Brewing Gev, Scaled Scorch in cEDH

Gev, Scaled Scorch, is not just a casual commander powerhouse and the first legendary Lizard lord; he is something much greater, a sleeper cEDH option in the Rakdos landscape. I can hear the reservations. At first, I didn't get it, either; however, thanks to the wise counsel of my good friend Mab and hours of brewing and testing (and, most importantly, winning), I finally understand what Gev seeks to accomplish in cEDH: layered creature combos.

Persist and Gev

First and foremost, we need to understand Gev's textbox. Gev is a legendary Lizard Mercenary at the low, low cost of just a black and a red whose text box says:

• Ward--Pay 2 life.
• Other creatures you control enter with an additional +1/+1 counter on them for each opponent who lost life this turn.
• Whenever you cast a Lizard spell, Gev, Scaled Scorch deals 1 damage to target opponent.

At face value, these lines of text seem fairly innocuous, but they actually lead to some game-winning interactions. Gev's interaction with persist creatures is of particular interest. 

Gev's main appeal is ability to win the game with Murderous Redcap (or another persist creature) and a sacrifice outlet (of which the deck has many: Goblin Bombardment, Blasting Station, Altar of Dementia, etc). As long as opponent has lost life this turn, Gev will make persist creatures re-enter with at least one +1/+1 counter after they die, canceling out the -1/-1 counters that tag along with a persist trigger; this allows the creatures to be infinitely sacrificed. When backed up by the consistency and speed that Rakdos offers, the deck almost always has the ability to close out by the third turn if we identify our windows clearly. 

These combos are all relatively redundant and work similarly; however, there is one function of Gev's persist wins that is worth highlighting, which is its interaction with Lesser Masticore. The power in Masticore is its redundancy to kill the table with Grinding Station, executing a loop to mill out our opponents. So, what does this loop look like?

For those familiar with Grinding Station, it's a crucial combo piece with Underworld Breach in colors outside blue. Since as long as an opponent has taken damage we only need to perform our Breach loop until we find Masticore we can win with a rock other than Lion's Eye Diamond (Mana Vault, Sol Ring, or Crypt will do the trick). It also means we only need enough cards in the graveyard to cast a singular spell with our Breach loop, which is sickeningly efficient.  

All of this sounds great; however, this all exists through the caveat that we need to mark a damage somewhere before we start. Marking damage isn't difficult and often does not need an additional card to support early (think Orcish Bowmasters, baiting an opponent's Fetchland, or even just Mana Confluence and the Talisman cycle). Worst comes to worst, there's always Mount Doom. But what about lines outside of persist? 

Gev cEDH Combos

Trust me that this is one of the most potent flexible pieces in the list. Flamecache Gecko is a two-mana 2/2 that makes a red and a black when it enters as long as an opponent has lost life this turn, plus it has the cute ability to rummage cards for a red and generic whenever we have mana lying around. These features aren't immediately obvious as game-warping, but all of these subtle pieces of text, even including the typeline, create a powerful win condition and role-filler. How are we comboing this card? Flamecache Gecko has powerful interactions with two notable and familiar win pieces in Cloudstone Curio and Chthonian Nightmare. 

The win condition circles back here to Gev's third line of text: "Whenever you cast a Lizard spell Gev deals 1 damage to target opponent." If we infinitely loop the Gecko with Cloudstone Curio, we can infinitely damage our opponents. We can loop the Gecko either with the help of Birgi and a one-mana creature or with Dockside Extortionist. Thanks to Flamecache Gecko's enter-the-battlefield trigger, we can win with a Dockside count of as low as two because we only need to cast the Gecko infinite times and we don't need to go mana-positive. 

Additionally, the rummage ability on Gecko means in the scenario that we can generate infinite mana with Chthonian Nightmare and Dockside or perhaps with Putrid Goblin and Skirk Prospector (a persist loop), we can convert the mana into infinitely filtering our deck into a kill condition. The card-filtering ability of Gecko is not to be underestimated: in midrange grindfests as the game slows down and you go on the back burner, the Gecko could easily show you upwards of 6+ cards.

All of this is great, but say we can't get there with Gev; what else is there to do? 

Normal Rakdos Lines 

As mentioned earlier, we are, of course, a Breach deck, thanks to Grinding Station. No Gev? No problem: just dig up mono-red's trusty old loop of Grinding Station, Underworld Breach, and Lion's Eye Diamond to filter through the library. Eventually you'll hit Praetor's Grasp and, assuming there's a blue player at the table, you can go ahead and steal their Thassa's Oracle. Beyond Breach, we've also got access to Magda, a card that enables Bola's Citadel incredibly easily thanks to the built-in tutor and mana production. Combo that with Sensei's Divining Top and now you have a pretty good impression of Yawgmoth's Bargain. We have one more trick up our sleeves, however...

The Coolest Thing Ever, Actually

Split second states that, as long as a spell with this ability is on the stack, players can't cast spells or activate abilities that aren't mana abilities. Key to Gev are the words "aren't mana abilities," as this enables a secret trick for us to exploit. 

If we control Skirk Prospector, Gev, Murderous Redcap, and an opponent has been damaged, then we can initiate a game-ending sacrifice loop while protected by a split second spell, such as Sudden Shock. How? Because Skirk Prospector is both a sacrifice outlet and a mana ability, meaning we can sneak through split second. This is a supremely powerful exploit, as Rakdos doesn't normally have Silence effects or anything like that.

Now that we have a concrete understanding of winning the game, what other tricks do we use to play the game out? 

Little Guy Syndrome 

Having a cheap commander has its appeals as any Rograkh, Thrasios, or Yuriko player would love to tell you. All of those things that are as neat and powerful there as they are here; accessible Flare of Duplication, Deflecting Swat, and Deadly Rollick is a pretty powerful combination to supplement our lack of blue's true free counterspells. And don't forget Springleaf Drum, Gev's favorite instrument. Gev's cost also makes it useful sacrifice fodder when the situation allows it for effects such as Infernal Plunge, Culling the Weak, Phyrexian Tower, and Diabolic Intent. This isn't Gev's primary function (I mean, he is a combo piece), but being able to have flexibility in decision trees lends to more victories. 

Fighting Through The Field of Dishonor

Despite the continued success of Rog/Si, I still largely believe that the yapping-laden midrange hell meta has not truly dissipated as Blue Farm continues to be the deck to beat (fork found in kitchen, am I right). This means that we need outs when resources are high and windows are awkward. The One Ring is the go-to for decks of our circumstance; we have no cowardly Rhystic Studies or Mystic Remoras to sit behind, after all. Additionally, given our inclusion of Sensei's Divining Top and plenty of top deck tutors, Powerbalance has a really nice home here. Beyond that we're reaching into normal Rakdos territory: Ragavan, Tinybones, etc. Good cards continue to be good.

The Instantaneous Angle

Finally, let's take a look at our windows for winning. Winning at instant speed has become a more and more pressing issue in cEDH as cards like Borne Upon a Wind have been printed. Surprisingly, our little Lizard here does a pretty good job of keeping pace with this new flashy meta (see what I did there?). Emergence Zone is an obvious enabler; the land lets us cast our spells as long as we can spare the mana to crack it. Entomb and Lively Dirge put us in the perfect position to win at instant speed using the likes of Necromancy and Shallow Grave. Gev lines are luckily super live at instant speed due to prominence of painful mana, such as fetches, Talismans, and Mana Vault. This alternative angle to the game perfectly lets us put ourselves behind a Necropotence or The One Ring and wait for an opportunity to call. And of course our friend Powerbalance can allow us to use a well timed Vampiric Tutor to close the game in an instant.  

Closing Thoughts

Putting all of this together Gev proves to be a flexible combo-centric commander. Gev is a neglected option in the format and is the perfect list to captivate a meta not prepared for it. Gev's subtle strengths compound into something unique in the format with tricks and quirks not present across the more standardized cEDH metagame. Gev is the perfect list if you are looking at trying something new and you're not afraid to experiment with something a little funkier. Most importantly you must have a love for a fast and loose game with no fear to pivot when the door slams shut in your face! But what do you think of Gev? And of course my list is below and a collaborative list trying to explore even more of Gev's space is attached here.