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cEDH is the highest level of power forMagic: The Gathering’sCommander format. Although Commander tends to be a more casual format, cEDH is all about pushing the power level of Commander decks to their absolute limits. It’s not uncommon for games to be won in just a few turns.
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Due to the high power of cEDH, not every Commander deck is going to be viable in the format. Tivit, Seller Of Secrets - although it has a higher casting cost - is fantastic and has multiple infinite combo lines available. Combos rule cEDH, and Tivit is a great enabler.
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Key Cards
These are the cards in Tivit, Seller Of Secrets that are the most important.
Tivit, Seller Of Secrets
The deck, while not needing to rely on the commander, is built aroundTivit, Seller Of Secretsand its effect. Upon entering the battlefield, assuming you are in a four-person game, you will beguaranteed to get at least five artifactssince four players will vote in total, and you get an extra vote. This gives you either draw power in Clue tokens or ramp in Treasure tokens.
Tivit, Seller Of Secrets is harder to remove from the battlefield thanks to having a solid ward cost, and you often aren’t casting it until you are ready to start comboing with it. Its effect also triggers off of dealing combat damage, so having flying makes it easier to connect to an opponent.
The backbone of the deck isTime Sieve, which pairs perfectly with Tivit’s five tokens as it gives you five artifacts to sacrifice to take an extra turn. If an opponent doesn’t have a way to deal with a flyer, you have an engine to take an infinite amount of turns.
Tutors
In cEDH, consistency is vital. So having multiple ways to get to your combo pieces is essential. Thanks to having access to black mana, Tivit decks have access toall the best tutorsthat can search for any card likeDemonic TutorandVampiric Tutor.
Although Esper (black/white/blue) doesn’t have much quality ramp, you may useEnlightened Tutorto search your library forSmothering Titheto have a source of ramp. Enlightened Tutor can also search out for any of your artifacts, including the very importantTime Sieve.
Card Draw
Tivit, Seller Of Secrets has plenty of ways to draw cards. One of the primary ways is the popular blue enchantmentsMystic RemoraandRhystic Studywhich turn spells being cast into cards you can draw.Windfallis also helpful in refreshing your hand and potentially cutting off your opponent from a combo piece in their hand - all while setting up your own graveyard.
Esper Sentinelis also useful in stacking up cards in your hand, especially when paired with other cards that punish your opponents from playing spells. It can even be directly searched out from your deck withRanger-Captain Of Eos.
Stall And Interaction
Since your commander has a high casting cost, ways to stall your opponents are vital. Luckily, Esper has plenty of ways to accomplish this.Drannith Magistrateshuts down plenty of strategies as well as preventing your opponents from playing their commanders at all.
Notion Thiefshuts down decks drawing multiple cards and especially comes in handy when paired withWindfallto make your opponents discard their entire hand for no effect. There is so much searching libraries in cEDH, andOpposition Agentlets you choose and steal whatever they were searching for. This is great against fetchlands along with the plethora of tutors. Since Opposition Agent has flash as well, this can turn your opponent’s win condition into your own.
Thanks to having access to blue, Tivit is able to run a full suite of cheap and free counterspells.Force Of Will,Force Of Negation, andFierce Guardianshipall can counter a spell for free by paying an alternate cost.Pact Of Negationalso fits this bill, although is best used when you are going to try and win the game so you don’t have to pay the cost for using it on your next turn.
Your deck wants to win on your turn, so you want to prevent your opponents from playing on your turn. The best ways to ensure your spells resolve are withGrand Abolisher, as it is a static effect and doesn’t wear off at the end of the turn and prevents spells or abilities from being used on your turn.SilenceandRanger-Captain Of Eosboth shut down spells from being cast for a turn. Although you can use these to protect yourself on your turn, they can also be used to shut down an opponent’s turn entirely.
Most Tivit builds do not play many board wipes. The primary ones areToxic Delugewhich gets around most forms of protection andCyclonic Riftwhich is one-sided as it won’t affect you at all. These are both moderately cheap to cast, and their effects are strong enough to slot into a cEDH build.
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Winning With Tivit
Tivit, Seller Of Secrets acts as more of a control deck before running away with a sudden infinite combo courtesy of your commander. Thanks to having access to blue, you can run the best counterspells to make sure your infinite combos resolve - which is how you are most likely going to be winning with Tivit decks.
Tivit, Seller Of Secrets + Time Sieve
Abdel Adrian, Gorion’s Ward (in graveyard) + Animate Dead or Dance Of The Dead + Tivit, Seller Of Secrets (on the battlefield)
You can also exile other nonland permanents when Abdel enters the battlefield to blink them. These include mana rocks that can also be used to create infinite mana and Teferi, Time Raveler to infinitely bounce your opponent’s permanents with its -3 ability.
Hullbreaker Horror + two mana-positive mana rocks
The mana-positive mana rocks in this decklist include Grim Monolith, Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, Mox Opal, and Sol Ring
How To Pilot Tivit
Tivit, Seller Of Secrets is a more midrange cEDH deckas opposed to quicker combo decks. The deck wins slowly, stopping your opponents from their game-winning plays and out-resourcing them until you’re ready to combo off yourself. Thanks to its Esper colors, you get access to many of the best cEDH cards.
Both the deck’s biggest strength and weakness is the commander. Tivit. While strong, it costs a hefty six mana to cast. The deck runs multiple rituals likeCabal RitualandDark Ritualto be able to cast it quicker since the deck can’t play much traditional ramp.
It can be slow to cast, and if it gets countered or removed it becomes much harder to close out games. If Tivit does hit the battlefield, removing it is much harder due to good stats and abilities.
You play a very small amount of creatures in your deck, relying more on tutors and your commander to get to your key combo pieces. Since one of them is always in the command zone, you can be reserved casting Tivit until you are ready to start comboing withTime Sieve.
If Tivit is on the battlefield, you can utilize blink effects withDisplacer Kittento make more tokens or create a copy withPhyrexian Metamorph.
Since there are many ways to create infinite combos without your commander, Tivit has multiple win conditions that can be achieved if one of them is ever shut down. TheAbdel Adrian, Gorion’s Wardcombo doesn’t need Tivit to win, and can simply beused to create an infinite army of 1/1 tokensto win the game with.
It also has the cEDH stapleThassa’s Oracle combosto win the game rather easily if no one can interact with it - made even easier with cards likeTeferi, Time RavelerandSilencethat prevent your opponents from playing spells on your turn.
As for starting hands, you generally wanta mana rock and a tutoror ways to get to your stall and combo pieces. Since your deck is going to veer toward the slower side of things, ways that dissuade your opponents from playing too fast or holding back their best cards are key.
It’s not a bad idea tobe more lenient on mulligans, as even if you do have to put any cards back, there is plenty of card draw in the deck that can help catch you back up.
Next:Magic: The Gathering – Everything You Need To Know About cEDH
