Dedicated readers of this series will know how much I love for things to be a little chaotic. One way to build a deck 75% is to make the deck a little less consistent so that we don’t have to reduce its power level. We’ll be capable of winning every game but it won’t always happen if we allow some luck into the equation. We’re aiming to win 1/x games which means we’ll have to have some good luck to beat better decks and some bad luck to not always beat bad decks. If we reduce our consistency a bit, we won’t have to monkey with the power level of the deck which means a sufficient amount of inconsistency lets us run a deck that’s as powerful as we care to make it. If you do something really strong but as a fluke, chances are players won’t be as hard on you on the swing-back.

I was looking at which Commander 2016 commander I wanted to brew with today and took a long, hard look at Saskia the Unyielding. I thought about the political ramifications of using her in conjunction with double striking creatures. You could finish one person very quickly or spread it out and punish two people pretty severely. Merely selecting a player to be the recipient of the extra damage is a political move and can change the tone of the table significantly. Do you see if one player will let you get through with a bunch of creatures so they can Pyrichally take out the strongest player at the table? It raises a lot of interesting questions, but I don’t think I want to talk about that today. That’s a potential future article, and I think Saskia is a brutal commander with a lot of potential. Whether you win through the sheer damage output or get dogpiled very early due to the threat you represent, your games are bound to be short and, call me biased but I love short games. Short games mean you can switch decks out more and don’t have to deal with boring, intractable ground stalls. How unchaotic Saskia is got me searching for something a little more “random” and I found it in a little lady Goblin who packs almost as much of a wallop as Saskia if you build the right way.

That word gives us a degree of deniability that we can try and use to subtly steer some of the heat away from ourselves. “Oh, wow, the 6 damage from that Curtains' Call hit you? That’s bad luck. I’ll attack someone else with my creatures this turn to keep it even.” An apology for the bad luck of someone eating some random damage coupled with you not aiming anything at them for a turn can go a long way toward making it look like you just have a wacky pile of randomness and aren’t maliciously trying to hurt anyone when in reality, you don’t care who gets a vial smashed against their dome as long as it helps the game end quicker. Not being able to choose who you hit means you can hit the weakest player but you can also hit the strongest player without getting too much ire. You have choices about where to aim your spells and attacks so you can still try to bring the strongest player in line in other ways so you can still play a political game while your commander is a loose cannon, spraying vial contents indiscriminately. It’s not the most effective way to play Magic but it sure sounds fun and lets us keep our power level fairly high and still build 75% which is ideal.

This probably doesn’t need its own paragraph before the deck, but before I forget, how good is Curtains' Call? Most games are 4 players so this is a instant that kills two creatures with no restrictions on color or type. I see Go For The Throat in 4,000 decks on EDHREC and this is 1 mana more for no restrictions and one more creature. At a mere $0.99 cents on Coolstuff, I think this card has some room to grow and I like it even more if you can find cheaper copies. I realize this is stuff I usually write in other articles, but since this card is going to be nutso in this deck and in others, it pays to think about it now that it’s just about the cheapest it will ever be due to us being at peak deck opening over the next month. Food for thought.

Let’s look at a decklist, shall we? As an interesting aside, last time I submitted a list with 2 commanders, the deck had 99 cards in it rather than 98 and no one caught it. Partner commander decks contain 98 cards. I’ll try to cheat less in the future.

The CMC is Too Damn High ? Commander| Jason Alt

• Commander (2)
• 1 Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist
• 1 Vial Smasher the Fierce

• Creatures (18)
• 1 Archaeomancer
• 1 Chasm Skulker
• 1 Fog Bank
• 1 Guttersnipe
• 1 Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge
• 1 Jori En, Ruin Diver
• 1 Kaervek the Merciless
• 1 Melek, Izzet Paragon
• 1 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
• 1 Mulldrifter
• 1 Notion Thief
• 1 Psychosis Crawler
• 1 Shriekmaw
• 1 Snapcaster Mage
• 1 Spitebellows
• 1 Taurean Mauler
• 1 Tidespout Tyrant
• 1 Torrential Gearhulk

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker

• Instants (7)
• 1 Curtains' Call
• 1 Dig Through Time
• 1 Evacuation
• 1 Mindswipe
• 1 Murderous Cut
• 1 Rewind
• 1 Searing Wind

• Sorceries (11)
• 1 Black Sun's Zenith
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Call the Skybreaker
• 1 Cruel Ultimatum
• 1 Decree of Pain
• 1 Mizzix's Mastery
• 1 Spelltwine
• 1 Subterranean Tremors
• 1 Temporal Tresspass
• 1 Treasure Cruise
• 1 Volcanic Vision

• Enchantments (8)
• 1 Curse of Echoes
• 1 Eye of the Storm
• 1 Future Sight
• 1 Gratuitous Violence
• 1 Meishin, the Mind Cage
• 1 Mind's Dilation
• 1 Possibility Storm
• 1 Thought Reflection

• Artifacts (15)
• 1 Chromatic Lantern
• 1 Coalition Relic
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Crawlspace
• 1 Darksteel Ingot
• 1 Dimir Signet
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Izzet Signet
• 1 Pyromancer's Goggles
• 1 Rakdos Signet
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Sphinx-Bone Wand
• 1 Thought Vessel
• 1 Venser's Journal
• 1 Wayfarer's Bauble

• Lands (38)
• 6 Island
• 6 Mountain
• 6 Swamp
• 1 Ash Barrens
• 1 Bloodstained Mire
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Crumbling Necropolis
• 1 Desolate Lighthouse
• 1 Dimir Aqueduct
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Grixis Panorama
• 1 Izzet Boilerworks
• 1 Polluted Delta
• 1 Rakdos Carnarium
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 River of Tears
• 1 Scalding Tarn
• 1 Temple of Deceit
• 1 Temple of Epiphany
• 1 Temple of Malice
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse

Buy This Deck

I have a lot of mana rocks and I hope it’s enough. A lot of them are 3 mana and in my experience, getting stuck on two lands with a bunch of 3 mana rocks in hand feels super bad. We may want to add as many as 4 more lands, especially after a few games to see which spells underperform. I feel like I’m spending a lot of time talking about what this deck probably won’t do. Let’s pretend it’s tuned up (something whoever uses this build would have to do) and we live in a Universe where this deck will stay out of its own way and do its own thing. What will happen?

We’ll develop our mana and get Vial Smasher into play. After that, we can have fun. Ludevic joins Vial Smasher, incentivizing them to attack people who aren’t you. We start playing bigger and bigger spells. Evoke creatures played for their evoke costs fill our yard for delve as well as over-performing with Vial Smasher triggers. X spells get there no matter when we play them and delve spells let us either save our mana to play additional spells (drawing us cards with Jori En, Ruin Diver) or let us decide how big an effect we want. Mindswipe on their turn, then Subterranean Tremors on yours will drill them for a lot. We’re not going to do much attacking with creatures but the few we have give us a lot of utility. Once our yard is full and we’re no longer delving, we’ll play a Volcanic Vision, Torrential Gearhulk or overloaded Mizzix's Mastery to close the game out.

Which avenue would you pursue if you built Vial Smasher? Would you add Propaganda to join Meishin, the Mind Cage and Crawlspace? Add Blue Sun's Zenith to join the Black? Add Curiosity to join Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind? Add Nekusar, the Mindrazer and wheels? Let me know in the comments section. There are a lot of different ways to go but you’re sure to be a 75% build as long as you let chaos reign supreme. Open gatherer, search for cards with the word “random” in grixis colors and find a few gems. Thanks for reading, everyone. Until next week!