An Introduction to Grand Arbiter Augustin IV in cEDH

Grand Arbiter Augustin IV

by Zoltan Boros & Gabor Szikszai

Have you ever wanted to play a control deck in cEDH? How about the most control deck in cEDH. Not quite a stax deck, but as close as one gets before it crosses the threshold, a deck full of value engines, more counterspells than you can count (on one hand, at least), and a board wipe other than Cyclonic Rift

Warning - clones incoming.

Who is This Deck For?

This deck is for people who believe that fun is a zero-sum game and want to have all of it. While GAAIV can pivot, by and large the majority of games played with this deck are going to be slogs. If you're doing things right, you'll have Grand Arbiter out early and your opponents will be under a severe mana lock and unable to participate. As such, this deck lends itself to those who love control and love counterspells.

It's also great for players aren't afraid to jump in to table-talk politics discussion in order to help explain common situations, like how your Drannith Magistrate

Why Play Grand Arbiter Augustin IV?

My version of cEDH Grand Arbiter Augustin IV

A one-sided Sphere of Resistance

GAAIV cEDH really only has a handful of proper stax effects in it: the titular GAAIV, Dauntless Dismantler

Jeweled Lotus

I mentioned earlier that GAAIV isn't a true stax deck, yet I just listed seven stax effects, one of which is in the command zone, so what gives? The short answer comes down to proper interaction blended with value engines. Yes, GAAIV loves a slow, grindy game, but the deck should be understood as a layered control deck instead of a stax deck. A strong interaction suite, the potential for early combos, and a bevy of permanent-based value engines means that GAAIV can pivot to match any game you throw him in. 

How to Play Grand Arbiter Augustin IV in cEDH

Early Turns and Mulligans

Between turns one and two, your goal should (almost) always be to cast Grand Arbiter Augustin IV

However, if you're in Seat Four, you can afford to be a bit more conservative with your mulligans; your opponents will each be taking one full turn before you even get the chance to cast GAAIV, so focusing more on resource retention and accrual is a powerful alternative. Jeweled Lotus

Arguably the best card in the deck.

Aside from chasing GAAIV, it should go without saying that the next two best cards to see in your opening hand are Rhystic Study

Also good cards.

A third option - albeit the more risky of the three - is to keep up a hand full of interaction and crawl out from underneath the faster decks your opponents will be playing. GAAIV is an obvious threat, but the deck isn't: in the cEDH zeitgeist, most folks consider the deck outdated and outclassed. If you haven't found an early-turn value engine or GAAIV, then all hope isn't lost, because chances are people won't be too worried about you. Play that to your advantage : a mana rock here, a well-timed counterspell there, and then blitz out when you get the chance.

These third-class hands usually have a lot of mana/counterspells, but not quite the right combination of colored accelerant to play GAAIV turn one or two. Instead, we're talking big colorless rocks: Mana Vault

Turbo Nezahal, a.k.a Lliam's biggest, most honorable fish.

The Midgame

You'll know you're in the midgame once players have started casting fewer, if any, spells but you haven't quite figured out how to close the game. Usually, this is turns 3-5. So, what are we doing amidst all this nothingness? Two things: consolidating power and setting up our win.

For consolidation, this takes one of two routes: if you played GAAIV on turns one or two, then the midgame is all about layering value engine after value engine. Rhystic Study

It may seem strange to argue for playing engines which are dependent on our opponents casting spells after we've already secured our commander which makes it hard for them to even chose to do so in the first place, but it's important to understand that cards like Mystic Remora

Four mana well spent.

Our second route through the midgame is playing GAAIV (and his cloned friends) after the value engines. This makes GAAIV seem less threatening, as odds are that your opponents will have more lands in play and thus will be less immediately horrified by the one-mana tax, but - just as I mentioned before with the value engines - GAAIV's role here is to turn "mays" into "can'ts." A Rhystic Study which was previously drawing cards with every other spell will start to draw one with every spell, and so on and so forth.

Amidst all the counterspells, value engines, and myriad Grand Arbiter Augustin IV

How Do You Win With Grand Arbiter Augustin IV?

Last but not least, actually winning the game. This is GAAIV's biggest trouble: we'll have plenty of games where we have securely locked down our opponents, but in tournaments that doesn't mean we've won. We've still got a clock to beat, and with that in mind we need to chase our win conditions as fast as possible. 

Draws are an issue.

I hinted at it before, but our safest (and most frequently used) win condition comes via Thought Lash

A much quicker combo piece, and one that is much easier to find, is Paradigm Shift

Finally, we also come to the resilient, albeit convoluted, win-con that is Hullbreaker Horror

Hullbreaker Horror and its "ham sandwich."

What to Look Out For

Next up, let's look at two important cards to watch out for. The first is The Reality Chip

The second of these two important cards is Intuition

As for things to be afraid of, our biggest problem comes from the fact that the deck is primarily permanent-dependent. When we're winning the game (and sometimes even when we aren't), everyone notices it. This means that GAAIV is always marked as the threat by the table, even when you really aren't. Be careful about how you talk about your boardstate, highlight opposing threats, and navigate your way through what can, at times, be a deck which tends to overstate its position. This deck can police the table, and most games you will, but sometimes it will look like you're that far ahead when really you aren't. Communicating this properly is our biggest burden.

Wrap Up

For as long as I've been playing cEDH, I've been playing GAAIV. The deck has gone through myriad changes, but this is where I've settled with it in the long run: a flexible control deck that plays more Grand Arbiter Augustin IV