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At a glance
- Format: cEDH (Commander)
- Commander: Tom Bombadil
- Colors: White / Blue / Black / Red / Green (WUBRG)
- Archetype: 5-Color Sagas / proliferate value engine with a compact Kiki-Jiki + Zealous Conscripts combo — high-power (bracket 4)
- Power tier: high-power (bracket 4)
Strategy
Gameplan
A 5-color Saga engine that grinds a fair pod into the ground and closes with a compact combo. The deck does three things at once: (1) chains high-impact Sagas whose final chapters matter, (2) proliferates to rush those final chapters and hold Tom’s protection, and (3) keeps a real kill on the table for turns 6–9.
Tom Bombadil is the engine, not a beater. Whenever a Saga’s final chapter resolves, Tom free-drops another Saga from your library (once per turn). Every Saga you resolve is therefore a two-for-one: the chapter effect plus a fresh Saga. And once four-plus lore counters sit among your Sagas, Tom is hexproof + indestructible — cast him into an open board without fear of a single removal spell.
Sequencing
- Early (T1–4): ramp and fix. Sol Ring / Birds / Arcane Signet → Cultivate / Kodama’s Reach / Farseek / Nature’s Lore / Skyshroud Claim into the shock/triome/fetch base. Land the cheap draw engines (Sylvan Library, Esper Sentinel, Rhystic Study, Smothering Tithe) so the mid-game snowballs. Deploy cheap Sagas (The Restoration of Eiganjo, Elspeth’s Nightmare, Boseiju Reaches Skyward, Jugan Defends the Temple) to start banking lore.
- Deploy Tom on an untapped board once you can protect him or already hold 4+ lore among Sagas. Fierce Guardianship (free with commander), Heroic Intervention, Swan Song, and Counterspell keep him alive through the turn cycle; Heroic Intervention also blanks an opposing wipe against your whole board.
- Proliferate to rush final chapters. Flux Channeler, Evolution Sage, Inexorable Tide and Karn’s Bastion each push lore forward; Tekuthal doubles every one of them, and Deepglow Skate / Vorinclex double lore outright. Rushing a Saga to its final chapter = the chapter payoff and a Tom trigger. Chain these to fire multiple final chapters (= multiple Tom drops-capped-at-one, so spread them across turns) and stitch value together fast.
- Keep a lore floor for hexproof. This is the one sequencing trap: over-proliferating sacrifices Sagas to their final chapters, shrinking your standing Saga count. On a big blitz turn you can drop below 4 lore and briefly lose Tom’s protection. Deliberately park a Saga or two at chapter I–II so the “4+ lore among Sagas” clause stays live. Tekuthal and the doublers help here — more triggers per Saga means you don’t have to over-advance.
Closing
- Primary: assemble Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Zealous Conscripts. Kiki taps to copy Conscripts; the token’s ETB untaps Kiki; repeat for arbitrarily many hasted 3/3 Conscripts = lethal combat across the pod. Reach it naturally, via Demonic/Vampiric Tutor (any piece), Enlightened Tutor (Fable → Reflection of Kiki-Jiki, a backup Kiki that needs a little mana per loop), or Finale of Devastation (fetch Kiki or Conscripts). Neither piece is a dead draw off-combo: Kiki copies your Sun Titan / Saga fatties, Conscripts steals a permanent + swings.
- Ramp finishers: with the deck’s mana (Sol Ring + five rocks + Song of Freyalise + land-ramp), Torment of Hailfire for large X drains the table through blockers, and Finale of Devastation at X≥10 tutors a threat and hands your team +X/+X + haste for a one-card alpha strike.
- Fair backup: if the combo is answered, grind. Removal Sagas (Elspeth Conquers Death, Binding the Old Gods, The Eldest Reborn, The Akroan War, The Rise of Sozin’s chapter-I board wipe) + Toxic Deluge / Cyclonic Rift / Phyrexian Scriptures control the board while the fatties — Avacyn (Battle at the Helvault), Kiora’s 8/8 Kraken, O-Kagachi (The Kami War), Branch of Boseiju, Jugan’s Remnant — plus Tom’s per-turn Saga engine simply out-attrition a fair table.
Play notes
- Enlightened Tutor puts its hit on top — grab a Saga or Fable and let the next Tom trigger free-drop it, or just draw it. Sun Titan recurs any MV≤3 Saga at chapter I for a full replay + another Tom trigger.
- Urza’s Saga is both a Tom trigger (its chapter III is a final chapter) and a tutor for Sol Ring / Arcane Signet / Fellwar Stone.
- Read-ahead Sagas (The Cruelty of Gix, The Weatherseed Treaty) can start at a later chapter to fire a final chapter — and a Tom trigger — immediately.
- The Akroan War hands its stolen creature back when it’s rushed to chapter III; steal → attack → let III kill it, and don’t over-proliferate it if you want to keep the creature longer.
Cards
Decklist
Paste straight into MTG Arena (or Moxfield/Archidekt):
Commander
1 Tom Bombadil
Deck
1 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
1 Elspeth Conquers Death
1 The Eldest Reborn
1 Binding the Old Gods
1 Phyrexian Scriptures
1 The Akroan War
1 Kiora Bests the Sea God
1 In the Darkness Bind Them
1 The Cruelty of Gix
1 Showdown of the Skalds
1 Elspeth's Nightmare
1 Song of Freyalise
1 The Restoration of Eiganjo
1 Battle at the Helvault
1 Boseiju Reaches Skyward
1 The Weatherseed Treaty
1 Jugan Defends the Temple
1 The Kami War
1 The Rise of Sozin
1 Flux Channeler
1 Evolution Sage
1 Inexorable Tide
1 Deepglow Skate
1 Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider
1 Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus
1 Sol Ring
1 Arcane Signet
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Coalition Relic
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Cultivate
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Farseek
1 Nature's Lore
1 Skyshroud Claim
1 Rhystic Study
1 Smothering Tithe
1 Sylvan Library
1 Esper Sentinel
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Sun Titan
1 Eternal Witness
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Path to Exile
1 Assassin's Trophy
1 Anguished Unmaking
1 Generous Gift
1 Counterspell
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Fierce Guardianship
1 Heroic Intervention
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Zealous Conscripts
1 Torment of Hailfire
1 Finale of Devastation
1 Command Tower
1 City of Brass
1 Mana Confluence
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Path of Ancestry
1 The World Tree
1 Raffine's Tower
1 Xander's Lounge
1 Ziatora's Proving Ground
1 Jetmir's Garden
1 Spara's Headquarters
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Watery Grave
1 Blood Crypt
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
1 Godless Shrine
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
1 Breeding Pool
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Windswept Heath
1 Prismatic Vista
1 Urza's Saga
1 Karn's Bastion
1 Bojuka Bog
2 Forest
2 Island
1 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Mountain
1 The Legend of Kyoshi
Card images & data via Scryfall.