One of the things I love about Commander is no two decks are exactly the same. Even in very streamlined lists, there’s enough space for personal touches that make games interesting. Of course, there’s also plenty of room for the kind of crazy, off-the-wall interactions that make games truly memorable. That’s why I always enjoy trying to do things just a little differently and never leaving decks exactly the same from week to week. If you’re not trying new things, you’re never going to find a new favorite interaction, and games start to grow stale awfully quickly.

Every once in a while, though, I start to get an itch—the itch to throw variance to the wind, pick up Thrumming Stone, and try some of the interesting and consistent things you can only do when you are able to play a bunch of copies of Relentless Rats or Shadowborn Apostle. Over the last few years, I’ve looked at a few interesting takes on this idea, but my favorite has to be this list built by scatteredsun:

Grave Rats ? Commander | scatteredsun

• Commander (0)

• Creatures (33)
• 1 Pack Rat
• 1 Snapcaster Mage
• 1 Laboratory Maniac
• 23 Relentless Rats
• 1 Crypt Ghast
• 1 Wonder
• 1 Beguiler of Wills
• 1 Marrow-Gnawer
• 1 Ogre Slumlord
• 1 Ratcatcher
• 1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni

• Spells (18)
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Dissipate
• 1 Hinder
• 1 Spell Crumple
• 1 Trickbind
• 1 Stifle
• 1 Think Twice
• 1 Rewind
• 1 Increasing Ambition
• 1 Yawgmoth's Will
• 1 All Hallow's Eve
• 1 Living Death
• 1 Patriarch's Bidding
• 1 Twilight's Call
• 1 Overwhelming Forces
• 1 In Garruk's Wake
• 1 Dread Return
• 1 Rise of the Dark Realms

• Artifacts and Enchantments (10)
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Grimoire of the Dead
• 1 Thousand-Year Elixir
• 1 Thran Dynamo
• 1 Witchbane Orb
• 1 Intruder Alarm
• 1 Leyline of the Void
• 1 Leyline of Anticipation
• 1 Opposition

• Lands (38)
• 13 Island
• 14 Swamp
• 1 Academy Ruins
• 1 Bad River
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Cabal Coffers
• 1 Drowned Catacomb
• 1 Homeward Path
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Tolaria West
• 1 Watery Grave
• 1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Buy This Deck

The thing I love about this deck is that it seamlessly combines a fun theme with a powerful engine. Multiple copies of Relentless Rats power up Phenax, which lets you stock your graveyard with more Rats in preparation for your big Living End. Once that resolves, you have all kinds of ways to either attack or mill your opponents to death. All of the pieces feed into one another in an interesting way that takes advantage of the ability to play a bunch of copies of Relentless Rats.

I’ve seen a few attempts to do similar things with Shadowborn Apostle, but none that really stood out to me as overwhelmingly powerful or synergistic. Chainer, Dementia Master is a fine way to rebuy Apostles, but it’s awfully painful. Grenzo, Dungeon Warden is a little better, but he still requires a lot of extra work to really abuse.

I’m not looking for a way to turn excess mana into extra Apostles. I’m looking for a way to turn the Apostles into an engine that can generate an overwhelming advantage and take over the game. I don’t think black can do it alone, and I don’t think red is the color I want to add. I’m thinking white has a lot more to offer.

As far as I’m concerned, this is perfect pairing. Athreos either rebuys Apostles for free or puts enormous pressure on your opponents to end the game quickly—there’re only so many times they can pay 18 life to prevent you from tutoring up another Demon. Not only that, but the Apostles actually make it very easy to make Athreos active early in the game to apply additional pressure. If you can get in enough damage early, you can make it very difficult for your opponents to deny you free Apostles in the midgame.

So we’re going to play a bunch of Shadowborn Apostles. We have a few ways to rebuy them between Athreos and mass-reanimation spells. Now we come to the exciting part: What’s the payoff? Which Demons are worth playing, and can they go toe to toe with what other decks are going to be doing?

I don’t think that you can play a Shadowborn Apostle deck without a Shadowborn Demon to tutor up. Reaper from the Abyss and Overseer of the Damned provide backup removal effects that help accumulate board advantage as the game goes on. If you’re looking for a sweeper effect, Havoc Demon and Kagemaro, First to Suffer are both reasonable options. Lord of the Void and Bloodgift Demon provide great card advantage over a few turns. Ob Nixilis, Unshackled and either Carnifex Demon or Pestilence Demon are reasonable ways to shut down tutors and tokens respectively. You could even be hateful with Demonic Hordes for nonbasic land shenanigans or Halo Hunter to troll my favorite community manager.

There are plenty of options that are reasonable across a broad range of game states, and these aren’t even the ones that I’m excited to play with! The two Demons that really make this into a deck I’m interested in pursuing are Harvester of Souls and Rune-Scarred Demon. Harvester of Souls is a powerful card to begin with in Commander, how much better does it become when your game plan revolves around sacrificing six creatures at a time over and over again? We’re already playing Faith's Reward and Patriarch's Bidding, which let you tutor up another Demon and draw six immediately. That’ll probably net you a few extra Apostles, and that’s before we even consider Athreos triggers!

Perhaps the most exciting thing you can do with Rune-Scarred Demon is play a singleton Tendrils of Agony to go with your Thrumming Stone. This lets you set up turns when you can cast a Shadowborn Apostle, ripple through your deck for a few extra copies, and then cast a Tendrils of Agony for 20 or more. This gives you more life to pay to your various demonic companions while putting opponents low enough that you’ll gain some of your Apostles back when you start sacrificing them.

The biggest problem with these plans is that you’re highly dependent on a handful of very specific Demons that you can only use a certain number of times. After all, once they’re in your graveyard, you have to spend a reanimation spell to bring them back into play, right? Not with Mistveil Plains. This innocuous land lets you keep recycling the same powerful Demons throughout the game, burying your opponent under Reaper from the Abyss and Harvester of Souls triggers.

Here’s what my tentative list looks like:

Apostles of Athreos ? Commander | Carlos Gutierrez

• Commander (0)

• Creatures (48)
• 35 Shadowborn Apostle
• 1 Shadowborn Demon
• 1 Overseer of the Damned
• 1 Reaper from the Abyss
• 1 Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1 Bloodgift Demon
• 1 Harvester of Souls
• 1 Pestilence Demon
• 1 Lord of the Void
• 1 Ranger of Eos
• 1 Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker
• 1 Grim Haruspex
• 1 Mentor of the Meek
• 1 Edgewalker

• Spells (12)
• 1 Yawgmoth's Will
• 1 Tendrils of Agony
• 1 Second Sunrise
• 1 Faith's Reward
• 1 Patriarch's Bidding
• 1 Twilight's Call
• 1 Return to the Ranks
• 1 Immortal Servitude
• 1 Rise of the Dark Realms
• 1 Return to Dust
• 1 Decree of Pain
• 1 Profane Command

• Artifacts and Enchantments (6)
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Lifeline
• 1 Karn Liberated
• 1 Remembrance
• 1 Thrumming Stone
• 1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

• Lands (33)
• 1 Cabal Coffers
• 1 Crypt of Agadeem
• 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1 Deserted Temple
• 1 Vesuva
• 1 Thespian's Stage
• 1 Mistveil Plains
• 1 Flagstones of Trokair
• 1 Ghost Quarter
• 1 Windswept Heath
• 1 Flooded Strand
• 1 Arid Mesa
• 1 Marsh Flats
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Fetid Heath
• 1 Temple of Silence
• 1 Scrubland
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Phyrexian Tower
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 3 Plains
• 10 Swamp

Buy This Deck

Speaking of utility lands, let’s talk about why this deck can play Karn Liberated and Rise of the Dark Realms with just thirty-four lands. Black has access to some of the best big-mana engines in the format in Cabal Coffers and Crypt of Agadeem. This deck in particular can take advantage of Crypt of Agadeem and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx as ways to produce absurd quantities of mana and actually cast the Demons in your deck instead of tutoring them into play. It also certainly helps that Edgewalker pairs up with your Shadowborn Apostles, and card-draw engines help churn through your deck at a breakneck pace.

So that’s the list I’m starting with. We’ll see if the awesome interactions can keep up with the other crazy things that can happen in Commander. We’ll also have to see if the consistency grows old after a couple of games—or if there are enough fun tricks with Second Sunrise and Mistveil Plains to keep things exciting ten or twenty games in. I’m excited to welcome some new Demon overlords and see what they can do!