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CEDH is the competitive version ofMagic: The Gathering’sCommander format. Commander is traditionally more casual than most formats, but cEDH is about pushing your deck’s power levels to the highest they can be. Not every commander fits into the cEDH landscape but one of the ones that do is Winota, Joiner Of Forces.
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Winota is a Boros (red/white) deck that can win games out of nowhere. The deck is a mixture of aggressive strategies with a Staxplan to slow everyone else in the game down. Thanks to Winota’s ability to help you flood the battlefield with creatures, your side of the battlefield can go from harmless to the biggest threat.
Key Cards
Winota, Joiner Of Forces
The deck is built around Winota, Joiner Of Forces and its effect.When a non-Human creature attacks, you’re able to put a Human onto the battlefield tapped and attacking with indestructible until the end of the turn.
Thistriggers off of every non-Human attack, meaning if you attack with four different non-Humans, Winota’s effect will trigger four separate times. This is what pushes Winota, Joiner Of Forces to a cEDH tier commander despite Boros' general view of the weakest commander colors.
Since Winota is such an explosive card, you can wait to cast it until you have protection ready so it does not get removed right away.
Token Generators
Since Winota can only put Human creatures on the battlefield, you want to keep the number of non-Human cards in your deck relatively low. The solution to ensure you have non-Humans to trigger Winota’s effect is byplaying cards that are token generators.
These cards should not make Human tokens, but various non-Human ones. These usually take the form of a small number ofGoblin creatures. The two notable ones areLegion WarbossandGoblin Rabblemasterwhich both create a 1/1 Goblin token at the start of combat. Both of these creatures don’t need any extra help making tokens, making them some of the best options.
Other token generators includeLoyal Apprentice,which requires your commander on the battlefield to create a 1/1 Thopter token, andMyrel, Shield Of Argive,which can give you more than one Soldier token as when it attacks, you create X tokens where X is the number of Soldiers you control. This is especially good as there are other creatures in the deck with the Soldier creature type.
Unlike other token generators, Myrel alsostops your opponents from casting spells or using abilitiesduring your turn.
Protection
Since Winota is such a key part of the deck,running protection is a mustto ensure you are able to keep your commander on the battlefield. These includeAlseid Of Life’s BountyandSelfless Spirit,which can sacrifice themselves to give protection. They are also bothnon-Human creaturesso they can attack to trigger Winota.
You also have instant cards to back up your board.Deflecting Swatcan keep your commander safe from targetted removal for free andTibalt’s Trickerycan counter the spell that would hamper your board state.
Stax Pieces
The main focus of eEDH Winota decksare Stax pieces. These are vital asthey can be brought out onto the battlefield with Winota’s abilityto shut down everyone else from being able to play their decks efficiently.
The lighter side of Stax pieces involves making spells more expensive to cast.Thalia, Guardian Of Thraben,Glowrider, andThorn Of Amethystall make all noncreature spells one more mana to cast - and these effect stack if more than one is on the battlefield.
This hardly affects you asthere are only 21 noncreature spells in your entire deck, and you generally don’t need much mana anyways so you can almost always pay the tax.
More Stax pieces prevent your opponents from playing more than one spell. Cards such asEidolon Of Rhetoric,Deafening Silence, Silence,andArchon Of Emeriaall make it so playerscan’t cast more than a spell a turn. Archon Of Emeria is especially strong as it also makes all nonbasic lands your opponents play enter tapped - and almost every land played in cEDH is nonbasic.
Tutors
In cEDH,tutors(cards that search out cards directly from your library)are among the best cards in the game. Since you need specific cards to win the game, tutors are especially important in Winota.Splinter Twinis one of your win conditions, andEnlightened Tutorcan get that to the top of your deck so you’re able to combo off with it on the next turn.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror-BreakerandGoblin Sharpshooterare other win conditions and can be tutored out withImperial RecruiterandRecruiter Of The Guard. While these primarily search out for your combo pieces, they can also opt to get a token generator or Stax piece you may need at any given time.
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How To Win With Winota
Winota cEDH decks have a few ways they can close out the game easily. These are combos that revolve aroundKiki-Jiki, Mirror BreakerandSplinter Twin. These go infinite with other pieces in the deck, and in cEDH, youneed infinite combos if you want to win a game.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Combat Celebrant
Splinter Twin + Goblin Sharpshooter + One creature with one toughness
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker is interchangeable with Splinter Twin in the combos listed. The combos play the same, but instead, enchant the respective creature and tap them as if they were Kiki-Jiki.
How To Pilot Winota
Winota, Joiner Of Forces is aboutgetting down token generators as fast as possibleso that you can take advantage of multiple Winota triggers. Even without token generators,lands that can turn themselves into creatureslikeBlinkmoth Nexus, Inkmoth Nexus,andMishra’s Factorycan all be used for the same reason.
For starting hands, you generally want somefast manain there to get your threats on the battlefield as soon as possible. Ideally, you have a token generator in there as when mixed with fast mana,you may get them down on turn one to start getting non-Humans to attack with right away. If your hand doesn’t have either of these,it is advised to go for a mulligan instead, especially if there aren’t any Stax pieces in your hand that can slow everyone else down while you wait for your generators to show up.
Winota does not need to be on the battlefield until you have multiple non-Human creates available for you.It is much more important to build up a board statebefore you think about dropping your commander down. There are times when you won’t even need to cast Winota at all if you open your infinite combo pieces.
You want to cast Winota when you have plenty of creatures that will trigger the card’s ability. This often can lead to you putting your combo pieces onto the battlefield to win the game after the attacks. Since you see so much of your deck off of all the Winota triggers,you have a high chance of hitting either a tutor to fetch out your combo pieces or your Human combo pieces to put on the battlefield right away.
Playing your Stax pieces carefully is critical.You want to play the ones that will hurt the rest of your opponents the most. If there aren’t a lot of cards being drawn, a card likeSpirit Of The Labyrinthisn’t going to be useful, and you’ll only waste mana casting it.
You want to take advantage of Stax pieces early on as this is when they will be most impactful. Later in the game, Stax grows weaker as opponents draw removal and can leave you defenseless.
It is important tonot attack with your most important cards, such as your token generators, as you do not want to risk losing them. Since tokens are constantly made and perfectly fine to lose, it is fine to attack with as many as you want - especially if Winota is on the battlefield to get a ton of Humans to the battlefield. Winota is incredibly explosive, so don’t worry if your life is running low as it can turn everything around with one good combat phase.
