Ertai's Lethal Protection
I'm looking for feedback on a combo deck I brewed up before I put it to paper. It uses the [[Teferi's Protection]] and [[Lethal Vapors]] combo with [[Ertai, the Corrupted]] as the commander to protect it. I've only seen this combo in an Orzhov deck but I think adding blue gives it a lot more options.
My meta is about 50% combo which is why I added the library hate and I generally know which decks run [[Laboratory Maniac]]. Theoretically, I could only remove win cons from 2 opponents before phasing out so they would gang up on the player with the obvious wincon . Teferi's Protection is so expensive that I'm not worried about budget, especially because I plan on proxying this to see how fun it is to play. This win con may not be everyone's favorite, but I love these bizarre, unexpected decks and my meta is casual enough that I can just start a new game with another pod while my opponents battle for second place. I also realized that [[Zur the Enchanter]] or [[Oloro, Ageless Ascetic]] would probably be more consistent, but I think Ertai will do a better job at flying under the radar and politicking, and I've already played several obnoxious Zur decks.
Do you have any suggestions for replacements? Do I have enough cards of each category? Is there a backup win con that would easily fit in Ertai? Would [[Alela]] or [[Merieke Ri Berit]] do a better job as a commander?
Thanks for any and all feedback
https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/ertais-escape/?cb=1582925385
Posted Feb 28, 2020, 9:58 PM UTC
That combo is so fragile, there's still so many ways to lose. Like you said, any instant win like lab man beats it, but also each player/opponent mills X like consuming aberration + each player draws X will beat it too, and also anything that stops you from preventing damage like questing beast or leyline of punishment means you can be killed by commander damage or infect. You can also have poison counters proliferated on you and you can get one from ichor rats
Most of my decks have at least one of the above and many of the decks my friends play have at least one too. You can try to exile all these options before you combo but you probably cant get all of them. I dont think your other opponents would fight for second place and gang up on the player that can still win, it seems more likely they'll just concede so that player can win out of spite. Maybe that's just the people I play with though
Questing beast does not circumvent teferi's protection. You get the damage. It just doesn't cause your life total to change.
Commander damage and infect dont care about your life total. As long as the damage isn't prevented, you can still be dealt 21 commander damage or 10 poison counters