Gavi, Combo Warden – A Deck Tech
The Home Brew Dude spends some time unraveling the mysteries of building a better deck featuring Gavi, Nest Warden, for Commander.
When Gavi was first spoiled, my initial impression was one of minor disappointment. Now, I know what you are thinking: she lets you cycle for free every turn which is true. However, unless you are playing at instant speed on all turns and cycling at least two cards per turn, every turn, you will not get the most you can out of her second ability.
If we take a closer glance, we can see she has some potent combo potential. To explore this a little farther, let’s take a look at a decklist I have whipped up:
Deck Breakdown
Win Conditions
The first section we are gonna look at is its win conditions. While this is a cycling deck at its core, it has to win somehow. So, since we are drawing an obscene amount of cards, what better janky win condition to use than Approach of the Second Sun? This is by far the easiest win conditions for the deck. the next is The Locust God. This dude is just plain nuts. With the amount of cycling we do in this deck we can flood the board with a daunting collection of irritating insects. Not only that, but this dude cannot die: “When The Locust God dies, return it to its owner’s hand at the beginning of the next end step.” Now, sadly, that second ability doesn’t work when he is countered, but as listed above, there are plenty of counterspells to make sure he hits the board and stays there. Now, the final win condition is Jace, Architect of Thought. This guy is one of the most underrated, underappreciated Planeswalkers in Magic’s history. While his +1 and -2 are not inherently strong, his ultimate is beyond insane. “Well, how can you win?” you might ask. How about playing your opponents win conditions plus your own at the same time. You now have at least a 25% chance to win on the spot. And if your Approach is still in your deck your win percentage jumps to nearly 50%! One card doing that much work is incredible. Now, I will premise this with the concession that you do need to keep him alive for 4 turns to use him. But with the number of tokens you make from your commander, and with the number of protection spells we are packing, that shouldn’t be a problem.
The Cyclers
The great part about this deck is the amount of natural, and unnatural, card draw that is presented here. One of the most clutch cards in this deck has to be Tectonic Reformation. Draw into lands? Let’s turn them into spells that also trigger our commander. This card alone has gotten me out of so many holes it’s ridiculous. Next on my list is Astral Drift. This card is super fun to mess with. Have you ever locked people out with this card and Azor? You will now. On top of that, you can, at instant speed, stop attackers from hitting you and you can even bounce creatures your opponents control in response to them targeting their creatures with spells. This card makes for huge blowouts as well as crowd control. The next card I wanna look at is Ominous Seas. Most would say this is a win condition, but with as slow as it is, we cannot really call it that. It is a threat for sure, though. Being able to both cycle it and be able to put out threats is huge. Another thing most don’t realize is you don’t have to sacrifice it to make tokens, you just have to remove the counters. Next up is Decree of Justice. This card is both a game closer and a board stabilizer. Being able to make tokens off of both its cast and its cycling ability is very relevant for this deck. The final card I wish to cover for this section is going to be prefaced with this: this card is meant to be used to close out games. I do not condone the use of this card to stall the board on purpose. I am not responsible for your untimely demise should you do it anyway. Now that I have gotten that out of the way, let’s talk about Decree of Annihilation. 99% of the time I use this card, it’s to cycle it. If you are going to cast this card, use Ral’s ultimate first or keep Ominous Seas around without removing counters so you can close out the game you cast decree. This card can be a super hoser if used correctly.
Control The Game
The hardest thing for this deck to do is to produce creature-based threats and control the board. With the deck containing only three creatures, including the commander, we need a way to slow the game so that we can set up a win. Frozen Aether and Opposition do just that. With both of those cards, you can keep your opponents tapped down for turns at a time while you cycle your way to your win conditions. Opposition is especially broken in this deck because of the number of tokens you can make. The final control card is Commit. I love this card for two reasons: front half Venser, Shaper Savant, back half is Timetwister. It is a little on the expensive side, but this card alone has won me games I had no business winning. Just ask the guys here about my debut episode (shameless plug achieved).
The Final Cut
Now that we have broken down the core parts of the deck, and gone into some basic strategy with it, what do you think about the deck? Does this deck fit your play style? Next week we will be looking into some CEDH upgrades for this deck to make it ready for a more competitive environment. Don’t forget, if you want to suggest deck tech articles, leave a tweet @MTGOracle and I will pick the most requested! Until next time folks, the is The Home Brew Dude signing off! Later!