Do you ever find yourself falling into a Magic rut? Are you seeing the same cards over and over again? Commander is supposed to be this very diverse format with every nonbasic card unique to the deck, and yet, there often seems to be a core of cards that keep being played over and over again. And I’m not talking about Sol Ring and Command Tower—cards that just make mana often are the background of the format. They work but aren’t sexy.

A few weeks ago, I decided to create a deck that was built with cards that I don’t normally use in my articles. Not only was this an attempt to keep things fresh from my perspective, but I also wanted to give you new ideas for decks. After all, if my decks keep seeing cards such as Swiftfoot Boots, Acidic Slime, Mulldrifter, and Austere Command, we have a problem. To help fight against any tendency to rock the same cards, I wrote an Unusual Suspects article around the coolly-high-harmony Esper commander known as Dromar, the Banisher.

I really liked the Unusual Suspects idea, so today, I am branching into the other two colors. We have our Gruul machine firmly engaged and ready to rock. So, let’s take a look at the next installment of the Unusual Suspects . . . Wort style!

"Unusually Worty Today"

• Commander (0)

• Creatures (21)
• 1 Apocalypse Hydra
• 1 Birds of Paradise
• 1 Boartusk Liege
• 1 Charmbreaker Devils
• 1 Deranged Hermit
• 1 Dragon Broodmother
• 1 Dragonlair Spider
• 1 Farhaven Elf
• 1 Guttersnipe
• 1 Hana Kami
• 1 Huntmaster of the Fells
• 1 Savageborn Hydra
• 1 Sedge Scorpion
• 1 Stigma Lasher
• 1 Sylvan Caryatid
• 1 Vithian Renegades
• 1 Wilderness Elemental
• 1 Young Pyromancer
• 1 Zhur-Taa Druid
• 1 Arashi, the Sky Asunder
• 1 Radha, Heir to Keld

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Xenagos, the Reveler

• Spells (40)
• 1 Artifact Mutation
• 1 Blind with Anger
• 1 Destructive Revelry
• 1 Glacial Ray
• 1 Kodama's Might
• 1 Magma Jet
• 1 Rending Vines
• 1 Sprout Swarm
• 1 Wear Away
• 1 Wild Ricochet
• 1 Armed // Dangerous
• 1 Clan Defiance
• 1 Crush of Wurms
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Desert Twister
• 1 Devil's Play
• 1 Firebolt
• 1 Giantbaiting
• 1 Haze of Rage
• 1 Increasing Savagery
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Lightning Surge
• 1 Past in Flames
• 1 Reap and Sow
• 1 Recoup
• 1 Regrowth
• 1 Savage Twister
• 1 Wreak Havoc
• 1 Wurmcalling
• 1 Fires of Yavimaya
• 1 Gaea's Anthem
• 1 Everflowing Chalice
• 1 Gruul Signet
• 1 Runechanter's Pike
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Sphinx-Bone Wand
• 1 Tablet of the Guilds
• 1 Talisman of Impulse
• 1 Thran Dynamo
• 1 Hammer of Purphoros

• Lands (37)
• 13 Forest
• 13 Mountain
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Copperline Gorge
• 1 Gruul Guildgate
• 1 Gruul Turf
• 1 Karplusan Forest
• 1 Kazandu Refuge
• 1 Opal Palace
• 1 Raging Ravine
• 1 Rootbound Crag
• 1 Stomping Ground
• 1 Temple of Abandon

Buy This Deck

One of the interesting balancing acts any Raidmother deck has to walk is the number of creatures against spells. You want enough creatures to tap for conspire, and yet, you want enough spells to Fork. Since Wort comes with a pair of tokens of both colors, that helps—but you obviously want more.

I also added in some of the Arcane spells. You can cast one and then splice another onto it. Stack up a few tricks on one spell, conspire to Fork it, and then you still have your spliced cards in hand. This is a difficult trick to balance as well—how many Arcane spells ruin the deck? A few are fine—Kodama's Reach, Glacial Ray, and Wear Away are all suitable options. But then other cards are considered, and decisions have to be made. I kept it at the spice level and just used them to flavor the deck’s spells rather than make it a pure subtheme.

Flashback came to mind, too. Cards like Devil's Play, Crush of Wurms, and Increasing Savagery can be used twice, thus giving the potential for multiple uses of conspire. This could be pushed too much as well. For example, I massaged the deck, putting in Destructive Revelry for Ancient Grudge. Sure, the Grudge can be cast twice with flashback, which gives a potential four-artifact-destruction machine for just 3 mana total, but the flexibility to hit enchantments, too, deal some damage, and have an easier time conspiring it (because it’s two colors) sold me on the Revelry. Not every flashback card made the cut.

A few more spells were included to flesh out the deck. I can’t use cards such as Decimate, Urza's Rage, or Hull Breach, but this deck is doing fine without them. We can have Wreak Havoc, Desert Twister, or Artifact Mutation instead. We even have a smattering of sexy removal with Savage Twister and Clan Defiance.

A few spells are worth noting though. Lightning Surge is better than you might realize since this deck is likely to have threshold with its spell-a-ganza. That means it will usually deal 6 damage on both sides, and that’s unpreventable damage, too. Another interesting spell is Armed // Dangerous. With the fuse used, it’s a potent trick to conspire. You can pump two guys and give them double strike and prevent one (or two) lured blockers. Note that if you don’t want to Lure something, just target an opposing creature with the Dangerous half of the spell (or just don’t use it).

I have never seen Haze of Rage in a Commander deck. But doesn’t it look tailor-made for a Raidmother deck? It can be bought back, so you can use it again and again. Plus, conspiring it will amp your stuff, and it has storm for even more triggers. Now, if it were an instant, it’d be broken, but it’s like a subtle Overrun effect for red in the right circumstances. Reap and Sow, when entwined, both destroys a land and fetches one onto the battlefield. (You can grab any land, not just any basic land). Destroying two lands and making two for yourself is a nice way to use conspire.

With all of the splicing, conspiring, flashbacking, and buybacking, spells are being tossed around. Doesn’t it make sense to run Sphinx-Bone Wand? It’s like a one-card win condition unless destroyed. I also included Tablet of the Guilds to gain some life. (Note that the Tablet gains you life for all spells you play, not just sorceries and instants.)

The deck is running a passel of token making and Gruul-based creatures. So it wants a bit of creature pumping. Not only did we have Armed // Dangerous, Increasing Savagery, and Haze of Rage, but it also rocks Fires of Yavimaya, Hammer of Purphoros, and Gaea's Anthem. These cards will either hastify your dorks or amp their power. Sure, I couldn’t run stuff like Akroma's Memorial or Eldrazi Monument (see the rules of the Unusual Suspects), but these cards are also quite nice. Boartusk Liege gives some similar love, so it was one of the first creatures I tossed in.

As creatures became a priority, I looked for some useful utilities. Standard stalwarts such as Guttersnipe and Young Pyromancer came to mind. They give the deck a few more triggers and can be cast underneath the curve of most of the good spells in the deck. I then considered Charmbreaker Devils a bit before deciding to include them. Even a random sorcery or instant is good when it’s retrieved from your ’yard for free. It also inflates as you play spells.

Some additional options were selected, such as Zhur-Taa Druid to make mana and shoot people while creating a double-color body for conspire tricks. Similarly, that double color is the reason cards such as Vithian Renegades, Raging Ravine, and Wilderness Elemental were chosen as well. They certainly don’t suck, providing nice bodies for low costs, and they help make conspiring a bit easier.

I added a few creatures here and there to flesh out the deck. In addition to mana makers (Birds of Paradise, Sylvan Caryatid), we have a pair of double-color Hydras for the long game, the early-game Radha, Heir to Keld for mana, and Arashi, the Sky Asunder for removal. But one creature that I adore is Stigma Lasher. It’s an early play that can be slipped onto the table and used to smash face. It prevents any more life-gain from that person the rest of the game. With the double-dose of mass hasting, you can slip it out later and make a quick assault and smash someone who is a major lifer. For example, the Lasher is a 2-mana answer to the Oloro, Ageless Ascetic problem.

After those final cards, the deck came to a definite conclusion, and the project appears to be a success. “The Unusual Suspects 2: Wort, the Raidmother” seems just as solid as the first deck. You can barely tell it’s an Unusual Suspects deck at all—you barely miss the “good stuff.”

Which is exactly the point, after all.

See you next week,

Abe Sargent