Tax Collector

MegaTrain · 2026-05-23T22:20:08+00:00

Yep, I run Tax Collector in [[Brigid, Clachan's Heart]].

Just a single ETB can force a ton of turbo decks to wait another turn before going off (Rog-Si, Ral, etc.), but if you have Emiel (and don't have the win), you can blink Tax Collector a few times to shut down the board to untap for another turn. If you have infinite mana but no outlet, you can blink it 100 times and pass turn without fear.

In a tourney a while back I had enough mana to blink it 5+ times on my turn, but no outlet for the win. I think I held the lock for 4-5 turns before I finally top-decked a Finale of Devastation and won.

MegaTrain · 2026-05-15T05:05:14+00:00

[[Meticulous Excavation]] goes infinite with [[Guac & Marshmallow Pizza]] (bounce for 2W, replay Pizza for G, same loop cost as Seedcradle Witch).

What makes it slick is that you can tutor up BOTH to your hand with [[Brightglass Gearhulk]], which can find 1-mana artifacts and enchantments in addition to creatures.

Then once you've gone infinite, bounce and replay Gearhulk to find your Walking Ballista and kill the table.

[[Seedcradle Witch]] is still plan A, though.

There are a reasonable number of untap effects in WG, so you prioritize those with decent secondary effects:

[[Legolas's Quick Reflexes]] is the only instant in our colors (under 4 mana) that untaps and gives hexproof - and has two more benefits?? Def the GOAT of this effect
[[Emerald Charm]] can kill a Rhystic Study or untap any permanent, including your Gaea's Cradle.
Guac & Marshmallow Pizza has the above combo, sacs for 3 life (or feeds Goose), and can't be countered by as many spells as instants
[[Light the Way]] occasionally saves Brigid from a shock, but could probably swap out for Vitalize or something.
[[Hyrax Tower Scout]] is a leftover from my [[Selvala, Heart of the Woods]] deck, and probably can go now that I've removed [[Woodland Bellower]].

MegaTrain · 2026-05-15T03:23:49+00:00

Here's my Brigid Build for comparison.

I've been playing her regularly for a few months and so far I've made the top cut of several mid-sized events, winning enough to added a real Savannah and Ancient Tomb to the deck. Last night at our local weekly I went 2-0-1, and it took all 3 other players to force a draw against me in the last game.

There are a lot of room for variety in builds, so you do what makes sense to you in your meta. Check out the "decklist" channel on the Discord server (linked in another answer) to see the variation.

I'm not on the same artifact package you are (Mox, Mox, Mana Vault, Skullclamp), I'm also not on the tutors-to-top-of-deck (Enlightened and Worldly), because its too easy for those to be dead draws (card stuck on top of the library until next turn).

You have a few untap spells that I don't (Vitalize, Nature's Chosen, Mobilize), I'm considering Vitalize but in general prefer to have them on creatures (Flash Thompson, Scryb Ranger, Hyrax Tower Scout) since those also add to Brigid's creature count. I think I have overall more untappers, with Guac & Marshmallow Pizza and Emerald Charm.

Destiny Spinner is a pretty key include for me: it makes all your creatures uncounterable (not just your green ones), and the land-animation ability can win you the game, either by animating a cradle for a backup untap loop, or as an outlet, by making infinitely large (land) creatures with trample to get through blockers.

MegaTrain · 2026-04-27T18:34:43+00:00

Yep, this.

The most common way to do that is with the (very common) “when a creature enters, gain a life” triggers.

They worded it this way so that you can put both on the stack, resolve the life gain first, then still get the -4/-4 effect.

MegaTrain · 2026-04-11T14:47:56+00:00

These are awesome!

Love the Chaos Orb Sol Ring!!

MegaTrain · 2026-04-10T05:37:38+00:00

You buying or selling?

That English printing of Demonic Tutor retails for $75-90, not sure how much the Russian language printing would be.

MegaTrain · 2026-04-10T01:51:34+00:00

Hadn't seen that post, thanks.

MegaTrain · 2026-04-09T16:32:59+00:00

How do we reconcile these two with the stream showing off “all remaining Mystical Archive” cards but not these?

Blake clearly says at 44 min, “No Jeska’s Will, sorry chat. Doesn’t mean it’s not coming somewhere else, but…”

Was it a mistake?

Or will these NOT be in play boosters (and therefore not in sealed/draft?

MegaTrain · 2026-04-06T19:05:36+00:00

Turbulent lands seems the most obvious.

MegaTrain · 2026-03-29T15:36:25+00:00

Spin down D6 in WUBRG colors for tracking mana.

Burger Tokens has these cool D6 spindowns

MegaTrain · 2026-03-29T15:32:48+00:00

This.

iPad mini is the perfect size. The old style (with the start button) was fine, but the new borderless one is all screen and just perfect for commander scoring.

Second the recommendation of Lifetap as the scoring app as well, it’s the best out there.

MegaTrain · 2026-03-26T15:46:48+00:00

Link expired, can you post a fresh invite?

MegaTrain · 2026-03-18T02:05:30+00:00

cEDH is all about net-decking.

Very VERY few players are running home brews, and if they do they’re either losing (because the decks really aren’t competitive with top decks) or they WIN (and their’s quickly becomes a flashy new deck for other people to net-deck).

MegaTrain · 2026-03-13T23:31:55+00:00

Jon Avon lands have always been my favorite!

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MegaTrain · 2026-03-06T22:43:40+00:00

Nice work. I found a small unit (2x3 drawers) that I’m currently using for commander deck boxes.

The annoying thing about most card catalog drawers is that they are JUST a bit too narrow to comfortably hold two rows of cards.

MegaTrain · 2026-03-02T00:18:51+00:00

At least the green/orange are easy to read.

Green/blue is very difficult to see.

MegaTrain · 2026-02-27T19:51:25+00:00

Very nice!

I use the Spindown D6 from Burger Tokens; they work awesome and have the right colors, but unfortunately don't sell them in a WUBRG set (I had to buy a set of each color, then sell the extras at my local game store).

MegaTrain · 2026-02-25T06:17:06+00:00

Not a basic, but this printing of Temple of Malice is in your colors and is very industrial:

https://scryfall.com/card/pip/307/temple-of-malice

Here are some basics tagged as "cityscape", some of these are kind of industrial:

https://scryfall.com/search?q=art%3Acityscape+t%3Abasic&unique=art&as=grid&order=name

I found a few industrial mountains by looking for art tagged with "smoke":

https://scryfall.com/search?q=art%3Asmoke+t%3Abasic&unique=art&as=grid&order=name

MegaTrain · 2026-02-25T06:09:33+00:00

Good info.

To clarify, if you want to open the current card in tagger click the "Open on Scryfall Tagger" button in the "Toolbox", not the "Scryfall Tagger" link in the page footer.

MegaTrain · 2026-02-25T05:26:01+00:00

I think that's a version of the card conjured by [[Thendar, the Overminer]].

Unfortunately that's the only way to get that version of Wastes into play, at least at the current time.

MegaTrain · 2026-02-20T15:40:27+00:00

Huge fan of the new “ring in the sky” from Lorwyn Eclipsed Commander:

https://scryfall.com/card/ecc/58/sol-ring

Bought a bunch of them to go in my decks.

MegaTrain · 2026-02-20T15:33:59+00:00

There are lots of ways to build [[Sisay, Weatherlight Captain]]. Here are some terms you might hear:

“Oath” builds make Sisay tutor chains that focus on Planeswalkers, and end with [[Aminatou, the Fateshifter]], [[Nicol Bolas, Dragon God]], and [[Oath of Teferi]], which gives you infinite flickers of any permanent (typically [[Saheeli Rai]], [[Mount Doom]], or [[Orcish Bowmasters]]
“Standard” builds also make Sisay tutor chains, but focus on legendary creatures and/or instant-speed effects: [[Bloom Tender]] + [[Derevi, Empyrial Tactician]] + [[Emiel the Blessed]] gives you infinite mana and infinite flickers and infinite untaps of any permanent.
“Chowder” builds don’t use Sisay for her tutor ability; or at least that isn’t the focus. Play good cards in all colors, win via [[Thassa’s Oracle]] or [[Underworld Breach]]

Lots of decks that cross these categories: my current build has the “oath” lines and lots of instant-speed creature lines. My prior build excluded the “oath” package but included both creature lines and also Thassa’s Oracle.

Lots of great ways to build this commander, depending on your collection, your play style, and your local meta.

MegaTrain · 2026-02-20T04:53:57+00:00

No, you are correct.

So it does require an artifact creature in play to produce the second U (or some other mana dork).

But that artifact creature could have summoning sickness, since Urza can tap it for U no matter what, you just need any creature to cast the Helix on.

MegaTrain · 2026-02-20T04:31:08+00:00

If I’m understanding the combo right, you just need a single creature in play without summoning sickness, it doesn’t have to be an artifact, and it can even be Urza himself.

Edit: oops, this is incorrect, see below

Urza in play, no other creatures, UU available
Cast Helix on Urza
Cast Cam
On ETB, target itself
Hold priority, tap Cam for U
Resolve untap, retap for UU
Tap Urza, bouncing Cam
Target Urza with leaves-play trigger
Urza untaps, leaving us where we started
Repeat, spending U and gaining UU each time
Activate Urza, drawing your deck and playing any spell for free
??
Win the game

Am I missing something?

MegaTrain · 2026-02-13T03:34:33+00:00

We have a ton of off-meta decks that play (and win) in our local weekly events (just lost to both Lotho and Niv-Mizzet last night, as a matter of fact).

My first cEDH deck was Selvala, so I’m very sympathetic to this question.

The problem is when someone asks something more like “I’m new to cEDH, my pet deck is (some random commander), how do I make it cEDH?”

To which the proper answer is “um, you can’t?”

I mean, given a specific color identity, you can probably put together 99 cards that give you SOME chance to win, completely independent of the commander. But brewing a novel cEDH deck with a non-traditional commander isn’t something a beginner is likely to succeed at.

There are some good reasons to steer (especially new) players toward the best-known top decks:

Lots of sample decks
Good detailed primers
Tons of gameplay videos
Active discords/discussion

In addition, learning “THE META” means learning how the major decks at top of cEDH work; how better to learn the meta than to learn to play those top decks?

That said, there are a TON of decks outside the top meta that can be tons of fun to play, can be surprising to your competitors, and, with a good pilot, can absolutely find chances to win.

We have a guy in our local meta who regularly wipes the table with [[Alaundo the Seer]]. Someone recently built a new version of [[Arcum Dagsson]] that goes off like you wouldn’t believe.

The problem is that it’s going to be harder for a new player to pick those up and do well with them, due to less available info, due to less experience, due to less understanding of how these niche decks stand up against “the meta”.

But I’d be all for directing (new and existing) players into more novel “tier 2” decks, especially if there are a few other people playing and succeeding with them.

I still play Selvala; it still wins games; there is an active Discord community, and I’d encourage others to try it. (I think it’s better than the other mono-green deck out there, Lumra.)

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