Abzan Explore?! - $50 Thalia and The Gitrog Monster Deck Tech
Thalia and The Gitrog Monster | Illustrated by Sami Makkonen
Amalia Benavides Aguirre | Illustrated by Alix Branwyn
Hello, everyone! Welcome to another installment of BathroomBrews. With the release of The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, I wanted to explore the explore mechanic to find out if we could build an explore-themed deck in EDH. There is Hakbal of the Surging Soul
The Inspiration
The deck used Amalia and Wildgrowth Walker to explore and gain life until Amalia wiped the board. The astute among you probably realized that Amalia and Wildgrowth Walker would loop forever if it wasn't for Amalia's ability, which wipes the board... unless, of course, you have enough Hardened Scales
As I worked on this deck, I realized some themes improved with explore: reanimation, Landfall, blink, and counters. Reanimation effects pair nicely with the mill part of explore; Landfall is great since you will almost always have lands in your hand, which is why I picked Thalia and The Gitrog Monster
The Gameplan
Reanimation
Of these four themes, reanimation has the smallest package, with only three reanimation spells in the deck. Tayam, Luminous Enigma
Landfall
The Landfall package is pretty straightforward. We have a lot of spells that put lands into play, along with most of the Retreats in Abzan colors: Retreat to Hagra
Counters
The counter package was the last to be added during deckbuilding. I included three Scale effect cards: Hardened Scales
Blink
The blink package is far and away my favorite of the four. I included the usual instants with Cloudshift
Let's Go Exploring
Now onto the core of the deck, the explore creatures. We have a total of 25 cards that care about explore in some way, most of which are creatures that explore on ETB. Jadelight Spelunker
Upgrades
If you have a little extra cash to spend, there are some cards I'd highly suggest you pick up for upgrades. The first upgrade I'd make is Bolas's Citadel
Abzan Explore - $50 Budget Thalia & Gitrog
View on ArchidektCommander (1)
Creature (33)
- 1 Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward
- 1 Amalia Benavides Aguirre
- 1 Astrid Peth
- 1 Cenote Scout
- 1 Charming Prince
- 1 Courser of Kruphix
- 1 Dusk Legion Duelist
- 1 Emissary of Sunrise
- 1 Eternal Witness
- 1 Ixalli's Diviner
- 1 Jadelight Ranger
- 1 Jadelight Spelunker
- 1 Kami of Whispered Hopes
- 1 Kellan, Daring Traveler // Journey On
- 1 Kinjalli's Dawnrunner
- 1 Lae'zel, Vlaakith's Champion
- 1 Lurking Chupacabra
- 1 Merfolk Branchwalker
- 1 Pathfinding Axejaw
- 1 Regal Behemoth
- 1 Restoration Angel
- 1 River Herald Guide
- 1 Seasoned Dungeoneer
- 1 Seeker of Sunlight
- 1 Seekers' Squire
- 1 Sunrise Seeker
- 1 Tayam, Luminous Enigma
- 1 Temur Sabertooth
- 1 The Gitrog Monster
- 1 Tireless Tracker
- 1 Topography Tracker
- 1 Wildgrowth Walker
- 1 Woodland Acolyte // Mend the Wilds
Artifact (4)
Instant (9)
Sorcery (8)
Final Thoughts
So can we build a dedicated explore deck in EDH? Yes, yes we can. In fact, I think Abzan is probably the best color combination for this. Thalia and The Gitrog Monster