s are always appealing. I mean, you can do it as much as you want! The challenge, of course, is in figuring out how to benefit from that. For example, Skyshroud Elf lets us change generic mana into or as much as we want. Nomads en-Kor lets us redirect damage away from it as much as we want. But what good does that really do? How much do we really want to save a 1/1?

With Kazuul's Toll Collector, we can attach as much Equipment to we want, so that’s cute, letting us avoid high equip costs. But that doesn’t really sound like much of a combo, and it seems mostly worse than Puresteel Paladin, which has been around for years. And Vulshok Battlemaster can just pick up all the Equipment at once anyway when she hits the battlefield, and that includes opponents’ Equipment.

So if we really want to build with Kazuul's Toll Collector’s , what do we do?

Ceaseless

The trouble, then, is that Kazuul's Toll Collector isn’t an Elemental—but Runed Stalactite can fix that, and it’s even an Equipment! Talk about synergy!

I’ll admit my first instinct was to search for Equipment that said things like, “Whenever this card becomes attached,” or non-Equipment that said things like, “Whenever an Equipment becomes attached . . . ” But alas, I found no such abilities that triggered upon Equipment becoming an attached. We’ll all just have to keep an eye out for an ability like Bramble Elemental—and then figure out how to make that ability work with our Toll Collector here.

Let’s take a look at the cards we’re running to make this part of the deck work and then cover how things could actually go down.

Nomads en-Kor — There are several options for creatures with this activated ability, but I went with the one that has a low mana cost and isn’t too color-intensive. Incidentally, these creatures are Kor, so an Equipment- and -themed deck might run more of these and Armament Master—just not this deck.

Farrelite Priest — Here is another . Its fixing ability might be useful, its 1/3 body could help us block, and its ability could win us the game if we pull everything together.

Ceaseless Searblades — And of course, this is what makes everything come together—or least make it all worthwhile. Once you have a -wielding Elemental, you activate its ability repeatedly, triggering the Searblades each time. Once it has enough power to kill your opponent, just attack!

So how does this play out? Well, you know, you just draw everything perfectly and cast it all on curve. We have some redundancy, but Runed Stalactite and Ceaseless Searblades are nonnegotiable. Fortunately, we can run a few copies of Steelshaper's Gift to improve our chances of finding the Stalactite. And since the other half of our deck is based on the Equipment theme, we could even find something to give us a turn-four win sometimes.

Metalcraft

The other side of the deck is less exciting if you like combos—but more exciting if you like Equipment.

Trusty Machete — Copper Carapace and Ghostfire Blade are other options to consider if you don’t mind the equip cost, but I went with the cheaper equip cost even though we lose 1 toughness. The reason to have a 1-drop Equipment anyway is to have the potential to curve out into a big Toll Collector early.

Sword of Vengeance — The sweet set of stats on this are very nice. However, we mostly want the haste and trample for surprising Ceaseless Searblades wins, and we don’t get the free equip cost on that unless we have Puresteel Paladin. So the haste does lose some value, but the trample could still be key.

Obsidian Battle-Axe — And this gives us a Puresteel Paladin–free way of winning with Searblades on turn four—it has a free equip cost of its own when we drop a Warrior.

Lightning Greaves — Finally, we have another source of haste here to enable an actual turn-four win. I don’t love running a -to-equip Equipment in a deck with Kazuul's Toll Collector and Puresteel Paladin, but sometimes, the best Equipment is just the best.

There are other options for how to build this same deck concept. For example, a R/G deck might focus on Kazuul's Toll Collector and Skyshroud Elf as the -wielders while playing Mage Slayer to avoid pesky things like blockers and midcombat removal spells (like Condemn). And, as alluded to earlier, a more Kor-centric build could play more -wielders while also cross-synergizing with Armament Master—or maybe even go with other old combos like with Daru Spiritualist or Cephalid Illusionist.

Kazuul?s Ceaseless Tolls ? Casual | Andrew Wilson

• Creatures (22)
• 2 Farrelite Priest
• 2 Goblin Gaveleer
• 2 Relic Seeker
• 4 Ceaseless Searblades
• 4 Kazuul's Toll Collector
• 4 Nomads en-Kor
• 4 Puresteel Paladin

• Spells (16)
• 2 Steelshaper's Gift
• 2 Lightning Greaves
• 2 Ogre's Cleaver
• 2 Sword of Vengeance
• 2 Trusty Machete
• 4 Runed Stalactite
• 2 Obsidian Battle-Axe

• Lands (22)
• 2 Mountain
• 8 Plains
• 4 Battlefield Forge
• 4 Clifftop Retreat
• 4 Sacred Foundry

Buy This Deck

If we’re okay winning on turn five instead, there are a lot of cards we can change out from the above sequence—excepting, of course, Ceaseless Searblades and Runed Stalactite.

So if you enjoy activating for , if you don’t have enough Farrelite in your life, or if you just love Elementals and Equipment, give this deck a try.

Andrew Wilson

@Silent7Seven

fissionessence at hotmail dot com