Commanding Hajar and Friends

Posted on November 29, 2022

Hello happy folks! Today I want to build around a legendary dork that debuted in The Brothers' War: Hajar, Loyal Bodyguard.

Hajar is an on-curve 2-mana 3/3 in Gruul that can sacrifice to give your legendary stuff a boost to power and indestructible until the end of the turn, suggesting a Gruul Legendary-Matters brew with our Loyal Bodyguard, ready? There are only 8 decks over at EDHREC.com so our leader isn't a big hit and there is no established canon around him. Let's do it to it!

Fun Legendary Dorks

Check out this Standard-legal duet! The uncommon is a 3/3 with Menace. When it swings you look at the top card of your library, you can ramp it if it's a land and make a 1/1 Red Goblin token if you didn't, and note that you can just make the token even if you saw a land. The rare is also a four-drop, this time a bit smaller at 2/3 with reach and first strike. Nice! Then at the beginning of combat you can put X counters of a +1/+1 nature onto another dork and haste where that is this card's power, so that is a base 2 with their initial power and then haste too. Nice combo from a four-drop legendary duo. Love this pair of cards loads in this deck.

Check out the pair of Targ Nar, Demon-Fang Gnoll and Klauth, Unrivaled Ancient! When the Gnoll swings, you can give your attackers a power boost if you have at least 6 power swinging. Then you can spend four mana to double this Gnoll's power and toughness for the turn at instant speed, so it can be a combat trick, game winner and mana sink in one package. The Dragon is a very expensive 7-mana 4/4 flying with haste to swing as soon as it hits the battlefield. Then when you attack you make X mana where that is the power total of your attacking team...nasty mana. That's a base four free mana with just it, and 3 more with Hajar. Good stuff here.

Check out this pair of Treasure makers to finish out this category. Jolene is a four drop 2/2 and when a player attacks a foe of yours, they make a Treasure. That includes your foes, they'll net Treasures for the swinging at each other. Then if you would make Treasures, instead make one more. Then you can sacrifice 5 Treasures to put 5 +1/+1 counters onto Jolene at instant speed. Ol' Sawbones is a seven drop 7/7 flyer that has a combat damage to a player trigger for your whole team. Make that many Treasures. That's a powerful breaking of the mana barrier with this pair of mass Treasure makers that are both in my Gruul colors and legendary for Hajar's saving.

Fun Support and Synergies

Now let's turn to support and synergies. The Class is a Gruul enchantment that gives your legendary dorks a +1/+1 counter when they arrive to the battlefield, and that's a nice synergy with Halana and Alena since they'll be at 3 power to give three +1/+1 counters and haste as well. Then we can level it up for two mana to drop the cost of your legendary spells and then can level it up once more for five mana to turn casting of legendary spells into Red's impulsive card flow. Then the Podium is a five-drop legendary (counts for things like Bard Class level 3) artifact that pumps your legendary stuff by +1/+1 each. Then you tap it and X mana to look at the top X cards of your library and then reveal a legendary dork and put it into your hand, nice card flow in an Anthem form.

Check out these two legendary Gods in our colors. Revels is a five-drop 6/5 that rocks indestructible and then devotion to Red and Green for seven can be a dork. At the beginning of combat on your turn you can double a dork's size and give it haste for the turn. That's very strong with Halana and Alena giving it +4 from the counters and the doubling and then with the Gnoll you can double its size for free here first and then with the mana so two activations would be a 16/16. Nasty synergy here, and haste is very good in this brew.

The Destiny God is a three-drop 4/5 that will let you exile a card from a graveyard in your pre-combat phase and then net one of two abilities. Was it a land? Free mana! Otherwise you gain two life and shock your foe's for two damage. It's a win con in removal, and this is the only graveyard removal in the deck, and it's a mana maker, swinger, and win con in one card.

Check out this pair of mono-colored dorks. The mono-Green one is a four-drop 3/4 that gives your tapped stuff deathtouch. Attack, tap, give them deathtouch, and then make bad decisions for your foes, like your Commander and then you can abuse trample and deathtouch together with some threats in here since you only need to deal one damage to each blocker to kill it. Your other untapped stuff gains hexproof, which is great to protect your team and potential blockers. Then you can tap Saryth, and then untap a dork you control to give it hexproof at instant speed, so it plays keep away and folks won't target you or your things.

The mono-Red one is a five-drop 4/4 that gives your team haste, which is great synergy here with all of your beaters getting haste as soon as they arrive to the battlefield. Then your foes' stuff arrives tapped, so they cannot block on arrival, so you are more likely to connect with your hasted swingers. It adds evasion to the key haste giver in this brew.

Check out these two very pricey legendaries. The former is an eight-drop 5/5 that will give your team +3/+3 and trample at the beginning of your combat, so that's an Overrun each turn if you control this guy. You can also spend two mana to make a land you control a 1/1 with vigilance, indestructible and haste for the turn, and then do that before your Overrun trigger so that's at least four 1/1s with the eight mana you spent to drop him, so that's four 4/4s with trample after the trigger. You can also use it when folks attack to chump block with indestructible lands and keep them alive. The latter is a nine-drop 8/8 that arrives with a divinity counter (which gives it indestructible as well) if you cast it from your hand. Then you can pull that counter off and then put all creatures from your hand onto the battlefield at instant speed. With Urabrask the mass haste giver? That's a game winning amount of power out of nowhere. Nasty, right? This pair wins games.

Check out this three-drop enchantment. Your first creature spell you cast each turn costs you two generic mana each, and your foes will get Shocked when they cast their first non-creature each turn, which should be a lot quite quickly in a multiplayer game of four foes as they regular cast their planeswalkers and key spells. The Vow counts as legendary for those triggers that care, and then looks at the top X spells of your library and puts any lands and legendary permanents with X cost or fewer onto the battlefield and the rest into your graveyard. That is a synergetic win-con as you could easily tap out and put two or three lands and dorks onto the battlefield from your library. Love it loads here!

Answers

Now let's turn to some answers. I am running the expected Heroic Intervention, Chaos Warp and Beast Within, and then check out this pair. The Tyrant is a six-drop 4/5 flyer with firebreathing to pump it combined with the flying to win the game. On arrival it shoots any target for 4 damage, from planeswalkers to creatures to finish off a player. It's very strong and flexible removal here, and I am also running Flametongue Kavu. Kogla is a six-drop legendary 7/6 that fights a dork on arrival to the battlefield so that's 7 damage to any dork. That also takes up to 6 damage before dying. Then when it swings, you get a free Naturalize to destroy any artifact or enchantment that the attacked player controls. Then you can spend two mana to bounce your Commander to your hand and avoid Command Tax and give Kogla here indestructible. Nice synergetic removal here.

Check out this pair of legendary removal. The Dragonlord is a seven-drop 8/8 with both flying and trample so it's on curve and has two evasive abilities. Then when it enters the battlefield, you deal 5 damage to any number of dorks and 'walkers split up so you can hit a few dorks like Mulldrifter, Esper Sentinel and Birds of Paradise. Kumano is a five-drop 4/4 with two abilities. The first is to convert two mana into one damage to any target. Then when a creature dies after taking damage from Kumano, it gets exiled, and thus cannot be brought back. I love this when a dork is about to die to combat damage or a Damnation or a Murder effect to permanently end it. I also tossed in classic removal option Tahngarth, Talruum Hero that can tap to fight stuff and has vigilance to get it a hit first.

Card Flow

Now let's turn to card flow. Toski is a four-drop 1/1 legendary Squirrel that cannot be countered, is indestructible, and attacks each turn, and then as your stuff deals damage to your foes' face, you draw cards so it's a Green Coastal Piracy. Then the Whisperer will draw you cards as you cast dorks, which is very dense here. I am also running Lifecrafter's Bestiary and Soul of the Harvest that play into this genre of card flow connected to creature casting or its arrival to the battlefield.

Check out this mono-Green sorcery pair. The Prowess gives one dork a +3/+3 boost and then trample and as it deals combat damage this turn, draw that many cards. That's pretty strong when combined with the trample and power boost and could easily refill your hand. I am also running the instant-speed Hunter's Insight that plays into a similar space.

The Expertise draws cards equal to the highest power among your dorks. Here? That's a lot of cards and again could easily refill your hand. That's very synergetic with my power doubling Gnoll, Halana and Alena and Xenagos. It also gives you a free cast of a five-drop or cheaper from your hand for free. And that could be anything from one of my Tahngarth's to one of my Urabrask's! Love this card draw duo loads here!

Check out the other Urabrask, a five-drop 4/4 legendary rocks haste. In your upkeep you can exile cast from your library so it's a sort of Howling Mine for just you. Then your foes don't draw in their draw step, instead they exile impulsive draw just like you and it has to be cast this turn, which shuts down things like Counterspell and Negate from getting played later and saved. Many players will just play fine, but it can cause chaos, which is what I want. Return is a five-cost instant with two options, draw card equal to your biggest non-Human's power? Or give your non-Humans +3/+3 for the turn instantly as a combat trick. It's very strong here either way you are counting, but doesn't count your leader either way.

Mana

Now let's turn to ramping fun times. Gwenna is a three-drop 2/3 legendary that taps to make two mana in any color combo. But you can only spend this for creatures or activated abilities of creatures like your Gnoll or Kumano. Then when you cast a dork with a power 5 or more you toss a +1/+1 counter on this and untap it for more mana making. It's very strong here. The Plaza arrives untapped, taps for colorless, and then can tap for any color of mana for any legendary spell you cast. Then you can tap it for any color of mana among legendaries so if you control Hajar then it taps for both colors you need. Then you can spend three mana, tap this, and self-exile it to give a legendary dork anyone controls hexproof and indestructible for the turn so it's an answer to removal, mass or targeted, or combat damage, for most of your stuff here.

Wolf Run taps for colorless, and then can be tapped for X and two to start it to give trample and a power boost equal to X, so it's a win con in land form. With your leader targeted you can get a Commander Damage kill out of nowhere. And don't sleep on that trample. I am also running Skarrg, the Rage Pits to pump and give trample from your land base. Another win con in land form here is Lair of the Hydra. The Bridge taps for Green, enters tapped, and hideaways four. You can cast it for free when you control up to at least 10 power, which is very quickly here. So, it's card flow in land form. I also am running Spinerock Knoll that has hideaway, taps for red, and gets cast if a foe took 7 damage, also pretty likely here.

Ready for my decklist? Let's check it out!