It has been a bit since I took a reader-submitted list through the deck garage, so I was happy to receive a list in my inbox from a reddit user who wishes to remain anonymous. He built a Derevi, Empyrial Tactician deck, and he wanted me to take a look to see if I thought it was a good 75% build, and I was more than happy to oblige. Derevi sometimes suffers from the Rafiq problem, but I think if you’re willing to take that on, Derevi can be a fun deck to play, and I’m not here to tell the guy what deck not to play. Let’s take a look at his list, shall we?

Derevi, Empyrial Tactician ? Commander | Anonymous

• Commander (0)

• Creatures (50)
• 1 Acidic Slime
• 1 Archetype of Imagination
• 1 Banisher Priest
• 1 Coiling Oracle
• 1 Courser of Kruphix
• 1 Dauntless Escort
• 1 Deadeye Navigator
• 1 Deputy of Acquittals
• 1 Diluvian Primordial
• 1 Elvish Piper
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Experiment One
• 1 Fauna Shaman
• 1 Fiend Hunter
• 1 Flickerwisp
• 1 Genesis Hydra
• 1 Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1 Gyre Sage
• 1 Kiora's Follower
• 1 Mistmeadow Witch
• 1 Mother of Runes
• 1 Murkfiend Liege
• 1 Mystic Snake
• 1 Phyrexian Ingester
• 1 Primordial Sage
• 1 Progenitor Mimic
• 1 Prophet of Kruphix
• 1 Resolute Archangel
• 1 Species Gorger
• 1 Stonecloaker
• 1 Sun Titan
• 1 Winged Coatl
• 1 Arcanis the Omnipotent
• 1 Brago, King Eternal
• 1 Captain Sisay
• 1 Ephara, God of the Polis
• 1 Geist of Saint Traft
• 1 Heliod, God of the Sun
• 1 Karametra, God of Harvests
• 1 Kruphix, God of Horizons
• 1 Lavinia of the Tenth
• 1 Odric, Master Tactician
• 1 Prime Speaker Zegana
• 1 Roon of the Hidden Realm
• 1 Rubinia Soulsinger
• 1 Thassa, God of the Sea
• 1 Venser, Shaper Savant
• 1 Vorel of the Hull Clade
• 1 Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
• 1 Adarkar Valkyrie

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 1 Gideon, Champion of Justice
• 1 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
• 1 Venser, the Sojourner

• Spells (10)
• 1 AEthermage's Touch
• 1 Bant Charm
• 1 Cloudshift
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Detention Sphere
• 1 Sunblast Angel
• 1 Birthing Pod
• 1 Conjurer's Closet
• 1 Sol Ring

• Lands (36)
• 5 Forest
• 5 Island
• 5 Plains
• 1 Azorius Chancery
• 1 Azorius Guildgate
• 1 Bant Panorama
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Faerie Conclave
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 New Benalia
• 1 Opal Palace
• 1 Saltcrusted Steppe
• 1 Seaside Citadel
• 1 Secluded Steppe
• 1 Sejiri Refuge
• 1 Selesnya Guildgate
• 1 Selesnya Sanctuary
• 1 Simic Guildgate
• 1 Temple of Mystery
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Thornwood Falls
• 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

Buy This Deck

My first impression is that nothing jumps out at me as something that rules this out as a 75% deck. I always look at a deck first through the lens that asks, “Is something wrong here?” and that is generally a pretty easy step. If I don’t see any tutors, problematic cards that either draw a ton of cards or prevent our opponents from doing too many things (like mass land destruction for example), or linear cards like Laboratory Maniac, I take a deeper look.

I like when people send me lists on TappedOut because they have a function to draw practice hands, and while that’s not always going to tell you accurate or usable information, it can tell you if you’re going to mostly draw two-land hands with 6-drops. The mana curve seemed a little high based on about one hundred hands, and it could probably use some more mana-fixing and fewer huge creatures. Looking at a deck on paper is one thing, but forming a bit of an idea about how the deck will mulligan helps out a lot. Not only could we use some more mana-fixing, we need more spells.

This deck is cool, but it looks like it will be pantsed by a Torpor Orb, among other things. As much as I like to jam Acidic Slime and Reclamation Sage and call it a day, I think we need a few more creatures that benefit from being untapped, some mana-fixing, and a lower mana curve. I also think we can make it easier to hit opponents and run some cards I like to run that benefit us when we hit opponents. I think the deck is a fine example of a 75% deck on the underpowered side, which is perfectly fine, especially if you’re going to play with a group you know well (not that you need to build 75% if you’re playing with a specific group in mind, although our guidelines certainly help you integrate into a group like that), and I think we can add a few more thematic cards and power it up a tiny bit.

What would the list look like if I built it to be my ideal 75% deck?

Derevi, Empyrial Tactician ? Commander | Jason Alt

• Commander (0)

• Creatures (47)
• 1 Acidic Slime
• 1 Archetype of Imagination
• 1 Coiling Oracle
• 1 Cold-Eyed Selkie
• 1 Courser of Kruphix
• 1 Deadeye Navigator
• 1 Deputy of Acquittals
• 1 Diluvian Primordial
• 1 Elvish Piper
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Fauna Shaman
• 1 Fiend Hunter
• 1 Flickerwisp
• 1 Genesis Hydra
• 1 Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1 Gyre Sage
• 1 Kiora's Follower
• 1 Knight of the Reliquary
• 1 Mistmeadow Witch
• 1 Mother of Runes
• 1 Murkfiend Liege
• 1 Mystic Snake
• 1 Phyrexian Ingester
• 1 Primordial Sage
• 1 Progenitor Mimic
• 1 Prophet of Kruphix
• 1 Resolute Archangel
• 1 Stonecloaker
• 1 Sun Titan
• 1 Arcanis the Omnipotent
• 1 Brago, King Eternal
• 1 Captain Sisay
• 1 Ephara, God of the Polis
• 1 Heliod, God of the Sun
• 1 Karametra, God of Harvests
• 1 Kruphix, God of Horizons
• 1 Lavinia of the Tenth
• 1 Odric, Master Tactician
• 1 Prime Speaker Zegana
• 1 Roon of the Hidden Realm
• 1 Rubinia Soulsinger
• 1 Sun Quan, Lord of Wu
• 1 Thada Adel, Acquisitor
• 1 Thassa, God of the Sea
• 1 Venser, Shaper Savant
• 1 Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
• 1 Adarkar Valkyrie

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Gideon, Champion of Justice
• 1 Venser, the Sojourner

• Spells (14)
• 1 AEthermage's Touch
• 1 Bant Charm
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Cloudshift
• 1 Krosan Grip
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Detention Sphere
• 1 Sunblast Angel
• 1 Birthing Pod
• 1 Conjurer's Closet
• 1 Darksteel Ingot
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Sword of Feast and Famine

• Lands (36)
• 4 Forest
• 4 Island
• 4 Plains
• 1 Azorius Chancery
• 1 Azorius Guildgate
• 1 Bant Panorama
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Faerie Conclave
• 1 Flooded Grove
• 1 Gavony Township
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Mystic Gate
• 1 Opal Palace
• 1 Saltcrusted Steppe
• 1 Seaside Citadel
• 1 Secluded Steppe
• 1 Sejiri Refuge
• 1 Selesnya Guildgate
• 1 Selesnya Sanctuary
• 1 Simic Guildgate
• 1 Temple of Mystery
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Thornwood Falls
• 1 Wooded Bastion
• 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

Buy This Deck

There are an awful lot of creatures in this deck—fifty-one in the original list—which is a lot more than the usual thirty-five to forty in a Derevi deck. I was loath to cut too many of them because they seemed to be the original deck-builder’s reason for building the deck. His “maybeboard,” which is a list of cards on TappedOut that builders are considering slotting in, for example, had another God in it. That’s a lot of Gods! Ephara, God of the Polis, Heliod, God of the Sun, Karametra, God of Harvests, Kruphix, God of Horizons, and Thassa, God of the Sea—this guy loves his Gods.

What was important to me was to shore up the mana a bit. Normally, I don’t like suggesting adding expensive lands, but I like the three Lorwyn-block filter lands here. There are a lot of double-mana symbols, and they’re obviously just a suggestion. This is a theoretical deck, after all, and if someone with a real deck built doesn’t want to shell out as readily as someone like I am who is just being hypothetical, I can see why you can’t justify the cost. I don’t normally suggest them, but this deck could really benefit. I also added a Darksteel Ingot. I like Signets, but they’re not obligatory, and this deck has a lot of creatures, and it’s hard to cut any. I cut “cute” ones like Species Gorger and Winged Coatl to make room for Ingot and cards like Krosan Grip and Beast Within.

I could be a little too worried about Torpor Orb, but I think it’s important to be able to benefit from putting stuff into play. I decided I liked hitting them and untapping, so I made it easier to hit them by adding a Sun Quan, Lord of Wu. In addition to Thassa and Archetype of Imagination, Sun Quan makes blocking nearly impossible for opponents, and you benefit from really drilling them with your creatures. I added Cold-Eyed Selkie and Thada Adel, Acquisitor because I love to hit opponents and benefit from it. If I were all-in on my own build, I would add an Edric, Spymaster of Trest to the list and probably a Daxos of Meletis. I guess I just love to get on-hit trigger. But with it being easy to hit opponents, why not benefit? I also feel like adding cards like Thada Adel, and cutting Species Gorger helped lower the curve a bit.

I think there are a lot of different directions you can go with this build, but what is important to remember from a 75% perspective is what we don’t want to do. We want to avoid the temptation to build a “Stax” deck with Derevi. If we do, we have a great deck that is fun to play but that isn’t 75%. Derevi is such a good Stax commander that we suffer from the Rafiq problem as Derevi players, and we have to overcome that. If we want to stick to 75%, cards like Armageddon and Winter Orb need to stay out. Let’s play cards to make our stuff better, not opponents’ stuff worse. We have managed to avoid that here.

What do we think? What card do you love to run in Derevi that I missed? Should we not bother running 75% at all? Do you have experience with Derevi in multiplayer you’d like to impart? Have a decklist you want me to see? Hit me up in the comments section below, and let’s start a dialogue! Until next week!