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The cEDH Book of Knowledge

-Compiled by /r/cEDH
"Organization is often undervalued but rarely unjustified."
—Frasio, royal archivist (Enlightened Tutor [EMA] Flavor Text)

Counterspells by /u/SirOzsome
Free:

Mana Dorks in cEDH by /u/Lime_Blue

Mana Rocks and Accelerants by Khanth (MTGS)

Entomb: Based on the namesake Entomb, these cards search libraries to put cards in graveyards.
Fetch Creature: Search for a creature and put it on the battlefield.
Fetch Land: Search for a land and put it on the battlefield.
Search By CMC
Search By Name
Search for Arcane
Search for Artifact
Search for Aura
Search for Copies
Search for Dragon
Search for Elf
Search for Enchantment
Search for Equipment
Search for Faerie
Search for Goblin
Search for Instant
Search for Legend
Search for Mercenary
Search for Merfolk
Search for Multicolored
Search for Permanent
Search for Rebel
Search for Sorcery
Search for Spirit
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Search for Trap

Search from Sideboard (not officially supported by EDH RC)
Search Opponent's Library
Search to Top of Library
Tutor Any Card
Tutor Creature
Tutor Land
Tutors
Colorless:
White:
Blue:
Black:
Red:
Green:
Lands:
Miscellaneous good to know info

Some of the best cards in cEDH might Shock you

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Counterspells by /u/SirOzsome

Free:
● Force of Wil​l
● Pact of Negation
● Mental Misstep
● Misdirection
● Daze
● Mindbreak Trap
● Thwart​ (/u/simponboy77)
● Foil​ (/u/simponboy77)
● Disrupting Soal (added by vgp)
These counterspells can be used without paying Mana for them, which is their shared, very strong, upside.
The downsides of each individual spell will be explained here:
● Force of Will: ​Exiling as a cost worsens the issue of card disadvantage. Finding a blue card worth
pitching can be an issue.
● Pact of Negation​: This protects you really well if you're winning on the same turn, but if you're
forced to use it reactively, the 3UU on your next Upkeep can be a huge blowout (imagine
someone dropping a ​Static Orb​ while you're tapped out).
● Mental Misstep​: It is somewhat narrow, but there are a lot of 1-mana Spells in cEDH (Dorks,
Rocks, Cantrips, cheap Removal, cheap ​Counterspell​s). Worth including in most decks.
● Misdirection​: Only really deals with spot removal and ​Counterspell​s (or USZ/​Stroke of Genius​, I
guess). VERY narrow, and has the same card disadvantage as ​Force of Will​.
● Daze​: It's good in Legacy because it can be a great tempo card if your opponent taps out. In
cEDH, having to pay 1 extra usually doesn't cut it, even if Daze is "free". Returning a land can
also set you back by quite a lot.
● Mindbreak Trap​: This one has lost a lot of utility since Storm players switched to ​Aetherflux
Reservoir​. While it is quite good at winning Counter wars and doesn't cost you a card like ​Force
of Will​ or Misdirection, the three spells clause might leave you sitting with it in your hand for an
uncomfortable amount of time.
● Thwart: While it is costly via tempo, it is similar to Pact of Negation where the tempo wouldn’t
matter if you win that turn.
● Foil: Extreme card disadvantage, but vs FoW it doesn’t need a blue card, just an island.
● Disrupting Soal: Card disadvantage as you need to discard a card, and the spells you can counter
are limited to the CMC of the cards you have in hand. At the same time cEDH has a limited
spread in term of CMC.
Universal:
● Mana Drain
● Counterspell
● Unsubstantiate
● Remand
● Memory Lapse
● Arcane Denial
● Logic Knot
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● Delay​ (added by /u/Garta)

The major upside of all of these spells is that they can counter anything. Along with that, they all have
their own up- and downsides, which will be examined here:
● Mana Drain​: This is easily the best universal ​Counterspell​. Extra Mana on your next turn can be a
huge upside. The only downside is that it costs UU to cast, which can be hard in decks with 3+
colours.
● Counterspel​l: Same as ​Mana Drain​, but without the upside. Still good enough for most 3-colour
decks that have Blue as their main colour.
● Unsubstantiate​: Also being able to bounce a creature can be a huge upside. Bouncing a spell is
not always great. This spell is better when used in an offensive way (i.e. to bounce a creature
before comboing off, or against interaction on your combo turn).
● Remand​: Similar to ​Unsubstantiate​ in that it only bounces a spell rather than dealing with it
permanently, but getting a draw off it can be good. Only really recommended for Storm decks.
● Memory Lapse​: Slightly better than the Spell-bounce part of ​Unsubstantiate​ since it puts the card
on top rather than in someone's hand. If used ideally, this can both counter a spell and blank your
opponent's next draw.
● Arcane Denial​: Oh boy, here we go. This card has been controversial in the cEDH community for
a reason. If you want to hear my personal opinion on the matter, here's a post I wrote about it.
● Logic Knot​: Once again, UU is a significant downside for multi-color decks, but having Delve in
combination with Fetchlands, Cantrips, and other one-time use cards makes this a universal
two-CMC Counter most of the time.
Conditional, sorted by broadness:
● Negate
● Spell Pierce
● Swan Song
● Flusterstorm
● Muddle the Mixture
● Dispel
● Annul
● Spell Snare
● Invasive Surgery
● Essence Scatter​ / ​Remove Soul​ / ​False Summoning
● Nix
This set of ​Counterspell​s is fairly diverse - most of them come with a unique set of up- and downsides.
See here:
● Negate​: The broadest of the conditional ​Counterspell​s. cEDH is quite heavy on noncreature
spells, so it should be easy to find a target for this.
● Spell Pierce​: Probably the best of the (normal) "Pay-extra" spells. cEDH tends to operate on fairly
thin mana margins, so it will end up as a noncreature ​Counterspell​ for U often enough. Great in
Counter wars and to protect yourself.
● Swan Song​: Another fairly broad 1-mana Counter. The Enchantment part is surprisingly relevant,
with cards like ​Necropotence​, ​Sylvan Library​, ​Mystic Remora​, ​Animate Dead​ etc.
● Flusterstorm​: This requires a bit of timing, but it has one gigantic upside: Thanks to how Storm
works, it's almost impossible to answer. Your opponent's ​Counterspell​ will only hit one of the
Storm copies, which is usually far from good enough.
● Muddle the Mixture​: UU is a significant downside, especially coupled with the lack of broadness.
Only play this if you have good tutor targets in the 2-mana slot. Think ​Stasis​/​Winter Orb​ etc. in
Teferi​ or Resonator in Brago.
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● Dispel​: Absolutely fantastic in a Counter war, still decent outside of it. Can catch cards like ​Ad
Nauseam​ or ​High Tide​.
● Annul​: Actually not as much of a Meta call as many people might think. Quite literally every
cEDH deck plays a fair deal of artifacts, and a good number even use one as a win condition
(think ​Basalt Monolith​ + R ​ ings of Brighthearth​, ​The Chain Veil​ in ​Teferi​, etc.). There are also
several strong Enchantments that are worth countering, as mentioned above. If you think you can
afford to use up a slot for this, go for it. In my personal experience, I have never felt like I needed
that card in any of my decks.
● Spell Snare​: Can be good, but is mostly a Meta call. Hits many other ​Counterspell​s, some
removal, some draw spells, ​Thalia, Guardian of Thraben​, ​Gaddock Teeg​, and some support cards
like ​Sylvan Library​ or ​Dark Confidant​.
● Invasive Surgery​: We're getting super narrow here. This is where I'd make the general viability
cutoff for nine out of ten cEDH decks. Can deal with cards like ​Doomsday​, Wrath Effects, and
some other stuff for just 1 mana.
● Essence Scatter​ / ​Remove Soul​ / ​False Summoning​: If all you're ever up against is
Yisan​/​Sisay​/​Karador​ and co., consider adding this.
● Nix​: This might be pretty spicy, but is somewhat narrower than ​Mental Misstep​. On top of cards
like ​Mana Crypt​ or ​Mox Diamond​, it can hit all of our free ​Counterspell​s from earlier, and it hits
stuff that was cast with Cascade/​Mind's Desire​ etc.
Activated/triggered abilities:
● Stifle
● Trickbind
● Disallow
● Voidslime
● Squelch (/u/Daveyb1283)
Countering activated and triggered abilities can be good in cEDH, especially with most Storm players
favouring ​Aetherflux Reservoir​ over T ​ endrils of Agony​ nowadays. However, these are very narrow and
it's usually better to have a broader Counter in their place so the problematic abilities don't hit the deck in
the first place. These do have the added bonus of countering a Fetchland activation, but the impact of that
is far smaller than it is in Legacy. Once again, Multiplayer and all.
Gets around "can't be countered":
● Unsubstantiate
● Mindbreak Trap
● Ertai's Meddling
● Venser, Shaper Savant
● Summary Dismissal
● Spell Queller
Some of the better cards in cEDH are uncounterable, namely ​Abrupt Decay​ and ​Supreme Verdict​. If you
see yourself getting blown out by one of those regularly, consider adding one of these. ​Unsubstantiate​ is
probably your best bet. ​Mindbreak Trap​ and ​Summary Dismissal​ can exile any-/everything on the stack,
but especially for the latter, it's not worth including most of the time.

Non-Mono Blue options, sorted by colour wheel:

● Lapse of Certainty
● Rebuff the Wicked
● Mana Tithe
● Silence​ (cast during someone's Upkeep when you know they're gonna go for the win)
● Countersquall
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● Dimir Charm
● Imp's Mischief
● Izzet Charm
● Counterflux
● Red Elemental Blast
● Pyroblast
● Guttural Response
● Voidslime
● Autumn's Veil
● Warping Wail
● Null Brooch

If you have access to Blue, the only ones you should consider here are ​Countersquall​, ​Red Elemental
Blast​, and ​Pyroblast​. While the Charms are nice in terms of flexibility, you shouldn't play them if you
can't make use of the other modes as well. Even in non-Blue decks, most of these will not be worth a slot.
Not every deck wants ​Counterspell​s, and a lot of non-Blue decks tend to fit in that category. Other colours
offer different means of interaction, for instance Discard in Black.
Now, looking at all of these ​Counterspell​s, I'd like to make the case for the following two ​Counterspell​s in
cEDH: ​Delay​ and ​Mana Leak​.
Here how I think about them:
● Both are universal Counters. They can deal with anything your opponents cast, and as we know:
the broader a Counter, the better.
● Both have a CMC of two: Two CMC is pretty much the cutoff for a viable ​Counterspell​ in cEDH,
with a lot of decks having their average CMCs around two or less.
● Rather than UU, they cost 1U: For multicolored decks, 1U is far easier and more comfortable to
cast than UU. Also has spicy synergy with cards like ​Helm of Awakening​ or ​Grand Arbiter
Augustin IV​.
● For ​Delay​, the Suspend part either doesn't matter because you can win quickly enough, or it
makes the suspended spell useless (think ​Dark Ritual​ or ​Counterspell​) most of the time. There is,
of course, the third case, where an important spell comes back three turns later, but even then, (up
to) three players have 2-3 turns to find some sort of interaction for it.
● For ​Mana Leak​, I've brought up that cEDH tends to operate on fairly small Mana margins. Even
if it costs one more Mana than ​Spell Pierce​, making your opponent pay three Mana instead of two
can be very big game.
All in all, I think that ​Delay​ and ​Mana Leak​ are very viable in cEDH and should be considered when
building a deck. Both of them fit more into a fast Combo type of deck rather than a
Stax/Control/Midrange shell, but even in those, they are worth having a look at.
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Mana Dorks in cEDH by /u/Lime_Blue

--- Sorted by Mana Color---
Green:
● Llanowar Elves
● Elvish Mystic
● Boreal Druid
● Joraga Treespeaker
● Birds of Paradise
● Fyndhorn Elves
● Arbor Elf
● Priest of Titania
● Devoted Druid
● Wall of Roots
● Sylvan Caryatid
● Quirion Elves
● Selvala, Heart of the Wilds​ (ramping into high power creatures)
● Somberwald Sage​ (aiming to cast 6+ mana creatures)
● Shaman of Forgotten Ways​ (reasonably high density of creatures and is primarily a win
condition)
● Wirewood Channeler​ (Elf Tribal)
● Elvish Archdruid​ (Elf Tribal only)
● Karametra's Acolyte​ (generally Mono-Green only)
● Voyaging Satyr​ (requires exploiting ​Cabal Coffers​ or ​Gaea's Cradle​, etc.)
● Heritage Druid​ (at least ~30 elves, this is more a combo enabler than an accelerant)
● Lotus Cobra​ (should be considered a ritual with fetchlands unless you run at least 34+ lands),
Multi-Color G/x
White:
● Avacyn's Pilgrim
● Selvala, Explorer Returned​ (use with caution)
Blue:
● Kiora's Follower​ (requires exploiting ​Cabal Coffers​ or ​Gaea's Cradle​, etc.)
Black:
● Elves of Deep Shadow
● Deathrite Shaman
Red:
● Orcish Lumberjack
● Treasonous Ogre​ (more of a ritual than a mana dork)
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● Tinder Wall​ (Should be treated as a ritual rather than a mana dork)

Three-Color or More:
● Noble Hierarch
● Bloom Tender​ (preferably with a low cost 3 color general)
Colorless:
● Metalworker (probably at least ~20 artifacts)
--- Sorted by Mana Cost---
1 Mana:
● Llanowar Elves
● Orcish Lumberjack
● Elves of Deep Shadow
● Noble Hierarch
● Elvish Mystic
● Boreal Druid
● Joraga Treespeaker
● Birds of Paradise
● Fyndhorn Elves
● Arbor Elf
● Deathrite Shaman
● Avacyn's Pilgrim
● Heritage Druid
● Tinder Wall
2 Mana:
● Priest of Titania
● Bloom Tender
● Devoted Druid
● Voyaging Satyr
● Kiora's Follower
● Wall of Roots
● Lotus Cobra
● Sylvan Caryatid
● Quirion Elves
3 Mana:
● Elvish Archdruid
● Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
● Somberwald Sage
● Shaman of Forgotten Ways
● Metalworker
● Selvala, Explorer Returned
4 Mana:
● Karametra's Acolyte
● Treasonous Ogre​,
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As with everything, this is just my opinion and is by no means set in stone. Thanks.

Mana Rocks and Accelerants by Khanth (MTGS)

Introduction: I've always struggled with finding right mana rocks for my decks - searching
magiccards.info is a really good, but also time consuming way to search for them. While the accelerants
are a core parts of any EDH deck, not everyone has enough time to search for the most optimal ones for
their decks. So, to save time and make searching easier, here's the list of all mana-accelerating or
mana-making artifacts (I've included things like Wayfarer's Bauble (technically not a rock) and Chromatic
Star (eggs may not accelerate you but still are invaluable in certain decks)). If I omitted something worth
mentioning - please do tell, I'll update the list!

Last update - Dominaria (by cEDH Community)

CMC 0
Artifact Lands
● Ancient Den
● Seat of the Synod
● Vault of Whispers
● Great Furnace
● Tree of Tales
● Darksteel Citadel

Charge Counters
● Astral Cornucopia
● Everflowing Chalice
● Jeweled Amulet

One-shot
● Lotus Bloom
● Lion's Eye Diamond
● Lotus Petal

Continuous
● Chrome Mox
● Mana Crypt
● Mox Diamond
● Mox Opal
● Mox Amber

Other
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● Paradise Mantle

CMC 1
Eggs
● Barbed Sextant
● Chromatic Sphere
● Chromatic Star
● Darkwater Egg
● Mossfire Egg
● Shadowblood Egg
● Skycloud Egg
● Sungrass Egg
● Terrarion

Colorless
● Mana Vault
● Sol Ring

Other
● Expedition Map
● Voltaic Key

CMC 2

Signet Cycle
● Azorius Signet
● Boros Signet
● Dimir Signet
● Golgari Signet
● Gruul Signet
● Izzet Signet
● Orzhov Signet
● Rakdos Signet
● Selesnya Signet
● Simic Signet

Talisman Cycle
● Talisman of Dominance
● Talisman of Impulse
● Talisman of Indulgence
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● Talisman of Progress
● Talisman of Unity

Medallion Cycle
● Pearl Medallion
● Sapphire Medallion
● Jet Medallion
● Ruby Medallion
● Emerald Medallion

Colored
● Coldsteel Heart
● Fellwar Stone

Colorless
● Fractured Powerstone
● Grim Monolith
● Guardian Idol
● Mind Stone
● Prismatic Lens
● Thought Vessel

Cost-reducing
● Dream Chisel
● Etherium Sculptor
● Helm of Awakening

Other Dorks
● Hedron Crawler
● Manakin
● Millikin

Other
● Doubling Cube
● Galvanic Key
● Implements of Sacrifice
● Kaleidostone
● Lotus Blossom
● Pentad Prism
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● Pili-Pala
● Prophetic Prism
● Surveyor's Scope

CMC 3
Sacrifice Outlets
● Ashnod's Altar
● Phyrexian Altar

Colored
● Coalition Relic

Colorless
● Basalt Monolith
● Worn Powerstone

Cost-reducing
● Cloud Key
● Inspiring Sanctuary*

CMC 4+
Colored
● Gilded Lotus
● Paradox Engine
Colorless
● Thran Dynamo

Banned from Duel Commander

● Grim Monolith
● Mana Crypt
● Mana Vault
● Sol Ring
*This chapter was edited by /r/cedh
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Doomsday​ ​Piles​ ​by Jake Frondorf

The EDH Doomsday Guide

Doomsday is notoriously difficult to cast: there are countless possibilities, and any mistake means a game
loss. Doomsday EDH is great power that comes with great responsibility.

Doomsday is one of the preferred win-conditions for competitive EDH, and for good reason. It gives you
a versatile and consistent win condition. The costs of playing EDH Doomsday is steep: any mistakes and
you lose the game. Misordering the pile often loses the game. It’s pretty easy to shoot yourself in the foot
with this.

But this card is fun to play. If you draw a card that ought to be in your doomsday pile, what do you
replace it with? Can you still win with Doomsday after ​Laboratory Maniac​ gets hit by a ​Jester's Cap​? It
makes situations where you have to think on your feet, solving a 99 card puzzle, and that puzzle can be
fun because the stakes are so high. Most misplays are only seem important after the fact, but Doomsday
makes the stakes clear immediately.

EDH Doomsday Piles

● Since ​Laboratory Maniac​ was printed, interest in Doomsday has been renewed. Before the Lab
Man, doomsday piles typically were storm based, and relied on having multiple cards in hand.
That made Doomsday a poor card in EDH, because it was so difficult to reach the critical mass of
spells required for it to work. However, now, Lab man is obviously the easiest and most versatile
card to win with in doomsday piles.
● Because ​Laboratory Maniac​ is the best option, doomsday decks are assumed to be
[m]u[/m]/[m]b[/m]. There are a few ways to make it work efficiently without blue, but most of
them aren’t very good.

Mana Efficient Pile

● Predict
● Laboratory Maniac
● Gitaxian Probe
● Lion's Eye Diamond
● Yawgmoth's Will

The cost: [m]u[/m][m]1[/m], 4 life

This pile is the cheapest pile you can make, assuming you don’t have anything in your hand. This should
be considered a go-to pile if you run ​Lion's Eye Diamond​ and a freebie for any storm deck.
 14

Mana Efficient, with Islands

● Gush
● Faithless Looting​, Careful Study or ​Frantic Search
● Street Wraith
● Laboratory Maniac
● Unearth
The cost: [m]r[/m][m]b[/m], 2 life, 2 islands or [m]u[/m][m]b[/m], 2 life, 2 islands

After the ​Faithless Looting​, discard an island and the ​Laboratory Maniac​, unearth him, and boom.
Optionally, ​Frantic Search​ could take the place of the looting, but it makes the pile more expensive. This
pile is great when you have the mana to flashback ​Faithless Looting​, so you can flash it back, and in
response to any removal on ​Laboratory Maniac​, you can cycle ​Street Wraith​. Just know that playing Gush
has a real cost: without a very expensive ideal mana base with sufficient islands, you won’t be able to cast
Gush very reliably. (Potentially costs B, 2 life, 1 island if you haven’t played a land per turn yet and don’t
have one.)

Compact Pile

● Predict
● Laboratory Maniac
● Gitaxian Probe
● Unearth
● Street Wraith
The cost: [m]u[/m][m]b[/m][m]1[/m], 4 life

This pile comes with the advantage of not playing cards that are (too) dead outside the doomsday combo.
It costs one more mana than the pile above, but it’s a much more compact package that can be reliably
played in any number of decks. This is the most popular pile for a reason, most decks should consider this
the gold standard.

With Protection

● Gitaxian Probe
● Ideas Unbound
● Laboratory Maniac
● Pact of Negation
● Street Wraith

The cost: [m]u[/m][m]u[/m][m]u[/m][m]2[/m], 4 life

This Pile only Costs [m]u[/m][m]u[/m][m]u[/m] if you chose to play a ​Mana Crypt​ instead of the Pact. It's
good to note that the Pact could be any piece of interaction you want. Be sure to aim the ​Gitaxian Probe​ at
the right player, so you know if it’s safe to go off or if you should wait a turn and hope they tap out.
 15

With Protection

● Meditate
● Pact of Negation
● Mana Crypt
● Street Wraith
● Laboratory Maniac

The cost: [m]u[/m][m]u[/m][m]2[/m], 2 life

This pile adds protection, in exchange for a very all-in nature. Meditate isn’t otherwise a very good card,
but it’s serviceable in very fast combo decks. If you have more mana, an additional piece of interaction
can be played over the crypt.

With Protection, with Islands

● Gush
● Faithless Looting
● Pact of Negation
● Laboratory Maniac
● Unearth

The cost: [m]r[/m][m]r[/m][m]b[/m][m]2[/m], 2 life, 2 islands

After the ​Faithless Looting​, discard an island and the ​Laboratory Maniac​, unearth him, and boom.
Optionally, ​Frantic Search​ (or ​Izzet Charm​) could take the place of the looting, but it makes the pile
require more mana. This pile is great when you have the mana to flashback ​Faithless Looting​, so you can
flash it back, and in response to any removal on ​Laboratory Maniac​, you can cycle ​Street Wraith​.

With Protection from one player

● Abeyance
● Predict
● Laboratory Maniac
● Unearth
● Street Wraith

The cost: [m]u[/m][m]w[/m][m]b[/m][m]2[/m], 2 life

Abeyance only targets a single player, but that’s going to get there a lot in EDH, especially if you play in
the right meta. The pile itself is fairly expensive, but it also has a very low opportunity cost. Many decks
aren’t ashamed to cast Abeyance outside this combo either.
 16

With ​Temporal Mastery

● Thought Scour
● Laboratory Maniac
● Deep Analysis
● Temporal Mastery
● Reanimate

The cost: [m]u[/m][m]u[/m][m]1[/m] on the first turn, [m]u[/m][m]b[/m][m]1[/m], 3 life on the second

This pile is made of EDH staples. If you want to play Doomsday with a cheap pile and only a minor
drawback (letting a single opponent have a turn) without dedicating a lot of slots to the combo, then you
could do worse, but this pile is introduces more variables many of the others.

Second Sunrise​ Pile

● Predict
● Brain Freeze​, ​Tendrils of Agony​, ​Bitter Ordeal​ or Grapeshot
● Conjurer's Bauble
● Lion's Eye Diamond
● Second Sunrise

The cost: [m]u[/m][m]2[/m], or [m]u[/m][m]3[/m]

This Pile is particularly strong because it doesn’t leave you open to creature removal, it’s very cheap, and
it leaves plenty of room for your opponent to mess up with a counterspell or piece of artifact removal.
Sydri, Galvanic Genius​ eggs already wants to be playing these cards, so this pile works out perfectly for
those kinds of decks. ​Brain Freeze​ and Grapeshot are the two cheaper piles, but each option works just as
well if you think ​Brain Freeze​ is too dead to draw.

Reanimator Pile

● Gitaxian Probe
● Thought Scour
● Combo Creature #1
● Combo Creature #2
● Victimize

The cost: [m]b[/m][m]b[/m][m]2[/m], one creature to sacrifice

If you don’t have a creature to sacrifice, Putting a ​Wall of Omens​ on top of the stack is a strong play.

In the Combo Creature slots, you can play ​Azami, Lady of Scrolls​ and ​Laboratory Maniac​, but in a
reanimation deck, you likely have easier cards to win with here. ​Mikaeus, the Unhallowed​ and ​Triskelion
are good choices. I’m assuming you don’t play green, since build-your-own-Tooth and Nail isn’t very
appealing in a green deck.
 17

Grenzo​ Piles
Grenzo, Dungeon Warden​ is very capable of winning with Doomsday, but his piles are very different.

Terrible Piles

There are no good ​Shelldock Isle​ piles in multiplayer EDH. E ​ mrakul​ is banned, cloud of fairies is bad,
and the pile is generally slow, requiring either lots of mana, multiple cantrips in hand, or multiple turns to
draw into it all. Don’t bother with these piles. I seriously have never seen a Shelldock pile that worked in
competitive multiplayer EDH.

Alternatively, people talk about using ​Ideas Unbound​ to draw into a two-card combo with protection, but
most of these are far more expensive than the ​Laboratory Maniac​ plan is with little upside.

The Specifics

All of these piles assume you have nothing in hand, but that’s not how it works at all. You need to be able
to look at what’s going on in the game, and adjust. Until ​Laboratory Maniac​ was printed, all doomsday
piles just looked to complete what you have in hand. It’s best to think of doomsday this way, even if you
just grab a premade pile from this list most of the time.

In a situation where you can choose between ​Street Wraith​ and ​Gitaxian Probe​, typically go with ​Street
Wraith​, since it can’t be countered (as easily.) However, if you have the mana (and deck slots) to spare,
Chromatic Sphere​ can’t be countered or stifled because it is a mana ability. But that opens the combo to
artifact removal if you play it before ​Laboratory Maniac​ is on the field. Although, how much any of this
matters is questionable, since opponent’s typically point counters are more obviously important cards.

As a rule of thumb, for every cantrip you have in hand, you can replace a cantrip in the pile with more
protection or mana. If you have ​Laboratory Maniac​ in hand, use a pile above without Unearth, and replace
it with ​Mana Crypt​ or ​Pact of Negation​.

Which Piles should you run?

If you aren’t already running ​Yawgmoth's Will​ or ​Lion's Eye Diamond​, don’t start just for better
Doomsday piles.

Predict isn’t too embarrassing when you just want to cantrip. It attacks your opponent’s top-of-deck tutors
(and rewards you if you can figure out what that player is thinking!), along with just drawing a card. It’s
almost playable by itself in a delve heavy deck like ​Tasigur, the Golden Fang​, but it’s not quite there. It
gets bonus points for being great with ​Sensei's Divining Top​. But generally, this card is worth it because it
enables the cheapest Doomsday piles. When you aren’t an all-in storm deck, and you don’t want to be
running pieces like ​Lion's Eye Diamond​, Predict is the answer. The only competition comes from Gush,
but that requires a very island-heavy mana base, and that isn’t always possible in a three-color budget
deck. Perhaps the best use of Predict outside of the combo is to fight against an opposing Doomsday
player by milling their stack.
 18

If you can cast Gush, you probably want to. This card is great, especially along side a lot of artifact mana.
I’m not a huge fan of ​Ideas Unbound​ or Meditate, but some decks use them to great effect. ​Gitaxian Probe
and ​Street Wraith​ are too easy not to include.

I hope to continue adding to this guide as I learn more piles, and playtest to see which piles are good
enough. If you know of any Doomsday Piles I didn’t include, link them in the comments below.

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Land Destruction is a website focused on writing the best content about competitive-minded multiplayer
EDH, modern and legacy brews and more. If you want to improve your game, and learn read about brews,
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© 2015 Jake Frondorf

Magic: The Gathering, and all card art used is © Wizards of the Coast.

--Addition by /u/syjte--
● If you play it and your mana allows, just stack ​Mind's Desire​ on top of the pile. Makes the doomsday
pile a lot easier - no sequencing required. Of course, you should have a storm count of at least 3. This
also allows you to pack more protection into the pile, stacking MD, Labman, Draw, 2 pieces of
protection. This is relevant if you doomsday with only one draw available in your hand.

● Doomsday with Necro out allows you to customize 1,2,3 or 4 card piles. Just choose the minimum
amount you need, and pay life to exile excess cards from the pile with ​Necropotence​.

● Doomsday with SDT as your only draw spell is a little more complicated - stack (Gush, LED,
YawgWill, Probe, Labman). The chain goes SDT -> Gush -> LED -> SDT, hold priority, LED -> Will
-> Gush -> Probe -> Labman -> SDT, Draw, Win. This pile requires 2, 2 life, 4 Islands.

● (Gush, LED, Probe, Yawgwill, Labman) is a pile that requires only 4 islands, 4 life and no mana. The
Doomsday guide piles all require unearth/predict/​Faithless Looting​, which may not see play in all
decks, e.g Zur doesn't play any of those.

● (Gush, XXX, ​Frantic Search​, Labman, Probe) is another basic pile not mentioned. XXX can be
anything you need - a ​Counterspell​ for protection, ​Mana Crypt​ for mana, etc. This pile requires 2
Islands, 2U(+3 lands to untap for ​Frantic Search​, so 5 lands total) and 2 life. If you have an extra card
in your hand, and you haven't played a land this turn, you can pull this off with 2 Mana and 4 lands.
Just replay the island you bounced with gush. Note that if you use ​Mana Crypt​ in this situation, this
pile only requires 4 lands, 2 life and no mana.
 19

Tutors provided by Metamox.com

Entomb: ​Based on the namesake ​Entomb​, these cards search libraries to put cards in graveyards.

Buried Alive Jarad's Orders

Corpse Connoisseur Realms Uncharted
Entomb Scion of the Ur-Dragon
Fork in the Road Transmute Artifact
Iname, Death Aspect

Intuition Verdant Crescendo

Fetch Creature: ​Search for a creature and put it on the battlefield.

Bifurcate Nahiri, the Harbinger

Birthing Pod Natural Order
Chord of C​alling Nissa Revane
Defense of the Heart Sarkhan Unbroken
Doubling Chant Shadowborn Apostle
Eldritch Evolution Tooth and Nail
Garruk, Caller of Beasts Wild Pair
Green Sun's Zenith Woodland Bellower
Hibernation's End Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
Myr Turbine

Fetch Land: ​Search for a land and put it on the battlefield.

Blighted Woodland Natural Connection

Boundless Realms Nissa's Renewal
Caravan Vigil Nissa, Vastwood Seer
Centaur Rootcaster Nissa, Worldwaker
Crop Rotation Ondu Giant
Cultivate One with Nature
 20

Dawntreader Elk Ordeal of Nylea

Deep Reconnaissance Peregrination
Diligent Farmhand Perilous Forays
Dreamscape Artist Polluted Delta
Edge of Autumn Primal Druid
Embodiment of Spring Primal Growth
Evolving Wilds Quirion Trailblazer
Exploding Borders Rampant Growth
Explosive Vegetation Reap and Sow
Far Wanderings Renewal
Farhaven Elf Ruin in Their Wake
Font of Fertility Sakura-Tribe Elder
Frenzied Tilling Scapeshift
Frontier Guide Search for Tomorrow
Gaea's Balance Silkwing Scout
Growth Spasm Silverglade Pathfinder
Harrow Solemn Simulacrum

Into the North Strata Scythe

Khalni Heart Expedition Surveyor's Scope

Knight of the Reliquary Sword of the Animist

Kodama's Reach Tempt with Discovery

Map the Wastes Terminal Moraine
Myriad Landscape Terramorphic Expanse
Untamed Wilds Thawing Glaciers

Verdant Confluence Ulvenwald Hydra

Verdant Crescendo Viridian Emissary
Yavimaya Granger Warped Landscape

Wild Wanderer Wayfarer's Bauble

 21

Search By CMC

Artificer's Intuition Perplex

Beseech the Queen Ranger of Eos
Birthing Pod Reshape
Brainspoil Shred Memory
Bring to Light Sunforger
Chord of Calling Taj-Nar Swordsmith
Citanul Flute Tezzeret the Seeker
Clutch of the Undercity Tolaria West
Conduit of Ruin Transmute Artifact
Dimir House Guard Treasure Mage
Dimir Infiltrator Trinket Mage
Dimir Machinations Trophy Mage
Disciple of Deceit Wargate
Dizzy Spell Whir of Invention
Drift of Phantasms Woodland Bellower
Eldritch Evolution Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
Ethereal Usher Zur the Enchanter
Fierce Empath Grozoth
Firemind's Foresight Hibernation's End
Fleshwrither Kaho, Minamo Historian
Green Sun's Zenith Muddle the Mixture
Night Dealings Netherborn Phalanx

Search By Name

Angel's Herald Gigantiform

Avarax Infectious Bloodlust
Behemoth's Herald Kyscu Drake
Bogbrew Witch Llanowar Sentinel
 22

Daru Cavalier Nissa Revane

Demon's Herald Renowned Weaponsmith
Dragon's Herald Screaming Seahawk
Embermage Goblin Sift Through Sands
Urborg Panther Sphinx's Herald

Search for Arcane

Eerie Procession

Search for Artifact

Artificer's Intuition Reshape

Enlightened Tutor Saheeli Rai
Fabricate Skyship Weatherlight

Whir of Invention Sphinx Summoner

Hoarding Dragon Tezzeret the Seeker
Inventors' Fair Thada Adel, Acquisitor
Kuldotha Forgemaster Transmute Artifact
Nahiri, the Harbinger Treasure Mage
Trophy Mage Trinket Mage

Search for Aura

Auratouched Mage Sovereigns of Lost Alara

Boonweaver Giant Tallowisp
Heliod's Pilgrim Three Dreams
Open the Armory Totem-Guide Hartebeest
 23

Search for Copies

Assembly Hall Mask of the Mimic

Bifurcate Pack Hunt
Clarion Ultimatum Remembrance
Curse of Misfortunes Secret Salvage
Doubling Chant Strata Scythe

Infernal Tutor

Search for Dragon

Dragonstorm Sarkhan's Triumph

Imperial Hellkite Sarkhan Unbroken
Kyscu Drake Scion of the Ur-Dragon
Renowned Weaponsmith Zirilan of the Claw

Search for Elf

Elvish Harbinger Skyshroud Poacher

Nissa Revane Wirewood Herald

Search for Enchantment

Academy Rector Lost Auramancers

Enduring Ideal Plea for Guidance
Enlightened Tutor Sterling Grove
Goblin Tutor Wild Research
Idyllic Tutor Zur the Enchanter

Search for Equipment

Godo, Bandit Warlord Steelshaper's Gift

 24

Open the Armory Stoneforge Mystic

Quest for the Holy Relic Stonehewer Giant
Relic Seeker Taj-Nar Swordsmith
Steelshaper Apprentice

Search for Faerie

Faerie Harbinger

Search for Goblin

Boggart Harbinger Goblin Recruiter

Embermage Goblin Goblin Tutor
Goblin Matron Moggcatcher

Search for Instant

Bring to Light Mystical Teachings

Firemind's Foresight Mystical Tutor
Goblin Tutor Sunforger
Kaho, Minamo Historian Wild Research
Merchant Scroll

Search for Legend

Captain Sisay Thalia's Lancers

Lifespinner Time of Need

Search for Mercenary

Bog Glider Cateran Persuader

Cateran Brute Cateran Slaver
 25

Cateran Enforcer Cateran Summons

Cateran Kidnappers Rathi Assassin
Cateran Overlord Rathi Fiend
Rathi Intimidator

Search for Merfolk

Merrow Harbinger Seahunter

Search for Multicolored

Supply // Demand (Demand)

Search for Permanent

Clarion Ultimatum Wargate

Planar Bridge

Search for Rebel

Amrou Scout Ramosian Captain

Blightspeaker Ramosian Commander
Defiant Falcon Ramosian Lieutenant
Defiant Vanguard Ramosian Sergeant
Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero Ramosian Sky Marshal

Search for Sorcery

Bring to Light Mystical Tutor

Goblin Tutor Personal Tutor
 26

Search for Spirit

Iname as One Lifespinner

Iname, Death Aspect Urborg Panther

Search for Trap

Trapmaker's Snare

Search from Sideboard (not officially supported by EDH RC)

Burning Wish Golden Wish

Coax from the Blind Eternities Living Wish
Cunning Wish Research // Development (Development)
Death Wish Ring of Ma'ruf

Glittering Wish Spawnsire of Ulamog

Search Opponent's Library

Acquire Knowledge Exploitation

Bribery Life's Finale
Earwig Squad Praetor's Grasp
Eternal Dominion Slaughter Games
Grinning Totem Tempt with Discovery
Hide // Seek (Hide) Tithe
Infinite Obliteration

Search to Top of Library

Ainok Guide Loam Larva

Boggart Harbinger Mangara's Tome

Bringer of the Black Dawn Merrow Harbinger

 27

Brutalizer Exarch Momir Vig, Simic Visionary

Conduit of Ruin Mwonvuli Beast Tracker
Congregation at Dawn Mystical Tutor
Cruel Tutor Parallel Thoughts
Doomsday Personal Tutor
Dwarven Recruiter Scouting Trek
Elvish Harbinger Sterling Grove
Enlightened Tutor Sylvan Tutor
Faerie Harbinger Treefolk Harbinger
Flamekin Harbinger Vampiric Tutor
Giant Harbinger Worldly Tutor
Goblin Recruiter Kithkin Harbinger
Imperial Seal Liliana Vess
Insidious Dreams

Tutor Any Card

Archmage Ascension Increasing Ambition

Dark Petition Library of Lat-Nam
Demonic Collusion Planar Portal

Demonic Tutor Rhystic Tutor

Diabolic Intent Ring of Three Wishes

Diabolic Tutor Rune-Scarred Demon

Distant Memories Sidisi, Undead Vizier
Gamble Tamiyo's Journal

Grim Tutor

Tutor Creature

Altar of Bone Primal Command

Citanul Flute Ranger of Eos
 28

Eladamri's Call Recruiter of the Guard

Eye of Ugin Sanctum of Ugin
Fauna Shaman Sarkhan's Triumph
Fierce Empath Self-Assembler
Garruk, the Veil-Cursed Signal the Clans

General Tazri Sphinx Summoner

Imperial Recruiter Summoner's Pact
Isperia the Inscrutable Survival of the Fittest
Jarad's Orders Time of Need
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary Tooth and Nail
Nahiri, the Harbinger Worldly tutor
Sylvan Tutor

Tutor Land

Absorb Vis Oreskos Explorer

Ancient Excavation Peregrination
Armillary Sphere Pilgrim's Eye
Ash Barrens Realm Seekers
Attune with Aether Realms Uncharted
Borderland Ranger Renegade Map
Braidwood Sextant Rites of Spring
Caravan Vigil Ruin in Their Wake
Civic Wayfinder Seek the Horizon
Cultivate Sprouting Vines
Elfhame Sanctuary Sylvan Bounty
Evolution Charm Sylvan Ranger
Expedition Map Sylvan Reclamation
Fiery Fall Sylvan Scrying
Fork in the Road Thawing Glaciers

Gatecreeper Vine Tithe

 29

Gleam of Resistance Trail of Mystery

Grave Upheaval Traumatic Visions
Greenseeker Traveler's Amulet

Horizon Spellbomb Traverse the Ulvenwald

Journey of Discovery Treacherous Terrain
Journeyer's Kite Verdant Crescendo
Kodama's Reach Wanderer's Twig

Krosan Tusker Weathered Wayfarer

Land Tax Wild-Field Scarecrow

Lay of the Land Yavimaya Elder

Migratory Route Mycosynth Wellspring

Tutors

Blood Speaker Nissa's Pilgrimage

 30

cEDH Staples: by Color and CMC

A section for listing the staples found in cEDH decks. This section is for cards found in a high percentage
of decks. Cards like Sol Ring, Sensei’s Top, Mana Crypt, Toxic Deluge, etc. This list is not for
commanders, or cards that are only powerful, must-includes in specific decks. Cards like Strionic
Resonator should not be included because they only fit into one strategy under a couple different
commanders. This list is up for discussion. Certain cards are arguably staples but don’t appear in a high
percentage of decks in their colors (cards like Back to Basics or Food Chain). The community should be
vocal about what is included on this list.

Colorless:
0 CMC:
● Mox Diamond
● Mana Crypt
● Lotus Petal
● Mox Opal
● Chrome Mox
● Lion’s Eye Diamond
1 CMC:
● Sol Ring
● Sensei’s Divining Top
● Pithing Needle
● Grafdigger’s Cage
● Mana Vault
● Skull Clamp

2 CMC:
● Fellwar Stone
● Signets
● Talismans
● Grim Monolith
● Thought Vessel

3 CMC:

4 CMC:
● Aetherflux Reservoir

5 CMC:
● Paradox Engine

6 CMC:
 31

White:
0 CMC:

1 CMC:
● Tithe
● Enlightened tutor
● Swords to plowshares
● Path to exile

2 CMC:
● Stoneforge Mystic

3 CMC:
● Aven Mindcensor
● Recruiter of the Guard
● Nevermore
● Idyllic Tutor

4 CMC:
● Academy Rector

5 CMC:

6 CMC:

Blue:
0 CMC:
● Pact of Negation

1 CMC:
● Mystical Tutor
● Mystic Remora
● Preordain
● Spell Pierce
● FlusterStorm
● Ponder
● Brainstorm
● Gitaxian Probe
● Swan Song
● High tide

2 CMC:
 32

● Snapcaster Mage
● Arcane Denial
● Mana Drain
● Counterspell
● Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
● Cyclonic Rift
● Remand
● Unsubstantiate
● Impulse
● Negate
● Transmute Artifact
● Merchant Scroll

3 CMC:
● Intuition
● Windfall
● Timetwister
● Thirst for knowledge
● Rhystic Study
● Trinket Mage
● Fabricate
● Whir of Invention

4 CMC:
● Cryptic Command
● Fact or Fiction
● Jace, the Mind Sculptor

5 CMC:
● Tezzeret the Seeker
● Force of Will

6 CMC:

Black:
0 CMC:

1 CMC:
● Dark Ritual
● Entomb
● Reanimate
● Vampiric tutor
● Imperial Seal

2 CMC:
● Dark Confidant
 33

● Demonic tutor
● Diabolic Intent
● Cabal Ritual

3 CMC:
● Necropotence
● Toxic Deluge
● Grim tutor
● Buried Alive
● Yawgmoth’s Will
● Doomsday
● Phyrexian Arena

4 CMC:
● Damnation

5 CMC:
● Ad Nauseam

6 CMC:

Red:
0 CMC:

1 CMC:
● Faithless Looting
● Vandalblast
● Gamble

2 CMC:

3 CMC:
● Imperial Recruiter
● Wheel of Fortune
● Blood Moon
● Magus of the Moon

4 CMC:

5 CMC:

6 CMC:

Green:
 34

0 CMC:
● Dryad Arbor
● Summoner’s Pact

1 CMC:
● Noxious Revival
● Birds of Paradise
● Fyndhorn Elves
● Elvish Mystic
● Llanowar Elves
● Elves of deep Shadow
● Boreal Druid
● Crop rotation
● Nature’s Claim
● Worldly Tutor
● Green sun’s Zenith
● Noble Hierarch

2 CMC:
● Hermit Druid
● Bloom Tender
● Priest of Titania
● Sylvan Library
● Survival of the Fittest
● Regrowth

3 CMC:
● Krosan Grip
● Eternal Witness
● Beast Within
● Eldritch Evolution
● Chord of Calling

4 CMC:
● Natural Order
● Birthing Pod

5 CMC:

6 CMC:

Lands:
● Fetches
● ABUR Dual Lands
● Shock Lands
 35

● Command Tower
● Reflecting Pool
● Gaea’s Cradle
● Ancient Tomb
● Academy Ruins
● Strip Mine
● Wasteland
● City of Brass
● Mana Confluence
● Mishra’s Workshop
● The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
● Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
● Spire of Industry ​*Tentative*
● Phyrexian tower
 36

Miscellaneous good to know info

Basic Buried Alive Lines

● Necrotic Ooze, Triskelion/Walking Ballista, Phyrexian Devourer

● Kiki-Jiki, Phyrexian Delver/Karmic Guide, Zealous Conscripts or another creature to combo with
Kiki
● Trinket Mage, Auriok Salvagers and Angel of Glory's Rise(with inf mana outlet)
● Necrotic Ooze, Morselhoarder, Devoted Druid(inf Mana, also the basic Hermit Druid kill with
Scholar of Athreos)

Chains of Mephistopheles Flowchart

There are a number of competitive lists that run Chains as a wincon or a control piece, like
Tasigur, The Gitrog Monster, and others. This flowchart is a concise, useful tool for understanding what
might be otherwise convoluted interactions.
 37

Some of the best cards in cEDH might Shock you

By /u/mtgfossil

[reformatted by /u/chasemuss for this document]

...or bolt you, or Thoughtseize you, or Force of Will your best card.

We play 100 card singleton and it can be confusing to figure out the “best” cards. We
have Ad Nauseam and ​Ancestral ​Mystic Remora to work with. But what wins games -
consistency or power level? The complicated answer is we need both - we need a density of
card effects to play high level 100 card singleton, and while the difference in power level
between Ancestral Recall and Divination may be obvious, what is the difference when we’re
comparing a card that is strong to a card that is every card?

EDH is a format with deck building constraints unlike any other format, and the cEDH
meta demands further constraints. The most commonly talked about constraints are mana
cost and color identity, but this article aims to describe a constraint that’s actually a
combination of the two - how do you get your deck to do the thing it does *consistently*?
How many tutors do you need to consistently hit your combo, how many lands do you need
to make sure you have at least 2 60+% of the time, how many stax pieces to ensure you get to
slow the game down? A lot of these answers are baked into our format (although I have seen
some decks with Slim land counts) but others aren't as obvious. To figure this out, we’re
going to be using Hypergeometric Distribution to find Hypergeometric Probabilities and
Cumulative Probabilities (!), which might sound like needlessly complicated jargon but if you
bear with me I think you’ll find it’s a more intuitive part of deck building than you might think.

Part 1: HyGeo, Singleton Magic, and You

First let's define some terms and explain our methodology. If you already have a
working knowledge of HyGeo, feel free to skip to part 2. Hypergeometric Distribution is a
method of finding the probability of successes with a specific amount of draws out of a
known population. What?!? Let’s explain it like we're 5. If I go Dark Confi- er, bobbing for
apples and there are 15 apples in the tub but 5 of them have Razor Boomerangs in them, what
are the odds that in one attempt Fossil will enjoy a delicious snack instead of asking people if
they wanna know how I got these scars for the rest of my life? This is pretty simple math
 38

right? There is a 1 in 3 chance, or 33.3%. But what if I want to know my odds if I Bob for 2
apples at the same time? (57.1% chance of 1 or more) What if I want to know what the odds
are of hitting a razor after I got one apple out unscathed? (Up to 35.7% now that our sample
size is 14, 1 less than when we started)

Hypergeometric Distribution can be used to find many things, but we’ll try to limit the
scope of this article somewhat to avoid turning into Understanding Gush (an excellent read if
you have a few hours/days). We'll be calculating the odds of an opening hand having cards
we need for our deck to function. The opening hand is usually the most important one of the
game (although some players who have been Wheeled into their combo might disagree) and
since it is one of the only common denominators in every game (other than yourself!) it
seems like a good area of focus. I'm using
http://stattrek.com/online-calculator/hypergeometric.aspx​ to make my calculations. If you
would like to make calculations of your own, do the following:

● Set Population Size (PSize) to 99 (the number of cards in an EDH deck)

● Set Number of Successes in Population (NSPop) to the number of cards that do the
thing you need. Some examples include the number of lands in your deck, the number
of fast mana sources, or the number of functional equivalents to a combo piece (Food
Chain, Demonic Tutor, Drift of Phantasms, etc.)

● Set Sample Size (SSize) to 7 for your opener or 8 if you would like to include the draw.
I will be using 7 for my examples moving forward because you cannot predict your
draw when mulliganing and it will ease comparison to 60 card decks.

● Number of successes in a sample (NSSam) = 1 usually in singleton formats, but you

can increase this number if you need to know the odds of 2 Lands, 3 Fast Mana cards,
etc.

** Note that if we want the odds of multiple different card types, for example Food Chain and
2 lands, we can find the hypergeometric probability of Food Chain in a sample size of 7 then
do the same for Lands in a sample size of 6 (7-1, where 1 is the card that ​is Food Chain) then
multiply our two results to get the cumulative probability of both events occurring.

Let's run through a few quick examples using u/ShaperSavant and u/BigLupu's Food
Chain Tazri deck.

For our first example, we’ll find the odds of having Food Chain in our opener.
 39

Actually, first let's slow it down and assume we heard Food Chain was a sweet combo
and jammed it in our Tazri Ally Tribal deck without any way to tutor for it, not knowing what it
was.

● PSize = 99

● NSPop = 1

● SSize = 7

● NSSam = 1

● HyGeo = 7%

The odds of having exactly one Food Chain in your opening hand is a pitiful 7%. If you
play ONE HUNDRED games of EDH you would see Food Chain + 6 random cards in only 7
games. This illustrates why you can't rely on having access to Food Chain (or ANY single
card) consistently without including what I call Effective Copies. In 4-of formats you can run 4
Lightning Bolt and 4 Lava Spike giving you a 65.4% chance of having 1 or more copies of a
spell that deals 3 damage in your opening hand, but in singleton EDH you won’t have the
same odds even if you run 8 unique Lightning Bolt effects - the sample size of an EDH deck is
39 cards larger meaning your odds of drawing that effect in your opener drops to 45.6% - and
the even worse news? There aren’t 8 unique cards in Magic that have the effect of “Deal 3
damage to target opponent” for R without additional costs or conditions. There are 2. So how
do we get more copies of the same effect?

Moving forward we're going to be looking at Effective Copies of a card or card type.
This is how CEDH decks work within the restrictive confines of a singleton format. We have a
7% chance of Food Chain, so what if we run cards that will be functionally equivalent to Food
Chain? For this example the Effective Copies of Food Chain are Demonic Consultation,
Enlightened Tutor, Lim-Dul's Vault, Tainted Pact, Vampiric Tutor, Imperial Seal. Every one of
these 6 spells, uninterrupted, will guarantee us access to Food Chain. Now that we know
what Effective Copies are, let’s get back to the question!

What are the odds of having an Effective Copy of Food Chain in our opener?

● PSize = 99

● NSPop = 7 (Food Chain + 6 effective copies)

● SSize = 7
 40

● NSSam = 1

● HGP = 33%

Our result is 33%, but this is a little deceiving. See, the HGP is going to be the odds of
*exactly* one Effective Copy of Food Chain in our opener. We'll need to check the cumulative
probabilities to draw deeper conclusions. Because all 6 of our Effective Copies of Food Chain
can be used to fetch other important parts of our deck, we probably won't mind having more
than one copy. The odds of having 1 *or more* copies of Food Chain in our opening hand are
a respectable 41.1%!

Part 2: A ​Demonic​ Tutor by Any Other Name

So if Demonic Tutor is so great, why aren’t we running Diabolic Tutor in cEDH? Well,
we don’t need to, we can just jam Effective Copies of the things we’d be Demonic Tutoring
for. Increasing the amount of Effective Copies we have in our singleton deck, if they are
equally or near quality in tempo/mana cost, allows us to replicate the consistency of 4-of
MtG. Let’s look at some top decks!

Tazri requires us to assemble Food Chain + an infinite creature mana enabler. How
many copies does it run of each?

Food Chain \- Food Chain, Demonic Consultation,

Enlightened Tutor, Lim\-Duls Vault, Plunge into
Darkness, Tainted Pact, Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor,
Imperial Seal

Enablers \- Eternal Scourge, Misthollow Griffin, Squee

the Immortal, Demonic Consultation, Lim\-Duls Vault,
Plunge into Darkness, Tainted Pact, Vampiric Tutor,
Demonic Tutor, Imperial Seal, Entomb, Extract,
Foresight, Manipulate Fate

That’s a lot of tutoring! But gee Foss, Tazri is a 5c deck with unique tutors. Do other decks
run as many effective copies?

Gitrog Dredge requires us to assemble a discard outlet and Dakmor Salvage to win. How
many copies does it run of each?
 41

Dakmor Salvage \- Dakmor Salvage, Crop Rotation,

Entomb, Realms Uncharted, Vampiric Tutor, Demonic
Tutor, Diabolic Intent, Imperial Seal, Sylvan Scrying,
any card with the keyword Dredge if you have an outlet
(Darkblast, Golgari Grave Troll, Life from the Loam,
Stinkweed Imp if you run it)

Discard Outlets: Putrid Imp, Wild Mongrel, Noose

Constrictor, Oblivion Crown, Skirge Familiar, Green
Sun's Zenith, Imperial Seal, Demonic Tutor, Worldly
Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Diabolic Intent

Momir Vig Hackball requires us to assemble a Hack effect and any green creature! The deck
also can use Vizier of the Menagerie to turn any green creature into a hack, meaning Wordly
Tutor and GSZ are also EC.

Hacks or Effective Copies \- Alter Reality, Glamerdye,

Glimpse of Nature, Mind Bend, Mystical Tutor, Sleight
of Mind, Spectral Shift, Whim of Volrath, Merchant
Scroll, Trait Doctoring

Part 3: Ok MAYBE it isn’t the best card.

So I’ll admit, I can be a bit hyperbolic. Is Demonic Tutor as strong as Timetwister or

Ad Nauseam? Maybe sometimes...but not all the time. There are strong engine decks out
there that aren’t as concerned about consistency as card quality. But this is something you
should think about when you go brewing your next sweet deck. Because I guarantee when
you are trying to Do a Thing with your deck...you will wish you had enough cards to help you
Do that Thing instead of playing a land or hoping your opponents just don’t have anything
going on. This article has given you 2 deck building tools, stay tuned and check out my past
content at ​https://mtgfossil.wordpress.com