{"ops":[{"attributes":{"underline":true,"bold":true},"insert":"Introduction"},{"insert":"\n\nThis list of "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Athreos, God of Passage"}},{"insert":" is a mid Bracket 4 Aristocrat-type Orzhov Combo deck that seeks to win the game in a single explosive storm turn, often revolving around "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Razaketh, the Foulblooded"}},{"insert":" to tutor into quasi-infinite chains or simple infinite win conditions. The deck looks to draw as many cards as possible in the early game using advantage engines such as "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Necropotence"}},{"insert":" , "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Skullclamp"}},{"insert":" , or "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Ad Nauseam"}},{"insert":", before closing on an explosion of game actions, preferably on turns 4-6. This deck is also a "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Shadowborn Apostle"}},{"insert":" deck; the main inspiration behind this deck was my desire to build a high-power storm deck around the card. This deck often has very high variance on its play patterns - it can be extremely explosive and quick to end the game, or it can do absolutely nothing if you get bad mulligans. Players who seek to pilot some variation of this list should be ready to account for variance - it is something relatively unavoidable when our deck is built around a 1/1 creature that does nothing by itself and requires 6 copies in play to even begin to maybe get value. Despite what Shadowborn Apostles textbox says, we run only 1 Demon for them to tutor in the deck: "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Razaketh, the Foulblooded"}},{"insert":" .\n\n"},{"attributes":{"underline":true,"bold":true},"insert":"Mulligan Strategy"},{"insert":"\n\nBroadly speaking, our cards can be broken down into the following categories:\nAdvantage Engines"},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Combo Pieces"},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Combo Starters"},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Mana"},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Tutors"},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Protection"},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Shadowborn Apostles (These are grouped under Tutors by Archidekt, but should be treated as a separate category in my opinion)"},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nWhen we mulligan, the ideal hand we should be looking for should include either an Advantage Engine or a Tutor to find an Advantage Engine and Mana. Everything else is relatively malleable - we aren't looking for a specific Combo Piece, although having one of our Combo Starters can be nice.\n\nAn example of a keepable 7 might be 3x "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Shadowborn Apostle"}},{"insert":" , "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Skullclamp"}},{"insert":" , "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Songs of the Damned"}},{"insert":", and 2 Lands. We have our advantage engine in Skullclamp, ways to abuse it, and a ritual in Songs of the Damned for when we are ready to combo.\n\nThe mulligans with this deck are particularly difficult. Because our Commander is strictly a Combo Piece that is not likely to offer us much advantage, and because 1/4 of our deck is effectively useless 1/1s that don't do anything by themselves, we need to aggressively mulligan for an actual game plan. Hands that only cast Shadowborn Apostles, or that only include mana, are very risky - remember that 20-something cards in your remaining deck are Shadowborn Apostles, and another 20-something cards will be Lands. Your topdecks are statistically unlikely to save you, so you need to make sure you try to avoid relying on Topdecks as much as possible.\n\nIn terms of priority for cards to keep, we should look for Advantage Engines > Tutors > Mana >= Combo Starters > Protection/Shadowborn Apostles/Combo Pieces. We must have a way to keep our hand stocked with "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"real "},{"insert":"cards and not just an endless stream of Lands and Shadowborn Apostles. Sometimes, we won't be able to find Advantage or Tutors. In those cases, Mana and a Combo Starter can let us pivot to a Plan B. If we find no Advantage, no Tutor, and no Combo Starter, the best we can do is to keep as much Mana as possible and hope that we draw into an out - though in many of these cases, our deck will not function very well either way.\n\n"},{"attributes":{"underline":true,"bold":true},"insert":"Gameplan"},{"insert":"\n\nWe want to execute our game plan as quickly as possible and kill the table as quickly as possible - this deck is extremely all-in - you either need to win before the table can stop you, or, barring that, pick your window very carefully. If it's before turn 5 and the table is tapped out, it is often correct to just push and hope that nobody has interaction. If the game goes long for whatever reason, you're going to have to pick your battles. Try to push on turns where you have protection from a Silence effect such as "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Grand Abolisher"}},{"insert":" or "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Voice of Victory"}},{"insert":".\n\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"Turns 1-3"},{"insert":"\n\nTurns 1-3 should be spent getting down your Advantage Engine and drawing as many cards as you possibly can. With Skullclamp, this can sometimes extend to turn 4, as we do have to spend the mana to draw cards, but with something like Necropotence, we want to try to churn through as many cards as possible. Unlike cEDH types of builds that win on Necropotence, though, we do not have access to giving our entire combo Flash, as I don't like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Emergence Zone"}},{"insert":" in the deck. As such, be careful about how you manage your life total with Necro - this isn't a draw 10 then draw 25 paradigm like cEDH RogSi, for example. This is more of a Draw 5, then Draw 5, then Draw 5.\n\nWhat we're looking for in these initial setup turns is to find a Combo Starter and maybe an associated Combo Piece or other setup. An example might be that we want to draw into "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Bolas's Citadel"}},{"insert":" and a way to count to 6 Mana without having to play our Land. Or maybe we want to find "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Thrumming Stone"}},{"insert":" , Mana, and a couple of Shadowborn Apostles to guarantee a combo turn with "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Razaketh, the Foulblooded"}},{"insert":" .\n\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"Note on Ad Nauseam:"},{"insert":"\n\nThis is an end-step "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Ad Nauseam"}},{"insert":" deck. You should basically only ever cast Ad Naus on someone's end step before you untap because the 5 mana invested into casting Ad Naus likely means that you will not have the mana to win on your own turn, resulting in you just losing a huge amount of life, setting up a target on yourself, and then discarding a bunch of cards to hand size if you do it on your own turn. Obviously there can be exceptions to this if you can make a crazy amount of mana regardless but in general don't try to main phase a Naus.\n\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"Winning the Game:"},{"insert":"\n\nThe most bare bones premise of the deck is to get 10+ Shadowborn Apostles into play, Sacrifice 6 of them to cheat Razaketh into play, and find a way to win from there. The exact way you play out this line is not condensable to a single block of text and will highly depend on what pieces you have in play. If you have the requisite Mana but don't have enough creatures to sacrifice to set off a Chain, you may need to find "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Rotlung Reanimator"}},{"insert":" or "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Xathrid Necromancer"}},{"insert":" to make Zombies as you sacrifice Apostles to continue Tutor'ing. If you have the requisite creatures but not the mana, you might need to start off by finding "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Lotus Petal"}},{"insert":" or "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Chrome Mox"}},{"insert":" , then "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Dark Ritual"}},{"insert":" , etc. The key here is that if you only have 6 Shadowborn Apostles, unless you have a way to get more, or something that makes creatures when they die, you will seldom be able to win with a naked Razaketh alone. You have to analyze what you do have and what you don't.\n\nThe way you get to 10+ Apostles is also usually a myriad variety. It can be off "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Thrumming Stone"}},{"insert":", or maybe you have been sacc'ing a ton of them to "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Skullclamp"}},{"insert":" and have "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Ascend from Avernus"}},{"insert":" in hand. The key thing to keep in mind though, is that unless you are very clearly going to just win like you have 25 Apostles from Thrumming Stone or something like that, the lines aren't always clear. Sometimes you just have to try to map out how much mana you get to work with and if it's enough. Personally, I think this is the most fun part of the deck, but I know other people do not like taking long turns or thinking that long. I would say this is probably not the deck for you in that case.\n\nOne of the easiest combos to present is "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER // Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Phyrexian Altar"}},{"insert":" , and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Forsaken Miner"}},{"insert":". Because Sephiroth's effect to make a target opponent lose 1 life targets an opponent, it counts as a crime. You can thus present a loop of sacrificing the Forsaken Miner to Phyrexian Altar to make a Black Mana, targeting an opponent with the Sephiroth ping in the process. This counts as committing a crime, generating a trigger to return Forsaken Miner to the battlefield, which you can pay for with the Black Mana you made.\n\nThis notwithstanding, you can also mass reanimate multiple times with cards like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Raise the Past"}},{"insert":" or "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Ascend from Avernus"}},{"insert":" while "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim"}},{"insert":" is in play. Combined with "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Athreos, God of Passage"}},{"insert":", you can very quickly drain the table to death - you don't need a proper outlet to sacrifice to for this (Razaketh technically suffices but will make you go negative on life), as you can simply use the Shadowborn Apostle's own ability to sacrifice 6 at a time and just fail to find. \n\nMost lines on a Razaketh turn will require some way to continue generating mana - this can be done with Res Loops with the aforementioned Mass Resurrection Sorceries and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Phyrexian Altar"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Carnival of Souls"}},{"insert":" , or "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Pitiless Plunderer"}},{"insert":". Often these are the first things you should start tutor'ing for with Razaketh, as these are the cards that help sustain our line.\n\nIf we aren't winning with Shadowborn Apostles, usually we have to win with "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Bolas's Citadel"}},{"insert":". The generic combo with "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Aetherflux Reservoir"}},{"insert":" is in the deck, although I have forgone putting "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Sensei's Divining Top"}},{"insert":" in the deck as I think it does not do much otherwise and the deck is already full of combo pieces and cards that don't function by themselves. Most of the time "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Necropotence"}},{"insert":" will suffice as a means to filter away the top of your library, as most turns with Citadel will find one way or another into a tutor. \n\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Thrumming Stone"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Aetherflux Reservoir"}},{"insert":" also present an interesting alternative means to win, although a very expensive one unless you just want to run out one of the artifacts. Because Ripple has you cast the card, you can often get to ludicrously high storm counts off Thrumming Stone and just shoot the table to death.\n\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"When do I cast Athreos?"},{"insert":"\n\nIf the game slows down or you don't think it is an appropriate time to win, casting Athreos to soften life totals or preserve some value - or even just to have a large, Indestructible Blocker, will be the correct play. Athreos also creates combos by himself - for example, with "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Remembrance"}},{"insert":" , "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Phyrexian Altar"}},{"insert":", and any of: \nPiece to make creatures such as Xathrid/Rotlung"},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Piece to make mana such as Carnival of Souls"},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Piece to drain the table such as Sephiroth/Elas il-Kor"},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Mass Res Spell"},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nYou can sacrifice a Shadowborn Apostle to the Altar and then go get another Apostle. Phyrexian Altar will have made the mana to cast the next one. Target any opponent - either they pay the 3 life or you get the Apostle back. Unless every opponent has somehow gotten above 70 life, there will reach a point where that opponent can no longer refuse to give you the Apostle back and you can make infinite mana, infinite zombies, infinite pings, etc.\n\nAssuming you have the spare mana, Athreos is also simply good to cast at any point during your combo turn - it hastens how fast players die, or functions to extend your combos if you need more Sac Fodder back in hand - often times going through an Aristocrat loop line will leave opponents unable to pay the 3 Life at some point. A minor note here is that when you do use Athreos loops as a win condition, most of the time you want an opponent whose life total is not divisible by 3 - as Athreos's trigger requires "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"payment"},{"insert":" of life and is not an effect that makes them lose life on a reflexive trigger. This means if they do not have 3 or more life, they cannot "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"pay"},{"insert":" which means they are forced to give you the creature back. If a player has exactly 3 life, they can spite play you by opting to die rather than give you the creature.\n\nSometimes it can also be correct to simply not cast Athreos - some of our lines interact with returning creatures from the graveyard to the battlefield. If they can't hit the graveyard, we can't return them. If our plan is highly reliant on a mass res spell landing and we're unsure if our opponents will reliably pay the 3 life (even though they usually will), it might not be correct to have Athreos on the battlefield without a way to get rid of him.\n\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"How do I not get beat to death on slower starts?"},{"insert":"\n\nLiterally just show opponents your hands. Most of the time the fear of the unknown is what will make you targeted. If you show them a hand of all lands and useless pieces - it will take the heat off of you until you are ready to win. That or you need to mulligan more aggressively for a faster hand. \n\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"I drew Razaketh. What now?"},{"insert":"\n\nMost of the time, while this is certainly annoying, it is not the end of the world as the deck has the ability to produce so much mana that you can often find ways to hard cast Razaketh and then combo off anyway. If you drew Razaketh, just try to avoid dying, politic and survive until you can cast Razaketh or pivot to a different strategy that doesn't rely on Apostles - such as Bolas's Citadel.\n\n"},{"attributes":{"underline":true,"bold":true},"insert":"Notes on Deck Construction"},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"You have almost no Removal or Interaction in this deck. Isn't that an issue?"},{"insert":"\n\nThis deck wants to win quickly and also is built around Apostles while having a Commander that usually does not offer any advantage against savvier opponents. This means making concessions in the builder. Most of the time, this deck simply declares that the problems on the board are not its problems because it is either trying to win faster than the rate at which those problems might accrue, or trying to not be the threat. You do technically have interaction in Silences too - these can be a powerful political tool. But in general, if you try to make a deck with an extremely narrow gameplan interactive, you're going to run into issues of space or issues of cards.\n\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"Emergence Zone?"},{"insert":"\n\nYou can run it. I don't know if its necessary personally, the pace of games that this deck plays in aren't quite cEDH tempo so I don't think it's required that you Necro yourself down to 5 and find a way to win on endstep, which is the primary way to use Emergence Zone. I'm also just not sure that those types of lines would be very successful as lines are often tight, and Emergence Zone costs you effectively 2 mana (1 to pay the cost, and 1 because you're not tapping it to produce mana) on turns where you are likely to be heavily constrained. I'm also not on every free rock or every piece of fast mana, which might also make it even harder.\n\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"Lotho?"},{"insert":"\n\nI think this card is great but haven't found a cut for it. I think you can maybe cut Elas Il-Kor or one of the Mass Resurrection spells if you do want to run Lotho. Part of it is also that this deck aggressively uses its life total as a resource, and Lotho taxes that. But definitely is a card worth trying.\n\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"Can't you cut some of the auxiliary cards if you have a combo as lean as Sephiroth? Do you need other wincons?"},{"insert":"\n\nIn theory you can cut Elas or the Remembrance lines or a whole slew of things - but I like having some measure of redundancy on combos in this deck. Also, the spirit of the deck is fundamentally a Shadowborn Apostle deck - a lot of these cards are intrinsically tied to that identity, the commander included. We could just play a Sephiroth turbo but at that point, we should probably ask why the commander isn't just Sephiroth. Ultimately, this deck is high power and trying to be relatively optimized, but I do want to keep some degree of uniqueness and identity to it. Hence the choices made. If you want to further streamline it, you can feel free to - the joy of Commander is in personalization.\n"}]}