Taii Wakeen, Perfect Shot | Budget Deck Tech
Taii Wakeen, Perfect Shot | Illustrated by David Auden Nash
Electrickery | Illustrated by Greg Staples
Hello, everyone! For this week's deck tech, I wanted to build around Taii Wakeen, Perfect Shot. In my initial fun ranking video for Outlaws of Thunder Juncion, I put them in the kinda fun tier, which I now see was a mistake. There are quite a few effects that can give your opponents cheap creatures that are easy to blow up to draw into one of our three infinite combos. That's right, this is a Boros combo deck!
The idea for this deck came from two fellow authors, Jake FitzSimons and Sam Black, who do write-ups on cEDH. Jake posted about the deck on X and I was immediately interested, while Sam wrote a cEDH deck tech on Taii Wakeen which solidified my resolve to build this commander, so let's jump in and see how powerful this sleeper Boros commander is!
One-Toughness Creatures
Let's kick things off with the cheap creatures we don't mind blowing up for value. In recent years, white has received several lower-toughness creatures that provide card draw or ramp. For example, Spirited Companion, Inspiring Overseer, and Priest of Ancient Lore all draw us a card, vut in this deck, they actually draw us two cards: one when they enter and one when we deal exactly one damage to them. Plus, Loyal Warhound will ramp us, and then we can ping it to draw a card.
Taii's ability doesn't say the creature has to die to draw the card, just that we deal damage equal to its toughness, and do you know what creatures have one toughness and are indestructible? If you guessed Brash Taunter and Stuffy Doll, you'd be correct. While these creatures do cost five mana, they're still invaluable additions to the deck, providing card draw and a win condition.
And because we destroy our creatures, I wanted to add ways to recur them. This is where Sun Titan and Sevinne's Reclamation come in. Sun Titan is a great repeatable reanimation effect, while Sevinne's Reclamation lets us get up to three cards back into play. You may want to add more recursion, but I was pretty happy with these two.
All the Tokens
Tokens are a great target for card draw, and Boros has no issues making a bunch of 1/1 tokens. There's even an infinite combo revolving around making 1/1s in the deck, which we will get into shortly. As for the token-generators, we have cards like Mad Ratter, Assemble the Legion, and Zurzoth, Chaos Rider. My personal favorite is Hoofprints of the Stag, letting us generate an army of 4/4 Elemental tokens. The one token-generator I'm still on the fence about is Young Pyromancer. It can make quite a few 1/1s, but only having one toughness might make it too fragile to be worth the inclusion.
Here Ya Go!
I have this next set of cards from looking at the cEDH lists. Honestly, I would have missed out on this theme altogether, but by giving your opponents tokens, you can turn that board disadvantage into card advantage for yourself. Even on a budget, there's no shortage of effects we can include, such as Genesis Chamber, Eiganjo Uprising, and Varchild's War-Riders. One card I wanted to add but couldn't fit into the budget was Forbidden Orchard. If you can squeeze an extra seven dollars, I'd spring for this upgrade.
The Two-Card Combos
Next, let's talk about the combos in the deck. In total, I managed to fit three different infinite combos in this list. First are the two-card combos thanks to Zirda, the Dawnwaker, and Basalt Monolith for infinite mana. Then there's Dualcaster Mage and Twinflame for infinite creatures, ETBs, and Magecraft triggers. I don't have any Magecraft cards in the deck, but still wanted to point this out.
Executing these combos is also pretty easy. For infinite mana, all you need is Zirda and Monolith in play. Tap Monolith for three mana and then untap it for one mana thanks to Zirda's ability, netting you two colorless mana each time. For infinite Dualcaster Mages, cast Twinflame, targeting one of your creatures, then flash in Dualcaster Mage, targeting the Twinflame. With the new copy of Twinflame on the stack, target Dualcaster Mage, creating a token copy of it. When the copy enters, copy the original Twinflame still on the stack. Now repeat until you can secure victory.
Anyways, how do we win with these combos? Our commander's ability is a mana sink, which can quickly turn even the weakest of burn spells into instant victory. Suddenly Tectonic Hazard, Fiery Confluence, and End the Festivities are winning you the game, and if an infinite army of hasty Dualcaster Mages isn't enough to win, Impact Tremors and Witty Roastmaster will help burn out the rest of the table.
The Three-Card Combo
The final combo requires three cards, but gives you infinite storm, ETBs, LTBs, and 1/1 tokens! The combo is Cloudstone Curio, Angelic Sell-Sword, and Ornithopter. All you need is Cloudstone and Sell-Sword in play. Then cast Ornithopter for free. When Ornithopter enters, it will trigger Sell-Sword, making a token. That token will then trigger Cloudstone, letting you bounce Ornithopter back to your hand. And with infinite 1/1s, you can draw your entire deck to find Impact Tremors and Witty Roastmaster to close out the game. If you have Psychosis Crawler in play, drawing your entire deck may drain the table out.
The Upgrades
Finally, let's talk about the upgrades. While I could suggest something like Dockside Extortionist, I feel that single card takes this deck's power level up too much for my liking. It becomes that in-between cEDH and causal EDH deck, which I don't like personally. Instead, I think you'd be better off adding Illustrious Wanderglyph, the white Tendershoot Dryad, to generate more tokens. Pyrohemia is a cheap way to clear all those pesky 1/1 tokens to draw a million cards. And finally, Cosmic Intervention is a great way to protect you from yourself or others who use normal board wipes.
Taii Wakeen, the Boros Sniper
View on ArchidektBuy this decklist from TCGplayer
View this decklist on Archidekt
Final Thoughts
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this deck either in the comment section below or on Twitter @BathroomMTG. Do you think there are any cards that I missed? Something that should be cut? What are your thoughts on this commander? Anyways, I'll see you nerds in the next one!
