Back in a Flash! Revisiting Shimmer Zur in cEDH
"Guess who's back, back again?
Zur is back, tell a friend
Guess who's back? Guess who's back?
Guess who's back? Guess who's back?
Guess who's back? Guess who's back?"
-Zur first words upon seeing the 2023 previews
Welcome back readers! This week I want to showcase a project I have been working on for the last couple months since the preview season for Lord of The Rings Tales of Middle-Earth began: Shimmer Zur! A personal favorite of mine, since Zur the Enchanter himself was one of the "boogieman" commanders from when I started playing commander over a decade ago, I have quite a bit of nostalgia for the silly esper commander. So naturally when I got into cEDH for the first time I was stoked to hear that using Zur the Enchanter to search up Necropotence to win on the end step was well within bounds for cEDH power level. However that was short lived as partner commanders and the host of extremely potent commander specific spells that entered the format in the subsequent years slowly power crept Zur out of the format. With the help of some additional redundancy and a little bit of a tune up with modern day cEDH deckbuilding sensibilities, I am excited to say that Zur is back in the saddle! I have been very impressed with the consistency and potency of the deck following the new developments.
What Is Shimmer Zur?
Before we dive into each new card that I believe puts Zur back into the cEDH scene, it is important to understand what made the deck a potent force in cEDH to begin with. Named after Shimmer Myr, Shimmer Zur is a Necropotence through and through. Original builds of Shimmer Zur sought to use the flash ability of Shimmer Myr to win at instant speed on the end step after paying massive amounts of life into Necropotence. After flashing in many mana making artifacts and casting rituals you eventually won with a storm kill with Aetherflux Reservoir. Of course sometimes when under pressure you would pay more modest amounts of life into Necropotence and sculpt a hand that kills via Laboratory Maniac or something similar on your following turn keeping enough interaction in hand to survive the turn. Having access to only one Shimmer Myr effect made it so that if you did not already have the Shimmer Myr in hand, you weren't all that likely to hit even drawing the full 39 cards typically possible in an ideal game of cEDH. By the time Liberator, Urza's Battlethopter was printed to assist with this particular issue, the rest of the cEDH format had powered up enough that Shimmer Zur was still just a little too inconsistent to keep up. Even within the Esper color identity, new commander options like Tivit, Seller of Secrets and Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator with Tymna, the Weaver were considered the optimal options to reach for. That is, until the Lord of The Rings Tales of Middle-Earth preview season began!
New Cards
The following cards are new cards that have come out in the last couple sets that have made a big impact on bringing Shimmer Zur back into the spotlight and are the primary reason for looking to revamp the deck at all.
Borne Upon A Wind
Of course the first card to catch my eye for revisiting Shimmer Zur was Borne Upon a Wind. Simply obtaining another Shimmer Myr wouldn't necessarily be enough to move the needle for me on revisiting the deck, but being able to cast Thassa's Oracle at instant speed without using Scout's Warning to push it through and instead be able to cast all of your mana rocks rituals, tutors and Thassa's Oracle at a cheaper rate than Shimmer Myr or Liberator is definitely worth giving a look. It also allows you to use a potent card like Mystical Tutor to find your "Shimmer" effect which improves the quality of that card in your deck by quite a bit when going for a big Necropotence draw.
Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff
Despite having nothing to do with giving your spells flash, I was almost as excited to revisit Zur due to the preview of Lotho, Corrupt Sheriff as I was because of Borne Upon a Wind! Not having access to Dockside Extortionist really limits the mana production potential of any sans red decks and you feel that the most in Esper decks that are capable of drawing large amounts of cards but can struggle to cast them all. Lotho offers solutions to much of this between being able to trigger him using your own spells on any turn including the turn you play him and opponents naturally triggering him often you end up with your own "Dockside on suspend" in white that offers the mana production sans red decks have desperately searched for.
Skittering Cicada
A card that I was already elbows deep in revisiting Zur when it dropped, another Shimmer Myr effect is certainly welcome. Naturally this spawned the question of just how many Shimmer effects I would be interested in playing now that there were essentially 4 between Shimmer Myr, Liberator, Urza's Battlethopter, Borne Upon a Wind, and Skittering Cicada. In reality my opinion is the answer is at least 5 but either way I am definitely in the market for all four of those cards just to more or less guarantee that my large Necro draws will find one and even build some confidence that more modest Necro draws can find one as well.
New Additions
The following cards are new additions to the deck that were not commonplace in older versions of Shimmer Zur either because they were not printed yet, they weren't considered worth playing, they weren't tried, etc.
Nexus of Fate
In addition to getting some new cards to add to the mix, there are also some updates to the traditional look of Shimmer Zur that I think contribute immensely to the increase in performance I have noticed since picking the deck back up. The most important of which, as I claimed on Twitter while still fairly early in the process, I believe to be Nexus of Fate. When playing with various Grixis decks that include Necropotence, it became very clear how powerful Final Fortune was when drawing large amounts of cards with Necro to the extent it was basically an instant win no matter what the game state was if you could resolve both in the same turn. Applying this idea to Zur and playing the only available Time Walk at instant speed in Esper colors became a no brainer. It can be easy to get discouraged by the 7 mana investment necessary but for Zur that was much less of an issue because that is what Shimmer Myr does best! Being able to play artifacts/colorless spells as if they had flash means all your powerful artifact fast mana can be cast at instant speed, which makes it easy to make large amounts of mana but very hard to actually win the game since even Reservoir kills required specific draws and card sequences. Simply making 7 mana is a much easier task for your large Necro draws and plays out exactly this way in practice.
Mnemonic Betrayal
An example of a card that was legal in the format for a long time before it saw play at all in cEDH "meme" betrayal is a huge pickup for Zur having access to another win condition that is fairly reliable and allows for the generation of quite a bit of mana on average, which is something that Esper struggles with traditionally in cEDH. Worth noting that Borne Upon a Wind applies to these cards as well making this card operate on end step as well.
Brain Freeze
In most current cEDH pods there is at least one player with an Underworld Breach in their deck. Shimmer Zur was already in the market for Lion's Eye Diamond, but the addition of Brain Freeze makes it much easier to pair your Praetor's Grasp with it to put the check mark on games with an Underworld Breach kill without even being in red! Can also double as a way to win the game in a pinch but that is much more of a tall ask without Brain Freeze or Yawgmoth's Will being involved in the mix.
Snapcaster Mage
A card that makes my 60 card grinder heart smile to play with again. This include is primarily to have a way to double up on Dramatic Reversal, which is your best ritual by a lot after dumping all of your mana rocks into play with a Shimmer effect. Snapcaster also has niche interactions with instant speed tutors like Vampiric Tutor, free interaction like Mental Misstep or Pact of Negation, and still mana positive rituals like Cabal Ritual or Culling the Weak.
Out of Time
In a cEDH meta sorely lacking on enough removal right now Out of Time is one of the most underrated cards in the format right now in my opinion and is slowly seeing an uptick in play as more people pick it up. Being both fine to draw and able to be found off of Zur the Enchanter himself this is one of your best tools to fight the hatebear-filled pods prevalent in the format right now.
Touch the Spirit Realm
Boseiju, Who Endures and Otawara, Soaring City have proven how powerful the channel ability is being bother uncounterable and useable underneath various Silence effects, Touch the Spirit Realm adds to the mix allowing you to answer problematic permanents temporarily after a big Necro draw or permanently on the main phase and again can be found off Zur giving it just the right amount of utility for Zur to leverage.
Notable Exclusions
Aetherflux Reservoir
A beloved card by any storm enthusiast of any power level of Commander, but unfortunately is overly clunky and vulnerable to the current interaction of modern day cEDH. With the addition of Borne Upon a Wind the ability to win with only artifacts is no longer necessary and Aetherflux Reservoir can be left behind.
Emergence Zone
An important part of the equation for the instant-speed, end-step Necropotence kill is the ability to draw and play the Shimmer effect that you find which Emergence Zone does not allow. Also Emergence Zone just sucks.
Grasp of Fate
Another sacred cow that I have been asked about a lot. I have searched for every single enchantment that costs 3 mana in my current build of Shimmer Zur and have never missed Grasp of Fate. Out of Time and Touch the Spirit Realm have the removal role covered much more efficiently in their own ways that Grasp can be left behind as well.
Timetwister/Windfall
The "wheel" effects like Timetwister and Windfall are well known for their potency in cEDH and I expected great performances from both of these cards in early attempts to revamp Shimmer Zur, especially alongside Orcish Bowmasters and Notion Thief but the entire package underperformed and was largely a distraction from the primary gameplan of getting Necropotence into play.
The Updated List
Given the sheer number of the deck you see when winning via a large Necropotence draw, it is even more important that each card carries its own weight and after months of trying different configurations, the list I have landed on is here:
https://www.moxfield.com/decks/M1hsuztEiUC-J2kD5VAjpw
Zur the Enchanter a much more consistent one card one condition out of the command zone if you attack with it given the previously mentioned new developments and gives Zur the ability to pivot between playing to its opening hand for a quick win or playing a slower game and utilizing the commander to threaten a win just to follow up with wins out of hand when trying to grind through large amounts of interaction.This flexibility, consistency, and resulting added power has been extremely impressive for me in testing and has caused me to reevaluate Zur as a player in the cEDH metagame. If you have been looking for a new deck to try or were previously a Zur fan and have been itching to take it out for a spin again there has never been a better time than now! Thank you all for reading and let me know how Zur performs for you!
