A very happy new year to all of you! A new calendar year has begun, bringing with it all the excitement that comes along with a new year: resolutions. Ideas. New plans.

I'm sure you have lots of great things you intend to do this coming year, but since this is a Magic column, let's stick to Magic-based goals. Mine? To get my collection completely organized (again). To try to get at least four more players in my regular group. To try to make it to a CommanderFest or other event where I can meet with other players. And to play with a group of people I've never played with before (this is something I try to do every year). What are yours?

I also thought, given the roundness of the year, it might be fun to take a look back with my first articles of 2025, so let's go all the way... TO THE YEAR 2000! (Conan O'Brien fans unite, right?)

In 2000, Magic had been around for eight years. They had more-or-less settled into the block format, though it was still a bit shifty, and were still using the old card frames. The year started with Nemesis, then Prophecy, then Invasion, which was the beginning of the end of the Weatherlight cycle. (I'm not enough of a Vorthos to know all this lore, but it's out there if you want to read it!)

Commander very much did not exist yet, so Legendary Creature status was really for two reasons: to highlight a particular character important to the story for some reason, and to limit the amount of copies of it you can have in play at any given time. Most importantly for our purposes, the Legendary Creatures back then were not optimized or designed to lead a deck. That means their power balance is often way off from modern-day Commanders. Their abilities are focused on heads-up play; sometimes they're wildly under- or over-powered; and they can be tricky to work with.

But that doesn't mean there isn't something there to mine. I dug through every Legendary Creature from that year and I found four which I think should contend with modern-day deck-building. Maybe not cEDH, but these Commanders should be able to hang with the new squad just fine, plus you get bonus points for going old-school.

Let's start out with one of my favorite things: Mono-Black.

First of all, how bonkers cool is that flavor text? This dude is unafraid, and I love that.

For six mana, we get a 6/4 Creature, which is fine. No evasion, and I wish that toughness were a little higher, but we get what we get and we don't throw a fit.

The key is that activated ability. For two mana, we can discard a Creature card from our Hand and Volrath gets all kinds of pumped up, specifically by the Mana Value of the Creature we discarded. With a one-mana Creature, Volrath is into three-hit kill territory. With five mana, it's two. And with 15 mana, we end up with a one-hit kill. Seems like a good place for some Voltron action.

But wait, there's more! As long as we're dumping Creatures into the 'yard, it seems like this would be a good place for some light Reanimator shenanigans! We can do that too.

So, we need the normal things, mana and cards, plus large Creature cards to discard, a bit of reanimation, some ways to sneak Volrath past defenses, and some removal or interaction is never a bad idea. Let's see what we've got.

In the Year 2000 | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Volrath the Fallen

• Creatures (31)
• 1 Archon of Cruelty
• 1 Avatar of Woe
• 1 Dalek Drone
• 1 Deathbringer Regent
• 1 Demon of Death's Gate
• 1 Disciple of Bolas
• 1 Dread Cacodemon
• 1 Dread Presence
• 1 Elder Brain
• 1 Erebos, God of the Dead
• 1 Fell Stinger
• 1 Lord of the Void
• 1 Metamorphosis Fanatic
• 1 Moriok Replica
• 1 Necron Deathmark
• 1 Noxious Gearhulk
• 1 Overseer of the Damned
• 1 Patron of the Vein
• 1 Phyrexian Gargantua
• 1 Primaris Eliminator
• 1 Razaketh, the Foulblooded
• 1 Sepulchral Primordial
• 1 Shadow of Mortality
• 1 Shadowborn Demon
• 1 Shadowgrange Archfiend
• 1 Shard of the Void Dragon
• 1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1 Shriekmaw
• 1 Valgavoth, Terror Eater
• 1 Vilis, Broker of Blood
• 1 Vulturous Aven

• Instants (1)
• 1 Stinging Study

• Sorceries (8)
• 1 Beacon of Unrest
• 1 Dregs of Sorrow
• 1 From the Catacombs
• 1 Insatiable Avarice
• 1 Necromantic Summons
• 1 Night's Whisper
• 1 Rise from the Grave
• 1 Sign in Blood

• Enchantments (1)
• 1 Strands of Night

• Artifacts (18)
• 1 Agility Bobblehead
• 1 Bonder's Ornament
• 1 Brotherhood Regalia
• 1 Charisma Bobblehead
• 1 Crowded Crypt
• 1 Endurance Bobblehead
• 1 Hot Soup
• 1 Intelligence Bobblehead
• 1 Luck Bobblehead
• 1 Mask of Griselbrand
• 1 Perception Bobblehead
• 1 Prowler's Helm
• 1 Psychic Paper
• 1 Rogue's Gloves
• 1 Silver Shroud Costume
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Strength Bobblehead
• 1 Whispersilk Cloak

• Lands (40)
• 20 Swamp
• 1 Barren Moor
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Castle Locthwain
• 1 Crypt of Agadeem
• 1 Demolition Field
• 1 Hall of the Bandit Lord
• 1 Memorial to Folly
• 1 Minas Morgul, Dark Fortress
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Polluted Mire
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 1 Spymaster's Vault
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 The Black Gate
• 1 Tomb Fortress
• 1 Urza's Cave
• 1 War Room
• 1 Witch's Clinic
• 1 Witch's Cottage

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We start, as usual, with our 40 Lands. Often, with mono-colored decks, I run a lot more utility Lands which don't tap for a color, but in this case, because the color requirements on Volrath are so strong (in addition to other Mono-Black Creatures), it makes sense to keep a high number of basic Swamps in the mix. But, we still have Rogue's Passage, War Room, Hall of the Bandit Lord, and Urza's Cave, all of which can be useful (that Cave should probably get Rogue's Passage). In our Black producing lands, Tomb Fortress gives us an extra Reanimator effect, Shizo, Death's Storehouse is a mini-Rogue's Passage, and Minas Morgul, Dark Fortress does a lovely job of helping us get our Creatures through.

We can always go the Crypt Ghast/Cabal Coffers direction to ramp, but in this case, with a six-mana Commander and no real need for absolutely insane amounts of mana, it made sense to go with mana rocks. So, it's the Bobbleheads! These can be wonderfully helpful when we have extra mana kicking around; Agility helps push Creatures through, Endurance and Strength both pump them up, Intelligence draws extra cards, and Charisma makes blockers or sacrifice fodder, should we need it (I'm looking at you, Razaketh, the Foulblooded). Bonder's Ornament and Crowded Crypt fill out the list. Oh, and Sol Ring, because despite the fact I don't think it belongs in every deck, it belongs in this one. turn four Volrath would be awesome.

So, we can draw with Intelligence Bobblehead. We've also got some other ways to keep cards flowing. Vulturous Aven and Fell Stinger both work as Night's Whisper (they can Exploit themselves), but they're Creatures so we can use them to draw cards or to pump up Volrath. If we have some of those tokens around we can sacrifice them instead, too, giving us better Creatures on board. Disciple of Bolas is fantastic here, and we can always wait until after we've attacked with Volrath. Drawing 14 cards or something for 4 mana seems like a decent deal. Rogue's Gloves is one of my favorites in a deck like this. Stinging Study will cost us six life, but six cards is worth it. Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, and Insatiable Avarice all make appearances. A couple of our big Creatures also help out here: Vilis, Broker of Blood will certainly bring in some cards with all the ways we have to use our life total, Valgavoth, Terror Eater gives us some life-draining choices from our friends' decks, and Elder Brain also lets us play with our opponents' toys.

The primary goal here is to kill people with Commander damage. We're going to cast Volrath, then attack with him in ways which can get through (either by attacking the undefended player or sneaking him through with help), then activate his ability and pump up his power to try and hit even harder. Don't over-worry about which Creature to discard; you can think about it a little, but mostly think about how to kill your opponents. Sometimes it seems obvious to pump as hard as possible, but if you know Volrath is getting through (say he has a Shadow counter on him) and you have a five-, six, and eight-drop to discard, no need to use the eight. The six and the five over two attacks will kill an opponent. The other things to remember are you can discard more than one Creature per turn (nothing says it's limited!), and you can discard smaller Creatures too. Sometimes the right thing is to discard the Fell Stinger and give Volrath the extra +3, not cast the Stinger to draw the cards.

However, we do have those big Creatures kicking around. We can always cast them, and in some cases (like Dread Cacodemon) we want to sometimes. But as mentioned, we can also reanimate them. I like the five-mana Reanimation spells; it's almost always a discount, and we normally get a bonus by using them. Beacon of Unrest comes back for more. From the Catacombs does too. Necromantic Selection buffs the target up. Rise from the Grave is kind of the worst one. Strands of Night is absurdly powerful and should be killed on sight, but if you can keep it out for a few turns it'll do some serious damage. Sheoldred, Whispering One is similarly terrible for the rest of the table. Metamorphosis Fanatic is a little more but is a Creature we can discard too, so that's worth it.

Dregs of Sorrow is a very strong card which should be played more often, and in a deck like this one will often kill a lot of Creatures with a single card. Otherwise, most of our removal (including our sweepers) are stapled to Creatures, so we're going to pay a bit more, but it's worth it so we have more for Volrath to eat. Focus on pushing Volrath through and use removal sparingly. People are going to be so afraid of what you're about to discard they won't know what to do.

We also have a few ways of making sure Volrath can sneak through. Whispersilk Cloak is kind of the gold standard here, and Shroud doesn't matter because his ability doesn't target him. Brotherhood Regalia also gets him through, plus it's cheap to Equip, which is nice. Hot Soup works great, and Mask of Griselbrand gives him Flying at least. Prowler's Helm, Psychic Paper, and Silver Shroud Costume also get him right by blockers, and The Black Gate helps out our other Lands.

The other thing to mention is Shadow of Mortality. Discarding this and getting in with Volrath means he kills in a single hit. We could also run Draco, and feel free to if you want, but I felt like one was enough.

If you wanted to run some old-school cards with some cool flavor and utility, the first would be Dauthi Embrace. It's another way to sneak Volrath through for cheap, and it's a nifty thing which will make some newer players ask what it is! The second is Volrath's Stronghold, which is expensive and old, but would be excellent in place of one of the basic Swamps in the deck. The ability to recycle one of the large Creatures to discard again would be super solid here.

With some lucky draws and tight play, this deck should be able to hang with a table of modern casual decks. Also, you can be proud of using a Commander-from-the-past.

Thanks for reading.