Winota, Joiner of ForcesWinota, Joiner of Forces | Art by Magali Villeneuve

Games of cEDH going longer means that there are more opportunities for engines to trigger, for players to sandbag counterspells, and...for creatures to attack? You heard me right; despite cEDH being a format infamous for essentially ignoring the combat step (outside of infinite-damage combos, Tymna the WeaverTymna the Weaver triggers, and an opportunity to pressure Ad NauseamAd Nauseam and NecropotenceNecropotence players), it looks like a handful of clever players have returned to a once-dominating deck as a potential solution to the current midrange-and-slop-dominated world: Winota, Joiner of ForcesWinota, Joiner of Forces. So, what has pushed this old stax deck to a top-four showing at SCGCon Baltimore's cEDH 5K? Let's take a look!

What Does Winota, Joiner of ForcesWinota, Joiner of Forces Do?

For , Winota, Joiner of ForcesWinota, Joiner of Forces is a 4/4 legendary Human Warrior creature with an absolutely ludicrous triggered ability. "Whenever a non-Human creature you control attacks, look at the top six cards of your library. You may put a Human creature card from among them onto the battlefield tapped and attacking. It gains indestructible until end of turn. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order."

With a triggered ability like that and the colors to support it, Winota effectively builds itself. Step one: play cheap non-Human creatures so as to set up Winota's trigger as soon as possible. Step two: play a stax piece to slow down the rest of the table before you die to turbo or get outclassed by midrange. Step three: slam down Winota, attack with whatever non-Humans you have, and get ready for your comparatively puny creatures to suddenly join forces with the likes of Angrath's MaraudersAngrath's Marauders—powerful beaters that'll close out a player's life total surprisingly fast.

Key Cards for Winota, Joiner of ForcesWinota, Joiner of Forces

Cheap Non-Human Creatures

Starting things off, the cards that enable Winota's trigger in the first place: cheap, non-Human creatures. Ideally these have haste (e.g., GingerbruteGingerbrute), enabling them to hit the board and immediately flip into value if Winota is in play. Regardless of whether or not they have haste, however, one thing is absolutely certain: when I say cheap, I mean these cards are one mana at maximum. OrnithopterOrnithopter and Phyrexian WalkerPhyrexian Walker are excellent examples of this: cards that are completely useless absent Winota (save for maybe turning on Mox OpalMox Opal's metalcraft), but have the potential to pull out lethal creatures with Winota around.

Aggressive Human Creatures

So, now that we know how we're triggering Winota, what exactly are we hoping to dig for? Well, while there are a handful of non-aggressive Humans worth running either for value or for their stax potential (more on that in a moment), the majority of Humans in this deck are actually here because of their capacity to pack a punch. Angrath's MaraudersAngrath's Marauders doubles all damage you deal, Serra AscendantSerra Ascendant and Rick, Steadfast LeaderRick, Steadfast Leader makes your army huge, and Combat CelebrantCombat Celebrant can create extra combats. Inconsequential in a normal game of cEDH, but—when every creature you control is suddenly a massive attacker—they all matter a whole lot more together.

Stax Creatures

Smoothing out the rest of the deck are the creatures that Winota is just as happy to cast as it is to flip off the top: stax effects, Human and non-Human alike. Be it reducing card draw per turn, limiting the number of spells cast, or restricting graveyards, Winota is chock-full of essentially every stax effect that matters in the cEDH meta right now. The best part is that these stax effects are effectively asymmetric here. This deck doesn't care about drawing cards (Boros can't exactly run Rhystic StudyRhystic Study), and Winota's creatures enter mainly from triggers resolving, rather than being cast.

How Does Winota, Joiner of ForcesWinota, Joiner of Forces Win?

Boros Beats

Unlike nearly every other cEDH deck in the format, Winota is a deck that can readily earn a victory just through good-ol'-fashioned combat damage. Make an army, turn it sideways, rinse and repeat—which is exactly why it has been seeing an uptick in tournament play recently.

You know what deck barely triggers Rhystic Study? Winota.

With slop builds on the rise and midrange continuing to consolidate power, Winota stands to benefit for a couple key reasons. First off, Winota doesn't really need to cast any spells after the first few turns of the game, making it care less-and-less about a battlefield smothered with copies of Rhystic Study. Second, since it doesn't need to cast many spells, Winota stands as a premier Rule of LawRule of Law deck, meaning that it can amass card advantage via board presence while the rest of the table sits with all their resources stuck in their hand, rather than available as actionable pieces. Third, with no opponents pressuring an early win, Winota is able to accrue the army of creatures necessarily to present a combo-less win: no Underworld BreachUnderworld Breach, no Dualcaster MageDualcaster Mage, not even Zealous ConscriptsZealous Conscripts.

Winota, Joiner of ForcesWinota, Joiner of Forces cEDH Deck List

Wrap Up

Well folks, it's been a minute since Winota got much talk around cEDH tables, but it looks like the deck is on an upwards swing. Keep an eye out for it the next time you sit down to a new pod expecting a drawn-out pile of engines; you might just get a reminder of what classic Stax can do.