Too-Specific Top 10 - "Oops, All Cycling!"
December 8, 2023 by
DougY 
(Jo Grant | Art by Fajareka Setiawan)
100% Trash
Welcome to Too-Specific Top 10, where if there isn’t a category to rank our pet card at the top of, we’ll just make one up! (Did you know that Moonring Mirror is the only historic card that exiles the top card of your library when you draw a card?)
With all of The Doctor/Doctor's Companion combinations, we'll be seeing a ton of ideas coming out of Doctor Who for some time to come. I've mostly tapped my well on those, but there was one more that was right up my alley.
Jo Grant allows for a deck I've been flirting with building for a long time now. Long-time readers will know about my five-color Cycling deck, which is almost entirely made out of cycling cards.
The deck tries to cycle down into a free cycler and a payoff, then lets the glut of cycling cards do the work from there; simply flipping the deck from library to hand to graveyard. With more than half of the cards in the deck being able to cycle, it's pretty good at it, too. With Jo Grant, though, could it be better?
Well, yes and no. Jo Grant does allow you to build a deck out of 100% "Cycling" cards, utilizing legendary/artifact lands alongside legends, artifacts, and sagas. Having Jo in the command zone comes at a price, however: Color restriction. There is a fine array of The Doctor to choose from as a companion, but none of them allow for more than three colors, or the color black at all (since we already have a companion).
Still, we're talking about a deck that, once you get a free cycler, can literally just draw itself. That's gotta be worth something, no? No matter what three-color combination we end up with, there's gotta be some gas that lets us get to 100%.
So, first off, let's take a look at our engines.
Top 10 Non-Black Historic Cards That Care About Cycling But Don't Actually Cycle
Well, that is... a little disappointing. Don't get me wrong, we were always going to be playing Fluctuator, and Gavi, Nest Warden certainly makes the cut if colors allow, but Stabilizer obviously is not going to make it. Abandoned Sarcophagus seems like it might be decent at first glance, until you re-read Jo Grant and remember that your historic cards only have cycling in your hand.
Still, there's got to be more, right?
Top 10 Non-Black, Non-Planeswalker Historic Cards Which Trigger Upon "Cycling" But Don't Actually Cycle
When you get right down to it, cycling is really two game actions bundled into one: Discarding a card to draw a card. So, why not look at cards that care about drawing or discarding instead of just those that trigger on cycling itself?
I begin to see a problem. Sure, there's Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim to count on, but otherwise, there are unfortunately a bunch of planeswalkers that trigger on you drawing a card, but only do so when you hit their ultimate. Not only that, but the ultimates, like ults do, kind of just say "you win the game" on them. No need for cycling shenanigans when Tamiyo just lets you cast spells indefinitely.
So, with that caveat out of the way, we seem to have set our sights on what our best cycling enablers and payoffs are that will now themselves have cycling! Let's take a look.
Criteria: Non-black historic cards which trigger on cycling either directly or indirectly (as in, drawing or discarding), but do not already have cycling. As is tradition, all results are ordered by EDHREC score.
10. Jolrael, Mwonvuli Recluse
(Helms 558 Decks, Rank #1,055; 16,153 Inclusions, 1% of 1,518,498 Decks)
I run Jolrael in my existing Cycling deck, and I can confirm that it puts in work. During your own turn, you only need one cycle to get a Cat, and two for each opponent's turn, with which a free cycler is more than doable. Combine all that with an Overrun of sorts stapled to her, and Jolrael can often be exactly the cycling payoff you need to sit back and mill through cards until you're ready to win the game.
9. Minn, Wily Illusionist
(Helms 4,597 Decks, Rank #190; 13,919 Inclusions, 1% of 1,621,876 Decks)
In similar fashion, Minn, Wily Illusionist provides even more lethal Illusions than Jolrael's Cats, and then tacks on free casts for permanents. We do wish that both of these cards still triggered on every cycle, but given how good they are even with their restrictions, these both seem like no brainers.
8. Toothy, Imaginary Friend
(Partners 2,358 Decks, Rank #397; 18,728 Inclusions, 1% of 1,621,876 Decks)
If you're looking to trigger every single time plus a few, then Toothy, Imaginary Friend can do that. Normally the four mana cost would have me shying away a bit, but with Jo Grant making every historic card cycle, "Partner With" has never been more important. That means that we're looking to love not just Toothy, but Pir too, even if it's just to play one down and cycle the other.
7. The Council of Four
(Helms 2,324 Decks, Rank #401; 18,266 Inclusions, 3% of 640,372 Decks)
Two mana? I'm in. Three mana? Let's go. Four mana? Okay, but only because it draws me another card automagically and probably a whole other hand besides.
Five mana? I'm starting to have serious doubts about whether I'm ever getting this card onto the battlefield. Yes, I know that The Council of Four triggers not just on my shenanigans, but my opponents as well, but it's not like Cycling decks are going to have trouble drawing cards. This goes doubly when we're putting together a brew that wants to be able to cycle 100% of its cards. Sure, that means that we're only going to be able to do one-for-ones instead of having a hand of 30 cards, but when you're drawing your whole deck, who cares?
6. Bag of Holding
(21,534 Inclusions, 1% of 3,291,843 Decks)
One mana to get a hand of 30 cards, however? That seems worth the squeeze. Yes, yes, I'm aware that you still end up paying five mana total when it comes to the activated ability, but getting every card you've cycled back in hand as a payoff seems more than worth it. Tack on a cycling ability in the form of a two-mana loot, and this one seems like it's going to be one of the cards you end up looking for as you madly rip cards off the top and chuck them in the graveyard.
5. Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
(Helms 739 Decks, Rank #927; 33,545 Inclusions, 5% of 737,131 Decks)
All right, so here is where we get to talk about just how dedicated we are to the 100% cycling goal. Here are the free cyclers available in Magic: The Gathering right now.
As you may have noticed, really only one of those cards actually lets you go ham and cycle your whole deck all at once. Fluctuator is close, but you will still have to pay a white pip for every historic card with Jo Grant, and that's going to keep you relegated to cycling a reasonable amount of cards each turn instead of your entire deck. Similarly, Gavi, Nest Warden will give you four free cycles every turn cycle, but not let you flip your whole deck over.
Which brings us to Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind. If you are just going to go a lot, instead of the whole thing, then I think you're going to need a Niv-Mizzet or two to close out the game. Paying a single white mana to cycle is good enough, but getting that and a ping is just nuts. If, on the other hand, you are willing to make your deck only 99% cycling with the inclusion of New Perspectives, then I don't think you actually need Niv-Mizzet. If you can draw your entire deck, then you've already won the game by the inclusion of any two-card combo and some fast mana that will get you mana positive, all of which is very doable with historic cards.
So, the question, when it comes to Niv-Mizzets and cycling is simply: How dedicated to the theme are you?
4. Containment Construct
(34,926 Inclusions, 1% of 3,291,843 Decks)
Containment Construct is god's gift to Cycling decks, and it's no different here. No matter how you brew Jo Grant, you're going to be playing this card. Period.
3. The Locust God
(Helms 5,052 Decks, Rank #158; 42,636 Inclusions, 6% of 737,131 Decks)
Some of you may have been questioning why I feel the way I do about Niv-Mizzets when it comes to closing out the game, but was just fine with various token makers like Jolrael and Minn. The answer? Put simply, tokens can block.
Still, even with that strategic distinction and an easier mana cost, I'm not sure that The Locust God is making the cut in this particular brew. Six mana is taking a whole turn off of cycling, pretty much no matter how you squeeze it, and with our theme (and The Locust God's colors) pretty much disallowing us from the "get all the lands back from the graveyard" spells that can make Cycling decks ramp hard, that's a tall order.
2. Niv-Mizzet, Parun
(Helms 10,399 Decks, Rank #34; 64,396 Inclusions, 9% of 737,131 Decks)
Niv-Mizzet, Parun has earned its mantle as prime Niv-Mizzet for a reason, and that reason... Has nothing to do with this deck. With us not really casting many instants and sorceries, we're more than happy to just go with the normal Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind and save a few color pips, if we even end up doing that.
1. Psychosis Crawler
(90,558 Inclusions, 3% of 3,291,843 Decks)
Where the decision with the various Niv-Mizzets gets a little hard, it all gets a little easier with Psychosis Crawler. With it being easier to cast at less mana and no color pips, this one should be worth the inclusion even if we're already set to draw our whole deck to win the game. Worst case scenario, as with every card in our deck, we'll just cycle it!
Honorable Mentions
There were really only two more historic cycling payoffs that warranted mention, but both of them are newer cards that seem to have been slept on in Cycling decks at large. Currency Converter in a Cycling deck is essentially a one-mana Arcane Signet, creating a Treasure once a turn if you've got your cycling thing going. As for Urza, Powerstone Prodigy, it's less impressive overall, but does feel like it was absolutely made for this deck specifically. With the majority of our cards probably being artifacts due to our historic theme, the amount of Powerstones Urza is going to create is going to be off the charts.
Finally, we're going to need some historic cards that don't care about cycling as well, and I wanted to mention the might of Hadana's Climb for those not already aware. Jo Grant is going to stack a lot of counters all on her own, so if you have her in play you're more or less guaranteed to flip Climb into Winged Temple of Orazca immediately, after yet another obligatory +1/+1 counter. That means that if you have the mana in a late turn, you're likely to play it down, flip it, and immediately tap it for its ability, doubling Jo's power and letting her fly over the top. The likelihood that you knock a player out of the game that turn in surprise fashion is high, to put it mildly.
I glossed over our multitude of choices when it came to Doctor pairings earlier, but now that we're ready to build a deck, let's take a closer look. Of all the options, there are only eight that allow you to play three colors, and of those there's really only two that assist with the historic and/or Cycling themes. Both of those are Simic, so we come to a quick decision of how much we really want to play Jeskai versus Bant.
The big draws for red over green are an extra free cycler in the form Gavi, Nest Warden, the might of Unpredictable Cyclone, and the artifact synergies we'd like to abuse in our historic deck that will most likely be about half artifacts. While those are all fine reasons to be going this path, I'm not sure that all of them together add up to having a commander that doesn't care about our theme in the command zone. If we did go that route, it would undeniably be The Twelfth Doctor we'd be using to double up on our artifact spells as a means of ramp and doubling payoffs, but compared to the Simic options, it kind of just feels bad.
So with that in mind, let's take a look at the Bant brew.
As with most Cycling decks, the deck gets off the line a bit sluggishly, since a good portion of our lands come into play tapped. This is somewhat made up for by the presence of four zero-mana rocks, six one-mana rocks, and four two-mana rocks, but don't be surprised if you're taking some early hits in the game before you get some defenses up and start cycling. The other thing to watch out for, as is tradition with Bant decks, is the deck spinning its wheels. There's no doubt that you can draw and affect the whole table with things like Astral Drift and Teferi's Ageless Insight, but if anyone is pillow forted up they might be in for a long game as you're all in on the combat damage win-con outside of a lone copy of Psychosis Crawler. If you're worried about it, however, you can always include a copy of Jace, Wielder of Mysteries for an auto-win once you get a New Perspectives online.
All that said, you didn't really think that I didn't build the Jeskai version too, did you?
Nuts and Bolts
There always seems to be a bit of interest in how these lists are made (this seems like a good time to stress once again that they are based on EDHREC score, NOT my personal opinion…), and people are often surprised that I’m not using any special data or .json from EDHREC, but rather just muddling my way through with some Scryfall knowledge! For your enjoyment/research, here is this week’s Scryfall search.
What Do You Think?
Cycling can be a bit controversial, as it has historically struggled to have a win-con, and can be a bit of a grindy control matchup no matter how you build it. With that said, it's also usually slow out of the gate with tap lands galore, so there is definitely a time period where you can hate it off the table before it really gets going. The question is, should you?
And finally, what do you think of the idea of a full deck of cards that can cycle? Have you looked into Jo Grant at all? What do you think is the right color combination for this brew, Jeskai or Bant?
Let us know in the comments, and we'll see you at the historic table we got from the thrift store last week, although it's a bit wobbly so we were thinking about donating it and getting another one...
Read more:
BathroomBrewsMTG - $50 Abzan Cycling EDH Budget Build - Ep19 - BathroomBrews
DougY
Doug has been an avid Magic player since Fallen Empires, when his older brother traded him some epic blue Homarids for all of his Islands. As for Commander, he's been playing since 2010, when he started off by making a two-player oriented G/R Land Destruction deck. Nailed it. In his spare time when he's not playing Magic, writing about Magic or doing his day job, he runs a YouTube channel or two, keeps up a College Football Computer Poll, and is attempting to gif every scene of the Star Wars prequels.
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