Hello awesome folks! Happiest of Days today! Today I want to head back to one of my favorite series, building a Commander deck around a random Commander over at EDHREC.com's shuffle button like you would see on your iTunes music player.

This is the 20th deck I've created around a random card, and I do reserve some rules around what I'll take:

1. I won't take anything illegal like silver-bordered leaders.
2. I won't take anything that I have already built around in this series or in other series. Or in real life.
3. Unless I have a unique take, I won't do a commonly played Commander, last time I got one of the most beloved and iconic Pillow Fort Commanders in Phelddagrif with a ton of decks, but I didn't have a unique take on it.

Ready for my shuffle button to take place?

I got...

A remake of an original Elder Dragon that this format was originally named after (Elder Dragon Highlander). This is led by 725 decks over at EDHREC.com and they go in a few different directions like flash matters. I love this Esper colored flashable seven drop that cannot be countered, flies, and can be given hexproof by discarding a card. This is a mana free discard in the Command Zone, so this brew will have a discard matters and madness subtheme.

Key Dorks

The first is a 5-drop 'Goyf that is the size of all creature cards in all graveyards, so it likes to grow over time. Then at the beginning of each player's upkeep (yours too) they discard a card, so it's a Bottomless Pit welded to a game-winning Mortivore. That will really disrupt others while giving you cards for madnessing. The Demon is a 7-drop 8/4 that on arrival to the battlefield forces each foe to sacrifice a dork with the greatest power, and you gain the highest power in life. It's a very strong madness of just three, but this does have a life loss of 8 but you gain life back, don't sleep on it.

Scion of Darkness was a classic of multiplayer after getting played and you saw it all over. This 8-mana 6/6 has trample and cycling 3. Then when it deals combat damage to a foe, you can reanimate a dead dork form their graveyard to the battlefield under your control. It's a powerful force of nature and if you cannot cast it, you can just cycle it to try and find a land or other key card.

Key Synergies and Win-Cons

Check out these two synergies! The creature is an on-curve 5/4 flying and it cycles for two colorless. As you discard cards, you can toss a -1/-1 counter on each foe your opponents control. It scales up in multiplayer quite nicely as you have more foes to put counters on, and just one activation will kill a ton of dorks like Birds of Paradise, Mother of Runes, and Esper Sentinel. The enchantment is a 3-drop and when you discard you can spend a mana and then make a 2/2 with flying for the face punching. Love this pair from the same set quite a bunch!

Check out these two uncommon enchantments that cost three mana! The former is a Black one that will let you spend a mana each time you discard a card to drain two life from your foes. The latter will let you spend a White mana when a player discards to make a 1/1 with flying. Note that this works on any discard not just yours. These are a nice tag team!

The Miser is a 4/4 that has a triad of self-discard triggers. Did you discard a dork? Make a 2/2 dork. Did you discard a land? Make two mana. Did you discard something else? Draw a card. All good stuff! This is very synergetic with this deck. The Converter is a 1-drop artifact that can exile when you discard and then tap to put it from exile to the graveyard and make a Treasure if it was a land, a 2/2 Rogue otherwise. And then you can spend two mana to tap it and draw and discard a card (called "looting" after Merfolk Looter that created it). Very similar that have multiple angles.

Check out this pair of Black Zombie token-makers. The rare is a 5-cost that makes a trio of tapped 2/2 Zombies and you gain a triad of life. Then you can madness it and then spend X to make X tapped 2/2s with that much life gained, which seems pretty game-winning from here. And then the uncommon is a 4-cost sorcery that makes two Zombies that are not tapped and can be madnessed with three mana. Nice token making duo that are fine without needing the madness cost.

These are big win cons that I lean into. The enchantment can cycle for two and X and make an X-sized flyer. We also only have the expected amount of creatures in there, around 25, so you should get a few triggers here and there for the creature-making. The sorcery can cycle for three and X to make X 1/1 tokens at instant speed which is pretty quickly, love it loads here!

Key Answers

The Welcome is a 4-cost sorcery that will steal an opposing dork with two or one toughness. You can also madness it and then X it and steal a dork with X toughness so much bigger. The Sniper is a 1-drop 1/2 that will put a single -1/-1 counter on a dork after you discard a card and spend a mana. Nice removal over time. Stealing and killing that are both on queue! While we have some of the typical answers, but we're also looking toward Broken Concentration and Circular Logic, both of which can be cast at a discount for their madness cost. Love these loads!

Card Flow

I really wanted to lean on looting effects that draw and then discard. The enchantment is a key madness enabler since you can spend two mana, discard, and then draw, and then if you discard a madness you draw a card and get to cast it. You can cast the instant twice (flashback) for two life, two cards drawn, and two cards discarded for madness and discard triggers.

Obsessive Search is a 1-cost cantrip with madness, so you can easily discard it and draw a card from your discard effect. It turns a looting ability like Compulsion into card draw. Curator of Mysteries is a 4-drop 4/4 flyer that can cycle for one mana and turns your discarding into scrying 1. Nice card selection over time!

Check out my only two 'walkers. The Hero version of Teferi is a classic at the kitchen table. Five to drop, 4 loyalty, and a +1 that draws and untaps two lands, so that's why he is here. Don't forget to also -3 and tuck a key card like your opposing Commander. The Master is a masterstroke. (Sorry) Four mana, 3 loyalty, can +1 to loot and draw/discard, and then can do it on each opponent's turn as well as yours. Nasty card flow and discard and madness fun times commence. You can also -3 him to phase out an opposing dork after it attacks you at instant speed. Nasty card flow fun times!

Mana and Lands

Since my randomly selected leader costs 7 mana, I am running a bunch of mana rocks that tap for 2 or more mana. The Archive is a 4-drop that taps for 2 and then can be sacrificed for two and a draw of two cards in response to (mass) removal that hits it or once you have set up your mana. The 'Stone is a three drop that taps for two and arrives tapped.

The Manalith here is the only mana rock that makes just one mana. But you can turn day to night and night to day as a sorcery, and when you do you gain a life, draw a card, and discard a card, which is great from your mana rock. The Passage is here since your deck wants to swing with a 7-powered Commander that already has flying but you could use this if your foe has flyers or reachers. It can also help some of the bigger things in here like the Necrogoyf and the combat damage trigger of Scion of Darkness.

I am running every land that has cycling in this deck in my colors since we'll need triggers once my mana base is set. I am running a full 40 lands, no modal lands we have enough tapped ones with the cycling lands. Plus Ash Barrens will let me basic landcycle on the first turn for the missing color that we need.

The Sanitarium will tap for two and let everyone draw and then discard for triggering fun times. I am also running all three channel lands that arrive untapped and tap for that color of mana. Nice group, right?

Ready for my deck?

Humbling Homura | Commander | Abe Sargent

• Commander (1)
• 1 Chromium, the Mutable

• Creatures (24)
• 1 Archfiend of Ifnir
• 1 Archfiend of Spite
• 1 Big Game Hunter
• 1 Bone Miser
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Cephalid Sage
• 1 Curator of Mysteries
• 1 Grave Scrabbler
• 1 Hullbreaker Horror
• 1 Lazotep Chancellor
• 1 Mirrorshell Crab
• 1 Muck Drubb
• 1 Mulldrifter
• 1 Nightshade Assassin
• 1 Necrogoyf
• 1 Nimble Obstructionist
• 1 Ominous Sphinx
• 1 Ruthless Sniper
• 1 Scion of Darkness
• 1 Shadowfiend Archmage
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Sphinx of Lost Truths
• 1 Void Beckoner
• 1 Wasteland Scorpion

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
• 1 Teferi, Master of Time

• Instants (13)
• 1 Broken Concentration
• 1 Circular Logic
• 1 Dark Withering
• 1 Fact or Fiction
• 1 Faithful Mending
• 1 Frantic Search
• 1 Neutralize
• 1 Obsessive Search
• 1 Pull from Tomorrow
• 1 Sphinx's Revelation
• 1 Teferi's Protection
• 1 Utter End
• 1 Without Weakness

• Sorceries (7)
• 1 Decree of Justice
• 1 From Under the Floorboards
• 1 Gisa's Bidding
• 1 Ichor Slick
• 1 Murderous Compulsion
• 1 Welcome to the Fold
• 1 Windfall

• Enchantments (5)
• 1 Compulsion
• 1 Drake Haven
• 1 Faith of the Devoted
• 1 Shark Typhoon
• 1 Spirit Cairn

• Artifacts (8)
• 1 The Celestus
• 1 Currency Convertor
• 1 Everflowing Chalice
• 1 Gilded Lotus
• 1 Hedron Archive
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Thran Dynamo
• 1 Worn Powerstone

• Lands (40)
• 6 Island
• 4 Plains
• 6 Swamp
• 1 Arcane Sanctum
• 1 Ash Barrens
• 1 Barren Moor
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Desert of the Glorified
• 1 Desert of the Mindful
• 1 Desert of the True
• 1 Drifting Meadow
• 1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 1 Fetid Pools
• 1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Irrigated Farmland
• 1 Lonely Sandbar
• 1 Otawara, the Soaring City
• 1 Polluted Mire
• 1 Raffine's Tower
• 1 Remote Isle
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Secluded Steppe
• 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 1 Watery Grave

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And there we go! What did you think of my Chromium brew? What would you do and in what direction would you hew? Let me know in the comments below!

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 17th 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!
18. My 18th challenge arrived and with it the planeswalker Nahiri, the Lithomancer! You can check out this equipment loving mono-White deck here with cards that go wide and up and grab that equipment fun times!
19. My next brew was with Homura, Human Ascendant, a card that wants to be sacrificed to flip over and then pump your team, so I went wide with tokens for sacrificing and pumping purposes. You can find it here.