Happy Monday everyone! I've finally decided to take the leap to writing about cards from March of the Machine! I've had my eye on today's card for weeks now and while I wasn't able to break it wide open, I think it's going to be a fun creature-focused Grixis deck that can hang and have a good time at casual tables.

March of the Machine has a slew of new cards that have two creatures combined into a single card. I'd rather have seen them done as "partner with..." cards that only partner with each other because I like the flexibility that design space creates, but these cards weren't designed that way. Much like Pia and Kiran Nalaar, these are just single cards representing two characters. The pairing I chose for today's column is Goro-Goro and Satoru.

Goro-Goro, Disciple of Ryusei can give your creatures haste and can let you pay mana to create a 5/5 Red Dragon Spirit creature token with flying. Satoru Umezawa is a Ninja who gives the cards in your hand ninjutsu and gives you a little bonus for activating a ninjutsu ability. Wizards of the Coast combined them into a single card that cares about creatures entering the battlefield and doing damage to an opponent on the same turn and rewards you with a 5/5 Red Dragon Spirit token.

Goro-Goro and Satoru has an activated ability that lets you pay to give your creatures haste until end of turn, but doesn't provide any way to get through blockers. This card has a creature type of Goblin Human, but anyone familiar with the characters will know that Satoru is a Ninja.

A Dash of Ninjas

Today's build is going to have a dash of ninjas, and it's also going to have a dash of dash.

There's no mention of ninjutsu in Goro-Goro and Satoru's text box, but cards with that ability can be put onto the battlefield replacing an unblocked attacker for a mana cost. That would satisfy the "entered the battlefield this turn" requirement. I'm running an assortment of Ninjas in this list with a focus on ones that have a low mana requirement to activate their Ninjutsu ability. I'm already aware that I might have to pay to give my creatures haste, and I might want to do something else on my turn in addition to activating a Ninjutsu ability, so keeping those costs as low as possible only makes sense.

Most Ninjas have an ability that happens when they do combat damage to a player. While these cards didn't replace the need to play card draw, removal and other basic deckbuilding needs, it's nice to have those extra bonuses when they hit a player. Ninja of the Deep Hours and Moon-Circuit Hacker both can draw me a card, though the latter will have me then discard a card unless it entered the battlefield this turn. Prosperous Thief will make a treasure when it deals combat damage to a player. Mistblade Shinobi will let me bounce target creature the defending player controls to its owner's hand.

If you had a commander that simply gave all Ninjas the ability to make a 5/5 Dragon Spirit Creature Token when they dealt combat damage to a player, it would be fantastic. Goro-Goro and Satoro requires that the creature entered the battlefield that turn, and also specifies that one or more creatures will cause that triggered ability to activate. That means you'll be limited to fewer Dragons - usually one per turn unless you have double-strike, in which case you'll make two. It also allows for any creature to trigger the ability, I'm not just limited to playing with Ninjas.

There are more Ninjas thanks to our recent return to Kamigawa than there are creatures with Dash, but I threw a bunch in anyways. They get past the need to be given haste, which is something. They don't have built-in evasion, but I've got that covered.

One of the first steps I ever took towards being a content creator was to share a Purphoros, God of the Forge list with the Commandercast podcast many years ago. The deck was built around using creatures with the Dash mechanic. It wasn't a great deck, but the encouragement that Calvin and the other folks running that podcast has stuck with me all these years. Dash is a mechanic that allows you to put a creature onto the battlefield. It gains haste but has to be returned to your hand at the end of turn. It's perfect for a deck that wants to always have the ability to drop a creature into play and swing with it that turn. Having it return to my hand helps to make sure that every turn I'll have something I can play to try to make another 5/5 Dragon Spirit token.

Ragavan might be a heavy lift for budget deckbuilders, but he's worth including in this list because he's both amazing and has a dash ability. For one and a Red he can be dashed into play and when he deals damage to a player I both create a treasure and exile the top card of that player's library. I may cast that card until end of turn. The treasure is great. The top-of-library disruption is great. The ability to cast that card if it's a non-land is great. If it's a land it'll stay in exile, but maybe I'm helping keep them off of their land drops, which is good too.

Reckless Imp is a 2/2 flyer with dash who can't block but should give me a reliable hit on someone without any reach or flying blockers. That isn't always a sure thing, but I'd guess that at least half the time you'll be able to get that little guy in on someone unless your meta is really skewed towards flyers. I only included creatures with dash costs under 3 mana, as I didn't want to be in the situation where I could dash a creature out but couldn't do anything else in that turn. Mardu Scout, Lightning Berserker, Mardu Shadowspear, Screamreach Brawler and Zurgo Bellstriker all fit that requirement. I included Mardu Scout in the images above because who doesn't love a surfing Goblin?

Hang ten, little Gobbo, hang ten!

Am I Getting Through To You?

So my little group of dash creatures and my slightly larger band of Ninjas are all well and good, but I haven't shown you any way to get creatures through to actually trigger my commander. Don't worry, I've got some options in the mix. I'm running Rogue's Passage and Access Tunnel, but they each have a mana cost to activate that I don't love.

Many of my creatures have a power of two or less, so Goblin Tunneler, Pathmaker Initiate and the enchantment Break Through the Line can all help me get a little guy through to do damage. Alora, Merry Thief will also do that, and the downside of having to return the creature to its owner's hand at the beginning of the next end step isn't much of a downside if I'm targeting a creature with dash or I end up using ninjutsu to swap it with a Ninja in my hand before damage is dealt.

I've loaded this deck up with low-cost unblockable creatures. They need to be low cost because I'll be paying two mana to give them haste. Invisible Stalker, Gudul Lurker, Changeling Outcast, Slither Blade, Tormented Soul and Triton Shorestalker can all get past blockers quite nicely. I'm also running Blighted Agent and Gingerbrute. The former has infect, and the latter has haste and can be made unblockable by any creature that does not have haste. If nothing else, I'm looking forward to attacking, swapping it out for a creature with ninjutsu and telling my tablemate "you can't catch me, I'm the Ninjabread man!!!"

To round out my options I also included Slip Through Space. This sorcery will make target creature unblockable and will draw me a card. I can't use it on another player's turn to help someone with a giant creature murder another player who desperately needs to be murdered, but it's still a nice backup if I'm desperate to get a creature through blockers, whether it's a new one or if I'm planning to spring a Ninja into play before damage.

Double the Dragons

If you haven't figured out yet, this is one of those fun, casual decks that is all in on what the commander brings to the table. If I'm leaning into the plan to get at least one creature to hit an opponent so I can make a 5/5 Dragon Spirit token, it makes sense to lean into that plan twice as hard.

Combat damage triggers are great because if you can give your creature double strike you get twice the payoff. I'm not in the colors to play Anointed Procession, Parallel Lives, Doubling Season, Primal Vigor or even Mondrak, Glory Dominus, but I am in the right colors to give a creature double strike.

Berserkers' Onslaught is going to be amazing in this deck, as it will double my rate of making 5/5 Dragons and then it will double their ability to push out damage. It does not take that many creatures that can push out 10 damage per combat to really start to put pressure on the rest of the table. I could see an argument that this deck should run Crucible of Fire and some damage amplifiers like Dictate of the Twin Gods or Fiery Emancipation to allow a modest Dragon Army to more quickly become a game-winning threat.

I'm running a few ways to give a single creature double-strike. Fireshrieker is an equipment that equips for two mana and gives double strike. I don't love having to play that 2 mana every turn but when you look at it in the context of getting another 5/5 flyer, it's well worth the cost. I can't equip at instant speed, so it won't help out my Ninjas, but it's still a solid card for this deck's game plan. Also in the list is Spectacular Showdown. This sorcery can be overloaded to give each creature a double strike counter, and as an added benefit each creature that was given a double strike counter is goaded. That goad effect only lasts one turn, so an overloaded Spectacular Showdown could easily be a problem for you later on, but if you can close out the game it won't matter.

Magical Christmasland

Nearly every deck has a dream scenario where everything goes right and you get to do something ridiculous. This is a pretty low-powered casual deck so if you manage to get all the right cards and do your crazy thing, it's not really all that crazy. At least not with these first three cards.

If you were able to attach Helm of the Host to Goro-Goro and Satoru, at the beginning of combat you'll make a nonlegendary token copy of them. That copy gains haste. This happens every turn, and you don't have to swing with your commander or the non-legendary copies of your commander but they will all trigger if you end up making a 5/5 Dragon Spirit creature token.

Sakashima's Student is in the mix so you can use its ninjutsu ability but it could enter as a copy of one of your nonlegendary Goro-Goro and Satoru tokens. In the same way that Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm plays really well around a clone strategy, Goro Goro and Satoru might also work really well with lots of nonlegendary copies to give you more Dragon Spirits.

Sakashima the Impostor is one of those rare clones that does not copy the name of the creature it is impersonating. That means it can enter as a copy of your legendary commander without forcing you to sacrifice it to the legend rule. It can also enter as a copy of an unblockable creature, get haste from your commander, and then be bounced back to your hand so you can do it again. All that would cost you a lot of mana, but Sakashima the Impostor is so versatile it seems silly not to include her in this list.

One last surprise in this list is Breath of Fury. This aura will attach to a creature and when that creature deals combat damage to a player I sacrifice the creature, attach it to another creature, untap all my creatures and get a new combat step. I'll need my commander on the battlefield. I'll also need one creature that can trigger my commander and one creature I can attach Breath of Fury to. My Dragon Spirit creature tokens have flying so one of them would be a good candidate.

For this to work, I'll need a static haste enabler like Urabrask the Hidden. The enchantments Fervor and Mass Hysteria would also work or I could play Anger and get it into my graveyard. This list is only running Urabrask.

The way it works is simple. Swing with two creatures, at least one of which entered the battlefield this turn. Make sure to have Breath of Fury attached to the one that didn't enter this turn. Have both get through blockers and do combat damage. Create a 5/5 Dragon. Sacrifice the creature that had been enchanted and move Breath of Fury over to the Dragon I just created. Get a new combat step. The new Dragon has haste so I can swing with it and keep these combat steps going again until the table is dead or they have somehow found a way to remove Breath of Fury or block my attackers.

You'll see lots of people including Breath of Fury in Goro-Goro and Satoru decks but it's important to remember that any new Red Dragon Spirit creature tokens with flying will not have haste without that static haste enabler. Don't let anyone try to fool you into thinking they've got a win if they can't actually give haste to the creatures they need to attack with.

Of course, I could pay every time I get a new Dragon and a new combat step, but that will get very expensive very quickly. To pay that cost each combat, all it would take are a couple of mana dorks like Iron Myr and Alloy Myr and they'd be able to pay that cost every turn, but outside of Green, mana dorks aren't as easy to find.

It's worth noting that this deck could be a home for some Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker combo lines, Godo, Bandit Warlord combo or any number of other more degenerate wincons. This deck is in the right colors to get up to all sorts of nonsense if that's your style. You could be playing a bunch of tutors and much more powerful wincons than I included today.

Goro-Goro and Satoru

I'll be the first to admit that for a hot minute I was wondering how many cards I could find in Grixis colors that had that "oro" or "oru" sound in them. Coronation of Chaos, Dust Corona, Horobi, Death's Wail, Mikokoro, Center of the Sea and Moroii are all fine cards that have a place in some EDH deck somewhere, but I decided to give whimsy a pass this time around.

I do think this is a pretty good starting point for this commander. I would bet any amount of money that after a few games if it had been able to "do its thing" I'd find myself needing to swap in Swiftfoot Boots, Lightning Greaves and some counterspells to better protect my commander. Right now it's leaning very hard into just trying to make those Dragons with the idea that if I can successfully make one or two 5/5 Dragon Spirits on every one of my turns, I should be OK in a casual game. The hope is that by time things start to get out of hand I'll have the mana to re-cast Goro-Goro and Satoru since it's only a three-mana commander.

Goro-Goro and Satoru | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Goro-Goro and Satoru

• Creatures (35)
• 1 Alora, Merry Thief
• 1 Azra Smokeshaper
• 1 Blighted Agent
• 1 Changeling Outcast
• 1 Dokuchi Silencer
• 1 Gingerbrute
• 1 Goblin Tunneler
• 1 Gudul Lurker
• 1 Ingenious Infiltrator
• 1 Invisible Stalker
• 1 Lightning Berserker
• 1 Lizard Blades
• 1 Mardu Scout
• 1 Mardu Shadowspear
• 1 Mistblade Shinobi
• 1 Moon-Circuit Hacker
• 1 Mulldrifter
• 1 Nezumi Prowler
• 1 Ninja of the Deep Hours
• 1 Pathmaker Initiate
• 1 Prosperous Thief
• 1 Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
• 1 Reckless Imp
• 1 Sakashima the Impostor
• 1 Sakashima's Student
• 1 Screamreach Brawler
• 1 Silver-Fur Master
• 1 Skullsnatcher
• 1 Slither Blade
• 1 Tormented Soul
• 1 Triton Shorestalker
• 1 Urabrask the Hidden
• 1 Walker of Secret Ways
• 1 Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow
• 1 Zurgo Bellstriker

• Instants (5)
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Pongify
• 1 Raking Claws
• 1 Rapid Hybridization

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Damnation
• 1 Slip Through Space
• 1 Spectacular Showdown
• 1 Toxic Deluge

• Enchantments (9)
• 1 Berserkers' Onslaught
• 1 Break Through the Line
• 1 Breath of Fury
• 1 Coastal Piracy
• 1 Curiosity
• 1 Ophidian Eye
• 1 Phyrexian Arena
• 1 Reconnaissance Mission
• 1 Rhystic Study

• Artifacts (9)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Chromatic Lantern
• 1 Dimir Signet
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Fireshrieker
• 1 Helm of the Host
• 1 Izzet Signet
• 1 Rakdos Signet
• 1 Wayfarer's Bauble

• Lands (36)
• 7 Island
• 7 Mountain
• 7 Swamp
• 1 Access Tunnel
• 1 Bloodstained Mire
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Dragonskull Summit
• 1 Drowned Catacomb
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Luxury Suite
• 1 Morphic Pool
• 1 Polluted Delta
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Scalding Tarn
• 1 Sulfur Falls
• 1 Training Center

Buy This Deck Export text format

If you wanted to tune this list up you'd drop a bunch of creatures, add in more stack interaction, removal and fast mana. You might then lean into a Ninja strategy and use tutors to search out Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow and then focus on a Yuriko-centric game plan. Of course, then you might as well just build a Yuriko deck. You could center the deck around Helm of the Host, but then you might as well just build Godo, Bandit Warlord. I think in general if you wanted to tune this list up you might easily make it better but if you push too hard you'll just find yourself looking at other commanders with more cEDH potential.

This list isn't that powerful but you could cut a few corners, drop out some of the pricier cards like Ragavan and still have a fun casual deck to play. You'll absolutely want to make some adjustments so the list fits into your meta. More stack interaction and more ways to protect your commander might be a good starting point. If you leaned more heavily on creatures with dash or included Ninjas with higher ninjutsu activation costs, that would make the deck a bit slower. I don't think this is a particularly fast aggro deck, but I'm sure you could make it weaker if for some reason you needed to adjust to a meta where the power level was really low.

Final Thoughts

Did you notice that this deck is missing Sol Ring?

I do find Sol Ring is nearly always a good card, but in rare circumstances I will drop it out. Today's commander has no generic mana in its casting cost and has a lot of creatures and spells that cost a single colored mana. That does not mean you shouldn't put a spare Sol Ring into this list. I just decided to be a hipster and leave it out this time around. My ideal early game sees me cast Goro-Goro and Satoru on turn three and have the colors to play an unblockable one-drop on turn four, give it haste and get my first 5/5 Dragon Spirit. All of that can happen without a Sol Ring on the field.

This commander really does look like a lot of fun. I don't think it's going to be crushing too many tables, but that doesn't mean it won't be able to win games. I love Dragons, I love combat tricks, and I like builds that make me feel clever for setting it up to do something neat. Swinging at people with a creature like Slither Blade, dashing in my adorable little Surfer Goblin, making a Dragon and playing my Slither Blade again in the second main phase sounds like a pretty good time to me.

I'm not sure what I'll be tackling next. I'm writing this on my vacation and had been looking forward to it for weeks, but I hadn't planned beyond this column. If there's a MOM legendary creature you'd like me to cover, please leave a comment on the CoolStuffInc.com post for this column and I'll take it under consideration. There's a very good chance your request will be granted!

That's all I've got for this week. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!