We didn't plan to have a Jodah Day here at EDHREC, it just kind of happened that way.

You probably noticed not one, but two other Jodah-related articles today, and those other Jodahrticles are excellent write-ups that take Jodah seriously and aren't a big goof. We could not go three-for-three on that front, unfortunately.

If you're a Jodahmaniac, you're eating good today. Consider the articles by Julia and Owain to be a dual main course (if there's two main courses, there is no main course - that's a reference maybe three of you will get), and this article is the dessert that sounded good when you ordered it, but now that it's on the table you're wondering why you make these masochistic dining decisions.

This is a Jodah deck that I cannot in good conscience recommend for you to play against friends/opponents who haven't watched the late 90s television hit The Pretender. 

Jodah, the Pretender

Jodah, the Pretender

You may have heard of Jodah, the UnifierJodah, the Unifier. He's the 17th-most popular commander across the entirety of EDHREC, he's credited with more than 30,000 decks, and he's second only to The Ur-Dragon as the most popular five-color commander. If you head over to the "Legends Matter" theme page, you'll see Jodah comfortably at No. 1, with around twice the number of decks with that theme tag as the next highest, Ezio Auditore da FirenzeEzio Auditore da Firenze.

But the Jodah of this deck isn't really that Jodah. Today, we're pronouncing "Jodah" as "Jarod."

What is The Pretender?

The Pretender was a show that ran from 1996 to 2000. There were a couple of made-for-TV movies which extended the continuity. Basically, there was a guy named Jarod who was classified as a "Pretender," a kind of genius who could almost instantly learn everything about any profession.

"Are you a doctor?" the old woman asks. "I am today," answered Jarod.

When Jarod was a kid, he was stolen away by a shadowy organization called "The Centre" (yes, with the British English spelling for some reason, despite being based in Delaware), but he escaped, and loped around the country spending every episode in a new job.

It was very dumb. I loved it very much.

At this point you may be wondering why, if I wanted to stay on-theme, I didn't build this deck around Mairsil, the PretenderMairsil, the Pretender. It's got "Pretender" right there in the name. I don't have what some might call a good explanation for that, but rather a vibes-based one. Jarod was a good guy, and Mairsil is not a good guy. Jodah, for the most part, is a good guy. End of rebuttal.

If anything, Mairsil is a Mr. Lyle.

This is Mr. Lyle. Look how evil he is.

Key Cards for Jodah, the Pretender

Jarod was able to assume the role of any profession. Jodah, with the help of 29 Background enchantments, can do the same. Sometimes multiple times in a turn.

Backgrounds are legendary, and Jodah says that when we cast a legendary spell, we pseudo-cascade into another one of lesser mana value. So if each of our turns is an episode of the TV show, we might see Jodah become an Agent of the Iron Throne to save an innocent person, then next episode see him become a Guild Artisan to save an innocent person. Jarod saved a lot of innocent people, it was kind of his thing.

That other ability of Jodah's, the legendary creature buff, isn't quite as relevant. Jarod on the show wasn't exactly known to assist other Pretenders. He was more of a lone wolf, if you will.

The other thing Jarod was really good at was using tools. He'd be able to pick up a welder, or a guitar, or the controls of a backhoe, and just go ham like he'd been doing it his whole life. So as you'll see, we've got an assortment of legendary tools for Jodah to use. Most of them are good.

Since Jarod was such a rascally chameleon, we want to somehow exemplify that in our card choices. At the same time, you might be wondering how we make use of the Backgrounds that require a certain creature type to really function. To solve both problems, we've got some changeling chicanery.

In the TV show, Jarod didn't get his ability to blend in via the influence of a weird, amorphous blue blob with a face, but maybe it happened off-screen.

One other recurring bit in The Pretender was Jarod's fascination with "common" artifacts of the modern era. Remember, Jarod grew up in The Centre, isolated from the outside world. So, throughout the course of the show, he'd become enamored with stuff like ice cream and Silly Putty. Listen, it worked in the show, okay?

To represent that, we've got a few items that we as Commander players take for granted, but someone who was locked in a Commanderless, fringe-science, illegal holding facility might find them just delightful.

How Does Jodah, the Pretender Escape The Centre?

Technically, if we want to stay true to canon, we have to win games by creating a big explosion we're not sure if Jarod/Jodah survives, since that's how the main series ends. Then there were the movies after that, reliant on the fact that yes, he did survive, but I mean who's got time to watch a bunch of movies?

In a Commander game of Magic: The Gathering, Jarod would probably win via some convoluted combo only he could recognize and assemble, but I'm not a Pretender. I'm just a guy. A guy with a dream, and an overactive sense of nostalgia for the late 90s.

Jodah will win some games via attacking with all his tools. Surprisingly, in goldfishing this list on Archidekt, it wasn't that bad. It actually, you know, functioned. I set out to make a deck firmly in the Bracket 1 territory, but dare I say it might actually be able to hang with Bracket 2 adversaries?

There's a reason why Jodah, the Unifier is so popular. That reason is this: the card is nuts. I can cram 29 Backgrounds into a list, some of which straight-up don't do a damn thing on their own, and the deck still works, kinda. That's how good Jodah is.

Sure, most deck techs you read on EDHREC probably don't include a "you know, this deck is actually not terrible" passage, but there's a reason I don't write that many deck techs.

The Deck List

Conclusion

Thank you for allowing me to indulge in this walk back into the 90s. If you're a Magic player of a certain age, it's likely you remember The Pretender. And, you probably remember it being a lot better than it actually was.

I'd love to hear a few things from you, in the comments: 1) do you play Bracket 1? and 2) do you want to read more Bracket 1 deck techs?

Let me know; I'm, as Dr. William Raines used to say, all ears.