#Deck Tech

[niuttuc]

Current up to date paper commander decks

Kinda want to make another deck tech post for one of them I haven't done yet, so might as well make a list of the currently-maintained ones and see if any piques someone's curiosity. The ones with links I have already written about and the link is to the appropriate post.

Seeing Double? It's not the Halo (Mono-Red, Jaxis, the Troublemaker, just copying things)

Barrin's Bounce and Breakfast (Mono-Blue, Barrin, Master Wizard controlly bounce deck)

Only Doing it for the Triggers (Four-colors, non-white deck all about combat triggers. Led by Yidris or Silas Renn/Tana depending how menacing I want to look)

Extus's Wonderful Adventures (Mardu, Extus in the lead using adventures as spells to trigger him and creatures to bring back)

The Bookkeeper (Five-Color, gimmick deck about challenging myself to keep track of as many different named mechanics as possible. Led by Garth One-Eye)

The Graveyard Gang (Golgari Graveyard deck with ten different possible commanders, chosen at random before the game. Only creatures and lands)

Nyx-Lit Narset (Jeskai, OG Narset, Enlightened Master who shed all her extra turns and extra combats to be a still-powerful aura voltron deck)

Tap, Untap. Concede? (Esper Combo deck, starring Merieke Ri Berit in the command zone, all about tap abilities and untapping effects)

Utilitown (Five-Color deck but actually a colorless deck with a handful of colored cards. Focus on colorless Utility lands, and eventually winning through Door to Nothingness. Currently led by Kyodai by default.)

My Best Defense is Your Best Offense (Bant Kros deck revolving around cards that can put counters on my things and/or my opponents, and Proliferate them, to work with or without the commander)

For now that's all the multiplayer commander decks I update regularly, a few others I keep as-is to play whenever I want to feel some nostalgia. Any that people want to see the current version of?

[mtgratgirl]

new video go looky!

[doodlesbycass]

Can a Rat Girl really fall for a Country Boy?

[ritunn]

Gifts from the Grey Havens: Círdan, the Shipwright Politics

Archidekt Decklist | Art by Filipe Pagliuso

Welcome to a short deck tech for one of the latest commanders to come from the Lord of the Rings sets, Círdan, the Shipwright! An excellent pick interested in making any game much more exciting. However, before we go over the deck, let's go over Círdan.

Eyes As Keen As Stars

Círdan (pronounced Keer-Dan), is a 3/4 with Vigilance for 3GU. When he ETBs or attacks, everyone secretly votes for a player. Players draw a card for each vote they receive and no votes gets you a Show and Tell. This can either be great or disastrous! If the wrong person gets no votes, they may end the game and if you get votes, you just may draw a card and not get a really cool expensive permanent. With this build however, we always win the voting game and here's how.

An Offer You Can't Refuse

This deck is focused on two things: card draw and leveraging favor from our opponents. The deck achieves this with traditional group hug cards that mostly either draw cards or ramp for others.

There is also a few other effects we can achieve such as Regrowth, copying spells, and token generation, but those are less important. The main purpose of these cards is make people like us, trust us, and most importantly, listen to us. This in turn let's us convince others to vote as we ask and help us in turn when we call for aid, however, a key part of every single one of these cards is we always get the most benefit.

The House Always Wins

Whether it be via Círdan or one of our many "hugs", we always get the better of the effect in any of these deals. The deck includes a multitude of cards that get stronger based on cards drawn and these are our main wincons. Referred to as "Maro", these cards have their P/T determined by the cards in your hand, which will often be 7/7 at minimum. With the help of cards that uncap our maximum hand size, this can grow to even greater numbers.

Besides this, we also have cards that grow stronger based on the cards in your opponent's hand, punishing them for accepting our gifts whether it was willing or not. Such cards are my favorites, like Realm Seekers and Wolfcaller's Howl. Either way, using Whispersilk Cloak will allow these beefy creatures to slip in and take out anyone low on life, they're also excellent to allow us to easily trigger Círdan's effect repeatedly without fear. You can also copy them with a couple of spells in the deck for a hoard of dangerous creatures.

However, we also want to draw cards for a second reason and that's our two other wincons: Laboratory Maniac and Psychosis Crawler. The deck has some redundancy for Lab Man and Psychosis Crawler will be a huge threat immediately upon hitting the table, but our goal is to combo them with the below card...

Enter the Infinite. A normal person would cast this with Omniscience and if you want to add that to the deck, it's a sweet include, but no, we just pay 12 mana (14 - 16 mana for an instant win with the Lab Men). That ramp is all for this and it's still not easy, but it's always impressive when it does succeed. Now that the win cons are out of the way however, what do we do up to then?

Way of the Shipwright

Early game we want to do three things:

Ramp

Make allies

Set up group hug pieces

Simple stuff really. Play your hugs, get people on your side, and use that tongue of yours to get them to repay you in kind. Some people won't and that's okay. For now.

Mid game is where things get fun! We slap down Círdan and begin playing our more powerful creatures... and begin showing our true colors, but only a little. Show your hand to those who refuse to be your ally so other's know what's coming, but assure them they'll be fine as long as they listen. However, don't try and become a big threat, that will make everything go south fast.

Late game is where we are playing our Maros, if we didn't get them out for free thanks to Círdan, as well as trying to close out the game. Others may try to stop you or win themselves, so keep mana open for counters and removal. Your group hug cards are still useful too! Make an instant board with Sylvan Offering, draw tons of cards off Ingenious Mastery, or make a copy of your Maro with Replication Technique. This is also where you'll be wanting to pull off your finishing combo or use Rite of Replication on a non-legendary Maro to close out the game and win.

Círdan's Advice Corner

Before we close out this little guide, I'd like to offer some tips and tricks regarding a few... weirder cards, along with advice on voting.

Eon Frolicker

Well, this is a card. But, heck is it fun! Give someone an extra turn and in exchange gain protection from them. If you use Eon on someone, it's because someone else is going to win next turn via a combo and you don't have an answer. This will give someone else a chance to answer it and a reason for them to love you until you need to duel it out. Alternatively, dangerous but useful, you can use it on someone who you think will win next turn with a card that requires you to be targeted. They will either wait to win now or will take everyone else out, leaving just you two. Eon Frolicker is not easy to use, but it can cause some crazy events at the table.

Illusion of Choice

This will always make you a happy player when it's drawn. Illusion of Choice is an excellent combo piece that turns Círdan and the other 3 voting cards in the deck into the best possible outcome for you every time. It's preferable to use it when you can cast one of your other voting cards and attack with Círdan, but you can also just use it with Círdan to get something beefy on board or take an extra turn with Plea for Power.

Some quick advice on voting with Círdan as well. Always vote for the most dangerous person at the table. It's better they draw 1 card than Show and Tell. Tell others you're voting for them too and why, this may cause that person to vote for you, but it also lowers the chance of anyone getting a Show and Tell since the other players may vote for each other. Additionally, only play your other voting cards when either option will benefit you.

Replication Technique (and other cards like it)

40% of the group hug cards in the deck allow you to pick someone in specific rather than affect the whole table. They typically give you the same benefit or increased benefit when you do so. Use these to curry favor with the players lagging behind or to get out of trouble with someone who's a threat to you. People like it when you signal them out specifically for hugs and it also allows you to help others deal with the current big threat in the game. Play smart with these and you'll be rewarded politically!

Idle at the Grey Havens

There's a few cards I can't afford, purchase, or find in my collection currently but are great choices if you have them:

Expropriate (The ultimate poltical wincon)

Staff of Domination (Infinite mana with Kydele, allows you to win with Ingenious Mastery + Lab Man)

Omniscience (Get this out with Círdan and it's game over)

Westward We Sail

That's it! Thanks for reading my first deck tech. I've been playing this deck for 7 years now (originally used Edric, Spymaster of Trest) and every game with it can get wild. Just make sure people understand you're not here for CEDH and you'll be in for a fun time. The recent change to Círdan has really breathed new life into this deck for me and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

[mytheralmin]

The first five slots go to my star Ghede a powerful ten cap with five superior disciplines, a cost reduction on serpentis combat cards, and an in built rush effect. The deck utilizes all five of his disciplines in full force with main focus on potence, presence, and serpentis. Fortitude is powerful for unlocking as always for single vampire decks and obfusicate though not as common as in earlier versions still has a few lost in the crowds and shadow boxings (a personal favorite.)

Second we come to Abdelsobek a five capacity Follower of Set with five inferior disciplines, four of which match with Ghede. Sporting serpentis, presence, obfusicate, fortitude, and necromancy makes him fine as a small actor but he is key to our strategy as he allows us to as a +1 stealth action unlock any other vampire or mummy we control. Almost always meaning Ghede gets 2 actions minimum every turn.

Third we pack two copies of one of the best cards in group five Andre LeRoux. A toreador with only inferior auspex he may seem weak but as with all our vampires up till now it’s all in the special text. “If a vampire you control would successfully bleed, you can reduce the bleed amount by 1 to give Andre +2 bleed this turn.” So you get to punish your opponent if they have no blockers. Great so do we play dreamworld to offset that bleed reduction? No he is here for two reasons. To do minor actions like take out army of rats, rescue abdelsobek, or block a bleed, and also to bleed for 6. Now how does he get to 6 bleed you ask, he can trigger on his own bleed action. This means you effectively have a +1 bleed 3 cap vampire that can increase that bleed amount further a great way to fill the hole in lower capacity.

Finally I have two one of vampires that while nice are generally unimportant and won’t see play unless you oust 2-3 opponents and have the pool to spare. My choices to bring are Clea Auguste d’Holford and Gold Pan Dan but I also suggest Andelino Da Silva if large agg damage is a problem or Paul Calderone if you need more vampires taking the same action often.

Moving on to the library cards it is a full deck of 90 playing 20 masters (5 trifle) which isn’t unusual and may be a bit light for a star vampire deck like this.

8 of my master cards are devoted to blood recouping and pool generation. With three blood doll, a classic card that has proven itself for 30 years now. Two copies of the trifle villein to help balance the lack of a Parthenon. One copy of temple hunting group, one copy of the trifle the coven, and one copy of giants blood each to regain blood on Ghede or his fellow vampires.

Beyond temple hunting group the deck packs two other location masters. Four copies of the stand out card from Fall of London is the British Museum and two copies of the only trifle location Filchware’s Pawn Shop both for important equipment synergies.

Finally the deck has six copies of the best acceleration card in the game besides perhaps information highway, it’s the Eternals of Sirius a 4 pool card that generates 5 blood on a Follower of Set 9th generation or higher. Meaning with two of these on then two in first position you can have Ghede and Abdelsobek flipped and ready to rumble.

Speaking of rumbling the deck packs 27 combat cards and 5 modifier/combat cards taking up more then a third of the whole deck.

With only 14 copies of typhonic beast it might seem low to you familiar with Ghede decks but the deck only needs so many of the all star that does everything. Increasing strength, soaking damage, and giving presses this card really does it all and playing one or more for free every turn has locked more then a few vampires out of the ready region forever.

Next up is immortal grapple, when you find yourself at close range or against a tricky enemy you gotta lock them in. Good luck using majesty or earth meld now unless your Stanislava or pack one of the three cards that can get you out of a grapple your out of luck today.

And just to make sure you get to close range we pack 5 of my favorite card in the game, shadow boxing. At inferior maneuver to close or press to continue, the best friend of !Nosferatu it works great here to close the difference or quickly make up a press dispute. But at superior is when it’s the most fun, after combat if your up and their not, burn a blood and continue the action as if unblocked. Call it form of fist because it breaks through to be devastating especially against blocked rushes or show of force.

Four copies of taste of Vitae are always good, if your a combat deck that isn’t diablerizing or stealing blood it’s a must have.

Finally three copies of the jones make a great catch all GOTCHA for when the malkavians think they can get tricky with coma or if the anarch ministry was packing a bit more wolf claw then you though.

Now for a deck called Ghede commits action fraud six actions may not seem like a lot but that’s because we also take eight equipments and an ally card as well.

Six show of force mean we can bleed with impunity. +2 bleed and +2 strength round one means almost no one show block us, and those who do quickly learn not to.

Six mokole blood form the code loop of the deck. With British Museum you can reduce the cost and unlock the vampire for the action as well as recur four typhonic beasts (or in some cases a the jones as well) from the ash heap or your library. And with Filchwares Pawn Shop not only can you steal other people’s miscellaneous equipment for a discount, you can recur the mokole blood with almost no risk as there are few decks that use Followers of Set and serpentis cards after the V5 decks came out.

Two cooler are currently the cards in contention. A steady supply of blood and a free actionfwith the museum yes but over all they may not be worth it and better used for out of turn master cards for protection (one direct intervention and one archon investigation perhaps) or protective allies (one Carlton Van Wyk and one Aranthabes, the Immortal.)

One copy of Mylan Horseed is played as a second unlock to Ghede or can free up an action with Abdelsobek.

And for the last 23 cards we have 18 modifiers, four reactions, and one event.

Six iron glare give us additional bleed when we need it, and enough juice to help close out tight games or bleed big.

Six freak drive give use multi action on our star vampire or with Abdelsobek after a crucial unlock, perhaps both.

Four lost in the crowds are essential as surprise stealth to get a final bleed or necessary mokole blood through.

Four orphidian gaze are the only fully defensive card besides the jones, letting me reduce a bleed by two or stop crucial vote modifiers namely voter captivation.

Two Enkil Cog are our favorite card to see. A unique modifier that sticks around it gives Ghede +1 bleed and allows him to act on others turn. Important that stops them from getting of archon investigation and other out of turn masters and let’s our star bleed twice per turn cycle.

Finally we have one NRA PAC a goverment event that lets anyone unlock at end of turn after equipping. With its nearly zero opportunity cost and high synergy with British Museum it can pull more than its own wieght.

So overall the deck plans to do two things punch out your opponents vampires then bleed, bleed, bleed. And if anyone gets in your way, well that’s what step one is for. Good luck and have fun.

[jankcrankhank]

Intro, Migration, etc. Read this first!

So apparently I'm back here. I mean, like I had any chance of catching on on Substack, but still. They're not gonna police and deplatform nazis, fine, fuck 'em. I'm back on Tumblr.

What you'l find here are silly decks for Magic: the Gathering. Mostly EDH/Commander, but also some 60-card vintage stuff and other kitchen-table style builds. I post my occasional forays into making custom fan cards and they're here to download for free, so have fun with those.

I'm Jank Crank Hank (he/him; way older than you), and you can find me on Moxfield and BlueSky as @infocorn (and, sigh, yes on also on Twitter or whatever for the time being under the same name) too.

This space, as with my tables, is meant to be safe for everyone. If you're a bigot or an anything-phobe, a fascist or fashy apologist, or genereally just a fucking dick, just keep moving.

[mowu-moment]

Mob Rule: Realmbreaker, the Invasion Tree

My name is Mowu, and if there's one thing I hate as much as I hate rules, it's cards. What do you mean someone can play a card and mess with my stuff? We can't let them have any of those, and this hole in the sky that opened up behind me seems to agree. Welcome back to Mob Rule, a blogpost/article series about Rule Zero commanders, a unique(ly bad) deck tech around them, and what legendary creatures to substitute for them if the lawmages get too much on our backs.

Turning of the Handle

Since we've yet to have a colorless Praetor, there are three parts to Realmbreaker we get to focus on: mill, lands, and abilities. Mill is fairly straighforward: put cards in the graveyard. Colorless affords few great options, but enough good ones: Sands of Delirium, Whetstone, and Keening Stone all capitalize on our oodles of mana, while Ghoulcaller's Bell, Altar of the Brood, and Codex Shredder come down early to help our commander get rolling.

Spinning of the Grave

Mill goes hand in hand with graveyard synergies, and similarly has a few good pickings for colorless. A sampling of reanimation with Grimoire of the Dead and Portal to Phyrexia, a taste of big creatures with Bonehoard and Unlicensed Hearse, and a few funnier things like Myr Welder and Dermotaxi. While Realmbreaker takes its share of the lands, these cards pick up the creatures and artifacts that get milled in the process, so nothing is wasted.

Reaping of the Sown

Lands are harder to find additional synergy with, the only standout cards being Blackblade Reforged and Seer's Sundial. However, there are replacements for Realmbreaker should our tree be chopped down: Canoptek Scarab Swarm bombs a graveyard in exchange for a board full of tokens, Mirran Safehouse (ironic, I know) gives us the much of same potential outright taking the lands does, and worst comes to worst, we can twiddle our own thumbs with a Crucible of Worlds (along with a good package of sac-lands).

Spreading of the Tree

The greatest thing about ability copying, like the new Abstruse Archaic, is that it not only applies to our commander, but anything that might come attached to the realms we break (except mana abilities, but things like Inventor's Fair or Maze of Ith are still welcome). We also run some untappers like Voltaic Servant and Manifold Key to spread our infection a few more times each turn.

Staying of the Hand

We're a mill deck, so combat is nowhere near a focus, but we still need a solid package of creatures for the Vehicles and Equipment that we need for the strategy. To make some use of them, we're either taking creature-based removal, like Bladegriff Prototype and Steel Hellkite, or anything that can slow the board down, like Silent Arbiter and Rug of Smothering. If one had the budget, they could opt for a graveyard shuffler like Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, as a failsafe if they mill themselves too much, but we won't do that today.

Replacing of the Commander

This time around, there are very few options for proper commanders as a whole, much less ones that can do anything for the strategy. There are two self-shufflers we could choose, but they won't do much from the command zone. If you want to make a point to your playgroup, I'd go for Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, as his exile ability resembles mill if you squint, and can make decking an opponent a viable strategy. If they're scared, Hope of Ghirapur works as a board-staller as well as a good body to hold Equipment (even if there's only four).

The full decklist can be found at https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/mob-rule-first-i-break-your-realms/ .

[nehebthewordy]

Aminatou, the Fateshifter (Fall 2022 Update)

Hey everyone! It’s been a long while, but today I’ve got an update on my very best commander deck: Aminatou, the Fateshifter. When I first bought her precon not quite a year after it came out, I quickly stuck her into my collection and stripped the deck for parts. After a while though, when my old Vona deck grew old, I started looking into a new angle. Thus, the first iteration of Aminatou (or at least my version of it) was born.

She started as an amalgamation of a flicker deck (based around her -1 ability) and an old superfriends angle I’d been working on for some time. This origin remains a visible part of the deck’s identity even today, with a total of eight ‘walkers and nearly half a dozen planeswalker support cards. Today, we’re looking into the absolute 15 must-have cards for building her yourself. Though these cards a numbered for the sake of this list, the number assigned is entirely arbitrary and not related to the card’s relevance to the deck relative to each other.

#1: Felidar Guardian Card transcription: 3W, 1/4 Cat Beast. When it enters the battlefield, exile another permanent you control, then return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control. Those of you who played Standard during the early days of Aether Revolt will recognize this cat as the pivotal partner of the Saheeli Rai infinite cats combo, which functioned by using Felidar Guardian’s enter-the-battlefield effect to essentially “reset” Saheeli, allowing her to -2 to create a duplicate Felidar, with each duplicate gaining haste and repeating the process. It does the former with Aminatou, using her -1 to flicker the Felidar and then Felidar flickering Aminatou in turn. Combine this with Panharmonicon or Oath of Teferi for infinite flickers as either Aminatou flickers something else before flickering Felidar (Oath) or Felidar flickers Aminatou and something else when it enters (Panharmonicon). Add in anything that draw cards and you can have infinite mana and draw with which to seek your win condition. Alternatively, these two with either Vela the Night Clad or Corpse Knight allows you to win on the spot if an opponent can’t stop you.

#2: Panharmonicon Card transcription: 4, Artifact. If an artifact or creature entering the battlefield triggers a permanent you control, it triggers that permanent a second time. Panharmonicon has gained a sort of infamy in EDH, and for good reason. It can double any enter-the-battlefield trigger, from Acidic Slime to Gray Merchant of Asphodel. As stated above, it’s a key combo piece for Aminatou.

#3: Oath of Teferi Card transcription: 3WU, Legendary Enchantment. When it enters, exile another permanent you control until end of turn. and You can activate loyalty abilities of each of your planeswalkers twice each turn. While much more niche to planeswalker decks, Oath of Teferi is an absolute powerhouse, though it must be included in a deck that already runs both blue and white. Activating each of your planeswalkers twice each turn is amazingly powerful in a deck that has both a planeswalker commander and seven others, and with Aminatou specifically it essentially functions as a second Panharmonicon.

#4: Rings of Brighthearth Card transcription: 3, Artifact.Whenever you activate a non-mana ability, you may pay 2 to copy that ability. While the constant cost of 2 mana for each ability being copied (which becomes more pressing once Oath of Teferi hits the board), some of those abilities are certainly well worth the cost. If you choose to run Basalt Monolith (which will not be appearing on this list), Rings of Brighthearth can essentially grant you infinite colorless mana, paying for all the planeswalker ability copies.

#5: Callous Bloodmage (honorable mention: Charming Prince) Card transcription: 2B, 2/1 Vampire Warlock. When it enters choose one: Create a 1/1 Pest; You draw a card and lose 1 life; or Exile target player’s graveyard. Transcription (honorable mention): 1W, 2/2 Human Noble. When it enters choose one: Scry 2; Gain 3 life; or Exile another creature you own until end of turn. Charms have been historically appreciated for their flexibility, and modal creatures are essentially charms with repeatable effects in flicker decks. While both Callous Bloodmage and Charming Prince are amazing, our list will focus primarily on the latter. The Bloodmage’s token production is negligible, however the latter two options both have powerful options: drawing a card is always great and the third exiles an entire graveyard, severely hindering a reanimator deck (popular examples include Meren and Muldrotha) on its own. With the option to choose a different effect every time it enters, you have a one-card toolbox with a gadget for multiple occasions.

#6: Dakkon, Shadow Slayer Card transcription: WUB, Legendary Planeswalker. It enters with loyalty equal to the number of lands you control. +1: Surveil 2. -3: Exile target creature. -6: Put an artifact from your hand or graveyard into play. In the initial version of this deck, this variable slot was occupied by the 2nd Zendikar block Ob Nixilis. Dakkon, however, fills your needs at a lower mana value, has higher average starting loyalty, and can easily reanimate your artifacts (which, as you’ve no doubt noticed, there are quite a few that this deck loves). Even when you aren’t using his ult, his removal option is more powerful than Ob’s and gaining card selection rather than draw is a negligible difference.

#7: Liliana, Death’s Majesty Card transcription: 3BB, Legendary Planeswalker. 5 loyalty. +1: Mill 2 cards and make a 2/2 zombie. -3: Reanimate a creature from your graveyard. It becomes a zombie. -7: Destroy all non-zombie creatures. While her ultimate is largely irrelevant, Lili’s -3 ability is a substantial boon, allowing you to reanimate creatures while dodging expensive or color-intensive mana costs. Her plus is also moderately relevant, creating a blocker for herself while also digging for something to reanimate.

#8: Omen of the Dead Card transcription: B, Enchantment. Flash. When it enters, return a creature from your graveyard to your hand. This simple common from Theros 2 is easy to skip over, and that’s where its power lies. For 1 mana as an instant, you can recur a creature back to your hand, and your various flicker cards can abuse it to grab more creatures from your graveyard. Because it’s so simple, seemingly low-power, your opponents often won’t think to remove it at first. It’s just an ordinary common, right?

#9: Omen of the Sea Card transcription: 1U, Enchantment. Flash. When it enters, scry 2 and draw a card. The blue omen is good for essentially the same reason as the black. It’s cheap, it has flash, and it provides a moderate benefit. Really, the only one of this cycle that isn’t worth playing in Esper is the white one.

#10: Oath of Jace Card transcription: 2U, Legendary Enchantment. When it enters, draw three and discard two. and At the beginning of your upkeep, scry equal to the number of planeswalkers you control. This deck will likely want to run most, if not all, of the Gatewatch oaths it can. Oath of Jace, however, is a particularly powerful card advantage piece. As you accumulate planeswalkers on your board, it can scry deeper into your deck, and when in doubt you can just flicker it to immediately draw three. Discarding the two isn’t much of a problem with the amount of recursion that naturally fits into the deck.

#11: Restoration Gearsmith Card transcription: 2WB, 3/3 Human Artificer. When it enters, return an artifact or creature from your graveyard to your hand. Restoration Gearsmith’s effect is simple recursion, much like what you have plentiful access to. What makes it significant, however, is its ability to grab both creatures and artifacts, allowing it to retrieve Mulldrifters and Panharmonicons alike.

#12: Cloudblazer (honorable mention: Mulldrifter) Card transcription: 3WU, 2/2 Human Scout. Flying. When it enters, gain 2 life and draw two cards. Transcription (honorable mention: 4U, 2/2 Elemental. Flying. When it enters, draw 2 cards. You can cast it for 2U to sacrifice it immediately upon entering. Perhaps one of your best cards for draw (second to Oath of Jace), Cloudblazer’s ability to gain life as well helps buy more time with which to draw and play win conditions. Mulldrifter is nearly identical, but it trades the life gain for a cheaper casting option.

#13: Yorion, Sky Nomad Card transcription: 3HH (Hybrid: WU), 4/5 Legendary Bird Serpent. Flying. When it enters, exile any number of other nonland permanents you control until end of turn. While not a powerful combo piece like Felidar Guardian or a draw engine like Oath of Jace, Yorion certainly brings his own might to the table. On entering, you can use him to re-trigger the enter-the-battlefield effects of any permanent you control other than a land, and he can reset the loyalty of any of your planeswalkers. Since his effect also triggers on his own entry, you can flicker him to flicker your entire board at once.

#14: Gray Merchant of Asphodel Card transcription: 3BB, 2/4 Zombie. When it enters, each opponent loses life equal to your devotion to black. You gain life equal to the total life lost this way. As many of you who’ve played commander extensively know, Gray Merchant of Asphodel (or Gary) can be powerful even outside of mono black decks, making it the most versatile of the devotion cards. Besides Vela or Corpse Knight, Gary is your most reliable win condition, blasting each opponent from anywhere between three and eight life every time it enters and gaining you a bunch of life of your own. In a flicker deck, that difference adds up very quickly.

#15: Sanctum of Eternity Card transcription: Land. Tap: Add one colorless mana. 2, Tap: Return a commander you own from the battlefield to your hand (only during your turn). While it certainly feels weird finishing this list off with a land, Sanctum of Eternity deserves it. With the deck centering around Aminatou’s -1 ability, she’ll run out of loyalty very quickly; Sanctum allows you to bounce her back to hand before you spend her last loyalty counter, so you can replay her fresh to keep going.

She may have been a small child for the past four years, but Aminatou has grown a lot since I first built her deck. While the core identity hasn’t changed, she’s improved her approach significantly, and remains a blast to play even next to many commanders of today. So whether you want to have fun with my take on Aminatou or are simply looking to inspire your next brew, I hope to see you all on the battlefield.

[beatsandskies]

Reusing and Recycling content from The Duelist issue 10, Reducing this site to a facsimile.

Defining what actually counts as a precon, and what doesn’t, can be a little tricky. I’ve previously gone a little bit into this before but it’s something which is relevant again with this particular post. Well, it is to me at least: it’s important that I keep this thing with a focus on preconstructed stuff. To keep the identity of the “Beats and Skies” intact? Maybe this isn’t really that…

[niuttuc]

The Graveyard Gang

Did you know Golgari likes the graveyard? Read the cards carefully next time you face a golgari deck, and you might notice it. As a result, a lot of Golgari commanders like the graveyard a whole lot, and specifically creatures being in there. So I made a deck for them, a deck that can use any of its ten commanders, randomly selected before each game. And their companion, Umori, just to make deckbuilding a bit spicier. Here's the gang as a whole!

They all have equal chance of leading the deck every game, and even if they don't show up in the command zone, they'll be somewhere in the 99. They're all in special versions when possible and all in foil, the only foils in the deck, as to be able to find them easily when sifting through the deck to pick one at random before every game. They're of differing power levels, but that's fine! If you end up rolling one that's too strong or weak for the table, you could always reroll, or worse, pick one of them, but that's less fun.

As far as strategies, we're playing only creatures, so I wanted to lean onto creatures that get really strong from having many of them in the graveyard, so there's lot of that! Their large bodies are our wincons, either through regular attacks or throwing them at people's faces with Jarad.

Of course, we're playing commander, so we're also eating our veggies, with plenty of ramp, card advantage, interaction, and in this case, self-mill.

This deck WILL fold like wet paper in games featuring plenty of graveyard hate, but that's the life of a graveyard deck. And we can survive a reasonable amount of it. Just don't get your graveyard exiled when it's your entire library, before you can recycle it with Endurance.

Speaking of, Endurance is here as a safety valve. If we do our plan TOO well and end up milling out, like this deck is known to do on occasion, the combination of Genesis triggering on our upkeep and Endurance having flash can ensure we shuffle our graveyard into our library to avoid dying. We may have a lot of work to do once again milling all that, and a couple */*s may die, but that's a worthwhile price to stay alive.

Is Umori optimal for this deck? No, I haven't used it once. But this is a deck with ten commanders all wanting slightly different things and trying to be alright with all of them. We're not here for optimal.

[mtgratgirl]

This Dog and Bird are in love????

What will Pride Month bring next?‽!

[doodlesbycass]

Rats In Cars! Rats In Cars! Rats In Cars!!!!

[lexiconarchitect]

This is a Pokemon deck tech for a deck that has done well at recent tournaments. I apologize for the part in the video where I talk about wrong cards that aren't in the deck. I realized this a few seconds after I did it, I hope this doesn't deter you in anyway, enjoy! And please subscribe on YouTube if you would like to see more of this style of content!

[ritunn]

Venture Into the Hidden Realms: Roon of the Hidden Realms Dungeons

Archidekt Decklist | Art by Rafael Sarmento

Welcome to a short deck tech for a tried and true classic, Roon of the Hidden Realm! But like our rhox friend, we're not treading the normal battlefields you typically see with Roon... because we're venturing into the dungeon. A mechanic introduced in primarily blue and white in AFR, venture allows you to enter 3 special dungeon cards for loads of effects. Most decks use Sefris of the Hidden Ways to make use of this mechanic, but we have a different path laid before us. Replacing black for green and switching a reanimator strategy for a blink one. So, without further ado, let's go over our commander.

You Meet Your DM at the Store

Roon is a 4/4 for 2GWU with Trample and Vigilance that can be tapped in addition to paying 2 mana to blink a creature. Overall, a very good engine! This deck mainly makes use of creatures with enter the battlefield effects, our goal is to use Roon and other similar blinkers to squeeze extra uses out of those ETB abilities. Through this, we can get extra value out our creatures and stay ahead of our opponents! But, how does this connect to the dungeon theme?

The Dungeon Beckons You In

Venture allows you to enter 3 of the 4 dungeons. Take the Initiative allows you to enter the Undercity or progress your current dungeon. The majority of our "dungeoneers" as I will refer to them, allow you to enter a new dungeon or advance a single room when they ETB. With help from Roon and other blinkers, this mean we can continously have these dungeoneers venture over and over again to reap the dungeon rewards and make any card that has an effect that triggers when you complete a dungeon to come online faster.

There is also the Take the Initiative. This effect works like the Monarch, hit whoever has it and you take the Initiative, allowing you to advance a room in your current dungeon or enter the Undercity if you don't have an active dungeon. It even let's you venture every upkeep if you have it! But, we can also Take the Initiative via just playing any creature with an ETB effect that states so, like Feywild Caretaker... or blinking them! This means we can keep control of the Initiative pretty easily by blinking one such creature at the end of our opponent's turn before our upkeep. Roon's trample and vigilance also makes him good at defending the Initiative and taking it back.

However, we also have a few cards who help enable this strategy further without ETB effects. These include:

Dungeon Delver

Ellywick Tumblestrum

Hama Pashar, Ruin Delver

Varis, Silverymoon Ranger

Yuan-Ti Malison

These dungeoneers were selected for being powerful and repeatable venture triggers, while Ellywick herself can be a wincon if she ults and Yuan-Ti Malison lets us easily keep and trigger the Initiative, the two most important amongst these are Dungeon Delver and Hama Pashar.

Both of these cards do the exact same things, doubling our room triggers. Though we may not want to complete a Tomb of Annihilation campaign with these out, the other 3 benefit greatly from these cards! Especially the final rooms, the huge game swinging effects now getting to trigger twice. Talk about value! Though this is all nice, one may be wondering how we actually win.

The Infinite Lays Before You

This deck wins via combos, but we do it in style. As such, it makes use of four primary combos:

Archaeomancer + Time Warp + Any Repeatable Blink = Infinite Turns

Archaeomancer + Peregrine Drake + Ghostly Flicker = Infinite ETB + Mana

Deadeye Navigator + Peregrine Drake = Infinite ETB + Mana

Felidar Guardian + Restoration Angel = Infinite ETB

Now Infinite turns is a pretty obvious win con, but how do we win with infinite ETB creatures and mana? Well, if you saw the Radiant Solar above, that's the answer! Combo 2 and 3 can also be used on any creature with Venture or Take the Initiative for the same effect after acquiring infinite mana, giving us infinite venture triggers.

When we achieve infinite venture triggers, we're looking to progress two specific dungeons: Lost Mines of Phandelver and Undercity. We want to advance through the Dark Pool and Trap! rooms respectively to get our opponents to 0. Simple, clean, and not too difficult. Even if your opponents prevent victory that turn with a Teferi's Protection, I doubt they can survive an encounter with 80~ goblins/skeletons or a majority of the creatures in your deck with 3 +1/+1 counters on them.

You Meet a Veteran Dungeoneer

So, how do we play now that we know what the deck does? Overall, our goals before assembling a combo is pretty simple:

Early Game: Ramp! Play those ramp spells, that Farhaven Elf, and your mana rocks. Get out a few early dungeoneers if possible and play your early blink engines to start venturing. Focus on finishing Lost Mines of Phandelver first.

Mid Game: This is where the fun starts. A majority of dungeoneers are CMC 4 - 6. By this point we should also finish our first dungeon and all our cards that do a thing when we complete one are now online. Wicked! Last but not least, get Roon out around this time if necessary.

Late Game: By now we should be venturing through 3 rooms on average. We can focus on finishing dungeons like Dungeon of the Mad Mage and Undercity now for their powerful final room effects that will help us gather our combo pieces and win the game.

Before I leave you, here's some other important cards in the deck I wanted to call out. The Adventurers! Tomb of Horrors Adventurer, Undermountain Adventurer, and White Plume Adventurer are some of the best dungeoneers in this deck with Ellywick Tumblestrum and Radiant Solar. Each Takes the Initiative when they ETB, which we want out asap, but also provides a powerful effect. ToHA provides spell copying (which means more ETBs), UMA provides ramp, and WPA provides a Seedborn Muse-lite effect (super important for Roon). All of these effects get even stronger when we've completed a dungeon, becoming insanely powerful for their mana cost. Keep them safe and you'll be rewarded greatly once you finish a dungeon if you haven't before they arrive.

Lastly, here's a few cards I would love to add, but are too expensive or simply unobtainable for me currently and I highly suggest you consider.

Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines (Panharmonicon on a body)

Seasoned Dungeoneer (Veteran Dungeoneer but better... if only anyone was selling one without insane shipping to Canada)

Teleportation Circle (It's just a white Conjurer's Closet in this deck)

You Hear the Bards Sing Your Tale

Thanks for reading through my second deck tech! Coming up on 4 years game mastering for not just D&D 5e, but PF2e, Fabula Ultima, and a bunch of smaller TTRPGs, dungeons have always been some of my favorite parts. When the mechanic got introduced in AFR, I loved it! But Sefris just being a quirky reanimator deck made me sad. So, I'm glad to have put my own twist on the theme that allows me to play Ellywick, Hama, Nadaar, and Varis together... the AFR adventuring party! I hope you enjoy the deck as much as I do.

[jankcrankhank]

Kitchen Table: Bloodbath

A friend of mine, let's call them The Nurse, had asked me a while ago to go through what was left of their cards from when they played. I divined this was the first Theros Block and/or Return to Ravnica as in what they called "probably nothing that great" I found a Swan Song and a Watery Grave among other stuff. "Nothing that great." Good thing The Nurse is pretty.

Anyway, I used that stuff and my own ridiculous back catalog and made them a Tasha commander deck (whew, our Commander night was hard-- way too many spinning plates for them; I owe them a big apology for my Sefris deck), to revamp their Kiora from the planeswalker precon deck into an Oathbreaker deck, and just recently into a little Rakdos vamps build. All of these are 100% on-brand for The Nurse, and while they're just for fun, they're absolutely tune-up ready for when they're able to take the reins. For each I use as many of their cards as I could so they would feel ownership of the decks.

But it got me thinking: why haven't I ever played Vampires as a tribal deck? I mean, I don't usually give a shit about vamps. Their fans are annoying at times in pop culture and razor-sharp Vamp decks are very close to unfun negative experiences in my experience. So lol maybe I have some baggage.

I started looking at Blood Tokens as they're absolutely the fiddly horseshit I REVEL in. 36 Cards make BTs and taken together it runs about 3-drop curve.

Also, a lot of them are stupid. Beginning to remember why no Vamps.

OK so the initial list was something 1998 me absolutely would ahve built without seeing a single goddamn problem: 40 creatures and 20 lands. Let's go. But then, wait, hold on...ETB triggers. Maybe we could splash white?

So let's see how this thing handles. My son, 15, might not hate this one. But he probably will.

[zaragear]

So I made a deck tech/decklist about Sliver in Commander on my Cohost if folks want to go look at it and tell me why I am bad at the game.