How to be a Greedy Bastard in EDH (and get away with it)

[@murpl1462]

Ah yes. The classic gruul gameplay of ramp -> more ramp -> unga bunga.

[@sethb3090]

I love my Grand Warlord Radha deck. Step 1: ramp in turn 1 or 2 Step 2: Turn Radha sideways on turn 3 Step 3: move to late game on turn 4

[@frost7842]

You've forgot step 4, even more ramp

[@shhinysilver1720]

Also the option of (i know this is crazy) some… ramo?

[@roboGansta]

If it ain't broke...

[@robertneilson2780]

Babe wake up the snail is telling me how to play more magic per magic

[@murpl1462]

I love mixing magic powder into my carton of magic to get more magic per magic

[@hansschmidt3144]

@@murpl1462 "yoooo dawg. i hear you like magic. so i got some magic thrown in your magic so you can feel the magic while playin magic" - xzibit

[@murpl1462]

@@hansschmidt3144 magical, you might say.

[@troybone6849]

Lolll

[@Therodaas]

Is this like mixing a lot of 2 percent milk in order to make whole milk? You know, so you get more milk per milk?

[@blazingsalad]

Now here's a manacurve with some chest hair.

[@decardo9571]

Ha ha ha

[@elbiggamehunter]

Not gonna lie. This one got me lol

[@tinfoilslacks3750]

Famous child actor Jimmy Kravitz is that you?

[@therealloose]

Your EDH insights are blowing my mind. I’ve seen hundreds of videos talking about EDH and ramp and mana curve. None of them approach the subject like your Radha deck. People clown explosive vegetation, but they’re not looking at it from the lens of always having access to one card, which is the DEFINING FEATURE of commander. Love your videos. Always learning something new.

[@xaropevic7918]

4 mana ramp is definitely overhated

[@EmbeJuicemazzopazzo]

@@xaropevic7918 4 mana ramp on turn 3 (even better on turn 2) then 6 mana commander on turn 4 is great

[@julianhugen8760]

Is because most commander fall on the 4 cmc, and is really sad when you see a decklist with ramp and commander with cmc 4. Curve is really important, but you need to understand how it works.

[@laytonjr6601]

@@julianhugen8760 My commander is 3 mana. If I have to chose between playing my commander on turn 2 or playing Cultivate on turn 2 I'll always play my commander (unless I'm short on lands in hand) so 4 mana ramp makes a lot more sense

[@julianhugen8760]

@@laytonjr6601 Yes, your commander have a cmc 3, not 4. Even then you should be prioritizing ramp cmc 1 instead of 4. Sure, you still can have ramp 4, but idealy 2/3 of your ramp should be cmc 1. We can go on and on in this conversation because are a number of variables beside commander cost that can influence the decision of which ramp you should use as well. I just wanted to explain why cmc 4 ramps are overhated.

[@Dazer87]

The idea of using your commander as you only low cmc ramp spell has never crossed my mind. It really allows you to do some greedy things in your deck. It allows the mana curve to be the complete opposite of how I build my decks but still the deck gets to function. This looks like it would be fun to play.

[@51gunner]

I think I love this deck because it's a red/green stompy package that can be all stompy, not the more frequent build where by the time you're finished packing in mana dorks, rocks, cheap ramp, and such you've got like eight spots left for fun.

[@TyphosTheD]

Can confirm it's a blast to play. As Snail pointed out the early turns are easily read and thus disrupted, but I've found through a judicious use of Split, Fuse, and Adventure cards I can provide enough stability in case someone is cheaky and Turn 2 Paths Radha to still hit the turn 3-4 Ramp play - and then it's off to the races. I very frequently have 8-9 mana by turn 5, meaning I can drop juicy cards like Zendikar Resurgence to go full Unga Bunga mode.

[@Doug464]

Honestly I love the way you break down magic theory way more than many of the larger channels. You go in depth but without taking so long as to risk losing the attention of your audience and I appreciate that. I can't wait for the next video as your insights are helping me build a deck that is both fun to play and fun to play against ❤

[@khathecleric]

Clearly people never listen when we say bolt the bird

[@frederickhansarmstrongthe1656]

The amount of removal in my random pods is too damn low!

[@IgsonThadeu]

It was exactly what I thought of this radha strategy...

[@KolossusB]

​@@frederickhansarmstrongthe1656 Most groups have that issue. And in those groups like 80% of talk of anything being too overbearing or powerful in your pod is usually just that lack of removal actually being the problem. Peoples lack of accountability for their poor deck building/poor decisions is always frustrating. I always preach to people to play cheap interaction. It may not seem like the most powerful thing to add when you're putting the deck together. But man does it feel crucial when you're able to trip an opponent up at an important time with a single mana because you included extra removal/interaction like a Nature's claim, a path to exile, or an offer you can't refuse over another redundant fatty bomb. Or in cases like this Radha deck, where you're making sure a good amount of your fat has removal attached to it.

[@GrayVMhan]

I thought about it like 11 minutes in when he showed the turns next to each other. A single lightning bolt would trip that so hard but a lot of people don't run enough low mana spot removal, and people don't wanna fall behind in the early game by taking someone else's stuff out since that's mana you could have used to ramp or do the thing your deck does 🤷‍♂️

[@PaulSzkibik]

@@GrayVMhan I mean in the end, what do you want to achieve in any given commander game? If winning is the absolute priority, then sure, MAYBE "bolting the bird" is the right call but then again, you just set yourself and the radha player back compared to two other players. Did you REALLY increase your chances of winning or did you just lower the chances of the Radha deck winning while increasing the other two guys chance of winning? And secondly, if winning isn't the absolute priority, just let the big awesome stuff happen. Commander is so wildly unbalanced that it rarely seems to be about being competitive and more about looking at the fun explosions, unless you actually play... welll.... competitive EDH.

[@alfred8936]

This type of mentality is why I love Henzie so much: -No need to put anything in the 3-drop slot, just play Henzie. You have now ramped -If he dies, just play him again to ramp even more -Blitz some 4-6 drop creature with an insane ramp effect. You are now set on mana for the game and aren't even down on cards -Blitz keeps your board non-threatening, keeps your hand full, turns all your removal creature effects into neutral or even positive value trades, and sets up your GY (not like you need it) -Almost everything is 4+ mana by necessity, so you rarely draw dead. Especially if you use 1-2 mana slots for interaction/protection

[@elibarnson7494]

It’s funny how many people I’ve talked to that have organically found this recipe for henzie. This is exactly how I ended up building my list, without outside influence. The deck just wants to work on that curve, and it’s damn good at it

[@DamienChavarriaFR]

Now the weakness of the deck might be that if opponents expect this line of play, they can use a removal spell on Radha as soon as she gets there, and you have to wait until turn 4 to play anything (and choose to either ramp or replay your commander). That could be a problem.

[@drewhoffmaster2969]

They can do that, but that's a pretty low EV play. They're going down a card only to slow you down, and you'll just be able to play your commander again in short order. Better to save removal for game-enders rather than moderate enablers.

[@hamsterfromabove8905]

Yea. you're just screwed if they target down your commander. You just have to hope that they decide to hold their removal for something bigger than what's essentially a mana dork. Which isn't a bad guess since mana dorks rarely get targeted so directly. This is a casual deck. It's not a strong deck. It can and will fold to meta levels of targeted interaction. This is a fun deck for mid-range stompy gameplay at a casual table. It will simply fold to higher power level tables. As he said in the video, if the opponent's deck plans on doing something better than getting a 5 cmc stomp boi on turn 4 and every turn after then you'll lose. It's a onetrick pony. 5 cmc stompy boi is the only thing this deck's got up it's sleeve.

[@lelandwhitehead56]

@@drewhoffmaster2969I’m not sure if you would replay her. It would be 4 mana, and at that point why not just play the explosive veg you were dorking for?

[@51gunner]

I think even if someone knows what this Radha deck is up to, most other decks have things THEY would rather be doing on turn 2 than removing the dork, like playing their own 2-mana ramp. If player B decides to use a Go For The Throat or Feed The Swarm or something to remove her, then they're down a card and passed up ramping themselves - players C and D are probably further ahead, having neither spent a card on removal and having got to ramp. 1-mana removal is certainly possible but I honestly don't see a lot of Cut Down or Lightning Bolt or Fatal Push in EDH pods. Spending your one copy of Swords to Plowshares on Radha seems like a bad deal, and Path to Exiling her is just... giving the deck the ramp it wanted anyway. I'm not sure it's even a catastrophic setback. Turn 3 is probably a writeoff at that point and turn 4 is probably ramp that wanted to happen on 3, but unless there's a serious aggro deck threat at the table (at which point, spending removal on Radha was probably a VERY bad choice) being set back there is maybe a few life off the top & the deck's plan happens anyway. It's not like sniping a Light-Paws early in response to an aura spell where you're probably setting them back their commander, 2 cast auras & a third aura on the stack. Or blowing up an Esper Sentinel before it draws a half-dozen cards. It's a dork and precisely one turn's delay with the whole engine ready to happen anyway.

[@DamienChavarriaFR]

@@51gunner Yep you are right. I've since then built the Radha deck (with some small creature upgrades that I had lying around) and it rarely happens that people remove her. It happenned once in my playgroup but as you said, I recovered just fine. It's a fun deck and the key is to keep ramping aggressively so that you can play two, three and more monsters per turn pretty quickly.

[@51gunner]

I love this deck concept! A very consistent plan based on a reliable turn-2 commander, and then gas into the mid-late game. It feels like it breaks the mold of a lot of EDH deckbuilding where by the time you stuff enough lands, ramp & dorks, rocks, draw, and so on into the deck you've got way less room for whatever it was you ACTUALLY wanted to do. You even get to run different ramp & don't have to focus on the same handful of very efficient (read: expensive staple) top-ends. I'm tempted to build it at a reasonable budget, play it enough times to see it Do The Thing, and then honorably shelf it to be a loaner deck for newer players (it doesn't appear to run a lot of complex stuff beyond cascade) OR a predictable deck for using against newer players (its plan is very straightforward to explain to an opponent).

[@salubrioussnail]

My variant is pretty easy to pilot *except* for mulligans. You can give rules such as mulligan if no ramp, mulligan if no top end, mulligan if less than three lands, etc. but from a purely mathematical perspective there will be times when you won't achieve all of these things within the first two mulligans. At that point you just need to rely on the intuition of what imperfect hands are good enough to be worth not dropping another card and which ones are too bad to keep.

[@51gunner]

@@salubrioussnail Fair point, I can see some complex mulligan decisions. Nevertheless, it looks consistent enough that if you've got a piece of ramp and at least three lands and the other three cards aren't all lands, there could be a real element of "screw it, let's try this" & see what comes off the topdeck. It may not get its best results, but it's much better than handing off a deck with a handful of tutors and a very specific game plan. "It wants to get to six or more mana ASAP, playing Radha on 2 and a 4-mana ramp spell on 3. You'll need three lands and one of those spells. Then play big things." This video was inspirational, and I've got a blue/green version with Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy in the command zone under construction. Kellan adventure on 2, big ramp on 3, play land number 7 on turn 4 and yeehaw. I companioned Keruga because a draw spell I have consistent access to sounded awesome. There's worse ways to end turn 4 than a 3/4 flying vigilance on-board, seven lands, and either a 3-mana value piece or draw-spell companion in hand.

[@salubrioussnail]

​@@51gunner One of my strongest games with the deck so far was a keep with 5 lands, an explosive vegetation, and a Case of the Locked Hothouse. Case goes hard in general but even without it, the ramp is more important than the top end in my experience. Kellan/Keruga sounds like a pretty fun deck too, hopefully it turns out well!

[@51gunner]

@@salubrioussnail After a few games with it, I can confidently say it's turned out well. The deck has a lot of safety nets to course-correct with mid-game if things aren't going my way. Kellan himself I often don't cast as my curve-out of T2 Tail The Suspect, T3 four-mana ramp, T4 Something Big doesn't leave a lot of room up front for a 4 mana 3/4, but he's kind of like an eighth (ninth?) card in-hand. If I suddenly need a flying creature, (slow) artifact removal, or just another creature at all he's available. Keruga fills a similar role - if I have plentiful mana and not a lot of spells left, I can grab the Emergency Draw Hippo from the sideboard and cast him. Combined with Kellan often chilling on an adventure, I often have some kind of "out" from a bad position, at least once per game. Even the clue token from the initial Tail The Suspect provides an outlet for slight flood and lets me see another early card. While the 'ceiling' for the deck is nowhere near cEDH power, its floor is really high. The high land count and plentiful ramp means I don't get stuck with high-cost spells in hand, and the tools the deck has for mitigating flood are pretty reliable. I pretty much always have some presence and impact on the board - I've never been the guy stuck on 3 lands just hoping nobody looks my way; I'm either the threat at the table or one of the players contesting the threat. It's a great casual pod deck.

[@SilverWolf340]

@@51gunnerman you’re making me wanna build this lol. I loved the idea of the commander ramp on 2 more ramp on 3 but I think I like yours better the companion lol. I’m a sucker for that mechanic even though it’s super wacky

[@nerdherd5098]

Always a good day when Snail uploads

[@EnordAreven]

"Chasing the vibes" is a lovely attitude to have around finalizing a deck list 😊

[@yoshitheonly]

Snail, I cannot tell you how much you've helped me and my friend out in enjoying Magic. Thank you for all you do!

[@Pendergast891]

this seems like the perfect deck to slot 'possibility storm' into as a means to halt counters and opponent's interaction

[@rfcmm]

I genuinely love the probability breakdowns. This video explained in great detail why I tend to get mana flooded.

[@Hobby_Technology]

I always understood what a mana curve *is* but it wasn't until I watched your videos that I finally understood the semantic meaning of the mana curve as it pertains to gameplay and how you should shape your curve around your commander in EDH. Thank you!

[@treytonstratton9544]

I love your videos and I have taken alot of your views on how decks can be more interesting/consistent and really apply more critical decision-making to end up with decks that are more uniquely me and still effective and fun.

[@crisis8v88]

It's kind of beautiful that your battlecruiser vibe has evolved in reverse order from Phyrexian Praetor to Phyrexian Converted Elf to normal Elf. You are helping to purify that damnable ichor from the land. Thank you. :)

[@total_dk6517]

Susan Foreman also ramps you to 4 on turn 3 and has the added bonus of letting you have a second commander. Multiple of them interact quite well with cascade.

[@jonathantucker9329]

Just built this with first doctor to pull the tardis out every game

[@thebitterfig9903]

I’m thinking of pairing Susan with The War Doctor. I want Red for Cascade to be a big part of the plan, and I’m inclined to think White would be nicer than Blue as a 3rd color if just dropping big bombs each turn. Since Cascade exiles, War Doctor piles on the time counters, and can start popping things, serving as a reasonable backup threat. Plus, there’s a mini mind game, since when you tell people at the table that you have a Cascade War Doctor deck, they might think he’s the problem, and possibly ignore Susan on 2.

[@JOCoStudio1]

@@thebitterfig9903 I just made a mockup of Susan and the Sixth doctor, as he lets you copy your greedy legends and artifacts for even more value. The 4 mana ramp spells push you into the 6th doctor, and then if you hit a Scepter of Eternal Glory or a gilded lotus you end up mana positive and even further ahead. Even without those, any of your 6+ mana legends and artifacts love being copied for extra value. I also think the Fugative Doctor would be an interesting choice as she can flashback your ramp spells for even more ramp.

[@Icameron259]

Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy (the Simic one) is another commander that accomplishes "turn 2 ramp in the command zone", but it does require a high land count to pull off consistently. I am considering building it along the same line of reasoning as you, i.e. it would be cool to have a deck that doesn't have to run cheap ramp effects which are often worse topdecks than simple lands.

[@Joebob31100]

I like the logic of your deckbuilding, and the way you go in depth into the mindset of a deck and how it should be played, chasing a feeling rather than just blindly putting in 'good cards.' I think I would greatly enjoy sitting across from you at a Commander table and playing stuff that is not 'jank' but just more unique and innovative than what most Commander decks look like nowadays.

[@filthystaxplayer7197]

I built a simic greed deck around Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy using a similar principle - access to Tail the Suspect in the command zone always feels incredible

[@CanadianBaconPwnage]

I have as well: my local play group was not pleased, but I love how the deck plays. It's really neat that I get to play weird cards like Darksteel Relic and have them be good.

[@filthystaxplayer7197]

Some favourites from my personal list are the indestructible artifact lands, and liquimetal torque to get anything off the table with Kellan

[@51gunner]

I built this with a Keruga companion - no Liquimetal Torque possible, but I pretty much only have big beaters. Something large is landing turn 4 and hopefully every turn thereafter. I also run a Tanglepool bridge, and would consider a One Ring if I felt like upgrading the budget that much. However I found that I didn't even play Kellan some games - he's done his job after ramping me, and unless I really want his artifact removal or am desperate for a flying creature (or any creature) I don't bring him in from adventure. Commanders with an adventure seem really cool because they're card advantage of another sort. I always have a useful spell from the CZ, and it "draws" me a legendary creature of some value for later.

[@ivanchuwarrior]

Incredible video. A while ago I thought on building a Gilanra, Caller of Wirewood + something else deck because I really wanted to try having some ramp in the command zone. That deck didn't worked very well since having a 3 mana dork wasn't very good for your curve. You need to ramp at turn 1 to be efficient and that 80% of the time would mean using another mana dork. Having two dorks in the field is not ideal when board wipes can remove easily all your investment in your early turns. After looking at this video you made me realise the way to go with the deck is with 2 mana dork on the command zone into 4 mana ramp. Looking at 2 mana dorks I found Susan Foreman and I think its perfect to build a commander deck with the same principle as your radha deck. It has Doctor's companion, meaning you can pick any combination of 3 colors you want for your deck and since you will always land a 4 mana land ramp spell you already fix your mana to have all the colors you need. You can pick your doctor just for the colors you want or you can make it have synergy with the rest of the 98. I'm building a deck with susan and the sixth doctor going full with high mana historic spells in simic. Simic has a ton of 5-6 mana legendary creatures that do well at generating you value for doing big mana stuff. Copying these creatures can get you a lot of value over the game. Since the only simic legendary creature with cascade is Imoti I can afford to put 2-3 mana value interaction like counterspells and spot removal in the deck. I can usually have 2-3 mana untapped after I put a big creature or artifact on the board. If you want to try building a deck using the same philosophy as this radha deck without copying the commander I recommend you checking Susan Foreman + any doctor you like. There are plenty of combinations that can work pretty well that almost no one built. For example susan + the sixth doctor as of today has only 2 decks registered in EDHREC

[@Adrianovaz2007]

Snail I gotta say I used to feel I had explored all possible deck construction ideas (I have 30+ decks already) but you manage to look at the game from angles so surprisingly simple but interesting that make me go ???, I guess thats the power of this game, so sime yet so complex. Keep up the good work my man :)

[@pierpaolomercurio]

Watching your videos made my Lozhan deck run smoother and I can say it's now decent. Great video

[@llamarama6976]

Cool concept! Definitly only casual though. The main weakness i see from this deck is when the opponents become aware that the deck only runs 4 mana plus spells. Removing Rada on her first play effectively timewalking you twice.

[@eonrider]

Woosh

[@llamarama6976]

@@eonrider i know he made it as a casual deck. Was just pointing out that weakness because even casual groups run removal

[@Ironpecker]

Even then it's not the worst thing in the world, you'll skip turn 3 but if you have an explosive vegetation or such by turn 4 your deck still comes online and your opponents are down 1 removal spell. Ofc it's a very strong play but I reckon that saving a counterspell or similar for the big ramp spells probably hurts more in the long run

[@llamarama6976]

@@Ironpecker yeah it does have resiliency there. Definitly not a good idea to keep a low land hand

[@zelbekon]

Targeting commanders with removal stops so many decks and strategies, people underestimate just how quickly the commander tax stacks up. I'm trying to stay away from commander-centric deck design for this very reason but it's not that easy.

[@Mmoll1990]

I mean Cascading into a Sol Ring is the same raw value of cascading into a 4cmc ramp spell that gets you 2 lands, but the Sol Ring comes in untapped.

[@goldenox2424]

Huh, Sol Ring is a good card

[@oddurvilhj]

The same value in terms of ramp, yes. However if you cascade into an Explosive Vegetation effect you also remove two lands from your deck which makes it slightly more likely to draw spells instead of lands.

[@Mmoll1990]

@@oddurvilhj Yes, but the thinning is marginal in a 99 card deck. It might add up over the course of a very long game, but I think the value of being able to go mana positive in any term by playing a Sol Ring in practice far outweighs the concept of deck thinning.

[@Hell_Majesty_]

Am I about to build a Radha deck for pauper commander? Why yes I am.

[@origaminosferatu3357]

What an inventive way to play Big Smashy. Love the idea of building decks as table archetypes and that challenge ideas on how you "should" build a deck.

[@agentkhaine2204]

Matches the philosophy behind my Susan Foreman & Sixth Doctor deck precisely. People think Sixth Doctor is who they have to watch out for, while Susan Foreman t2 & Explosive Vegetation t3 means the deck is fully operational with a huge resource advantage t4.

[@urpalalis]

really really love your videos. you consistently find good ways to articulate ways I like to approach deckbuilding. this deck in particular is pretty similar to my maelstrom wanderer/keruga deck in how it approaches ramp and resource accumulation.

[@bananajoe275]

But isn't that super slow because you have no ramp until 4?

[@urpalalis]

@@bananajoe275 it's a slower deck in that it takes ~4 turns before it starts to do anything really meaningful, but it's built with card ratios to consistently ramp +1 mana on 3, ramp +2 mana on 4, and cast wanderer on 5. it exploits guaranteed access to cards in a similar way to radha but from the opposite end. radha is guaranteed 2mv ramp, where wanderer is the payoff for running an absurd amount of ramp. keruga as well, providing an easy way to refuel when paired with the permanent-based ramp in the deck. I got rambly, tl;dr it's slow to start but hard to stop.

[@jayjayhooksch1]

I had a similar experience recently while trying to build a Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy deck. I came to similar conclusions on mana dorks and low cost ramp. I even got to end up playing Keruga as a companion. I didnt think of Cascade though, and I definitely think it will work similarly for my simic deck as it does for your gruul deck. Thanks for the inspiration! Back to the drawing board lol

[@Nex41354]

Consider your ramp package as a mini curve or your deck. You want low and you want some higher cost "better" ramp in things like Gilded Lotus, Hedron Archive, Solemn, Crypt Ghast, etc... Keep in mind you wont always see things as theorized during an actual game. So a lot of the time, the cheaper the card, the better the card. All because simply being able to play and do things is as good as winning.

[@51gunner]

Your comment (and this video) inspired me to do the same; I just built an Inquisitive Prodigy deck! I went back and forth on whether or not to companion Keruga, but decided to go for it because I've never built a deck with a Companion, and how else would I ever run that companion? I had a few copies of Imoti, Celebrant of Bounty from the March of the Machine bonus sheet - Imoti cascades, and then gives all CMC 6+ cascade. I'll probably look for other cascade spells too - it seems much more fun if you've rigged your curve so you can't "miss". I ended on like 46 lands because I feel like Kellan really wants at least 3 lands in opening hand and prefers 4, but I didn't want to go to 50+ lands. With 3 in opening I feel reasonably confident I can hit the 4th between 3 draws.

[@jayjayhooksch1]

@@51gunner you definitely need a higher than average land count for Kellan/Keruga, especially if your curve starts at 4. I think 46 is a little high though considering you get a free mulligan in commander and Tail the Suspect also gives you a clue token. I'd give the popular landfall decks a look to get an idea of how many lands they are playing as a starting point. They are looking to make multiple land drops per turn, so I'd wager you don't need more lands than they do. They seem to be running about 39-42, and I'd recommend that range to start with and include some kind of plan for flood insurance (looting effects, perhaps).

[@51gunner]

@@jayjayhooksch1 I'll have a look, but I think I'd rather start land-heavy & trim. Was cheaper for me to fill the list with more basics than pick up speculative picks & have to cut. I really, really need 3 lands in opening hand and would be happier with 4. Over time I could maybe cut a couple but I'd prefer to do that only after testing.

[@51gunner]

@@jayjayhooksch1 After looking into it a bit, I think I can eat my cake & still have it. I wanted 46ish lands because it's really important for me to get 4+ lands in the first ten cards the deck sees (7 starter + 3 topdecks at start of turn 3). I'd rather lean a little towards 5 lands than risk three, so 46 felt correct. After looking further into it though, I noticed two things: the deck is really accepting of tapped lands - I can actually play out two of the first four lands as tapped without interrupting anything - and that it often has an open mana or two because it doesn't have any CMC 2 or lower cards. I think the answer here is MDFCs and the LTR landcyclers. With Lorien Revealed, Generous Ent, Khalani Ambush, and Glasspool Mimic I can cut 4 lands but each of those cards lets me either play it as a land or cycle it away to get a land. Thanks for your comments, they were really helpful.

[@viviblue7277]

The idea this gave to me was to play Ruby, for the exact same reasons as Radha and 2 cost dork I always have, and then a cascade package with 4/5 card to cascade into (Etali’s favor is the 5th one it doesn’t really count, I know the deck would be strictly more powerful if I reduced it to 2/3 but I’m intentionally playing some jank like glimpse of tomorrow). I also have the same kind of top end this deck is so it isn’t just win with cascade of bust (unless I flip a really bad glimpse of tomorrow, although I’ve tried to stick to just permanents whenever possible). Came back to this video to rehear the advice that inspired me to make the deck and add some finishing touches. I built the deck on a crazy low budget using mostly cards I already have making it by far the most jank of my commander decks but that was part of the fun in building it. The fact that I want to cascade on turn 3 instead of ramping does make me much weaker to board wipes than this deck but honestly I kinda built this deck with the knowledge that both of my play groups play a painfully low amount of board wipes so I should never have to play through more than 2 board wipes in a single game. The deck is definitely both very similar and very different to this one, thanks for the inspiration and I’ll come back here again to fix the deck if my wacky idea doesn’t actually work out.

[@ylygylygynda]

This is easily the best channel on EDH deckbuilding.

[@Caseyuptobat]

"What if Gruul Stompy *always* had a dork on turn 2 and *never* drew a dork it didn't need" Brilliant.

[@Pairsath]

Glad I found your channel. There's always some tid-bit perspective to learn about the game, even if you've played for YEARS :)

[@zacharymiller4162]

7:31 Woodwurm is an ALL STAR in my Surrak and Goreclaw list, near constantly causing it and Surran'n'Claw to use its ability that turn

[@Navak_]

This is my favorite video of yours because it tells me what to do instead of what not to do

[@ujai5271]

I have a similar Radha deck I built on a very tight budget a couple of years ago. My inspiration for it was... Violent Outburst into Hypergenesis. That's right, this is my slot machine deck that usually does what this deck does, but very rarely, it let's everyone dump their hand on turn 3 and see what happens. To rebuild after a wipe, I also have a bunch of "look at the top x and put some amount of creature onto the battlefield" effects. And the card that gets the most amount of complaints, but I love too much to cut: Possibility Storm. All my creatures are interchangable; they are all huge and have big effects. Casting one over the other hardly matters, but flipping cards is just so much fun. And it is kind of protection, as it counteracts wipes from hand. Anyway, cool video, thanks for sharing ^^

[@AxillaryPower2]

Sir, you've made me for the first time ever think about switching the commander of my Xenagos deck. It's like how you described your Goreclaw deck, the biggest problem at the table until it isn't, and packing in 16 or 17 three mana or less ramp cards. It's so focused on ramping to five and six that relies on an out attack strategy it gets shut down after a couple of removal spells, or gets unlucky and doesn't get off the ground quick enough. Consistently windmill slamming six plus drops on turn four is where I want to be, and putting that early ramp in the command zone, freeing up space for bigger ramp that lets me better sustain into the late game despite setbacks sounds like the way.

[@remiboros1163]

Recently I made a battlecruise edric deck with effectively the same game plan as the one laid out by your glissa video (ramp, commander, draw while ramping, draw cards by any means necessary (trampling 7-10 drops)). I’m super new to magic, so didn’t know the reputation edric used to have until I played… happy to say I love the deck all the same. Thank you for the videos :))

[@delallelilolu744]

Ive been working on a 2 colour commander pod and had been struggling to find a simic deck that I found interesting. your deck was the perfect inspiration. currently working on troyan with keruga as companion. good job! smooth moves

[@avaseries]

Regarding what you said at the begining, and not specifically about this deck : when it comes to low mana ramp, great tools are Dig Up, Analyze the Pollen, and Traverse the Ulvenwald, that all cost G to tutor a basic land, but can be used as general tutors in mid-late game under various conditions. Really awesome spells.

[@Grudi28]

You can build a similar deck using imoti + keruga companion, so every cascade trigger from your commander will get you into a 3 mana cost ramp spell, that way, every time you cast your commander, you will off set an increasing commander tax if she gets removed

[@isaaktastet6324]

I was just building a midrange deck with Radha because my brain went to gruul when thinking of big stompy shit and she was the only cheap commander that ramps, getting lots of inspiration from your Glissa Deck, and then you make a video with a similar idea and it ends up having me just steal your decklist while feeling shitty that we came to the same idea but yours is so much better executed. I hate deckbuilding.

[@lemoncurry4822]

Awesome video! A great take and sweet deck idea. I built a Shanna, Purifying Blade voltron & lands deck recently that used this approach and am really happy with the result (basically just tailoring a deck around an early commander to justify playing a greedy amount of certain effects--in my case it was extra land effects, cheap interaction & equipment).

[@pettskii]

such an amazing video, sent it to a bunch of my friends; you're definitely slept on

[@burlyboomer4283]

I needed a brawl deck for this week's Arena event. No Radha, but I have Ruby from a jump in pack and I built a pretty functional deck inspired by this strategy. My curve looks kind of normal, but it's really not because the 2 and 3 mana spells are fight/bite removal and double faced tap lands that aren't meant to be played on curve. Curious how the other x/G color pairs would do with this concept.

[@51gunner]

U/G can do this with Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy in the command zone. This color pair also opens up using Keruga as a companion. I've built it and play it pretty regularly. Pros: - Kellan's ramping leaves a clue in play & basically 'draws' him as a creature. The clue I've found to be pretty helpful, the minute you're not totally on-curve you may as well grab another card. - Kellan himself is a more relevant creature than either Ruby or Radha; 3/4 flying vigilance with an attack trigger for 2UG can be pretty useful. Some games I never need to cast him as I'm playing out bigger threats, but other times I've used Tail The Suspect 3+ from the command zone... it was a grindy game and I needed cards and to set down the lands I kept topdecking. Radha and Ruby are unlikely to be cast a second time, IMO. - Being in Blue/Green opens up having Keruga as a companion; a draw spell you're guaranteed to have access to is pretty sweet. Cons: - Less support for Cascade in blue/green than red/green. Imoti is nice but you're losing access to Etalis and such. - Way fewer ways to get Haste in blue/green. - You need more lands in opening hand, 2-land is flatly unplayable. I built the deck with 40 lands, 5 MDFCs, and 2 LTR Landcyclers so i effectively have 47 'land cards' in deck. Less room for spells. There's also options to use Susan Foreman paired with any of the Doctors from the Dr. Who sets - this opens up 3-color options if you'd like.

[@Phavahg]

Excellent post. In our playgroup if you can't get rid of opponents' Enchantments, you'll be hurting soon. Your decklist has a couple of cards that address that, but adding Silverback Elder helps with that (as well as having other handy bonuses) and is under $4.

[@ViolentSh4de]

was studying your glissa deck wondering how you were able to play those high mana cards just two hours ago, thanks for making this video just for me

[@deputydevil6839]

I was inspired by this video to build my own Radha deck, and one card that truly shined for me is Magmatic Force. I think it fits the idea of "big creature with removal stapled," is dirt cheap, and very similar to Drakuseth. I thought it might not have been on your radar and I hope you consider adding it to your own deck!

[@chemnao4009]

Really cool video! It reminds of one of my favorite decks (that I rebuilt recently, updated with the insights I gleaned from your videos) It's an Arixmethes deck that uses the commander as an always online explosive veggie. It's really cool but as you said in your video it can stumble due to the high number of low cost ramp, and the first 4 turn are pretty much scripted. Some of my favorite cards that I never managed to find a good deck for (like Sphinx of the Second Sun, Shared Summons and Alchemist's Refuge) have had their time in the spotlight so overall a great success. So thanks for all the cool videos, keep it up!

[@jacksonledford2085]

You put a lot of thought into EDH as a whole. Well done! I would love to hear your take on how people play voltron wrong, and how to make it more viable.

[@cliiwen]

I wonder if a similar deck, but with an even higher curve, would be possible using Yurlock of Scorch Thrash. Maybe canning the Cascade package in favour of some 3-drop ramp and some 3-drop haste enablers, so that you could cast and activate Yurlock on turn 4 and go from there, playing an 8-drop on turn 5 etc.

[@shmackydoo]

Very awesome deck, so many tools & functions. And all those graphs and data too, I love it!

[@StressFG]

I've played this deck a couple of times now and as long as it's got at least 2 lands in your starting hand, it's unbeaten so far. Nicely done.

[@UnuUO]

Does your playgroup just not play single target removal? Legitimate question

[@51gunner]

​@@UnuUO While it's certainly possible someone removes/counters your commander in a deck like this, in practice it's pretty unlikely. Someone needs to basically have a piece of premium low-cost removal that isn't Path To Exile and nothing better to do with their mana. The commander's not on the field turn 1, and I'd say a lot of players would rather spend their turn 2 dropping a mana rock or ramp spell of their own than removing a 2-drop. I'd say that the typical table just isn't prepared to spend their removal piece that early in the game before it's clear who's the real threat at the table as well; there's just enough other really strong commanders that people would rather target. There's certainly cards in the game that could stop you and if someone really had it out for you they absolutely could do it, but such is EDH. I play a version of this deck using Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy; it doesn't put a creature on the battlefield turn 2 so it's a little harder to interrupt, but even then I've never worried about eating a fast early counterspell; people just have other stuff they're doing on 1 or 2. If you're ahead of them in turn order they may only have a single (tapped?) land in play when going for Tail the Suspect.

[@Blairrows]

Yes! I have a Radha deck that works very similarly like this, but I chose to put more instant speed interaction in to hold up between turns rather than rely on cascade effects, because ultimately I cannot deviate from my blue instincts no matter what colours I'm in. By the way, "Not of This World" is a slam dunk in this deck, it's instant speed protection that doesn't muck up your cascades and is very budget-friendly (currently sitting at $0.89).

[@theunease5541]

I've just been tinkering with an Imoti deck with no cards below 5 mana value except 3 cycling synergy cards, then the rest of the deck is filled to the brim with big dumb cycling cards (32 of them to be exact). Was coming back to the channel cause I'm interested in trying a similar plan using cycling with the first doctor instead with a bit more nuance than just shoving 32 5+ mana value cards in a deck. Now I see this thumbnail suggesting how i might get away with shoving your deck full of 4+ mana value cards. Love it, can't wait.

[@ThePendelton21]

Bless you, I've never seen another Radha deck; mine is a Primal Surge deck. This is a really great idea and I might make it soon, great work!

[@deejayf69]

This was made for me. I was in a rut not knowing how to get away with playing a deck with extra greed.

[@AwkwardDreamer]

I'm sure you already saw them and/or they don't fit the fine tuning of your deck but if I was running this, I'd try to find someway to shoehorn Krosan Tusker and Beanstalk Giant in. They function as ramp and/or draw spells while also providing a thick body late game, with Beanstalk Giant scaling off all the land ramp you're already doing. Rubblehulk (as well as Wrecking Ogre to an extent) is another fantastic addition. Again, scaling off all the land ramp you have going on or acting as an impromptu (relatively uncounterable) pump spell that can also be used to pump your opponents creatures for surprise kills. All that said, wonderful video, great work!

[@connorcoolralts5228]

This deck was so cool it inspired me to make a standard brawl version with Ruby, daring hunter, and by golly is it good. Thanks for the great deck idea!

[@brandyourfan9244]

Love this tech. I wanted to make a Ruby, Daring Tracker deck, and this really helps me with some of the deck decisions . Keep up the great work man

[@gavinckubiak]

Ruby is pretty much strictly better than Radha because you have the option to tap for red. I came back to this video to find if anybody had been talking about this because I started making the radha deck and found Ruby

[@51gunner]

@@gavinckubiak Ruby seems really good for this deck concept; she'll almost certainly attack as a 3/4 minimum in this deck and I feel like the Haste has got to be relevant in some way (aside from just a 1-damage poke to someone on turn 2). The ability to tap for red mana sounds good too but I'm not sure it'd be 100% relevant; most of those 4-mana ramp spells should allow fixing just fine by finding mountains, but it is strictly better than just tapping for green.

[@_wanderluss_1944]

Had exactly the same idea and decided to build it. Ruby is absolutely FANTASTIC. Being versatile in grabbing either colour and the ability to be a decent beater when you don’t need her mana anymore is astounding, honestly one of the best decks I own

[@brandyourfan9244]

@@_wanderluss_1944 Nice. I built her too, and it a very fun, aggressive deck. I threw in a bunch of extra combat cards, making Ruby a really heavy hitter. I even made a custom art for her, being a big fan of RWBY

[@_wanderluss_1944]

@@brandyourfan9244 That’s awesome! I mainly put massive beaters and silly chaos cards in it. One of the cards that really surprised me was Hexavus, at worst it’s a 6/6 flyer, at best all of your massive creatures suddenly gain flying and murder everyone. Well worth it imo

[@bobroberts5820]

I just discovered this channel and holy crap it's a masterpiece

[@PM-xc8oo]

I had this exact deck built years ago (ok not exact but Rhada as a commander and same game play/theory) and it was glorious. Highly recommended. Going straight from 2 to 4 every game is legit strong.

[@Scrollbars]

This is sick. My previous two deck builds were a cascade deck that does not whiff, and a turbo greedy 7cmc+ creatures only deck. This is literally a combination of them, but also done way more cleanly. I def want to try to pilot this.

[@craftmasterasaga]

I increasingly find myself choosing more low cost cards with card filtering / selection spells and abilities, rather than outright draw for the reason you outlined - drawing low cost ramp or excess lands later in the game. It seems to me to be a pretty natural thing to include. Usually these are cheap and have easy to achieve activation costs (such as Academy Wall or anything with a simple tap ability). I find it's a good method to achieve deck consistency, and if you're discarding from hand or surveiling rather than scrying there's often a way to use the graveyard to play those spells. However, this tends to lead to a commander that contains a draw engine or at least half a draw engine since usually some synergy is required, rather than a ramping commander. In a way that's restricting which cards I can use as a commander, but this video's idea is a cool alternative. I'm interested to see if I can get it to work in non-green color combinations though - perhaps Urza, Powerstone Prodigy or something like that would be good for me to try building around.

[@sczombie]

I've been trying to get a deck with an average CMC this high to work for many months and I am quite impressed with your solution. To think I got lost in the sauce of trying to cheat out cards when I should have just been exploding some vegetation!

[@elizabethfernandez9466]

Honestly might cop this deck myself. I haven’t looked too fondly on midrange historically but your points have swayed me for sure. I like when a deck has thing that it’s doing and I’ve seen midrange as decks with nothing interesting to say but now I see it’s not that they have nothing interesting to say and more that they have interesting questions to ask.

[@Teifling]

Watching these and Trincket Mage's videos are giving me some motivation to actually work on a deck project I pitched to myself a while ago. I had people I know pick 1 of the viable 8 Companions, and I build a deck with a Partner pair that can fit the Companion's deck building restriction, then try to make something fun from there. As far as I got was having Zirda as the pick, and choosing Brallin and Shabraz as the partner commanders. There's only 1 other Shark that will fit in, so the Brallin activated ability will probably only be useful for Shabraz... so we're looking at activated ability tribal with draw and discard payoffs since Brallin and Shabraz like looting and rummaging.

[@jacquesdespadas]

This sounds hella fun, actually. Turns 1-3 can be boring no matter how you build. I love that you are embracing that and turning it into a strength with the 4 mana ramp. 🙌

[@paperwatt]

That deck actually looks super fun. The idea of a ramp package starting at 4 mana never even came close to crossing my mind.

[@leonardonakatanimoretti6516]

My second ever deck was Radha focusing in that exact build. Effective 4 costed drops, a pile of random high cost stuff. Back in the day I had no idea what I was doing, got excited on revisiting the idea

[@pauldyson8098]

I love this deck. A few things: -Ruby has a similar build path but I agree with your switching to Radha, for two reasons: Radha is better in corner cases (activating Blighted Woodland on T3, for example); Radha is such a dope character. -Using Ruby as a baseline, your list has some significant upgrades: the caves package is just brilliant; Radagast really shines here. -I don't run the Dr. Who cards (not available on MTGO and I like my decks to be the same in paper and digital) or the Warhammer cards (I just don't dig Warhammer), so I added other cascade cards (Apex Devastator, of course, and Call Forth the Tempest) as well as Silverback Elder. The latter card really makes the deck sing: just as Radagast nets you more creatures than you'd expect, Silverback pushes the ramp train into Astro Train mode and the added potential removal is gravy. So, IMHO, if I were to add some non-budget cards, I'd probably start with Silverback (he's among the cheaper non-budget cards, too!). -Your strategy of eschewing EVERYTHING under four mana is absolutely genius. I had a friend who built Radha as a generic goodstuff deck years ago The same friend also proclaimed themself to be the uncontested monarch of midrange. This list would make them very happy.

[@salubrioussnail]

I'm glad you enjoy the deck! Silverback Elder and Nylea, Keen-Eyed are both engines that are a bit more that I'd like, but which I've considered nonetheless. And honestly, Radha's art and flavor is the biggest reason I prefer her to Ruby, though I think mechanically she's slightly better as well due to a handful of edge case instants.

[@pauldyson8098]

@@salubrioussnail I don't want to spoil anything, but we just got a sweet 5-drop for the deck. Not sure if it's officially spoiled yet, so I'll let folks check it out if they like.

[@TonyTheMahony]

@@pauldyson8098Tell meeeee!

[@noobtube2799]

I suggest to add the split cards Road//Ruin, Struggle//Survive, and Thrash//Threat as they all have a cmc greater than four and work as interaction.

[@jacobthehun]

Just finished my own version of Radha based on your deck here and it is an absolute blast

[@marshallscot]

I wonder if there are any "clash" cards which would be worth throwing in here since your average CMC is so high.

[@dubblehelix83]

Love this, I simultaneously landed on an extremely similar deck with gluntch. In that deck gluntch is basically the 4 mana ramp and the deck has 11 ways to ramp on turn 1. So It just plays 6 drops on turn 3. Very fun idea, honestly love the use of cascade here My deck does have quite a bit more interaction and I lean on initiative and monarch to generate value.

[@51gunner]

I built a Gluntch deck when I was very new to Commander, but I think I made the mistake of always keeping the 1/1 counters for myself (big jellyfish!) and gave away too many cards and treasures. I should try to rebuild that deck.

[@jackbuggeln4870]

@9:30 I find the same play pattern with a mostly basic package in lord windgrace. You can absolutely tear through the basics in your deck and start drawing your good cards

[@ChelloveckCog]

I know exactly what you're talking about with 'vibe'. My own Alena, Kessig Tapper + Silas Renn partner deck is exactly that, and I'm still working on it, but essentially I sought out to do what you're doing but with a caveat: I wanted to play Grixis since Grixis is so often about spell slinger or wheels, and I wanted to play battle cruiser, a style that's absolutely the antithesis of either of those resource denial archetypes. And it still needs a lot of work, but I think it's coming along nicely.

[@nscvinicius]

This is a really awesome deck. I have one deck with a similar idea, a simic cascade with Imoti + Keruga as companion. As it only allows cards with CMC >= 3, it's a fun deckbuilding challenge. All my CMC4 or less are ramp and the rest are big creatures that, when the commmander is in play, all cascade. So usually I play 2 (or when lucky 3) cards a turn without spending that many cards from hand.

[@Goonwild5299]

Very cool deck man, you have a great brain for creative deck building which is rare!

[@cookies23z]

one day I hope to get back into commander, and these videos provide interesting ideas for when I do get to do that

[@azzazzello1368]

I really like your decks, I built Xyris deck and it was so much fun for whole table. Looking forward to trying this one

[@abderianagelast7868]

I love the deck ideas I've seen on the channel so far! It makes me want to build stuff like it, but I can tell my thinking is still fairly in the box, and I worry about any decks I build just being derivatives of these instead of a truly personal creation. But then, maybe I'm worrying about that too much.

[@c0barsm]

This is such a fun idea! I am going to keep this in my head for when I am looking to smash in the future.

[@ThunderhunterFTW]

You have described exactly how I made my imoti, celebrant of bounty deck. Huge amount of ramp, and a bunch of cards that just cascade into it.

[@franslair2199]

Imoti was my first thought. Shout out to Gwenna eyes of gaea

[@Duarte_GB]

My imoti deck's curve looking at the thumbnail: "pathetic"

[@SumTingWong886]

Literally😂 when I heard high mana and cascade I was like “laughs in imoti”

[@thesvengallideck]

This deck is great. The vibe can be achieved with Susan Foreman too while also letting you flex this idea into any color

[@adamklosterman101]

Ooo... Love this brew! I run a high power Naya Samut list with a similar vibe. This may be just the option I've wanted, for use in mid power pods!

[@draco4569]

The Radha, Heir to Keld card I have has the flavor text: "Run home, cur. I've already taken your master's head. Don't make me thrash you with it."

[@danielwalker2512]

Used to use Radha as my commander for Gruul land destruction. So no matter what, I was always destroying a land on turn 3. I eventually changed it to Svella, Ice shaper. The reason i changed it was because the way I built Radha was more of a 1v1 commander. I changed it to Svella to replace targeted land destruction with each player sacrifices lands cards (powerstones and rocks allowed me to still play while the board suffered). Interesting concept for Radha to basically play a Singleton bombdrop deck

[@hiperbird]

Real cool! I was looking into building a susan foreman deck, but this has convinced me to try to finish it

[@webbc99]

I have the same idea for my Angels. Giada is such a good creature for 2 mana, and the fact that I always have access to her, and she is so good at using swords etc., I can just include every high CMC angel. My favourite deck by far.

[@panda-tv5675]

Hoping you read this commend. I have a deck building challenge for you! Backgrounds and background commanders are typically built around the creature half of the pairing with the background boosting the background. I challenge you to switch that prerogative on its head, attempt to build a deck that is built around the background over the background chooser. I have done this challenge myself and I will say I found it very interesting.

[@user-tl4ze2vq9i]

I have a deck that uses a similar principle, starring Wilson and Tavern Brawler, where I want to exile huge stuff to empower Wilson and then play them at a discounted price with alternative casting costs. But the idea of using 4 drop ramp spells never occured to me! I won't be leaning into cascade as those 1 mana protection spells are pretty crucial to keep Wilson alive, but I'm definetely subbing out mana dorks and two mana ramp spells for the 4 mana ones, which also naturally curve out with Wilson and Tavern Brawler. Also Combustible Gearhulk, that card is chef's kiss in these types of decks!

[@robertcreech9149]

I really love this concept, thanks sm for sharing

[@CrusaderXI]

fantastic video, I love the concept for your deck it reminds me of my own 6 mana 6/6 deck or DREADMAW Tribal, same idea in regard to super high mana cost with big creature pay off but I went with more ways to ramp and cheat creatures onto the board. will leave the link for the deck below you might be interested in testing it out some time in the future, or just take inspiration for a future vid.

[@shimmypost]

At one point I was thinking of making a radha deck cause manadork commander sounded fun but then I realized gilanra and alena are both manadorks and partners so then I did that.

[@magnus6147]

Hey, this is my deck! I did mine with Impromtu Raid-effects to be more resilient against wipes but I recognize a good Radha-curve when I see one