When I first set out to write a mini-series on Voltron, my intention was to have the final deck in the series - and the most expensive - be Mono-Black. I love my Black mana, and I especially like when it doesn't share with any other colors, but aside from that silly poison dragon, it's not really a Voltron color. So, I thought it would be fun to play around with something where the Commander wasn't the Voltron target, but instead it was something like Abyssal Persecutor, where we figured out how to use that guy to get everyone below zero, then sac it and watch the world burn.

But then I spent some serious time looking at the various partner Commanders that have come out. (Really, it's that I'm in Texas and a couple of weeks ago the massive storm forced everyone to stay home for a week. So, I spent my time boiling snow, since our water was cut off, and looking at Magic cards.) I came across an interesting little dude who just screams "suit me up!" And when I saw a certain horse that would help him become more viable, how could I resist?

Here's the basic theory. We're going to play Rograkh on turn one for zero mana. We might have something else to do on turn one, but the goal is to play Keleth on turn two and attack with Rograkh for at least 1. After that, we'll just keep growing Rograkh, using various means, and ultimately beat the snot out of our opponents before they're done ramping to their first big threat.

Let's also be completely honest. I do wacky, weird, difficult, mean - but I don't really do cEDH. It's kind of... not my thing. I'd always rather cast Life's Finale over Damnation, and I don't really see the point in spending the money on a fetch/shock mana base in Commander. So, while I think this pairing does have potential to be reasonably competitive, I'm not going to have the final decklist that will be its optimal form. Instead, I'll offer a first draft, if you will. It'll be up to you to tune it to your meta and the format, making it both your own and better, stronger, and faster. Let's take a look at the pieces.

Unusually, it's possible 40 mana really is too many. If we were running any ramp at all, it definitely would be. However, our curve is really good; we have a few 1-drops (plus our wonderful zero-mana Commander), several 2-drops, lots of 3-drops, and it falls off drastically there. So, we want to hit our land drops to have mana to Equip and cast the occasional five- or six-drop, but we don't need to ramp since most things we'll be doing are pretty cheap. I'd rather have more action than a Mind Stone, anyway.

There are also a few utility lands. Rogue's Passage is excellent mid-game if someone can block our champion. Tyrite Sanctum protects our Commander and works with our +1/+1 counter theme. Axgard Armory will hunt down a specific Aura or Equipment for us. And Cathedral of War plays into our Exalted sub-theme, which is great for what we're up to.

We have a few ways to get our Auras and Equipment back from the graveyard, and we have a number of ways to search out specific pieces we want, like Enlightened Tutor and Stoneforge Mystic. But aside from Puresteel Paladin (who's really here because of the free Equip costs) we don't have any ways to directly draw extra cards. This may be a mistake, but it's not easy to do in this color pair, and we have so much tutoring it's probably not necessary. Occasionally we may need a specific thing, and the tutors will get that. Otherwise, everything just kind of... works nicely together.

The fun part of the deck is all the different ways we have to boost Rograkh. This little dude may be a 0/1, but he's naturally got three relevant keywords, all of which make him hard to block. All we need to do is buff him up. We'll do this in four basic ways: +1/+1 counters, Exalted, Warrior tribal, and Auras/Equipment.

We have almost every Exalted creature (and the one enchantment) available to us. The one color Exalted has never been in is Red, but we still have a few things. Akrasan Squire can play the same role as the Cleric in the previous paragraph, and Angelic Benediction's second ability isn't totally worthless, since it can remove the one blocker that's a problem for us sometimes. Sublime Archangel is worth a specific mention, because Exalted triggers stack and can get pretty ridiculous.

We've also got a bit of Warrior stuff. Kor Blademaster is great, as is Arashin Foremost, since Double Strike is so devastating, but don't count out something as simple as Herald of Dromoka (a First Striking blocker is no joke) or the static benefit of Kargan Warleader.

Finally, we have a slate of Auras and Equipment designed to give Rograkh the boost he needs to actually kill a player. Most of them offer some sort of power boost, but they're all there for a reason. They are incredibly inexpensive with a downside that we don't really care about, or they offer some kind of protection, or another ability that's really good or helpful. Once again, we have Eldrazi Conscription and Argentum Armor as the big guns; while the Conscription is flashier, keep in mind it's much easier for us to cheat the Armor onto Rograkh, so don't be afraid to go for the smaller but more versatile option most of the time.

The key here is we don't need to go in on a single strategy. We just need Rograkh to grow, and an Exalted trigger or two helps a sword-wielding Commander with a few counters on it, and now it has Double Strike! It all works together no matter what we draw. Oh, also keep in mind there are a couple other random things like Bastion Protector.

We have no answers. Seriously, none. This may be a place we need to make some adjustments as time goes on, but the idea is to come out screaming so aggressively we never need removal. If the board gets wrathed, our dudes are super cheap and rebuilding should be fairly quick.

The final thing we've got is a boat load of ways to get our stuff and several ways to get Equipment onto Rograkh without paying for it. Imagine we drop a Brass Squire on turn three. turn four we play Hero's Blade and snap-Equip it with the Squire, plus we play Stoneforge Mystic, hunting for Argentum Armor. turn five we drop the Armor with the Mystic, snap-Equip with the Squire, and suddenly (assuming we started on Akrasan Squire) we're swinging with a 14/14 Commander with First Strike, Trample, Menace, and the ability to destroy any permanent just for attacking.

Rograkh and Keleth | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commanders (2)
• 1 Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh
• 1 Keleth, Sunmane Familiar

• Creatures (31)
• 1 Akrasan Squire
• 1 Arashin Foremost
• 1 Armored Skyhunter
• 1 Auriok Windwalker
• 1 Aven Squire
• 1 Bastion Protector
• 1 Battlegrace Angel
• 1 Bloodsworn Steward
• 1 Brass Squire
• 1 Codespell Cleric
• 1 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
• 1 Goblin Champion
• 1 Guardians of Akrasa
• 1 Halvar, God of Battle
• 1 Heliod's Pilgrim
• 1 Herald of Dromoka
• 1 Iroas, God of Victory
• 1 Kargan Warleader
• 1 Knight of Glory
• 1 Kor Blademaster
• 1 Kor Outfitter
• 1 Lovisa Coldeyes
• 1 Luminarch Aspirant
• 1 Nomad Mythmaker
• 1 Puresteel Paladin
• 1 Relic Seeker
• 1 Sigiled Paladin
• 1 Stoneforge Mystic
• 1 Stonehewer Giant
• 1 Sublime Archangel
• 1 Tiana, Ship's Caretaker

• Instants (5)
• 1 Enlightened Tutor
• 1 Feat of Resistance
• 1 Light of Hope
• 1 Magnetic Theft
• 1 Resolute Strike

• Sorceries (3)
• 1 Idyllic Tutor
• 1 Open the Armory
• 1 Steelshaper's Gift

• Enchantments (7)
• 1 Angelic Benediction
• 1 Angelic Exaltation
• 1 Eldrazi Conscription
• 1 Gleam of Battle
• 1 Quest for the Holy Relic
• 1 Shielded by Faith
• 1 Sigarda's Aid

• Artifacts (12)
• 1 Argentum Armor
• 1 Embercleave
• 1 Grafted Wargear
• 1 Hammer of Nazahn
• 1 Hero's Blade
• 1 Kusari-Gama
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Maul of the Skyclaves
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1 Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1 Obsidian Battle-Axe

• Lands (40)
• 14 Plains
• 8 Mountain
• 1 Arid Mesa
• 1 Axgard Armory
• 1 Cathedral of War
• 1 Cave of Temptation
• 1 Clifftop Retreat
• 1 Command Beacon
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Flooded Strand
• 1 Forge of Heroes
• 1 Idyllic Grange
• 1 Inspiring Vantage
• 1 Karn's Bastion
• 1 Opal Palace
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Sacred Foundry
• 1 Slayers' Stronghold
• 1 Temple of Triumph
• 1 Tyrite Sanctum

Buy This Deck Export text format

At time of writing, the deck cost $487.23. That goes down by more than $100 simply by losing the two fetch lands and the shock land, which are probably not terribly important for the deck. A few comes-into-play-tapped lands wouldn't be the end of the world, since more often than not we're not paying any mana on turn one anyway, but for the best version of the deck, the faster mana is worth it. In fact, if budget allows, more fetch lands at the expense of basics is probably worth it, just to thin the little bit it does and make sure you hit the colors you need.

Another way to pivot would be to drop the Exalted parts for the rest of the Swords of X and Y. There are a lot of ways to equip for free, and they are all pretty powerful, plus they do a lot to help make sure Rograkh is getting through. That'd go over budget, though, and frankly the Exalted package lets us play in some different ways, plus not every Exalted creature costs three mana.

Either way, I want to hear from you on this deck. What would you add (and what would you cut to add it) to make this deck play even better. Is there hope for competitive wins with a deck like this? Is Rograkh the Voltron Commander we've been waiting for?

Thanks for reading, and stay safe.