'Tis the Season of Giving [EDH]

[Oversoul]

Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas. Zedruu is here to give my opponents lots of presents, whether they like it or not.

Commander:
1 Zedruu the Greathearted

1 Akroan Horse
1 Arbiter of Knollridge
1 Arcane Denial
1 Arid Mesa
1 Avaricious Dragon
1 Bazaar Trader
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Brainstorm
1 Bucknard's Everfull Purse
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Cinder Giant
1 Command Tower
1 Counterspell
1 Crown of Doom
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Decanter of Endless Water
1 Delusions of Mediocrity
1 Disrupt Decorum
1 Djinn of Infinite Deceits
1 Donate
1 Dovin's Veto
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Embargo
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Felidar Sovereign
1 Fierce Guardianship
1 Flooded Strand
1 Force of Will
1 Generous Gift
1 Gilded Drake
1 Goblin Cadets
1 Goldnight Castigator
1 Grafted Skullcap
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Harmless Offering
1 Humble Defector
1 Illusions of Grandeur
5 Island
1 Jinxed Choker
1 Jinxed Idol
1 Khârn the Betrayer
1 Legerdemain
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mana Drain
1 Mana Vault
1 Marsh Flats
1 Maze of Ith
1 Meekstone
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Moat
3 Mountain
1 Mox Diamond
1 Oath of Lieges
1 Pendant of Prosperity
3 Plains
1 Plateau
1 Political Trickery
1 Polluted Delta
1 Pramikon, Sky Rampart
1 Promise of Loyalty
1 Rainbow Vale
1 Raugrin Triome
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Rhystic Study
1 Role Reversal
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Shifting Borders
1 Silent Arbiter
1 Smoke
1 Sol Ring
1 Statecraft
1 Steam Vents
1 Steel Golem
1 Strip Mine
1 Switcheroo
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Thought Lash
1 Thought Vessel
1 Tragic Arrogance
1 Tundra
1 Undiscovered Paradise
1 Vedalken Plotter
1 Venser, the Sojourner
1 Volcanic Island
1 Wasteland
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Wrong Turn

 

[Oversoul]

Well, the goal wasn't to bog down games. But it also wasn't to speed them up. Anyway, I played two games with this deck. I should almost certainly have won the first game. I could have killed the Superfriends player with Illusions of Grandeur, but I didn't. That's what I get for trying to be nice this holiday season.

Second game I had to fight harder to stay alive. And even though my two remaining opponents could probably have worked together to stop me, they were anxious to move on to a new game and let my Felidar Sovereign win me the game.

 

[Oversoul]

2024 has been the year of me revisiting my EDH decks from prior years. I try to do a Christmas theme deck every year. So this time around, I'm revisiting my Zedruu deck from Christmas of 2022.

Commander:
1 Zedruu the Greathearted

1 Alexios, Deimos of Kosmos
1 Arbiter of Knollridge
1 Arcane Denial
1 Arid Mesa
1 Avarice Totem
1 Bazaar Trader
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Brainstorm
1 Bucknard's Everfull Purse
1 Chaos Warp
1 Cinder Giant
1 Command Tower
1 Conjured Currency
1 Crown of Doom
1 Cultural Exchange
1 Custody Battle
1 Delusions of Mediocrity
1 Disrupt Decorum
1 Djinn of Infinite Deceits
1 Donate
1 Echo of Eons
1 Embargo
1 Emergency Powers
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Felidar Sovereign
1 Flooded Strand
1 Force of Will
1 Generous Gift
1 Gilded Drake
1 Goblin Cadets
1 Grid Monitor
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Harmless Offering
1 Humble Defector
1 Idyllic Tutor
1 Illusions of Grandeur
1 Jinxed Choker
1 Khârn the Betrayer
1 Legerdemain
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mana Drain
1 Marsh Flats
1 Maze of Ith
1 Meekstone
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Moat
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Nine Lives
1 Order of Succession
1 Pendant of Prosperity
1 Plateau
1 Political Trickery
1 Polluted Delta
1 Pramikon, Sky Rampart
1 Puca's Mischief
1 Rainbow Vale
1 Raugrin Triome
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Role Reversal
1 Rust Elemental
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Shifting Borders
1 Shifting Grift
1 Shifting Loyalties
1 Smoke
5 Snow-Covered Island
4 Snow-Covered Mountain
3 Snow-Covered Plains
1 Statecraft
1 Steam Vents
1 Steel Golem
1 Strip Mine
1 Sudden Substitution
1 Swan Song
1 Switcheroo
1 Terminus
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 The One Ring
1 Thieves' Auction
1 Thought Lash
1 Thought Vessel
1 Tundra
1 Undiscovered Paradise
1 Vedalken Plotter
1 Volcanic Island
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Wrong Turn

 

[Oversoul]

I played this deck for my first game on Wednesday evening. Unfortunately, I got a bit manascrewed. It was really only Bucknard's Everfull Purse that kept me in the game at all. And even that came at the price of accelerating a couple of dangerous opponents. I used Enlightened Tutor to grab Meekstone, shutting one opponent down before he could kill us all. But that also meant he wasn't killing the other dangerous opponent. She was able to set up a Syr Konrad loop, killing me even through Thought Lash.

Not a bad game by any means, but if I'd had access to just one more mana at the end there, I could have stopped the combo that killed me (and the rest of the table).

 

[Oversoul]

I did get to play this deck again before Christmas Day. Unfortunately, it was only a three-player pod. One of the players kind of dominated with his Toralf deck, and the other player never really had anything to deal with that. If I'd had better topdecks, then I might have been able to turn this game around. I managed to stall a bit, but ultimately just couldn't find an answer.

I'll probably keep this one around for a bit. Well, I still need to decide what my EDH plans for next year might be. But I do like this deck, and it's reminding me that the previous incarnation was too short-lived.

 

[Oversoul]

Tried this deck out on Friday. It got manascrewed.

 

[Oversoul]

I played this deck yesterday in a game that I'm counting as a win. And it's my count that matters here!

Alright, so the clear dominant threat at the table was a Sliver Tribal deck (helmed by Sliver Queen). I shut that player down by using Bazaar Trader to give him a Grid Monitor. The other two players were puzzled and partially grateful, but eventually one of them would purposely help him kill the Grid Monitor (a huge mistake). I also kind of shut down the General Marhault Elsdragon deck because I played a Moat and he had no flying creatures and no answer to it. The other deck at this table was a colorless Voltron deck led by Syr Ginger, the Meal Ender. I was able to pass a Statecraft to that player. Slowing the game down so much, I was able to focus on protecting myself and on disruption. Players worked together to get rid of some of these permanents, sometimes even when it didn't benefit them. I guess that this deck eventually became the archenemy? Heh, that was unexpected!

I tried to win with Felidar Sovereign, but the Sliver Queen player hit it with a removal spell. The game dragged on for a long time. Eventually, I reached a point where I saw an opportunity to use Jinxed Choker to kill the General Marhault Elsdragon Player, Chaos Warp on Delusions of Mediocrity to kill the Sliver Queen player (he was at exactly 10 life), and to rely on Statecraft to keep the Syr Ginger player shut down. I had the mana to do this and my victory seemed all but certain. Then an employee informed us that the store was closed. Closing time was 7:00 and they let us know that it was already 7:02. I explained my plan to the other players, but the Sliver Queen player didn't understand and seemed to think that he'd get a chance to untap and use Necrotic Sliver to blow up Statecraft. In actuality, he was already dead because I had three untapped lands and had Chaos Warp in my hand.

I wouldn't normally count a rhetorical win as a win, but for this deck, I'll make an exception.