Lizards in our Gevernment

Format: Commander

Commander: Gev, Scaled Scorch

Bracket: 4

Deck overview

This is a Rakdos aristocrats/persist combo deck helmed by Gev, Scaled Scorch. Gev's static ability - other creatures enter with an additional +1/+1 counter once an opponent has lost life, which his own Lizard cast trigger guarantees - cancels persist's -1/-1 counter on every re-entry, enabling infinite persist loops. The primary win is assembling a persist creature (Murderous Redcap, Putrid Goblin, Lesser Masticore) with a counter enabler (Gev, First Day of Class, Metallic Mimic), a sacrifice outlet (Viscera Seer, Carrion Feeder, Goblin Bombardment), and a payoff (Redcap's ETB damage, Bombardment, or Blood Artist-style drain). Secondary lines include Twinflame + Dualcaster Mage for infinite hasty tokens and Bolas's Citadel as an engine and alternate payoff. The deck is fast, tutor-dense, and built to win through one compact, heavily redundant loop.

Decklist (100 cards)

  • 1 Abrade
  • 1 Ad Nauseam
  • 1 Agate Instigator
  • 1 Animate Dead
  • 1 Arcane Signet
  • 1 Bastion of Remembrance
  • 1 Bitter Triumph
  • 1 Blackcleave Cliffs
  • 1 Blood Artist
  • 1 Blood Crypt
  • 1 Boggart Trawler // Boggart Bog
  • 1 Bojuka Bog
  • 1 Bolas's Citadel
  • 1 Braids, Arisen Nightmare
  • 1 Buried Alive
  • 1 Burnt Offering
  • 1 Carrion Feeder
  • 1 Come Back Wrong
  • 1 Command Tower
  • 1 Conqueror's Flail
  • 1 Culling the Weak
  • 1 Dark Petition
  • 1 Dark Ritual
  • 1 Deadly Dispute
  • 1 Desperate Ritual
  • 1 Diabolic Intent
  • 1 Diabolic Tutor
  • 1 Disturbed Burial
  • 1 Dragonskull Summit
  • 1 Dread Return
  • 1 Dross Skullbomb
  • 1 Drossforge Bridge
  • 1 Dualcaster Mage
  • 1 Exotic Orchard
  • 1 Faithless Looting
  • 1 Feed the Swarm
  • 1 Fellwar Stone
  • 1 Fireglass Mentor
  • 1 First Day of Class
  • 1 Flamecache Gecko
  • 1 Foreboding Ruins
  • 1 Gamble
  • 1 Gev, Scaled Scorch
  • 1 Goblin Bombardment
  • 1 Goblin Matron
  • 1 Great Furnace
  • 1 Hexing Squelcher
  • 1 Impact Tremors
  • 1 Imperial Recruiter
  • 1 Lesser Masticore
  • 1 Light Up the Stage
  • 1 Lightning Bolt
  • 1 Long Goodbye
  • 1 Lotus Petal
  • 1 Luxury Suite
  • 1 Mausoleum Secrets
  • 1 Mayhem Devil
  • 1 Metallic Mimic
  • 1 Mind Stone
  • 1 Mount Doom
  • 2 Mountain
  • 1 Mudflat Village
  • 1 Murderous Redcap
  • 1 Party Thrasher
  • 1 Persist
  • 1 Professional Face-Breaker
  • 1 Putrid Goblin
  • 1 Pyroblast
  • 1 Red Elemental Blast
  • 1 Ricochet Trap
  • 1 Saw in Half
  • 1 Shivan Gorge
  • 1 Sign in Blood
  • 1 Simian Spirit Guide
  • 1 Skirk Prospector
  • 1 Skullclamp
  • 1 Smoldering Marsh
  • 1 Sneak Attack
  • 1 Sol Ring
  • 1 Spire of Industry
  • 1 Spymaster's Vault
  • 1 Sulfurous Springs
  • 1 Swamp
  • 1 Tainted Peak
  • 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
  • 1 Talisman of Indulgence
  • 1 The Autonomous Furnace
  • 1 Tormod's Crypt
  • 1 Toxic Deluge
  • 1 Twinflame
  • 1 Unearth
  • 1 Vandalblast
  • 1 Village Rites
  • 1 Viscera Seer
  • 1 Widow-Making Infiltrator
  • 1 Wishclaw Talisman
  • 1 Withering Torment
  • 1 Woe Strider
  • 1 Zulaport Cutthroat