Calm Sea by Ivan Aivazovsky (1863). Opt by Craig J. Spearing

Last week I rushed out an article about a deck designed to try to go a little wide (but not too wide) and then abuse the proliferate mechanic to try to land an elusive alternate wincon victory with Simic Ascendancy.

I always seem to tweak my decks away from the initial list I post here on CoolStuffInc.com. My Marwyn list from early last year shows that doesn't always happen, but more often than not I can't seem to get my creative juices to stop flowing. This week's column is about that process and about what happened to last week's Atraxa list.

My Process

Stage one in deck-building is where I tend to give in to my hopes and dreams. I build with completely unrealistic expectations of what the deck is going to do. I find it difficult to do all the responsible things like adding removal and card draw.

My wincon will probably show up just when I need it, and throwing in a tutor or two will solve any problems that result from neglecting card draw, right?

That's ridiculous, but it's not far from where my mind is at when I start on a new deck.

I've gotten better about that, but I still tend to neglect card draw and answers when I start out with a new idea. The most successful decks seem to be all draw, answers, ramp and a few cards to support the key plan the deck wants to execute. I can't bear to restrict a first draft to just a few wincons, no matter how effective they might be. I like variety in my game and adding a bunch of interesting ideas never leaves enough room for the nuts and bolts of a truly strong, resilient deck.

In stage two I start switching around cards and making good choices. I'll pull a great card draw, ramp, or removal spell out of a deck I'm not playing as often and I'll slot it into my new project. A Rhystic Study or Mana Crypt might even sneak its way into the new experiment if I'm invested enough in seeing the deck do well. If I've actually been playing it I might remove the cards that aren't really working or I might drop out a wincon that has gotten boring or that my friends don't seem to enjoy.

It's rare for me to have a deck that gets to stage three, or its final form, though of course no deck is ever really "done". I still tweak decks I love, but I'm much more careful when I do so. A deck I've managed to get to this point will win and will either do so fairly consistently or be so fun to play that I don't mind a low winrate. My stage three decks are the ones I enjoy the most but probably play the least because they tend to be hard to deal with and I find it feels selfish to hoard wins outside of league play.

My Ramos deck is an exception. I love it to death, but it is eternally in stage two. It's currently going through a hybrid mana phase, but I fully expected it to turn into a Simic Ascendancy build. Last week I was expecting to write about Ramos when the idea of building Atraxa and going all in with proliferate and counter-spammers hit me out of nowhere.

Meet Our Commanders

If last week's Atraxa list was a stage one build, full of hopes and dreams and unrealistic expectations, I'm fairly comfortable saying that this week's list should be firmly in stage two. Today I'm pulling out some old tricks, adding in some powerful cards, dropping the proliferate plan and building a partners deck designed to be able to win games with Simic Ascendancy.

Both Ramos, Dragon Engine and Atraxa, Praetor's Voice are good at doing stuff with +1/+1 counters, but the two legendary creatures I've chosen are no slouches either.

Simic Ascendancy may not be one of our commanders, but it's worth taking another look at this enchantment. Every time we put +1/+1 counters on creatures we control we put growth counters on Simic Ascendancy and if we've got 20 or more on our upkeep we win the game.

Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker costs , has evasion (flying) and whenever an opponent casts a spell we put a +1/+1 counter on her. Our opponents will be casting spells, so she's definitely going to be able to rack up a few counters.

Reyhan, Last of the Abzan costs and is a 0/0 who enters the battlefield with three +1/+1 counters. Whenever a creature we control dies, if it had one or more +1/+1 counters we get to put that many +1/+1 counters on target creature.

These two creatures might not seem like a slam dunk for Simic Ascendancy but they are in Atraxa's colors and allow us to run the wincon we're aiming for.

The Quickie

I never build decks with a "god hand" in mind, but this might be an exception. That doesn't mean that it will ever be able to land a turn two win, but there are cards in here that can really put in work.

These two cards go together like peanut butter and jelly. When Reyhan attacks with Blade of Selves equipped, at a four player table you will have two more copies of Reyhan enter the battlefield and die immediately because of the legend rule. Two Reyhans will enter the battlefield, get +1/+1 counters and then die. That means there will be six +1/+1 counters coming from creature deaths for Reyhan to watch happen. The fun part is that there will be three Reyhans watching those deaths, not one. Three Reyhans watching 6 +1/+1 counters come off of creatures dying means that you will get to put 3 x 6 = 18 +1/+1 counters onto a creature you control.

Let's see if I can wrap my head around a turn five win with this combo. This progression involves four lands, Sol Ring, Blade of Selves, Simic Ascendancy, Teferi's Protection and a two CMC mana rock so you'll have to draw into some of what you'd need.

Turn one: Play an Island, a Sol Ring and Blade of Selves.

Turn two: Play a Forest, play Simic Ascendancy and a 2 CMC mana rock.

Turn three: Play a Swamp, play Reyhan and put 3 +1/+1 counters on Reyhan and 3 growth counters on Simic Ascendancy. Hope nobody knows what's about to happen.

Turn four: Play a Plains, pay four to equip Blade of Selves and swing to trigger myriad. You put 18 +1/+1 counters on Reyhan and 18 growth counters on Simic Ascendancy, putting it to 21. You smile. One of your opponents might have just died, so you don't smile too much. You cast Teferi's Protection, pass the turn and win the game on the upkeep of your fifth turn.

To support this general strategy, I'll be running tutors, including Open the Armory and Stonehewer Giant along with staples like Vampiric Tutor and Enlightened Tutor. I'm throwing Conqueror's Flail into the mix so that I have an extra target in case Blade of Selves is already out of my library.

Brighter minds than mine can probably just land a faster combo before turn five or find a way to pull this one off just a little quicker. If you've got a way to do it better please leave a comment below. I'm rarely interested in racing to a win, but I definitely see the appeal of seeing how fast a deck can assemble a wincon.

Toil and Trouble

If we don't land our Blade of Selves combo, we'll want other ways to both load up with +1/+1 counters and present a threat on the battlefield.

Since we're not going wide and proliferating with this build, we might as well go tall. The best way to do that is to double up the counters on our permanents as often as possible. We'll be running old standards like Doubling Season and Deepglow Skate. I won't be running Primal Vigor, as it will help everyone, not just us.

Corpsejack Menace will double the +1/+1 counters placed on creatures we control. Kalonian Hydra will double the +1/+1 counters on each of our creatures whenever it attacks. Galloping Lizrog will let us remove any number of +1/+1 counters from creatures we control and then we can put twice that many on Galloping Lizrog. Fortunately, it has Trample, but it's an all-in card that can represent a huge loss if you pull all your counters and Lizrog gets removed before it can to go to combat.

Biogenic Upgrade will allow us to double the counters on as many as three of our creatures. While that might not sound like much, we'll often only have a few creatures with a lot of counters on them, so this card should really do work in this deck.

Winding Constrictor and Pir, Imaginative Rascal only add a single extra +1/+1 counter but when you're adding counters one at a time, that is effectively doubling your counters. Ishai, Managorger Hydra, Sunscorch Regent, Forgotten Ancient, and Toothy, Imaginary Friend all gain one counter at a time, so their counters would be doubled with Winding Constrictor or Pir on the field.

I'm also including an old friend - Vorel of the Hull Clade. Vorel is a Human Merfolk who can tap to double the counters on target artifact, creature or land. One of my first commander decks was a Vorel deck, so I'm familiar with how much fun it can be to abuse his little party trick. My old deck was built to be able to untap him easily so I could tap him multiple times in one turn, but for this list once should be enough.

The Decklist

If you read last week's article, you'll see that I've kept in the Ghave, Guru of Spores and Ashnod's Altar combo and I've kept the Spike Feeder and Sunbond combo. Atraxa is also in the mix, and I've kept some of the mana dorks, but I'm actually running a bit of removal this time around.

Partners Ascendancy | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commanders (2)
• 1 Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker
• 1 Reyhan, Last of the Abzan

• Creatures (26)
• 1 Atraxa, Praetors' Voice
• 1 Birds of Paradise
• 1 Champion of Lambholt
• 1 Corpsejack Menace
• 1 Deepglow Skate
• 1 Fathom Mage
• 1 Forgotten Ancient
• 1 Galloping Lizrog
• 1 Ghave, Guru of Spores
• 1 Ivorytusk Fortress
• 1 Kalonian Hydra
• 1 Lifespring Druid
• 1 Managorger Hydra
• 1 Master Biomancer
• 1 Pir, Imaginative Rascal
• 1 Primordial Hydra
• 1 Scute Mob
• 1 Spike Feeder
• 1 Stonehewer Giant
• 1 Sunscorch Regent
• 1 Sylvan Caryatid
• 1 Sylvok Explorer
• 1 Toothy, Imaginary Friend
• 1 Vorel of the Hull Clade
• 1 Winding Constrictor
• 1 Zegana, Utopian Speaker

• Instants (8)
• 1 Enlightened Tutor
• 1 Heroic Intervention
• 1 Insidious Will
• 1 Sphinx's Revelation
• 1 Teferi's Protection
• 1 Utter End
• 1 Vampiric Tutor
• 1 Windgrace's Judgment

• Sorceries (6)
• 1 Biogenic Upgrade
• 1 Merciless Eviction
• 1 Open the Armory
• 1 Shamanic Revelation
• 1 Soul's Majesty
• 1 Vindicate

• Enchantments (12)
• 1 Death's Presence
• 1 Doubling Season
• 1 Eternal Thirst
• 1 Gleam of Authority
• 1 Hardened Scales
• 1 Predatory Hunger
• 1 Privileged Position
• 1 Rhystic Study
• 1 Shielding Plax
• 1 Simic Ascendancy
• 1 Sunbond
• 1 Zendikar Resurgent

• Artifacts (9)
• 1 Ashnod's Altar
• 1 Blade of Selves
• 1 Chromatic Lantern
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Conqueror's Flail
• 1 Glaring Spotlight
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Thought Vessel
• 1 Vedalken Orrery

• Lands (37)
• 3 Swamp
• 4 Island
• 5 Plains
• 6 Forest
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Drowned Catacomb
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Forge of Heroes
• 1 Glacial Fortress
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Hinterland Harbor
• 1 Isolated Chapel
• 1 Opal Palace
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Sunpetal Grove
• 1 Temple Garden
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Watery Grave
• 1 Woodland Cemetery

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I'm optimistic that this will be more explosive than the proliferate Simic Ascendancy strategy, but I'm still struggling with some possible changes.

No Right Answers

The more I think about the draw power of Pir and Toothy, the more I am tempted to run Deadeye Navigator. If I were to run Deadeye, it works wonders with Pir, Imaginative Rascal, Deepglow Skate, Champion of Lambholt, Zegana, Utopian Speaker, and Fathom Mage. You just need to add in Palinchron or Peregrine Drake, make infinite mana, and go to town.

If I were go go that route, I'd have to drop some cards. I'd be tempted to drop out Sunscorch Regent, Managorger Hydra and Forbidden Ancient, as I'm not fond of how easy it is to miss triggers when opponents cast spells. It should be easy to pay attention to what my opponents are doing on their turns, but I often get into side conversations, get distracted, and don't have the easiest time with staying hyper-focused on my opponents' turns.

The bottom line is that unless you're in a cEDH mindset where you have to build as optimized a deck as possible, there are really no "right" answers for how to build a deck.

I could keep the slow, incremental counter creatures.

I could go for Deadeye combo and make the deck much more explosive as a result.

Because the former plan will likely make for more enjoyable games for my friends, I think I am going to stay away from Deadeye for now. The next version might have that level of silliness, but this version should be able to hang with more casual tables and resist the urge to not just combo off in every single game.

The Game Plan

Our plan is a simple one. We run enough strong counter-accruers like Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker, that even if we don't see a Reyhan / Blade of Selves combo present itself early in the game, we should still be able to start getting counters on creatures.

Once we have a counter doubler in hand or on the battlefield, we can play Simic Ascendancy and with any luck win the game within a turn or two.

If Simic Ascendancy doesn't work out, or if we just don't want to go that route it should be relatively easy to present a threat on the battlefield. Ishai only needs to get to 21 power to start killing people with commander damage. If Ishai doesn't stick around, we've got creatures with trample and we've got a Rogue's Passage if we need to get a big fatty through some blockers.

The combo plan is still among our options and we can get infinite life with Spike Feeder or an infinitely wide board of saprolings with Ghave. What we go for will most likely be determined by what we draw into. I dislike decks that play out the same way every time and I think this one will give us some variety in how things play out.

Final Thoughts

Last week's column was initially something of a mis-fire. I had failed to grasp the fact that Simic Ascendancy gains as many growth counters as +1/+1 counters are put on your creatures. It still seems insane that Wizards would have the card read that way, but an old friend pointed out my error and my editor had my back and worked with me to get the piece reworked so it made sense. I still think Atraxa Proliferate could fly under the radar and steal some Simic Ascendancy wins, but I suspect this build will be even better at chasing that wincon.

That's all I've got for now. Thanks for reading and I'll see you back here next week!