Hello folks!
I hope you having a great day today!
For today's article, let's do something a little different. As you know, I like exploring untapped potential in cards. Finding fun combos. I'm the one who built a 100 (real life) combo decks in 100 days for you after all!
Today I want to challenge myself. I want to head over to EDHREC.com and look at the least played two-color leaders out there. Whichever one has the fewest entries, I am going to chose as my leader for today's article.
Now, because I don't know what that might be, I do have a few caveats:
- Partner combos don't count. I'm not interested in some random partner that never took off.
- If there are multiple leaders that are tied for fewest decks, then I will choose the one that I want.
- Finally, if I have already built around the one with the fewest decks, then I reverse the right to veto and move to the next smallest number.
Ready?
Here we go:
Selesnya? Let's begin with my favorite guild. Now it's not my favorite color combination (I don't have one) but the Selensya, (and probably the Boros) are the only color combination to get the importance of serving others. Serving the whole. Of sacrificing oneself for others. For the cause. No one else does - not the Azorius Senate, nothing in Black, and not the Gruul Clans nor the Simic, or the Izzet.
So what do you have for me today?
They have someone with just one deck registered:
So we may be doing a Lord Magnus build! It'll be hard to knock down a 1 after all.
Next?
Azorius has TWO leaders that tie Magnus!
Both big, expensive vanilla dorks
Dimir?
They also have a single deck with one entry.
Rakdos?
They also have a single deck with one entry.
Gruul?
They also have one with one.
Orzhov? Their lowest is Ghost Council of Orzhova at 38.
Izzet? Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius is 47.
Golgari? Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper is just 11.
Boros? Razia, Boros Archangel is rocking 14 entries.
Simic? Zegana, Utopian Speaker is at 68.
All right. There you are!
Who am I doing?
Ur-Drago. I am inspired to delve deeply into and old school combo and give it new life!
I have done this before. I built a modern Golgari EDH deck around the Thicket Basilisk and Lure ability that kills everything when it swings that blocked. I also have an iconic Simic deck around the old school combo of Prodigal Sorcerer and Fungusaur.
So what old school combo does Ur-Drago inspire?
This!
War Barge can be used to give anything Islandwalk, including an opposing dork. Great! And then you can tap your Merfolk Assassin to kill said islandwalker. It's a fun old-school combo that's iconic.
I want to push around the War Barge a little more though. Note that it doesn't tap to hand out that ability. Which means you can give a bunch of dorks the ability to islandwalk. If you have a way to untap your Merfolk Assassin with something like, say, Thousand-Year Elixir, then you can punch and slay quite easily.
I also tossed in Puppet Strings to untap your Merfolk Assassin to let it be used again. I also added in another cool combo with it too:
Royal Assassin! You can use the Strings to tap something to make it vulnerable to your Royal Assassin as well. If we are going to be old school, we might as well get really, really old school, right? Right!
However, that's not all!
You could run something like Tradewind Rider. Not only can use you use it quickly with the Elixir or net a valuable double-tap, but you can also bounce your War Barge! You won't need the Assassin if you can just self-bounce your War Barge and then recast it later. The War Barge doesn't trigger when it's destroyed, but when it leaves play!
As you may have caught, that means I can flicker my chosen artifact as well. Since it's an artifact, it's historic for purposes of something like Sentinel of Pearl Trident. Load up some dorks onto the War Barge, and then exile it and bring it back, and the stuff on the Barge falls into the water all dead like. So sad!
You can also use some sacrificing effects in Black to sacrifice it, and then bring it back with the artifact loving of Blue.
Unfortunately, most of the other cards that give some sort of evasion or ability will be destroyed if the dork leaves the battlefield. Even though the same flavor for War Barge should kill the user (if you are walking on water wearing the Sandals, destroying the Sandals should kill you), it's not an option. Neither are cards like Acidic Dagger or Runesword.
Also note that Flying Carpet was initially printed with the Sandals death trigger. While that was retained in its printings from Revised, Fourth, and Fifth Edition, it was removed from Sixth. That doesn't matter, because again, War Barge is unique among the artifacts of its day, as its removal will destroy those on it.
That makes War Barge the most important part of this deck. I am including a few tutors like Tezzeret the Seeker and Inventors' Fair to grab it
Now the War Barge does introduce a weakness to the deck. What if they try and steal your War Barge or something and then punch you with Islandwalking? Great question!
You can use Mind Bend or Whim of Volrath to swap your leader to shut down Islandwalking instead. Surprise! You can also use them to switch him back too, and I am including Isochron Scepter so you can toss these on the stick and be able to use and reuse them as needed.
Another option is Kaho. On arrival, you seek out three instants, and can cast and tap one. You can grab a Whim or Mind Bend among other things and then load up Kaho with them as needed. Once the card is spent, it can head back to your graveyard for another bit of use in case you seek to recur it. Kaho also works well with the instant loving of Isochron Scepter.
Spellseeker can be used to grab a key cheap instant for the stick too, and I've also added in a few stick-able choices such as Vampiric Tutor.
After tossing in Tezzeret the Seeker, I realized that we probably want a few other Tezzeret cards:
These four walkers are all strong additions to the deck. The Agent of Bolas and Master of Metal have the ability to dig for artifacts, which is pretty cool. The Artifice Master can 0 to draw a card, and maybe 2 cards. The Master of the Bridge can return a dead artifact to my hand. All of them can make dorks, turns artifacts into 5/5 beaters, and force folks to lose life, those providing a powerful ability to impact the board and provide ways to win the game. Welcome to the team!
Now, want to fetch out my Merfolk Assassin?
Sure!
Seahunter to the rescue! I've added in a few other Merfolk as well that fit the theme, although this is not a Merfolk deck, to give you some search able options, like Emry, Lurker of the Loch, Thada Adel, Acquisitor, Master of Waves (the leader Ur-Drago is an Elemental), Empress Galina and Harbinger of the Tides.
And there we are! We have some flicker effects including one that can be put on a stick, and then some bounce like Capsize. We have fun cards like artifacts, cards that help with card flow, and a lot more. Ready?
Here the Ur-Drago deck!
Ur-Drago's Barge of Death | Commander | Abe Sargent
- Commander (1)
- 1 Ur-Drago
- Creatures (28)
- 1 Archaeomancer
- 1 Baleful Strix
- 1 Burnished Hart
- 1 Dakra Mystic
- 1 Empress Galina
- 1 Emry, Lurker of the Loch
- 1 Gonti, Lord of Luxury
- 1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
- 1 Hangarback Walker
- 1 Harbinger of the Tides
- 1 Hex Parasite
- 1 Kaho, Minamo Historian
- 1 Master of Waves
- 1 Merfolk Assassin
- 1 Mishra's Self-Replicator
- 1 Phyrexian Metamorph
- 1 Royal Assassin
- 1 Sai, Master Thopterist
- 1 Salvager of Secrets
- 1 Seahunter
- 1 Sentinel of the Pearl Trident
- 1 Solemn Simulacrum
- 1 Spellseeker
- 1 Sygg, River Cutthroat
- 1 Torrential Gearhulk
- 1 Tradewind Rider
- 1 Thada Adel, Acquisitor
- 1 Urza, Lord High Artificer
- Planeswalkers (6)
- 1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
- 1 Tezzeret the Seeker
- 1 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
- 1 Tezzeret, Artifice Master
- 1 Tezzeret, Master of Metal
- 1 Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge
- Instants (16)
- 1 Ancient Excavation
- 1 Capsize
- 1 Cyclonic Rift
- 1 Disallow
- 1 Fact or Fiction
- 1 Ghostly Flicker
- 1 Lim-Dul's Vault
- 1 Mind Bend
- 1 Mystic Confluence
- 1 Mystical Teachings
- 1 Reality Shift
- 1 Teferi's Time Twist
- 1 Vampiric Tutor
- 1 Whim of Volrath
- 1 Whir of Invention
- 1 Wretched Confluence
- Sorceries (2)
- 1 Demonic Tutor
- 1 Traveler's Cloak
And there we are! As you can see, I wanted to dip into a few fun directions. The benefit of this build is that despite the tutors, it should play differently each time! We have mid-range dorks like Gonti, Lord of Luxury alongside your expected dorks like Burnished Hart and Solemn Simulacrum and even Torrential Gearhulk.
What did you think of my fun and crazy Ur-Drago deck? Anything in here inspire you? Want me to try out another of these barely played leaders that we looked at earlier? Just let me know!