Sometimes it’s necessary to stretch our limits. Reach out and see what we can accomplish. Many times we can learn more from mistakes than successes. As a teacher we learn this and always try to push our students. But it seems rare for us to put ourselves at risk as well.

Today I need to be a little humble and honest with you. There are facets of this game that I’ve never tried. Many times I just stay with what I know. My "comfort zone" if you want to call it that. I can use and abuse probabilities till the cows come home but I’m not much for a singleton in a deck. In fact I rarely go under 3 copies of a card. Unless I have some toolbox working (future lesson note). But fellow ManaNation writer Ben McDole has challenged me. Not a direct challenge mind you but his first article has got me to challenge myself.

That challenge is to build an EDH deck. The very concept of an all "one of" deck smacks the mathematical side of me in the face. The whole format spits at everything I hold near and dear when it comes to Magic decks. First, you can only have one of any given card. That's crazy enough but then you make the deck BIGGER. Which decreases the probability of getting a certain card. Come on. You’re killing me here. Then you add this General dude that you can always play. Well at least that’s cool.

I would have left EDH right then and there except for the following. "When you sit down at a table for a game of EDH be sure to leave your inner Spike at home and have a little fun." When Ben said that he had me reminiscing. When I first started playing I was taught by students and casual was the rule of the day. Huge multiplayer games every time we turned around. Not a single net-deck in the bunch. None of us ordered 4 copies of a single online to make our deck work. We played with what we got out of random packs bought here and there and rejects out of the shoebox.* That made many of our decks very close to EDH decks anyway.

With that thought in mind I decided to sit down with you here today and build my first EDH deck. The deck may be good, bad, or indifferent to the EDH metagame but I’ll give it a go. If the deck is a failure that’s cool I’ll learn from it. As usual I want to hear from you in the comments. Tell me what you think. I can almost guarantee you have more experience with this format than I currently do.

I guess the first step would be to pick a General. Or maybe I should pick colors? I’m already lost. Searching Gatherer for 'Legendary Creature' yields 439 choices. That’s a lot to choose from for my first card. Then I remembered a card that has been sitting in my binder for years. Captain Sisay. If you are unfamiliar with her she can tap and search your library for a legend or legendary card and put it into your hand. She cost 2GW and is a rather weak 2/2. Maybe not the best General but I can remember have her in a fun little deck that I used to play.

So now I have my starting concept. Use Sisay to get and abuse some legend combo. I am sure that there is some crazy bomb out there but that would be against the spirit of EDH as I understand it. What I’m going to do is the following. First I’ll get a Gaea's Cradle which is a legendary land. Followed by a next turn Karakas. Now I have a huge mana producer and a savior land. I used to have to save Sisay but now the General rules will allow me to have her recast when needed. The question is where I want to put that mana from Gaea's.

Enter Verdeloth, the Ancient. Not only does having extra mana make extra dudes it means that the extra dudes make extra mana. Can you see it. Each turn using Karakas to return Verdeloth. Then using big mana from Gaea’s to rekick even more Saprolings. Then those saps make even more mana for even more saps. Talk about a Breeder. Sure it takes forever to get going and there are tons of solutions to it but still it sounds fun so that’s where I’m going.

But Sisay wants more. So I start my search for other Green and White legends. In my quick research I find. In the land department I’ll add Boseiju, Who Shelters all and Eiganjo Castle. In the multicolored Green White category I find a few potentials. Gaddock Teeg may come in useful as I imagine a lot of decks have higher mana curves do to the fact that games go on so long. Rhys the Redeemed is another potential token producer plus the bonus of doubling Cradle mana if I can find 5 other mana first. Saffi Eriksdotter is some valuable protection as well.

Searching into just plain white I find the following. Kataki, War's Rage for those troublesome artifact decks. Mageta the Lion could prove useful, assuming I use Karakas to save Verdeloth first. Mangara of Corondor gives us some searchable removal. (Imagine her as a General if they didn’t have that increased cost rule). Yomiji, Who bars the Way is a little expensive but still good protection for our legendary investments.

In the pure green Legendary column we could use. Dosan the Falling Leaf could be a nuisance for those counter mages out there. Though it seems to me that Counter-based strategies would be hard to pull off because of a lack of depth in true powerful counters. Glissa Sunseeker is more artifact hate. Kamahl, Fist of Krosa is wicked awesome in this deck. Imagine having like a mere 21 saps in play. Cradle with Kamahl can give you 3 Overruns for those 21 guys. That’s a lot of trampling damage. Nemata, Grove Guardian continues the saproling theme and gives us a second avenue to channel Cradle mana in case Verdeloth gets the axe.

There my Legendary search ends I’ve now got 13 creatures and 4 lands in my deck. Only 83 cards left. This is a Mammoth undertaking. If this were some regularly designed scheme I would be almost done right now. Now I see the rest of my deck having little sub themes that will help the legend scheme. First I want to have some critters in play to max the Cradle.

I also like to play the innocent in multiplayer games and then explode when it’s late. For that air of innocence I am going to play some walls and mana dorks on the early turns. Green and White both have some very low mana high defense walls that I can use. And the list of Green mana producers is very long.

What about removal? Every deck needs to have access to removal right. Well the standards for White are the Wrath effects now including Day of Judgment and since we can play cards from any expansion I’ll get to play my favorite Rout. However when I get my combo rolling I don’t want to cast a Wrath of God. In a pinch I can Karakas my Verdeloth and then rebuild but that is far from ideal.

So I started looking at other types of white “removal”. Path to Exile was at the tip of my tongue but caused me to ponder. If a General gets exiled does he go to the lounge just like the he would from the graveyard? I would assume yes. Based on that assumption I still put Path in but it got my mental gears turning. What would happen if I Oblivion Ring your General, you then replay it, and then I destroy the O-ring. What would happen? O-ring says that you are supposed to return the removed card back to the battlefield but it’s already there. Just wondering. Remember I am total new at this EDH stuff.

That’s when I had my EDH epiphany. FAITH's FETTERS. If I put a Faith’s Fetters on a General it is basically out of play yet still in play. Can’t go to the lounge to be replayed but also can’t do anything to the game. With the above assumption about Path to Exile I thing this may be the best General Removal in the EDH game. Once again I am a total EDH Noob but it seems to work. Through Magic history there are multiple variants of this theme. From the simple Pacifism to the aforementioned Fetters there are plenty of ways to make your opponents General dysfunctional and impotent.

Normally as I create a deck I write down card names but this list is WAY long. I’m not even sure I’ve hit 60 cards and 40 lands yet. I’m guessing that would be a good mix by the way. I figure I’ll fill the rest with tutors that fetch creatures, lands, or enchantments. So here is my first EDH deck.

[deck author="Dan Eckstein" title="EDH - Captain Sisay" align="center"]

General

1 Captain Sisay

Creatures

1 Verdeloth, the Ancient

1 Gaddock Teeg

1 Rhys the Redeemed

1 Saffi Eriksdotter

1 Kataki War’s Rage

1 Mageta the Lion

1 Mangara of Corondor

1 Yomiji, Who bars the Way

1 Dosan the Falling Lear

1 Glissa Sunseeker

1 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa

1 Nemata,Grove Gaurdian

1 Steward of Valeron

1 Birds of Paradise

1 Bloom Tender

1 Boreal Druid

1 Devoted Druid

1 Findhorn Elves

1 Gemhide Sliver

1 Harvester Druid

1 Heart Warden

1 Leaf Glider

1 Llanowar Elves

1 Noble Hierarch

1 Orochi Sustainer

1 Priest of Titania

1 Quiron Elves

1 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary

1 Skyshroud Elf

1 Utopia Tree

1 Vine Trellis

1 Wall of Roots

1 Werebear

1 Wirewood Elf

1 Academy Rector

1 Knight of The Reliquary

Enchantments

1 Arrest

1 Faith’s Fetters

1 Gelid Shackles

1 Prison Term

1 Serra Bestiary

1 Cage of Hands

1 Cessation

1 Detainment Spell

1 Hobble

1 Kirtar’s Desire

1 Pacifism

1 Recumbent Bliss

1 Weight of Conscience

1 Song of Serenity

1 Sterling Grove

Others

1 Eladamri’s Call

1 Natural Order

1 Primal Command

1 Reap and Sow

1 Sylvan Scrying

1 Time of Need

1 Tooth and Nail

1 Idyllic Tutor

Lands

1 Arctic Flats

1 Brushland

1 Elfhame Palace

1 Graypelt Refuge

1 Horizon Canopy

1 Jungle Shrine

1 Rith’s Grove

1 Seaside Citadel

1 Sungrass Prairie

1 Sunpetal Grove

1 Temple Garden

1 Treva’s Ruins

1 Wooded Bastion

15 Forest

12 Plains[/deck]

Wow, that’s a list. I never imagined finding so many cards would be so hard and labor intensive. Hope this deck pans out! EDH looks like a fun time but the effort is quite taxing. Feel free to voice up in the comments section with suggestions. Like I said at the beginning of this piece I am a virgin EDHer.

Class is done for today. Hope I’ve shown that I can be a learner as well as a teacher.

*The "Shoebox" is box of cards that are not being used and really aren’t worth much. Mostly commons and uncommon. I let students take from these whenever they feel they need something. It’s all on the honor system that one day they will return as many as they used. Most students end up giving more than they ever took out. Also thanks to donors like Trick and my local store Asylum Anime we now have over 6000 cards though few are standard. If you would like to donate just let me know.