Recently, I’ve been taking suggestions for commanders. It led to the last article on Triad of Fates, and it will continue to lead me for the next couple of episodes. Based on some of those suggestions, the next two weeks are going to be a mini-theme: counters!

Skullbriar, the Walking Grave is going to serve as our guide this week. Next time, we’ll take a look at a completely different way to use counters, but this week, we’re going to hit fast, hit hard, and hit large.

We also have a suite of rampers. Ondu Giant, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Farhaven Elf, and Burnished Hart give us dudes to play with, and Ordeal of Nylea will almost always put another counter on Skullbriar before giving us two lands. All the Golgari rocks—Golgari Keyrune, Golgari Cluestone, and Golgari Signet—round out our mana. The 3-mana options are great, as Skullbriar on turn two into a Keyrune on turn three is a solid play.

Green and black are second and third in card-draw, so keeping cards flowing is no trouble. There are a couple of ways to draw a large number of cards: Hunter's Prowess and Momentous Fall, for example, and Hunter's Insight when we’ve already gone unblocked. Harvester of Souls and Soul of the Harvest team up to draw every time you add or subtract a creature. Deathreap Ritual is an unusual enchantment that normally won’t draw too much attention but that can draw us a lot of cards over time. Rogue's Gloves will help a lot when our commander is huge and tramply. And Altar's Reap serves as an instant-speed sacrifice effect and card-draw spell.

The aforementioned Souls (Harvester of and of the Harvest) are both big dudes in their own right, and given trample and a few counters, can do some damage. Necropolis Regent will surprise some people. Predator Ooze was too hilarious not to include, but that thing can get seriously out of hand. Sisters of Stone Death are pretty massive but more often will be creature control. Vastwood Hydra and Fungal Behemoth can both be huge if left alone. And Terastodon is no slouch when it comes to the red zone. Finally, we have a Vraska the Unseen ultimate. Throw some counters on an Assassin, give it trample, and send it off to do its thing—that will surprise some people.

One more thing on answers: We need to be able to answer tuck and bounce effects. Condemn is common in the format, and bounce is not unheard of; both will take the counters off Skullbriar, which we really don’t want. So we have a bunch of ways to sacrifice him: Trading Post, Ashnod's Altar, Altar's Reap, Culling Dais, and a few others. Try to have one ready all the time, just in case. Meanwhile, be really wary about attacking into white and blue players without one. Better to send him to the command zone, where he can come out swinging next turn, than lose all our hard-earned work.

And then we get to the really fun part of the deck: all the counters! We have ways to put a counter or two on him: Hardened Scales and Savage Summoning. We have ways to add a lot of counters: Soul's Might and Blessings of Nature (which is really awesome when we miracle it). We have ways to double counters: Primal Vigor and Solidarity of Heroes. Necropolis Regent will put counters on anything that gets in. Vastwood Hydra shares. There are even pieces of Equipment to help us out: Armory of Iroas each time Skullbriar attacks, and Ring of Kalonia and Ring of Xathrid, which both become really annoying for opponents. Bring a lot of dice.

Skullbriar, the Walking Grave ? Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (0)

• Creatures (17)
• 1 Corpsejack Menace
• 1 Farhaven Elf
• 1 Fungal Behemoth
• 1 Harvester of Souls
• 1 Ivy Lane Denizen
• 1 Longshot Squad
• 1 Mer-Ek Nightblade
• 1 Necropolis Regent
• 1 Ondu Giant
• 1 Predator Ooze
• 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1 Soul of the Harvest
• 1 Terastodon
• 1 Tuskguard Captain
• 1 Vastwood Hydra
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Sisters of Stone Death

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 1 Garruk Relentless
• 1 Vraska the Unseen
• 1 Vraska the Unseen

• Spells (43)
• 1 Altar's Reap
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Hunter's Insight
• 1 Momentous Fall
• 1 Murder
• 1 Putrefy
• 1 Savage Summoning
• 1 Solidarity of Heroes
• 1 Blessings of Nature
• 1 Decree of Pain
• 1 Dregs of Sorrow
• 1 Extinguish All Hope
• 1 Hunter's Prowess
• 1 In Garruk's Wake
• 1 Increasing Savagery
• 1 Soul's Might
• 1 Spread the Sickness
• 1 Attrition
• 1 Deathreap Ritual
• 1 Hardened Scales
• 1 Ordeal of Nylea
• 1 Primal Vigor
• 1 Primeval Bounty
• 1 Rancor
• 1 Armory of Iroas
• 1 Ashnod's Altar
• 1 Chariot of Victory
• 1 Contagion Clasp
• 1 Contagion Engine
• 1 Culling Dais
• 1 Golgari Cluestone
• 1 Golgari Keyrune
• 1 Golgari Signet
• 1 Horned Helm
• 1 O-Naginata
• 1 Phyrexian Vault
• 1 Ring of Kalonia
• 1 Ring of Xathrid
• 1 Rogue's Gloves
• 1 Spawning Pit
• 1 Sword of Vengeance
• 1 Trading Post
• 1 Vorrac Battlehorns

• Lands (36)
• 14 Swamp
• 14 Forest
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Golgari Guildgate
• 1 Golgari Rot Farm
• 1 Grim Backwoods
• 1 Jungle Hollow
• 1 Llanowar Reborn
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse

Buy This Deck

The lands are fine, but more duals that come into play untapped would be good here. I don’t think I’d consider pain lands, but anything else would be nice if possible. More duals could also mean a little more utility; it’d be nice to have something to remove an opposing land, but with this many basics, I don’t like putting in too many colorless-producing lands.

Have some extra cash or want to pump it up? Birthing Pod would be silly here, though you would probably want to tweak the deck to be a bit more creature-heavy, especially around 3 mana. Garruk, Apex Predator would be an excellent 7-drop, probably replacing Garruk Relentless. Oran-Rief, the Vastwood would be great, too. Forgotten Ancient almost made the cut, but I wanted the Planeswalkers instead; shoehorning that in wouldn’t be bad though. Scavenging Ooze is a shoo-in, if possible. And Vigor would be amazing!

Anyone else have a Skullbriar deck? What did you or would you do differently? Did I miss something completely obvious?

Bring a lot of counters, and prepare to turn your commander sideways—those are the rules for playing this deck. And own your attacks! No dice-rolling to determine who gets hit—choose your target, and own it. If there’s retaliation, acknowledge that it’s fair, and attack your next target.

Total cost: $74.75