cEDH Deck Guide: Codie, Vociferous Codex

This deck with Codie, Vociferous Codex is a TURBO list, meaning it focuses on winning very fast. We always try to resolve an Ad Nauseam as soon as possible and draw plenty of cards with it, besides finding tutors, ramps, rituals and a wincondition to end the game.

We aim to be the fastest deck at the table, accelerating a lot in the early turns. Furthermore, we usually try to win in turn 2 or 3, and for that, the list was built with as many ramps and rituals as possible at the lowest possible cost.

Our Commander only costs colorless mana, which makes it easier to cast him. Codie has restrictions that forbid you to cast permanents, meaning to win, we'll have to take the commander off the board.

He has an ability that costs 4 colorless mana to activate and generates one mana of each color, and he says that when we cast the next spell this turn, it will cascade for instants and sorceries, we'll exile cards from the top of the library until we exile an instant or sorcery that costs less than it, and we can cast that card without paying its cost until end of turn.

It's this effect, coupled with the fact that it's colorless, that makes it possible for the deck to exist, and I'll explain why later on.

This deck has two well-known combo lines at cEDH:

Breach Freeze and Thassa Consult.

But before talking about these combo lines, let's talk about what makes this deck different from others: the path to the combo.

To start, you need to have the commander on the field, four colorless mana and the ability to cast a cost one spell; whether mana or Phyrexian mana, the spell's mana value must be one.

1- Using 4 colorless mana, activate Codie's ability, adding one mana of each color to your pool;

2- Cast a spell with cost one, keeping the mana at the pool separate;

3- Codie's ability triggers, and you exile the deck until you find Profane Tutor;

4- Cast the tutor and search for Bring to Light;

5- Using the 5 different colors of Codie's ability, cast Bring to Light;

6- Search for an Ad Nauseam and cast it without paying the mana cost.

Now with an Ad Nauseam, as the average cost of the deck's cards is extremely low, we'll repeat its effect until we find pieces from some of the deck's combos, tutors and ramps that generate positive mana, enough rituals to perform the combo we find and win the game. It is not difficult for you to draw 25 to 30 cards from the deck, as there are many cards in the list that have a mana value of zero or one.

Some of them sacrifice our Book to generate mana, others give us life to be able to draw more with Ad Nauseam, and the rest return it to the hand. The most important thing is that there are many, enough for you to have no difficulty finding them through Ad Nauseam at the necessary time.

Breach Freeze

Combo Condition: Underworld Breach in hand, Brain Freeze, and Lion's Eye Diamond in hand or graveyard, and at least 4 mana available, one blue and one red , the other two do not need to be colored.

1. Cast Underworld Breach;

2. Cast Brain Freeze, targeting you and mill at least 6 cards;

3. Cast Lion's Eye Diamond, discarding your hand and generating 3 blue mana;

4. Repeat step 3 until there are only 3 cards in the graveyard, in addition to the cards you want to cast, then repeat step 2 until this step.

5. When you run out of cards in your deck, use Thassa's Oracle, which may have been crushed or may already be in your hand, to end the game.

Thassa Consult

Combo Condition: Thassa's Oracle + Demonic Consultation or Tainted Pact in hand and enough mana to cast them.

You cast the tutor you have by naming a card you don't have in your deck, and after that, you cast Thassa’s Oracle, winning the game with its ETB ability.

I separated the cards in the deck into packages to be able to explain them better without talking directly about each one, except for the ones that need some attention: Ramps and Rituals, Card Draw, Tutors, Interactions, Recursions and Protections.

Ramps & Rituals

If there's one thing this list does is accelerate mana, with more than a third of the deck dedicated to generating mana, in many ways, accelerating is something that will happen, and we need that to close the game.

Our little book is equipped with positive mana stones along with rituals, Birds of Paradise and Lands that generate more than one mana such as Ancient Tomb and Gemstone Caverns, a land that you can play at the beginning of the game, which is an acceleration, whether you like it or not.

The list also features the holy trinity of red cards that speed you up: Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, Dockside Extortionis, and Jeska's Will, all great for keeping up the aggressive turns. The worst ramp in this deck is Ragavan, which is only useful when you are still developing the board, and if it appears in the middle of Ad Nauseam it ends up being half dead.

Card Draw

This package is a mix of cantrips, which besides organizing the top of the deck also serve to activate Codie with cards that can guarantee more resources such as Mystic Remora, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer and Jeska's Will .

Remora can guarantee cards in hand for the win turn, while Ragavan allows us to use opponents' cards and even gives us Treasure Tokens for that. Jeska's Will manages to generate plenty of mana, since their opponents will probably have 5 to 6 cards in their hand, in addition to guaranteeing some extra cards from the deck.

Tutors

The various tutors are essential in this list, as it is not possible to find everything we need with just an Ad Nauseam. Also, tutors can start the win, as only Demonic Tutor and Diabolic Intent have no mana value of one.

It is important to note that the 4 tutors used in the win lines were not included here.

Interactions

Interactions are essential to stop other decks and protect yourself, not to mention that some cards in this package manage to play an essential role, which is to take the commander out of the field.

This pack includes all kinds of cards useful in various situations and will preferably be used against your opponents, including counters, bounces, removals, cards that change targets.

The objective is to defend yourself while trying to win for the lowest possible mana cost. The deck has the free counters that cEDH players are used to, and some cards chosen for the list can also be the one mana card that starts Codie's win, such as Gitaxian Probe, Nature's Claim, Fading Hope, Chain of Vapor and the one mana value counters.

Natures's Claim can start the win, remove Codie and even give you a little more life for Ad Nauseam. Fading Hope can return the Commander to your hand and give you scry one.

Recursion

The deck behaves very aggressively, in addition to relying on low mana costs to maintain itself. That's why not many recursions were included, only the ones indispensable for the deck: Noxious Revival that doesn't need mana to be cast and counts as a cost one spell and Mizzix's Mastery that allows you to recompose in matches even after being stopped by an opponent.

Protection

This deck has a few cards entirely dedicated to protecting itself, but they work to start Codie's win and also to protect him.

Of all three, Silence is the most brutal, as resolving it will make it impossible for your opponents to cast spells. Autumn's Veil and Veil of Summer grant you partial but very effective protection against disruptions, as they are mostly blue.

Strengths

- The list is one of the fastest I've played, managing to win matches, on average, in turn 2 or 3.

- It is a strong list that depends on aggressive hands.

- The deck can win games at times when other decks would just be developing the board, often unable to interact with it.

Weaknesses

-The deck has disruptions and interactions to protect itself, but that's not its focus, which can make it difficult to finish.

- The deck isn't good at stopping opponents either, and if for some reason it can't be the first to go to Win, it won't be able to stop opponents. The deck's few interactions are more geared towards protecting yourself when trying to win.

- Like any turbo deck, Codie will lose strength as the game progresses.

That's all for today!

Stay tuned for another interesting cEDH Deck Tech with interesting choices!