Hello folks and welcome back to all things Kaladesh. Do you have a lot of decks sitting around? You know, Commander decks, Standard, multiplayer, Pauper, whatever. You have a few of each format taking up some space. Or you may be that person with like a thousand decks. Just decks everywhere. Are you a deck-building enthusiast?

Yup!

Lots of us are. We have that deck addiction. And more cards from a set is like fuel for that fire. Are you ready for it? Are you prepared for the avalanche of decks and new stuff coming out of the steam-centered world of Kaladesh?

Now that we’ve had cards in hand for a bit and gotten a real chance to get them played, I have some changes planned for my many Commander decks as well as updates to Abe’s Deck of Happiness and Joy. Are you ready?

Let’s begin with my Commander decks!

The Alphabet Deck

So my latest real life Commander deck is a deck that only uses cards that begin with the first letter of my name (barring basic lands). So everything is an “A” of some sort. I chose to build a Boros themed Angel deck around Archangel Avacyn as my Commander. There are a pair of cards that I immediately like for it.

Angel of Invention —This is a great card. It’s a 5-drop that I can run and smash with. And while it may feel a fit underwhelming for some folks out there in Commander land, it’s still a suitable 4/3 flying, vigilance, lifelink flyer for 5 mana that pumps the rest of the team +1/+1. That’s the same casting cost as Serra Angel, with you trading 1 toughness for lifelink and a Glorious Anthem. That’s a sexy deal. But you also can drop the servo tokens and pump them to 2/2s like a decent version of Deranged Hermit if you prefer. There’s no doubt that it should head in immediately.

Aerial Responder — The other option is this 3-drop. I have a very curve heavy deck, and try to be sensitive for cheaper cards out there. Aerial Responder is a 3-drop that can establish a board presence earlier than your typical Angel. And then we have the vigilance to swing from the air while holding serve, and the lifelink as well. So if you liked that triple trouble on the Angel of Invention, then you will love it here. Both are obvious inclusions.

In Angel of Invention and Aerial Responder; Out Angelic Captain and Mountain

Next let’s head to Mono-Red!

My Two Mono-Red Projects

I have two Mono-Red projects that are very different from each other, or other typical Commander Mono-Red stuff you see. Red is the weakest color in the format by far. By far. So playing a Mono-Red deck is an interesting challenge.

Spark of Creativity - I do like Spark of Creativity and a possible card drawing or creature removal, whatever your deck gives you. Does it fit here? Frankly, I could see it as a useful tool in either my Fumiko the Lowblood or my Diaochan, Artful Beauty decks. It’s the sort of low pressure support card that can work. Particularly in the Fumiko deck where you can shoot something after it attacked and was wounded by Caltrops or something to finish it off.

Let’s look at Fumiko First, which plays by forcing you to attack and then punishes you for doing do:

Fumiko Fun Times

Inventors' Fair — I love this card in a lot of shells. My deck has a lot of powerful artifacts that work with theme, from Snow Fortress to Al-Albara's Carpet to Barl's Cage that locks down former attackers and Armillary Sphere. The Fair is a great addition and should sub in for a Mountain. Unlike many Mono-Red builds, it’s not running that crappy Blood Moon stuff. It’s has very useful artifact tutor targets as well as enough to matter and enable it. So it heads right on in.

Fateful Showdown — What about Fateful Showdown? It gives me the removal and alliance of shooting something already damaged, as mentioned before. And it will discard and draw a new hand after. Because you are usually killing a creature, it’s not card disadvantage like the normal “discard your hand and draw that many” effects out there (or something similar like Winds of Change). Because it’s an instant, you can just use it to pitch and draw if you are digging for something like an answer, and don’t forget you can shoot a player as well if you just want to do that. It’s a good card for this deck. But is it worth running? And what would come out? I do have a tight deck. Hmm. Can I pull an artifact creature for it? Let’s do that.

Combustible Gearhulk — This is another useful card for my Fumiko deck. The first strike is powerful on defense — no one wants to attack into a 6/6 first strike machine, so they’ll head elsewhere. It’s on curve, an artifact, and a powerful card-drawer or face-smasher of your foe’s choice. It makes sense. And there’s a 5-drop that works in theory here that I’ve never really gotten to pay off, Flamerush Rider, that I’m happy to yank for the Gearhulk, and that’ll keep my artifact numbers steady.

In Inventor’s Fair, Combustible Gearhulk and Fateful Showdown, Out Snow-Covered Mountain, Flamerush Rider and Signal Pest

Diaochan Fun Times

My other deck is a fun, chaos driven deck that uses Diaochan, Artful Beauty as a sort of chaotic, control, leader that wants to use shroud effects like Lightning Greaves, to keep folks from targeting it to kill it, and otherwise uses disposable creatures or those immune.

Fateful Showdown — I also like Fateful showdown for this deck as well. But what else even makes sense?

Exactly! I’m glad you see it . . . 

Vehicles . . . 

Holy

Crap

So let’s dig into the deck a bit to show just how useful those Vees are here.

Diaochan can only tap to kill stuff on my turn, before I attack. So I draw, and then tap Diaochan, and kill one thing, while a foe kills another. Then I make my vehicle a creature and swing. They can’t kill the vehicle with my Diaochan. And then at the end of the turn, it stops being a vehicle again. So a lot of my opponent’s removal swings and misses a vehicle. And meanwhile my own Rolling Earthquake can be played first while my mass removal on my foe’s turn like Starstorm won’t touch it. So my vee never gets hit. And I can make it a creature with something like Darksteel Sentinel, a creature with Sword of Fire and Ice on it, and more such miracles.

Now, all of the sudden, I have a very different deck.

Now how much do I push this vehicle theme? I think we have two obvious calls:

Fleetwheel Cruiser — Much like a modern Skizzik, this card can swing on arrival, which suits multiplayer quite nicely. Play and swing after you have resolved your good Diaochan. It only requires a crew of two later on. So it has a lot of in-deck synergy. It needs to head in, right?

Ovalchase Dragster — This is the Ball Lightning of vehicles. Play it, and crew it with pretty much anything not named Stuffy Doll. Swing. Hit for six and keep it around. Plus, as we sweep up the board a few times, the high power and low toughness will suit later post-Diaochan or post-Starstorm or Magmaquake battlefields. It’s another amped up entry.

Cultivator's Caravan — I currently run Ruby Medallion, and this is probably better in most situations. You can tap it if you need to for mana if the crew is not on the way. It does have a pricier crew cost, but we can easily manage. Most of my creatures are disposable stuff or recursive Phoenixes. Things that already did their stuff like Flametongue Kavu, Fanatic of Mogis, and Magma Phoenix and Pyrewild Shaman on the other side. So you can easily play one, and then tap it to send over this 5/5 beater.

Skysovereign, Consul Flagship — It has the same crew cost as the Caravan, and has a huge board presence, shooting stuff down, swinging for six in the air, and pretty much getting down tonight.

Is there also space for something like Smuggler's Copter or Bomat Bazaar Barge? Possibly.

Now, I have four cards in my mind that I want to pull right now. Ruby Medallion, Seismic Assault, Death Spark, and Ghitu Slinger. In order to ensure I have crew, I am also massaging my land base to give me some more land-creatures, like Mishra's Factory, in order to use them to crew up a vehicle.

In Mishra’s Factory, Ghitu Encampment, Skysovereign, Consul Flagship, Cultivator’s Caravan, Ovalchase Dragster, and Flamewheel Cruiser; Out Two Mountains, Ruby Medallion, Death Spark, Seismic Assault, and Ghitu Slinger

Whew!

I just seriously changed up one of my favorite Commander decks. We’ll steer clear of other changes until I see how they play.

Vhati il-Dal’s Death Machine

Another recent real-life creation of mine is this Golgari deck that uses Vhati to tap and reduce the toughness of a creature to one so you can kill it with various effects. From Darkblast to Staff of Nin, it takes out the newly denuded creature.

Demon of Dark Schemes — There is precisely one card from this set that I feel can play a useful role here. For 6 mana you get a 5/5 flyer with a -2/-2 effect on arrival for everything else. That will reduce some stuff, and get you a kill with Vhati. You also get energy for each other critter that bites it. And you can spend some energy and mana to bring back dead creatures from any graveyard to the battlefield under your control, tapped. Huh. That is a pretty interesting set of abilities, and all work well with the central conceit of the deck. I know what card I want to pull —

Cloudthresher. It’s a good card, certainly. But I have a lot of cards that want a ton of Black, and this one that needs a ton of Green. Although I often evoke it, it’s still worth pulling for mana concerns

In Demon of Dark Schemes; Out Cloudthresher

Nether Shadow Commander

I also have a Mono-Black recursion sacrifice graveyard themed deck built around Nether Shadow and friends.

Morbid Curiosity — Did I hear someone mention sacrificing? You can sacrifice a Nether Shadow or Ashen Ghoul or something for a few cards. It’s a useful tool. But I’m not feeling it too much. What about . . . 

Noxious Gearhulk — Now this is more my style. I do run the removal creatures like Nekrataal. This is two more, much better, and I have a handful of artifact matters cards that I run. (Nim Devourer is the best). This is an artifact, a beater with menace, and a powerful body.

Scrapheap Scrounger — Is this card worth running? It self-recurs, has a big body, and works with artifacts? But the self-recursion requires the exiling of a creature card, and I’m not comfortable with that long term.

Maybe Eliminate the Competition? Nah. Just the one swap then.

In Noxious Gearhulk; Out Nekrataal

5 Color Planeswalker

Like virtually everyone else in existence, I too have a 5-color Planeswalker Commander deck. Mine at least has fun cycles like the Honden (Honden of Seeing Winds, et all) and the Sanctuary cycle (Ana Sanctuary, et all).

Cultivator's Caravan — It’s a mana rock that makes any color of mana, which is very useful here. My deck is a control deck with a ton of sweepers, so you have stuff like Damnation and Austere Command cleaning up the board. Use it as a mana rock usually, and keep it for a rainy day for the swinging without worrying about being touched by removal. It seems like a good deal! But this deck is so light on actual, proper creatures. But what does work are all of the many token creatures made by the ‘walkers. The problem? I don’t need the mana rock much. I have Sol Ring and Darksteel Ingot as my only two. Neither are on the cutting block, ever. Not even the Ingot. I need to keep it in play more than the potential 5/5 with a high enough crew.

Sorry!

Maybe way down the line I can afford enough copies of Chandra, Torch of Defiance to run one here. But not today. (This would be the fourth copy I had – one for Abedraft (my set of one of every card ever printed for drafting purposes) one for my Commander Cube, one for Abe’s Deck of Happiness and Joy, and one for this next).

I don’t see anything for my builds like Oros Control or Edric Smash. So that’s about it for my Commander decks.

How about that aforementioned Happiness and Joy creation? This is a deck of roughly 3400 cards, all Highlander, with an eye towards multiplayer.

Abe’s Deck of Happiness and Joy Additions

• Angel of Invention
• Cataclysmic Gearhulk
• Fumigate
• Master Trinketeer
• Refurbish
• Skywhaler's Shot
• Wispweaver Angel
• Failed Inspection
• Glimmer of Genius
• Insidious Will
• Saheeli's Artistry
• Torrential Gearhulk
• Gonti, Lord of Luxury
• Morbid Curiosity
• Noxious Gearhulk
• Combustible Gearhulk
• Fateful Showdown
• Pia Nalaar
• Skyship Stalker
• Spark of Creativity
• Appetite for the Unnatural
• Arborback Stomper
• Nissa, Vital Force
• Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter
• Verdurous Gearhulk
• Wildest Dreams
• Cloudblazer
• Dovin Baan
• Rashmi, Eternities Crafter
• Restoration Gearsmith
• Saheeli Rai
• Unlicensed Disintegration
• Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
• Metalwork Colossus
• Fleetwheel Cruiser
• Cultivator's Caravan
• Bomat Bazaar Barge
• Smuggler's Copter
• Blooming Marsh
• Botanical Sanctum
• Concealed Courtyard
• Inspiring Vantage
• Inventors' Fair
• Sequestered Stash
• Spirebluff Canal

And when I get a spare copy Chandra, Torch of Defiance is in the queue.

Maybe Attune with AEther — I do run Lay of the Land. And it’s another copy, ignoring the energy production. Aether Hub is a Tendo Ice Bridge as well.

That is 37 nonlands and another 7 lands for 44 cards right now. And after playing, I may toss in the beating Demolition Sweeper or Aradara Express or shoot, even a Ballista Charger. We’ll see. But that works for now!

And there we have it! Another set of cards added newly to refresh these puppies. New cards taking old decks into new territory! New stuff!

What are you excited to toss into your stuff? What’s made the cut already?