I have been thinking a lot recently about what it means to be a Commander player. It's partially because I've been seeing a lot more cEDH content recently, which has led to my learning more about that more streamlined format (I still have no interest). It's partly because my playgroup has been meeting a bit more than normal over the summer, and I'm lucky to have a large playgroup which rotates a good amount, so any given week I can be in a pod of very different players. It's also because, for whatever reason, I've been thinking about when I started playing seriously again after a long hiatus, which was about 15 years ago now. Shortly after the prerelease for Shards of Alara, the shop owner introduced me to this new format, and I was hooked. I've been playing Commander ever since.

I think the single most important thing we can do as casual Commander players is come at every game with no expectations. If we assume so-and-so will win because their deck is oppressive, or we're certain the power levels are off, or whatever else going into the game, we're a lot more likely to have a negative experience. Instead, I think we should generally approach games with some goal in mind - it might be to win, but it might be something else - and spend most of our time hanging out with our friends, making jokes, enjoying the time, and congratulating every awesome play, no matter who makes it. (Even if it is always that same person with that same deck.)

So yeah. Go do that. Be a cool player. Be a good friend. And enjoy that you get to do a hobby with others who also like the hobby.

Or... maybe not?

There's no way around it. If we're going to play with Skrelv, we're going to poison people to death, and for some reason, people don't like that. And this is no "I'm using Triumph of the Hordes as a win-con in my Stompy deck because it's cheaper than Craterhoof and lets me win all at once" poison deck. This is a no-holds-barred, go for the poison kill starting on turn two poison deck. People are going to be getting poison counters while they're still playing Arcane Signets. And they're not going to like it. Tough. Most of the time we're really nice! We play silly decks and don't worry about winning! Let's get to the poisoning.

There is one thing we should clear up, just in case. There are three ways to poison a player: Poisonous, Infect, and Toxic. Poisonous, as a keyworded ability, was introduced in Future Sight, and was a reworked way of how poison had worked up till then. From my first go-round with Magic, I remember Pit Scorpion from Legends, which seemed like a weird mechanic at the time and was difficult to build around, but that card basically had Poisonous spelled out - if it did damage, the damaged player also got a poison counter.

Infect was introduced in Scars of Mirrodin, and was nasty. Creatures with Infect did damage in the form of either poison counters (when hitting a player) or -1/-1 counters (when hitting a Creature).

Toxic was introduced in Phyrexia: All Will Be One. It is the new Poisonous, different from Infect. Poisonous and Toxic function identically. A Creature with Toxic 2 will do however much damage it does to a player, and give them two poison counters. So, a 10/10 with Trample and Toxic 4 blocked for nine will do one damage and deliver four poison counters. If the player takes any damage at all, they receive the full compliment of poison counters.

Additionally, instances of Toxic stack, so a Creature with Toxic 2 who gets Toxic 1 from some other source will, effectively, have Toxic 3. This will matter to us, so keep it in mind.

Now, back to the deck: let's start with the mana.

40 Lands. We have a few weird ones, but we'll get to those later. Mostly we have some Plains and some stuff to help us out, like Rogue's Passage, Access Tunnel, and Minas Tirith. Mirrex is great because it makes more Creatures with Toxic for us. And Castle Ardenvale is worth running any time you can support it, because if we happen to have extra mana around, making little blockers is never bad, and we can always give them Toxic later.

One nice thing about a one-mana Commander: we don't need any ramp. We'll hit our drops fine with 40 Lands, and we've got enough card draw we should be fine. In play-testing I never encountered a problem, nor did I ever really want a Sol Ring - I was more interested in getting more Poison on my Battlefield.

Speaking of draw, we've got a fair bit. Mentor of the Meek is wonderful in a deck that runs so many small Creatures. We have a couple of the fun White draw cards like Your Temple Is Under Attack. Norn's Wellspring should get plenty of Oil Counters as we go along. Archivist of Oghma is solid, as is Rumor Gatherer. And Skullclamp is hard to beat in a deck like this, with all these one-toughness Tokens.

Now, to win the game, we're going to Poison people. We're going to do it with a combination of Creatures that have Infect or Toxic (nothing with Poisonous is in our colors, and Serpent Generator isn't good enough), Tokens that have the same, and the occasional Proliferate. Skrelv is clutch to all this, because of their ability to give Toxic to stuff; we can attack with our Basilica Shepherd and give it Toxic 1 via Skrelv. We can also give it Infect with Grafted Exoskeleton, but we'll always have Skrelv. (Also, if it has Infect and Toxic 1, it'll do four poison counters when it hits.) Mite Overseer is kind of weird, because it gives a Power boost which doesn't help at all with poisoning people, but it cranks out Toxic Tokens and the Power boost is fine, I guess. Phyrexian Vindicator has come way down in price and is too good not to run here; it's an amazing blocker at the very least, but if you can give it that Grafted Exoskeleton, watch out.

We have a few answers to stuff, like Realmbreaker's Decree and Seal from Existence, as well as a couple of sweepers like Hour of Reckoning. The thing is, we're going to go fast and early, and Skrelv does a nice job of getting us past defenses; I'd rather not worry so much about having a ton of answers. Either we're going to win fairly quickly or we're going to get overpowered; let's not limit our chances of a fast win with hands full of answers and no action.

We have a number of instances of Double Strike. This helps us with poison a lot because each time a Creature does damage, it delivers its poison, so a creature with Toxic 2 and Double Strike will do four poison counters. That's worth it. We also have a few ways to grant evasion, like Trailblazer's Boots and Whispersilk Cloak. The Cloak is great for Skrelv, because we hardly ever need to target them, we just need to be able to activate that wonderful ability. Norn's Decree both gives people Poison for us and keeps them off our backs, which is nice. Phyrexian Awakening gives most of our Creatures Vigilance. Sting, the Glinting Dagger is also great on Skrelv, because it allows us to use its ability and attack in the same turn, should we wish.

We have a suite of cards which Proliferate, because sometimes that's how we win games. Karn's Bastion is a Land that does it, Throne of Geth is an Artifact, and the list goes on. Contagion Engine has gotten extremely expensive, otherwise it'd be in here, but Contagion Clasp does a good job alone. I love the idea of attacking with Core Prowler into someone with nine poison counters and a single 3/3 blocker.

Finally, we have this weird thing. Monument to Perfection lets us hunt Lands with extra mana, which is fine. We don't really need the lands, but it's a good use of extra mana if we have it. What we really want is that 9/9 with Toxic 9 and Indestructible, but the problem is we need nine different Land names among Basic, Sphere, and Locus Lands. If we run every Sphere and Locus available in White, there are seven. So, with Plains, we get to eight. Therefore, we're running a single Wastes as an additional Basic Land. It's a silly thing, but it might be fun if we have the card early to go for the ridiculous Creature. If you get it, make sure Skrelv is ready to grant Hexproof to it in the event someone is waiting with Swords to Plowshares or whatever.

Skrelv, Defector Mite | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Skrelv, Defector Mite

• Creatures (28)
• 1 Annex Sentry
• 1 Archivist of Oghma
• 1 Basilica Shepherd
• 1 Core Prowler
• 1 Crawling Chorus
• 1 Duelist of Deep Faith
• 1 Filigree Vector
• 1 Flensing Raptor
• 1 Grateful Apparition
• 1 Ichorclaw Myr
• 1 Indoctrination Attendant
• 1 Infested Fleshcutter
• 1 Jawbone Duelist
• 1 Knight of the White Orchid
• 1 Lost Leonin
• 1 Mentor of the Meek
• 1 Mite Overseer
• 1 Myr Convert
• 1 Norn's Choirmaster
• 1 Phyrexian Vindicator
• 1 Plague Myr
• 1 Priests of Norn
• 1 Prosthetic Injector
• 1 Rumor Gatherer
• 1 Selfless Spirit
• 1 Tine Shrike
• 1 Welcoming Vampire
• 1 Zenith Chronicler

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 The Eternal Wanderer

• Instants (2)
• 1 Charge of the Mites
• 1 Your Temple Is Under Attack

• Sorceries (8)
• 1 Cut a Deal
• 1 Dusk // Dawn
• 1 Farewell
• 1 Hour of Reckoning
• 1 Phyrexian Rebirth
• 1 Secret Rendezvous
• 1 Wanderer's Strike
• 1 White Sun's Twilight

• Enchantments (9)
• 1 Darksteel Mutation
• 1 Duelist's Heritage
• 1 Norn's Decree
• 1 Phyrexian Awakening
• 1 Realmbreaker's Grasp
• 1 Seal from Existence
• 1 Skrelv's Hive
• 1 Tocasia's Welcome
• 1 True Conviction

• Artifacts (11)
• 1 Contagion Clasp
• 1 Grafted Exoskeleton
• 1 Manifold Key
• 1 Monument to Perfection
• 1 Norn's Wellspring
• 1 Ribskiff
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Sting, the Glinting Dagger
• 1 Throne of Geth
• 1 Trailblazer's Boots
• 1 Whispersilk Cloak

• Lands (40)
• 1 Wastes
• 26 Plains
• 1 Access Tunnel
• 1 Castle Ardenvale
• 1 Cloudpost
• 1 Glimmerpost
• 1 Karn's Bastion
• 1 Minas Tirith
• 1 Mirrex
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 The Fair Basilica
• 1 The Monumental Facade
• 1 The Mycosynth Gardens
• 1 The Seedcore
• 1 War Room

Buy This Deck Export text format

turn one, Skrelv. turn two, attack with Skrelv, start playing other stuff. In play-testing I was often winning on turn five, though that assumes my fliers can get through somewhere, and Proliferate was a common way to push players over the top. If I had a Contagion Engine lying around, I'd probably find a place for it, but maybe not. Sun Titan might be good - okay, it would be good - but I kind of like the all-in strategy this has, like Modern Infect or the old All-In Red decks. Sun Titan feels like a longer-game card. The deck wants to keep a low Average Mana Value to push the damage out. Oh, and True Conviction should win you the game the turn it comes into play.

Be a cool player. Be fun to play with, be a great loser, and congratulate everyone on what they do, because most players put a lot of time into their decks and it feels good to be told that something they did was awesome. But many decks - including some I build - take their time to set up, and this deck can be a reminder you need to think about the early game too. Every once in a while, poison everyone to death with a Mono-White one-mana Commander. Keeps 'em on their toes, y'know?

Thanks for reading.