Talk about getting sidetracked. I set out to write a simple article about a fringe Commander who allowed you to play silly, fringe rares and have a good time. The discussion I had with someone who had played the deck before turned into a huge distraction for all of us, and it’s taken literally weeks to get back on track. I wrote one article, and then a popular sequel about not necessarily the topic I set out to discuss.

I thought it was a good thread, but going back, the top comment is me saying Koskun Falls is good in a deck with Macar and then the OP saying, “You’d think, but, nope.” That was a real mood-killer for me. Still, we got off on an interesting topic, and his refusal to play Macar with his friends anymore because they know what sort of evil shenanigans he is going to get up to got me thinking about heat. Let’s avoid going down that rabbit hole for now and try to stick to this Macar deck because I’m actually really excited to figure it out. Let’s try to piece a bit of it together from clues from the thread I linked.

Springleaf Drum and Honor-Worn Shaku both let you tap him for mana, and since they are external sources that don't give him the symbol, you can do it whilst he is summoning sick. Puppet Strings and Icy Manipulator both let you tap him while also giving you outlets to control the board and curb aggro that is coming at you.

If you get Clock of Omens out . . . using Mycosynth Lattice or Liquimetal Coating to turn Macar into an artifact makes him go infinite. (With Macar untapped, tap Clock of Omens and Macar to untap Macar . . . then, tap Macar and a gold token to untap Macar . . . and Macar and the new gold token you just made to untap Macar . . . Rinse and repeat.)

Since you produce boatloads of mana, your main win cons are Exsanguinate and Profane Command. Since this is a main win con, Basalt Monolith and Rings of Brighthearth fit right in. (And they both can do work with your other artifact combo.) Cabal Coffers and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth are also big-mana-black auto-includes. (And they are often worth running Expedition Map for, even in a deck in which it isn't doing anything but hitting one of these.) For more scaling on Coffers, consider Vesuva and Thespian's Stage.

Cranial Plating can make Macar really scary. Irradiate also scales with artifacts you control. Reprocess lets you recycle your gold for cards. Crown of Empires taps Macar and is kinda expensive, but if you run Throne of Empires and Scepter of Empires, it becomes a combo that can work pretty well . . . It is also sort of flavorful because Macar is a king, and these cards are about leading an empire.

Since you are running so many combos and produce so much mana . . . Planar Portal feels like a must to me... Same with Diabolic Revelation and Demonic Tutor. I normally try not to run more than three tutor effects, so I'd say that is enough, but you can also run Ring of Three Wishes and Diabolic Tutor and Beseech the Queen and etc., etc.

EDIT: Another super-important one is Summoning Station to turn all your gold tokens into 2/2s.

We have a pretty solid list of cards just from his discussion of the combos he runs.

Macar List

• Artifacts (16)
• 1 Basalt Monolith
• 1 Clock of Omens
• 1 Cranial Plating
• 1 Crown of Empires
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Honor-Worn Shaku
• 1 Icy Manipulator
• 1 Liquimetal Coating
• 1 Mycosynth Lattice
• 1 Puppet Strings
• 1 Rings of Brighthearth
• 1 Springleaf Drum
• 1 Scepter of Empires
• 1 Summoning Station
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Throne of Empires

• Spells (4)
• 1 Exsanguinate
• 1 Irradiate
• 1 Profane Command
• 1 Reprocess

• Lands (4)
• 1 Cabal Coffers
• 1 Thespian's Stage
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1 Vesuva

Buy This Deck

He brought up some other cards, but I want to add tutors other than Expedition Map, if at all, last. I don’t want to devote too many spots to cards I don’t like to run to begin with. With so many combos, you’re more likely to use tutors like a toolbox to help you find the card you need, but too many tutors make the game too predictable. If we run any, we’re going to have to be really careful.

I realize Koskun Falls is a nonbo according to someone with experience playing the deck, but I’m excited about the prospect of running it in this deck, so I’ll take it out when I hate it and not a second before.

Yes, I realize that Trading Post works really, really well in this deck, but let’s not assume that’s why I would include it here. I’d include it anyway.

Umbral Mantle, anyone?

While we’re at it, why not jam Pain Seer? Once heralded as a “better Dark Confidant” by some, it’s now languishing in dollar boxes (rightfully so—this is no Dark Confidant at all). Still, this could draw us some cards, and he works in the same framework as our commander. I want to make sure to jam this guy.

I know we’re going to generate a ton of mana, but if we can untap lands easily, I like the idea of running Hecatomb as a finisher. It’s obviously super-land-intensive, but it’s a reusable card and hits creatures, and I never get to run Hecatomb. And since this is mono-black, this may be my best shot. It will probably be the first cut, but if there is room, I want to jam it. This should be fun, right?

King Macar, the Gold-Cursed ? Commander | Jason Alt

• Commander (0)

• Creatures (14)
• 1 Crypt Ghast
• 1 Dread Cacodemon
• 1 Lord of the Void
• 1 Magus of the Coffers
• 1 Nirkana Revenant
• 1 Colossus of Akros
• 1 Kuldotha Forgemaster
• 1 Mycosynth Golem
• 1 Myr Battlesphere
• 1 Thopter Assembly
• 1 Erebos, God of the Dead
• 1 Geth, Lord of the Vault
• 1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1 Visara the Dreadful

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Liliana of the Dark Realms

• Spells (48)
• 1 Sudden Spoiling
• 1 Decree of Pain
• 1 Exsanguinate
• 1 Mutilate
• 1 Profane Command
• 1 Reprocess
• 1 Greed
• 1 Hecatomb
• 1 No Mercy
• 1 Phyrexian Arena
• 1 Underworld Connections
• 1 Basalt Monolith
• 1 Blinkmoth Urn
• 1 Caged Sun
• 1 Champion's Helm
• 1 Charcoal Diamond
• 1 Clock of Omens
• 1 Cranial Plating
• 1 Crown of Empires
• 1 Darksteel Forge
• 1 Darksteel Ingot
• 1 Ebony Horse
• 1 Gauntlet of Power
• 1 Heartstone
• 1 Honor-Worn Shaku
• 1 Icy Manipulator
• 1 Jandor's Saddlebags
• 1 Krark-Clan Ironworks
• 1 Lashwrithe
• 1 Liquimetal Coating
• 1 Magewright's Stone
• 1 Mycosynth Lattice
• 1 Paradise Mantle
• 1 Puppet Strings
• 1 Scepter of Empires
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Springleaf Drum
• 1 Staff of Domination
• 1 Strionic Resonator
• 1 Summoning Station
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Sword of the Paruns
• 1 Thousand-Year Elixir
• 1 Throne of Empires
• 1 Trading Post
• 1 Umbral Mantle
• 1 Voltaic Key
• 1 Whip of Erebos

• Lands (36)
• 26 Swamp
• 1 Arcane Lighthouse
• 1 Cabal Coffers
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Vesuva
• 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1 Vault of Whispers
• 1 Koskun Falls

Buy This Deck

The deck’s far from perfect, but it looks like fun. There are a ton of synergies buried in this list, and there are a lot of fringe cards I came across in my research that I would like to try, such as Onyx Talisman—a goofy card from Ice Age that untaps creatures when you play black spells but for which I could not find room.

I’m satisfied. As much fun as I had with the “heat” articles (more are coming in the future; keep sending your suggestions in!), I am glad I got around to completing this list. This was a ton of fun to do, and I hope you build around fringe commanders like this one, just as I do. I have this deck mostly constructed, so next time you run into me at a Grand Prix and want to battle, request I use this one. It’s going to be full of artifact fun, dirty combos, and sneaky synergies, and it will be fully 75%. What more could you possibly want out of life than that?