I set off an avalanche.

For all intents and purposes, Jarad’s is a Sidisi deck. The goal is to load up the graveyard with a ton of monsters and either win the game through Splinterfright and its kin or lock opponents out of creatures with Grave Pact. The limit induced by playing Dark Confidant and Dark Tutelage was easy enough to pass over in the evolution. I had set aside the correct Sultai lands and was ready to make use of the Dark Duo in a different, new deck. I made sure my current list of Jarad was saved for posterity in case I wanted to rebuild it one day. I thumbed through the deck one more time, figuring out what themes to leave by the wayside as I added Islands to my Golgari masterpiece.

And I balked.

I couldn’t go through with the update. Jarad represents not just multiple ways I enjoy attacking a game of Commander, but my personal history with the format. While I am definitely going to put together a Sidisi deck someday, as we say to the god of death, not today—fitting for the Golgari, although maybe not as Syrio Forel intended.

Turning my attention to Marrow-Gnawer, I felt different emotions. Previously, I had left the door open to attacking a rebuild through the lens of the Black Plague and going hard toward a theme. I perused the history of printed cards and implored Twitter followers for help. I started coming up with lists and even began to separate the deck into piles of theme-adjacent and non-. At some point, I stopped and realized my heart just was not in the theme.

Upon coming to realize that any flavor pursuit would ultimately meet the same fate as Marrow-Gnawer and end up riding the pine as other Commanders battled for dominance, I decided to give up on this challenge for the time being. One day, when I find the thematic nugget that makes me perk up, perhaps then I can savor the flavor. In the meanwhile, I had the confluence of devotion and Rats that made up Marrow-Gnawer’s deck. Going through the contents, I came to a section I was all set to pull out: the Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker package. Then the candle flickered on.

You see, at this point in the rebuilding process, the thoughts of pulling apart Jarad were still at the forefront of my mind. Finding new homes for Dark Tutelage and Dark Confidant had made me sort through potential commanders. It was not until I saw Shirei that I had that aha moment of small creatures and these draw engines. And it was finding a copy of Grenzo, Dungeon Warden that brought everything together.

It was this attribute that drew me back to Grenzo initially. When thinking about the best way to use the cards I was potentially going to be cutting from Jarad, I realized that my threats, individually, would have to be undersized. In turn, I would have to produce quite a few of them in order to matter at any point in a given game. The ability of Grenzo, at the base cost of a black and a red mana, to flip over (under?) any creature with 2 power or less, without any additional initial investment, seemed to mesh very nicely with the goal of keeping the converted mana cost of the deck down. I started digging through my mental catalog for old standards such as Anathemancer, Avalanche Riders, Big Game Hunter, Bone Shredder, Mindclaw Shaman, and others. By the time I finished this list, I had come to the conclusion that Jarad would stay as is and therefore that Dark Confidant and Dark Tutelage would not be free. Grenzo’s momentum, though, could not be contained.

I found myself at a crossroads. I had half an idea for my Grenzo deck: keeping costs low to maximize the potential flips. Without the additional advantage provided by the Dark Duo, I was going to have to look for other supplemental sources. I started by looking at my dungeon master and trying to figure out the different angles I could take.

Tribal – Being a Goblin means that Grenzo could summon up his Goblin brethren from the bottom of the library. Going wide, this deck would be able to have a healthy dose of force multiplies (a term I am borrowing (Read: stealing) from Jess Striba) and make it easier to close out games. Considering I was taking apart onetribal deck, the prospect of putting together another, complete with Coat of Arms, had a certain draw.

Engine – Grenzo can dump cards into a graveyard posthaste. Changing the focus from small creatures to large ones means 2 mana equals one dead thing. Combine this with a helping of reanimation spells, and suddenly, Grenzo becomes a pseudo-tutor. The path of big bads brought me dangerously close to stepping on Lyzolda’s toes, so in the end, I decided against this route.

So what did I end up doing with Grenzo?

Grenzo?s Prison Rules ? Commander | Alex Ullman

• Commander (0)

• Creatures (40)
• 1 Anathemancer
• 1 Avalanche Riders
• 1 Big Game Hunter
• 1 Bloodthrone Vampire
• 1 Bone Shredder
• 1 Cadaver Imp
• 1 Crypt Ghast
• 1 Deathgreeter
• 1 Fume Spitter
• 1 Goblin Welder
• 1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1 Grim Haruspex
• 1 Ingot Chewer
• 1 Keeper of the Dead
• 1 Liliana's Specter
• 1 Mindclaw Shaman
• 1 Murderous Redcap
• 1 Nekrataal
• 1 Nighthowler
• 1 Plagued Rusalka
• 1 Pontiff of Blight
• 1 Shriekmaw
• 1 Skirsdag High Priest
• 1 Stinkweed Imp
• 1 Thrull Parasite
• 1 Vampire Nighthawk
• 1 Viscera Seer
• 1 Zealous Conscripts
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Duplicant
• 1 Grim Poppet
• 1 Junk Diver
• 1 Junktroller
• 1 Myr Retriever
• 1 Nezumi Graverobber
• 1 Pilgrim's Eye
• 1 Scarecrone
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Steel Hellkite
• 1 Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Daretti, Scrap Savant

• Spells (22)
• 1 Faithless Looting
• 1 Life's Finale
• 1 Unearth
• 1 Volcanic Wind
• 1 Phyrexian Arena
• 1 Armillary Sphere
• 1 Ashnod's Altar
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Darksteel Pendant
• 1 Demonspine Whip
• 1 Everflowing Chalice
• 1 Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1 Nim Deathmantle
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Soldevi Digger
• 1 Spine of Ish Sah
• 1 Staff of Nin
• 1 Tel-Jilad Stylus
• 1 Trading Post
• 1 Unstable Obelisk
• 1 Wayfarer's Bauble

• Lands (36)
• 10 Swamp
• 7 Mountain
• 1 Akoum Refuge
• 1 Barren Moor
• 1 Blood Crypt
• 1 Bloodfell Caves
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Forgotten Cave
• 1 Ghitu Encampment
• 1 Phyrexia's Core
• 1 Polluted Mire
• 1 Rakdos Guildgate
• 1 Smoldering Crater
• 1 Temple of Malice
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Keldon Necropolis
• 1 Darksteel Citadel
• 1 Great Furnace
• 1 Vault of Whispers

Buy This Deck

I decided to put my copy of Built from Scratch to good use. Being Rakdos in Commander means leaning a little more on artifacts to help handle things like enchantments. In my opinion, straight-up enchantments are among the least appreciated permanents in the format, meaning that anyone who can leverage them effectively often has an edge. Artifacts, creatures, and Planeswalkers seem far more threatening (at least in the circles in which I travel), so when one can optimize a field of magical energy . . . well, that person has the upper hand. One needs to look no further than my love of Deathreap Ritual to garner a better understanding of this phenomenon. Artifacts, however, give black and red access to Unstable Obelisk, Nevinyrral's Disk, and Spine of Ish Sah. These cards, and the desire to reuse them, brought be to Grenzo’s Fioran Goblin friend.

Grenzo tends to follow a fairly standard line of play: Put the Dungeon Warden on to the battlefield, and start spinning the wheel. Eventually, the table will be full of tiny prisoners just waiting to do my bidding while also keeping the coast—hopefully—clear. Once there’s a path, the former inmates are going to try to escape no matter the life total standing in their way.

The initial build of Grenzo was cobbled together from cards I have readily available. I already have started a list of things to pick up, which include:

• Blade of the Bloodchief
• Blasting Station
• Canal Dredger
• Carrion Feeder
• Goblin Bombardment
• Reito Lantern
• Vessel of Endless Rest

Grenzo takes over part of what I was trying to accomplish with Marrow-Gnawer by making small creatures matter. The difference here is that Grenzo allows for a more robust suite of threats without relying on Relentless Rats. I am excited to watch how this deck evolves as I resist putting Blood Artist into the deck—I do need some variety in my play experience.

One thing I have not included yet but am considering is going for a more prison feel. Part of me wants to be the bad guy and put some rather mean cards to use. I’m talking Winter Orb, Smokestack, and Tangle Wire levels of nasty. I’m not sold on never doing that, but I have a feeling it will create feelings stating, “Please, Alex, don’t play Grenzo.”

There is still a husk of a black devotion deck seeded in Marrow-Gnawer’s bones. I have some plans for those cards, but it isn’t fully realized yet. In the meanwhile, I am looking forward to letting those behind bars out for a little mayhem.

What is your favorite build of Grenzo, Dungeon Warden? What must-haves am I missing, and what cards do I have here that make you go, “Why didn’t I think of that?” I will be paying 2 and hoping to flip something sweet.