Sakashima the Impostor: Deckbuilding Exercise

Uncategorized 4 Minutes

This is my first post of Building around a random Commander from EDHREC, and I got Sakashima the Impostor.

https://edhrec.com/commanders/sakashima-the-impostor

https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=74509

The Card reads as Follows:

  • Sakashima the Impostor
  • 2UU
  • Legendary Creature – Human Rogue
  • As Sakashima the Impostor comes into Play, You may choose a creature in play. If you do, Sakashima comes into play as a copy of that creature, Except its name is still Sakashima the Impostor, it’s still legendary, and ir gains “2UU: Return Sakashima ghe Impostor to its owner’s hand at emd of turn.”
  • 3/1

Deck

Color identity: U

Tribes:

  • Human
  • Zombie
  • Any (due to copy ability)

Themes:

  • Copy Everything
  • Control
  • ETB
  • Mill?
  • Combo
  • ???

CEdh Sakashima without using other lists

  • 12 cards of Ramp
    1. Chrome Mox
    2. Jeweled Lotus
    3. Lion’s Eye Diamond
    4. Lotus Petal
    5. Mana Crypt
    6. Mox Amber
    7. Mox Diamond
    8. Sol Ring
    9. Mana Vault
    10. Basalt Monolith
    11. Thought Vessel
    12. Mind Stone
  • 10 cards of Target removal
    1. Cyclonic Rift
    2. Counterspell
    3. Force of Will
    4. Force of Negation
    5. Hullbreaker Horror
    6. Pact of Negation
    7. Arcane Denial
    8. Fierce Guardianship
    9. Gilded Drake
    10. Pongify
    11. Rapid Hybridization
    12. Flusterstorm
    13. Brazen Borrower // Petty Theft
    14. Mana Drain
  • 4 Mass Removal
    1. Cyclonic Rift
    2. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
  • 10 Card Advantage
    1. Rhystic Study
    2. Mystic Remora
    3. Narset, Parter of Veils
    4. Jace, the Mind Sculptor
    5. Windfall
    6. Braingeyser
    7. Sensei Divining Top
    8. Blue Sun’s Zenith
    9. Timetwister
    10. Sphinx of Enlightenment
  • 35 Land
    1. Academy Ruins
    2. Ancient Tomb
    3. Boseiju, Who Shelters All
    4. Crawling Barrens
    5. Glasspool Shore // Glasspool Mimic
    6. Halimar Depths
    7. Homeward Path
    8. Jwari Ruins // Jwari Distruption
    9. Mirrorpool
    10. Urza’s Saga
  • Other synergies
    1. High Tide
    2. Omniscience
    3. Snapcaster Mage
    4. Mystical Tutor
    5. Leyline of Anticipation
    6. Flash
    7. Great Whale
    8. Walking Ballista
    9. Time Warp
    10. Phyrexian Metamorph
    11. Tezzeret the Seeker
    12. Archaeomancer
    13. Lier, Disciple of the Drowned
    14. Codex Shredder
    15. Thassa’s Oracle
    16. Spellskite
    17. Rings of Brighthearth
    18. Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
    19. True-Name Nemesis
    20. Vendilion Clique
    21. Temporal Manipulation
    22. Staff of Domination
    23. Dramatic Reversal
    24. Laboratory Maniac
    25. Capture of Jingzhou
    26. Isochron Scepter
    27. Palinchron

And thats 100 Cards. Now I should probably check a bit how well would all these work together and see why cards doesnt work together, but instead I’m gonna hit this to Moxfield and then comapre to CEdh list other people have worked at to see what did I miss.

Well before I start going further, I can confess that I do not have lot of experience with CEdh and I know this deck lacks focus, ATM this deck tries to Control until he wins be Lab Maniac/Thassa’s Oracle or with Inf Mana removes players with Breingeyser or Blue Sun’s Zenith.

https://www.moxfield.com/decks/8SK2w1Wu7EqmULTE6msz6A

Now then Checking some stats from EDHrec, there is only 150 decks with Sakashima as Commander, which takes him to rank #805 (as I’m writing this)

From top Combos I didn’t realize to include Deadeye Navigator, that allows easier infinite mana, I also didnt include Peregrine Drake only the 2 ‘big brothers’

Swan Song I also left out that would be good addition to combo pieces, God-Eternal Kefnet seems to also combo for infinite turns so that would be good addition. Memnarch a 1 card that wins games if you have inf mana should also be included in deck. Narset’s Reversal seems quite synergetic with other cards in this deck

So lets see after looking at these lista I’d like to include:

  • Swan Song
  • Narset’s Reversal
  • God-Eternal Kefnet
  • Dead-Eye Navigator
  • Peregrine Drake
  • Spark Double
  • Memnarch
  • Grim Monolith
  • Aetherflux Reservoir

And for better manabase add

  • Crucible of Worlds
  • Misty Rainforest
  • Polluted Delta
  • Seat of the Synod
  • Mystic Sanctuary
  • Vesuva
  • Tolaria West
  • Strip mine
  • Scalding Tarn
  • Flooded Strand
  • Wasteland

So to remove 10 nonland cards and 10 Islands:

  1. Flash
  2. Omniscience
  3. Mind stone
  4. Vendilion Clique
  5. Flusterstorm
  6. Timetwister (Shuffling Graveyard to Deck is not something we actually want)
  7. True-Name Nemesis
  8. Brazen Borrower // Petty Theft
  9. Laboratory Maniac
  10. Thassa’s Oracle

So these changes leave out the possibility of winning with Lab Maniac or Thassa’s Oracle and put’s more focus on winning with unlimited turns/mana/draw

Our comboes are

Inf mana

  • Dead-Eye Navigator + Peregrine Drake + Min 3 lands
  • Dead-Eye Navigator + Palinchron + Min 3 lands
  • Dead-Eye Navigator + Great Whale + Min 3 lands
  • Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal + Min 3 mana from artifacts
  • Palinchron + High Tide
  • Hullbreaker Horror + Mana Crypt + Lotus Petal/Jeweled Lotus/Lion’s Eye Diamond/Sol Ring/Mana Vault/Basalt Monolith/Thought Vessel/Grim Monolith
  • Hullbreaker Horror + Lotus Petal + Sol Ring/Mana Vault/Basalt Monolith/Grim Monolith
  • Hullbreaker Horror + Mox Amber + Mana Crypt/Lotus Petal/Jeweled Lotus/Lion’s Eye Diamond/Sol Ring/Basalt Monolith/Grim Monolith + Legendary Creature
  • Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brightheart

Inf turns

  • Jace, the Mind Sculptor + God-Eternal Kefnet + Time Warp/Capture of Jingzhou/Temporal Manipulation
  • Archaeomancer + Deadeye Navigator + Time Warp/Capture of Jingzhou/Temporal Manipulation
  • Isochron Scepter + Narset’s Reversal + Time Warp/Temporal Manipulation/Capture of Jingzhou
  • Hullbreaker Horror + Archaeomancer + Time Warp/Temporal Manipulation/Capture of Jingzhou

Inf Tokens

  • Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal + Swan Song + Phyrexian Metamorph

Inf Damage

  • Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal + Swan Song +  Phyrexian Metamorph + Aetherflux Reservoir
  • Scepter + Dramatic Reversal + Aetherflux Reservoir

Mana dumps that win the game if Inf Mana

  • Walking Ballista
  • Staff of Domination
  • Memnarch
  • Braingeyser (Need to play 1/opponent)
  • Blue Sun’s Zenith

So to summirize, combo pieces are

  1. Walking Ballista
  2. Staff of Domination
  3. Memnarch
  4. Braingeyser
  5. Blue Sun’s Zenith
  6. Isochron Scepter
  7. Dramatic Reversal
  8. Swan Song
  9. Phyrexian Metamorph
  10. Aetherflux Reservoir
  11. Narset’s Reversal
  12. Capture of Jingzhou
  13. Temporal Manipulation
  14. Time Warp
  15. Deadeye Navigator
  16. Archaeomancer
  17. Jace, the Mind Sculptor
  18. God-Eternal Kefnet
  19. Great Whale
  20. Palinchron
  21. Peregrine Drake
  22. Hullbreaker Horror
  23. Mana Crypt
  24. Lotus Petal
  25. Mox Amber
  26. Grim Monolith
  27. Jeweled Lotus
  28. Lion’s Eye Diamond
  29. Rings of Brighthearth

So cards not used in Combos are

  • Crucible of Worlds
  • Spark Double
  • Snapcaster Mage
  • Mystical Tutor
  • Leyline of Anticipation
  • Spellskite
  • Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
  • Lier, Disciple of the Drowned
  • Codex Shredder
  • Sensei Divining Top
  • Sphinx of Enlightenment
  • Pact of Negation
  • Arcane Denial
  • Fierce Guardianship
  • Gilded Drake
  • Pongify
  • Rapid Hybridization
  • Mana Drain
  • Mox Diamond

So to finetune this deck, I’d drop out

Spark Double for Mercurial Pretender which works as another way to get infinite if you have one of the Great Whale/Palinchron/Peregrine Drake

I’ll also change Rapid Hybridization for Snap as it can go infinite with Archaeomancer and High Tide

Another small change that I’d do is to change Leyline of Anticipation to Vedalken Orrery as this deck has better support to Artifacts than Enchantments, while playong both wouls give more redundanxy to cast Commander as Instant and return back each turn, I don’t know what else I would cut, and if that would make so big difference.

I’d still like to add Clever Impersonator, as it can double as another Isochron Scepter but I don’t know what else would I cut, so I think I’d call this deck ready until it has some playtesting done.

https://www.moxfield.com/decks/_gWZWETUtUO-YwcJlEc-Pw here’s a link to Final deck list

So that would be this blogs first CEdh deck, I’ll next brew a casual budjet version of Sakashima.

I put this deck also to Tapped Out to get some stats, and according to it, the average manacost on this deck is 2.88

On last thought I really think Lion’s Eye Diamond is wasted in this deck, in theory it works as extra card to go inf mana with Hullbreaker Horror, but Ornithopter could do that just as well. Probably would change it out but for now the deck is good as is.

Unknown's avatar

Published by Zerdan

A gamer, a father and a finn.

Published

Leave a comment