5/8/2025

Hello fellow Crustacean enjoyers!

This blog series is dedicated to a new EDH deck I'm brewing, very descriptively named The 'bear' who's a LOBSTER CITIZEN who's a chef ? and their ELEMENTAL FOX companion (or 'HOT TRASH').

The reasons why this blog series exists are:

  • Edge of Eternities (EOE) is a great set, definitely the best since Foundations, and I want a deck to commemorate it. It is also the last set before the long, harsh winter of UB sets Marvel's Spider-Man and Avatar: The Last Airbender that will take place for the rest of the year.
  • I feel like the last deck I brewed (for the last 3 years lol) is finally 'finished'. It is absolutelty my favorite deck and I have so many memories with it. I would love to journal this new journey with my new brew.
  • I need something to write to kickstart the blog.
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    So, lets begin. This first blog post will be the backstory of this deck's idea and thought on my 1st goldfishing/card-finding session I did at 2 am last night. It will be LONG!,/p>

    If you couldn't have guessed by now, my commander of choice is none other than the ONLY (non-silver border) LOBSTER, LOBSER CITIZEN even (!) (take that Rock Lobster) to date, Ragost, Deft Gastronaut. But that's not all, he came with a friend, or a COMPANION, Zirda, the Dawnwaker.



    The idea for this deck came long before Ragost was even a card. I love janky, stupid artifacts (Echo Chamber, Temporal Aperture, Treasure Chest) and wanted a deck where I can play all of them, so originally I wanted to build a deck around the 'Friends forever' pairing of Bjorna, Nightfall Alchemist and Hargilde, Kindly Runechanter, WITH Zirda as a companion. So I would practically have 3 commanders, at the same time, for 1 deck, AND the 98 would have to adhere to Zirda's Companion restriction (Yes, I know I am very hipster; and yes, Companions do not count towards an EDH deck's 100-card count, they stay in the Sideboard).



    The problem was that there was no actual way to end a game. Casting dumb, expensive artifacts and activating their dumb, expensive abilities may sound fun in theory but in-game, it is not very rewarding for me nor the other players. With WOTC's introduction of the Bracket System, I thought the deck would fit nicely into Bracket 1, however, no one around me was interested in playing Bracket 1 games. So the dumb, expensive artifacts stayed in a Dragon Shield sleeve box for a long, long time. Being the exceptional pioneering deckbuilder that I am, the idea was just too ambitious, waiting for the right time to be rediscovered.

    And the time finally came! It only took WOTC to go into literal space. A little bit of MORE backstory. I just finished my graduation thesis (yay, but I fucking hate my school) and I had not been interested in the last sets so I was having my yearly hiatus from Magic. I was honestly feeling tired/disappointed from all of the UB sets/drama, how WOTC was managing the MTG IP and how the company treated the playerbase. So I wasn't expecting much initially from EOE. But, I watched the set's debut video, and I saw him, filling my eyes with his magnificence, Ragost, Deft Gastronaut.

  • The name - Funny, smart, subtle.
  • The mana cost - 2, Boros.
  • The art - Beautiful.
  • The ability - Powerful but gimmicky, ARTIFACTS!
  • The creature type - LOBSTER CITIZEN? LOBSTER CITIZEN. LOBSTER CITIZEN!

    • I immediately went feral. This lobster chef, no, lobster gastronaut single handedly brought me back into the game.

    Ragost doesn't seem like he fits into what I wanted to do with what the deck wanted to do originally, but he does suggest a powerful gameplan; additionally, the use of lower mana cost artifacts and artifact tokens, a love I have developed playing with Tawnos, is encouraged. Also, his ability to turn every artifact into Food synergizes amazingly with Zirda's cost-reduction ability. And his affinity (see what I did there) towards untapping also has the potential to synergize with artifacts which I want to untap to reuse their abilities.

    So the initial gameplan is: Play cheap artifacts that cantrip (draw 1 card when enter/leave), usually referred to as 'eggs' (I swear the people who designed Ragost are fucking geniuses), then sacrifice them to deal damage and win.

    Very straightforward and simple, but the fun part is in the 'seasoning', the interesting side strategies and play patterns that Zirda provides. The dumb artifacts are still in the deck. But with Zirda, each artifact can be either 'thrown' to deal damage or 'eaten' to gain life, both at only 1 mana so very high flexibility. A true food fight.

    This is the 1st draft of the deck, I just included what I already have in my collection, along with some recent trades and cards I got during pre-release and a draft of EOE. I don't like being too picky with the 1st iteration of a decklist. Just goldfish, playtest and go with the flow, that's how I manage to find cards that are unique which I might never have considered.


    Commander

    1 Ragost, Deft Gastronaut

    Companion

    1 Zirda, the Dawnwaker

    Deck

  • 1 Angel of the Ruins
  • 1 Arcum's Whistle
  • 1 Avishkar Raceway
  • 1 Bag of Holding
  • 1 Basilisk Collar
  • 1 Blast Zone
  • 1 Blighted Gorge
  • 1 Bounty Agent
  • 1 Brittle Effigy
  • 1 Brought Back
  • 1 Bucknard's Everfull Purse
  • 1 Bumbleflower's Sharepot
  • 1 Burnished Hart
  • 1 Chef's Kiss
  • 1 Citywide Bust
  • 1 Coalition Relic
  • 1 Cogworker's Puzzleknot
  • 1 Command Tower
  • 1 Commander's Sphere
  • 1 Conjurer's Bauble
  • 1 Dragonspark Reactor
  • 1 Dwarven Blastminer
  • 1 Echo Chamber
  • 1 Excavation Explosion
  • 1 Explosive Getaway
  • 1 Giant Killer
  • 1 Goblin Charbelcher
  • 1 Golden Egg
  • 1 Guild Globe
  • 1 Hall of Tagsin
  • 1 Hit the Mother Lode
  • 1 Implement of Combustion
  • 1 Kavaron, Memorial World
  • 1 Liquimetal Torque
  • 1 Manifold Key
  • 1 Melded Moxite
  • 1 Mind Stone
  • 1 Mishra's Bauble
  • 11 Mountain
  • 1 Myriad Landscape
  • 1 Nesting Grounds
  • 1 Noble's Purse
  • 1 Nutrient Block
  • 1 Osgir, the Reconstructor
  • 1 Pacification Array
  • 1 Patriar's Seal
  • 12 Plains
  • 1 Prophetic Prism
  • 1 Radiant Fountain
  • 1 Reconstruct History
  • 1 Sacred Foundry
  • 1 Sacred Peaks
  • 1 Selfless Savior
  • 1 Sequestered Stash
  • 1 Shadowspear
  • 1 Skyship Weatherlight
  • 1 Soul of New Phyrexia
  • 1 Spare Supplies
  • 1 Spring-Loaded Sawblades
  • 1 Stonespeaker Crystal
  • 1 Syr Ginger, the Meal Ender
  • 1 Talon of Pain
  • 1 Temporal Aperture
  • 1 Tezzeret, Cruel Captain
  • 1 The Seriema
  • 1 The Wanderer
  • 1 Tinker's Tote
  • 1 Treasure Chest
  • 1 Ugin, the Ineffable
  • 1 Unlicensed Hearse
  • 1 Ventifact Bottle
  • 1 Voyager Staff
  • 1 Wand of Wonder
  • 1 Wayfarer's Bauble
  • 1 Wind-Scarred Crag
  • 1 Worn Powerstone
  • 1 Zhalfirin Void
  • 1 Zookeeper Mechan
    •

    Findings after goldfishing:

  • 1. Ragost doesn't do much in the early game, turn 2 is better used to either ramp, play an egg, or put Zirda into hand.
  • 2. Protecting/recurring Zirda is crucial. As Zirda does not go into a 'Companion Zone' when it dies (it doesn't exist).
  • 3. Giving Ragost lifelink, or having a way to gain life every opponent's turn is important. Ragost IS a gastronaut so he churns through Food FAST.
  • 4. A lot of Legendary creatures/planeswalkers are good in the deck (Osgir, the Reconstructor; Tezzeret, Cruel Captain; Ugin, the Ineffable; Queen Kayla bin-Kroog seems like a good card). Maybe a legendary sub-theme? I really like The Seriema.
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    Potential good inclusions:

  • Artist's Talent (card selection, ramp AND extra damage)
  • Brass's Tunnel-Grinder (ramp, value)
  • Heirloom Epic (card draw)
  • War Room (card draw)
  • Firemane Angel (lifegain every turn)
  • Farid, Enterprising Salvager (more trash/food)
  • Genju of the Fields (don't attack me or I'll gain life and deal damage)
  • Vindictive Flamestoker (card draw)
  • Taii Wakeen, Perfect Shot (more damage)
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