An Introduction To Winota in cEDH
Winota, Joiner of Forces by Magali Villeneuve
Hello, my name is Ian, also known as ComedIan from the Youtube channel ComedIan MTG and I'm the author of the original Winota, Joiner of Forces primer. Winota was the very first Boros deck to make it onto the cEDH Decklist database at a time when Boros was the laughing stock of cEDH.
Why Play Winota In cEDH?
To begin this mission statement, we need to understand Winota herself and the reason the deck looks the way that it does in the modern era.
Winota is our gameplan; what Boros lacks, she makes up for tenfold. Winota is card advantage: she looks deep into our library to pull out Humans. Winota is also mana advantage: she places those Humans onto the battlefield, tapped, attacking, and not to mention indestructible as f**k.
How Do We Get Winota Online?
Simple, we attack with non-Human creatures while our Winota is in play, and we keep attacking once we've cheated Humans into play.
Because we're trying to have our creatures act as both bodies for damage and powerful stax pieces, we need Winota on the field as soon as possible. There is only so long the rest of the table will let you just hang out and build up your resources without turning the corner.
Here's an example of a hand that we would be looking for on a very base level.
Cards like Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer and Dockside Extortionist are non-Humans that will not only trigger Winota, they'll also provide a bit of acceleration for us to get our girl out way before our fourth turn. We're also lucky enough to have Deafening Silence, which is going to help us ensure that some of the more explosive decks we'll be playing against won't be able to combo off underneath our combat force.
So that's a keepable hand, but how do we actually win the game with a Winota deck? Great question, you. There are two main avenues to winning the game with the modern Winota shell:
Win condition #1: Rionya, Fire Dancer + Combat Celebrant
These two on the field create a combo where you will make infinite copies of Combat Celebrant and take infinite combats. A notable factor of this combo is that both of the pieces that are involved are both Humans and therefore can be hit off of Winota triggers.
Rionya triggers at the beginning of combat and you target Combat Celebrant with her ability. You move to combat and swing with the token copy of Combat Celebrant (make sure not to swing with the real Celebrant as that puts it in danger for basically no reason). The token will have an exert trigger which you will choose to use. This will untap your other creatures and create another combat step after this one. You move to damage and then combat step #2. Rionya triggers targeting Celebrant...you get the picture.
Win condition #2: Punch them to death.
Yup, that's it. You swing in like a good ol' fashion game of Magic: The Gathering just like your grandpappy used to play.
How do we avoid dying along the way? How do we stop our opponents from winning while we beat them to a pulp?
Another great question from you. The answer might look pretty simple, but it ends up being a lot more complicated once you start looking closer: STAX.
What is Stax?
Stax (shorthand for an old deck known as T$4KS, short for The $4,000 Solution) is a term that refers to playing permanent-based disruption. While those silly ol' blue players can brag about their counterspells, we're playing creatures, artifacts, and enchantments that are counterspells of their own. A perfect example is here, one of the best stax creatures ever printed:
As we can see, not only is this beautiful bird (not really a bird) a flying enabler for triggering Winota, but she's also a "Rule of Law Effect" that makes our opponents' lands come in tapped. For the uninitiated, a Rule of Law effect is card that mimics Rule of Law.
So we can see here with Archon how our creatures are serving a dual purpose. They not only advance our gameplan by providing us combat damage and triggering Winota to pull even more creatures onto the battlefield, they also have a profound impact on the amount of game actions that our opponents can take.
The Best Stax Pieces Right Now
When piloting this deck, here are the main pieces I'd be looking to get on the battlefield.
Magus of the Moon is super disruptive to all of the four-color manabases in the modern cEDH era. It can definitely create scenarios when flipped off of Winota that completely warp the game. Keeping that in mind, you should make sure to at least fetch one basic Plains in advance so as to not lock yourself out of white mana.
Artifact ramp in cEDH is absolutely crucial, and Dauntless Dismantler is an asymmetrical way to shut it all down. Being able to either buy yourself several turns of tempo or blow up all the rocks of a certain mana value ends up warping any game you play this in.
Tutoring is everything in a singleton format, and Aven Mindcensor's ability to disrupt it is key to impeding your opponents' progress.
Sanctum Prelate is an insane card that can shut off entire decks. Its wording means that you don't have to name the number until it has actually resolved, which means you can easily catch your opponents off-guard. I almost always name the number two as it is one of our only ways of preventing the disastrous Cyclonic Rift.
These two anti-artifact cards are the newest additions to the deck and are very much there to battle against the current meta. We lost the ability to play effects like Thalia, Heretic Cathar and needed a strong replacement. Make sure to time these correctly and not lock yourself out of the game, too.
Drannith Magistrate is one of the most powerful hatebears ever printed for cEDH, and it's a Human as well. Drannith locks commanders in the command zone, shuts off casting from the grave and exile, and so much more.
Rule of Law effects are some of the best disruption in the format, bar none. Winota breaks parity on these effects, too, which is one of the main sources of strength in the deck. Her ability has nothing to do with casting spells, so you can dump dozens of Humans into play and go into the second main phase without casting a single card.
Weird but Powerful Cards That Work in Winota
Some notable mentions are:
You can always play Slicer, Hired Muscle in the three-mana mode, and boy, does it put in work. The turn you play it it is a hasty Winota trigger that, if it connects, can be passed around the table threatening 21 damage for only a single turn!
You'll almost always want to use Touch the Spirit Realm's Channel ability as it allows an uncounterable way to remove tough pieces, like Drannith Magistrate, that lock us out of our commander. Being a temporary effect, it also means our opponents are still forced to play through it when it returns.
She might not look like it, but Lena, Selfless Champion is one of the best hits in the entire deck. The Soldiers it makes aren't Humans, and if the board doesn't get wiped, this card should guarantee you a win the turn after you get it into play.
Ephemerate is better than a lot of alternative ways to give Winota or another key creature protection. While Winota is the obvious choice, Ephemerate also has a lot of upside with any of enter-the-battlefield abilities present in the deck.
Getting Started
Back to that conversation about opening hands: don't be afraid to mulligan down to five or even as few as four cards to find what you need. This is what should we be looking for as we venture forth with the deck:
Winota/Stax Protection
Not only having a stax piece in hand, but also having pieces to protect them is more important than ever in a world filled with Orcish Bowmasters. Having acceleration into our plan is great, but if we can also have protection for it with cards like Mother of Runes, Giver of Runes, Alseid of Life's Bounty, Benevolent Bodyguard, and Cliffside Rescuer to save you against our opponents' early win attempts.
Winota Acceleration
We need to go fast to keep up in this broken format. Look for any of the following pieces for consistent mana:
And for more explosive mana look at:
Just be careful when it comes to more temporary mana sources, because, if relied upon, it can mean a single piece of interaction takes us out of the game. I've seen too many folks keep two-land hands with a Mana Vault, and then never recover after Winota, Joiner of Forces gets removed for the first time.
Good Example Hands
Turn-one non-Human into a turn-two Winota with Esper Sentinel for card advantage and plenty of follow-up.
A turn-one non-Human enabler for Winota followed by a turn-two stax piece that stops our opponents but won't impede us. A turn-three Winota is also quite nice.
Is this hand slow? Yes! Is it filled with some of the most back-breaking stax in the format? Also yes! We can still curve out into our gameplan and, boy oh boy, those stax pieces are not messing around.
Trap Hands (Avoid These!)
Notice the distinct lack of non-Human sources; additionally, our Stony Silence shuts off the majority of our mana if we get it out early.
Early non-Human but one land and relying on either Mana Vault or Ragavan Treasures to even play after turn two is sketchy, especially if we miss on land.
A lot of ramp, but without our second color, it's a trap!
The History of Winota, Joiner of Forces
Thank you for taking this journey with me into the world of Winota, Joiner of Forces in cEDH. Before we wrap up, I'll drop this little history lesson of Winota and where she is right now. Winona has gone through many different lifecycles in cEDH. Her introduction as a quirky but off-beat cEDH commander made her spring on to the scene but without many folks taking her too seriously at the start. Then, due to WOTC printing several haymakers, like Blade Historian and Rick, Steadfast Leader, she quickly became a force to be reckoned with. Heck, at one point several prolific community figures described Winota as an S-Tier archetype. Finally, there was the fall from grace. Winota stood as a titan of cEDH hovering above the heads of her two-color peers, but people began to catch a notion "well, if Winota never hits the field, she really isn't a problem". This notion spread like wildfire, and now here we are in the year 2024 with Winota sporting one of the lowest conversion rates of 2023 (4.12% at time of writing).
Winota in 2024
This deck is one of my truest loves in the format, and, despite her being in a tough spot right now, I refuse to give up on trying to make it ready to take on this wild format in the year 2024.
It's going to take some time and innovation, but at the end of the day, there is no cEDH deck like Winota. Turning dorky little dudes sideways and summoning an army of Humans is always going to lead to a wacky and powerful time. I am hoping as the meta shifts and new cards are printed we keep getting more juice (like in Caverns of Ixalan) that gives this amazing deck more tools.
Here is my primer list, it's very fresh as I recently took it to the SCG Cincinnati cEDH 5k:
Winota: Snowball Stax by ComedIan
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