In the years I've been writing about Commander, my theory on content about Commander has changed a bit. When I started, much of it was about the deck: building a deck that was playable, in its own way, right out of the box. Some of that comes from starting as a budget builder. I wanted to prove one could play a competitive deck for not much money (I'm looking at you, Marchesa, the Black Rose), but required very specific card choices and well-rounded decks that answer problems and run win conditions.

As I've gone on, though, I've started to look at these articles as a resource for players, new and experienced. If you're new to the game or the format, I hope my articles are reasonably accessible and give some new ideas, both about deck-building as a process and specific deck choices. If you've been around a while, I try to give ideas that might break you out of how you normally play. (It's worth noting I'm far from alone in this. Many of the writers on this very site do similar things, offering deck lists as suggestions, with multiple additional ideas and the suggestion to "make it your own.") My last several articles have been this: exercises, really, in theme and structure, but definitely in need of testing and adjustment (as well as personalization) before the list is ready for prime time.

But it's nice to go back to where we came from sometimes, and today's offering is one such deck: a fully-formed decklist, ready to play out of the box like a precon. Adjustable? Sure. Personalizable? Absolutely. But this deck should work just fine just like this, and it's likely pretty fun, too. Bring lots of things to use as counters, though.

This little Goblin is passing out +1/+1 counters to every little (or big) non-Human we make. There is an argument to going hard on tokens and making as many 1/1s as possible for very little mana, which then become 2/2s, and attacking like crazy with something like Fires of Yavimaya before anyone can stop you. That'd be fun too. But I thought it might be interesting to build a slower, more Battlecruiser-style deck. Yup, it's going to win in the red zone, but maybe we can have some fun with all those counters along the way.

Green is pretty much the master of ramp, so to confound expectations, we're going to do very little of it. We're running a low enough CMC and a nice enough curve we don't actually need to ramp, just to hit our land drops, so we've got 40 lands. A good mix of duals, basics, utility, and a few lands that make creatures, which could be pretty important to us. Gyre Sage and Rishkar, Peema Renegade are both holdouts from an early version which did ramp, but they're both too good to leave out and can make for some truly explosive turns if left unchecked. Ashnod's Altar is really here as a sacrifice outlet, though it's certainly useful as a mana source in a pinch.

Green draws cards better than many think, but drawing is tied to creatures in some way. We've got cards that draw us cards according to creatures of a certain size, like Colossal Majesty and Elemental Bond, we've got cards that care about the number of creatures we've got, like Inspiring Call (which actually cares about creatures with +1/+1 counters, which should be all of them), Rishkar's Expertise, which cares about the biggest creature we've got, and Soul of the Harvest, which doesn't care at all. Needless to say, we shouldn't have too much trouble keeping up if the deck is doing what it's supposed to do.

A quick note about Animation Module. Say it's turn 12 and the game has sort of locked up, and we draw Armorcraft Judge with the Module, five creatures with counters and Grumgully on the board. We cast the Judge and draw 5, putting a counter on the Judge. Now we pay and make a Servo, which gets a counter, so we pay again and make another Servo until we're out of mana. Now we have nine more creatures on the board just waiting to be sacrificed with Hissing Iguanar on the board or already doing damage with Impact Tremors. Either way, should help break open a game.

We've got a few ways to deal with stuff. Beast Within is a classic and the 3/3 shouldn't be too much trouble. Artifact Mutation is specifically interesting because if we get something really good we get a bunch of Saprolings for our trouble (Oran-Rief, the Vastwood is great in that situation). Decimate is always great in Gruul, and Blasphemous Act is a solid sweeper should we need it. We almost always want to get full value out of Hull Breach, of course.

We've got a few Planeswalkers to round out our 99. Domri, Anarch of Bolas gives us extra power, Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter can beef up our mana, Samut, Tyrant Smasher grants haste to all our guys (which, by the way, goes infinite with Jiang and Animation Module because the Servos can tap themselves for mana to make more Servos. They'll all be tapped, but we can make a million of them. It'd be great to have Heroic Intervention when someone thinks they've got you with a Wrath of God, huh?), and Vivien, Champion of the Wilds lets us cast our dudes whenever (which means with the last three 'walkers we could go infinite at the end of someone's turn, untap, and just... kill everyone to death). There's also a little bit of a Proliferate thing where it made sense and Avenger of Zendikar is lurking in there as well, ready to make everyone mad. Just tell them you're not also running Craterhoof and things should simmer quickly.

Grumgully, the Generous | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Grumgully, the Generous

• Creatures (27)
• 1 Acidic Slime
• 1 Armorcraft Judge
• 1 Avenger of Zendikar
• 1 Beast Whisperer
• 1 Beetleback Chief
• 1 Bloodspore Thrinax
• 1 Evolution Sage
• 1 Forgotten Ancient
• 1 Furystoke Giant
• 1 Garruk's Packleader
• 1 Gyre Sage
• 1 Hissing Iguanar
• 1 Incubation Druid
• 1 Kalonian Hydra
• 1 Keeper of Fables
• 1 Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin
• 1 Legion Warboss
• 1 Loyal Guardian
• 1 Mycoloth
• 1 Pir, Imaginative Rascal
• 1 Pollenbright Druid
• 1 Reclamation Sage
• 1 Rishkar, Peema Renegade
• 1 Siege-Gang Commander
• 1 Soul of the Harvest
• 1 Ulasht, the Hate Seed
• 1 Woodfall Primus

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 1 Domri, Anarch of Bolas
• 1 Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter
• 1 Samut, Tyrant Smasher
• 1 Vivien, Champion of the Wilds

• Instants (7)
• 1 Artifact Mutation
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Gruul Charm
• 1 Heroic Intervention
• 1 Inspiring Call
• 1 Krosan Grip
• 1 Second Harvest

• Sorceries (8)
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Courage in Crisis
• 1 Decimate
• 1 Harmonize
• 1 Hull Breach
• 1 Overwhelming Stampede
• 1 Planewide Celebration
• 1 Rishkar's Expertise

• Artifacts (3)
• 1 Animation Module
• 1 Ashnod's Altar
• 1 Throne of the God-Pharaoh

• Lands (40)
• 10 Forest
• 4 Mountain
• 1 Castle Embereth
• 1 Castle Garenbrig
• 1 Cinder Glade
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Copperline Gorge
• 1 Dwarven Mine
• 1 Encroaching Wastes
• 1 Game Trail
• 1 Gruul Guildgate
• 1 Kazandu Refuge
• 1 Khalni Garden
• 1 Kher Keep
• 1 Llanowar Reborn
• 1 Mountain Valley
• 1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
• 1 Rootbound Crag
• 1 Rugged Highlands
• 1 Scavenger Grounds
• 1 Sheltered Thicket
• 1 Spire Garden
• 1 Springjack Pasture
• 1 Stomping Ground
• 1 Tectonic Edge
• 1 Temple of Abandon
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Timber Gorge

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This deck really will play. It's not going to be the most competitive thing, but the truth is no Grumgully deck is ever going to be the most competitive deck at a table (and really, if competitive means "wins all the time" it's going to combo win anyway, right?). But it should have some really fun interactions, deal with some problems, and be a perfectly reasonable deck to play.

There are more options, though. Removal could go up in the form of Lignify, Desert Twister, or even some burn. There are artifact and colorless sweepers, as well, if that's your pleasure. The deck could also focus: more haste enablers, creature tutors, and maybe do go infinite with tokens, though at that point you may as well win with Impact Tremors instead of in the red zone, and what kind of Gruul deck is that? You could also add ramp back in and go with a Hydra theme or just random spells and huge mana. I cut The Great Henge very late because of mana concerns. I find graveyard hate is increasingly important, and Night Soil, Ground Seal, and Sentinel Totem all might be useful. Rhythm of the Wild was also a late cut, and would be perfectly reasonable in place of Ferocity of the Wilds or Gruul War Chant.

I considered no other decks this week, though that's in part because I looked at Gruul commanders in Standard only and there are two. The other one (Nikya of the Old Ways) has been done to death a bit, so I thought it'd be more fun to try a little dude who's a bit more overlooked.

What's your favorite overlooked, or even better Uncommon, Commander? What would you do with Grumgully? Let us know in the comments!

Next time: Selesnya. Perhaps a holiday theme, given its proximity?

Thanks for reading.