Magda, Brazen OutlawMagda, Brazen Outlaw | by Slawomir Maniak

Do you enjoy playing typal decks, going all-out on a single creature type and pushing it to its limits? Do you miss playing with sideboards, wishing you could slot in silver bullets to take down any and every matchup that comes your way? Do you despise the color blue and everything it stands for?

Well, if you answered yes to some or all of those questions, then may I introduce to you Magda, Brazen OutlawMagda, Brazen Outlaw - cEDH's premier typal commander.

What Does Magda, Brazen OutlawMagda, Brazen Outlaw Do?

For , Magda is a legendary 2/1 Dwarf Berserker with one static, one triggered, and one activated ability. They are:

• Other Dwarves you control get +1/+0.
• Whenever a Dwarf you control becomes tapped, create a Treasure token.
• Sacrifice five Treasures: Search your library for an artifact or Dragon card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle.

Together, these three abilities present a threatening package. First, assemble an army of Dwarves - they'll get a significant boost in power, making even the most minuscule attacker into something opponents will think twice about blocking (noone wants to lose an Esper SentinelEsper Sentinel while blocking a Dwarven ArmorerDwarven Armorer).

Second, swing in with those Dwarves to create a stockpile of Treasures. Third, when the time is right, trade those Treasures for some game winning pieces. All this for just tucked away in the command zone.

Key Cards for Magda, Brazen OutlawMagda, Brazen Outlaw

Dwarves

Dwarves in this deck can be sorted largely into three buckets:

1. Dwarves that have no function other than being Dwarves (Dwarven TraderDwarven Trader is literally just a 1/1 for , for example).
2. Dwarves that have some function - but not much - beyond being Dwarves (Bloodfire DwarfBloodfire Dwarf can clear a board of small creatures when the time is right).
3. Dwarves that are also artifacts (meaning that they can be found off of Magda's activated ability and, importantly, be untapped via Clock of OmensClock of Omens).

Zooming out, these three classes of Dwarf all ultimately serve the same role: make a bunch of Treasure by being tapped.

Treasure Support

Next up, cards that help make more Treasure per Magda trigger. In this deck, more is always better, and these cards excel at "more." XornXorn doubles Treasure production, since its replacement effect applies to each Magda trigger individually, making two Treasure tokens whenever a Dwarf you control becomes tapped.

Knuckles makes an extra Treasure each combat while also serving as a potential win condition, though you'll rarely need it.

Roaming Throne is both an artifact that is a Dwarf while in play as well as a trigger doubler for all your Dwarves, thus also doubling Treasure production.

Silver Bullets

Lastly, the artifacts - both cheap and expensive - which Magda can tactfully search up across the course of the game to deal with any and every threat that comes its way.

Sure, this deck has its fair share of stack interaction a la PyroblastPyroblast and the like, but Portal to PhyrexiaPortal to Phyrexia is a much more exciting card.

How Does Magda, Brazen OutlawMagda, Brazen Outlaw Win?

Clock of OmensClock of Omens

Magda is a toolbox deck that can close out the game a bunch of different ways depending on exactly which artifacts and Dragons the deck runs, but the core to all of this is Clock of OmensClock of Omens.

For , this artifact brings with it the crucial activated ability "Tap two untapped artifacts you control: Untap target artifact."

In this deck, this ability is immediately abusable if you control Magda, Clock of Omens, and any artifact Dwarf. Here's how:

• Tap Clock of Omens and the artifact Dwarf to activate Clock of Omens, targeting the artifact Dwarf. This will result in a Magda trigger being put onto the stack, as the artifact Dwarf became tapped. Additionally, once the ability of Clock of Omens has resolved, your artifact Dwarf will also be untapped.
• Tap your untapped Treasure token and the newly-untapped artifact Dwarf to activate Clock of Omens, again targeting the Dwarf. Just as before, this will result in the creation of a new Treasure token, plus the untapping of the artifact Dwarf.
• Repeat this process an arbitrarily large number of times. Once the loop is complete, you'll have an arbitrarily large number of tapped Treasure tokens, one untapped Treasure token, and an untapped artifact Dwarf.
• From here, sacrifice Treasure tokens in batches of five to piece together whatever combo best suits the current board state.
  • For example, tutoring up Roaming ThroneRoaming Throne, having it name Dwarf, then restarting the Treasure-production loop will result in infinite untapped treasures, as each instance of making one Treasure is now doubled. Since this provides access to infinite mana (as the untapped Treasure tokens can be sacrificed to provide , this opens up mana-intensive combo lines such as the three-card combo Legion ExtruderLegion Extruder, Sculpting SteelSculpting Steel, and Barkform HarvesterBarkform Harvester. Use Sculpting Steel to copy Legion Extruder, have the real Legion Extruder sacrifice the copy to make a Golem, use Barkform Harvester to put Sculpting Steel on the bottom of your library, then use Magda to search for Sculpting Steel to put it into play (as a copy of Legion Extruder), rinse and repeat. Each time Legion Extruder (or a copy of it) enters the battlefield, you'll deal two damage to an opponent.

Magda, Brazen Outlaw cEDH Deck List

Wrap Up

That wraps up Magda! No Rhystic StudyRhystic Study, no SilenceSilence, no Ad NauseamAd Nauseam - just a pile of Dwarves, Treasure tokens, and one really broken Clock.

It may not seem like much at first, but this deck has taken down enough tournaments to more than prove itself.