Azorius Saboteur Counters with Denry Klin

Posted on May 10, 2022

Hello Happy People! I hope your day is going incredibly well! Today, I want to build a Commander deck around a new buddy released in the Commander set that debuted with Streets of New Capenna.

This is the 6th deck I've built around one of the leaders here!

Here are the first five:

My first deck was a Jund build featuring the powerful Ziatora, the Incinerator, the leader of the Riviteers Family. I tossed in Ball Lightnings that swing out of nowhere and die anyway, so they can be sacrificed for 6 damage with Ziatora's ability. I also packed the list with Threaten effects like Zealous Conscripts that can steal creatures for a turn for Ziatora to snack on. I also included temporary token copy effects like Feldon of the Third Path that provide more bodies to be sacrificed, as well as damage increasers like Fiery Emancipation. You can check out the deck here!

Next, I built a Esper colored deck around Queza, Augur of Agonies. I included Group Hug cards like Howling Mine and Temple Bell to get loads of card drawing fun times as well as winning triggers like Psychosis Crawler and Underworld Dreams. I even snuck in the winning Approach of the Second Sun that will be able to be cast twice, and the trio of game winners like Thassa's Oracle and Laboratory Maniac. Check it out here!

Third, I built a Commander deck around the Naya token loving Jinnie Fay, Jetmir's Second! I tossed in loads of cards that care about making Food, Treasure, Clue and Blood tokens like Tireless Tracker and Old Gnawbone that you can convert into 2/2 or 3/1 swingers with Jinnie. We have ramp that plays into this like Growth Spasm and removal like Root Out and synergetic lands like Kher Keep. We have a double-digit number of cards from Streets of New Capenna. Good stuff!

My fourth deck was built around Bess, Soul Nourisher. This Selensya colored lover of 1/1 dorks was built around life gain from the Soul Sisters archetype like Auriok Champion and Essence Warden, as well as hate bears like Esper Sentinel, life gain matters like Well of Lost Dreams and going wide effects like Decree of Justice as game winners alongside things like Test of Endurance and Voltron to win with a giant Bess like Rogue's Passage and Light of Promise. Love it loads - check out my Bess Brew here.

For my fifth deck I built a Grixis Vampires deck around Evelyn, the Covetous which is the first Grixis Vampires matter Commander. Since she can exile opposing cards from all libraries when Vampires arrive, I tossed in a ton of mana matters cards like Cabal Coffers and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth; a bunch of cheap instants to cast one on each turn like Vampiric Tutor and Swan Song; a bunch of Vampires like Anje, Maid of Dishonor and Midnight Arsonist. Nice stuff! You can check out my 5th deck here.

For my sixth deck we are hewing into a different direction with Denry!

Denry is a 4-drop 2/2 who enters the battlefield (ETB) with one of three counters, dealer's choice - +1/+1 counter, first strike or vigilance. And then when other (nontoken) dorks arrive to the party, they collect the same number and kind of counters that Denry has, so if you drop a Mulldrifter when Denry has a vigilance counter, then the Mulldrifter arrives with the same vigilance counter.

What I seek to do with Denry is to give him evasive counters like flying, and then drop creatures with combat damage to a player triggers, and then they get flying and can swing and smash in the air for that face punch trigger. These creatures that trigger on combat damage to a player are called "Saboteurs." We'll also add in adjunct flying and other triggers as well as other keyword counters and +1/+1 counters for Denry to add to the smashing.

Ready?

Counter Giving

Check out this pair of blue dorks! When the Mentor ETBs you can place a flying counter on a non-Human, and since Denry is a Cat Adviser, you can toss it on him! And then you can tap and put a +1/+1 counter on each flyer you have, which is pretty spicey! Then you can cycle the Oddity for three mana and draw a card and toss a flying counter onto Denry. Nice!

This three-mana instant will pump Denry by +2/+2 and place a counter of the flying persuasion! That gives you three ways to dole out flying counters.

The Huntbonder is a nicely sized 3/3 with double strike for five mana. When it swings, you can toss a double strike counter on Denry if he is attacking as well, and that's pretty powerful! The Mare can cycle for two mana and draw you a card and then put a lifelink counter on Denry, pretty nice. I really enjoy these two counter givers!

Sabotaging

Check out these two 3-drop Blue dorks! The Adept will draw you a card when it deals damage and then you gain life equal to its cost! That's great, but you'll show what you draw which is less great since your foes can plan around it. The Constable is a 1/1 and when it smashes face you'll bounce that damage amount of cards to your foe's hand, including lands! With +1/+1 counters and double strike and flying? This thing could win the game quite ably without giving your foe's much of a chance to get caught up. This will want to wear Swiftfoot Boots or Lightning Greaves on arrival with a couple of counters from Denry. I'm shocked that this doesn't show up on Denry's EDHREC.com page.

Check out these two dorks! Medomai already has flying and is a nicely sized 4/4. When it smashes you can get a Time Warp extra turn, but you cannot attack with Medomai during that extra turn! I did toss in ways to get smashes like Rogue's Passage and Whispersilk Cloak and then Archetype of Imagination will pull flying from your foes so you can swing over them for Time Warps and Sun Quan, Lord of Wu will give it the unblockable horsemanship. Since we have a lot of ways of getting in some hits, I tossed in a good number of Ninjas, like this Shinobi which can bounce a dork to its owner's hand each time it deals combat damage to a player. It's a cheap ninjutsu for just a !

Here are two more Ninjas with three power and three cost ninjutsus. The former one is a 3/1 for three that can create a token that's a copy of it each time it smashes face! Please remember that tokens won't trigger Denry but a bunch of 3/1s that are also copying each other are pretty nice and with the aforementioned Sun Quan or Archetype they can smash all over the block. Ditto the latter 3/2 which will make a 1/1 Illusion token (with flying) each time it smashes a player's face. I also tossed in the token making Precinct Captain. Good pair!

Let's finish with some morphs! I have three morphs with combat damage triggers including this fun dork. You can drop him and then morph him up out of nowhere to smash for a discard of the opponent that was dealt damage, the opposite of the card draw flow we normally see with Blue combat damage triggers. This is nice and just doing it once or twice will force folks to play their things to prevent discard.

The Entrancer is a morph for that will Control Magic a foe's dork when you deal combat damage to them and then sacrifice this. It's worth it for things like Consecrated Sphinx and Sun Titan. The Guild Master will exile mill a massive ten cards from your foe's library, which is really strong, and has morph as well!

Answers

Most of my answers are obvious and heavily played (Swords to Plowshares, Generous Gift, Teferi's Protection, etc.) But not these two. I like to run a few sweeping effects in my Commander decks in case things get out of hand, but our deck really likes going wide with Saboteurs and could be drawing 3-4 cards a turn with things like Bident of Thassa and card-drawers like Ninja of the Deep Hours. So, instead I am running the sorcery which is a two-mana sorcery speed Path to Exile on an opposing dork, and can be overloaded for six mana to exile (a nice permanent answer) every creature you do not control! That's a lot of ramping, sure, but it's worth it. If your flyers are answered with a ton of flying and reach, so it before you swing and get in your hits.

The Archmage is a 4-drop 2/2 flyer, that can spend a to counter a noncreature spell, like something that would kill, exile, bounce or tuck your stuff. And then you can bring it back with persist as a 1/1 and then do it again! Since it arrives as a 2/2 with a -1/-1 counter, if it gets a +1/+1 counter from Denry then you can remove the counter and keep on sacrificing making this a soft lock as long as you have Blue to spend!

Synergies

Check out this pair of noncreature permanents! As you can see, the artifact is a 1-drop and when your creatures leave the battlefield, you place those counters on this, and then at the beginning of combat you can move all of the counters from this onto a dork. For example, if Denry had a +1/+1 counter and a flying one as well and then gets hit with an Utter End, then I can tuck those counters here, and then when Denry comes back in my next precombat main phase, I can give him a vigilance counter and then the flying and +1/+1 counter from this and move them over. Nice! Also note this synergy with ninjutsu since they will bounce, and you can place their counters here and then replay them for more counters. Great stuff. You'll want to drop this on the first turn before counters are up. The enchantment is a 2-drop that can place two +1/+1 counters on two dorks (one each) which is nice. You can spend mana to bring back dying dorks with counters on them to your hand, which is nice in the face of mass removal.

Did you forget that this powerhouse existed? This 5-drop artifact will tap and give your entire team persist for the turn. Then when they die they come back with -1/-1 counters and with a +1/+1 counter on Denry, they won't be -1/-1ed and you can keep this up. Nice stuff!

Lands

Check out these two lands! The Sanctum taps to turn Denry into a God and gives him a +1/+1 counter which can be used as a combat trick or before dropping your stuff to hand out more +1/+1 counters. It's here to sacrifice to give the powerful indestructible counter on your Commander to abuse the table with. The Forge can tap for no mana to toss a +1/+1 counter on Denry the turn he ETBed! Nice!

Check out the Grounds! This colorless tapping land can tap and spend a mana to move a counter from one target permanent to another (as a sorcery). The idea here is to move more +1/+1 counters to Denry from other sources like Ninja of the Deep Hours that was just dropped down. Good card here!

New Cards

Now let's move to cards from Streets of New Capenna. The Verdict is another mass removal spell in this deck for five mana that will sweep all creatures that don't have counters on them, which should be most of, or all of, your creatures since you'll want to hold off casting them until post-Denry save for maybe Burnished Hart and Solemn Simulacrum. The Sleuth is a nice 2/3 flying for three mana, nice, and then you can make a Clue token each time a dork with a counter on it leaves the battlefield, including getting bounced to Ninjutsu. Great combo here!

The Safeguard is a three-mana instant that can place a counter on your dork onto each other dork you control. Did you get the indestructible counter on Denry a few turns after dropping other dorks? Give them all indestructible with this! You can also use this in your main phase to place a shield counter on Denry and then add one to all of your things! Nice right? The enchantment is a backup The Ozolith that can put counters on any permanent as your stuff leaves the battlefield and then you can spend five mana to move any number from one target permanent to another you control. Note that this doesn't have to move them all, although it is a bit mana heavy, so you could just more one flying counter at a time. Note that this is a nice combat trick.

Three cards left!

The Courier is a 2-drop 1/1 with flying and when it swings you can choose a counter on a permanent you control and then place that on each permanent that shares a type with it that doesn't have it. That's a bit...wordy...so let's look at some real-life examples. If you swing (note that you don't have to deal combat damage) you can copy a charge counter from that Astral Cornucopia you have that uses them onto each artifact you control from a Sol Ring that won't care to the Darksteel Reactor that just arrived. You can copy a flying, double strike or indestructible counter from Denry onto each dork you control that doesn't have one. It's also good post The Ozolith since you only have one place to send all of the counters it collected, and you can then move them to your stuff again. Nice synergy here to get you caught up. The instant is a one-cost that will put a shield counter on a dork and scry 1 as well! This is a great combat trick, a nice way to get shield counters on your team and they work well together!

Check out this instant! It makes two 1/1 unblockable Fish tokens that won't trigger Mr. Klin but will basically move over counters from your stuff anyway! This is a great combat trick if someone attacks you when you are tapped out and then unblockable works well with Bident of Thassa effects. Good pair!

Let's move to my deck!