Sometimes you have a perfect name for a deck. I don't even need to describe it for my article. As one example, take my deck "Surrak's Beasts and Where to Find Them". Clearly, it's a Beast deck built around Surrak Dragonclaw, right?

I'm sure you won't need my help to figure out this next deck, as the name is perfect.

This is Zurgo Helmsmasher.

The key here for me is that Zurgo has indestructible on my turn. Which is conveniently the same turn on which most of these mass removal spells would be cast. It's also conveniently the same colors of mass removal. Damnation? Wrath of God? Blasphemous Act? You get the idea, right.

The obvious idea I had was to pair Zurgo with these various mass removal options, leave Zurgo pretty much alone on the battlefield, and then swing for 7 Commander damage at faces over and over again until you've won.

And that can be a deck right there, no question.

But what if Zurgo Stands Alone was more of a euphemism?

I mean, for example, the obvious stuff to pair with Zurgo is other dorks with indestructible, right?

For example, take these two dorks. They work well with mass-removal too, as they will stay out there. But having a team of wrath-surviving fools seems like Zurgo won't be so much standing alone as "Zurgo Stands With Some Friends"

Is that okay? Probably!

Zurgo: No longer just a mere smasher of helms, but a slayer of worlds!

My biggest concerns are opposing mass removal spells that do affect my team. Lesser judgments like a Day of Judgment aren't going to bother me, but a Final Judgment is going to spell doom for my Zurgo Squad! To a lesser degree, mass removal stuff that shuffles it all back, like Terminus, will also work, but I fear it less.

But that would basically just mean I'd need to recast my Zurgo and just respond like anyone else to a mass removal affect and get back in there and try again. There are only so many mass removal exile effects out there. There might even be a few cards I can run that want to be exiled after they arrive, like Desolation Giant, so I won't wrath myself accidentally later when someone casts Living Death.

I also want to run some removal that can hate my foes indestructible stuff in case the board shifts, but I control them, so I can decide when or if, that would work.

Zurgo Stands Alone -- Commander | Abe Sargent

• Commander (1)
• 1 Zurgo Helmsmasher

• Creatures (23)
• 1 Angel of the Dire Hour
• 1 Archangel Avacyn
• 1 Athreos, God of Passage
• 1 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
• 1 Bane of the Living
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Colossus of Akros
• 1 Crater Hellion
• 1 Darksteel Sentinel
• 1 Desolation Giant
• 1 Heliod, God of the Sun
• 1 Iroas, God of Victory
• 1 Magus of the Disk
• 1 Mogis, God of Slaughter
• 1 Reiver Demon
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Soul of New Phyrexia
• 1 Stuffy Doll
• 1 Sunblast Angel
• 1 Tajic, Blade of the Legion
• 1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
• 1 Wakening Sun's Avatar
• 1 Zetalpa, Primal Dawn

• Planeswalkers (6)
• 1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
• 1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
• 1 Liliana Vess
• 1 Nahiri, the Harbinger
• 1 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
• 1 Sorin, Grim Nemesis

• Instants (6)
• 1 Boros Charm
• 1 Fated Return
• 1 Into the Core
• 1 Starstorm
• 1 Teferi's Protection
• 1 Utter End

• Sorceries (11)
• 1 Ambition's Cost
• 1 Ancient Craving
• 1 Austere Command
• 1 Chandra's Ignition
• 1 Damnation
• 1 Necromantic Selection
• 1 Obzedat's Aid
• 1 Rise of the Dark Realms
• 1 Rout
• 1 Unburial Rites
• 1 Wrath of God

• Enchantments (5)
• 1 Duelist's Heritage
• 1 Leyline of the Void
• 1 Martial Law
• 1 Phyrexian Arena
• 1 Underworld Connections

• Artifacts (15)
• 1 Armillary Sphere
• 1 Assault Suit
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Conqueror's Flail
• 1 Darksteel Ingot
• 1 Gilded Lotus
• 1 Helm of the Host
• 1 Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1 Oblivion Stone
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Staff of Nin
• 1 Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1 Tenza, Godo's Maul
• 1 Whispersilk Cloak
• 1 Worldslayer

• Lands (33)
• 3 Mountain
• 3 Plains
• 3 Swamp
• 1 Ash Barrens
• 1 Blood Crypt
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Boros Garrison
• 1 Cascading Cataracts
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Darksteel Citadel
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Lavaclaw Reaches
• 1 Needle Spires
• 1 Nomad Outpost
• 1 Orzhov Basilica
• 1 Rakdos Carnarium
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Sacred Foundry
• 1 Shambling Vent
• 1 Slayers' Stronghold
• 1 Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
• 1 Temple of Malice
• 1 Temple of Silence
• 1 Temple of Triumph
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Vault of the Archangel

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And there is my deck!

Again, due to the number of dorks here, it may feel a little like Zurgo Stands With Friends, but that's because they have one of three reasons for being here:

And that's it. I wanted to go light on the dorks. Although do note that the deck has the man-land cycle of mana fixers in Zurgo's colors in order to turn a land into a threat post-removal and swing on a (mostly) empty board. I also have some planeswalkers that can do the same, and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar or Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker, can turn and swing into folks post-mass removal as well.

Speaking of 'walkers, I felt this was an obvious place to dig, so I unfurled a lot of options here.

First, I began with those that could make dorks. Making creatures post-removal to swing is key. You can have an instant army with Elspeth, Sun's Champion and her +1 ability after a Wrath of God effect. She's also perfect because she has a mass-removal -3 ability as well.

Secondly, I looked at 'walker options that gave my deck needed fleshing out in various places. Take Sorin, Grim Nemesis as a solid example to get started. We don't have a lot of card drawing running around in this deck, so his +1 will work to draw some cool cards and drain folk's life. I also like the -X removal ability here. You often find that folks will just play out a single dork or two when they know you are running a lot of mass removal effects. Thus, killing the occasional creature that pops its head up for air and forcing your foes to either play more stuff or answer Sorin is key.

Then, after my six 'walkers are considered, the rest of the deck was chosen because it was mass removal, support for my main stuff, or needed for things like mana making.

Given my heavy commitment to mass removal, especially on my turn when my Commander is running around, I am sure you can see the value of sweeping removal. I choose flexible removal like Austere Command, Rout, or Starstorm, which will have the ability to add to the sweeping aspects of your deck. And ditto Nevinyrral's Disk and Oblivion Stone .

So, those I like.

I also added in some equipment for Zurgo and friends to wear. He has haste and removing targetability isn't the most important thing in the world for him given his abilities, so I didn't include the normal Lightning Greaves/Swiftfoot Boots as they felt like wastes of space.

But I did run Whispersilk Cloak to slip in a hit (along with Rogue's Passage), as well as Sword of Fire and Ice to draw cards, and such.

Oh, and by the way, Zurgo definitely wants to wear an Assault Suit or wield a Conqueror's Flail!

The first is pure fun! Forcing foes to pass around Zurgo, which requires the controller to attack every turn, but cannot swing against you or your 'walkers is downright amazing. That is going to win the game quickly. I also like the +3/+3 that Zurgo gets from the Flail as well as the ability to shut down folks from casting junk on your turn. Thou shall not counter my Wrath of God.

Some of the support for this deck includes removal of the exiling kind, like Utter End or Into the Core, as well as card drawing stuff from Ambition's Cost to Underworld Connections.

One of my favorite little tricks here is a callback from Modern/Legacy decks:

This is Leyline of the Void. Don't forget that you can start with it in play. Now, it can draw a lot of hate and have a giant target on its back in Commander, but the heat is worth it, as it will shut down folks from abusing their otherwise-stacked graveyard.

Imagine you have out this when you cast Damnation. Great! Now suppose that your opponents are losing 13 total creatures to your Damnation. With the Leyline of the Void around, those are now ending up in the garbage bin in the sky, never to return. They ain't coming back.

Again, the synergy here is so powerful, and so many decks expect to have a clean graveyard that the result will be that the Leyline of the Void will often be countered or destroyed. I don't expect it to be on the battlefield for the entire game, if it is, then it would be wonderful. You won't need the win-con I added for you.

Rise of the Dark Realms is this deck's Insurrection, game-winning sorcery. Now, again, we won't needed to recur everyone's graveyard if we stuck the Leyline long enough to disrupt folks, but in other contexts, it's hard to refuse the Rise of the Dark Realms as your game-ender.

It works!

I won't belabor the rest of the choices, as they are pretty self-evident. From Commander's Sphere as the mana-rock of choice alongside Darksteel Ingot (because it can sacrifice before I sweep the board) to obvious stuff like Duelist's Heritage and Sol Ring.

And that's pretty much a Zurgo Stands Alone deck! So, what did you think of my deck? Anything you think I missed or would want to add?

As always, thanks for reading, and we'll see you tomorrow.