Occasionally, I will remember that it’s probably a good idea to type “75%” into the search bar in the EDH subreddit to see if anyone’s asking questions. I should really do the same thing on sites like MTG Salvation, but I can’t be everywhere at once, can I? I’m only human! We’re not even a paragraph in, and you’re already on my case. Take a step back or you’ll eat through a tube, sucker.

I don’t often miss posts either. One from last week caught my eye because it dealt with a commander I haven’t covered yet and also because the community did a great job of answering the OP’s questions before I even noticed. /u/DrBlanko asked about how to make his Tasigur deck a little more 75%, and the responses in the thread (the letters earlier in the sentence are blue because I linked it. Look, I don’t know how much you know about the Internet) are good ones. I kind of hoped I’d see a deck that was 75% of the way to being a good 75% build, help make a few suggestions, ask for the decklist, and take the deck through the deck garage in an article. Wouldn’t you know it? He tuned the deck himself. I could scarcely ask for more.

Tasigur is an interesting commander. He essentially draws cards, and if you can sculpt your graveyard a bit, he draws the card you want when you want it at the expense of having an empty ’yard after. Still, the card advantage is attractive to a lot of players, and Tasigur’s activated ability allows you to play him in decent colors for a graveyard deck. So what exactly was the problem?

75% (?) Tasigur ? Commander | DrBlanko

• Commander (0)

• Creatures (7)
• 1 Gilded Drake
• 1 Prophet of Kruphix
• 1 Seedborn Muse
• 1 Stinkweed Imp
• 1 Wood Elves
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang

• Spells (53)
• 1 Abrupt Decay
• 1 Arcane Denial
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Dig Through Time
• 1 Domineering Will
• 1 Echoing Truth
• 1 Fact or Fiction
• 1 Forbid
• 1 Forbidden Alchemy
• 1 Go for the Throat
• 1 Hero's Downfall
• 1 Hinder
• 1 Krosan Grip
• 1 Nature's Claim
• 1 Pongify
• 1 Putrefy
• 1 Rapid Hybridization
• 1 Reality Shift
• 1 Rewind
• 1 Spell Crumple
• 1 Sudden Death
• 1 Sultai Charm
• 1 Tragic Slip
• 1 Trickbind
• 1 Voidslime
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Curse of the Swine
• 1 Damnation
• 1 Explosive Vegetation
• 1 Farseek
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Life from the Loam
• 1 Maelstrom Pulse
• 1 Necromantic Selection
• 1 Tempt with Discovery
• 1 Treasure Cruise
• 1 Villainous Wealth
• 1 Confiscate
• 1 Control Magic
• 1 Deadbridge Chant
• 1 Monastery Siege
• 1 Sultai Ascendancy
• 1 Treachery
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Darksteel Ingot
• 1 Dimir Signet
• 1 Golgari Signet
• 1 Nihil Spellbomb
• 1 Oblivion Stone
• 1 Relic of Progenitus
• 1 Simic Signet
• 1 Torpor Orb

• Lands (39)
• 4 Forest
• 4 Swamp
• 5 Island
• 1 Alchemist's Refuge
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Drowned Catacomb
• 1 Esper Panorama
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Grixis Panorama
• 1 Hinterland Harbor
• 1 Jund Panorama
• 1 Misty Rainforest
• 1 Nephalia Drownyard
• 1 Opulent Palace
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Polluted Delta
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Tainted Isle
• 1 Tainted Wood
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Verdant Catacombs
• 1 Vivid Creek
• 1 Vivid Grove
• 1 Vivid Marsh
• 1 Watery Grave
• 1 Woodland Cemetery
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Buy This Deck

D. Blanky (as he likes to be called) wasn’t sure where his deck was with respect to the average power level of a 75% deck. Luckily, I think (and I’m not alone) the first draft is underpowered. This saves me the awkward feeling that I’m not going to be able to “save” a deck that’s overpowered. I have held fast to one of our eight core principles concerning power level: Always start weak and improve a deck, and never weaken a stronger deck. If the deck had been too good, I probably wouldn’t have trifled with it.

How can we strengthen this deck? Well, I would give some suggestions of my own, but I feel that the reddit community handled it. Did some of the feedback devolve into some pedantic arguments about minutiae? Well, yes, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Nearly half of the comments in the thread are about the merits of Nature's Claim and Abrupt Decay, but worse things have happened. Compelling cases being made for cards I like isn’t the end of the world.

I weighed in because, not only did I happen to have an opinion, but I also happened to notice the thread, which was handy.

In general, I prefer removal to countermagic, and that jives with our maxim stating, “It’s better to punish our opponents for doing things than it is to prevent them from doing things,” which is a pretty decent rule of thumb. People would rather you killed ninety creatures with a Damnation than cast Forbid on three spells over four turns. I’m not sure why that is, but there you have it.

I honestly think the deck can grow even stronger than his second draft, which is why I have called it a second draft rather than a finished deck. I think his second version is on the right track though. Let’s see where we ended up.

75% (?) Tasigur Version 2.0 ? Commander | DrBlanko

• Commander (0)

• Creatures (8)
• 1 Coiling Oracle
• 1 Gilded Drake
• 1 Prophet of Kruphix
• 1 Seedborn Muse
• 1 Stinkweed Imp
• 1 Wood Elves
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang

• Spells (52)
• 1 Abrupt Decay
• 1 Arcane Denial
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Desertion
• 1 Dig Through Time
• 1 Domineering Will
• 1 Echoing Truth
• 1 Fact or Fiction
• 1 Forbid
• 1 Go for the Throat
• 1 Hero's Downfall
• 1 Intuition
• 1 Krosan Grip
• 1 Murderous Cut
• 1 Nature's Claim
• 1 Pongify
• 1 Putrefy
• 1 Rapid Hybridization
• 1 Reality Shift
• 1 Rewind
• 1 Sultai Charm
• 1 Tragic Slip
• 1 Trickbind
• 1 Voidslime
• 1 Black Sun's Zenith
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Curse of the Swine
• 1 Damnation
• 1 Explosive Vegetation
• 1 Farseek
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Life from the Loam
• 1 Maelstrom Pulse
• 1 Necromantic Selection
• 1 Tempt with Discovery
• 1 Treasure Cruise
• 1 Villainous Wealth
• 1 Burgeoning
• 1 Confiscate
• 1 Control Magic
• 1 Deadbridge Chant
• 1 Training Grounds
• 1 Treachery
• 1 Chromatic Lantern
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Dimir Signet
• 1 Golgari Signet
• 1 Oblivion Stone
• 1 Relic of Progenitus
• 1 Simic Signet
• 1 Torpor Orb

• Lands (40)
• 4 Forest
• 4 Island
• 4 Swamp
• 1 Alchemist's Refuge
• 1 Barren Moor
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Darkwater Catacombs
• 1 Drowned Catacomb
• 1 Esper Panorama
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Grixis Panorama
• 1 Hinterland Harbor
• 1 Lonely Sandbar
• 1 Marsh Flats
• 1 Misty Rainforest
• 1 Opal Palace
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Strip Mine
• 1 Tainted Isle
• 1 Tainted Wood
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Tranquil Thicket
• 1 Vivid Creek
• 1 Vivid Grove
• 1 Vivid Marsh
• 1 Watery Grave
• 1 Woodland Cemetery
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Buy This Deck

There are significant improvements with the addition of cards like Training Grounds, Desertion, and Burgeoning.

I would make a few improvements.

I’d cut more counterspells and add more utility spells such as Cyclonic Rift. Yes, Cyclonic Rift is dirty, but we need spells like it to be able to beat full-tuned decks, and Cyclonic Rift isn’t inherently a dirty card. It’s up to you to choose which mode, and the kind of player who underbuilds a 75% deck not wanting to smash his playgroup isn’t likely to overload it just to be a tool. I’ve cast Cyclonic Rift for 2 mana quite often in Commander when the power level of the group warranted it or when my need was dire. In fact, it reminds me a bit of Desertion in that regard.

A lot of the changes I’d make would be cosmetic though. This is a pile of removal that, while it could use cards like Grave Betrayal for maximum fun and maybe Eternal Witness to help sculpt the graveyard in a more positive way, can get there. I like the feedback from the community, the fact that the deck was underbuilt at first, and the fact that a first draft hit the deck box before I even was able weigh in. A third draft might look even tighter, but I see what /u/DrBlanko is going for here, and I’m a fan.

What do we think? Did I take it too easy on him? Would you have liked to see me really knuckle down and suggest a lot of changes or was it better to highlight the suggestions made by the rest of the community? Is the deck still way, way underpowered or is it going to be fine in your meta? Do you have a list of your own you’d like me to take a swing at? Leave your thoughts in the comment section, and let’s get a party started. Until next week!