commander-of-the-week

[commander-of-the-week]

Commander of the Week

Licia, Sanguine Tribune

It's been so long, and I have a really interesting take on Licia. Her ability hints a life gain build with the ability to pay life in order to make her more powerful. But what if we were to do the opposite of gain life and instead focus on getting to the lowest possible life in order to kill people with life manipulation effects. That is the Licia deck that I have in mind.

Throwing your life away

My original draft of this deck had many more ways to lose your own life but some of those methods weren't creature based or were really expensive to cast essentially leaving me open to damage from other sources which makes the win conditions even more unpredictable. I've found Wall of Blood, Erebos, God of the Dead and Treasonous Ogre to be very effective creature-based ways of losing large amounts of life. Each player's life can be quickly dropped with cards like Fraying Omnipotence, Torgaar, Famine Incarnate and Heartless Hidetsugu. Virtus the Veiled is also good for whittling life totals if he gets through.

Turning the Tables

I've confused many people with how this deck works, and then completely surprised them when they potentially die at the same time. Repay in Kind is the main win condition, but anything that switches life totals is good too, such as Soul Conduit, Reverse the Sands and Axis of Immortality. Of course Demonic Pact and Harmless Offering are also in the deck to quickly wipe out an unprepared player. Near-Death Experience is also in here just for lols but I don't think it'll ever win that way.

Going Sub-Zero

There may be a chance that you may have to go below zero life while playing this deck. So unless you have a way to prevent a loss from this such as Phyrexian Unlife, Lich's Mastery or Platinum Angel, it's going to be pretty miserable, but if you do, it will make the victory all the sweeter. Stunning Reversal, Worship and Angel's Grace can also stop the inexorable crawl towards death by giving you an extra turn or two to find a way to level the playing field.

Other Useful Cards

The usual suspects such as Ghostly Prison, Norn's Annex and Windborn Muse and True Believer can slow down external damage and give you a nice controlled decline towards zero life. Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs is another of my favourite cards because it deters ground based combat. Evra, Halcyon Witness is another super quick way to reduce your life total to potentially end the game that turn. And then anything that allows you to pay life for perks is also good such as Necropotence, Bitterblossom and Phyrexian Processor.

And Finally...

I've wanted to build a deck with this strategy since I found Repay in Kind when it was first released, I just wish there were more cards with this effect. Lands could include the pain lands such as Battlefield Forge, Caves of Koilos and Sulfurous Springs, as well as City of Brass and Mana Confluence that help that decline. Fetch lands also work, though they are expensive. I love the idea of this deck and hope I can find a way to make it work better. I do hope you find this both helpful and fun and until next time. Happy Deck Building

[commander-of-the-week]

Commander of the Week

Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder

There are so many ways to build Yidris; Voltron, Spell-Slinging etc. I naturally wanted to go the mill route. I know that the best mill colors are indisputably blue and black, but the addition of red gives us access to wheel effects and green gives us access to ramp and enchantment removal so I thought why not go for a four color mill deck instead. I have tested and it actually works better than I expected it to. Yidris hit's pretty hard too and allows you to potentially chain cast multiple mill and wheel effects with his cascade ability. 

First, Ramp 

The presence of green makes ramping easy. We could use elves such as Priest of Titania, Gyre Sage and Elvish Archdruid. Enchantments such as Kruphix, God of Horizons, Burgeoning and Exploration also make ramping really easy. Cryptolith Rite and Paradox Engine also go really well together to really make spells pay for themselves. Also, if I’ve learned anything there’s always one (usually me) who falls for the Tempt with Discovery trick too allowing you to get way more ahead. 

Utter Chaos 

Hopefully no one is keeping their hands beyond a certain point, due to the wheeling. Effects such as Jace’s Archivist, Windfall, Wheel of Fate, Teferi’s Puzzle Box and Reforge the Soul will all make certain that your opponents can’t make long term strategies. especially if you can chain cast multiple using Yidris’s ability. This constant drawing and discarding of cards will hopefully be useful to us later. 

Drawing and Discarding 

Of course we’re going to be taking advantage of these wheel effects with creatures like Nekusar the Mindrazer, Psychosis Crawler and Fate Unraveler. Megrim, Liliana’s Caress, Nath of the Gilt Leaf and Waste Not can be used to take advantage of them discarding too. These effects combined with the milling can potentially whittle down their libraries at a significant rate. The Locust God could also be really useful in this deck to take even more advantage of drawing.

That’s a nice hand you’ve got there... 

If the incremental damage taken from drawing isn’t enough to kill them. I’m hoping that the number of cards in their hand will. Effects like that of Sudden Impact, Fevered Visions and Ebony Owl Netsuke as well as Dreamborn Muse making them mill equal to the number of cards in their hand will hopefully help to finish them off. 

And Finally...  

I thought that since this deck is four colors, I thought that it might be a good idea to use lands with cycling, which can be combined with certain effects in the deck. Lands such as the relevant Deserts, Sheltered Thicket, Fetid Pools and Slippery Karst as well as any lands that tap for any color such as Command Tower, Path of Ancestry and Exotic Orchard. Just combine any of these cards with your favorite mill effects and you should be able to give them hell. I hope you find this both helpful and fun and until next time, Happy Deck Building.

[commander-of-the-week]

An ancient game of wit and skill

[commander-of-the-week]

My O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami deck on tapped out

[commander-of-the-week]

Commander of the Week

O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami 

How about a deck that gives the opponents an incentive to attack each other and leave you alone, for the most part. And if they do attack you, they take a pile of penalties and misery. Well this deck is designed to do that. O-Kagachi is a 6/6 for 6 mana in all five colors that has flying and trample and has his revenge by exiling permanents if you are attacked. 

Don’t look at me... 

There are quite a few effects that give your opponent a benefit for attacking or targeting someone else. Gahiji, Honored One and Crown of Doom both give creatures +2/+0 if an opponent is attacked instead. Edric, Spymaster of Trest and Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist allow opponents to draw cards if another player besides you loses life or is dealt damage.

...Or Else

A few downsides to attacking or dealing damage to you. Slumbering Dragon gets bigger if an opponent attacks you. Isperia, Supreme Judge allows you to draw cards for each creature attacking you and Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs gives you Ogre tokens when creatures attack you. There are also enchantments such as Hissing Miasma, Blood Reckoning and Marchesa’s Decree that cause your opponents to lose life for each creature attacking you. I’ve recently added Karmic Justice to mine too, to deter them from destroying my permanents.

Your efforts are futile 

Once other players see that their damage is going to get through thanks to some of the enchantments and other spells mentioned below they may look elsewhere. Ghostly Prison, Propaganda, Norn’s Annex, Windborn Muse and Sphere of Safety all put taxes on each creature attacking, which is definitely a deterrent. In Blue, you have spells that effectively end combat or make it go in a different direction, these include Reins of Power, Aetherize, Aetherspouts and Illusionist’s Gambit. White has some similar spells including Settle the Wreckage, Riot Control, Chronomantic Escape and Comeuppance.  

I’m Not Asking, I’m Telling 

If you’re afraid of creatures coming at you, there are a few ways to make sure that they don’t. As well as those above, you also have Goad abilities such as Grenzo, Havoc Raiser, Disrupt Decorum, Besmirch, Jeering Homunculus and Goblin Racketeer. If an opponent is keeping something back, you can force it to attack by goading it or using Alluring Siren or Fumiko the Lowblood. Any of the Vow enchantments will ensure that creatures can’t attack you and give them a pretty hefty bonus too, Vow of Wildness, Flight and Malice are the better ones however as the other two give first strike and vigilance which would be detrimental to us later. If you are attacked just attack them with O-Kagachi next turn and exile one their permanents. 

And Finally... 

I have forty lands in this deck and have Glacial Chasm, Mystifying Maze, Maze of Ith as well as any land that can produce one of any color. A Chromatic Lantern and/or Fist of Suns is sorely needed too to ease mana costs. I have played this deck a few times and find it really fun, it is by no means competitive though. I do hope you find this both helpful and fun and until next time. Happy Deck Building. 

[commander-of-the-week]

Commander of the Week

Triad of Fates/Oloro Ageless Ascetic 

I really like the flicker/blink effect. Although there are commanders specifically built for this purpose such as Brago, King Eternal and Roon of the Hidden Realm, I thought i’d build one with black in it instead of green to gain access to certain unpleasant abilities. I’ve built several decks around Oloro, who I chose because you have access to blue and more blink abilities. But I’ve never built one around the other one. So Triad of Fates is a black and white legendary 3/3 for 4 mana with a rather slow but interesting fate counter mechanic allowing you flicker your own creatures and exile your opponent’s creatures if they have a fate counter on them. 

Blinking with and without Blue 

This deck was supposed to originally be just black and white and built around the Triad of Fates, which means we don’t have access to blue and the main flickering abilities. White has a few however, such as Cloudshift, Eerie Interlude, Ghostway, Long Road Home and Kaya, Ghost Assassin. But if we use Oloro as the commander instead, we then get Ghostly Flicker, Venser, the Sojourner, Brago, King Eternal, Essence Flux and Deadeye Navigator in addition to the ones in white. We also get bounce abilities such as Sunken Hope, Cache Raiders and Familiar’s Ruse, which allow us to recur unpleasant effects. 

Exiling Things is Exhausting

The only problem with Triad of Fates is you have to tap them to do each of their three abilities. this means we’re going to need something else so that we can do multiple things each turn. Thousand-Year Elixir allows us to untap a creature and gives creatures the ability to tap as though it had haste. Magewright’s Stone allows us to untap a creature than has a tap to activate ability. Rings of Brighthearth and Illusionist’s Bracers can both copy an activated ability. since we’re blinking or recasting things Panharmonicon will also be really good so that we can get the ETB effect essentially twice. Angel of Condemnation also benefits from these abilities as it has similar abilities to those of the Triad. 

Can’t Touch This. 

Flickering is quite useful, it can be used in response to a creature being targeted or it can be used to recur useful abilities such as that of Sun Titan, Reveillark or Gray Merchant of Asphodel. It also triggers effects like that of Extractor Demon or Hidden Stockpile that trigger when things leave the battlefield. Other useful flicker targets are Angel of Despair, Karmic Guide, Shriekmaw and Fleshbag Marauder. 

...Or Me 

Since we’re flickering a lot, the chances are we’re not going to have many creatures on the battlefield. We may need additional protection such as things that prevent combat or creatures from attacking you specifically or things that prevent you from being targeted. Aegis of the Gods is good example of the latter. Ghostly Prison, Windborn Muse and Sphere of Safety are all good examples of the former. Stonehorn Dignitary is a good way of preventing combat steps. If you take the Oloro route instead you also gain access to Propaganda, Illusionist’s Gambit, Reins of Power and Aetherize which are in all my blue decks to really screw with combat.

And Finally... 

Lands could include Glacial Chasm, Mystifying Maze and Spires of Orazca (Thaumatic Compass) to prevent any damage to you. Bojuka Bog, Halimar Depths and Reliquary Tower are always good too. I will hopefully have a list for this deck soon and I will post it shortly. I hope you find this both helpful and fun and until next time, Happy Deck Building.

[commander-of-the-week]

My Tariel, Reckoner of Souls deck on tapped out

[commander-of-the-week]

Commander of the Week

Tariel, Reckoner of Souls 

A little while back, I came up with this mardu colored reanimator deck around Tariel, Reckoner of Souls based on a mono-white reanimator deck I built some time ago. Tariel is a 4/7 for 7 Mana with Flying and the ability to tap and take a random creature from an opponent’s graveyard. A little overpriced, but with all the creatures we already have, we may not need her at all. 

A “Slight” Angel Subtheme 

Okay so when I was building this deck I found that the creature base is mostly angels. But they make such good reanimation targets and I have wanted an Angel deck for a while so I just left it alone. I find that Angel of Despair, Angel of Serenity and Exquisite Archangel are some solid examples of this creature type, all with powerful abilities and good targets for reanimation. Of course then we have some legendary angels like the Avacyns, the Giselas and Bruna, the Fading Light as well as Anya, Merciless Angel who also make powerful additions to such a deck. 

Making Tariel Work 

To make Tariel work, we need to get your opponent’s creatures into the graveyard. We can do this with a few milling abilities such as Altar of Dementia and Dread Summons. The wipe spell Life’s Finale is also really good for this as you can wipe the board and then go through an opponent’s library for any three creatures to put into their graveyard. Thousand-Year Elixir is also good as it allows you to activate her ability essentially twice or attack and then activate the ability. 

Or we could just... 

...Reanimate our creatures using any of the reanimate abilities present in the deck. Since this deck has an Angel theme, Defy Death is a very good reanimation spell. Obzedat’s Aid is another good spell to this effect. Reya Dawnbringer is very expensive but allows you to return creatures directly to the battlefield on each of your turns. There is always Marshal’s Anthem which is a good Anthem and reanimates creatures equal to the number of times it was kicked though this requires a lot of white mana. To close there is always Rise of the Dark Realms, for when you absolutely must have all the creatures in all graveyards.

Anyone here not an Angel? 

Some of the creatures present in this deck aren’t Angels. Some other reanimator favourites such as Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Duplicant and Rune-Scarred Demon are also in here. The other Praetor, Sheoldred, Whispering One is also here and has a reanimation ability herself, so she’ll fit right in. I’ve lately realised the value of Yahenni, Undying Partisan and bought one for every black deck as she is a really good sac outlet that’s hard to get rid of. 

And Finally... 

So we have a sort of angel tribal deck here. Emeria the Sky Ruin though requiring a lot of plains to work, is a great land in any reanimator shell. if you can afford a Cavern of Souls it might be good here to avoid your commander and/or your other creatures getting countered. Bojuka Bog may seem counter intuitive but reanimator is a popular archetype and so this always comes in handy.  Don’t forget to check out the list which I will post shortly and I do hope you find this both helpful and fun and until next time, Happy Deck Building. 

[commander-of-the-week]

Kozilek, the Great Distortion

[commander-of-the-week]

Commander of the Week

Kresh, the Bloodbraided 

I’ve decided to revamp my old Hapatra Vizier of Poisons deck that I did some weeks ago with a third color. Kresh the Bloodbraided seems the most promising of all the potential Legendary Creatures in these colors as his +1/+1 counter ability counteracts -1/-1 counters, making him a great target for such abilities. Kresh is a 3/3 for 5 mana in jund colors with the ability to gain +1/+1 counters equal to the power of any creatures that die. He gets big pretty quickly.

The addition of Red

As you have probably seen from Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons article and deck list, black and green have interesting ways to get -1/-1 counters on things, Red gives us even more. We now have access to the new Scorpion God which draws us cards when creatures with -1/-1 counters on them die.  We now also have access to Kulrath Knight, who is just brilliant, as he has Wither and prevents any creature with any counters on it from attacking or blocking. Everlasting Torment gets rid of that annoying life gain and gives everything Wither. We also gain access to creatures such as Soul-Scar Mage, Morselhoarder and Stigma Lasher, which all have cool abilities surrounding -1/-1 counters. 

Hour of Devastation gives us..? 

Since my Hapatra deck is from before Hour of Devastation, it lacks some of the other essential stuff from that set. Obelisk Spider is a good example of this as it causes your opponents to lose life whenever you put one or more -1/-1 counters on a creature, which includes your own. Torment of Venom is a great way to trigger multiple abilities and possibly even kill smaller creatures among other unpleasant things. Blur of Blades is a nice and cheap way of getting a -1/-1 counter on something and dealing a little damage. Ambuscade is also a great way of getting -1/-1 counters on things, if you have a creature with Wither deal damage to another creature. And of course, the aforementioned Scorpion God for obvious reasons. 

Other stuff I might have missed. 

It didn’t occur to me that one sided fight abilities such as Fall of the Hammer and Rabid Bite are actually really good at generating -1/-1 counters. As long as your creature has Wither, the creature it’s “fighting” will get -1/-1 counters equal to the damage dealt to it, which will trigger things such as Nest of Scarabs, Flourishing Defenses, Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons and Obelisk Spider. I may have mentioned this before but creatures with Persist and that Wither themselves away such as Ammit Eternal and Dusk Urchins are also really good for doing this too.

And Finally... 

Hour of Devastation gave us a load of new deserts but I haven’t really looked at them properly and most certainly haven’t used any here, so I’m not sure if any of them are going to be useful here. Besides the obvious, I don’t think we’re going to need anything extraordinary. I’m hoping this works almost as well as the Hapatra deck did. I do hope you find this both helpful and fun and until next time, Happy Deck Building

[commander-of-the-week]

My Hanna, Ships Navigator/ Grand Arbiter Augustin IV deck on tapped out, Either Legendary can pilot this deck, I have chosen Augustin though.

[commander-of-the-week]

Commander of the Week

Hanna, Ships Navigator or Grand Arbiter Augustin IV

Sorry it’s been a while guys, it’s been a busy couple of weeks again. A few weeks ago I was asked to do an article for Hanna, Ship’s Navigator outlining some of the technology for a prison/stax deck. Since she was only just recently reprinted, I have never actually thought about using her for commander. But after doing some research, I have found that the cards found in most of her decks are very similar to my old Hokori, Dust Drinker deck I wrote some time ago. I love decks like this, and I was tempted to buy the new archenemy set and build a very similar deck with Grand Arbiter Augustin IV piloting the deck and use it as the archenemy. This should be interesting. 

The Grind Begins 

Not everyone will enjoy playing against this deck, if anyone at all. But as an archenemy deck, it’s awesome. Let’s start with the orbs, Orb of Dreams, Static Orb, Winter Orb, Mindlock Orb and Torpor Orb. These alone will go a long way to slowing the game down. Dovin Baan’s limit break will do something similar. Thalia, Heretic Cathar and Frozen Aether will also slow the game down significantly or at least prevent your opponents from getting too far ahead. Of course, I haven’t forgotten my old favorite Hokori, Dust Drinker too.

That’s Lands Sorted, Now Spells 

Lands are slowed down. Now we need to increase the cost of spells. Thalia’s former self, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Thorn of Amethyst and Vryn Wingmare all make noncreature spells cost more to cast. Then Lodestone Golem makes nonartifact spells cost more to cast. Ethersworn Canonist, Curse of Exhaustion and Eidolon of Rhetoric limit the amount of spells that can be cast during a turn. Grand Arbiter Augustin IV himself makes your opponents spells cost more whilst making yours cheaper. Finally Aura of Silence makes your opponents Artifacts and Enchantments significantly more expensive. 

The Frustration is almost Tangible 

Now that we’ve pissed everyone off, because lands don’t untap and spells cost too much, anything that your opponents do is probably going to be trying to get rid of you. Combine all of the above with things like Blind Obedience and Authority of the Consuls to slow down the quicker creatures. Propaganda, Windborn Muse and Ghostly Prison among similar effects should also be used to avoid getting overwhelmed. Crawlspace and Silent Arbiter can also work to this end. Finally Angelic Arbiter means that they can either attack or cast spells but not both. Bring them to their knees. 

The Bad News, but with a Silver Lining 

You have probably noticed that most of these effects imply “player” rather than “opponents” meaning that your lands don’t untap, your spells cost more and you will generally be subject to the same misery. Packing more Mana rocks into the deck are a potential way around this, along with the relevant Medallions (Sapphire and Pearl) and Grand Arbiter Augustin IV offers some relief. This deck also lacks a real win condition besides beating your opponents into eventual submission (Rage Quitting) with painful amounts of grinding. I thought that using mill effects with Rest in Peace could be a potential way around this perhaps. It’s entirely up to you. 

And Finally... 

Lands aren’t going to matter much here. Emeria, the Sky Ruin is always useful in a deck with a lot of Plains. Glacial Chasm combined with Solemnity could increase your protection. But the main focus here should be mana rocks. Thran Dynamo, Gilded Lotus, Ur-Golem’s Eye and anything else that produces large amounts of mana are really going to be needed here. I really do love the idea of these decks, I really wish they weren’t so miserable to play against. I do hope you find this article both helpful and fun and until next time. Happy Deck Building.

[commander-of-the-week]

Commander’s Toolkit

Unsung Heroes 

Below are some cards that have some pretty cool abilities that I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone use, but me. It could be because their mana costs are too high or they’re a bit too niche maybe, but here they are anyway. 

1. Repay in Kind 

I’ve managed to win or come close to winning with this a couple of times, it’s a great way of just closing out one of those games. We’ve all had one, where someone has a Trostani deck or has just managed to get a Gary onto the battlefield and become healthy again. Laugh in their face as their life total drops to an all time low.

2. Tainted Remedy 

As good as this card is, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone else use it or even heard it mentioned. it’s so good for obvious reasons. I suppose in some decks, commander damage does render it useless.

3. Dispatch 

Considering all prevalence of mana rocks and other artifact utilities in commander, as well as Exile being a staple. I’m surprised I don’t see this one more often. 

4. Nightmare Incursion 

I love cards like this, making sure certain things can never be played is just wonderful. I occasionally see Praetor’s Grasp, but that’s the closest to this card I think I’ve ever seen. This card goes really well with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth by the way. 

5. Grand Abolisher 

I don’t see this guy around much anymore. his ability to shut down all responses during your turn even your end step is just a god send. he’s really cheap too. 

6. Merciless Executioner 

This is Fleshbag Marauder’s less popular brother, he is almost the same. But I never see him being used despite having redundancy. I would say having multiple ways to potentially get rid of indestructible permanents is always useful. 

7. Hallowed Moonlight/Containment Priest

The prevalence of reanimator and cheaty decks makes me surprised that I don’t see this pair very often as they can really wipe a smile of someone who’s just played a Rise of the Dark Realms or Genesis Wave.

8. Reiterate 

I don’t see this card very often, and it’s horrible. a copy spell that can be recurred with buyback has some unpleasant applications. 

9. Malignus 

I haven’t seen this guy since he was released back in avacyn restored. I think he’s really great, I must admit though I don’t use him much myself. He enters with half the highest life total and his damage can’t be prevented. Give this guy a Fireshrieker or a Furnace of Rath and you’re laughing. 

10. Hedonist’s Trove 

Although this is quite expensive, I think it has some interesting applications later on in the game, being able to deprive someone of their graveyard and then use cards from it is just great in my opinion.

I realize now that these aren’t very diverse. mostly in black or white. I also don’t speak for everyone when I say that people don’t use these enough, I just haven’t seen these cards in the metas that I have been part of. 

[commander-of-the-week]

My Olivia, Mobilized for War deck Look, No Hands on tapped out

[commander-of-the-week]

Commander of the Week

Olivia, Mobilized for War 

The commander for this deck was originally supposed to be Exava, Rakdos Bloodwitch, but I find for what this deck is trying to do, Olivia is much better, and cheaper to cast which is sorely needed as I feel she will probably die a lot. Olivia, Mobilized for War is a 3/3 Flying Vampire Knight for 1BR with the ability to discard a card when a creature enters under you control, if you do, that creature gets a +1/+1 counter, Haste and becomes a vampire in addition to its other types. I am going to try to make this deck as aggressive as possible.

Look, No Hand. 

I’ve tried to include as many cards that rely on us having no hand as possible. Cards with Hellbent get bonuses when you have no hand. These include cards like Anthem of Rakdos, Nihilistic Glee and Jagged Poppet. Amonkhet’s Hazoret the Fervent also relies on you having no hand in order to attack. Hellbent turns on certain effects on these cards that can mean more damage, extra card draw or general misfortune for your opponents, which is always good. I have found that Murderous Redcap goes quite well with this version of Olivia too as the +1/+1 counters cancel out the Persist and allow it to deal consistent damage.

How did you lose your hand? 

So how do we lose our hand? We can’t rely on Olivia’s ability alone because we need to play creatures to trigger it. Certain creatures allow you to discard cards in order to enter play or activate certain abilities. Bloodrage Brawler is a relatively new creature that costs 1R for a 4/3 that forces you to discard a card so that he can enter play. Sire of Insanity forces each player to discard their hand each end step. Sarkhan the Dragonspeaker’s Emblem also says you get to draw two additional cards in your draw step but you discard your hand in the end step, which should help us get more creatures onto the field and keep our hand empty. I also like Dangerous Wager in this deck because you can discard your hand and draw two cards instead. 

Blind Panic 

These creatures aren’t very large, so we need a way to get all these creatures through. Spells that render a certain amount of creatures unable to block both allow us to empty our hands quickly and potentially allow our creatures through. Awe For the Guilds is a great way to do this as it renders monocolored creatures unable to block for that turn.  Barrage of Boulders, Concussive Bolt, Ember Gale and Destructive Tampering are some other ways of making sure that a large number of creatures can’t prevent an onslaught, as well as maybe dealing some damage to some smaller creatures or players. Creatures with Afflict such as Neheb, the Eternal may deter blocking too.

This Damage Adds Up. 

A few ways to deal some extra damage then. I thought maybe things like Trumpet Blast and/or Path of Anger’s Flame to have your creatures get a +2/+0 boost until end of turn. Anthem of Rakdos gives your creatures +2/+0 when they attack, it also deals 1 damage to you, but they deal double damage if you have hellbent. I’ve also added ways to make goblins with Goblin Assault, Goblin Rabblemaster and Krenko, Mob Boss with other cards like Purphoros, God of the Forge and Impact Tremors to deal more damage when creatures enter under your control. 

And Finally...

This deck may not do so well in a multiplayer setting as aggro decks generally don’t. A Geier Reach Sanitarium may be useful but beyond that I can’t think of any lands that may help us beyond the ordinary. I do hope you find this both helpful and fun and until next time, Happy Deck Building.

[commander-of-the-week]

Commander’s Toolkit

Clans of Tarkir

Like the shards, the wedges or clans of Tarkir are also three color combinations that have given us some very powerful commanders. I’ve found that there are lot less legendary creatures in the enemy colors than there are in the shards.

Abzan

Associated Commanders: Anafenza, the Foremost, Daghatar, the Adamant, Doran, the Siege Tower, Ghave, Guru of Spores and Karador, Ghost Chieftan. 

Abzan has some of the most unpleasant commanders to see on the other side of the table. Karador and Ghave being the main ones. Despite this, Abzan contains white and black which gives us some powerful removal, the green and white also give us some of the better token producing abilities which work really well in Ghave. The green obviously gives us access to ramp and enchantment removal which is always needed. Be careful though, Abzan legendaries can sometimes be powerful combo engines, or at least there will probably be some in the deck.

Jeskai

Associated Commanders: Narset, Enlightened Master, Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest, Zedruu, the Greathearted, Numot, the Devastator and Ruhan of the Fomorii.

I don’t use jeskai much, Narset’s overused and Zedruu only really has one deck. Ruhan is interesting, especially in a one-on-one setting. Jeskai has white, which gives us useful tech such as permanent exile, total land destruction and some of the better board wipes. Blue and red give us access to Counterflux among other counter spells. And Red gives us access to some really fun chaotic effects that are good in Ruhan and Zedruu decks.

Mardu 

Associated Commanders: Alesha, Who Smiles at Death, Kaalia of the Vast, Tariel, Reckoner of Souls, Zurgo Helmsmasher and Queen Marchesa

And now we come to my favorite of all the three color combinations, or least the one I seem to use the most. Mardu is very aggressive, having red for haste and additional combat steps. White for Double Strike and Anthem effects and Black to drain the life from your opponents as you’re hitting them in the face. Mardu colors give access to some of my favorite legendaries in the format including Obzedat, Ghost Council, Rakdos, Lord of Riots and Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer.

Sultai

Associated Commanders: Sidisi, Brood Tyrant, Tasigur, the Golden Fang, The Mimeoplasm, Vorosh, the Hunter and Damia, Sage of Stone. 

I think that before Leovold was banned, Sultai was the most powerful of the combinations if not one of them. Like Esper and Bant, I find that the legendaries in sultai don’ t really have a specific function, with the exception of The Mimeoplasm. Players usually just build a Tasigur or Sidisi deck, but never use the commander, instead they just build a simic or dimir deck that needs a third color for utility. The green/blue make any three color combination powerful, most of the cards banned in this format are in those colors. The ability to ramp and prevent the casting of spells is already powerful enough, without the addition of black to remove threats and keep hands empty... It’s no wonder that sultai is a popular combination.  

Temur

Associated Commanders: Animar, Soul of Elements, Riku of Two Reflections, Intet, the Dreamer, Yasova Dragonclaw and Surrak Dragonclaw.  

Temur also has some very powerful commanders, In this case Animar and Riku are the two I see the most. Temur also has the green/blue combination meaning you have to be quick to keep up with a temur deck, especially if it’s animar. The red in temur gives rise to some powerful creatures like Inferno Titan and Kiki Jiki, Mirror Breaker, as well as other powerful effects like Warstorm Surge and Insurrection. Look out for that Craterhoof Behemoth

[commander-of-the-week]

My Hapatra deck, ...And the Snakes start to Sing on tapped out