CMC equal to the sacrificed creature's CMC +1, so we are limited in our choices, so it's a great idea to know exactly what you have in your deck to see if you even have a tutor option left.

Sorceries


Instants


Enchantments


Lands

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Strategy

1) Mulligans:

2) Early Game:

3) Mid Game:

4) Late Game:
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Weaknesses of Ezuri


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Combos


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Changelog

SPOILER
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12-17-15:
OUT:
Gyre Sage
Sage of Fables
Master Biomancer
Hardened Scales
Greater Good

IN:
Kiora's Follower
Edric, Spymaster of Trest
Ohran Viper
Patagia Viper
Whiler Rogue

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1-6-16:
OUT:
Bramblewood Paragon
Fertilid
Ohran Viper
Whirler Rogue
Aluren

IN:
Llanowar Elves
Sage of Fables
Harmonize
Shamanic Revelation
Arachnogenesis

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2-24-16:
OUT:
Prophet of Kruphix
Skullwinder
Cloud of Faeries

IN:
Joraga Warcaller
Mycoloth
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar

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8-25-18:
OUT:
Arachnogenesis
Avenger of Zendikar
Bane of Progress
Champion of Lambholt
City of Brass
Cloudstone Curio
Crystal Shard
Deadeye Navigator
Den Protector
Elvish Visionary
Glen Elendra Archmage
Harmonize
Island x2
Mana Confluence
Mindless Automaton
Mycoloth
Oracle of Mul Daya
Prime Speaker Zegana
Reflecting Pool
Reliquary Tower
Sage of Fables
Shamanic Revelation
Tezzeret's Gambit
Riptide Laboratory
Viridian Zealot
Zameck Guildmage

IN:
Animation Module
Botanical Sanctum
Bred for the Hunt
Cephalid Constable
Coiling Oracle
Dense Foliage
Eldritch Evolution
Farhaven Elf
Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury
Growing Rites of Itlimoc
Gyre Sage
Herald of Secret Streams
Heroic Intervention
Lifecrafter's Bestiary
Mana Drain
Manglehorn
Plaxmanta
Rishkar, Peema Renegade
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Skullclamp
Squirrel Nest
Temple of Mystery
Triumph of the Hordes
Vedalken AEthermage
Walking Ballista
Whirler Rogue
Wood Elves

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12-5-18:
OUT:
Acidic Slime
Animation Module
Bred for the Hunt
Coiling Oracle
Crop Rotation
Edric, Spymaster of Trest
Herald of Secret Streams
Lifecrafter's Bestiary
Patagia Viper
Primal Command
Temple of Mystery

IN:
Arbor Elf
Beast Whisperer
Bloom Tender
Cultivator of Blades
Eladamri, Lord of Leaves
Fauna Shaman
Marwyn, the Nurturer
Rogue's Passage
Sylvan Safekeeper
Wirewood Symbiote
Yisan, the Wanderer Rogue

Changed a few things around. Add more creatures to help with a protection suite, and others for more creature ramp. Marwyn is for more ramp, Whisperer for non-combat card draw, Yisan to help tutor creatures, and Cultivator for more experience, and as another win condition.

I removed the other cards as they have been lackluster in recent games online.

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1-13-19:
OUT:
Bloom Tender
Gyre Sage

IN:
Sage of Fables
Glen Elendra Archmage

Removing these particular mana dorks as they are subpar compared to the others. Adding in Sage of Fables and Glen Elendra Archmage for their synergy with the deck, but also with each other, as Glen will come back with a +1/+1 counter which will negate the persist counter; makes her a great blocker and good at counter things, provided you have the mana.

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5/23/19:

OUT:
Cephalid Constable
Farhaven Elf
Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
Rishkar, Peema Renegade
Rogue's Passage
Thrummingbird
Triumph of the Hordes

IN:
Duskwatch Recruiter
Incubation Druid
Lazotep Plating
Mausoleum Wanderer
Neoform
Siren Stormtamer
Viridian Corrupter
Wirewood Lodge

From RNA, all I decided to add was Incubation Druid. It's far better than Bloom Tender, as it can produce 3 mana vs 2, and it isn't all to difficult to get activate it.

From WAR, I am adding in Neoform and Lazotep Plating. Neoform is another creature tutor that will add a +1/+1 counter, so if we're only at 3 experience, we can Neoform into Sage of Hours, get our fourth XP counter, and then we will be at five counters for the extra turns to being. Plating is another way to protect our creatures and ourselves, and it will also give us a token which will in turn give us another XP counter!

Wanderer and Stormtamer are cheap creatures, evasive beaters, and can also counter things, so what's not to like about them in here. Duskwatch will help us dig into creatures, and Wirewood Lodge will help us ramp with our Archdruid/Titania.

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8/12/19:

OUT:
Forest

IN:
Waterlogged Grove

Swapped out lands. I can't remember if there were more changes than this off hand, but will update once I am able to double check.
Last edited by Guerte 4 years ago, edited 3 times in total.
Current Commanders:
Mono2 Color3+Color
Daretti Primer Omnath Yarok
Gonti Primer Ezuri Aminatou

User avatar
Guerte
Posts: 73
Joined: 5 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by Guerte » 4 years ago

8/12/19:

OUT:
Forest

IN:
Waterlogged Grove

Swapped out lands. I can't remember if there were more changes than this off hand, but will update once I am able to double check.
Current Commanders:
Mono2 Color3+Color
Daretti Primer Omnath Yarok
Gonti Primer Ezuri Aminatou

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benjameenbear
Posts: 1136
Joined: 5 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by benjameenbear » 4 years ago

Do Sower of Temptation and Venser, Shaper Savant not do enough for the deck? They seem reliable, synergistic ways to trigger Ezuri while maintaining some semblance of Board Control.

User avatar
Guerte
Posts: 73
Joined: 5 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by Guerte » 4 years ago

benjameenbear wrote:
4 years ago
Do Sower of Temptation and Venser, Shaper Savant not do enough for the deck? They seem reliable, synergistic ways to trigger Ezuri while maintaining some semblance of Board Control.
I more or less overlooked them. I play them in other decks, and they do work there, so they same could be said for here.

I am definitely looking to swap some cards around to make room for Collector Ouphe, so I could make some changes to include these.

Any ideas on what you think would be safe cuts? I'm thinking Eladamri for one, as the shroud tends to hurt if I only have elves out..
Current Commanders:
Mono2 Color3+Color
Daretti Primer Omnath Yarok
Gonti Primer Ezuri Aminatou

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