To my surprise, the Commander deck I tend to play in “serious” games—the one I play when I’m tired of things living—is my cheapest. I put my eight Commander decks into TappedOut.net’s format copy-and-paste thing and investigated the nifty, generated charts. Beneath those charts was the stunning figure:

$39.09

My thirty-three-rares deck . . . the one with all the board-wipe . . . the one that to me feels the most classically oppressive? That one?

Yep. $39.09 to buy from scratch.

Tariel, Reckoner of Souls is my Spikiest deck (remember: relative to me), and it’s dirt-cheap for its power level. It isn’t fine-tuned by any means, but it achieves its goal often: destroy whatever’s there. I’m in the three colors of major destruction, so why not work with that?

The surprise is how many global destruction spells are cheap these days. When I started playing nine and a half years ago, I wasn’t aware of any cheap ones, but now there have been different types printed often enough that several aren’t tournament-playable and therefore fall to the casual lot. They’re like old core set dual lands: Caves of Koilos and friends. The tournament scene simply has passed them by, so most of them are now in the dollar range.

This is great for a singleton format. I am a strong proponent of depth and redundancy in Commander—it mitigates the need for tutors and card draw—and having so many sweepers gives you a consistent game plan and reliability for political points. If everybody knows you can get rid of That Thing Over There, they might let you live to do it.

My basic game is to kill as much as I can, cast Tariel, and let her flying vigilant self go to town on an open board while providing her own reinforcements. The plan isn’t marinated in innovation, but its emphasis on destruction makes it simple to play (which is nice if you don’t want a headache with your Commander game) and easily upgradable to any price range.

I dislike formatted Commander decklists—the “1” by every card name is distracting, and half a decklist full of singleton mana is generally boring. So, I’ll get the mana out of the way first, naming and describing the business spells individually through the rest of the article.

Lands and Mana Artifacts (Forty-Eight)

This includes thirty-nine lands and nine artifacts. The only intriguing cards are Sunglasses of Urza—non-green wedges have to do something—and Lavaclaw Reaches, which is probably at its best in this deck. Reaches doesn’t die to my Wraths, and with few other mana sinks in the deck, it can swing mightily. It became bad enough one time that my creature-land was Spun into Myth. Never underestimate a land that can swing for 9 a turn.

The Creatures (Twenty besides Tariel)

Twenty is light for my Commander decks, but it’s valid here. First, Tariel can play multiple roles. She’s reasonable on offense, great on defense, and she can get more creatures. A do-it-all Commander eases the pressure on the rest of the deck. Second, I sweep the board often enough that there’s no point stuffing my deck with creatures. Third, that board-sweep often focuses on cheap or small creatures, meaning my creature curve should start higher than usual while not going to absurdly high. In order of converted mana cost:

Keeper of the Dead – I like Keeper in decks that mess with graveyards. It’s a little conditional but can take over a board when its conditions are met.

Soltari Visionary – I include Visionary wherever sensible. A horsemanship Commander that could destroy enchantments every time it connected would get some serious play. A shadow 2/2 is as close as I can get.

Soul Sculptor – With all my enchantment destruction, Soul Sculptor is my Liquimetal Coating analog, but its unique ability can lock down a creature or make one of mine a temporary enchantment in the face of an upcoming Wrath. If ever a Commander deck wanted Soul Sculptor, it’s this one.

Bane of the Living – I need at least one other morph for this deck so that it’s not always Bane, but it’s amazing on its own. A triggered ability to give everything -X/-X is unrivaled for getting around nasty creatures, and the scalability is welcome with a high-toughness Commander.

Brigid, Hero of Kinsbaile – Confused by the dark artwork in the rest of the deck. Where’s that Lorwyn sunshine?

Flametongue Kavu – Smooth is smooth, baby.

Galepowder Mage – A pretty important creature to this deck. The main theoretical use is with Divine Reckoning or Razia's Purification, exiling one of my own creatures pre-sweep to end the turn up a creature on everyone else. Plus, you never know when you’ll need it against an opponent.

Archon of Justice – An all-time favorite creature, it’s the most frequent reanimation target from my own graveyard.

Invader Parasite – I’m still testing out the Parasite’s efficacy in Commander. So far, it’s been flexible enough to justify a slot.

Shattered Angel – Gains you a surprising amount of life if it stays out. For being something I included because I owned a tank’s worth of them, it’s done nicely.

Voidstone Gargoyle – Besides getting to invoke the cartoon show every time I cast a Gargoyle, Voidstone is Meddling Mage deluxe, stopping cards doing odd things in odd zones in addition to its normal can’t-be-cast functionality. Connecting in the air matters, too.

Charmbreaker Devils – One of my favorite red creatures for Commander. And boy, do I have some nasty things to get back . . .

Conquering Manticore – Might be underrated in the format. You can break a game open by penetrating a board state—even temporarily—and getting in for serious damage.

Exhumer Thrull – I don’t have many ways of getting my own creatures back—I’m focused on other goals—so getting double-duty from one creature is handy.

Malfegor – You’d best respect.

Moltensteel Dragon – In here mainly because I had a spare one, but Phyrexian mana’s a nice option for a three-color deck.

Nihilith – Opponent’s cards will in fact be put into graveyards from anywhere. Never amazing, but always solid.

Butcher of Malakir – Pretty fun when chump-blocking with your opponents’ stolen creatures forces them to sacrifice some more.

Kaervek the Merciless – He approves this deck.

Angel of Salvation – Easily replaceable, but the ability’s been more relevant than I thought it would be.

Cards That Don’t Kill Things on the Board (Eight)

I’m focused on killing to the extent that I’m low on basic support. There’s a graveyard-fiddling package of Necromancer's Covenant, Revive the Fallen, and Suffer the Past. Revive the Fallen is used most often on my graveyard, but if giving an opponent his utility dork back means that Tariel can grab something awesome, that’s fine too. Suffer the Past is there for the same reason. As a bonus, all three of these aid Keeper of the Dead.

Unburial Rites, Morbid Plunder, and Syphon Mind are stock entries. Heroes Remembered is a rare early option in the deck. Last but not least is Fervent Charge, included largely for its colors, but useful for accelerating my fairly slow kill conditions.

Let’s Kill Creatures (Fifteen)

Tariel favors creature kill, not only as fodder, but also for the clear skies to clock 21 Commander damage over enough turns. For spot removal, there’s the potentially devastating Kaervek's Purge, the ever-useful Hero's Demise, and the slow-but-powerful Altar of Shadows. Barter in Blood’s asymmetrical here, as are Culling Sun and Consume the Meek since I run only three affected creatures. The Rough side of Rough // Tumble doesn’t kill too many of my creatures; Tumble kills most airborne creatures but leaves the 4/7 Tariel alive. Inferno has similar synergy.

Chandra Nalaar, Comet Storm, and Hex are in the same vein: big removal that doesn’t have to hit my stuff. Syphon Flesh is just a way to get more creatures. That leaves the three big sweepers, all three of which favor Tariel when cast. Life's Finale will give me tasty options when I recast Tariel. Divine Reckoning’s normally okay, but when I’m choosing Tariel as my one creature, it’s great. Razia's Purification is, relative to Tariel, Divine Reckoning writ large; Tariel’s simultaneous offense, defense, and recursion let me get far more out of my three permanents than opponents get out of theirs, shortening their clock while rebuilding my board. Purification with Tariel is my most reliable and dramatic road to victory.

Let’s Kill Other Things (Eight)

Purify is mostly overshadowed by Akroma's Vengeance if you’re building from scratch, but I’m good on the creature kill, and sometimes I only want to hit noncreatures. It’s very solid for a junk rare. Tempest of Light, Patrician's Scorn, Return to Dust, and Into the Core are similarly costed for similar effects. Even if Tempest or Scorn hit only two enchantments, that’s normally fine; enchantment destruction doesn’t need to be as devastating as Wraths because the odds are against there being an enchantment swarm. Allay continues the vein, but with buyback (it’s Soul Sculptor’s favorite), while Hide // Seek and Orim's Thunder are variations on the theme. Seek’s a great way to preempt a combo if you need to, particularly with an Eldrazi. Yes, Survival of the Fittest deck, I would pay 2 mana at the end of your turn to exile Emrakul and gain 15 life.

Conclusion

I’m sure every one of you can think of some creature or sorcery upgrade you’d want to make to this deck. I can think of some I’d make down the road, but currently, it’s working just fine. For one of my decks, it’s incredibly blunt about what it wants: death and destruction in every form.

And all for under $40.

"Wrath of Tariel"

• Commander (1)
• 1 Tariel, Reckoner of Souls

• Creatures (20)
• 1 Angel of Salvation
• 1 Archon of Justice
• 1 Bane of the Living
• 1 Butcher of Malakir
• 1 Charmbreaker Devils
• 1 Conquering Manticore
• 1 Exhumer Thrull
• 1 Flametongue Kavu
• 1 Galepowder Mage
• 1 Invader Parasite
• 1 Keeper of the Dead
• 1 Nihilith
• 1 Shattered Angel
• 1 Soltari Visionary
• 1 Soul Sculptor
• 1 Voidstone Gargoyle
• 1 Moltensteel Dragon
• 1 Brigid, Hero of Kinsbaile
• 1 Kaervek the Merciless
• 1 Malfegor

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Chandra Nalaar

• Spells (39)
• 1 Allay
• 1 Comet Storm
• 1 Consume the Meek
• 1 Hero's Demise
• 1 Hide // Seek
• 1 Inferno
• 1 Into the Core
• 1 Orim's Thunder
• 1 Patrician's Scorn
• 1 Rough // Tumble
• 1 Return to Dust
• 1 Suffer the Past
• 1 Tempest of Light
• 1 Barter in Blood
• 1 Culling Sun
• 1 Divine Reckoning
• 1 Heroes Remembered
• 1 Hex
• 1 Kaervek's Purge
• 1 Life's Finale
• 1 Morbid Plunder
• 1 Purify
• 1 Razia's Purification
• 1 Revive the Fallen
• 1 Syphon Flesh
• 1 Syphon Mind
• 1 Unburial Rites
• 1 Fervent Charge
• 1 Necromancer's Covenant
• 1 Altar of Shadows
• 1 Armillary Sphere
• 1 Boros Signet
• 1 Darksteel Ingot
• 1 Fellwar Stone
• 1 Orzhov Signet
• 1 Prismatic Lens
• 1 Rakdos Signet
• 1 Sphere of the Suns
• 1 Sunglasses of Urza

• Lands (39)
• 10 Plains
• 13 Swamp
• 8 Mountain
• 1 Akoum Refuge
• 1 Ancient Ziggurat
• 1 Boros Garrison
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Lavaclaw Reaches
• 1 Rakdos Carnarium
• 1 Rupture Spire
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse

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