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[Phelphor, of the Deep]

Hello, and welcome to Dimir Devastator another edition of Ultra Budget Brews, this article that builds entire EDH decks on the cheap. Wrong cheep, Tommy. By cheap, we’re talking $1 or less. If you’ve been playing Magic for any time at all, you know it doesn’t get much cheaper than that. So I hope you guys are really excited to see Taigam, you all really didn’t want to see the others members make threads like this, or you all just like seeing unpopular members building MTG EDH decks on a yugioh centered forum. I’ll admit that I’m very glad I am not building Edric on account of someone in my EDH playgroup built him. I’ve played against that deck a lot recently, and getting your teeth kicked in by a bunch of evasive 1/1’s is way worse than it sounds. Picture an army of mana dorks and counterspells teaching you the true meaning of misery. Enough about Edric. We’re here to talk about Taigam.

 

 

Our Win Con?: Lethal battle damage for starts, tapping and uptapping our commander to control the board, go into Infinite mana to do stuff and etc.

 

 

Our Commander

Taigam, Sidisi’s Hand

Converted mana cost: 5

(3)(B)(U)

Type: Legendary Creature — Human Wizard

Sets: Commander 2017

Colors: Black mana, Blue mana

Illustrators: Simon Dominic

Game: Magic: The Gathering

Effect of card: Skip your draw step.

At the beginning of your upkeep, look at the top three cards of your library. Put one of them into your hand and the rest into your graveyard.

{B}, {T}, Exile X cards from your graveyard: Target creature gets -X/-X until end of turn.

 

 

Pros:

•Repeatable removal

•The removal is flexible (particularly good at knocking off small creatures) and gets around indestructible

•Great card selection

•Fills the graveyard

 

 

Cons:

•5 mana is quite a bit

•Bojuka Bog, Rest in Peace, and friends make you a sad panda.

•The Scarab God exists, does a similar thing, and, if were being completely objective, is probably just better

•If Game of Thrones has taught us anything, being The Hand can lead to an early and unfortunate death

 

 

As alluded to earlier, Taigam is pretty unpopular, leading a mere 71 decks. I think that there are a few reasons for this. Our Taigam kind of pales in comparison to Taigam, Ojutai Master. While the our Taigam may not be as generically powerful, I do think he’s a ton more interesting. I mean, we’ve all either played with or against a deck that does nothing but take extra turns, and I’m not sure exciting, original, or interesting are words that would be used to describe them.

 

 

I also think part of his unpopularity can be attributed to the very first line of text. “Skip your draw step” is not a phrase that typically makes you get excited about building a commander. In fact the very first thing it makes me do is brainstorm ways to donate it to my opponents. Drawing cards just so happens to be a pretty important of playing Magic. If we skip an entire phase, the tradeoff better be pretty powerful! Thankfully, it is.

 

 

The ability to look at the top 3 cards of our library and choose which we want is very powerful and is something I’m more than happy tradeoff for my draw step. Thankfully, it gets even better. You throw the other cards in to your graveyard. I’m sure you don’t need to be reminded, but were playing black. Black loves a stocked graveyard and has innumerable ways to get things back to your hand from the graveyard or to get creatures directly on to the battlefield.

 

 

Taigam also gives us a powerful way remove opponents’ creatures. For a single black mana, you exile X cards from your graveyard and you give target critter -X/-X. There will be cards that get dumped in to your graveyard that you want nothing to do with, such as lands and some instants and sorceries. This allows you to turn these into a resource. Targeted removal is something that every deck needs. This happens to be repeatable and even gets around indestructible creatures. It’s also perfect for picking off small important utility creatures like Oracle of Mul Daya and Baral, Chief of Compliance. With all of this in mind, lets check out our deck.

 

 

Commander (1)

1 Taigam, Sidisi’s Hand

 

Lands (37)

1 Dimir Aqueduct

1 Dimir Guildgate

1 Dismal Backwater

1 Dreadship Reef

1 Drownyard Temple

1 Evolving Wilds

1 Grixis Panorama

12 Island

1 Jwar Isle Refuge

1 Myriad Landscape

1 Nephalia Drownyard

1 Submerged Boneyard

13 Swamp

1 Terramorphic Expanse

 

Creatures (22)

1 Archaeomancer

1 Archfiend of Depravity

1 Artisan of Kozilek

1 Body Double

1 Demon of Dark Schemes

1 Deranged Assistant

1 Diluvian Primordial

1 Fleshbag Marauder

1 Inkwell Leviathan

1 Kothophed, Soul Hoarder

1 Krovikan Sorcerer

1 Kuro, Pitlord

1 Merciless Executioner

1 Mindleech Mass

1 Pestilence Demon

1 Phyrexian Delver

1 Ravenous Chupacabra

1 Shadowborn Demon

1 Tomb Robber

1 Ulamog’s Crusher

1 Vizier of Many Faces

1 Xathrid Demon

 

Artifacts (11)

1 Charcoal Diamond

1 Commander’s Sphere

1 Dimir Cluestone

1 Fellwar Stone

1 Hedron Archive

1 Key to the City

1 Mind Stone

1 Omen Machine

1 Uba Mask

1 Wayfarer’s Bauble

1 Worn Powerstone

 

Sorceries (13)

1 Compulsive Research

1 Dread Return

1 Ever After

1 Extract from Darkness

1 Infernal Offering

1 Necromantic Selection

1 Night’s Whisper

1 Pilfered Plans

1 Profane Command

1 Read the Bones

1 Stitch Together

1 Victimize

1 Windfall

 

Instants (12)

1 Ancient Excavation

1 Disdainful Stroke

1 Fact or Fiction

1 Forbidden Alchemy

1 Insidious Will

1 Memory Plunder

1 Moonlight Bargain

1 Murderous Cut

1 Mystical Teachings

1 Reality Shift

1 Silumgar’s Command

1 Thought Scour

 

Enchantments (3)

1 Diabolic Servitude

1 Psychic Possession

1 Soul Ransom

 

 

I want to put in some infinite mana and untapping (Have the mana to pay for commander's ability and the un-tapping ability to keep un-tapping him so we can wipe board clean. Having access to instant speed field wipe at all given times is handy when need to go for lethal battle damage or buying time until we get a second win con.

 

 

For infinite mana (things like Drake and/or Dead-Eye Nav) and for uptapping (Things like Dramatic Reversal Dream's Grip and/or Reality Spasm)

[Phelphor, of the Deep]

BUMP