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  • Sample Decklist
  • Key Cards
  • Winning With Tivit
  • How To Pilot Tivit

cEDH is the highest level of power for Magic: The Gathering's Commander format. Although Commander tends to be a more casual format, cEDH is all about pushing the power level of Commander decks to their absolute limits. It's not uncommon for games to be won in just a few turns.

RELATED: Magic: The Gathering – Winota, Joiner Of Forces cEDH Deck Guide

Due to the high power of cEDH, not every Commander deck is going to be viable in the format. Tivit, Seller Of Secrets - although it has a higher casting cost - is fantastic and has multiple infinite combo lines available. Combos rule cEDH, and Tivit is a great enabler.

Sample Decklist

Drannith Magistrate by Kieran Yanner

Commander: Tivit, Seller Of Secrets

Jace, Wielder Of Mysteries

Teferi, Time Raveler

Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward

Displacer Kitten

Drannith Magistrate

Esper Sentinel

Grand Abolisher

Hullbreaker Horror

Notion Thief

Opposition Agent

Phyrexian Metamorph

Ranger-Captain Of Eos

Thassa's Oracle

Demonic Tutor

Imperial Seal

Mnemonic Betrayal

Toxic Deluge

Transmute Artifact

Unmarked Grave

Windfall

Ad Nauseam

An Offer You Can't Refuse

Cabal Ritual

Chain Of Vapor

Cyclonic Rift

Dark Ritual

Delay

Demonic Consultation

Enlightened Tutor

Entomb

Essence Flux

Fierce Guardianship

FLuterstorm

Force Of Negation

Force Of Will

Lim-Dûl's Vault

Mana Drain

Mental Misstep

Mindbreak Trap

Muddle The Mixture

Mystical Tutor

Pact Of Negation

Path To Exile

Silence

Swan Song

Swords To Plowshares

Tainted Pact

Vampiric Tutor

Whir Of Invention

Arcane Signet

Chrome Mox

Defense Grid

Fellwar Stone

Grim Monolith

Jeweled Lotus

Lotus Petal

Mana Crypt

Mana Vault

Mox Diamond

Mox Opal

Sol Ring

Talisman Of Dominance

Talisman Of Hierarchy

Talisman Of Progress

The One Ring

Time Sieve

Wishclaw Talisman

Animate Dead

Dance Of The Dead

Mystic Remora

Rhystic Study

Smothering Tithe

Ancient Tomb

Arid Mesa

Bloodstained Mire

Cavern Of Souls

City Of Brass

Command Tower

Exotic Orchard

Flooded Strand

Gemstone Caverns

Godless Shrine

Hallowed Fountain

Mana Confluence

Marsh Flats

Misty Rainforest

Morphic Pool

Otawara, Soaring City

Polluted Delta

Scalding Tarn

Scrubland

Sea Of Clouds

Swamp

Tundra

Underground Sea

Vault Of Champions

Verdant Catacombs

Watery Grave

Windswept Heath

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Key Cards

Time Sieve by Franz Vohwinkel

These are the cards in Tivit, Seller Of Secrets that are the most important.

Tivit, Seller Of Secrets

The deck, while not needing to rely on the commander, is built around Tivit, Seller Of Secrets and its effect. Upon entering the battlefield, assuming you are in a four-person game, you will be guaranteed to get at least five artifacts since four players will vote in total, and you get an extra vote. This gives you either draw power in Clue tokens or ramp in Treasure tokens.

Tivit, Seller Of Secrets is harder to remove from the battlefield thanks to having a solid ward cost, and you often aren't casting it until you are ready to start comboing with it. Its effect also triggers off of dealing combat damage, so having flying makes it easier to connect to an opponent.

The backbone of the deck is Time Sieve, which pairs perfectly with Tivit's five tokens as it gives you five artifacts to sacrifice to take an extra turn. If an opponent doesn't have a way to deal with a flyer, you have an engine to take an infinite amount of turns.

Tutors

Enlightened Tutor by Howard Lyon

In cEDH, consistency is vital. So having multiple ways to get to your combo pieces is essential. Thanks to having access to black mana, Tivit decks have access to all the best tutors that can search for any card like Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor.

Although Esper (black/white/blue) doesn't have much quality ramp, you can use Enlightened Tutor to search your library for Smothering Tithe to have a source of ramp. Enlightened Tutor can also search out for any of your artifacts, including the very important Time Sieve.

Card Draw

Rhystic Study by Paul Scott Canavan

Tivit, Seller Of Secrets has plenty of ways to draw cards. One of the primary ways is the popular blue enchantments Mystic Remora and Rhystic Study which turn spells being cast into cards you can draw. Windfall is also helpful in refreshing your hand and potentially cutting off your opponent from a combo piece in their hand - all while setting up your own graveyard.

Esper Sentinel is also useful in stacking up cards in your hand, especially when paired with other cards that punish your opponents from playing spells. It can even be directly searched out from your deck with Ranger-Captain Of Eos.

Stall And Interaction

Cyclonic Rift by Chris Rahn

Since your commander has a high casting cost, ways to stall your opponents are vital. Luckily, Esper has plenty of ways to accomplish this. Drannith Magistrate shuts down plenty of strategies as well as preventing your opponents from playing their commanders at all.

Notion Thief shuts down decks drawing multiple cards and especially comes in handy when paired with Windfall to make your opponents discard their entire hand for no effect. There is so much searching libraries in cEDH, and Opposition Agent lets you choose and steal whatever they were searching for. This is great against fetchlands along with the plethora of tutors. Since Opposition Agent has flash as well, this can turn your opponent's win condition into your own.

Thanks to having access to blue, Tivit is able to run a full suite of cheap and free counterspells. Force Of Will, Force Of Negation, and Fierce Guardianship all can counter a spell for free by paying an alternate cost. Pact Of Negation also fits this bill, although is best used when you are going to try and win the game so you don't have to pay the cost for using it on your next turn.

Your deck wants to win on your turn, so you want to prevent your opponents from playing on your turn. The best ways to ensure your spells resolve are with Grand Abolisher, as it is a static effect and doesn't wear off at the end of the turn and prevents spells or abilities from being used on your turn. Silence and Ranger-Captain Of Eos both shut down spells from being cast for a turn. Although you can use these to protect yourself on your turn, they can also be used to shut down an opponent's turn entirely.

Most Tivit builds do not play many board wipes. The primary ones are Toxic Deluge which gets around most forms of protection and Cyclonic Rift which is one-sided as it won't affect you at all. These are both moderately cheap to cast, and their effects are strong enough to slot into a cEDH build.

RELATED: Magic: The Gathering – Kinan, Bonder Prodigy cEDH Deck Guide

Winning With Tivit

Thassa's Oracle by Jesper Ejsing

Tivit, Seller Of Secrets acts as more of a control deck before running away with a sudden infinite combo courtesy of your commander. Thanks to having access to blue, you can run the best counterspells to make sure your infinite combos resolve - which is how you are most likely going to be winning with Tivit decks.

Combo Pieces

How The Combo Works

Tivit, Seller Of Secrets + Time Sieve

  1. Cast Tivit, Seller Of Secrets or deal combat damage with Tivit.
  2. Tivit's effect triggers, creating any combination of five Treasure and/or Clue tokens.
  3. Use Time Sieve by tapping it to sacrifice the five tokens just created for an extra turn.
  4. Attack with Tivit, dealing combat damage to create five tokens.
  5. Repeat steps 2-4 until you've won the game with commander damage.

Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward (in graveyard) + Animate Dead or Dance Of The Dead + Tivit, Seller Of Secrets (on the battlefield)

  1. Cast Animate Dead or Dance Of The Dead, targeting Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward in the graveyard.
  2. Abdel returns to the battlefield, use Abdel's enter the battlefield effect to target Tivit, Seller Of Secrets and Animate Dead or Dance Of The Dead.
  3. This will exile them both until Abdel leaves the battlefield and create two 1/1 tokens. Since Animate Dead or Dance Of The Dead leaves the battlefield, Abdel will be sacrificed once the effect resolves.
  4. This will return Animate Dead or Dance Of The Dead and Tivit to the battlefield, creating five tokens and allowing you to enchant Abdel with Animate Dead or Dance Of The Dead again.
  5. Repeat steps 2-4 to create an infinite amount of 1/1 Solider and Clues/Treasure tokens.
  6. Use the infinite Clue and Treasure to draw your entire deck to win with Thassa's Oracle or Jace, Wielder Of Mysteries.

You can also exile other nonland permanents when Abdel enters the battlefield to blink them. These include mana rocks that can also be used to create infinite mana and Teferi, Time Raveler to infinitely bounce your opponent's permanents with its -3 ability.

Hullbreaker Horror + two mana-positive mana rocks

  1. Have Hullbreaker Horror on the battlefield.
  2. Tap a mana rock that creates more mana than it costs to cast.
  3. Cast another mana rock with the same trait.
  4. Hullbreaker Horror's effect activates, bouncing the tapped mana rock to hand.
  5. Tap the new mana rock for mana.
  6. Cast the returned mana rock again, bouncing the tapped mana rock.
  7. Repeat steps 2-6 until you create infinite mana.
  8. Use the infinite mana to cast your commander and then start bouncing it with Hullbreaker to make infinite Treasure and Clues to win the game by drawing your entire deck.

The mana-positive mana rocks in this decklist include Grim Monolith, Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, Mox Opal, and Sol Ring

Demonic Consultation/Tainted Pact + Thassa's Oracle/Jace, Wielder Of Mysteries

  1. Cast Thassa's Oracle or Activate Jace, Wielder Of Mysteries +1 ability to have a player mill two cards and you draw a card.
  2. Holding priority, cast Demonic Consultation or Tainted Pact to exile your entire library (for Demonic Consultation name a card not in your library. For Tainted Pact, never choose to put a card into your hand, so your library is exiled).
  3. Thassa's Oracle or Jace Wielder Of Mysteries resolves, winning with their alternate win condition.

How To Pilot Tivit

Tivit, Seller Of Secrets by Chris Rahn

Tivit, Seller Of Secrets is a more midrange cEDH deck as opposed to quicker combo decks. The deck wins slowly, stopping your opponents from their game-winning plays and out-resourcing them until you're ready to combo off yourself. Thanks to its Esper colors, you get access to many of the best cEDH cards.

Both the deck's biggest strength and weakness is the commander. Tivit. While strong, it costs a hefty six mana to cast. The deck runs multiple rituals like Cabal Ritual and Dark Ritual to be able to cast it quicker since the deck can't play much traditional ramp.

It can be slow to cast, and if it gets countered or removed it becomes much harder to close out games. If Tivit does hit the battlefield, removing it is much harder due to good stats and abilities.

You play a very small amount of creatures in your deck, relying more on tutors and your commander to get to your key combo pieces. Since one of them is always in the command zone, you can be reserved casting Tivit until you are ready to start comboing with Time Sieve.

If Tivit is on the battlefield, you can utilize blink effects with Displacer Kitten to make more tokens or create a copy with Phyrexian Metamorph.

Since there are many ways to create infinite combos without your commander, Tivit has multiple win conditions that can be achieved if one of them is ever shut down. The Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward combo doesn't need Tivit to win, and can simply be used to create an infinite army of 1/1 tokens to win the game with.

It also has the cEDH staple Thassa's Oracle combos to win the game rather easily if no one can interact with it - made even easier with cards like Teferi, Time Raveler and Silence that prevent your opponents from playing spells on your turn.

As for starting hands, you generally want a mana rock and a tutor or ways to get to your stall and combo pieces. Since your deck is going to veer toward the slower side of things, ways that dissuade your opponents from playing too fast or holding back their best cards are key.

It's not a bad idea to be more lenient on mulligans, as even if you do have to put any cards back, there is plenty of card draw in the deck that can help catch you back up.

Next: Magic: The Gathering – Everything You Need To Know About cEDH