One of the fears I have when creating decks for articles is that I may use similar cards too frequently. I don’t want to lean on the same cards over and over like a crutch. I initially try to push myself with decks built around random cards—or the Next 100 project—and budget articles and such. But I still find myself leaning on the Usual Suspects too much.

These are both powerhouses of Commander, such as Consecrated Sphinx, as well as my personal favorites, such as Draining Whelk. I need to lay off Rune-Scarred Demon, Recurring Insight, Soul of the Harvest, Harvester of Souls, Nim Deathmantle, Skullclamp, Sword of Vengeance, Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Sphinx of Uthuun, Swords to Plowshares, Hero's Downfall, Woodfall Primus, Kor Haven, Volrath's Stronghold, Lightning Greaves, the Primordial cycle, either Akroma, Eternal Witness, Wheel of Fortune, and Reforge the Soul.

In a way, this resembles the Commander Box Adam Styborski discusses in some of his articles. (For example, check it out here or here or see a later update on here.)

The basic idea is to build one box that has all of your cards for Commander—staples, amazing cards, pet cards, utility cards, and more. Build all of your Commander decks from the box. Of course, there is one trick: The cards in the box are just as Highlander as the format—so you only have one copy of each card in there. So, there’s just one Rhystic Study, one Mind's Eye, one Swords to Plowshares, and so forth. If you have multiple decks built from the box, a deck really needs to earn those cards. You split the staples across various decks. That keeps each deck from looking like another version of Good Stuff Incorporated. It also makes the decks more interesting.

So, consider today’s project basically forcing me to build with a different set of cards from my own hypothetical Commander Box. The only nod I will make is that I will be using the best mana cards I can—in order to not be behind anyone else at the table.

All I need to do is to select a Commander and then move on. Obviously, choosing a legendary creature that forces me to play with different cards, such as Eladamri, Lord of Leaves would force me to use new cards anyway, so that’s not the way I want to go.

So, I decide to hit up colors that I normally lean into a lot of cards for: Esper. I have a stable of powerful cards in these colors I have to steer clear of. That makes this challenge pertinent. Let’s go!

"The Unusual Suspects – Dromar for the Win"

• Commander (0)

• Creatures (26)
• 1 Aeon Chronicler
• 1 Bane of the Living
• 1 Chromeshell Crab
• 1 Deep-Sea Kraken
• 1 Exalted Angel
• 1 Iridescent Angel
• 1 Massacre Wurm
• 1 Mischievous Quanar
• 1 Nekrataal
• 1 Nezumi Graverobber
• 1 Notion Thief
• 1 Pride of the Clouds
• 1 Pristine Angel
• 1 Scythe Specter
• 1 Shadowmage Infiltrator
• 1 Spirit of the Hearth
• 1 Typhoid Rats
• 1 Vampire Nighthawk
• 1 Willbender
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Vesuvan Shapeshifter
• 1 Kagemaro, First to Suffer
• 1 Radiant, Archangel
• 1 Soramaro, First to Dream
• 1 Sygg, River Cutthroat
• 1 Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts

• Spells (35)
• 1 Absorb
• 1 Annihilate
• 1 Disenchant
• 1 Dismal Failure
• 1 Dromar's Charm
• 1 Esper Charm
• 1 Exile
• 1 Last Word
• 1 Ovinize
• 1 Punish Ignorance
• 1 Rescue from the Underworld
• 1 Sudden Death
• 1 Unmake
• 1 Vengeful Dreams
• 1 Victim of Night
• 1 Debt to the Deathless
• 1 Decree of Justice
• 1 Dread Return
• 1 Entreat the Angels
• 1 Mind Spring
• 1 Tidings
• 1 Unburial Rites
• 1 Victimize
• 1 Knowledge Exploitation
• 1 Annex
• 1 Leyline of Sanctity
• 1 Leyline of the Void
• 1 Seal of Cleansing
• 1 Seal of Doom
• 1 Soothsaying
• 1 Armillary Sphere
• 1 Darksteel Ingot
• 1 Everflowing Chalice
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Thran Dynamo

• Lands (38)
• 7 Plains
• 7 Swamp
• 8 Island
• 1 Arcane Sanctum
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Esper Panorama
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Opal Palace
• 1 Reflecting Pool
• 1 Rupture Spire
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Transguild Promenade
• 1 Vivid Creek
• 1 Vivid Marsh
• 1 Vivid Meadow
• 1 Watery Grave
• 1 Zoetic Cavern

Buy This Deck

So, for example, I couldn’t use Desertion, Path to Exile, or Dismantling Blow. I usually like Profane Command, Obzedat's Aid, or Beacon of Unrest—so I turned to other options. I slid into other counters because my normal ones were not around. This deck is the result. I think our Dromar deck is looking pretty swank; it barely looks downgraded at all!

And that was true for a lot of things. Instead of my normal countermagic, I looked at cards such as Dismal Failure. I normally like Dismiss, to draw me a card, so I went with the discard-minded one instead; it’s still card advantage either way. I have the counter styles of Last Word to end a counter war or Punish Ignorance and Absorb to gain life. Instead of the flexibility of Dissipate to exile something and keep it away, I have the flexibility of Dromar's Charm.

I still wanted to exile creatures, even without Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile. In went the actual Exile and Unmake. They suffice. And sure, I can’t run Murder and Hero's Downfall, but in went Annihilate and Victim of Night. I also included Sudden Death, which can often kill stuff the others can’t due to the -4/-4 aspect (for something indestructible or regenerate-able) or because of the split second. Check out Ovinize; it reduces creatures to small sizes and makes them devoid of any abilities—so you can easily kill off the biggest and baddest creatures on the table.

My recursion focused on netting multiple uses or creatures. Victimize sacrifices one creature for two. Dread Return and Unburial Rites have the potential to be flashed back if needed, and Rescue from the Underworld has a lot of tricks under its hat.

I began to add in some solid utility creatures. Nekrataal is a decent body that will kill something on arrival. Shadowmage Infiltrator will attack early on for cards while Notion Thief and Sygg provide cards in different ways. For more cardage, Aeon Chronicler was included, and Soramaro followed soon after for a similar effect seen in a different light. For defense, in went guys such as Typhoid Rats and Vampire Nighthawk. Their deathtouch is a nice rattlesnake, often sending bigger creatures to attack elsewhere. I included Seal of Doom to assist with this as well.

Other than Dromar, I needed some beef. What would work? While I was out beaters such as Sphinx of Uthuun, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, and Akroma, Angel of Wrath due to the nature of the project, I just looked elsewhere. Take Deep-Sea Kraken for example. It can come online rather quickly—I’ve suspended it before on turn three only to have it come out on turn five several times (and even turn four once). A 6/6 unblockable is a win condition all on its own.

I then added some midrange bodies that worked well—such as Scythe Specter, Spirit of the Hearth, and Radiant, Archangel. They provided solid results from a 5- to 6-mana investment. I liked my growing flying horde and added Pride of the Clouds to the mix. I almost never run Entreat the Angels, and it’s been years since I used Decree of Justice outside of a dedicated tokens deck. They can be flyers, help give me late-game pressure or a board presence after a Wrath of God. In any of those cases, the spells are quite powerful in this deck.

I fleshed out my remaining creatures and then moved back to more important stuff. Creatures such as Kagemaro and Massacre Wurm joined for more removal options.

Then, I added my best mana cards—Sol Ring, Darksteel Ingot, Solemn Simulacrum, and more. I needed to see how much room I had left in my deck, and it wasn’t a lot. I didn’t really have space for Equipment, so instead, I added a few other cards here and there to flesh things out.

Leyline of Sanctity can help protect my graveyard against some removal effects as well as protecting me from some stuff. While I couldn’t run Exsanguinate (virtually every black deck of mine has it), I certainly could add Debt to the Deathless. It might be better. Sure, I couldn’t add in Sensei's Divining Top, but Soothsaying is pretty useful, so it’s not a total loss.

One card I’m particularly fond of is Knowledge Exploitation. For 7 mana, you can cast any sorcery or instant from another player’s library for no additional cost. It’s like a Bribery or Acquire for spells. You can tutor and play mass removal, the perfect pinpoint removal spell, or grab a backbreaking spell such as Time Stretch, Insurrection, Primal Surge, or Praetor's Counsel.

And that wrapped up the deck. In went the right cards for mana (new duals, some fetches, and such—I didn’t push the concept with the old duals or pain fetches because I wanted the deck to look like a normal deck—not one featuring those expensive cards).

So, sure, I couldn’t run Cyclonic Rift or Karn Liberated or Darksteel Colossus, but this deck is pretty solid as is. It’s good without any of the “good stuff” of its colors. Using a bunch of new stuff I rarely or never run, I was able to manufacture this deck. With twenty years of Magic and counting under our collective belts, there are more than enough cards to dig through for a format like Commander. So dust off those other cards, and take them for a spin!

I hope something here clicked with you! Let me know what you thought of the concept and whether you want to see more. As always, thanks for reading!

See you next week,

Abe Sargent