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Edric, Spymaster of Trest

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Edric, Spymaster of Trest

At a glance

  • Commander: Edric, Spymaster of Trest
  • Colors: Simic
  • Archetype: Simic evasion go-wide card-draw aggro-tempo
  • Power tier: mid-high

Cards

The real card (oracle check)

The scout’s paraphrase said Edric “draws you a card whenever any of your creatures connects.” The printed text is broader and subtly political: the draw fires whenever any creature — yours or an opponent’s — deals combat damage to one of your opponents, and that creature’s controller draws. In practice for us it means every cheap unblockable body we send in refills our hand. (The political upside: it also incentivizes other players to swing at each other, since they draw too — but we don’t build around that; we just abuse our own evasive swarm.) commander_oracle_ok = true.

Gameplan

  1. Curve out a swarm of 1-2 MV evasive bodies — unblockable Rogues (Slither Blade, Mist-Cloaked Herald, Triton Shorestalker, Metathran Soldier, Blighted Agent) and cheap flyers (Flying Men, Faerie Seer, Cloudfin Raptor, Welkin Tern).
  2. Land Edric and from then on each attack step converts the whole evasive board into a fistful of cards. Even four 1-power unblockable creatures connecting is +4 cards a turn — that outpaces the table fast.
  3. Protect the attack and clear blockers with tempo bounce (Vapor Snag, Unsummon, Blink of an Eye), tap-down/lock (Take into Custody, Bind the Monster, Bubble Snare), and green fight removal (Prey Upon, Bite Down, Master’s Rebuke).
  4. Win by death-by-a-thousand-cuts: the evasive swarm chips every opponent down while the card engine ensures we never run out of gas, replacing anything that gets killed and out-grinding the rest of the table.

Win condition

Inevitable evasive beatdown. A wide board of unblockable/flying creatures that the Edric engine keeps refueling — we draw 3-6 cards per combat, redeploy faster than opponents can answer, and the unblockable bodies mean chump-blocking isn’t even an option. Blighted Agent provides a parallel infect clock (mono-U, unblockable) as a backup kill against a single problem player. Ghostform pushes a lethal alpha strike through when the board stalls.

Role breakdown (with counts)

  • Lands — 37. 13 Forest, 16 Island, plus Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse, Ash Barrens, Simic Growth Chamber, Thornwood Falls, Woodland Stream, Tangled Islet, Simic Guildgate. Now inside the rubric band. The curve still tops out at ~4 and there are 11 ramp sources, so 37 lands + ramp keeps the swarm fed without choking the deck — and the extra two lands shore up the no-dork stumble variance the build conceded earlier.
  • Ramp — 11. Elvish Mystic, Llanowar Elves, Fyndhorn Elves, Boreal Druid (dorks that also become evasion targets / chump bodies), Sylvan Ranger, Civic Wayfinder, Embodiment of Spring, Rampant Growth, Cultivate, Kodama’s Reach, Coiling Oracle. At the cap, not over — these accelerate Edric and a turn-3 multi-spell swarm.
  • Card advantage — 6 real draw (Edric is the engine). Counted honestly as genuine card-draw: Brainstorm, Quick Study, Divination, Winged Words, Mulldrifter, and Harrier Strix’s loot. Edric himself is the primary engine and is uncounted here. Separately, a pile of cheap bodies provide filtering/selection rather than draw — Faerie Seer (scry 2), Silver Raven (scry 1), Spire Owl (look at top 4), Siren Lookout and Tishana’s Wayfinder (explore) — they smooth draws but are not card advantage, so they’re no longer double-counted.
  • Spot removal / interaction — 13. Bounce/tempo: Brackish Blunder, Unsummon, Vapor Snag, Select for Inspection, Blink of an Eye. Tap-down lock: Take into Custody, Bind the Monster, Bubble Snare. Fight removal: Prey Upon, Bite Down, Master’s Rebuke. Counters: Counterspell, Negate. Trimmed from the prior bloated 15 by cutting two redundant single-target bounce spells (Void Snare, Clutch of Currents); still slightly rich, by design — GU commons have no mass removal, so the inevitability plan leans on a thick interaction suite to stay alive into the grind.
  • Mass/pseudo-wipe — 0. Not available at common in GU. Compensated with the deeper interaction above plus the card-advantage lock as the inevitability engine (per rubric guidance for wipe-less colors).
  • Payoffs/enablers — rest. Evasive bodies are the payoff; Ghostform (mass unblockable for the lethal turn), Snaremaster Sprite (stun), Gravelgill Scoundrel (self-made unblockable), and a dense pile of 1-2 MV flyers and unblockable Rogues that all become draw triggers under Edric.

Key synergy lines

  • Mana dork → Edric → swarm: T1 Llanowar, T2 a 1-drop unblockable + a dork, T3 Edric + a 1-drop. T4 swing with 3-4 evasive bodies, draw 3-4, dump the refilled hand.
  • Bounce as removal AND protection: Vapor Snag / Brackish Blunder clear a key blocker to push damage, or save your own attacker from spot removal. Tragic for opponents, value for us.
  • Tap-down before combat: Take into Custody / Bind the Monster on the only flyer an opponent has, then your flyers connect unblocked → cards.
  • Ghostform finish: make two attackers unblockable on a stalled board for a surprise lethal swing while still drawing off every hit.

Pilot notes

  • Attack the weakest/most open opponent to guarantee the draw triggers connect — Edric rewards spreading chip damage where it’s safe, not forcing through a wall.
  • Don’t overcommit into open mana. You refill every combat, so it’s fine to hold a body or two; play around sweepers by not dumping your whole hand the turn before someone untaps with 5+ mana.
  • Edric is a lightning rod — opponents will try to kill him to shut the engine off. Bounce spells and counters protect him; keep one up when you recast. He’s cheap to redeploy.
  • Mulldrifter / explore scouts are your flood insurance and gas when Edric is off the table.

Weaknesses

  • No board wipes and fragile bodies — a single opposing sweeper resets the swarm. Rebuild speed (cheap creatures + card draw) is the mitigation, but a well-timed wrath hurts.
  • Edric-dependent — without him, the deck is a pile of 1/1s. The interaction suite and ETB-value creatures keep it functional, but the ceiling drops a lot.
  • Goes wide into spot removal politics — pillow-fort / fog effects at the table blunt the chip plan. Infect (Blighted Agent) and Ghostform are the angle-shoot answers.

Decklist

⬇ Download as .txt — paste into Moxfield, Archidekt, or MTG Arena.

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