Conditions Allow - Zimone, All-Questioning EDH

(Zimone, All-Questioning | Art by Ekaterina Burmak)

Primed for Success

Hello, and welcome back to Conditions Allow, where I take a legendary creature with a drawback and turn it into a strength. I'm continuing my tour of Duskmourn: House of Horror today, this time guided by Zimone, All-Questioning and her loyal companion Primo, the Indivisible.

Unlike most Landfall commanders, Zimone, All-Questioning has a few hoops you need to jump through to make the most of her effect. Rather than making a token whenever a land enters play, she only creates Primo, the Indivisible at your end step and only if you have a prime number of lands in play. Notably, this means you get a 3/3 Primo token the turn you cast Zimone, All-Questioning, assuming you haven't ramped. From there, however, you'll need to carefully manage the number of lands you have in play. Scaling your Primo token to five, seven, and eleven +1/+1 counters lets you threaten a win with Simic Ascendancy, or just overrun your opponents with large creatures.

Prime Real Estate

Simic is not a color pair that struggles with getting lands into play, but Zimone, All-Questioning wants you to hit specific numbers. Jumping from three to five to seven is a vital pattern for this deck to hit. Spells that find two lands help you get there as quickly as possible. This includes all the Cultivate variants and more expensive spells, like Migration Path and Hour of Promise. 

Two of these spells together is also enough to jump from seven to eleven lands, which is the upper limit of what I'm going to aim for in this deck. You can also jump straight from five to eleven with Traverse the Outlands and a land drop for a quick burst of power. Conversely, if you have the time to take a turn or two, Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait is a great way to guarantee you hit two land drops a turn. 

Once you get up to eleven lands, you'll still want a way to make new Primo, the Indivisible tokens. Not only does that basically give Primo vigilance, it lets you take full advantage of Greater Good, and is my primary method of winning with Simic Ascendancy. Luckily, Zimone, All-Questioning doesn't care if you have a prime number of lands in play when they enter. She only checks for that prime number at end of turn, so you can play lands and sacrifice or bounce them to fulfill that condition.

Zuran Orb and Trade Routes are both excellent cards for this, and they both pair well with Crucible of Worlds effects. I'm also including Waterlogged Grove and Cryptic Caves as lands that sacrifice themselves for value. These aren't my main sources of draw, but an extra card or two each turn never hurt.

Drawing Cards

Since I'm already planning on replacing the Primo token every turn, I get to make full use of the cheapest big draw effects available to green. Life's Legacy and Momentous Fall let you see huge chunks of your deck, while Greater Good is a repeatable version of this effect, basically guaranteeing you find the cards you need to win when you need them.

Of course, I'm also including the slightly more expensive Soul's Majesty, Rishkar's Expertise, and Return of the Wildspeaker. Prime Speaker Zegana rounds out these big draw spells while also being another large threat your opponents will have to deal with. This isn't every spell that draws based on a creature's power, but Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait, Trade Routes, and Gush all help to find the first of these and get the cards flowing.

Counting Big

So what are you trying to draw towards? Primarily, a threat or two to back up Primo, the Indivisible. Ascendant Acolyte is a great example, since it immediately scales up to be as large as Primo, then keeps getting bigger. I've also been searching for the perfect deck for Paradox Zone since it was printed, and this might finally be the one. And just in case you need to go really wide, this deck makes great use of One with the Kami. Enchant Zimone, All-Questioning, then every time you replace Primo, the Indivisible, you'll get an army of Spirits.

At the end of the day, though, this is a Voltron deck, so you want to get Primo as big as possible. Branching Evolution and Primal Vigor are staples of +1/+1 counter decks and have quickly been joined by Court of Garenbrig. Bristly Bill, Spine Sower is another perfect addition in this category. Unlike Primal Vigor, these can come down after you've played your creatures and still double their power every turn.

Punching Through

To put all that power to use, you'll need a little bit of evasion. Nylea, God of the Hunt, Garruk's Uprising, and Kodama of the West Tree all ensure these big creatures can't be stopped by a simple chump block. For the rare instances that anyone has a creature as large as yours, Herald of Secret Streams stops blocking altogether. 

Sometimes, though, combat damage can't get the job done. For those times, this deck relies on Simic Ascendancy. It shouldn't be too hard to find, with the number of cards this deck can draw and Muddle the Mixture as a way to search for it directly. Most of the counter-doubling effects in this deck only apply to creatures, but the final level of Innkeeper's Talent also doubles the growth counters placed on Simic Ascendancy. This means making Primo with seven lands in play is enough to win the game on your next turn with Simic Ascendancy and a fully leveled Innkeeper's Talent. 

Add in just enough counter spells to protect Simic Ascendancy and a little bit of removal, and we have this final list.

At first blush, Zimone, All-Questioning seems intriguing but too unwieldy to be effective in Commander. Perhaps unsurprisingly, though, Simic has enough support for lands and +1/+1 counters to make Primo, the Indivisible a persistent and lethal threat. 

But what do you think? How would you build Zimone, All-Questioning? Let me know if I've overlooked any cards or synergies, and thanks for reading!