Readers!

This week I wanted to try something a little bit different. The point of building 75% decks has always been for those situations where you're playing with an unknown playgroup and want to be reasonably assured that your deck is appropriate for the table. Having been in that position a lot myself, I like to be prepared and have multiple decks, most 75% but some not so that I can play a lot of games with a lot of people. Increasingly, though, when I go places, people who know me from the podcast or this series or from somewhere else want me to play with them and they have 75% decks ready to go. The more I write about this series, the less often I end up in game where I need to worry about how my deck is going to fare. Things may be better for me now, but I still remember what it was like to feel a little awkward joining a new group. For that reason, I loan my decks out to new people, even if they have decks, so they can either get a feel for the group and figure out which of their decks they want to play or keep using mine if they need to.

Loaning cards out is... fraught. People can spill drinks, shuffle too rough, split your sleeves or straight abscond with your deck. I haven't had any bad experiences with loaning decks out but that doesn't mean I want to tempt fate. If I am going to advocate for someone building a 75% deck for the express purpose of loaning it out, there are a few guidelines we should follow. First of all, you'll want the deck to be a true 75% build and be capable of winning. That said, it should also be straightforward enough to play so that someone sitting down with it the first time can figure out what to do after thumbing through it. No one wants to play a deck after you explain to them exactly how it wins while the whole table they're about to play against hears the entire thing. You'll also want to keep the deck fairly inexpensive since you can't vouch for how the other person will treat your cards. Most likely nothing will happen but you won't have any reservations about doling this deck out if you build it with the mindset that you can afford to lose it. This won't be budget per se but it will be a deck that you will be able to leave together without coveting its contents for your other decks.

Luckily for us, there is a new commander in Theros Beyond Death that lends itself to this sort of a build. It's easy to understand, inexpensive and effective. Your only reservation about loaning this deck out to a newcomer to your pod is you'll know how tough it is to beat. Let's look at the commander I mean, shall we?

This guy should change his name to Guy Fieri because he's a full-time resident of flavor town. With a random weakness due to his mother not having the presence of mind to flip him over and dip his feet when she was done dipping him, Hakilles has all of the unearned confidence of a White creature who's blissfully unaware of his own limitations. The great thing about Commander is that CMCs above 4 actually matter so there is a wider range of creatures to have protection from, meaning selecting one of these numbers means you're weak to a smaller percentage of the field than in other formats. Is there an interesting way to build this deck? I think so, and I think anyone you hand this deck to will get it right away.

If we want to keep the rest of the table in line, a great way to add to their misery is by playing Hatebears. Now, unfortunately, cards like Hushbringer don't work quite the way we want with Haktos. When Haktos enters play, if you don't choose a number because of Hushbringer or Torpor Orb, you won't get any protection since there is no number for you to have protection from... everything but. Does that make sense? However, the 15 minutes I wasted going down that rabbit hole gave me a great idea that I should run some hatebears that are good with Haktos in addition to enchantments and artifacts that trip them up. We're going to make this a pain for them as much as we can.

Since I can't put equipment on Haktos, my plan is to use creatures and enchantments to buff Haktos when it's time for combat. There are plenty of Angels and gods to grant favors to our champion and anthem effects, while usually fairly bad in Voltron decks, will be better here since I plan to Assemble some Legions and go as wide as I can. With buff to our creatures, banes to theirs and a focus on combat because Haktos lives to hack whether you're ready to swing or not, this deck will be powerful, easy to play and won't cost an arm and a leg. In fact, nothing in the deck will cost more than $7 on Cool Stuff Inc. Let's see where we end up, shall we?

Haktos the Unscarred | Commander | Jason Alt

• Commander (1)
• 1 Haktos the Unscarred

• Creatures (21)
• 1 Archetype of Aggression
• 1 Archetype of Courage
• 1 Aven Mindcensor
• 1 Bastion Protector
• 1 Battlegrace Angel
• 1 Bloodsworn Steward
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Etali, Primal Storm
• 1 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
• 1 Heliod, God of the Sun
• 1 Iroas, God of Victory
• 1 Knight of the White Orchid
• 1 Leonin Arbiter
• 1 Reverent Hoplite
• 1 Silverblade Paladin
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Spirit of the Labyrinth
• 1 Sublime Archangel
• 1 Sun Titan
• 1 Tajic, Legion's Edge
• 1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar

• Instants (10)
• 1 Boros Charm
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Generous Gift
• 1 Magmaquake
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Return to Dust
• 1 Starstorm
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Unbreakable Formation
• 1 Wear // Tear

• Sorceries (8)
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Chain Reaction
• 1 Earthquake
• 1 Faithless Looting
• 1 Insult // Injury
• 1 Ruination
• 1 Star of Extinction
• 1 Vandalblast

• Enchantments (14)
• 1 Aggravated Assault
• 1 Always Watching
• 1 Angelic Exaltation
• 1 Assemble the Legion
• 1 Berserkers' Onslaught
• 1 Blind Obedience
• 1 Brave the Sands
• 1 Dictate of the Twin Gods
• 1 Furious Rise
• 1 Kismet
• 1 Legion's Initiative
• 1 Manabarbs
• 1 Rest in Peace
• 1 True Conviction

• Artifacts (11)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Boros Locket
• 1 Boros Signet
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Grafdigger's Cage
• 1 Hammer of Purphoros
• 1 Heraldic Banner
• 1 Oketra's Monument
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Spear of Heliod
• 1 Talisman of Conviction

• Lands (35)
• 10 Mountain
• 12 Plains
• 1 Battlefield Forge
• 1 Boros Garrison
• 1 Castle Embereth
• 1 Cathedral of War
• 1 Clifftop Retreat
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Inspiring Vantage
• 1 Needle Spires
• 1 Rugged Prairie
• 1 Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
• 1 Temple of Triumph
• 1 Wind-Scarred Crag

Buy This Deck Export text format

This deck should be fairly powerful. You can keep the table in line by tripping them up with spells like Kismet and Blind Obedience and take advantage of their difficulty in blocking Haktos by being able to double strike for 12 quite often. 12 Commander damage is a significant blow and people will think twice about leaving themselves vulnerable, although ultimately you're less scary than a combo player. Our hatebears will keep things fairly even and our deck will slowly accumulate tokens until you can go wide and hurt everyone.

The deck is also very reasonable in price and while it's never OK for someone to lose, steal or damage your cards, having a cheap deck to loan out is very useful. You don't have to think twice about handing this pile to a stranger and they won't have to work too hard to figure out what to do.

Having a 75% deck or 10 is a useful way to approach the game but having one to lend out can make things much easier for a new entrant into your pod and potentially help you make a new friend or introduce a competitive player to Commander. However you use your loaner deck is up to you, but I think everyone who builds 75% should have one.

What do you think? Do you have a deck you like to loan out? Too nervous to let a stranger handle your paper babies like that? Do you build your loaner decks stronger to give yourself a challenge? Let me know in the comments section. That does it for me this week - until next time!