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So, there's this card in Duskmourn I thought was kind of fun.
I like stuff like this. It's not at all competitive - the hoops you have to jump through to make this work are absurd, and there are surely better game-winners in a Green-based Stompy-style deck these days. But what fun if you can pull it off! You say its name three times, and POOF! You've got this giant Trampler which very likely will terrify your opponent.
The problem is, we can't Say Its Name in Commander. Well, we can, but we can't say it three times - and we have to Exile three cards named Say Its Name to pull it off. On the other hand, we can always just stick Altanak, the Thrice-Called in the Command Zone. Then we don't have to say its name at all.
What we sacrifice in flavor we make up for in size and cost. We get a 9/9 Trampler for 7 mana, which is a deal for sure. Plus we get to draw cards if someone decides to Murder it or whatever, a nice bonus. The Discarding thing is less exciting and seems more for 60-card (the synergy with Say Its Name is great there), but still, not a bad deal.
So instead of getting tricky, we're just going to explode out of the gate and make a ton of mana to get to Altanak as soon as possible. The goal will be to have Altanak out on turn five at the latest, and hopefully turn four, sometimes with Haste already there so we can come crashing in. In play-testing, I was reliably beating my third opponent by turn one0. Not bad for a casual, Mono-Green deck.
Altanak, the Thrice-Called | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper
- Commander (1)
- 1 Altanak, the Thrice-Called
- Creatures (11)
- 1 Arbor Elf
- 1 Birds of Paradise
- 1 Boreal Druid
- 1 Burnished Hart
- 1 Delighted Halfling
- 1 Elvish Mystic
- 1 Fyndhorn Elves
- 1 Joraga Treespeaker
- 1 Lifeblood Hydra
- 1 Llanowar Elves
- 1 Springbloom Druid
- Planeswalkers (1)
- 1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
- Instants (13)
- 1 Archdruid's Charm
- 1 Betrayal at the Vault
- 1 Bite Down
- 1 Choose Your Weapon
- 1 Entish Restoration
- 1 Hunter's Insight
- 1 Momentous Fall
- 1 Polliwallop
- 1 Ram Through
- 1 Return of the Wildspeaker
- 1 Strength of the Tajuru
- 1 Tyvar's Stand
- 1 Windswift Slice
- Sorceries (17)
- 1 Aggressive Instinct
- 1 Contest of Claws
- 1 Cultivate
- 1 Exponential Growth
- 1 Flare of Cultivation
- 1 Growth Spasm
- 1 Hard-Hitting Question
- 1 Horrific Assault
- 1 Hunter's Prowess
- 1 Kodama's Reach
- 1 Last March of the Ents
- 1 Life's Legacy
- 1 Monstrous Emergence
- 1 Rishkar's Expertise
- 1 Season of Gathering
- 1 Soul's Majesty
- 1 Spinning Wheel Kick
- Enchantments (2)
- 1 Hunter's Talent
- 1 Unnatural Growth
This deck is going to attempt to do the same thing every single game. We ramp to seven, cast our Commander, then start killing things in our way and pumping our Commander to attempt to win with Commander Damage. Let's take a look at the way it works.
40 Lands may actually be a touch too many here, but I like the comfort in knowing I'm likely to hit my drops till turn five most games. That gets us very close to casting Altanak on time with no extra ramp, and considering how important Altanak is, that's key. If you find yourself getting flooded, we have two options: cut some Lands or add a few more X spells, which we'll talk about a little later.
Additionally, there is a ton of ramp here. I'm normally not a fan of the one-mana Creature-based ramp spells in Green; the second there's a Wrath of God-effect cast, they're useless - but in this case, the speed is worth it. So, we have a collection of Llanowar Elves for turn one, then a bunch of three-mana spells which get us even more Lands on turn two. The ideal line is turn one: Llanowar Elves, turn two: Cultivate, turn three: Cultivate again or another mana dork. That should get us to seven on turn four. If we get interrupted by playing a Lightning Greaves or something, that's okay; it means Altanak comes out a turn late, but with Haste and maybe some kind of protection, which is probably better.
Castle Garenbrig, Myriad Landscape, and Blighted Woodland all move us along with more mana, Reliquary Tower is a nice addition in the event of a massive card-draw spell, and Rogue's Passage is great for when we just need to push our Commander through. War Room should be in every single-color Commander deck from here on out.
We have like 20 pieces of mana acceleration here. That probably sounds like a lot, because that means the deck is 60% mana. It's a lot, yes, but it's worth it for the speed it provides. As the deck evolves, it could be there's too much removal and too few ways to use all that mana, but when you're having to cast Altanak for the sixth time you'll be glad you have it all!
To keep cards flowing, we're going to cast a Soul's Majesty. We have a few of them, and all of them will care about the size of a Creature we control, so most of the time, that will be at least nine cards. That should do fine to power us through the end of the game. Weigh carefully - most of our spells are Sorcery speed, but with something like Unnatural Growth out, we could draw a lot more cards if we wait till after attacking, but we run the risk of Instant-speed removal slowing us down. Think about who you're playing when you make your choice.
We win the game with our Commander. He kills in three hits all by himself, but with just a little bit of a boost he'll kill in two, so we want to get him out and start attacking quickly.
The idea is to win before a Wrath effect is really needed, so we have a bunch of spot removal in the form of cards like Bite Down - basically, one-sided Fight cards. A lot of them are Sorcery speed, but that's fine, because normally what we'll do is clear the biggest problem on the board of the person we're about to attack, so we can use Hunter's Talent or Hunter's Bow no problem. Ram Through is one of my favorite ways of dealing with surprises. Polliwallop and Betrayal at the Vault are both different; Polliwallop does twice damage to something, and Betrayal at the Vault will hit two Creatures. Spinning Wheel Kick is the closest thing we have to a Wrath effect, and what an effect it is. Should be great here.
We have a couple of ways to use all that mana we're making. Strength of the Tajuru and Tyvar's Stand are both ways to dump mana into Power. Lifeblood Hydra seemed like a great way of using a bunch of mana. And Last March of the Ents isn't an X spell but it sure does cost a lot and is quite powerful.
Additionally, we have a few ways of seriously increasing Altanak's damage. Fireshrieker and Grappling Hook both give it Double Strike, and Unnatural Growth doubles that Power every attack. Between that and little buffs like Lavaspur Boots (one of the many ways to grant Haste here), we should be able to get to one-, or at least two-hit kills.
There are a couple of directions this deck could go as it evolves, without changing the intention wildly at least. In both cases, the thing to do is cut back on removal; counting on a huge Commander to be able to battle through any blockade isn't a terrible idea. The first thing would be to simply add more X spells. I considered Genesis Wave, but there aren't enough permanents to make that worth it, but there are several other Hydras which could be great here, gumming up the board. You could also run large Creatures which remove things like Tornado Elemental and Terastodon. Something like Sandwurm Convergence might be nice.
The other would be to go more Voltron and run Equipment and Auras which just make Altanak a lot larger. Blanchwood Armor and O-Naginata, for example, could be run just to make Altanak bigger; it might not be as explosive, but will probably be more consistent.
Either way, the deck should be fun, and will provide a challenge for your opponents. Who will you attack first? Will they be able to defend themselves? Do they run enough removal? These are questionns they'll have to try to answer as you come at them on turn five with a 9/9 Trampling Commander.
Thanks for reading.
