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Main » Articles » CasualNation #38 – Sixty-Card Decks from Commander Cards

CasualNation #38 – Sixty-Card Decks from Commander Cards

Abe Sargent
Posted on June 28, 2011
 Reddit

Hello, Nation! I hope that your week has been Commander-filled. It’s been fun with all of the new stuff coming out. I’ve played the new Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 a lot. We’ve got Commander, M12 is right around the corner, and soon we’ll have more Magic stuff than you can shake a Blisterstick Shaman at.

Today, I want to build some quick sixty-card decks from ye olde Commander. Just because they were initially released in a Commander format does not mean they will stay there for long. I expect people to buy some singles in stores, and break down Commander decks into their constituent parts after a while.

We have no idea what will happen with these card prices in the long term. Some cards have gotten quite expensive, and it’s clear that you save a ton of money by buying the deck and breaking it up. Will that last? In six months, what will have happened to the prices? Take Command Tower as an example. Right now, it’s at $5-ish in a lot of places (right now being the time of the writing, a few days before publication). However, it’s in every deck, so it could easily drop after people get the copies they want. Or, it could jump up massively due to its obvious presence in any deck that has two or more colors.

We’ve already seen some massive price adjustments in the singles prices. I’ve seen some online stores have radically different prices than others in the first few days of Commander singles sales. I expect that to level out soon, though. Edric, Spymaster of Trest went from $8 to $20 on one site while sitting at $12 on another at the same time. Clever people saw these different prices and made the right purchases.

Anyway, let’s get started with the decks. Ready?

"Omnivorous Beginnings"

This deck wants to beat with a giant Hydra Omnivore. In order to do so, we have six auras that will make it huge. When you hit someone, you can deal damage to all of your foes. With a Hydra Omnivore in the 24/24 range, you can likely kill everyone in one hit.

In order to get a big Hydra Omnivore, the deck really wants to play and replay a Shape of the Wiitigo. Unlike other enchantments, when it enters the battlefield, it gives the creature +1/+1 counters. Ideally, we will flicker it with a Flickerwisp or Glimmerpoint Stag. Then it will come back into play and give its enchanted target even more +1/+1 counters.

Since this is an eggs-in-one-basket sort of deck, I have six cards to protect a giant Hydra Omnivore. Two each of the powerful Whispersilk Cloak will ensure that not only will it not be hit by targeted removal, but it will also sneak through any defenses for damage. A pair of Asceticisms will Hexproof your creatures while allowing you to regenerate one if hit. Double protection! Finally, Privileged Position will protect all of your cards from being targeted, thus helping to save cards like Mythic Proportions from a Naturalize.

Three Dreams will get three auras from your deck. Thus, I tossed in Faith’s Fetters as a removal spell. Feel free to get it, a Proportions and Shape from your deck by playing Three Dreams. For other enchantment love, I went with a single Replenish to bring back any destroyed enchantments. Finally, Nomad Mythmaker can bring back the big guns from your graveyard.

With this little deck of fun, I wanted a bit of quick defense, so in went Wall of Blossoms. If you need to play a flickering creature and don’t have the Shape out yet, you can just flicker a Wall for another card.

I thought about Eldrazi Conscription for a tricky little devil as a single addition to the deck. It wouldn’t go with the core creatures, so I skipped it, but there is an argument to be made for it.

"Of Skulls and Coins"

I liked Skullbriar, and wanted to build a deck around this zombie. I decided to look at it from the angle of cards like That Which Was Taken and Dragon’s Blood. We can add counters to it artificially, thus allowing us to make it better and better. When it gets killed, just bring it back at the same level of power, and it has Haste, so give it a big ol’ swing.

Since the deck was using counters anyway, I felt a few more counter-related cards would fit in all nice and easy. Fertilid is fine as a way to add counters and make lands. It will benefit from the graft of Llanowar Reborn or Dragon’s Blood. Spike Feeder also likes counters, as it converts them to life if needed. It can also move its counters onto a more appropriate creature. Feel free to hop counters to a more permanent location (Skullbriar) if it is about to die.

How does Skullbriar come back? I needed ways to recur it without sending it to a zone where it loses counters. The obvious way was Vigor Mortis. Play it, and bring back Skullbriar with a +1/+1 counter. At first, I had a full set of Vigor Mortis, but I ultimately decided to go with just two, and rock four of a different reanimation card. What do Skullbriar, Spike Feeder and Fertilid all have in common? They all have casting costs of 3 or less; say hello to Unearth. With the uber-cheap Unearth in my deck, it began to take even more shape.

This deck wasn’t all about counters, so I wanted some other creatures too. I knew that, ideally, they’d be in the 3-casting-cost-or-less zone. Bone Shredder was a good addition as some creature removal and a three drop. Similarly, I loved Undead Gladiator for this deck. It gives some cycling, it recurs on its own for more cycling if you have cards you don’t want, and it works with the next card I added – Phyrexian Horror. At four mana, the Horror can’t be brought back with an Unearth; that’s okay since it brings back itself. At the end of any turn, if there is a creature card directly on top of it in the graveyard, it comes back to your hand for free. It’s ideal with Undead Gladiator, since you can kill it (with its ability for a damage, or just when it dies naturally by blocking or attacking or death by removal) and then cycle the Gladiator right on top, and then bring back the Horror for free (and then discard it to the Gladiator to bring it back if you want to cycle the Gladiator and keep going).

Since the cards not named Skullbriar don’t have to avoid being in the library or my hand, I tossed in a single copy of Volrath’s Stronghold and Tortured Existence. These are included, in part, in order to pull out a Phyrexian Horror that got trapped underneath some non-creatures. They can also recur creatures with abilities (Spike Feeder, Fertilid, Bone Shredder) for another set of use from those cards.

Once the deck was built, I felt I needed some more removal. I added a triple dose of Spread the Sickness. The goal here was to kill a creature, and then do something, and there were a lot of choices. I decided that adding counters to things with counters sounded swell. (Possible proliferate targets – Llanowar Reborn, Fertilid, Skullbriar, Spike Feeder, anything affected by Dragon’s Blood or Vigor Mortis).

I think we have a fun little deck that uses its cards well and in interesting ways.

Cards I pulled out late include Doubling Season and Wall of Blossoms. Doubling Season sort of sucks right now. If you get hit with a creature with infect or wither, your creatures take double the counters. But your creatures with it don’t dole out twice as many counters. Luckily, you don’t take double poison counters, but it’s still got some weaknesses for the current Phyrexian-heavy metagame.

Let’s look at the next deck.

"Dragons Go Rawr!"

This deck is not only fun to play, (like many dragon decks) but it is designed to be the lieutenant on the end in an Emperor game. Ideally, you want to attack with a Mana-Charged Dragon, and then laugh as your whole team taps out to pump up the dragon for a huge RAR!!! (It’s possible that range prevents the person on the other end from using Join Forces - I’d have to get a ruling on that. If that’s the case, your Emperor can still pump it for you for a double pumped beater).

Similarly, you can Death by Dragons. If you have a range of one, then you and your Emperor get dragons but your enemy doesn’t, making two dragons for your side for 6 mana. That’s pretty niftykeencool. (Note that an Emperor, who has a range of two, can give their whole side three dragons for just one on the other.)

With this core, I built a deck. I wanted the dragons to come out relatively fast under the circumstances, so I used Dragonspeaker Shaman and Taurean Mauler as three drops. I even put in a pair of Dragon Whelps.

After that, I went with Zirilian of the Claw as another threat. Get him out and you can start swinging with what I’m calling the Crazy Core Four. The Overlord, Risen, Karrthus and Tyrant are meant to be played off Zirilian and swing for a ton of damage. Get one of the other three first, and then when it dies, get Bladewing the Risen the following turn for a free beater permanently. Rar!

Although my deck is really meant to be a mono-red deck, I wanted to be able to play these cards. I was also persuaded by my mana base to allow a pair of Mage Slayers. (I would have the mana for these guys in the deck anyway) I’m sure that I don’t have to tell you how powerful they are on a big fat dragon – Double Rar! (And if on a Dragon Tyrant? Triple Rar!)

I fleshed out the deck with a bit of removal early, and then a pair of Bogardan Hellkite to round it out. The goal of this deck is to smash your way through a lieutenant and immediately threaten the opposing Emperor.

I know that red is powerful in part because you can deal damage to foes when they are injured, and I sort of skipped over that. With Flame Slash instead of something that can go to the head, and Arc Lightning which is clearly more about taking numerous creatures than efficient burn for the price, I eliminated the usual. I just wanted a smattering of burn to act as removal until you are established and that’s it. I honestly feel that this deck should outsmash 85-90% of lieutenants out there, but you only have to fear the slowness of yours. Tauren Mauler can quickly become an 8/8 and you can drop major dragons on turn 4 after a Dragonspeaker arrives. Then you go rar. Rar? RAR!

"We’ve Got Squirrels in the Rutabagas and Demons in the Coffers"

  • Planeswalkers (0)

The beginning quote is from Wasteland, one of the best RPGs of all time and the one that inspired Fallout. If I recall, in the early game, you go to this agricultural center, where mutated animals are messing with the crops being grown, and there’s a rutabaga cellar with mutated rabbits or squirrels or something. I was thinking of Coffers, and I thought of cellars, and it went from there to my deck title. BTW, I have Wasteland as the #12 best electronic game of all time. (What else in on my list, and why and how? Check it out here: http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?p=1206683#post1206683)

Dread Cacodemon is screaming, right now, for Cabal Coffers. Can you hear it? It also enjoys Solemn Simulacrums, Armillary Spheres, and walks along the Caged Sun with Korlash in hand.

Korlash is one of several creatures in here that is trying to serve for game. With bonuses for your Swamps, and with the potential of a grandeur hit to add some serious swampage, Korlash can be a powerful beater that also regenerates. Due to both Korlash and the Cabal’s presence in the deck, the only non-Swamps we are rocking rhyme with Sophers.

Nantuko Shade also likes to deal a crap ton of damage to someone’s face. Backed by the power of a Caged Sun or the deep and impressive Coffers of the Cabal, this little two drop that can will dress to impress.

Add to the deck some creature control (Syphon Flesh, Consume Spirit, Drain Life, Aladdin’s Ring, plus both of the demons) and you have your typical MBC deck. That’s okay, because the people love their MBC, and we should give them what they want.

Twisted Abomination can be played to get a Swamp early if you need it, but really is here to play Beater McJunior to the larger threats with its regeneration and high power. Of those creatures with a size to win, it’s the weakest, and yet it still kills in four hits from a starting life total of 20, so don’t eschew it.

Most of the remaining cards speak for themselves. I stayed clear of things like Massacre because you’ve got these demons later that are better. Mind Sludge et all also can only be used on one person, so they aren’t in either. I considered some discard elements like Scythe Specter and Syphon Mind, but other cards entranced me.



Whew! Four more decks down. Building deck articles is fun! I also enjoy titling the decks; I always try for a little mirth in the titles for my decks. I hope that you enjoyed today’s article, and that you got something from one or more of these decks!

See you next week,

Abe Sargent

TAGS articles, elder dragon highlander, casual, edh, commander, abe sargent, casualnation

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