Tasigur Evolution Druid—Max Power Deck Tech
A warm welcome to you, friends! In this deck tech article, I will be going over my signature Maximum Power deck, one which I call Tasigur Evolution Druid. This deck was created by yours truly, Sydelio! This deck has quickly become a favorite of mine, and I hope that you will also go bananas for Tasigur. 🍌
The up to date list can be opened in a second window here, and a snapshot of the deck as it was at the time of writing the article will be embedded at the bottom of the article as well.
Tasigur, the Golden Fang is a nostalgic commander for many, but a newer addition to my arsenal of decks. Tasigur had always been one of those commanders I’d love to build a strong list for, something about being able to ’cheat’ your commander out by delving cards and leveraging its mana value in varying ways. Upon buying an old Magic collection with loads of Commander staples, I reached my hand out to Tasigur at last. It was finally time to brew the deck of my dreams.
My Tasigur list features multiple avenues to victory while leveraging Tasigur in unique ways. Compared to other Sultai commanders or partner combinations, I feel that Tasigur is a lot more open and has more room for expression with regards to the different routes that you can take him. While the core of the deck is a powerful Sultai shell, there are things that no other commander can really match for me.
“Welcome to the Hermit’s cabin…”
Hermit Druid is the first win condition I wanted to feature in the list. Since the deck has no basic lands, the activation allows us to mill our whole library into the graveyard at once and then follow up with a Dread Return to reanimate Thassa’s Oracle from our graveyard for the win.
How do we get three creatures to flashback the Dread Return?
First off, Narcomoeba triggers due to it being put from our library into the graveyard with the Hermit Druid activation and is put into play. Hermit Druid is comfortably sitting there after the activation and we’re just one creature short from the Dread Return. The last creature is none other than the Banana King himself, Tasigur!
One of the key factors why Tasigur is such a good Hermit Druid commander is his delve ability, which allows Tasigur to be cast for a single black mana after the Hermit Druid activation! This is one of the advantages that Tasigur has in comparison with other Hermit Druid commanders like Kenrith, the Returned King or the partner pairing of Thrasios, Triton Hero and Tymna the Weaver.
If we’re activating Hermit Druid at a later stage in the game, we can also opt to disturb Malevolent Hermit from our graveyard. This affords our Dread Return additional protection through Benevolent Geist’s ability.
Hermit Druid lists often have to run cards like Fatestitcher or Bloodghast to have low-cost options for sacrifice fodder for the Dread Return. With Tasigur, you don’t have to sacrifice another slot in the 99 for otherwise inefficient card choices. For a deck like this one, having those few extra slots can open up a lot more lines of play because you aren’t forced to run as many possibly dead cards.
“There are no shortcuts in evolution…”
As we’re able to cast Tasigur early on, even as early as the first turn, we can leverage Tasigur’s mana value with Sacrifice, Neoform, and Eldritch Evolution. These cards allow you to do unfair things at an unmatched speed compared to simply casting the cards that you’ll be working towards. They will allow us to cheat disgustingly strong creatures into play with ease. It almost feels unfair!
My list features the ever-beautiful evolution trio of Nezahal, Primal Tide, Toxrill, the Corrosive and Hullbreaker Horror. Nezahal works as the ”bigger Fish” and allows us to draw astonishing amounts of cards or alternatively hose our opponents from casting their spells out in hopes of not advancing our game more. Nezahal is the go-to choice for the evolution lines when playing in a pod featuring lists that are attempting to turbo out burst draw like Ad Nauseam with the help of rituals and other fast mana.
Toxrill is the go-to choice for staxier and grindier pods – being able to clear the board at an efficient rate while building our own has proven to be extremely strong when facing pesky hatebears, stax pieces and value engines like Collector Ouphe, Archon of Emeria, and Tymna the Weaver. Toxrill can also provide us with some card draw on the side through sacrificing our beloved Slugs. 🐌
Hullbreaker Horror works as an avenue to generate us infinite mana through the use of our mana positive rocks. The options are many—whether it was casting Mana Crypt to return an Arcane Signet to our hand, tapping it for 2 colorless mana, using those for the Arcane Signet with the Hullbreaker Horror returning Mana Crypt to our hand, to then cast to return the Arcane Signet back to our hand after tapping it for a colored mana, and so forth. I also play Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy in my list to help push past the breakpoints of going mana positive with our rocks.
After generating infinite mana, we activate Tasigur’s ability until we’ve put all of our nonland cards into our hand and follow up with either Thassa’s Oracle or other ways of winning, such as infinitely casting Peer into the Abyss on our opponents to drain them out, use Assassin’s Trophy to destroy all of our opponents’ permanents, counter our own stuff with Swan Song to swing for a lethal attack on the following turn, and so on. Convenient!
To round out the list’s win conditions, I play the classic pairing of Isochron Scepter and Dramatic Reversal to generate infinite mana. It’s very easy to go mana-positive with this combo, allowing you to win the game through the same routes mentioned above. Having redundancy like this allows you to stay in the game even if you lose important pieces.
Of course, this deck also has Demonic Consultation and Tainted Pact lines for the compact win conditions with the help of Thassa’s Oracle. These cards also have some utility as risky tutors and Tasigur’s ability to buy them back makes them some of the stronger cards in the deck.
(Before and) During the Game
Even before the game starts, you’ll want to be mindful of your seat in the pod and what decks you’re playing against. As the list is quite adaptive, you can feel confident in being able to play faster games through the use of Hermit Druid and burst draw spells as well as remaining relevant during grindier games by evolving Tasigur into appropriate pieces and leveraging engines to accrue consistent value and card selection. Your approach to winning may vary greatly from game to game.
Generally you’ll be looking to deploy some resource advantage engines early on and ramp towards the mid-game. Deploying Tasigur out early on is usually not as important as powering out a Kraum, Ludevic’s Opus, for example. Tasigur itself doesn’t really do much early on, unless you have Sacrifice, Neoform or Eldritch Evolution in hand. The individual card quality in the list is extremely high, but the list doesn’t generate card advantage with the commander as reliably as something like a Tymna-Kraum list.
With this being said, you’ll also want to be mindful of resource usage. An opponent’s turn 1 Rhystic Study should most likely be countered, but if you’re presenting a win on your upcoming turn, having the extra counter to protect your own attempt at winning is most often the play. Smart pacing is key to piloting an adaptive list.
As many of the combos in this list are tied to casting spells infinitely, Rule of Law effects can stop us from winning with Isochron Scepter and Dramatic Reversal or Hullbreaker Horror. Although these effects are strong, they don’t feel like a complete blowout for the list—you can pivot into a grindier gameplan as mentioned earlier.
If the board is getting filled with hatebears and stax pieces to the point of not being able to progress your gameplan in any meaningful way, mass removal like Cyclonic Rift is crucial. It’s important to remember that you simply can’t counter everything, especially given how prevalent these types of cards have become.
Life Is a Resource
Editor’s note: That Japanese Dark Ritual promo card is just too sick to not show off here!
This deck plays the holy trinity of burst draw of Ad Nauseam, Necropotence, and the aforementioned Peer into the Abyss. These cards don’t typically work as direct win conditions but rather as facilitators for the follow-up win. Being able to draw a plethora of cards in such compact ways is truly unmatched power. Even if we don’t have excess mana when resolving Ad Nauseam or Peer into the Abyss, we’re often able to piece together a defined win through our free mana rocks, Dark Ritual, and even Tasigur through the use of Sacrifice.
Something to highlight with Ad Nauseam is that although the list plays the hard-hitting 7-drops, Ad Nauseam is an extremely strong card and it’s wrong to not run it in the list. Just be mindful of the pacing with this spell—casting it on end step before your turn can often be the better play over the main phase option.
Once you’ve already flipped enough tutors, fast mana, and relevant cards, it can often be a good idea to stop if your life total is getting low. That said, if you’ve already flipped over multiple 7-drops, it’s usually safe to keep going if you haven’t already found a way to assemble a win. Sometimes, you just need to go for it even if it’s risky!
Author’s note: Don’t be afraid to go for value by refilling your hand with Necropotence if the pacing of the game is a bit grindy. You don’t always have to pay most of your life into it and try to win on the spot!
Exciting Acceleration
I previously mentioned turboing out Tasigur with your fast mana acceleration, so I wanted to highlight some popular staples to which he provides additional hidden benefits. Jeweled Lotus normally pays for 3 mana of any color for your commander. Tasigur is able to use the freshly sacrificed Jeweled Lotus as delve fuel—essentially allowing you to pay a whopping 4 mana for the cost of 0 mana for your commander. This in conjunction with a fetch land will allow you to cast Tasigur even as early as on turn 1!
Another staple mana rock which is in pretty much every competitive Commander list out there that also serves an additional purpose with Tasigur is Mox Diamond. This beautiful rock works in a similar way to Jeweled Lotus where it provides additional delve fuel for Tasigur due to its “downside” to discarding a land to have it enter the battlefield. Did I already mention that I love cohesion and hidden benefits on cards?
Another important thing to note regarding the ramp package is the absence of the Talismans and the inclusion of Signets. While Talisman of Dominance and the like could be good inclusions, there is a specific reason why I’ve decided to exclude them: although generally Talismans are better mana rocks than Signets as you can tap them without paying mana, they cost you a life per colored mana you produce.
When we look at the Isochron Scepter and Hullbreaker Horror combo lines, this means that we wouldn’t be able to produce infinite colored mana due to losing life from the Talismans, since Tasigur needs colored mana to activate his ability. It’s also noteworthy that the original Signets like Dimir Signet and Simic Signet are absolutely beautiful in foil.
Spicy Cards Galore
An important highlight of this deck is classic Seedborn Muse. Although not as strong as in Thrasios lists, we’re able to pivot into a grindier game plan by being able to generate resource advantage through repeated Tasigur activations. Seedborn Muse also leverages the inclusion of Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy even further aside from helping through the breakpoints for Isochron Scepter and Hullbreaker Horror lines, offering us additional mana from our mana dorks and rocks as well as a solid mana sink to cheat one of our 7-drops into play.
The second card I want to highlight is a bit of a pet card of mine, Counterbalance. This card works as a potent rattlesnake effect by letting your opponents know that their spells can easily get countered at the flip of a card. As Tasigur already loves fetchlands as a means to fuel delve costs, being able to leverage them as shuffle effects is lovely.
Cards like Noxious Revival, Mystical Tutor, and Vampiric Tutor are already extremely powerful, but they also have a hidden synergy with Counterbalance. Using these cards to grab an important card and manipulate the top deck of our library for that sweet sweet 1-for-2 effect is absolutely beautiful. It quickly becomes an addiction.
Author’s note: ALL YOUR GRAVE ARE BELONG TO US.
Mnemonic Betrayal is one of my all-time favorite designs in Magic. I love the art, the effect, everything! Being able to win through the use of your opponents’ resources has always been of my favorite things in Magic. If you’ve seen my earlier deck tech for Thassa, Deep-Dwelling, you’d already be aware of that fact. Mnemonic Betrayal does it extremely well in the context of Maximum Power Commander.
Remember all of the powerful cards like Lotus Petal, Underworld Breach, and Jeska’s Will that your opponents cast earlier in the game? Well, now they’re yours! Your opponents won’t be needing them anymore if you just end the game right now! It’s rarely difficult to win the game with Mnemonic Betrayal if someone else has already tried to go off.
Yawgmoth’s Will is a somewhat similar card to Mnemonic Betrayal, but allows you to replay everything that’s in your own graveyard rather than your opponents’ graveyards. You’ll be able to reuse all of those powerful tutors and fast mana or go for a spicy line of Tainted Pact for Thassa’s Oracle, casting Yawgmoth’s Will, casting Thassa’s Oracle and responding to the enters-the-battlefield trigger with the Tainted Pact from our graveyard. Fun is mandatory. Yawgmoth has willed it.
Ledger Shredder is a recent card that’s seeing a ton of play across the varying formats, with Commander being no exception. It works as a beautiful card filtering engine while fueling our graveyard for that sweet delve fuel and supercharging our upcoming Yawgmoth's Will. This is yet another strong card that really excels in a Tasigur deck.
Ledger Shredder will often connive multiple times during a single turn cycle and can quickly grow out of hand. Having a formidable blocker to protect your own life total for that sweet Ad Nauseam is important, as is pressuring your opponents with attacks to deny them cards on their own Ad Nauseam. In a list with such high individual card quality, card filtering is extremely strong. 2 mana for such a cohesive powerhouse? Count me in!
Author’s note: Ledger Shredder's draw with connive effect is mandatory. If you're planning on going for that sweet Demonic Consultation line with Thassa’s Oracle, you’d better be mindful of the trigger or the bird will bite back!
Since the majority of relevant nonland permanents in Maximum Power are mana value 2 or less, Culling Ritual can wipe the board and allow you to win the game outright or generate such an advantage that your opponents fall too far behind to ever catch up. This is one of the most back-breaking spells to deal with in this environment.
It hits so many things in Maximum Power and notably gets rid of problematic stax pieces like Chalice of the Void, Deafening Silence, and Drannith Magistrate. Bonus points if you chain the mana into Mnemonic Betrayal, Yawgmoth’s Will, Ad Nauseam, or Peer into the Abyss!
The deck contains a lot of multi-purpose tools like An Offer You Can’t Refuse. When I build my decks, I value flexibility in my card choices. In an adaptive decklist like this, cards like this that can have a big impact in a variety of different ways really shine.
An Offer You Can’t Refuse is one of those cards where it took some time and evaluation to determine its value in the context of higher power Commander, as it was uncertain whether having the hard counter is worth the cost of giving your opponent two treasures and whether it was worth running over the other counterspells in the 99. The thing with An Offer You Can’t Refuse is that it’s an extremely good reactive counterspell.
Allow me to explain: People were concerned about using the card to counter a counterspell during a counterspell war and giving their opponent two mana that may allow them to cast another counterspell and win on the stack. I think that people overlooked the fact that you can counter the initial spell that started the counterspell war (let’s say an Ad Nauseam). They’ll still get two treasures, but they can’t use them to continue fighting against your countermagic since the original spell has already been countered.
Author’s note: An Offer You Can’t Refuse is also a fantastic tool to color-fix your available mana or ramp you towards the win after you’ve resolved an Ad Nauseam or Peer into the Abyss. Being able to cast one of your free spells while holding priority and counter it to get two treasures is phenomenal. You can then turn those treasures into a defined win condition with the help of Dark Ritual or other fast mana, most often a Demonic Consultation line.
March of Swirling Mist is a newer card which is seeing a ton of play in higher power Commander. Mostly used as a temporary removal for the stax creatures your opponent is stopping you from winning with and interrupting your opponents creature-based combo, this card also fulfills a different purpose in my list as a protective piece for our Hermit Druid. Being able to phase out Hermit Druid in response to spot removal or a board wipe and guarantee us the Hermit Druid activation on our following turn is extremely strong.
I’ve always loved building lists and fine-tuning them with layered options and strong reasons behind the card choices to create a deck that’s as cohesive and meaningful as possible. The alternative casting cost on March of Swirling Mist allows you to extend further out on the board while holding up a single blue mana, especially if you have expendable blue cards in hand.
The final multi-purpose card that I wanted to highlight is Memory’s Journey. As the Hermit Druid activation leaves you extremely vulnerable to opposing counterspells when you attempt to flashback Dread Return, having an additional safety measure in the form of Memory’s Journey is extremely valuable in the list.
If an opponent manages to stop you from winning after the Hermit Druid activation, you’re not doomed to lose the game during your next turn’s draw step. Rather you’re able to use it to your advantage by shuffling the Thassa’s Oracle back into your library or even the Yawgmoth’s Will to then go for a glorious win on the following turn. Notably Memory’s Journey can also be used offensively against some early Underworld Breach attempts by shuffling away their escape fuel.
It’s Free Real Estate!
The last thing that I wanted to go over is the often overlooked land base. Lands aren’t always interesting, but they’re an important part of a balanced breakfast—I mean decklist. 🍌☕While lands generally produce mana, there are also some that provide other benefits. Putting in the effort to balance your land base between colors, utility, and other things can be difficult, but it really does make a difference in the long run.
The first land to highlight is Forbidden Orchard. While this land does have a downside of giving your opponent a 1/1 Spirit token, I’ve found the land to be worth running over some other rainbow lands. We can leverage these tokens for our own benefit through the use of Culling Ritual and Toxrill, allowing us to net more mana or Slugs respectively. Just be mindful to not give the Spirit to a Tymna player or certain turbo decks that would love the sacrifice fuel for rituals or other powerful cards!
Urza’s Saga is a powerhouse of a card and has been putting on quite the show in multiple formats—for good reason. Although it only provides colorless mana on its own, its payoff is well worth it if you can wait a couple of turns.
Being able to tutor out something like a Sol Ring or a Mox Opal translates into acceleration or a colored mana source. As we play layered combo lines featuring our mana rocks, having an additional tutor to find fast mana in a land slot is amazing. Do remember that you can tap Urza’s Saga in response to the third chapter to float a colorless mana before it gets sacrificed during your main phase!
The final land choices that I wanted to cover were the Canopy lands, Nurturing Peatland and Waterlogged Grove. I value the utility the Canopy lands provide over the downside of having to pay life to tap them. The list has a multitude of ways of grinding out games to the later stages, and topdecking one of these lands when you’re already set on mana is preferable over any other land. After all, drawing cards is the best thing you can do in Magic!
This concludes my deck tech for Tasigur Evolution Druid. If you’ve enjoyed spending time with me, you can find me here on PlayEDH Radio 903.1, a podcast focused on Commander news, game theory, deck techs, and other topics related to Magic: The Gathering. PlayEDH Radio 903.1 is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and SoundCloud. You can also check out other great articles from the PlayEDH team here.
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