State of the Metagame: A cEDH Tierlist

Read the updated cEDH tier list!

Welcome back, readers! It was a busy weekend for cEDH tournaments, with multiple organizers hosting webcam cEDH tournaments, and the action has no sign of stopping! I will be joining the Playing With Power team in Philidelphia this weekend for a sold-out in-person cEDH event as a competitor! The format remains extremely diverse, and there are a multitude of decks you need to be prepared to face coming into the event. To make that a bit easier, I'm going to break down the tournament metagame I have seen and categorize the decks by tier going into the weekend.

Tier 1 (Great choice!)

Winota, Joiner of Forces

The best stax deck in the format that can quickly end the game with the time bought. Winning via creatures punishes decks that do not mulligan to be able to win or interact with creatures. Even a couple Winota triggers can be enough to start snowballing the game out of control.

Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy

Operates on an axis much like Winota where Kinnan provides mana and card advantage out of the command zone. Slower to get started but blue cards are a nice add, and the massive creatures that can be cheated in via Kinnan's activated ability provide the necessary speed and overwhelming advantage to close games no matter what the condition of the board state.

Kraum, Ludevic's Opus / Tymna the Weaver

The best of the best. No denying the power and consistency of this deck. Can prevent fast kills or grind via the double card advantage engines in the command zone. Need more convincing? Read this by yours truly.

Najeela, the Blade-Blossom

The best "tempo" deck in the format. Able to win via straight attacking given enough time and pivots gameplans well between Ad Nauseam, Underworld Breach, Derevi, and Thassa's Oracle wins.

Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh / Silas Renn, Seeker Adept

The best turbo deck in the format. Fast and resilient. Rograkh represents a lot of mana for cards like Culling the Weak, Springleaf Drum, Diabolic Intent, and Phyrexian Tower. Grixis colors give you the best selection of ritual fast mana and payoffs.

Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder / Thrasios, Triton Hero

Midrange is back! As pods become more interactive, Thrasios decks with red have seen a huge comeback. Thrasios alongside Seedborn Muse has existed in cEDH for a while and remains powerful today. This is the best deck at slowing the game down with asymmetrical hatebears, putting Seedborn Muse into play, then accumulating and overwhelming advantage to close the game.

Dargo, the Shipwrecker / Thrasios, Triton Hero

Much of the same positive offerings as Thrasios/Bruse, but has a faster combo potential thanks to the various combos available via Dargo. Losing white also forces you to forgo some of the midrange tools that the Bruse pairings have access to and, as a result, include combo pieces like Birgi, God of Storytelling and Displacer Kitten in their stead.

Tier 2 (Fine choice if you've done the work)

Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator / Tymna the Weaver

Mulligans powerfully and has mana and card advantage in the command zone to allow discipline mulligans by pod. Unfortunately, the lack of red really hurts here.

Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator / Vial Smasher the Fierce

My call for the best Malcolm deck. Grixis is the best color combination, and having black tutors to find Ad Nauseam or Glint Horn is a nice bonus.

Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator / Tana, the Bloodsower

Green tutors are appealing for allowing the Glint-Horn kill faster. Similar in power to the Grixis version but a little weaker in my opinion.

Tana, the Bloodsower / Tymna the Weaver

The best version of a Tymna the Weaver hatebears deck. This deck has also gained a lot with the shift towards a slower cEDH.

Godo, Bandit Warlord

More resilient than it gets credit for, this deck gains a lot by attempting a combo that doesn't cast many spells and the spells it does cast are creatures. Bakes in a lot of resilience to give this deck more staying power than it appears.

Tivit, Seller of Secrets

Having a one card combo in a deck with black is appealing, gets a solid grind plan by frequently having the biggest creature on the battlefield straight out of the command zone.

Kenrith, the Returned King

Often this deck feels directly worse than Najeela, but the Dockside Extortionist combos it offers to allow wins in spots where Najeela couldn't close and is still powerful in its own right.

Kraum, Ludevic's Opus / Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools

Again this deck suffers from being generally worse than other options for Grixis cards in the command zone. The expensive commanders grind well but make the commander free spells harder to cast.

Armix, Filigree Thrasher / Kraum, Ludevic's Opus

My call for the most slept-on Grixis deck. Slower than Rog/Silas but having a repeatable removal spell in the command zone gets a lot of stock as this metagame slows down.

Thrasios, Triton Hero / Tymna the Weaver

A true fall from grace here. Thrasios and Tymna are both still powerful cards on their own, but the lack of powerful red cards makes this deck less explosive than its peers with access to Dockside and Breach and everything else red has on offer.

Jenson Carthalion, Druid Exile

Somewhat new to the scene, being able to companion Lurrus makes you the best Hermit Druid deck on the block while only pining over the loss of Rhystic Study to give yourself the best companion in the game.

Tier 3 (Outdated, underpowered, or poorly positioned)

Slicer, Hired Muscle

Relatively new to the scene. One of the best decks to win games by using only the combat step with no combos but still often suffers stax issues where you kill 1-2 players and die to the last one.

Krark, the Thumbless / Sakashima of a Thousand Faces

This deck suffers a lot from lack of competent pilots registering it and people learning how the deck works. At the end of the day if you aren't extremely experienced this deck isn't powerful enough to carry games without proficient pilots.

Tayam, Luminous Enigma

Another newcomer to the cEDH scene. This does a good job operating underneath the stax pieces it represents but has no way to win the game quickly in a pinch and can be hard to win before either timing out or an opponent finding their Cyclonic Rift.

Rocco, Cabaretti Caterer

The hype is kind of dying down on this one and while having a creature tutor out of the command zone can still be really powerful, this deck relying on only creatures makes it slower than other options looking to combo with the command zone.

Magda, Brazen Outlaw

Another deck that performed a lot better before people really knew how the deck worked. Now that Magda lacks a brewer's advantage, the deck generally puts up worse performances than Godo and the other mono-red options.

Codie, Vociferous Codex

As is a consistent theme in this category, once people figured out how Codie works the deck could not withstand the test of time. While this deck does enact its gameplan consistently, it's so telegraphed that you will have immense trouble beating savvy tables.

Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker / Jeska, Thrice Reborn

This deck gets an include for being the best of the Jeskai decks and being able to present kills using only the command zone but is generically underpowered and is not consistent enough to earn a higher tier.

Korvold, Fae-Cursed King

Tables have come to respect Dockside Extortionists more and this deck suffers a lot when the table prioritizes minimizing the amount of mana an early Dockside can make.

K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth

This deck only gets an upgrade from D tier because of endorsement from others. This deck neither combos faster than other options nor more resiliently and if even a single player respects the potential for a quick kill K'rrik is going to be shut out of most pods.

Shorikai, Genesis Engine

The best of the Azorius decks and is able to successfully play underneath Humility. Unfortunately, as long as Underworld Breach is legal, that isn't quite good enough to shut down most pods and this deck is going to have issues at the top tables.

Tier 4 (Do not play this)

Every other known or established deck.

I would challenge readers to find any other competitive format that presents over 30 unique decks worth mentioning in a tierlist. Preparing for a cEDH tournament can be daunting, and only some of the most commonly present decks that I have seen in tournaments and in my testing pods are present. None of this accounts for the wild brews that show up to each and every cEDH event.

In fact, I think brewer's advantage has artificially inflated the community's perception of some decks and I intend to leverage that this weekend; I won't be playing any of the decks listed here at Punt City 2 this weekend. Whether I see you there, you are playing locally at your LGS, or you are just trying to stay current with your friends at the kitchen table, I hope this article helps you choose your best choice for the occasion. If I missed any decks, call them out in the comments. Thank you for reading!