We can get around those things. We can run Progenitus and all the tutors we can get our hands on. I suppose there’d be something cool about showing that build off, but it seems to go against the basic premise. As a general rule, we want a different experience each time we shuffle up.

The thing is, even if we build our decks for variance, sometimes it feels like the same things keep happening. The fourth or fifth time you flip Kozilek, the Great Distortion off Jhoira of the Ghitu or play Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Kormus Bell on the battlefield, even if you didn’t search for it, it’s just going to feel a bit . . . meh.

It’s not a sideboard, though it might behave like one. If you only have one deck and are playing three games in a new shop with a new group, you may find yourself over- or under-powered. An optionboard allows you to treat it like a sideboard in a Standard deck, where you change according to the meta so the game can be more balanced and fun. More often, though, it gives you an on-site (or at least prepared) option for those times when a change wants to happen, like putting the top down on your convertible.

I still love budgets. I’d rather build cheaper decks and let you spice them up based on your own budget and priorities than start with a price that’s completely unreachable. Recently, we upped the budget for my articles to $100, and we’re going to stick with that — the 100 card deck will cost $100 and the total with the optionboard will be under $125. Plus, there will be ways to keep costs down by picking and choosing from the deck and the board, and it’s always easy to spend more money, if you want. While we’re at it, I’m planning to basically go around the color wheel again with this idea. This time, we’ll add four-color commanders — they’ll be out by the time we get there — but will not worry about it too much. If we go off the schedule, that’s okay.

With all that in mind, let’s start with an old-school, and very cool, commander. If you’ve played against him before, you know what he can do. If you haven’t, meet this guy:

It seems clear the king of rattlesnakes wants to go wide with tokens. We make it pretty painful for someone to swing at us. They crack, and we make a bunch of dudes so we can crack back with our freshly enlisted soldiers. Excellent. We’ve got the Soul Sisters and their relatives, Healer of the Pride and Angelic Chorus, to help balance some of the life-loss we’ll suffer to make our army. And if our opponents won’t help us out by swinging into us, well, let’s try some masochism.

Staff of Nin deserves special mention, because it does two things for us. First, we get an extra, free card per turn. It also does a single damage to a single target every turn, so we can aim it at ourselves, doing one damage and making one soldier. This explains cards like City of Brass, Nomad Stadium, and our all-star, Tarnished Citadel. We tap that land for mana and make three soldiers! That’s awesome.

The rest of the deck supports the soldiers in various ways. The cards do damage to us so we can make more soldiers (Acorn Catapult), care when a creature enters the battlefield (Cathars' Crusade), buff our dudes (Spear of Heliod, Marshal's Anthem), make more soldiers (Elspeth, Sun's Champion), or bring those important life gain cards back if an opponent decides to put them in our graveyard (Sun Titan, Marshal's Anthem).

We have some sweet cards to run interference, too, with Thalia, Heretic Cathar, Blind Obedience, and especially Arena of the Ancients, which does yeoman duty with many strategies which rely on an attacking commander and doesn’t care about hexproof or shroud. Arena will seriously cripple an opposing Geist of Saint Traft or Molimo, Maru-Sorcerer Deck. And some of the soldiers do splendid work by themselves — Catapult Master and fifteen soldiers can exile three opposing monsters with an ability which does not suffer from summoning sickness, and Intrepid Hero can be very . . . heroic.

The Jade Monolith is also an interesting card available for political purposes to save an opponent’s creature, but it is not usually advisable to take extra commander damage with it.

Darien, King of Kjeldor ? Commander| Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Darien, King of Kjeldor

• Creatures (18)
• 1 Catapult Master
• 1 Court Street Denizen
• 1 Crovax, Ascendant Hero
• 1 Daru Warchief
• 1 Healer of the Pride
• 1 Intrepid Hero
• 1 Jotun Grunt
• 1 Knight of the White Orchid
• 1 Knight-Captain of Eos
• 1 Mentor of the Meek
• 1 Ranger of Eos
• 1 Soltari Visionary
• 1 Soul Warden
• 1 Soul's Attendant
• 1 Sun Titan
• 1 Suture Priest
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion

• Spells (40)
• 1 Retaliate
• 1 Return to Dust
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Akroma's Vengeance
• 1 Divine Reckoning
• 1 Fell the Mighty
• 1 Hour of Reckoning
• 1 Mass Calcify
• 1 Proclamation of Rebirth
• 1 Tragic Arrogance
• 1 Angelic Chorus
• 1 Banishing Light
• 1 Blind Obedience
• 1 Cathars' Crusade
• 1 Dictate of Heliod
• 1 Intangible Virtue
• 1 Marshal's Anthem
• 1 Mobilization
• 1 Oblivion Ring
• 1 Revoke Privileges
• 1 Sigil of the New Dawn
• 1 Acorn Catapult
• 1 Arena of the Ancients
• 1 Crystal Ball
• 1 Everflowing Chalice
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Illuminated Folio
• 1 Jade Monolith
• 1 Marble Diamond
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Paradise Plume
• 1 Pristine Talisman
• 1 Slate of Ancestry
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Staff of Nin
• 1 Thunder Totem
• 1 Urza's Blueprints
• 1 Well of Lost Dreams
• 1 Worn Powerstone
• 1 Spear of Heliod

• Lands (40)
• 33 Plains
• 1 City of Brass
• 1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
• 1 Encroaching Wastes
• 1 Grand Coliseum
• 1 Nomad Stadium
• 1 Tarnished Citadel
• 1 Temple of the False God

Buy This Deck

There are some fun cards one could add to this deck with more money. Ancient Tomb would be amazing, and Auriok Champion would be another sister. Reveillark can be Proclamation number two, saving a lot of heartache if the only sister we’ve got is in the ‘yard. As often happens in budget decks, some extra money in the lands, including Myriad Landscape and Tectonic Edge, would be useful.

But here are the cards we’re going to pack with the deck.

Optionboard:

• 1 Angel's Trumpet
• 1 Archetype of Courage
• 1 Eldrazi Monument
• 1 Karma
• 1 Nomads' Assembly
• 1 Odric, Master Tactician
• 1 Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant
• 1 True Conviction
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawmoth

I’m very curious about your thoughts on this experiment. Ideas and criticisms are welcome in the comments or via e-mail (you can reach me at markwischkaemper@gmail.com.

I also really want ideas for decks you’d like to see with this approach. Do you have a deck that’s just getting boring? Or maybe a friend does and you’d like to suggest some cards to swap around to make it more fun for everyone? Anything you’ve ever wanted to see work? I’d love this to be more of a community-driving project, so please reach out!

Finally, I’d love to hear if anyone is already doing something like this. Do you have experience with carrying around a card or two or 20 with a deck so you have options as you sit down? Why? Has it worked out?

I look forward to going down this road!

Total cost (including optionboard): $120.33

Total cost (without optionboard): $99.15