Sometimes, my titles are more “pun” than “descriptive,” and I am okay with that. I’ve had Blue Is the Warmest Color in my Netflix queue for a long time, and if I never watch it but it inspired an article title, I’m okay with that.

Stealing all your perms.

Blue is the best color for taking opponents’ stuff, but red is easily second. While Grab the Reins is outclassed by Treachery, Blatant Thievery is cool, but Insurrection wins games. Mindclaw Shaman can play opponents’ spells, which is a pretty blue ability also. Red also has the ability to shore up some of its liabilities with help from other colors or artifacts. Can we make a mono-red 75% deck that isn’t a total pile?

What does red do that we consider good execution of 75% principles?

Threatening

While red can’t steal things permanently as well (with a few exceptions, such as Bazaar Trader), red can steal our opponents’ creatures and beat them with them. That’s pure 75% right there. If we’re mono-red, we can jam some Threaten effects to help our deck scale against theirs. Red allows me to play my favorite Commander Dragon as well: Hellkite Tyrant. Could Hellkite Tyrant end up being a win condition?

Attacking

Red is a very aggressive color, and attacking is going to be something we want to do a lot—to a degree that is unfair in fact. I want to attack repeatedly in one turn to make sure we finish the job. A big Insurrection is good, but a well-placed Relentless Assault or Hellkite Charger can be fun. Beating down is going to be a focus if we’re to play to red’s strengths, which is how we’re going to make this deck good enough to win tougher matches.

Direct Damage

I know what I want in the deck, so it’s time to pick a commander.

I considered a lot of fun mono-red dudes. Krenko, Mob Boss forms a very cool deck, and you end up running a lot of really obscure cards such as Goblin Scouts. Purphoros, God of the Forge would probably be nearly identical to my Krenko list, but it would run Norin the Wary and other guys like that to abuse his built-in Pandemonium. Norin makes a swell commander in his own right, generating value with cards the likes of Genesis Chamber and Cloudstone Curio and comboing with Purphoros. Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer could provide a fun way to build an artifact combo deck if you’re as sick of Sharuum the Hegemon as I am. Still, I found a commander I want to play more than I do any of those.

Godo, Bandit Warlord

Godo looks to be a lot of fun. I don’t want this to be a strictly Voltron deck because red seems to have basically one way to deal with tucking—Gamble effects—and I don’t want to rely too heavily on my commander. I want to do three things with this deck. I want to threaten opponents’ dudes and sacrifice them rather than give them back. I want to take extra attack phases. I want to arm pingers with deathtouch. Godo is going to help me accomplish those aims—I hope.

Threatening Cards

Grab the Reins, Word of Seizing, Insurrection, Zealous Conscripts, Conquering Manticore, Hellkite Tyrant, Mass Mutiny, and Molten Primordial are all probably good enough to make the deck. We really don’t want to give the stuff back, so sacrifice outlets are important. Phyrexian Altar, Ashnod's Altar, Greater Gargadon, Barrage of Expendables, Blood Rites, Bloodshot Cyclops, Breath of Fury, Goblin Bombardment, Magmaw, and Tooth and Claw are all worth consideration in the deck. Some of those even contribute to our other strategies, like . . .

Extra Attack Phases

Godo is going to give us extra attacks, as will Aggravated Assault, Savage Beating, Relentless Assault, Hellkite Charger, Breath of Fury, World at War, and Fury of the Horde, which are all candidates. We’ll need beefy creatures, but we’ll also want some . . .

Direct Damage

Magmaw is going to do some work in this deck! With Godo able to fetch Quietus Spike and Basilisk Collar, our pingers will do work. I like the idea of Bonehoard on a Spikeshot Elder as much as I like the idea of a Collar on him. Inferno Titan is great with both attacking a few extra times and with a Collar or a Spike. Kumano, Master Yamabushi is solid in a deck like this, and his ability to permanently solve problems is relevant in Commander. Scourge of Kher Ridge has the potential to pants you pretty good, but sweeping the board seems amazing.

Godo Shenanigans

I like the idea of KO’ing someone with Godo, or another creature, wearing a Grafted Exoskeleton. I don’t think this is too good for casual groups to handle, and if you KO one person—or threaten to do so—it’s likely the whole table will be against you, so be careful. Remember that powerful is fine in a 75% deck, and even though Godo gives us some consistency, he doesn’t guarantee you’ll connect. I imagine I’ll use Exoskeleton as a way to pay 4 mana to kill a creature I borrowed from an opponent as often as I do anything else.

I like Cloudstone Curio in a deck like this because rebuying Godo is nasty, bouncing a card like Vulshok Battlemaster is solid, and rebuying any of the many creatures with effects that trigger when they enter the battlefield can mitigate how little card-draw we have. You can even bounce a creature you Threatened and make its owner pay the mana to replay it. Godo can go Voltron in this deck, but he can just as easily let us solve problems by tutoring up a Basilisk Collar. Godo is a reusable tutor, but since all we’re finding is Equipment and he tutors face-up, there is no real break from the rules of 75% here.

That was a lot of setup. I think we’ve discussed this to death—time to make with a decklist.

Godo, Bandit Warlord Decklist ? Commander | Jason Alt

• Commander (0)

• Creatures (25)
• 1 Anger
• 1 Bloodshot Cyclops
• 1 Bogardan Hellkite
• 1 Conquering Manticore
• 1 Greater Gargadon
• 1 Hateflayer
• 1 Hellkite Charger
• 1 Hellkite Tyrant
• 1 Inferno Titan
• 1 Magmaw
• 1 Mindclaw Shaman
• 1 Molten Primordial
• 1 Scourge of Kher Ridges
• 1 Spikeshot Elder
• 1 Subterranean Spirit
• 1 Taurean Mauler
• 1 Vulshok Battlemaster
• 1 Zealous Conscripts
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Steel Hellkite
• 1 Wurmcoil Engine
• 1 Akroma, Angel of Fury
• 1 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
• 1 Kumano, Master Yamabushi
• 1 Urabrask the Hidden

• Spells (36)
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Grab the Reins
• 1 Reiterate
• 1 Savage Beating
• 1 Word of Seizing
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Fury of the Horde
• 1 Insurrection
• 1 Mass Mutiny
• 1 Relentless Assault
• 1 Traitorous Blood
• 1 Unwilling Recruit
• 1 World at War
• 1 Aggravated Assault
• 1 Breath of Fury
• 1 Goblin Bombardment
• 1 Tooth And Claw
• 1 Argentum Armor
• 1 Ashnod's Altar
• 1 Basilisk Collar
• 1 Batterskull
• 1 Bonehoard
• 1 Cloudstone Curio
• 1 Darksteel Ingot
• 1 Darksteel Plate
• 1 Fire Diamond
• 1 Grafted Exoskeleton
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Oblivion Stone
• 1 Phyrexian Altar
• 1 Quietus Spike
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1 Sword of War and Peace

• Lands (38)
• 29 Mountain
• 1 Arena
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Homeward Path
• 1 Spinerock Knoll
• 1 Springjack Pasture
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
• 1 Hall of the Bandit Lord
• 1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep

Buy This Deck

I toyed with running Radiate for a minute, but there are too few targets. We’ll have to settle for Insurrection, although copying a Threaten effect would be gnarly.

What do we think about Godo? Does he tutor too effectively and raise our consistency too much? Is this deck cute enough that we won’t be stomped by the table? Is it too unfocused? I want to hear your thoughts, so leave them here.

Keep the decklists coming—they’re constant sources of inspiration. Next week, I am going to try to tune up a list that was sent to me and see if we can’t learn anything more about this philosophy while we’re at it. Thanks for joining me! We’ll see you next week.