The Unique Jodah, The Unifier Decks Variety Hour

Jodah, the Unifier is one of the most popular commanders in all of EDH. There are well over a thousand Jodah decks. It does it all. Jodah, the Unifier has a great static ability and triggered ability, so if it’s on the battlefield, it’s controlling the game. However, many Jodah decks are simply “Legendary Good Stuff” decks. So, this article will look at unique Jodah, the Unifier decks. Ones that have specific themes to give it a bit more depth than jamming the best legendary cards into a deck.

Universal Jodah Cards

There are a lot of cards that are great in Jodah, the Unifier decks. Even in themed Jodah lists, you still want to play them because they’re just too powerful to omit. They also help to add some much-welcomed consistency, something that WUBRG decks need a lot of. You need access to all your colors to actually cast Jodah, the Unifier and all your other cards, after all.

Mana Rocks

The mana rock suite is mostly shared across all the decklists in this article. For starters, Relic of Legends is a must-run in Jodah, as it is the best color fixing available. Almost all your creatures are legendary, so you can turn all your creatures into mana dorks. Honor-Worn Shaku serves a very similar function, although it can only provide colorless mana. In Five-Color decks, Chromatic Lantern is a staple, as it helps to ensure you’re never missing a specific color of mana.

Lands

Although it won’t be present in every list, Great Hall of the Citadel is useful in lists that are majority legendary permanents, as it’s essentially a WUBRG land for Five-Color decks. Similarly, Cascading Cataracts can turn five mana into five mana of any color, letting you create whatever color you need to cast whatever is in your hand. The World Tree is the most useful land. Even though it’s a tapland, it lets you use all your lands to create whatever color of mana you want, though you have to wait until you have six lands to do so. Luckily, it counts itself, so you only need five on top of The World Tree.

Ramp and Wipes

Toxic Deluge is the most common board wipe, as it’s usually guaranteed to be one-sided. Your battlefield is frequently going to have massive stats, so you won’t have to worry about your creatures dying. Urza's Ruinous Blast exiles all nonland permanents. While your creatures will be fine, the one downside is that most of your artifacts and enchantments won’t be. You also always have the usual ramp package of Farseek, Nature's Lore, and Rampant Growth.

Jodah Shrines

When it comes to Shrines, you usually expect a commander made specifically for Shrines. Commanders such as Go-Shintai of Life's Origin, Hei Bai, Forest Guardian, or even Sisay, Weatherlight Captain are much more common Shrine commanders. Instead, Jodah, the Unifier essentially gives all your Shrines cascade, since every Shrine card is a legendary spell. Although they aren’t the commander, they are included in the 99.

There are four distinct cycles of Shrines. Go-Shintai (Go-Shintai of Lost Wisdom) are creatures with effects that trigger at the end step and require you to pay a mana to activate them. The Hoden cycle (Honden of Infinite Rage) triggers at the start of your upkeep. Then there is the Sanctum cycle (Sanctum of Stone Fangs) which activate at the start of the precombat main phase. Lastly, there is the cycle from the Avatar: The Last Airbender set, which don’t have a naming convention (Southern Air Temple), which triggers when they enter, and also triggers whenever another Shrine enters.

There is some fun tech you can open to add a little variety. Bello, Bard of the Brambles can turn a lot of your Shrines into creatures that give you card draw. To help trigger some extra upkeeps, Paradox Haze and Obeka, Splitter of Seconds help get extra Shrine triggers.

A sample decklist can be viewed below. The game plan of the deck is very simple: play a bunch of Shrines, and let them do the work for you.

Jodah, Honorary Time Lord

As the title of this section might imply, this build of Jodah, the Unifier is built around Time Lords. It features all 17 Doctor cards, from The First Doctor to The Fifteenth Doctor. It even has the “offshoot” Doctors like The War Doctor and The Fugitive Doctor.

The most important card of the deck is Gallifrey Stands. It’s an alternate win condition that wins you the game at the upkeep, so long as you control 13 or more Doctors. There are 17 named Doctors, but Doctor is a creature type. So, Maskwood Nexus makes all your creatures into Doctors. Cards like Irma, Part-Time Mutant and Chameleon, Master of Disguise can become copies of Doctors and since they keep their name, they won’t be sacrificed to the legend rule. Even if Gallifrey Stands fails, you can still win just through combat with Jodah, the Unifier‘s effect.

There are a surprising number of tutors for Doctors. For one, The Five Doctors can get five Doctors from your library or graveyard back to your hand. If you have mana to kick it, those go to the battlefield to set up with a ton of creatures. The Eleventh Hour tutors for a Doctor card and lets you copy a creature, meaning it can also provide another Doctor on the battlefield. Twice Upon a Time tutors for a Doctor and can later be used as an extra turn spell. It’s especially useful if you’re one upkeep away from a Gallifrey Stands win.

A sample decklist can be viewed below. Go forth and try to save Gallifrey with Jodah, the honorary Time Lord.

Oops All Furries

There are a ton of anthropomorphic animals in Magic. One of it’s main characters is Ajani, the Greathearted (which features in this deck). So, what if instead of playing only legendary cards, every nonland permanent and non-ramp spell features an anthropomorphic animal of some kind? There are a few minor exceptions, like Maelstrom Nexus and Jodah's Codex, which helps provide draw power. But hey, we can just pretend it’s Jodah’s book where he keeps all his OCs in.

Despite the restriction, there are some very good creatures. Sovereign Okinec Ahau is one of the best, as whenever it attacks, the stat boost Jodah, the Unifier provides is permanent, as they get +1/+1 counters equal to the difference between their current power and base power. With a full battlefield, Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist can shut down your opponents’ ability to block. So long as it’s attacking, only one block can be done per opponent. With Jodah powering everyone up, this usually means lethal damage. You’ll have a ton of creatures, so Jetmir, Nexus of Revels gives a ton of useful abilities and stat boosts.

Since the majority of your deck is legendary, Search for Dagger helps to dig for your best legendary creatures. Nature's Will assists with ramping post-combat, something the deck appreciates since its mana-intensive. Brokers Ascendancy provides a constant stream of +1/+1 counters to make your creatures even more of a threat.

A sample decklist can be viewed below. A few regular animals made it through, but the deck is 90% anthropomorphic ones.

Jodah the Party Leader

With the Universes Beyond product line, Magic has had a lot of crossovers. Of these crossovers, there have been multiple RPGs, most notably Fallout and Final Fantasy. So, this build puts Jodah, the Unifier front and center as the party leader, and the 99 includes only characters from RPGs. There are mana rocks like Bugenhagen, Wise Elder and ramp cards like The Regalia to help cover bases that would otherwise be lost.

There are some great natural support cards in the deck. Serah Farron discounts the first legendary spell you cast, and gives them a big boost if it transforms. Gogo, Master of Mimicry can copy your Jodah, the Unifier triggers. So, if you have mana to spend, you can come out with a ton of extra creatures for the price of one. Your creatures will always have high stats, so Tifa, Martial Artist can dish out extra combat steps with ease. If you attack three different players, that’s 3 extra untaps and combats you get.

Even creatures with effects that aren’t great are solid additions because they have useful ability keywords. Freya Crescent won’t do anything with its effect, but just having a creature with flying is useful (though it’s only on your turn). You play Noctis, Prince of Lucis more for its lifelink, but on rare occasions, you’ll want to cast an artifact from your graveyard. In a similar fashion, Garnet, Princess of Alexandria isn’t going to be removing counters from saga, but combined with Jodah, the Unifier, it’ll instead focus on gaining you a ton of life.

A sample decklist can be viewed below. To keep with the “RPG protagonist” theme, only heroes are included, no villains (or characters you can recruit to your party in their respective games).

Jodah, Sleeper Agent

During the Dominaria United storyline (the set Jodah, the Unifier comes from), Ajani was taken by Phyrexians and compleated (converted into a Phyrexian). This build is more of a “What If?” with Jodah leading a deck full of Praetors and Phyrexians. It even has Realmbreaker, the Invasion Tree to help pierce the multiverse. Since there are so many Phyrexians, Phyrexian Censor limits your opponents while hardly affecting you. Grafted Butcher can keep reanimating itself to constantly trigger its enter-the-battlefield effect.

There are 5 main Preators, one for each color. Sheoldred, Jin-Gitaxias, Vorinclex, Elesh Norn, and Urabrask. Each of them have been a part of three different card cycles, and just like their power in the lore, all of them have powerful effects on the battlefield. Jodah, the Unifier helps to get them all on the battlefield quicker, since most of them have high casting costs.

There is a subtheme of Incubation. These are tokens that enter with +1/+1 counters that can transform into creatures. Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos is the main generator, as all your Phyrexian and artifact spells come with an Incubator token. Glissa, Herald of Predation can make multiple Incubator tokens during combat, or transform all of them without having to pay mana. If you don’t need that, it provides a few great abilities to your Phyrexians. All of your Incubator tokens have counters, so Atraxa, Praetors' Voice constantly grows them with more stats.

A sample decklist can be viewed below. With a ton of Phyrexians and a corrupt Jodah, the Unifier at the helm, spread compleat perfection through the multiverse.

Keeping Things Interesting

Jodah, the Unifier is one of those commanders that have countless ways to build them. Thanks to being WUBRG, you’re never restricted by colors, allowing you to brew whatever Jodah build you want. You could build a deck made entirely out of Nobles if you wanted.

If you want a powerful deck, you can play a fully optimized Jodah, the Unifier list, you can. Just throw in some fetchlands, all the best “legendary matters” cards, and call it a day. It just isn’t particularly original (but can still be fun!). A major benefit of Jodah is just how wide of a net it casts. There are quite literally limitless ways to build it. So, if you’re deciding to build a Jodah, the Unifier deck, build it as unique or “basic” as you want it to be.

Something that makes Jodah, the Unifier special is how much variety it offers. It is one of the most expressive commanders out there, despite how common it is. Part of the reason why Jodah is so popular is because of how much you can do with it. You can have multiple versions of Jodah you can bust out for different power levels or gimmicks, such as themed Commander nights.

In Conclusion

Jodah, the Unifier is a deck that can make people roll their eyes. There are countless Jodah decks out there, some with novelty like the ones shown in this article, and some more “standard” just playing the best legendary cards. Nothing is wrong with either of these, play whatever you find fun at the end of the day!

Part of the fun of Commander is finding all the weird things you can do with various commanders. It allows you to get creative and come up with unique themes for all sorts of decks. With Jodah, the Unifier, you can get real weird and funky with it.