Listening to MaRo's Drive to Work yesterday, he described Magic not as a game, but a rules system which allows for a number of different games. Someone playing Vintage is playing a very different game from original Ravnica booster draft, but the rules are effectively the same. We talk a lot in this space about how different players are looking for different experiences. We build goofy casual decks and much harsher, built-to-win stacks. But fellow CoolStuffInc writer Jason Alt's 75% theory is one good way to approach everything - compete to win but still have fun and not ruin everyone else's day. As such, sometimes it's worth it to look at things the 75% theory suggests and work with them. One of the tenets of 75% Commander is it's always fair to use someone else's stuff against them. Treachery is a great 75% card because it steals whatever they've got. If they've got Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger, well, they should darn well be ready to play against it. If they've got Pillarfield Ox, I guess we're stealing a 2/4. And if they've got Storm Crow... just scoop. Too much power there.

Which leads us to today's list, based around one of the "use their stuff against them" leaders: Grenzo, Havoc Raiser.

Grenzo, Havoc Raiser | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Grenzo, Havoc Raiser

• Creatures (14)
• 1 Anger
• 1 Beetleback Chief
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Dire Fleet Daredevil
• 1 Feldon of the Third Path
• 1 Hanweir Garrison
• 1 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
• 1 Loyal Apprentice
• 1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
• 1 Pia Nalaar
• 1 Pyreheart Wolf
• 1 Siege-Gang Commander
• 1 Treasure Nabber
• 1 Zealous Conscripts

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 1 Chandra, Flamecaller
• 1 Chandra, Pyromaster
• 1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance

• Instants (4)
• 1 Grab the Reins
• 1 Reverberate
• 1 Volcanic Offering
• 1 Wild Ricochet

• Sorceries (10)
• 1 Act of Treason
• 1 Besmirch
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Hijack
• 1 Insurrection
• 1 Mizzium Mortars
• 1 Mob Rule
• 1 Release the Gremlins
• 1 Ruination
• 1 Vandalblast

• Enchantments (8)
• 1 Barrage of Expendables
• 1 Berserkers' Onslaught
• 1 Break Through the Line
• 1 Curse of Opulence
• 1 Goblin Bombardment
• 1 Goblin War Drums
• 1 Shivan Harvest
• 1 Stolen Strategy

• Artifacts (20)
• 1 Caged Sun
• 1 Claws of Gix
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Culling Dais
• 1 Endless Atlas
• 1 Everflowing Chalice
• 1 Fellwar Stone
• 1 Fire Diamond
• 1 Gilded Lotus
• 1 Hedron Archive
• 1 Helm of the Host
• 1 Key to the City
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Ruby Medallion
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Spawning Pit
• 1 Strionic Resonator
• 1 Unstable Obelisk
• 1 Whispersilk Cloak
• 1 Worn Powerstone

• Lands (40)
• 28 Mountain
• 1 Encroaching Wastes
• 1 Field of Ruin
• 1 Ghost Quarter
• 1 Hanweir Battlements
• 1 High Market
• 1 Kher Keep
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
• 1 Zhalfirin Void

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Grenzo comes out on turn two and starts swinging on turn three, immediately starting to exile the top of people's libraries and seeing what they've got. As we increase our mana, we'll start being able to cast most of the things they reveal (unfortunately we can't take their lands - it has to be a spell one can cast). So grab that Wurmcoil Engine! Take that Zendikar's Roil! Don't mind if I do with your Mimic Vat! Nah, just leave your Eldrazi Monument in exile, please! We have no ways to win in our deck; we're going to have to steal a win condition.

Most of these articles go through the deck in My Deck Tickled a Sliver order, but with a deck like this, I think it helps to break it down a little differently. So, we're going to go through the various types of cards we have by function, because we're going about the game differently from most decks.

Mana

Grenzo's low casting cost means we don't really need much by way of mana for him - but the spells we'll be stealing may have fairly high mana costs, so we still want our 40 lands and some rocks to get up there. Essentially we'll play out Grenzo on 2 and play our mana and rocks from then on out, attacking all the while and starting the search for our win. We've got a couple of ways to make some extra mana (Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx does good work in mono-color decks) and a few utility lands, but mostly we're mono-Mountains. Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle is too good to pass up, though we're not supporting it at all, just seeing if we get it. We've also got a slate of mana rocks to keep that mana flowing; we want as many chances as possible to get stuff from our opponents, and the more mana we can tap the better our chances will be of being able to cast whatever they reveal.

Evasion and Stealing

Grenzo's abilities work with each creature that scores, not just himself. So, if multiple creatures can punch through, we can look at more cards and choose from more options. So we've got ways to make extra dudes with cards like Siege-Gang Commander and Beetleback Chief. Kari Zev, Skyship Raider brings an extra dude along and has Menace, which means she's more likely to get through. Speaking of which, Goblin War Drums gives all our creatures Menace; several of our token producers make Thopters which fly; and Break Through the Line lets us pay a mana to get one of our small dudes through for sure. (Rogue's Passage will do the same for any creature, but for a pricey activation). Plus we're running Berserkers' Onslaught, which gives all our creatures Double Strike. That means we get to exile two cards from each opponent we hit, giving us more options. Strionic Resonator is worth the mana to activate because it will give us an extra card as well.

Other Steal effects

It only seems appropriate to have a few more ways to steal things, so we've got 'em. Zealous Conscripts is kind of the flagship example of this ability, so here they are. Additionally, we're running a few spells which steal something in some way or another, although just until end of turn. Insurrection and Mob Rule steal lots of stuff, while Besmirch and Grab the Reins each steal a single thing. Stolen Strategy is a built-in Grenzo activation; make sure to attack and get any further cards before choosing how to use your mana! Treasure Nabber will give us some extra mana rocks from time to time, and Dire Fleet Daredevil gives us a crack at an opponent's spell. Then we've got weird but on-theme effects like Helm of the Host or Feldon of the Third Path. How about we Reverberate that stolen Merciless Eviction and choose two modes?

Sacrifice Effects

Red, for some reason, likes to give back what it steals. We, on the other hand, have no intention of doing that, so we'll need some ways to get rid of those things before the game insists we return them. Grenzo's thefts are permanent because we're casting the spell, but if we Hijack someone's creature, we'll have to hand it back. We've got some ways to sacrifice stuff, mostly creatures. Goblin Bombardment lets us use everything we've got to do some damage, while Shivan Harvest blows up annoying non-basic lands when we sac. High Market is only usable once per turn, but it's nice to have that effect on a land. Culling Dais and Spawning Pit both give us more ways. Claws of Gix is a wonderful old card which costs and for can sacrifice any permanent, which is useful if we've done a good job with Grenzo and someone rudely decides to use a Homeward Path.

Removal and Answers

Mostly we'd like to steal annoying threats, but it's always a good idea to have some solutions to problems which crop up. We have three lands to take care of Homeward Paths. Blasphemous Act does a nice Wrath of God impression, and Release the Gremlins will cause trouble for anyone trying to assemble a big machine. Vandalblast and Mizzium Mortars are both good all-around solutions. Ruination, too, is pretty marginal in terms of fairness, but probably lands just this side of it. If someone is relying too heavily on nonbasics, making them suffer seems only reasonable for being so greedy. Blood Moon might be a reasonable choice too, but players tend to really hate that card.

We've also got a pack of Chandras here, which are quality cards worth having around.

This seems good. We'll start early, attack often, sneak our guys through, build our mana, steal the occasional thing, and build a board filled with stuff that isn't ours. If they don't feel like facing it, they shouldn't have played it in the first place, right? Right!

Which leads us to our optionboard. Grenzo should be mostly fun for everyone in the game. There are those who grump about anyone messing with their stuff, but they're probably in the wrong format. To prove Grenzo's fair, let's put in another Mono-Red commander which does something similar but on a much bigger scale, ramping this pile up to a scarier version.

• Etali, Primal Storm
• Dolmen Gate
• Darksteel Plate
• Hammer of Nazahn
• Shield of Kaldra
• Lightning Greaves
• Swiftfoot Boots
• Mask of Avacyn
• Champion's Helm
• Aggravated Assault

We're going to put Etali, Primal Storm in charge for this version. We can swap out the Chandras, plus some of the cuter things from the main deck, like Berserkers' Onslaught and the token makers. We'll drop in a bunch of equipment to protect the commander, giving him Hexproof or Indestructible, and we'll want to keep all our ramp, though for a different reason. Before, we cast our commander and ramped so we'd be able to play our opponent's stuff. Now, we're ramping into our commander as quickly as we can because we don't worry about the mana to cast our opponent's stuff! We're also going to run Aggravated Assault. We'll likely wind up with excess mana, and multiple attack phases will yield more triggers and free stuff. With 10 mana and that card, we're likely to win the game in short order.

Take heed: this second version is more likely to ruffle feathers at the table. With Grenzo, our ability to steal scales with the game; Etali feels a lot more like cheating, and opponents will certainly agree, especially if they can't interact with the dinosaur. If you're thinking about building this one, I highly recommend building both versions and playing both. You'll see how they both have a place depending on the table and how hard the table wants to fight.

Now get out there and steal stuff!

Thanks for reading.