Long Feng, Grand SecretariatLong Feng, Grand Secretariat | Art by Robin Har

Do you like creature toolbox decks? How about low-color challenges in a format teaming with high-color piles? Last but not least, are you a fan of Pauper all-star Basking BroodscaleBasking Broodscale?

Well then boy oh boy do I have a deck for you; let's talk about how to build Long Feng, Grand SecretariatLong Feng, Grand Secretariat in cEDH.

What Does Long Feng, Grand SecretariatLong Feng, Grand Secretariat Do?

For , Long Feng, Grand Secretariat is a 2/3 legendary Human Advisor creature with "Whenever a creature or land card you control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control."

On its face, Long Feng doesn't do terribly much. Competitive Commander isn't exactly stuffed full of +1/+1 counter synergies, save for a small handful of cards. Fortunately, that handful can be turned into brutally effective cards when put to good use, and Long Feng helps us do exactly that.

So, while playing a low-color deck can feel like a liability these days, Long Feng goes a long way towards allowing you to extract all the value possible from the Golgari value pile it assembles.

Key Cards for Long Feng, Grand SecretariatLong Feng, Grand Secretariat

Sacrifice Triggers

First off, we need a way to actually trigger Long Feng. Fortunately for us, this can be done through two different ways: isolated instances, and outlets.

An auto-include that also synergizes.

Starting with the isolated instances, the first batch of cards on our list are the fetch lands. Long Feng triggers whenever a creature or land is put into a graveyard, a notable addition to the common trigger condition of creatures dying.

In order to make the most of this (and to streamline our mana base), it goes without saying that this deck runs every fetch land it can get its hands on, plus City of TraitorsCity of Traitors - a land that sacrifices itself when you play another land. Similarly, value pieces like Dauthi VoidwalkerDauthi Voidwalker can, in a pinch, turn themselves into that much-needed death trigger.

Looking at outlets, this deck includes value engines like Yawgmoth, Thran PhysicianYawgmoth, Thran Physician and Razaketh, the FoulbloodedRazaketh, the Foulblooded, each of which gain new life thanks to their costs of sacrificing creatures. On top of already being pretty excellent cards in their own rights, both also serve to place a +1/+1 counter at instant speed.

Payoffs

Once we get the +1/+1 counter engine going, two payoffs immediately pop out: mana and card advantage.

Starting with the premier mana advantage in the deck (and also a combo piece), we first come to Basking BroodscaleBasking Broodscale. Importantly, whenever this creature gets a +1/+1 counter placed on it, you'll create an Eldrazi Spawn token, which has "Sacrifice this creature: Add ."

Pair that with Long Feng's trigger, and suddenly you have an infinite mana engine. Sacrifice the Spawn, put the resulting counter on Broodscale, create a Spawn, then rinse and repeat.

Next up, while it may not be a loop, Evolution WitnessEvolution Witness presents this deck with an excellent opportunity to recur cards repeatedly as the game goes on. A 2/1 for , this creature has allows you to return a permanent card from your graveyard to your hand whenever one or more +1/+1 counters are placed on it.

Crack a fetch land? That lets you get a card back. Activate Razaketh? You can get a card back. Best of all, because of the way triggers can be stacked, you can return the same card you sacrificed with Evolution Witness's ability. (The card will be put into a graveyard as part of the sacrifice cost, then Long Feng Will trigger, placing a counter. Last but not least, Evolution Witness will trigger, with the sacrificed card being in the graveyard and thus a valid target.)

How Does Long Feng, Grand SecretariatLong Feng, Grand Secretariat Win?

Ultimately, winning the game with Long Feng comes down to one key card: Basking Broodscale. Like I mentioned before, this card, when paired with the deck's commander, produces infinite colorless mana, infinite enters triggers, and infinite leaves triggers.

So, without an infinite mana outlet in the command zone, how do we make use of this? There are two possible routes.

Walking BallistaWalking Ballista is the most straightforward. Make an arbitrarily large amount of mana, pour the mana into an arbitrarily large Walking Ballista, then remove enough counters from Walking Ballista to deal sufficient damage to the rest of the table.

As for Glaring FleshrakerGlaring Fleshraker, things are slightly more complicated, as the damage here is caused by having colorless creatures entering the battlefield (remember, the Eldrazi Spawn are colorless).

While both Walking Ballista and Glaring Fleshraker serve as two-card combos (not counting Long Feng), Glaring Fleshraker does have the slight downside of being stoppable by cards which prevent enters-the-battlefield triggers, a decently common stax effect in cEDH (whenever stax rears its head, that is).

Both of these combos are compact, cost effective (once you have infinite mana, the rest pretty readily falls into place), and, best of all, solely creature based.

cEDH is awash with noncreature interaction, but the suite of creature-counters (especially for nonblue creatures) is pretty limited.

Long Feng, Grand SecretariatLong Feng, Grand Secretariat cEDH Deck List

Wrap Up

Is Long Feng going to be the next top tier cEDH deck? No, definitely not. Is it a unique puzzle box of creature value that can readily create infinite mana with nothing but a two-mana Lizard and its commander? Yes, and that cost-effective exploit is something to keep an eye on.

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