It’s been quite a while since I’ve talked about my collection of EDH decks as a whole. Something one should consider when they start to amass a collection of cards is using various utilities to sort and catalog them all. There are a number of different websites dedicated to doing so, but my favorite to use is MTGGoldfish. Not only does the site produce various articles and podcast/video content, but they also display average prices for cards and allow you to catalog your collection. You can create decks from scratch or import from text files, and each deck’s page provides plenty of information. The visual view is particularly useful because it shows your mana curve and the spread of colors across each deck, something that has helped me to adjust curves on the fly. I’ve talked about all of this before in this column, but I wanted to do a check in on my existing decks, because the list has changed quite a bit in the last few months. You can see the full list of decks here on the right, but I’ll give further details in this post. Decks are sorted by creation date, so newest are first, and several of these decks are still works in progress, but as any Magic player will tell you, an EDH deck is never “done.” Let’s get to the break down.

Quick Stats:

Total Decks: 25
Completed Decks: 13
Works in Progress: 12
Color Pairings:

• Grixis – 3
• Mardu – 3
• Esper – 2
• Dimir – 2
• Mono Black – 1
• Mono Green – 1
• Mono Red – 1
• Azorius – 1
• Orzhov – 1
• Boros – 1
• Selesnya – 1
• Simic – 1
• Izzet – 1
• Jeskai – 1
• Jund – 1
• Naya – 1
• Abzan – 1
• Dune-Brood – 1
• WUBRG – 1

My collection has changed quite a bit recently and I wanted to make note of these changes. I have eliminated some project decks that I had worked on a little in the past as new ideas came along that sounded better. Pirates are gone along with other brews. Molimo was changed over to Yisan. Daxos became Zur. Sram was upgraded into Shu Yun. Reaper King was retired and Jodah is taking his place. I broke up Temmet. The decks that I do have are right at tight depending on their strategies, and they fit well in different budget tiers. The decks that I’m working on are mostly high tier generals and I’m trying to build them with high end cards. Zur and Jodah are currently holding the most value, but many decks that I built more budget versions of have seen upgrades to make them the best they can be in that tier. I want most situations to be covered; If someone wants to play with Tier 1 generals I have that… if they want to play with $50 budget decks I have one of those too. I’ve featured many of these decks in posts here on the blog, and in nearly all cases the builds I presented have changed slightly or drastically. As such I’ll try to describe recent additions and of course link to the deck list so you can see the full current versions.

Stax and Taxes, Maybe Some Death
Color Pairing: Azorius
Commander: Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
Strategy: Control, Stax/Tax

My newest brew, I intend to build this one soon. Temmet was my only Azorius commander in the past, and as I said I’ve broken that deck up because it just wasn’t competitive. I feel like the color pair has control covered, and I’ve not built a control deck to this point so I’m blending a mixture of Stax and Taxes. My finisher is a little shaky, play testing needs to happen. I have a small percentage of the cards on hand, so this one will be a future investment.

Monk My Day
Color Pairing: Jeskai
Commander: Shu Yun, The Silent Tempest
Strategy: Voltron

I pulled a Jhoira out of my box of Dominaria. My friend had already built a deck for her but didn’t get her on pre-release day, so I traded her to him. After seeing his deck in action I couldn’t help but draw comparisons to my Sram deck, and decided that I needed to make a Jeskai deck so that I could run both of them in a single deck with a sort-of unified purpose. Shu Yun is a great voltron commander, while Sram and Jhoira can be extreme card draw engines. An article on this deck is coming soon.

Budget Knight Tribal
Color Pairing: Orzhov
Commander: Aryel, Knight of Windgrace
Strategy: Tribal Synergy, Go Wide

I’m a sucker for a new tribe. Not that Knights are a new tribe, but they had a ton of support in Dominaria and sprinkles throughout Magic’s history. I like building little tribal decks that don’t really do all that much, and mid-tier decks are usually fun to pilot. This one is under construction but I have about 60% of the cards needed.

Boros Goodstuff
Color Pairing: Boros
Commander: Firesong and Sunspeaker
Strategy: Goodstuff

This will be my first Boros deck, once completed. It’s not going to be high tier, and it’s not going to cost much to build but it sounds like fun.

Jodah and Friends
Color Pairing: WUBRG
Commander: Jodah, Archmage Eternal
Strategy: Cheating Timmys

R.I.P. Reaper King. I tried to make you work for so long but you’re just so commander-focused and vulnerable. Welcome my new 5-color deck, piloted by Jodah! This deck was just completed but I have not playtested it. I think it’s going to be a ton of fun slamming Jodah on the board and then casting big fuck you Eldrazi and spells for only 5 mana. Keeping Jodah alive is going to be the challenge, but I think I might be able to pull off some fun stuff with this deck.

Master Thief
Color Pairing: Mono Black
Commander: Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Strategy: Theft

Another work in progress, I’ve wanted to build a mono-black deck for a long time to use cards like Cabal Coffers and Urborg. As such I’ve build a deck with some of the best black cards ever made and plan to steal everyone else’s stuff while I’m at it.

Yisan the Wandering Brad
Color Pairing: Mono Green
Commander: Yisan, the Wandering Bard
Strategy: Cheat/Combo

Yisan is my new mono-green deck, replacing Ghalta, and Molimo before him. I actually built Molimo for like $100 and he was one of the first few EDH decks I created from scratch. He was never very competitive but taught me a lot about ramp. Ghalta was a replacement commander that kept Molimo in the 99 but then I realized it still probably wouldn’t be very competitive. Yisan is a tier 1.5 or 2 general that can do some crazy stuff and I look forward to playing with it. I have a good chunk of this deck together as well.

Inalla is Triggered!
Color Pairing: Grixis
Commander: Inalla, Archmage Ritualist
Strategy: ETB Triggers

I just recently wrote about Inalla, she’s not built yet but sounds like a blast. She got some additions via Dominaria, along with pulling Wizards from all eras with ETB goodies attached to them. I should have her completed soon.

Free Hugs
Color Pairing: Selesnya
Commander: Selvala, Explorer Returned
Strategy: Group Hug/Combo

I’ve also written an article about Selvala recently, so I won’t go into much detail. Still under construction, a whole different way of doing things from my norm, and looks like a blast.

Prossh Food Chain
Color Pairing: Jund
Commander: Prossh, Skyraider of Kher
Strategy: Combo

When Masters 25 released I was all about building a Prossh deck, and the Food Chain combo is a killer one. I recently bought a copy of the card, and can’t wait to finish off the deck. It’s a full on combo theme, in a color pairing I haven’t played yet. I look forward to testing it out.

Zur Enchantments Matter
Color Pairing: Esper
Commander: Zur the Enchanter
Strategy: Control/Combo/Voltron

This is my tier 1 deck, and I’ve been focusing on making it as such. Since the first time I wrote about it, I’ve added some high value cards to the deck and it’s my current favorite.

Mardu Bears
Color Pairing: Mardu
Commander: Alesha who Smiles at Death
Strategy: Recursion/Hatebears

Alesha has become the leader of both the Orzhov Cleric and Boros Soldier decks I was building. I figured having all three colors was advantageous and exploiting Alesha’s abilities worked for the majority of creatures from both decks. I honed it down to a hatebears deck, and I think it should be a pretty strong one. I have about 70% of this one so it should be done soon.

Impregnable Fortress
Color Pairing: Abzan
Commander: Doran the Siege Tower
Strategy: Pillowfort/Exploit

This was the deck that resulted from challenging myself to create something with a budget of $50. It’s janky and it works given time, but will never be competitive. It did see some additions from Ixalan and Dominaria, but nothing overly noteworthy. It’s basically done and I have no intention on doing anything with it, unless eventually I make it into a better Doran deck.

Simic Merfolk
Color Pairing: Simic
Commander: Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca
Strategy: Tribal Synergy/Combo

Dominaria brought a couple of decent cards to this deck but overall its been done for a while. It does what it’s supposed to do, and unless a new kickass merfolk comes along this one will remain as it is.

Kess, Spellslinger
Color Pairing: Grixis
Commander: Kess, Dissident Mage
Strategy: Spellslinger

Another tier 1 deck I have in the works. It’s been a long time coming, and I think it’s where it wants to be I just have to buy the last few pieces. Spellslinging is in my future.

Gobbs
Color Pairing: Mono Red
Commander: Krenko, Mob Boss
Strategy: Go Wide

Krenko is a blast to play, despite mono-red being sort of boring. I’ve added Squee and the Goblin Chainwhirler from Dominaria, otherwise it’s remained the same since I built it. This one is pretty much done too unless a new Goblin comes along.

Saskia Puts The Ball in Your Lightning
Color Pairing: Dune-Brood
Commander: Saskia the Unyielding
Strategy: Aggro

Saskia is an aggro-style deck utilizing ball lightnings. It does what it’s meant to, and I haven’t adjusted it at all since I’ve built it. It’s middling, but fine.

Taigam – Dimir Trickery
Color Pairing: Dimir
Commander: Taigam, Sidisi’s Hand
Strategy: Recursion/Cheating Timmys

Another deck that has been a long time coming, I look forward to seeing what can happen with this deck. It doesn’t look like it will be consistent, but it sure looks like fun stealing everyone’s stuff and cheating big baddies in from the graveyard.

Rawr
Color Pairing: Naya
Commander: Gishath, Sun’s Avatar
Strategy: Go Wide/Cheat

Gishath and friends hasn’t changed since I created it either. One addition from Dominaria and that was it. It will likely stay that way, but it’s a fun deck to play nonetheless.

My Love it is a Black Rose
Color Pairing: Grixis
Commander: Marchesa the Black Rose
Strategy: Recursion

Marchesa was a fine build that has worked as well as expected. I balanced it fairly well and it’s always competitive. I don’t see it changing much in the future.

Aggro Vampires
Color Pairing: Mardu
Commander: Edgar Markov
Strategy: Tribal Synergy/Aggro/Go Wide

Like most of my tribal decks, this one is done for now, unless another great vampire arises. Dominaria brought a couple that I used, but I don’t think we’ll see more for a while.

I Heard You Need More Locusts in Your Locust
Color Pairing: Izzet
Commander: The Locust God
Strategy: Combo

Another deck that I pretty much nailed from the get-go. I’ve not really changed much since I built it, and it’s still able to pull off some fast wins under the best circumstances.

Oloro – Lifegain FTW
Color Pairing: Esper
Commander: Oloro, Ageless Ascetic
Strategy: Lifegain

This deck has been under construction for far too long. I usually finish off decks quickly but this one required a heavy investment and I ended up choosing to go other directions. It’s on my list to finish quickly, because I think it’s got a unique way of going about things.

Kaalia ADD
Color Pairing: Mardu
Commander: Kaalia of the Vast
Strategy: Tribal Synergy/Cheat

Kaalia just recently got upgrades on all fronts. Dominaira brought a badass Demon, a badass Angel, and I recently decided to add some Dragons to the mix as well. I think I might finally have it at its most competitive at this point, but playtesting is required.

Scarab God Zombies
Color Pairing: Dimir
Commander: The Scarab God
Strategy: Tribal Synergy/Recursion/Go Wide

Another deck that’s done for now, unless we get some new zombies.

So there you have it. It’s a lot of projects under one roof, but it keeps me busy!