Hello Awesome Readers! I hope your day is going quite well! Ready for another Random Commander build?

Here is how this series works! I head over to EDHREC.com and hit the "Shuffle" looking icon which will generate a cool legendary leader I can build around randomly. Then I'll build around said dork that was chosen randomly.

I have a few rules:

1. It has to be legal as a Commander. Some folks build around illegal leaders, and I won't. If I randomly get Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary I'll move elsewhere.
2. It has to be something I haven't gotten in this series. If I have gotten it, then I'll let you know and then we'll do it again.
3. It cannot be a leader I have used. This is true for my articles as well as my real-life decks. If I flip over Unesh, the Criosphinx whom I built a deck around recently, no thanks. I also grabbed a leader I run in real life in a previous Random Commander article.
4. I reserve the right to refuse a heavily played leader. My goal is to test myself not to make Kaalia of the Vast 3.0. Unless I can come up with a unique take on said leader, and if so, I will push myself further in that direction.

Ready? Let's do it do it!

What did I get?

This planeswalker! All right, let's build a mono-White Equipment loving deck around Nahiri, the Lithomancer! This is weird because I got Isamaru, Hound of Konda in this series and built a mono-White Voltron deck around it. These days Nahiri is a better support dork in an Equipment build, and there are only 264 decks with her as a leader, although she's in 2625 decks. Good stuff! Now note that Nahiri really wants to go wide with her token making, not high, so we'll be looking for Equipment support that will pump the Kor Soldiers she makes and equips for free or gives them cool abilities, as well as maybe another way or three to go wide here and there.

The first thing this deck needs are things to equip! Since Nahiri can't go Voltron on herself since she's a 'walker, we'll need mono-White things that care about being equipped.

The first card that came to my mind was the God of Battle and his Sword. All of you equipped stuff will get double strike, which is pretty good for the masses. Also note that at the beginning of your combat, you can attach, for free, an Equipment to a dork and then swing away my friend. Halvar is also a nice sized 4/4 for four that can easily be a double striking fun time. Good God!

These Cats are next. I mentioned that we may go wide here and there, and the first Cat is one way, besides Nahiri, of doing so. As you can see, the more Equipment you have on her, the bigger your army will go, and that's pretty nice that it plays twice. Her trigger is your upkeep, so you may need to wait. You can also get the trigger, and then move things for free to other places with things like Halvar. Then the second Cat is a nice 3/3 with first strike that, when double equipped, upgrades to double strike, although if you control Halvar you only need a single piece. You can also spend a pair of mana and move all of your Equipment to the second Cat. Good stuff!

This 1/1 is heavily played in Commander, and we are running it as well here. It's normally run as tempo and sometimes card flow as forcing your foes to spend 1 generic mana when they go to cast something like Fact or Fiction or Sylvan Library or Sol Ring. But in here where you can reliably upgrade its power with Equipment it becomes a much more powerful engine of card drawing. Good Sentinel!

Check out this very different duo. The Outfitter gives your equipped stuff +1/+1, which plays into the going wide of equipped stuff, and something like the 1/1 Kor from Nahiri will get boosted to a 2/2 plus the free equip. As your equipped stuff dies, you'll also draw a card, which is pretty good card flow for the masses. Imagine it with the obvious inclusion of Skullclamp here! Nasty stuff, right? The Blademaster is a 6-drop flying, double striking 3/6 which seems fine and on curve. As it arrives to the party, you can move your Equipment to her. Then other dorks get +1/+1 for each piece of Equipment on her, which pumps your team as well as herself. Good stuff!

Let's dig into some tribes next. Check out the former Soldier. All of your equip costs are reduced by a mana. Then as long as it's equipped your Soldiers and Knights get a Glorious Anthem boost. Many of my cards are Soldiers, including token makers like Nahiri. That's pretty good. We also have the occasional Knight here as well like Balan. The latter will pump your other Kor when it's equipped, and that is less in here, although we do have a few Kor here and there, like Stoneforge Mystic. Do I want to take a card off and run something like Maskwood Nexus that will give everything changeling for both pumps? Not really. But you might.

Check out this fun duo! The Knight (cough Steelshaper cough) is a 3/3 flyer, which is okay for the cost. As it swings you look six cards down and toss an Equipment from your library into the battlefield for free! Equip that for free as well! It has nasty synergy here! We have 17 pieces of Equipment in the deck, so we should be able to find at least one option pretty reliably. The Guardian is a 5 mana X/5 double strike with ward 2 that makes it harder to target it, as well as giving your other artifacts ward 2 as well. Its power is equal to your artifact count on the battlefield. (1 land, 21 non-creature artifacts in the deck as well as things like Treasure from Smothering Tithe and creatures like Duplicant and Solemn Simulacrum).

Have you seen this Birthing Pod for artifacts rather than dorks? Tap him and a mana (and use this as a sorcery). Sacrifice an artifact. Search your library for +1 mana artifact, toss it onto the battlefield and rest. I recommend turning lands and tokens into Skullclamp if you don't have it. If you do have hit, and you have a free way to equip, Colossus Hammer might make sense. If your mana is set, mana rocks are great fodder for a nice piece of Equipment. Good stuff!

All right, now let's turn to Equipment! Most of my Equipment is obvious stuff (Sword of Fire and Ice, Lightning Greaves, Skullclamp) so we'll only look at four cards here.

Let's start with my most expensive pieces of Equipment which you can tutor for and drop for free with cards like Stonehewer Giant, Stoneforge Mystic and Oswald. I really enjoy the power of the Armor here as it's a nice +6/+6 boost to a dork, and a free equip with Nahiri's token. Equip it with Nahiri's token in your precombat phase, equip it with one of your three haste givers, and swing out of nowhere and net that destroy target permanent trigger. Nasty! I also love the Kaldra Equipment here, as it comes with Living Weapon, so you already get a 5/5, indestructible, trample, haste, first strike, and exiling combat damage machine! Sure, it's equip cost is 7 but you already got a powerful dork that was pumped by things like the Outfitter and double strike with Halvar since it came equipped with Living Weapon.

I really like Living Weapon in this build for that reason, so I tossed the only other two pieces of Equipment with it that made sense. The first one is a powerful 4/4 vigilance and lifelink for five mana that can equip for a crazy 5 mana, although, there are ways to get around that equip cost like Nahiri's +2. Or tapping an Auriok Windwalker. If the Germ token got swept up in a mass removal spell you can bounce and replay it. The 'Cyst is a 3 drop Living Weapon that gives the equipped Germ or dork a plus for every artifact you control, which could easily be 4 or 5 or 7 in this build. Enjoy this duo!

Next let's move to card flow! This is a White deck after all, so we need to run card flow.

Check out this iconic 2-drop mono-White 2/2 card drawing duo! The first is epic in this genre of deck and he leads 1174 decks over at EDHREC.com. Pretty strong this late after getting printed long ago. He'll draw you a card when you cast one of the 17 Equipment here in this brew. Even just two or four is pretty good, and he can wield Equipment and get pumped by stuff. The second one is also epic and run in 15,689 decks over at EDHREC.com. Nasty stuff. It's also a Knight, by the by. When your Equipment arrives to the party you draw a card, and this will trigger even if you cheat out them with Nahiri's -2 ability or using other effects. Also note that you can, often, equip for free if you have enough artifacts for metalcraft. Strong!

Check out the duo of Mentor of the Meek and Welcoming Vampire. When a dork with a power of 0, 1 or 2 arrives to the battlefield, you can draw a card by using a mana (Mentor) or just once per turn (Vampire). Both work with tokens like Nahiri's first ability. If you use her ability to make a 1/1 and then equip it, these should still trigger, even if the creature gets bigger. Good stuff! I also tossed in card flow with War Room.

Check out the Aid! It's a 1-drop enchantment that you can easily cast. In this brew your Equipment will have flash, which is pretty nice. Also, they will equip for free, which is nasty with things like Colossus Hammer and Argentum Armor. This turns your Equipment into combat tricks or great plays at the end of your foe's turn before you untap and swing with the now powerful dork. Also note the power of a Colossus Hammer on a 2/2 creature when control Halvar, you are now dealing 24 damage from double strike. Nasty!

I am only running one non-Nahiri planeswalker in this brew and it's the best Elspeth. +1 to make three Soldiers is great. They count as the tribe that one cares for and they are bodies for blocking, attacking, and equipping. Then you can -4 to destroy all big stuff, most of your stuff won't care naturally, since only the occasional Halvar sized dork will be bothered. It'll keep most of your stuff.

I also included two other sweepers. The best is Mass Calcify which I love in mono-White brews since only your non-White artifact dorks will die. That's worth it. Sure, some of your foe's stuff won't die either, but that's worth the price of admission. I also pulled a Plains out for Ondu Inversion which can act as a back up mass removal spell in case things are way out hand, and you can otherwise drop the Skyruins if things are going well.

Let's turn to some lands now!

Check out this tutor combo. The Fair is a powerful land that will, when you control three artifacts, gain a life every turn and sacrifice for tutoring up an artifact like a key piece of Equipment, and if you have a naked creature board, you could get a living weapon like Batterskull or Kaldra Compleat. The Saga taps for a colorless early, and then you can, twice, tap it to make a 0/0 Construct dork that cares about your artifact count, which could be quite high here. On the last turn you can grab a 0 or 1-drop from your library and and put it onto your battleifeld. Miight I suggest Skullclamp or, if you already have it, once again a certain Hammer? Shoot, a land or Sol Ring are fine if you need to make that mana. Great pair!

This duo is here to also go wide. The Castle will tap for White, and then tap for four mana and make a 1/1 Human token for equipping and blocking attacks on Nahiri. The Outpost will sacrifice a Plains on arrival, and tap for a White mana as well, and you can tap it and 2 mana to make a 1/1 Soldier token, which is the right tribe. Again, you can block attacks on Nahiri or suit up. These are good mana sinks to suck up mana at the end of a foe's turn and then you can do some good stuff on yours!

Let's finish my land deep dive with this combo. The Forge can tap to put a loyalty counter on Nahiri the turn she arrives. It's worth it since you can now -2 her twice with her new loyalty of 4. Her -2 to place an Equipment from your hand or graveyard is really strong here, love it loads. I prefer the latter since we can cast the one in the hand for triggering Sram and you can ramp it for free with other cards, but nothing else can drop them from the graveyard. I also tossed in Karn's Bastion to give our leader another loyalty counter each activation rather than just once.

Emeria is here to, maybe, turn seven Plains into a trigger to bring back an otherwise dead dork later in the game. We have 24 Plains in the brew to perhaps make that work, but I am not running that much land ramp given how cheap and free our stuff is, so it's more of a Hail Mary then a reliable thing.

Two more cards and we'll call it.

Danitha is pretty sweet in this brew. She starts as a 2/2 with three pertinent keywords. She's a great body to equip. And then she will drop the cost of your 17 Equipment cards by a mana each. Good stuff! Even in an artifact heavy deck like this, I really enjoy a Medallion in my mono-colored brews! Good mana reducing duo!

Now let's turn and look at my decklist!

Creatureless Kaervek | Commander | Abe Sargent

• Commander (1)
• 1 Nahiri, the Lithomancer

• Creatures (27)
• 1 Ardenn, Intrepid Archeologist
• 1 Armament Master
• 1 Armored Skyhunter
• 1 Auriok Steelshaper
• 1 Auriok Windwalker
• 1 Balan, Wandering Knight
• 1 Duplicant
• 1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1 Esper Sentinel
• 1 Etched Champion
• 1 Giver of Runes
• 1 Halvar, God of Battle
• 1 Heavenly Blademaster
• 1 Indomitable Archangel
• 1 Kemba, Kha Regent
• 1 Kor Outfitter
• 1 Leonin Shikari
• 1 Mentor of the Meek
• 1 Mother of Runes
• 1 Puresteel Paladin
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Sram, Senior Edificer
• 1 Stone Haven Outfitter
• 1 Stoneforge Mystic
• 1 Stonehewer Giant
• 1 Taj-Nar Swordsmith
• 1 Welcoming Vampire

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion

• Instants (6)
• 1 Generous Gift
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Rootkin Defenses
• 1 Sejiri Shelter // Sejiri Glacier
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Teferi's Protection

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 Emeria's Call // Emeria, Shattered Skyclave
• 1 Mass Calcify
• 1 Open the Armory
• 1 Ondu Inversion // Ondu Skyruins
• 1 Steelshaper's Gift

• Enchantments (2)
• 1 Sigarda's Aid
• 1 Smothering Tithe

• Artifacts (21)
• 1 Archaeomancer's Map
• 1 Argentum Armor
• 1 Batterskull
• 1 Bloodforged Battle-Axe
• 1 Colossus Hammer
• 1 Darksteel Plate
• 1 Hammer of Nazhan
• 1 Kaldra Compleat
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Nettlecyst
• 1 Nyx Lotus
• 1 Pearl Medallion
• 1 Shadowspear
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Sword of the Animist
• 1 Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1 Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1 Sword of Light and Shadow
• 1 Sword of Vengeance

• Lands (37)
• 24 Plains
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Castle Ardenvale
• 1 Darksteel Citadel
• 1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
• 1 Forge of Heroes
• 1 Inventors' Fair
• 1 Karn's Bastion
• 1 Kjeldoran Outpost
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Urza's Saga
• 1 War Room

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And there we are! I hope that you enjoyed this random Commander challenge! What did you like, or not, in my brew? Anything in here that I missed or that you like? Just let me know!

Appendix - Random Commander Challenges

Did you enjoy today's deck and want to check out all the random chaos from the previous editions? Great! Here they are.

1. For my first challenge, I hit on Random Gatherer Gwendlyn di Corci from the set that introduced legendary permanents. I create a discard-matters deck around her.
2. I flip over one of the original Elder Dragon Legends that the format was initially named after - Arcades Sabboth. I decide to build around a non-Red and non-Black Dragon theme. Get ready!
3. The Random Fairy Strikes Again! This time it lands on Toshiro Umezawa, one of the major protagonists of the Kamigawa Block storyline. Check out my spell-based fun time deck!
4. My submission of the random button finds the vanilla The Lady of the Mountain. Inspired by one of the few Commander options legally printed as a common, I decide to create a Pauper EDH deck for you! Let me know what you think!
5. I hit the random button and got Kefnet the Mindful. I turned him into a budget build for fewer than $33 as part of my Budget Commander series. Enjoy!
6. Random Gatherer hits Nissa, Vastwood Seer for a fun, mono-Green Forests-matter deck! Check it out!
7. This time, we hit 1-drop Vanilla Isamaru, Hound of Konda. What do I do with him? How about Isamaru Ultron? Let's give our pet some pants.
8. Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle - This build wants to build a fun challenge around the historic recursions of Teshar's potential. You can check it out here.
9. I randomly uncover Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind from way back and build a fun damage-matters and card-drawing matters build for your consideration! Let me know what you think!
10. What happens when Gatherer give me Palladia-Mors, the Ruiner? I make one of the most fun EDH decks in this series, that's what! Check it out!
11. I flip over Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient that loves to fork artifact abilities. Want to check out this odd take on Mono-Red artifacts?
12. Gatherer gives me Selvala, Heart of the Wilds. I use it to build a fun power-matters synergetic build. Check it out!
13. I randomly hit Lady Zhurong, and I decide to build a Mono-Green deck around her and her husband Meng Huo, Barbarian King. Check it out!
14. I randomly open with Seasinger, and I decide to build around that rather than a legendary leader. Check out my Mono-Blue Merfolk deck!
15. I use the EDHREC Random Commander option and dial up Anya, Merciless Angel, which is the wrong colors as she feels more Rakdos to me. I lean into fun times around dropping everyone's life! Wanna check it out?
16. I use the Random Commander button and get Balthor the Defiled a Zombie Dwarf who brings back all dead Red and Black dorks over and over again. It's a fun build, check it out!
17. For my 17^th challenge, I grabbed Kaervek the Merciless and built a creatureless deck around him with cards that punished the playing of dorks like Tainted Aether. We win with attacking lands and artifacts that dodge removal. Enjoy it here!