For a little over six years now I've been writing articles. Initially, I largely started by writing about meta decks in formats like Pauper and only rarely built decks of my own to discuss. That changed in 2020 as I started putting out Commander content that frequently requires me to compile my own lists. What you might not know is exactly how I construct those lists! Is it Archedekt? Moxfield? Do I just look up the latest and greatest on EDHREC? Nope! If anything I'm a lot more old school than any of those: I use Magic Online!

Every single week I fire up the MTGO client and build decks by combing through the entire card pool to find cool and unique cards to discuss. This enables me to find some cool hidden gems alongside the cards many might consider to be expected fare. Past that, I might go to EDHREC to fill in some holes with stuff I may have missed, but largely I like the exploration of finding cards myself and doing my own thing in the process. Believe it or not, it's the method I've used for constructing Commander decks for over a decade, ever since I started playing the format in 2010!

A few months ago, Daybreak Games (the studio that currently runs Magic Online) released a really cool product called the Commander Workshop for the program. For just $39, you'd get 2000 cards with tons of legendary creatures and powerful cards to work with. If you haven't heard of this before, I'd highly recommend checking out the card list. I know when I did, I was blown away by the sheer quality on display for the value you got in addition to the newly enhanced new player kit they provide you when you make an account. It's not just draft chaff either. There's high power cards like Blightsteel Colossus, Cyclonic Rift, Smothering Tithe, shock lands, and even Wheel of Fortune in the mix!

What really appealed to me, though, was the idea of seeing just how deep you could go on the Commander front just by using the cards provided in the new player kit and a single Commander Workshop. After all, that's only about $45 total, and it goes a long way! Restrictions breed creativity, so it seemed like a really fun method to build some decks I might not normally try out. Thankfully Daybreak Games was kind enough to provide me with both for free and I was able to put together five sweet decks! Best of all, these decks still provide an awesome experience even if you're not looking to jump onto Magic Online (though I highly recommend you check the client out as a long time user myself!).

Let's kick things off with one of my favorite commanders of all time: Sharuum the Hegemon!

Sharuum | In MTGO Form! | Commander | Paige Smith

• Commander (1)
• 1 Sharuum the Hegemon

• Creatures (17)
• 1 Archaeomancer
• 1 Baleful Strix
• 1 Disciple of the Vault
• 1 Grand Architect
• 1 Hanna, Ship's Navigator
• 1 Meteor Golem
• 1 Mnemonic Wall
• 1 Padeem, Consul of Innovation
• 1 Palladium Myr
• 1 Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1 Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage
• 1 Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1 Sai, Master Thopterist
• 1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
• 1 Sun Titan
• 1 Thopter Assembly
• 1 Vizier of Tumbling Sands

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 1 Jace Beleren
• 1 Tezzeret the Seeker
• 1 Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge

• Instants (12)
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Dispatch
• 1 Fact or Fiction
• 1 Frantic Search
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Return to Dust
• 1 Sphinx's Revelation
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Thirst for Knowledge
• 1 Vampiric Tutor
• 1 Void Rend

• Sorceries (7)
• 1 Beacon of Unrest
• 1 Day of Judgment
• 1 Diabolic Tutor
• 1 Fabricate
• 1 Rite of Replication
• 1 Unmarked Grave
• 1 Wrath of God

• Enchantments (2)
• 1 Animate Dead
• 1 Pemmin's Aura

• Artifacts (19)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Azorius Signet
• 1 Chromatic Lantern
• 1 Darksteel Forge
• 1 Dimir Signet
• 1 Everflowing Chalice
• 1 Fellwar Stone
• 1 Font of Mythos
• 1 Gate to the Aether
• 1 Gilded Lotus
• 1 Howling Mine
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Mirrorworks
• 1 Mnemonic Sphere
• 1 Mycosynth Lattice
• 1 Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1 Sculpting Steel
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Time Sieve

• Lands (39)
• 2 Island
• 2 Plains
• 2 Swamp
• 1 Academy Ruins
• 1 Adarkar Wastes
• 1 Ancient Den
• 1 Arcane Sanctum
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Caves of Koilos
• 1 Celestial Colonnade
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Creeping Tar Pit
• 1 Darksteel Citadel
• 1 Drowned Catacomb
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Fetid Heath
• 1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1 Glacial Fortress
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Goldmire Bridge
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Inventors' Fair
• 1 Isolated Chapel
• 1 Mistvault Bridge
• 1 Mystic Gate
• 1 Razortide Bridge
• 1 Reflecting Pool
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Seat of the Synod
• 1 Spire of Industry
• 1 Sunken Ruins
• 1 Underground River
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1 Vault of Whispers
• 1 Watery Grave

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Longtime readers will no doubt be familiar with my love for Sharuum. The legendary artifact sphinx was my first true commander I ever built a deck around and to this day - a whopping fourteen years later - remains my favorite one to play. I've written at length about her before (you can find one of my more recent builds in this article here) but when I saw that she was available through the Magic Online Commander Workshop, I couldn't resist. I had to see how I could build her and if I could get the list to closely match my paper one!

It turns out that by and large, the main pieces are there! Some cases require swaps to previous cards I once ran, like how Grand Architect replaces Urza, Lord High Artificer. Others required whole cloth swaps. For example, the Commander Workshop doesn't include the cards Aphetto Alchemist and Khalni Gem, which were both cards I use to generate infinite mana with Pemmin's Aura. Instead, I achieve this now using Vizier of Tumbling Sands and Gilded Lotus in their place (which, admittedly might be better anyways).

Past that, though, you still have all the combo nonsense. You can put together Mycosynth Lattice, Darksteel Forge, and Nevinyrral's Disk to blow up boards forever or combine Thopter Assembly with Time Sieve for infinite turns. My personal favorite of Archaeomancer plus Rite of Replication for infinite tokens as well as instants and sorceries when you have infinite mana is quite viable too. However, there isn't really a reasonable means of getting the creatures haste, as Akroma's Memorial isn't in the Commander Workshop package. So while you can still win on if you can get an additional turn, I added in Disciple of the Vault for the ol' Sharuum plus Sculpting Steel instant kill combo to help speed things up.

What managed to surprise me were some of the cards included and left out, though. I was quite shocked to find my personal favorite Prototype Portal wasn't available this way! However, while you can't quite generate ridiculous amounts of artifact lands, you are still able to get access to Gate to the Aether! This silly card always gets the table talking when I play it and is an incredibly easy inclusion here as well.

Next up, I also wanted to try my hand at another popular artifact combo commander I somehow have never built a list around: Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain.

Jhoira Combo | Commander | Paige Smith

• Commander (1)
• 1 Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain

• Creatures (28)
• 1 Artificer's Assistant
• 1 Chrome Host Seedshark
• 1 Dross Scorpion
• 1 Enthusiastic Mechanaut
• 1 Etherium Sculptor
• 1 Firebrand Archer
• 1 Foundry Inspector
• 1 Galazeth Prismari
• 1 Grand Architect
• 1 Jhoira's Familiar
• 1 Kessig Flamebreather
• 1 Laboratory Maniac
• 1 Master of Etherium
• 1 Memnite
• 1 Myr Enforcer
• 1 Myr Retriever
• 1 Padeem, Consul of Innovation
• 1 Palladium Myr
• 1 Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1 Reckless Fireweaver
• 1 Sai, Master Thopterist
• 1 Scrap Trawler
• 1 Shimmer Myr
• 1 Sojourner's Companion
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 The Reality Chip
• 1 Third Path Iconoclast
• 1 Vedalken Archmage

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 1 Narset, Parter of Veils
• 1 Saheeli, Sublime Artificer
• 1 Tezzeret the Seeker

• Instants (4)
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Muddle the Mixture
• 1 Thirst for Knowledge

• Sorceries (1)
• 1 Fabricate

• Artifacts (25)
• 1 Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1 Altar of the Brood
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Clock of Omens
• 1 Cloud Key
• 1 Darksteel Plate
• 1 Elixir of Immortality
• 1 Everflowing Chalice
• 1 Fellwar Stone
• 1 Gilded Lotus
• 1 Helm of the Host
• 1 Izzet Signet
• 1 Krark-Clan Ironworks
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Midnight Clock
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Mox Tantalite
• 1 Nettlecyst
• 1 Sculpting Steel
• 1 Semblance Anvil
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Talisman of Creativity
• 1 The Irencrag

• Lands (38)
• 3 Mountain
• 8 Island
• 1 Academy Ruins
• 1 Arch of Orazca
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Cascade Bluffs
• 1 Castle Vantress
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Darksteel Citadel
• 1 Demolition Field
• 1 Fabled Passage
• 1 Forgotten Cave
• 1 Frostboil Snarl
• 1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1 Ghost Quarter
• 1 Great Furnace
• 1 Inventors' Fair
• 1 Izzet Boilerworks
• 1 Kher Keep
• 1 Lonely Sandbar
• 1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Reflecting Pool
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Seat of the Synod
• 1 Shivan Reef
• 1 Silverbluff Bridge
• 1 Stormcarved Coast
• 1 Sulfur Falls

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Jhoira always struck me as something I wanted to do simply because of how it goes off. The reason I love Sharuum so much is the fact that the combos take time to build up to and it often feels like a puzzle as a result. The controlling lead-up to those finishes makes it highly engaging for players of all skill levels, which proves to be quite fun most of the time! Jhoira is a totally different animal, though, with you going deep on a long-winded singular combo turn to get that big finish.

The deck relies on playing lots of cheap artifacts for easy draws and also ways to reduce the costs of your artifact spells. With enough cost reduction effects, you can play tons of artifacts completely for free, allowing you to churn heavily through your deck off the back of Jhoira's triggered ability. Even if you brick on your draws, you can keep things going utilizing cards like Scrap Trawler and Krark-Clan Ironworks to continuously buy back cards. Elixir of Immortality can refill your deck as well should your graveyard get too full.

Once you're fully going off, you can win in a myriad of ways. Two of the more obvious ones here include the powerful Aetherflux Reservoir - which can make players explode easily - or Laboratory Maniac if you get that deep into your deck. Even without those cards, you can simply utilize the likes of Firebrand Archer, Kessig Flamebreather, and Reckless Fireweaver to dish out absurd amounts of damage. Even if all of those fail, you can still easily fall back on token generators like Third Path Iconoclast, Chrome Host Seedshark, and Saheeli, Sublime Artificer to carry you smoothly into the endgame.

Navigating a deck like this can be a bit trickier if you're a newer player, but that's not a problem at all! In fact, trying out decks like this can help you up your game and even learn a few new tricks along the way! I highly recommend it if you want something a little more intricate.

Now let's turn our heads to someone who's actually brand new to Modern: the classic Kaalia of the Vast!

Kaalia, New to Modern | Commander | Paige Smith

• Commander (1)
• 1 Kaalia of the Vast

• Creatures (27)
• 1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
• 1 Aurelia, the Warleader
• 1 Balefire Dragon
• 1 Bogardan Hellkite
• 1 Bruna, the Fading Light
• 1 Burning-Rune Demon
• 1 Giada, Font of Hope
• 1 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
• 1 Gisela, the Broken Blade
• 1 Harvester of Souls
• 1 Inspiring Overseer
• 1 Kaalia, Zenith Seeker
• 1 Karmic Guide
• 1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1 Liesa, Forgotten Archangel
• 1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
• 1 Magda, Brazen Outlaw
• 1 Master of Cruelties
• 1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1 Piru, the Volatile
• 1 Plaguecrafter
• 1 Professional Face-Breaker
• 1 Rakdos, Lord of Riots
• 1 Reya Dawnbringer
• 1 Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1 Sephara, Sky's Blade
• 1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar

• Instants (8)
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Destroy Evil
• 1 Generous Gift
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Return to Dust
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Terminate
• 1 Vampiric Tutor

• Sorceries (7)
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Damn
• 1 Earthquake
• 1 Faithless Looting
• 1 Night's Whisper
• 1 Vindicate
• 1 Wrath of God

• Enchantments (7)
• 1 Animate Dead
• 1 Blind Obedience
• 1 Ghostly Prison
• 1 Heartless Summoning
• 1 Phyrexian Arena
• 1 Smothering Tithe
• 1 Sneak Attack

• Artifacts (12)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Boros Signet
• 1 Chromatic Lantern
• 1 Fellwar Stone
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Orzhov Signet
• 1 Quicksilver Amulet
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Strionic Resonator
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Talisman of Conviction
• 1 Talisman of Hierarchy

• Lands (38)
• 3 Mountain
• 3 Swamp
• 5 Plains
• 1 Barren Moor
• 1 Battlefield Forge
• 1 Blood Crypt
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Canyon Slough
• 1 Caves of Koilos
• 1 Clifftop Retreat
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Dragonskull Summit
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Fetid Heath
• 1 Forgotten Cave
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Graven Cairns
• 1 Isolated Chapel
• 1 Kher Keep
• 1 Nomad Outpost
• 1 Plaza of Heroes
• 1 Reflecting Pool
• 1 Rugged Prairie
• 1 Sacred Foundry
• 1 Secluded Steppe
• 1 Sulfurous Springs
• 1 Tainted Field
• 1 Tainted Peak
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1 Westvale Abbey

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I've actually had a nagging itch to do something with Kaalia again for a good long while now. I keep seeing her pop up in various places and it makes me want to do something but I just never get the chance. I'd built her once before when the original Commander 2011 set was released, but not since. As it turns out, she's recently made an appearance in the new Modern Horizons 3 set and I just happened to open up a copy for myself! Then I saw her in the Commander Workshop and had to give her a whirl.

Kaalia is both the definition of a deck that builds itself while also being a deck that's challenging to find the right build of. The reason for this is because you get access to all the big angels, demons, and dragons you want - and there are a lot of them to go around! Seriously, there's so many that you'll find yourself wanting to stuff them all into a single list, but find that your deck won't function if you do. I actually ran into that problem myself, starting with around 50-60 options to choose from. Not bad if you want a little variety out of this card pool!

I ended up whittling the count to a little under 30, with a heavier emphasis on the angels side of things. There weren't quite as many interesting demons or dragons in this pool, so while there's a few, they aren't as much of the focus. Meanwhile, you've got tons of powerhouse angels like Reya Dawnbringer, Akroma, Brisela, Karmic Guide, and so on. Hell, even the three mana Inspiring Overseer is some incredible value, providing you with something that you can put in with Kaalia or just play on its own because of how cheap it is.

Most of the rest of the deck focuses heavily on ways to get yourself up to your big creatures. Mana rocks are more of a must than usual here, as so many of your creatures are costly enough that just relying on a couple won't cut it. Removal and board wipes help too, as does somewhat more staxy effects like Blind Obedience and Ghostly Prison to slow your opponents down. If all else fails, utilize cards like Sneak Attack and Quicksilver Amulet to cheat them into play. Who needs to attack with Kaalia, after all?

Now let's move from one Commander 2011 legend to another in Skullbriar, the Walking Grave!

Skullbriar Counters | Commander | Paige Smith

• Commander (1)
• 1 Skullbriar, the Walking Grave

• Creatures (29)
• 1 Archpriest of Shadows
• 1 Armorcraft Judge
• 1 Beast Whisperer
• 1 Birds of Paradise
• 1 Corpsejack Menace
• 1 Defiler of Vigor
• 1 Drana, Liberator of Malakir
• 1 Elves of Deep Shadow
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Evolution Sage
• 1 Fog Crawler
• 1 Gyre Sage
• 1 Incubation Druid
• 1 Ivy Lane Denizen
• 1 Joraga Treespeaker
• 1 Llanowar Elves
• 1 Loyal Guardian
• 1 Reclamation Sage
• 1 Renata, Called to the Hunt
• 1 Rishkar, Peema Renegade
• 1 Surrak and Goreclaw
• 1 Timeless Witness
• 1 Tireless Tracker
• 1 Titanoth Rex
• 1 Verdurous Gearhulk
• 1 Void Beckoner
• 1 Voracious Hydra
• 1 Winding Constrictor
• 1 Woodfall Primus

• Instants (5)
• 1 Blood Curdle
• 1 Fully Grown
• 1 Inscription of Abundance
• 1 Krosan Grip
• 1 Unexpected Fangs

• Sorceries (10)
• 1 Call of the Death-Dweller
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Find // Finality
• 1 Harmonize
• 1 Night's Whisper
• 1 Rampant Growth
• 1 Reanimate
• 1 Regrowth
• 1 Unearth
• 1 Vastwood Surge

• Enchantments (8)
• 1 Animate Dead
• 1 Binding the Old Gods
• 1 Guardian Project
• 1 Hardened Scales
• 1 Hydra's Growth
• 1 Ordeal of Nylea
• 1 Phyrexian Arena
• 1 Tribute to the World Tree

• Artifacts (9)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Bow of Nylea
• 1 Contagion Clasp
• 1 Contagion Engine
• 1 Ring of Kalonia
• 1 Ring of Xathrid
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Sword of Truth and Justice
• 1 The Ozolith

• Lands (38)
• 3 Swamp
• 7 Forest
• 1 Barren Moor
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Cabal Coffers
• 1 Cave of Temptation
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Fabled Passage
• 1 Golgari Rot Farm
• 1 Grim Backwoods
• 1 Hissing Quagmire
• 1 Karn's Bastion
• 1 Llanowar Reborn
• 1 Llanowar Wastes
• 1 Mortuary Mire
• 1 Mosswort Bridge
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Necroblossom Snarl
• 1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Temple of Malady
• 1 Tranquil Thicket
• 1 Treetop Village
• 1 Twilight Mire
• 1 Tyrite Sanctum
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1 Witherbloom Campus
• 1 Woodland Cemetery
• 1 Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth

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Skullbriar caught my attention because of how unique the card is. There aren't many cards that track all the different kinds of counters across zones the way this does, after all! While it's a very interesting commander to build around in paper, it's wildly difficult to track - particularly with all the various kinds of counters that have popped up since Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths. It's doable, but challenging. With Magic Online, it seems like it would be the kind of thing that would be a breeze to play with, and given that this is a commander I normally wouldn't touch, it seemed like a great opportunity to tackle it!

What surprised me the most was how few different kinds of counters you could access given the large card pool you gain access to. You only gain access to four ability counters in the form of trample (Fully Grown and Titanoth Rex), Lifelink (Unexpected Fangs), Deathtouch (Void Beckoner), and Menace (Blood Curdle). Call of the Death-Dweller can give either Deathtouch or Menace as well on one card. It's possible to get an indestructible counter on it with Tyrite Sanctum, but that's a little more challenging.

Beyond that, you're mostly only limited to +1/+1 counters, which there's no shortage of here. Cards like Bow of Nylea, Sword of Truth and Justice, and Vigor hand out these counters like they're candy, making it easy to build up a massive creature that's hard to get rid of. Additionally, this deck gains access to both Ring of Kalonia and Ring of Xathrid, which are sweet underrated ways to continuously build up Skullbriar while gaining some helpful keywords in the process. Oh, and you can't forget counter couplers like Hardened Scales and Corpsejack Menace as well!

Finally, I wanted to cap things off by celebrating Pride month with everyone's favorite MTG roommates in Halana and Alena.

Halana and Alena, Roommates | Commander | Paige Smith

• Commander (1)
• 1 Halana and Alena, Partners

• Creatures (37)
• 1 Acidic Slime
• 1 Avenger of Zendikar
• 1 Beast Whisperer
• 1 Birds of Paradise
• 1 Bloodbraid Elf
• 1 Brawn
• 1 Burning-Tree Emissary
• 1 Cavalier of Flame
• 1 Defiler of Vigor
• 1 Devoted Druid
• 1 Elvish Mystic
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Fertilid
• 1 Fyndhorn Elves
• 1 Glistener Elf
• 1 God-Eternal Rhonas
• 1 Gyre Sage
• 1 Huntmaster of the Fells // Ravager of the Fells
• 1 Incubation Druid
• 1 Inferno Titan
• 1 Ivy Lane Denizen
• 1 Joraga Treespeaker
• 1 Kami of Whispered Hopes
• 1 Llanowar Elves
• 1 Omnath, Locus of Rage
• 1 Oracle of Mul Daya
• 1 Renata, Called to the Hunt
• 1 Rishkar, Peema Renegade
• 1 Scavenging Ooze
• 1 Silklash Spider
• 1 Sylvan Caryatid
• 1 Tangled Florahedron // Tangled Vale
• 1 Ulasht, the Hate Seed
• 1 Verdurous Gearhulk
• 1 Vigor
• 1 Viridian Corrupter
• 1 Woodfall Primus

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 1 Domri, Anarch of Bolas
• 1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
• 1 Xenagos, the Reveler

• Instants (4)
• 1 Ancient Grudge
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Heroic Intervention
• 1 Krosan Grip

• Sorceries (4)
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Harmonize
• 1 Mizzium Mortars
• 1 Rampant Growth

• Enchantments (5)
• 1 Aggravated Assault
• 1 Bear Umbra
• 1 Hardened Scales
• 1 Hydra's Growth
• 1 Rhythm of the Wild

• Artifacts (9)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Bow of Nylea
• 1 Contagion Engine
• 1 Rhonas's Monument
• 1 Ring of Kalonia
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Sword of Truth and Justice
• 1 The Ozolith

• Lands (37)
• 3 Mountain
• 9 Forest
• 1 Arch of Orazca
• 1 Castle Embereth
• 1 Castle Garenbrig
• 1 Cinder Glade
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Copperline Gorge
• 1 Demolition Field
• 1 Fire-Lit Thicket
• 1 Forgotten Cave
• 1 Game Trail
• 1 Grove of the Burnwillows
• 1 Karn's Bastion
• 1 Karplusan Forest
• 1 Kessig Wolf Run
• 1 Llanowar Reborn
• 1 Mosswort Bridge
• 1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
• 1 Raging Ravine
• 1 Rockfall Vale
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Rootbound Crag
• 1 Sheltered Thicket
• 1 Stomping Ground
• 1 Tranquil Thicket
• 1 Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth

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Admittedly, I'm used to Halana and Alena, Partners being used in strong Gruul Stompy strategies in Pioneer more than anything. So, when I was selecting commanders to write about, that was what I was going for when I sought to build around her. I was surprised, then, to find that I ended up by and large making another counters commander! This is because you both need to power up your commander more in order to fuel your other creatures better, but also cards that synergize well with those counters for beefier plays.

This means that you obviously see your typical Hardened Scales types of effects such as, well, Hardened Scales and Kami of Whispered Hopes. However, unlike Skullbriar - who largely wanted the counters to go on itself - Halana and Alena spread the wealth. This makes cards like Fertilid, Gyre Sage, and Incubation Druid a lot better than they might be in the previous build. That can let you go real nuts when you have access to Aggravated Assault, as it lets you generate infinite combat phases no problem - all of which trigger your commander!

There's also some different ways you can apply the counters here as well. For example, with how out of hand the counters can get coming from your commander themselves, a handful of creatures with infect go a long way. Even something small like Glistener Elf gets monstrous fast and ends up hard to deal with as a result. Alternatively, you can put those counters onto a copy of Ulasht, the Hate Seed and watch opponents back off from you real fast, lest they draw the ire of your big pinger.

The top end looks more like what you'd expect out of a Stompy style list, though. Skullbriar is largely just loading up the deck's namesake and going nuts there. Here, you want ALL the big creatures, and the deck is happy to oblige. Inferno Titan and God-Eternal Rhonas really bring some heavy beats while Avenger of Zendikar and Omnath, Locus of Rage spit out tons of creatures to crush all of your opponents. You can also clear the way a little by using the criminally underrated Silklash Spider to rip all the fliers out of the skies.

WHEW this was a lot! I don't normally go this deep on Commander decks, but this time around I simply couldn't resist! I really love working with a flat yet incredibly deep pool of cards like this and I think it enables really fun things to do. Check it out yourself over at Magic Online if you want to get in on it, or if not, do what I'm doing and utilize the card pool to build your own Commander decks with a restrictive set of cards! You'll be amazed at the kinds of things you can do at your next Commander night with all of these awesome decks you can put together.

Paige Smith

Twitter: @TheMaverickGal

Twitch: twitch.tv/themaverickgirl

YouTube: TheMaverickGal