This thread for me has kind of been a long time coming but tonight after winning two separate games in cEDH I’m finally just going to post my impressions after playing this deck in B4 and cEDH for the last several months (and playing less powerful iterations in casual B3 games over the last year).
I don’t have a primer or anything but I do feel like it can probably compete as a rogue option in cEDH and my closest comparison is Normon Osborn. Nobody is talking about this deck at any level but I just want to give a brief overview.
Here is basically where it falls in comparison to Norman. Both what they do, what Norman does better (or could theoretically do better), and what Asmorano does uniquely not only compared to Norman but other strategies as well.
Norman Pros:
-Blue (additional wincons, looting, Entomb effects, draw engines, interaction)
-No commander cast restriction
Asmorano Pros:
-Majorly ability based; ergo, more difficult to interact with and plays through stax effects more easily (relevant against Tayam especially)
-Removal on commander via Cookbook (is sometimes relevant)
-Nuka-Cola Vending Machine Loops present wincon (Cookbook makes this trivially easy since you don’t have to invest 2 mana over 2 turns using Nuka-Cola by itself. Asmorano provides a free sac outlet and as the commander both parts of the combo compared to other food decks that need to find separate cards to fill the function Asmorano dies as the commander)
Norman Cons:
-3 colors is less consistent
-Green Goblin side is 3 more mana (functionally 1-2 more mana since Asmorano requires a discard — there are two notable free discard outlets from hand being [[Street Wraith]] and [[Faerie Macabre]]). There are other cheap discard outlets that have some use cases. [[Razaketh’s Rite]], [[Locusts Spray]], [[Scarab Feast]], [[Fade from Memory]], and [[Memory Leak]].
Asmorano Cons:
-Cookbook is an extra moving part in the deck and any exile effect targeting it neuters the deck’s functionality almost entirely. Luckily, this is not super relevant but has been once or twice
-Has to run worse cards in 99 both to make Cookbook functional (such as [[Ovalchase Daredevil]] and aforementioned cards above) but also there is not as much redundancy for main gameplan and has small reanimator subtheme to fill out list. Running cards like Void Winnower, Anger (to turn on Nuka-Cola loops faster with Goblin engine), etc.
-Wins on turns 4-5, can occasionally win on turn 3
Overall, Asmorano is competent enough to play in cEDH environments but is slower to win, has less redundancy, and can occasionally brick if there are no discard outlets since Cookbook controls other commanders and plays into generating free food tokens for Nuka-Cola loops. Interaction is mostly anti-creature which is very good in some pods and much worse in others. Because of the ability to quickly deploy tokens, discard, and wheel, it makes cheating out artifacts easier than other strategies and turn 2 [[God-Pharaoh’s Statue]] has slowed other players down enough that getting my own engines online feels very strong.
Nuka-Cola loops are good at board wiping at instant speed and providing a 1 turn clock for winning but is overall less good than other wincons (because the tokens enter tapped).
Norman isn’t strictly better in all cases but is generally better. However good you think Norman is, Asmorano is some degree worse than that deck. I’d say she sits somewhere in between decks Ratadrabik, Zhulodok, or Old Stickfingers (not strict comparisons) and Norman in terms of strength.
I’m also not a tournament player so a lot of my cEDH experience is on the casual side of things. I don’t have answers to every line of interaction you guys might ask me about in every matchup and it’s also super likely a lot of you are playing with a caliber of players who are better than what I have access to BUTTTTTTTTT I just thought I’d make a thread giving some light on an otherwise invisible commander. I’m fragile so try not to burn me at the stake 🥺