EDH Deck Time: Ishkanah

So, we’re looking at this card they just spoiled:

ishkanahgrafwidow

First problem I see is that there’s quite a bit of gravehate in EDH, at least in our meta, but we can live though that. Hopefully. We just need to restock the grave often enough.

Here’s our tools for that:

With these, getting to delirium by the time you get to play [scryfall]Ishkanah, Grafwidow[/scryfall] is probably pretty easy. I might be missing some similar cards, but I think we can manage with six such effects.

Other ways of getting there quickly, is by using card draw and ramp. [scryfall]Harrow[/scryfall] is especially good here, giving you two types.

We might also make use of token doubling with cards such as…

And to make more spiders, you can use…

[scryfall]Spider Spawning[/scryfall] can also benefit quite a bit from our self-mill. I don’t feel either of the green populate cards are good enough to use here, so I won’t.

One problem is that most spiders aren’t very effective. They just don’t do much, mostly. There are a couple of good ones, but not many. [scryfall]Silklash Spider[/scryfall] I play regularly (and used to play it in Standard as well).

Honestly, I’m reaching here (pun sort of intended) with some of these. Spiders aren’t the kind of tribe that’s been pushed over the years. Its been more like a common stalwart you want in your draft pile. For that reason, we could really use these two as well:

So, the question here is whether this deck can even be good? Probably. You just need to take a defensive posture and be content with dealing four or maybe five damage with the activated ability. Anyhow, the deck is going to need some help.

So, here’s a couple of ideas on how to get more of those spiders:

I don’t generally use these, because they are quite powerful, but I don’t think they’ll be too broken here. They do fit, however. Also, two pretty powerful, but fragile cards is okay. That won’t be opressive in any way.

After this, if I’m going to mill myself, I’ll put in some cards that’ll benefit from cards being in the graveyard, or by being in the graveyard themselves.

That leaves a little room for anything else, but I guess I’ll put in some generic answers.

Lands in the graveyard are good here, so as many fetches of are going to be good. Maybe we should play something else to abuse them, like [scryfall]The Gitrog Monster[/scryfall], but nah, there’s enough going on here as it is.

2 thoughts on “EDH Deck Time: Ishkanah

  1. Hey i know this was made a while ago, but I feel the need to build this deck, I was just wondering, would you put in stuff that actually has the keyword delirium? like Grim Flayer, Inexorable Blob, Mindwrack Demon, Soul Swallower and even little emrakul (the promised end), These cards benefit from the self mill insanely, as if you get the delirium active the vaue on these cards is very, very good. Thanks for the help :)

    • I don’t think they’d be especially good. I guess I’d say it depends on your meta. They can all be strong in different contexts. I wouldn’t play [card]Emrakul, the Promised End[/card] in a casual environment, though.

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