Aesi, Tyrant of Tables

[benjameenbear]

Following in the footsteps of the cEDH style Tatyova, Benthic Druid decks that have risen in popularity, this deck is a Simic Control deck that utilizes lands to wield a ton of control. There's also a healthy dose of Stax in the deck to help break down the table as well.

Decklist

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Commander

1 Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait

Mana Sources (15)

1 Mana Crypt

1 Jeweled Lotus

1 Chrome Mox

1 Mox Diamond

1 Mana Vault

1 Sol Ring

1 Carpet of Flowers

1 Exploration

1 Arboreal Grazer

1 Lotus Cobra

1 Three Visits

1 Nature's Lore

1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking

1 Harrow

1 Oracle of Mul Daya

Combo Pieces (6)

1 Sakura-Tribe Scout

1 Llanowar Scout

1 Walking Atlas

1 Retreat to Coralhelm

1 Walk the Aeons

1 Nexus of Fate

Tutor Effects (5)

1 Elvish Reclaimer

1 Crop Rotation

1 Green Sun's Zenith

1 Mystical Tutor

1 Intuition

Stax/Utility Pieces (11)

1 Grafdigger's Cage

1 Overburden

1 Mana Breach

1 Back to Basics

1 Hullbreacher

1 Narset, Parter of Veils

1 Words of Wind

1 Ramunap Excavator

1 Eternal Witness

1 Crucible of Worlds

1 Scapeshift

Card Draw (12)

1 Mystic Remora

1 Brainstorm

1 Preordain

1 Sylvan Library

1 Trade Routes

1 Growth Spiral

1 Life from the Loam

1 Ghostly Flicker

1 Windfall

1 Tatyova, Benthic Druid

1 Sea Gate Restoration // Sea Gate, Reborn

1 Turntimber Symbiosis // Turntimber, Serpentine Wood

Removal (7)

1 Nature's Claim

1 Rapid Hybridization

1 Chain of Vapor

1 Gilded Drake

1 Reality Shift

1 Cyclonic Rift

1 Oko, Thief of Crowns

Counterspells (10)

1 Swan Song

1 Mental Misstep

1 Veil of Summer

1 Negate

1 Counterspell

1 Mana Drain

1 Arcane Denial

1 Disallow

1 Force of Negation

1 Force of Will

Lands (33)

1 Field of the Dead

1 Ancient Tomb

1 Blast Zone

1 Sunscorched Desert

1 Strip Mine

1 Mystic Sanctuary

1 Cephalid Coliseum

1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds

1 Simic Growth Chamber

1 Flooded Strand

1 Misty Rainforest

1 Polluted Delta

1 Wooded Foothills

1 Scalding Tarn

1 Verdant Catacombs

1 Prismatic Vista

1 Command Tower

1 Waterlogged Grove

1 Flooded Grove

1 Breeding Pool

1 Tropical Island

1 Hinterland Harbor

1 Rejuvenating Springs

7 Island

3 Forest

Approximate Total Cost:

Combos of note:

• Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait/Tatyova, Benthic Druid + Words of Wind + Llanowar Scout/Sakura-Tribe Scout/Walking Atlas + Retreat to Coralhelm = Return all opponent's permanents to their hand
• Crucible of Worlds/Ramunap Excavator + Azusa, Lost but Seeking and/or Exploration/Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait + Walk the Aeons = Infinite turns

[darrenhabib]

With Overburden and Mana Breach I would try and cut people off artifact mana as well.
With the ability to play out lands more than opponents you can afford to shift the deck towards more stax elements.
I would include Collector Ouphe and even look at Null Rod.

Honestly when it comes to cEDH you can't not pack a Mental Mistep. Stopping a Chain of Vapor or Swords to Plowshares or Pyroblast at your Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait just give you another level of protection and obviously great at stopping turn one plays.
I would play Dispel over Disallow

With extra turn cards and there are already some available infinites.
Temporal Manipulation + Trade Routes + Mystic Sanctuary = infinite turns
Temporal Manipulation + Ramunap Excavator/Crucible of Worlds + Aesi + Mystic Sanctuary + Strip Mine = infinite turns
Temporal Manipulation + Overburden/Mana Breach + Mystic Sanctuary = extra turn for each creature you play

I like the idea of using Sea Gate Restoration // Sea Gate, Reborn and Turntimber Symbiosis // Turntimber, Serpentine Wood as lands early and then with all the return lands to hand cards you can turn these into spells.
I'd take out Dryad Arbor and Alchemist's Refuge for these. I know you can Turn 1 Green Sun's Zenith for Dryad but I always disappointed in a Dryad deck without Natural Order.

Technically you want a few Snow-Covered basics for Field of the Dead.

[benjameenbear]

@darrenhabib Good suggestions. Crafting the Stax suite was actually a struggle since there are quite a few good ones now. I considered the artifact hate via Collector Ouphe and Null Rod but couldn't find spots to squeeze them in. Any suggestions for cuts?

I was between Flusterstorm and Mental Misstep when I was initially brewing the list but the free protection from the plethora of 1 CMC removal/bounce spells is probably more important. Easy swap.

I'm content with the turn spells I have. All the synergies you list with Temporal Manipulation can be done with Walk the Aeons as well

Including the modal land spell cards is a great idea, totally forgot about those as I was brewing. Bala Ged Recovery // Bala Ged Sanctuary is another solid option as recursion that I'd consider as well.

Honestly, this has been a surprisingly challenging deck to craft because there are so many good synergies for this type of Commander.

[pokken]

I'd cut chrome mox for ouphe personally. It's not that great in this deck. most tatyova decks don't run it iirc.

I also suspect this deck should play muddle the mixture. Most 2c cedh decks should tho. Not far from uncounterable grim tutor that doubles as a bad counterspell.

[UnNamed1]

The deck is strong but I'm not sure it's cEDH level. There are multiple cards I'm questioning simply as a cEDH strategy.

Harrow - Why not Crop Rotation? I see that I'm blind....

Oracle of Mul Daya - 4 CMC is a lot for the effect it gives you. Especially since one of the effects is negative. You want to avoid giving your opponents information, especially in a format as fast and powerful as cEDH. I would personally love to see an Oracle as I get to see every draw now. I know when you have counters for my combos.

Back to Basics - you only have 10 basic lands in the whole deck, and if you're on this, you will probably be fetching basics instead of multi-color lands that help more. Not a game plan I would really want to be on, but I would consider testing it.

Sea Gate Restoration // Sea Gate, Reborn/Turntimber Symbiosis // Turntimber, Serpentine Wood - MUCH too high of a CMC for the card effects. By the time you are playing something like this you should be winning the game. Sea Gates best case is you are drawing 8 (most likely). Now you just spent 7 mana to draw 8 cards. I would be willing to bet 9 times out of 10 you then have to discard 8 cards at your end step as most of your mana was spent to cast sea gate. These also being sorcery speed is another negative, you can't hold up mana to cast them before your turn.

Personally I would take all of these out. From there I would add in more counter's and interaction. I would even put Jeweled Lotus on the fence, it doesn't really enable a t1 Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait, and the later into the game, it gets exponentially worse. I would also consider a Summoner's Pact to find you Azusa, Lost but Seeking. I might even push towards adding more mana dorks as well, dropping the artifact ramp some and adding artifact hate as others have suggested.

[benjameenbear]

@UnNamed1
Great points to consider! I'll evaluate why certain cards are in the deck vs others.

• For the MDFC Sea Gate Restoration // Sea Gate, Reborn, they function as lands in the early game while being very excellent spells in the late game. With all the land-to-hand effects in the list, these cards allow me to double up on lands for Aesi's trigger OR get massive card advantage in the late game. The opportunity cost for these cards is low enough that they're worth including imo.
• Back to Basics is back-breaking against all the 3 and 4 colored decks out there, and yes, this deck would prioritize getting basics into play to take advantage of this card since the number of cards requiring double mana costs is low in this deck. I could see it turning off a significant portion of my lands at any given time, so I agree that it would be worth testing.
• Oracle of Mul Daya has the important text of being able to play an additional land on top of being able to thin lands off the top. The cost of information disclosure vs the card advantage that the Oracle can accrue via the land-from-deck clause is worth it imo because of the raw card advantage Aesi can potentially generate.
• Artifact hate is probably the better call, frankly. I'll tweak the list to include more mana dorks and the Stax package accordingly.
• Because Aesi's CMC is so high, with no way to adjust his casting cost a la Tasigur, the Golden Fang, I think that Jeweled Lotus is actually not a bad topdeck. I expect that Aesi will die at least once over the course of a game, so the Lotus isn't as dead as it could be in other lists. If Aesi dies once, it shoots up to 8 CMC. That's massive. This is a deck where a better Dark Ritual specific to Aesi makes sense in my opinion.

Honestly, this was one of the hardest lists to brew because of the sheer volume of options available for this type of strategy. I'm still not 100% satisfied with the list, frankly, haha.