Zangief's Fight Club

Posted on March 22, 2022

Hello Happy People! I hope that your day is going well today! Today I have my 3^rd and final deck around one of the leaders for Street Fighter Secret Lair.

Here are my previous two:

My first deck was Gruul's Blanka, Ferocious Friend. This one is built around the self-targeting of Auras and uses Enchantress effects like Verduran Enchantress to draw cards and uses the repeatable cards of Whip Silk and Crown of Flames as engines to target and retarget Blanka. You can check it out here!

My second deck was built around E. Honda, Sumo Champion a cheap mono-White toughness matters brew that is different than others since it wants to go wide with tokens and high-toughness things like Indomitable Ancients. It's a unique toughness-matters option and you can check it out here.

What's next?

Zangief! This Human Warrior is a nice Jund leader with indestructible on your turn and must be blocked. Nice combo with 7 power. When he deals excess damage to a dork (note the lack of the word "combat") then you can force that controller to sacrifice a non-dork or non-land. As you can see, this is in the color of Fighting, so when Zangief deals 7 damage to a dork, you can kill it, save him, and force the trigger of that sacrifice as well. Since this is a Street "Fight"er this is also flavorful as well. Ready?

Let's get things started!

I'll skip past most of the fight spells, but let's look at these two. The Inscription can pump a target with two +1/+1 counters, you can gain life equal to the greatest power, and you can fight, and if you kick this with 3 mana you do all three, which means Zangief rises to a 9/6, you gain 9 life, and fight. Nice!

Uprising is here for two reasons. The first is that your team will gain deathtouch. That way you can turn dorks that are here for their abilities into fighters that will trade up after they've done their thing. Then you can fight, so that Eternal Witness can trade up with a Consecrated Sphinx if you cannot get your Zangief due to Commander tax.

And then we have Ulvenwald Tracker! It's a repeatable fight, which Zangief really likes in this build...a lot. All right let's move from fighting to synergies.

Chandra's five-mana Sorcery is a blowout in this deck. Choose Zangief when you cast this. All your opposing players and creatures take 7 from him. Then each one that is dealt excess damage will force sacrifices from Z. This can blowout your foe's stuff quite ably and could be more than a Plague Wind in this brew it could be an Akroma's Vengeance for your foes. The only thing safe are indestructible creatures and dorks with a toughness of 8 or more.

Then check out Neyith of the Dire Hunt! This is why all of my damage dealing things are "fights" to trigger this Human Warrior. As you can see, this 3/3 can draw a card when a dork we control fights or is blocked, both of which are likely with Zangief must being blocked. At the beginning of our combat, we can spend 3 mana and then double some power so our Commander becomes a 14/4! I think that might deal excess damage to something...And that's a fast Commander kill on a naked board or in a Rogue's Passage.

Check out Toralf! The God is a trampling 5/4 for 4 mana, on curve. When a dork or planeswalker your foe's control are dealt excess non-combat damage, then Toralf will deal that excess damage to another permanent. That means when Z fights a valuable 6/6 Sun Titan, you can deal an extra damage to another permanent source like a planeswalker. It's really strong with Chandra's Ignition.

Let's move to my three planeswalkers.

Our first two planeswalkers are Domris. The former one is the first one printed and is here for that -2 to fight. You can also +1 him to look at the top card of your library and then draw it if it's a dork. But that's not likely as we don't have that many dorks here. The latter one can pump your team by +1/+0, which is nice for fighting. You can +1 him to ramp a mana and make your Zangief and his Fight Club uncounterable this turn. Then you can -2 him to fight here as well. Fight machines for the future!

Let's turn to damage increasers...

Jeska is here to win the game. She costs 3 mana and you'll want to save her until post-Zangief getting cast so she'll have 1 loyalty. Then you are going to 0 her and triple the combat damage he would deal. That's 21 points of damage, a one hit kill with Commander Damage. With all of your ways of killing blockers you could easily have someone open with no blockers, and you can swing and kill that player after dropping her in the pre-combat phase.

Each of these Red enchantments will also increase our damage. The Emancipation will triple all damage from any source, that means Zangief will deal 21 from a fight and that's likely to be excess as well as 21 Commander damage in battle, again, lethal.

Similarly to the above doublers, Obosh, the Preypiercer will double all damage from an odd mana cost...which Zangief's 5 mana is. A 14 Commander damage in combat will kill very quickly. Obosh can also smash for 6/5 since the Horror is a 5-drop and counts itself. Lovely!

Vigor is another game-winning combo - this 6 mana 6/6 trampler is on curve and when it heads to the graveyard, shuffle it up. When your other creatures take damage, prevent it and put that many +1/+1 counters on them. If you fight a 4 powered dork with your Commander, he will stay alive and is now a permanent 11/8. Nasty stuff in a Fight Club brew.

Check out these two synergetic options in here. The first is a 3-drop and whenever any player sacrifices a permanent then you can shoot a target for a damage. With a damage increaser (this is 3 mana for Obosh) this can shoot players for a good amount of damage and clear out things like low toughness things like Birds of Paradise or Mother of Runes. It's your Blood Artist, since it works on any permanents sacrificed.

The Death Prest is a smaller 2/2 for 5 mana with flying, and as permanents get sacrificed, you toss a +1/+1 counter on each team member. Just him and Z is +2/+2 total each time. Also note that these work quite nicely with the forced sacrifice of your leader each time you deal excess damage.

Check out these two Gruul enchantments. The uncommon gives your dorks uncounterable, which is nice for Zangief. Then you can riot on arrival and swing with haste and then punch more quickly. I also tossed in Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots to give haste and protection. The mythic rare wants to pump up Zangief and give him haste to a 14/11 powerhouse, which can kill quickly. Even if he doesn't ever become a dork, he can haste and punch quickly.

Check out these two very different casting costs. The Archetype gives your team deathtouch and removes it from your foes. Nice stuff. It's here to let your creatures trade up, which is good since you want them in your graveyard for their abilities. You also want the 1-drop Collar to equip onto a small fry for Fighting up or onto Zangief to kill a bigger dork like an 8 toughness Stormtide Leviathan or a Dragonlord Atarka. We have lifelink for Zangief to gain 7 life for the fights as well as the swings, which can be a lot of life. Nice!

Most of the card draw in here is obvious, but Deathreap Ritual is really synergetic. In multiplayer you could draw four cards each round! This works with the fight removal and the combat damage death as well as your foes actively engaged in the game as well. Good stuff! I also tossed in Harvester of Souls to draw a bunch of cards upon death as well.

Let's turn to some lands!

Check out Witch's Clinic. This colorless arrives without being tapped, so you can easily use it on arrival. Tap it and 2 mana and you can give your leader lifelink for the turn, which we already looked at with the Basilisk Collar. You could easily gain 14 life with the fight pre-combat clearing a path and then in combat for just a few mana. And with the damage multipliers in here you could really gain an epic amount of life. If you just control Obosh then you could deal 14 with a Fight and another 14 in combat for 28 life gained, it's very synergetic in here!

I am tossing in these two Gruul lands. The Rage Pits taps for two, and then gives a dork trample and a nice +1/+1 boost. Trample is good for a high-powered dork and you can do this to give Zangief a power boost to fight off a Hellkite Overlord. The Wolf Run is a X and two to tap and then pumps your dork's power by the X and then gives it trample. Another way to break through and another way to trade up, just 3 in the X would fight and kill a Desolation Twin or Apex Devastator. Good stuff!

We need repeatable fight effects to win: enter the Arena. You can tap this land and 3 mana to have your foe and their chosen dork enter the Arena and then they fight each other and tap. Normally when you Arena they choose a small dork to eat like their 1/1 Soldier token from their Elspeth, but now if they sent it out and it dies, they might lose Elspeth if it's their only non-land or non-creature to sacrifice. So now they have to decide if their 7/7 Realm-Cloaked Giant or Celestial Force should die instead in the fight. It really pushes them around.

I tossed in a few ways to protect Zangief like Heroic Intervention and Malakir Rebirth. This pair as well. The Safekeeping was just printed, and this common instant can give any permanent hexproof and indestructible until the end of the turn to save it. Note that this will save key ways to win the game like Vigor or Fiery Emancipation. Or Zangief. Nice stuff! Then we can cast the Augmenter and give our leader a nice sized +2/+2 boost for fighting and surviving and killing with Commander damage and dealing excess damage in combat after being blocked. The Troll Wizard also lends him hexproof to play keep away and can be flashed out as a combat trick or to save your leader from targeted removal. Nice!

Ready for the decklist proper? I got you!