Hello folks! I hope that your day is doing well!

I recently added in a few cards from my iconic deck, Abe's Deck of Happiness and Joy (H&J for the rest of the article). This is a deck I've had with me since Urza's Saga debuted. I was inspired by Sneak Attack and wedded it to Living Death and I would get a dork for a turn with a single Red mana and then recur them all from the Death of the Living ones. It included cards like Birds of Paradise, Wall of Blossoms, Spike Feeder, Spike Weaver, Portcullis, and Volrath's Stronghold.

Then it moved slowly over time to embrace a bigger role with value dorks like Ghitu Slinger and Avalanche Riders with Oath of Ghouls and other recursion-caring cards. Once they rotated out of Standard, I rotated the deck with them. It slowly gained until it hit 100 cards and I was adding in newly debuting cards like Captain Sisay and Kor Haven. I kept it at 100 cards for around a year. Then the deck slowly grew, and then it embraced five color and jumped to 250 cards. I moved it to my default multiplayer deck.

Over time I added in more and more and more cards and it swelled in size. Last year I invested some time trimming tons of cards from the deck.

I just pulled another big chunk of cards from the deck prior to adding in some all-stars from the last year, such as Sword of Steel and Sinew or The Akroan War. Now that I have dropped my deck to one box, I want to be a harder mercenary about what I am and am not cutting.

Today I want to take a deeper dive into H&J and examine what it wants to do. Then on Friday we'll look at some great winning moments and cards from this deck recently.

Let's begin by looking at the themes and card archetypes of the deck.

1. Removal

Every deck wants to remove issues that your foes bring, especially in a multiplayer environment.

My deck has three basic archetypes of removal.

Pinpoint, Flexible, Removal - Utter End is a perfect example of what I'm looking for these slots. I used to run fewer flexible cards like Naturalize and Terminate here. But now I either have pinpoint cards that do something else, or that can target multiple cards like Vandalblast and Into the Core for artifacts. For creature removal, I like my removal to be instant and exiling, although I'll make exceptions. For example, consider flexible destruction spells that can hit multiple targets, like Mortify. I have recently pulled cards like Unmake that are duplicative. My ideal removal are options like Utter End that exile, hit many things, and are instants.

Sweeping Removal - I love sweeping removal that ends problems. It's the most common set of answer spells we have! I have everything from damage-based removal like Magmaquake to something fun such as Akroma's Vengeance and Rout. Not only is it good to have a one-card answer to multiple dorks, but it's also a key source of real card advantage in the build as well.

Creatures with Enters-the-Battlefield Removal - My third category of removal I push are cards with enters-the-battlefield twinned with removal. Going way back I was running Bone Shredder and others from an early age of the deck, and creatures with these abilities have always been something I've valued.

2. Cards That Keep Me Alive

I don't want to die. That's true in games and life! I have everything from ways to prevent combat damage to just preventing damage altogether with things like Prahv. You'll see almost every card in my deck that can help slow down or stop the attacking. My cards, such as Caverns of Despair, that limit attackers are also great when you add in a tap of a Maze of Ith or a Safeguard on the one that actually attacked you. Any card that keeps me from dying is here, other than Koskun Falls. I even run mega blockers like Fog Bank or Cho-Manno that are rough to punch through and many cheap deathtouchers which encourage folks to head elsewhere. My goal is to have enough roadblocks that you cannot slip in here and smash me.

3. Game Winners

I don't just want to stay alive. I want to win the game too. I run cards like Guiltfeeder that are perfect at slipping into and through defenses and winning. Guiltfeeder is rough to stop with its fear and loss of life as soon as it slips through. Sun Quan is amazing and can ensure a game-ending smashery. There are some folks that can both block infinitely and swing infinitely, like Commander Eesha that's a double fit!

4. Card Drawing

Card drawing in the raw form is one of the most commonly needed things at a multiplayer table where I am being outdrawn 3-1 or 4-1 or so based on my foe count. We have five major archetypes of card drawing in here.

Impulses - The lightest group are Impulses that are cheap, dig deeply, and let you acquire maximum flexibility with an early hand for land a cheap dork or useful removal. I don't run every one of these as many are weak or only work with certain card types. Some, like Ancient Stirrings, aren't here, but obvious ones like Portent, Brainstorm, and Ponder are.

En Masse - We also have some mass card drawing, such as flexible Finale of Revelation or set Harmonize. I try to minimize uncertain card drawing effects like Hunter's Prowess that aren't here anymore. I want to emphasize this sub-type of card drawing's power and majesty.

Dork Draw - One of my favorite ways to keep up the card flow are dorks that draw cards on arrival. My first deck ran Wall of Blossoms, and my first update added in Raven Familiar. I run pretty much every one that's out there that doesn't suck (like the three-mana 1/1 Merchant of Secrets). I love how useful these are, and their bodies add to my red zone presence while keeping the cardflow going. A simple Elite Guardmage is awesome as a 2/3 flyer than gave me life and card on arrival. From defending Walls to flyers that can swing over foes, or recursive forces of nature, this is a big category in my deck, and one of the biggest we have.

Ophidians - Another key I harness to draw those precious cards is to punch for cards. From Shadowmage Infiltrator to Lu Xun, Scholar General, we've got them all. I enjoy the card flow of Tomebound Lich in my build as it does double duty, although could be in my next and final archetype...

Looters - I run every feasible Looter in the game. Take a Merfolk Looter as a good example of where you could go. You net a few strong options early with it as you can use it to tap over a few turns to sculpt your hand. Unlike red's discard to draw (which is in here in fewer numbers), this draws to discard and I prefer that order. You'll often draw the card you want to discard. It's also something that works well with archetype #10 below!

5. Discard

Much like card drawing above, discard is a light but very real element. Almost every spell ever printed that will cause all of my foes to discard is here, but not many that will only hit a single player's hand. Although I do have a few here and there like Liliana Vess that have a +1 that forces a discard.

6. Counters

Did you cast something? Did I want to stop you? Then enter in the counter! We have more than 100 hard counters in the game, so I don't want to run vanilla or bad counters as my card count number is mostly locked in these days. Here you will find fun things like Disallow that stops a lot of things or Mana Drain that's mega-powerful. I try not to run any Mana Leak effects as I only look for hard counters. (I do have some charms, like Izzet Charm, that have it as one possible option). Again, flexibility matters.

7. Five Color Good-Stuff

One of the best things about playing all five colors is that I can run all five colors! There are many cards whose power is truly unlocked once they can be unfurled. Run them all! Conflux and the Etched dorks! We have several best-of lists.

A small but real subgenre of this is gold cards with a bunch of colors that keep them from most modern Commander builds. Wargate is great, as are cards like the Battlemage cycle from Planeshift. You can see a number of these amazing cards in my deck as well!

8. Tutors

The bigger a deck is, the more it needs the ability to fetch up a card. My big deck has several Tutors to give me the flexibility to answer big problems. Or to provide my own problems to win games. My tutors are broken down into one of three archetypes:

Battlefield Tutors - The strongest but least common one in my deck are those that fetch a card onto the battlefield. We don't have too many of these, but there are a good number of these powerful dorks! Much like Wargate above, these are strong. From dorks to the artifacts of Transmute Artifact and Tinker, we have a fun and powerful subset of tutors that fetch for the battlefield!

Hand Tutors - Another subset are cards that fetch for a card and then put in into my hand. These are much more common! From Black's versatile slate of tutors that can recur anything from my deck and are maximally useful to cards that grab a subset such as dorks or artifacts, we have a number of these cards. While they don't put them in my hand technically, I also consider Imperial Seal and Vampiric Tutor in this line.

Land Tutors - My final subset are land fetchers. Now technically Krosan Tusker is the latter (Hand Tutor) whereas a Rampant Growth is the former type (Battlefield Tutor). I count them differently in my build but there are many options out there that help a five-color build, and they are downright essential.

9. Mana-making

On a similar note, I have a number of dorks and artifacts that help me make the mana this deck needs. Now I don't run mana dorks that make just one color of mana - you won't see Llanowar Elves, I pulled them in a previous update to my deck. I also consider cards like Avenging Druid that punch for lands to count as a useful addition to my land-ing.

10. Graveyard Literate

Going back to this deck's Living Death, this has always been a deck that cares about the graveyard. The graveyard matters for this crew. Among cards that are graveyard literate are those that can self-recur, swell better from thicker 'yards, and recur. Eternal Witness and Sun Titan? Anger and Wonder? Bonehoard and Far Wanderings? Yup, yup, and yup!

Gravediggers - A quick shout out to Gravedigger. I have jokingly referred to this deck as Gravedigger.dec due to the many Gravedigger variants I run. I love them! They give you a perfect amount of Raise Dead'ing card equilibrium as well as a dork. I also love chaining these into other Diggers of Graves.

11. Good Equipment

I really gravitated to equipment as soon as it debuted and I have foils from all of the great cards from the first block where they debuted. I love cards like Umezawa's Jitte and Batterskull. They will let me load up a Gravedigger and swing away.

12. Multiplayer Classics

By running all five colors, I unlock classics of multiplayer. Many of these are in other effects. Examples include Pernicious Deed's removal, or Mind's Eye's card drawing. But we also have many cards that are amazing against multiple foes, and are here for your use.

Mindslaver is much more likely to be potent when you have multiple players to consider as a target. Bribery? Mimic Vat? We have a few cards that scale in power when you are dialing it up with multiple foes that aren't the others. Another example of such an effect is the death trigger life gain from Kokusho, the Evening Star.

13. Other

I do have a few other cards here and there. I don't like bounce much, I prefer to remove than to delay a card. And they are increasingly non-starters against the large number of dorks with enters-the-battlefield triggers. I only run a handful of bounce effects like Cyclonic Rift and Capsize. I also have a small but real number of other removal effects such as Edicts that force a sacrifice to get around some other forms of defense.

I also run some enchantments and other cards that'll boost my own cards. Things like Mana Reflection, Dictate of Heliod, and Mirari's Wake are here as well.

I also run a small but real number of cards meant to interfere with my foe's plans, such as Aven Mindcensor and Heroic Intervention. You'll note how cool and powerful these sorts of monkey-wrench-in-the-works that they can play.

I also have a few Time Walks, although I don't push into this space by running all of them, even pricey ones. I also run some fun cards like Eureka or Veteran Explorer that everyone will like. We can also run most of the Best Of sets of cards from Magic's history. Only a few who's who won't be here. Most fit into other sections like Primeval Titan (Tutors) and Snapcaster Mage (Graveyard). Note that I don't run planeswalkers for their own merit, they must fit the team. Many planeswalkers that may be good, like Narset Transcendent, aren't here. Those that here tend to be because they hit one of the above themes, like card drawing, discarding, tutoring, recursion, and so forth.

I also have a small number of cards that are sentimental in nature. They've been with the deck since its beginning (Spike Feeder) and aren't coming out. There are old original set cards like an Alpha Air Elemental and Beta Wall of Air in here. It's around 20 of the cards.

Note that one of the biases of my deck is to push toward creatures. I will always play creatures over other things. Consider Regrowth vs. Eternal Witness. I'm not pulling either. But if I did? It'd be the spell.

At the end of the day though, my deck prefers the idea of the long game with value over time in cards like Volrath's Stronghold, removal that often hits multiple targets (Hull Breach, Day of Judgment) or cantrips (True Love's Kiss), card drawing from many angles, countless ways to get ETB triggers for cards (Gravedigger et all), and reanimation both small and big to keep the pressure up. It's sensitive to cards and advantage from every source.

Here's my deck in its box!

Now that I am done with my tour of the deck's archetypes, I want to take another final run. What is duplicative? What did I miss my last two runs? Each time I do a run to pull cards out I always find something new.

Want to see what I yanked out?

Please note that the below cards are my final pulls, and don't include those that began this article.

• Daghatar the Adamant
• Seal of Cleansing
• Celestial Force
• Planar Collapse
• Pillar of Light
• Avacyn, Guardian Angel
• Celestial Archon
• Crib Swap
• Cancel
• Jilt
• Pongify
• Preemptive Strike
• Wash Out
• Wizard's Retort
• Battle at the Bridge
• Cao Cao, Lord of Wei
• Crypt Angel
• Font of Return
• Living End
• Nightscape Master
• Seal of Doom
• Thorn of the Black Rose
• Crater's Claws
• Fall of the Titans
• Fight with Fire
• Fervor
• Pardic Arsonist
• Spark of Creativity
• Street Spasm
• Bane of Progress
• Bower Passage
• Caravan Vigil
• Domesticated Hydra
• Fyndhorn Elves
• Hope Tender
• Lhurgoyf
• Seal of Primordium
• Altar of Bone
• Dromoka, the Eternal
• Boltwing Marauder
• Desecrator Hag
• Gruul Charm
• Silumgar, the Drifting Death

There we are! Did I miss anything? Just let me know.

As a reminder, check out the Friday Top Ten where I go over some great game0winnign moments with this deck recently!

Thanks for your time, and have an awesome day, week, month, year, and life!

P.S. - One of the most common questions I get as a writer of articles like this one, is how my Huntington's Disease impacts my writing. Great question! I have the answer here for you:

Let me know what you think!