EDH Deck Time: Damia and her Friends

I’ve limited myself to three colors in EDH from the beginning (which was a little bit over two years ago). It just lets me use my resources more efficiently, as white and red aren’t very good colors. Sure, they have a limited set of good cards, but those aren’t really that fun for me, as I’m not as much of an asshole when playing EDH than I have a reputation for.

Anyhow, as there have been plenty of new planeswalkers in the last few sets in my color (BUG), I decided it might be time to make a planeswalker deck. Who to guide them into battle? [scryfall]Damia, Sage of Stone[/scryfall]. Not particular reason for choosing her over [scryfall]The Mimeoplasm[/scryfall] or [scryfall]Vorosh, the Hunter[/scryfall], except that she’s probably going to work best because of the card advantage she provides.

The Friends

Although there are 23 planeswalkers in these colors (and of course, [scryfall]Karn Liberated[/scryfall]), not all of them work that well in this deck, so I left out some.

Both versions of Tezzeret are out. I don’t have many artifacts in the deck, so they don’t work very well here. I do have [scryfall]The Chain Veil[/scryfall], so maybe tutoring for that would be good. Still, out.

[scryfall]Garruk, Caller of Beasts[/scryfall] is out because we have only a couple of creatures in the deck. We can’t really use any of his abilities.

[scryfall]Nissa Revane[/scryfall] is out, because we can’t really use her abilities either. We do have one elf in the deck, but that isn’t quite enough.

[scryfall]Nissa, Worldwake[/scryfall] is also out. She’s marginal. Maybe we could have used her and she’s probably better than some of the planeswalkers that did make it into the deck, but then again, I have all the others in my collection, so that has an impact as well.

So, who’s in.

[scryfall]Jace Beleren[/scryfall], [scryfall]Jace, Memory Adept[/scryfall], [scryfall]Jace, the Mind Sculptor[/scryfall] and [scryfall]Jace, Architect of Thought[/scryfall] are all good and thus autoincludes. [scryfall]Jace, the Living Guildpact[/scryfall] is again marginal. His powerlevel is much lower than that of the other four, but we’ve just been spoiled with great Jaces before. Doesn’t mean the new one isn’t still good. He’s just worse. Since all the others are pretty insane, I can live with that.

Liliana is my favorite planeswalker, so all three versions are autoincludes. I’m even going to overemphasize Swamps in my build to make [scryfall]Liliana of the Dark Realms[/scryfall] better. She’s going to be on the weaker side in this deck, and she’s not that good to begin with (even though I wrote an article to defend her). Again, she just loses to her other versions in comparison. [scryfall]Liliana Vess[/scryfall] is sometimes called the best planeswalker in the format and [scryfall]Liliana of the Veil[/scryfall] is just amazing in anything.

Garruk also does plenty of work on his own. [scryfall]Garruk Wildspeaker[/scryfall] can ramp and make creatures. Both very important abilities in this deck. [scryfall]Garruk, Primal Hunter[/scryfall] does creaturemaking better and can draw cards. What’s not to like here? Although I do have personal preference for Liliana, I think Primal Hunter might be the best planeswalker in EDH. I’ve drawn more cards off of him than all the Jace’s combined. [scryfall]Garruk Relentless[/scryfall] is a bit more difficult. Making creatures is strong, but these are smaller. On the other hand, [scryfall]Garruk, the Veil-Cursed[/scryfall] can produce deathtouch creatures, which are very good in the format. [scryfall]Garruk, Apex Predator[/scryfall]… well, at least I’ll be the only one in the table using planeswalkers.

This leaves us with some other cards, like [scryfall]Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver[/scryfall], which might be good in some situations, but probably isn’t, [scryfall]Tamiyo, the Moon Sage[/scryfall], which can be a great card draw engine… sometimes, [scryfall]Sorin Markov[/scryfall], which has a very strong second ability, the all-purpose answer in [scryfall]Vraska, the Unseen[/scryfall], and [scryfall]Kiora, the Crashing Wave[/scryfall] which I don’t think is going to be very strong here, unless I can sneak her in and quickly ultimate her.

[scryfall]Karn Liberated[/scryfall]… well, when you need to get rid of something, there’s always Karn.

The Rest

What else does the deck need? Bunch of mass removal, some tutors, some counters, some ramp, a few facilitators, and lands. That’s pretty much it. However, I’d like to highlight some cards here.

[scryfall]Nevinyrral’s Disk[/scryfall]. It destroys everything… except that there’s no mention of planeswalkers. Works for me.

[scryfall]Doubling Season[/scryfall] also doubles the amount of loyalty counters planeswalkers start with. However, remember that activating abilities is not an effect, but a cost, so those don’t double, even when you are adding counters as a “cost”.

[scryfall]Ghostly Flicker[/scryfall] can be used to reset your planeswalkers, but also save them from certain effects and attacks.

[scryfall]Quicken[/scryfall] is great with all the mass removal in the deck. I wrote an article about that too.

[scryfall]The Veil Chain[/scryfall] is pretty much the reason this deck exists.

[cardlist]
[Land]
Bojuka Bog
Breeding Pool
Command Tower
Creeping Tar Pit
Darkslick Shores
Dimir Aqueduct
Drowned Catacomb
Evolving Wilds
Exotic Orchard
Flooded Grove
6 Forest
Gilt-Leaf Palace
Golgari Rot Farm
Hinterland Harbor
2 Island
Jwar Isle Refuge
Overgrown Tomb
Reflecting Pool
River of Tears
Secluded Glen
Simic Growth Chamber
Sunken Ruins
5 Swamp
Temple of Deceit
Temple of Malady
Temple of Mystery
Terramorphic Expanse
Twilight Mire
Watery Grave
Woodland Cemetery
[/Land]
[Spells]
Doubling Season
Pernicious Deed
Nevinyrral’s Disk
The Chain Veil
AEtherize
AEtherspouts
Clockspinning
Counterspell
Crypt Incursion
Cyclonic Rift
Dissipate
Dissolve
Evacuation
Forbid
Ghostly Flicker
Hinder
Quicken
Spell Crumple
Cabal Conditioning
Cultivate
Curse of the Swine
Damnation
Decree of Pain
Demonic Tutor
Diabolic Tutor
Farseek
In Garruk’s Wake
Kodama’s Reach
Life’s Finale
Plague Wind
Rampant Growth
Recross the Paths
Rise of the Dark Realms
Whelming Wave
[/Spells]
[Planeswalkers]
Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
Garruk, Apex Predator
Garruk, Primal Hunter
Garruk Relentless Flip
Garruk Wildspeaker
Jace, Architect of Thought
Jace Beleren
Jace, Memory Adept
Jace, the Living Guildpact
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Karn Liberated
Kiora, the Crashing Wave
Liliana of the Dark Realms
Liliana of the Veil
Liliana Vess
Sorin Markov
Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
Vraska the Unseen
[/Planeswalkers]
[Creature]
Bane of Progress
Coiling Oracle
Damia, Sage of Stone
Farhaven Elf
Oracle of Mul Daya
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Thassa, God of the Sea
Yavimaya Elder
[/Creature]
[/cardlist]

The Future

With the new commander decks having planeswalkers as commanders, this deck is probably going to get some additions. I wouldn’t mind putting in the new Teferi rather than the weakest Jace. I can’t have more than one Jace in play anyhow.

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