There's a Commander I've loved ever since I saw her.

She's been around a while, but she sure seems powerful, doesn't she? She's on curve as a 3/3 for 3 mana. She has two relevant keywords which are amazing together, because adding First Strike to Deathtouch basically says "come near me and I'll KEEEEEL you!" Then she's got this weird thing where she brings artifacts back to your hand anytime a creature someone else controls dies. It all seems like it should add up to an awesome deck, doesn't it?

The thing is, that deck has eluded me. The obvious synergy is with Executioner's Capsule, because we can sac the Capsule, kill something, and immediately get the Capsule back for reuse. If we have three more mana, we can do it right then! Of course, it does have the old Doom Blade text so it can't kill creatures, but normally there are at least a couple of opponents who won't have any of those. And it costs three mana to run the engine, which isn't that much. Until, of course, it is too much, because doing it more than a couple of times takes every bit of mana we've got. In my experience, those decks generated lots of action, but somehow never came together to win.

I haven't looked at Glissa in quite a while, though, and I thought it might be time to take another stab. Turns out there's some pretty great stuff that's come out since Mirrodin Besieged, as well as a lovely win condition in a handful of Vraskas.

We will need mana, of course, and we'll want to hit Glissa on curve, so the full 40 is called for. Despite her low casting cost, we've got some bigger spells, plus it's not unusual for us to want to cast multiple spells per turn, so drawing lands is rarely a bad thing and hitting those drops is key. We've also got a suite of mana rocks, though we're leaning in favor of ones that can be sacrificed to draw us cards (Mind Stone), or that also give us color (Golgari Locket). Sol Ring is powerful, but the color is actually helpful when Glissa needs to come out, and there are better things for that slot. Cabal Coffers and Cabal Stronghold are here, along with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, though I doubt it's necessary, so to lower the cost of the deck those are the first things to cut. Among other things, Urborg and the Stronghold don't work together, and we're not running so many basic Swamps that it's a super important combo. We've also got some other utility in Homeward Path, Bojuka Bog, and the Blighted lands. Inventors' Fair is our only tutor and seems reasonable. Forbidden Orchard is kind of a combo piece (more on that later), and Rogue's Passage is one of the best lands in this deck because often times we're going to use it to simply kill an opponent. Our Expedition Map should be used to get Rogue's Passage first almost every time. After that just keep grabbing more lands with it.

Ultimately we want to ultimate a planeswalker for the win. We have two that get us very close to just winning immediately and two that almost kill a specific player. Let's start with the latter. Garruk, Apex Predator has a bunch of great abilities (you'll notice all the planeswalkers have an ability that kills something, somehow) but the ultimate gives a mini Titanic Ultimatum to everyone who attacks the targeted player. Even if no one else plays, it's likely we can figure out a win with random artifact creatures and Pirate tokens or whatever. But if we're careful and choose someone who's also a big threat, we can normally get some help. Vraska, Relic Seeker makes a single player's life total 1, which will quite possibly allow us to kill them that turn, especially if we have enough kill spells to clear out their board, a Pirate token with Menace, or a Rogue's Passage. If not, though, it certainly makes a juicy target for the player with a flier or two or someone with a random Staff of Nin. Vraska the Unseen and Vraska, Golgari Queen, on the other hand, set us up to kill everyone; the Unseen's Assassin tokens do great work with Rogue's Passage (or Oblivion Stone, but more on that later) while the Golgari Queen's ultimate makes every creature we play a Phage the Untouchable. That can turn into a problem for our opponents pretty quickly.

Avatar of Woe and Visara the Dreadful are both excellent creatures. They're big and they both have evasion, which is nice in the event of a Gogari Queen ultimate. They also work great with Thornbite Staff, allowing us to equip the staff and simply go to town on the battlefield, killing everything that can be targeted. That's one way to get an Assassin token through. Sheoldred, Whispering One tends to be a target of removal herself, but if she draws a kill spell, great, and if she lasts for a turn or two, things are likely very bad for our opponents. Call to the Grave is like a mini Sheoldred, and because Glissa is a Zombie, the only way for it to go away is to wipe the board.

Black Sun's Zenith, Crux of Fate, and In Garruk's Wake are our spell-based sweepers. BSZ doesn't get seen much anymore, but it's a great spell for a deck like this that struggles with indestructible creatures, plus it shuffles back for another round. We've also got Oblivion Stone, which is really fun, because we can actually use the Fate counters to our advantage. Put a Fate counter on Glissa and a couple other random creatures while we tick up Vraska, Golgari Queen, then pop her and the Stone on the same turn. Attack and kill everyone!

Vraska, Swarm's Eminence is interesting because she doesn't kill our opponents, but she's a nice solution for Superfriends decks that are becoming more and more popular. She also works well with our semi-Deathtouch theme, because we have a few creatures with it and the counters can become relevant.

Remember Noxious Gearhulk can be bought back with Glissa's ability.

Strionic Resonator allows us to double up on Glissa's trigger. This may be a flex slot, because it's possible we won't reliably have enough artifacts in the 'yard all the time to justify the cost and spot. But we can also use the Resonator for a number of other things (Sheoldred! Noxious Gearhulk! Solemn Simulacrum!) so it's probably worth having in the deck.

Mimic Vat is really fun when lots of stuff is dying. It's great to get our own Eternal Witness on it, but even better to get someone else's Rune-Scarred Demon.

And Mindslaver works with Forbidden Orchard in a very particular way. With 10 mana and the Orchard, we can take over someone's turns for the rest of the game. We sac the 'Slaver and give them the Spirit, then take their turn. We then use their turn to ruin their lives but also to send the Spirit at us to be blocked by our intrepid Deathtouching First Striker. That kills a creature, returning our 'Slaver to do all over again. Ouch.

Glissa, the Traitor | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Glissa, the Traitor

• Creatures (15)
• 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1 Avatar of Woe
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Filigree Familiar
• 1 Fleshbag Marauder
• 1 Harvester of Souls
• 1 Moriok Replica
• 1 Noxious Gearhulk
• 1 Plaguecrafter
• 1 Scrap Trawler
• 1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Sylvok Replica
• 1 Visara the Dreadful

• Planeswalkers (5)
• 1 Garruk, Apex Predator
• 1 Vraska the Unseen
• 1 Vraska, Golgari Queen
• 1 Vraska, Relic Seeker
• 1 Vraska, Swarm's Eminence

• Instants (4)
• 1 Deathsprout
• 1 Hero's Downfall
• 1 Putrefy
• 1 Vona's Hunger

• Sorceries (11)
• 1 Barter in Blood
• 1 Beacon of Unrest
• 1 Black Sun's Zenith
• 1 Casualties of War
• 1 Crux of Fate
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Genesis Wave
• 1 Harmonize
• 1 In Garruk's Wake
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Maelstrom Pulse

• Enchantments (2)
• 1 Call to the Grave
• 1 Deadbridge Chant

• Artifacts (22)
• 1 Blazing Torch
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Executioner's Capsule
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Golgari Cluestone
• 1 Golgari Keyrune
• 1 Golgari Locket
• 1 Hedron Archive
• 1 Horizon Spellbomb
• 1 Ichor Wellspring
• 1 Krark-Clan Ironworks
• 1 Mimic Vat
• 1 Mindslaver
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Mycosynth Wellspring
• 1 Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1 Nihil Spellbomb
• 1 Oblivion Stone
• 1 Strionic Resonator
• 1 Trading Post
• 1 Wayfarer's Bauble
• 1 Thornbite Staff

• Lands (40)
• 8 Forest
• 8 Swamp
• 1 Blighted Fen
• 1 Blighted Woodland
• 1 Blooming Marsh
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Cabal Coffers
• 1 Cabal Stronghold
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Encroaching Wastes
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Forbidden Orchard
• 1 Foul Orchard
• 1 Golgari Guildgate
• 1 Grim Backwoods
• 1 Hissing Quagmire
• 1 Homeward Path
• 1 Inventors' Fair
• 1 Jungle Hollow
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Temple of Malady
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Twilight Mire
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1 Woodland Cemetery

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One could make this deck even stronger with tutors, of course. The most interesting is the new Wishclaw Talisman, because we can use it and sac it before it heads off to someone else, then buy it back and do it all again. Sidisi, Undead Vizier is great in any deck with Mimic Vat, as is Rune-Scarred Demon, of course. But we don't do face-down tutors, do we? I also cut Vraska, Scheming Gorgon as one of the last cards; the Ultimate wasn't worth the mana cost. It's possible Wurmcoil Engine belongs in the deck (maybe in place of Sheoldred), and a couple more ways to make creatures unblockable, like Whispersilk Cloak or Trailblazer's Boots.

This was an interesting deck-building challenge. Sometimes it requires looking at a commander from a new angle to figure out how to make it work, and sometimes it just needs some new cards from Wizards.

How would you build Glissa? Even more importantly, when was a time a commander frustrated you, and how did you break through? Let us know in the comments!

Thanks for reading.