After last week's experiment in building a low-power Boros Commander deck, I'm ready for a real palate cleanser so today I'm going to turn to one of my favorite color pairings in Magic for a high-powered, combat-focused EDH deck. That color pairing is Gruul and the commander is from the upcoming Murders at Karlov Manor, which is chock full of power creep and amazing commander cards.

Anzrag, the Quake-Mole is easily the most powerful Mole ever printed in Magic, but nobody is going to be looking to build around Anzrag for his type line. This Mole God brings an 8 power, 4 toughness body to the fight and has a really interesting party trick.

Whenever Anzrag becomes blocked, you get to untap each creature you control and you get an additional combat phase. He costs a reasonable 4 mana, but has a seven mana activated ability that will force the defending player to block him each combat this turn. While an opponent might be tempted to let him through to avoid endless combat steps, his 8 power makes him a legitimate commander damage threat.

Self-Assembling EDH Decks

Some decks just build themselves. That's not a bad thing, but it's worth noting that the first things I thought of when planning an Anzrag deck aren't spectacularly innovative. That doesn't mean they aren't worth mentioning.

With a toughness of 4, we want to be able to swing with Anzrag, the Quake-Mole but we want it to survive being blocked. An easy way to do that is to make him indestructible. Fortunately there are a lot of ways to do that. Withstand Death and Tamiyo's Safekeeping can do the job for a paltry 1 Green mana. For two mana you can use Gaea's Gift, Mortal's Resolve, or the Commander staple Heroic Intervention. Some of these also give hexproof, including the X spell Tyvar's Stand, which gives the targeted creature +X/+X, hexproof and indestructible. Last but not least, Mithril Coat is a Lord of the Rings upgrade to Darksteel Plate, giving indestructible and able to be flashed in and attached to target legendary creature.

Making Anzrag indestructible is nice, but forcing my opponents to block is another matter entirely. His activated ability costs a whopping 7 mana so I'm running cards like Lure, Roar of Challenge, Shinen of Life's Roar, and Nemesis Mask as ways to accomplish that feat for less mana.

Another way to deal with that challenge is to make sure I can make a little extra mana when I attack. Savage Ventmaw won't cover an Anzrag activation on its own, but Klauth, Unrivaled Ancient sure will and an Old Gnawbone attack can probably set me up for the following turn to pay that seven mana activation to force my opponents to block.

Attacking with an indestructible Anzrag is essentially a boardwipe, but it's not a great way to kill someone. I'll attack and kill their non-indestructible blockers until they have no more blockers, but I won't be affecting their life total until the last attack when they have nothing to block with.

Thinking Outside the Box

With a commander like Anzrag, the Quake-Mole you really want to think outside the box to find ways to make it work. Giving him indestructible is all well and good, but what if you had two of those cards in hand?

Provided your opponent doesn't have a sacrifice outlet, you'd make Anzrag indestructible and then you'd make an opponent's untapped creature indestructible.

If I were able to play out an Akroan Horse and gave Akroan Horse to an opponent without any other creatures, I wouldn't even need to make Anzrag indestructible, but it's not often that an opponent will have one creature and that creature will have zero power. Sure, I can force the issue with a Lignify to turn someone's sole blocker into a 0/4 Treefolk but I'll still need to make sure it can block Anzrag forever.

Setting up someone to let me swing Anzrag at them an unlimited number of times only works if I have at least one creature I can swing in alongside my Mole God. Killing someone at 40 life (or higher) with a Solemn Simulacrum this way will feel pretty good, but what if I don't have any other creatures than Anzrag?

If I attack with Captain's Claws attached to Anzrag, I'll put a 1/1 White Kor Ally creature token onto the battlefield tapped and attacking every time Anzrag attacks.

An artifact like Doors of Durin will also work with this strategy. With that legendary artifact on the field, whenever I attack I'll scry 2 and then I may reveal a creature card and put it onto the battlefield tapped and attacking. It won't be a Dwarf or an Elf, but I'll be able to first kill all of my opponent's other blockers and then start dumping out attackers until they're dead.

Another option is just to have Anzrag deal damage to a player as if it weren't blocked. Indomitable Might will give +3/+3 and will let me assign its combat damage as though it weren't blocked. Predatory Focus is a sorcery that will do the same thing for all of my creatures until end of turn. Mage Slayer is also in the list and will have equipped creature deal damage equal to its power to defending player when it attacks.

Eight is Enough

Apologies to Dick Van Patten, but eight power is enough... enough to warrant running a bunch of spells that care about the greatest power among creatures I control.

A creature like Orcish Siegemaster is perfect to attack alongside Anzrag, the Quake-Mole. It will get +X/+0 when it attacks where X is the greatest power among creatures I control. On its first combat it will get +8 to give it 8 power, assuming Anzrag is my biggest creature. On the second combat Orcish Siegemaster will get +8, but after that it will see itself as having the greatest power and will double its own power, getting +16, then +32, then +64, and so on. It has trample, so if you can keep this Orc Soldier alive you might be able to kill someone with just him.

Clearing the table with a single creature isn't always easy, but Overwhelming Stampede will go a long way towards making your mana dorks and support creatures big enough to do the job. This power boost may be a one-time thing, but it will also give a toughness boost so your army has a better chance of surviving combat damage.

Playing these big spells is going to cost a lot of mana, but with Anzrag on the field Traverse the Outlands will see his 8 power and let me tutor up 8 basic lands and put them into play tapped. I may well have larger creatures during my second main phase but even eight lands should put me well ahead of anyone else at the table.

I am running a handful of small mana dorks, but Selvala, Heart of the Wilds deserves a special mention. She not only taps for the greatest power among creatures I control, but she gives me mana in any combination of colors, so she can single handedly pay for an 7-mana Anzrag activation. She'll also give card draw to anyone who can have a creature enter the battlefield with a greater power than each other creature's power. That will occasionally help a tablemate, but I should get a few cards from that ability.

One of the most important things in Magic is card draw, so it should come as no surprise that this deck is hoping to draw cards based upon the greatest power among creatures I control. Rishkar's Expertise and Garruk, Primal Hunter both can provide that for me. I'm also running other staples like Shamanic Revelation, Beast Whisperer and Guardian Project. I never feel like I'm running enough card draw, but for a first draft I'm comfortable with this as a starting point.

From Beneath You It Devours

If all goes well, this deck should shine in mid-to-high powered games. I don't think it is interactive enough to thrive in a high-powered meta, but maybe with the right tweaks you could prove me wrong. Without Anzrag on the field, I'll still have a shot at winning the old-fashioned way, but the fun in this deck is definitely going to come with making my commander indestructible and then just throwing him into battle again and again until my opponents' creatures have been reduced to a thin red paste.

Mole Kindred EDH | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Anzrag, the Quake-Mole

• Creatures (23)
• 1 Archetype of Endurance
• 1 Beast Whisperer
• 1 Caustic Caterpillar
• 1 Coastline Marauders
• 1 Dockside Extortionist
• 1 Drakuseth, Maw of Flames
• 1 Elvish Mystic
• 1 Etali, Primal Storm
• 1 Fyndhorn Elves
• 1 Klauth, Unrivaled Ancient
• 1 Old Gnawbone
• 1 Orcish Siegemaster
• 1 Pathbreaker Ibex
• 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1 Savage Ventmaw
• 1 Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
• 1 Shinen of Life's Roar
• 1 Siege Behemoth
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Spearbreaker Behemoth
• 1 Stonehoof Chieftain
• 1 Temur Sabertooth
• 1 Xenagos, God of Revels

• Instants (12)
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Benefactor's Draught
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Curious Herd
• 1 Gaea's Gift
• 1 Heroic Intervention
• 1 Mortal's Resolve
• 1 Return of the Wildspeaker
• 1 Return to Nature
• 1 Tamiyo's Safekeeping
• 1 Tyvar's Stand
• 1 Withstand Death

• Sorceries (12)
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Ezuri's Predation
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Nature's Lore
• 1 Overwhelming Stampede
• 1 Predatory Focus
• 1 Rampant Growth
• 1 Rishkar's Expertise
• 1 Roar of Challenge
• 1 Shamanic Revelation
• 1 Traverse the Outlands

• Enchantments (4)
• 1 Guardian Project
• 1 Indomitable Might
• 1 Lignify
• 1 Lure

• Artifacts (10)
• 1 Captain's Claws
• 1 Doors of Durin
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Mage Slayer
• 1 Mask of Avacyn
• 1 Mithril Coat
• 1 Nemesis Mask
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 The Great Henge

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Garruk, Primal Hunter

• Lands (37)
• 16 Forest
• 10 Mountain
• 1 Cinder Glade
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Gruul Turf
• 1 Kessig Wolf Run
• 1 Mosswort Bridge
• 1 Rockfall Vale
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Rootbound Crag
• 1 Spire Garden
• 1 Wooded Foothills

Buy This Deck Export text

If you wanted to tune this list up, you could add fast mana, but I don't see this as being much more than a fun, combat-focused Gruul beatdown deck with a few tricks up its sleeve. You could throw in some combos and cards that don't synergize directly with Anzrag, like Hellkite Charger and Aggravated Assault. I could even imagine taking my Wulfgar of Icewind Dale deck and moving it over to Anzrag, the Quake-Mole, as the two lists have a fair amount in common.

Paths Not Taken

While I built this list to be focused on using Anzrag, the Quake-Mole's lure ability, it is worth mentioning that a four mana, eight power creature is begging to be built as a voltron deck. Add Fiery Emancipation to triple your damage and you've got a one-shot kill with commander damage. Grafted Exoskeleton also makes for an easy path to victory, as it will make your commander a one-shot kill and if you add in Chandra's Ignition you'll just kill the table.

If you cast a fog and you add a mana producer like Druid's Repository, which triggers on attack, you may be able to make infinite mana. Equipment like Sword of the Animist would also be a good fit, as you'd be getting a land on each of your attack triggers.

This commander seems like a good match for Jeweled Lotus, which could give you a turn 1 Anzrag and the chance to swing at anyone who doesn't have an early blocker. In more casual decks I'm always leery of having a commander cast with Jeweled Lotus removed and being too far behind your deck's ability to produce mana, but if you're willing to take that risk it's a great fit.

I'm still not sold on the idea of Anzrag being cEDH viable, but I can see how the right build could play at a high-power table quite well. I wasn't leaning into a voltron strategy for today's column, but I can see it working really well.

Final Thoughts

I love combat tricks and I love cute ideas like giving someone Akroan Horse or a blocker enchanted with Lignify, making it indestructible, and then beating them to death with a Solemn Simulacrum by forcing their 0-power blocker to step in front of Anzrag. How often this deck will be able to turn its dreams into reality is a different question entirely.

I'm running a handful of ways to protect Anzrag, but it should go without saying that you should tweak the list to fit your meta. If you have issues with blue players, run support creatures like Gaea's Herald and Allosaurus Shepherd. If you're constantly finding your commander locked down with auras, you'll want to load up on more enchantment removal. No one list will perfect for every game or every playgroup so do what makes sense for your games and your playgroup.

I hope I've given you some ideas for how to build around Anzrag, the Quake-Mole, but I'm sure I've missed a few great cards along the way. You might want to run Fungal Sprouting so you can take a huge Orcish Siegemaster and make 1/1 Saprolings equal to its power. Maybe you want to sit Anzrag on the Dragon Throne of Tarkir to give your army +8/+8 and trample. Maybe you're a real EDH hipster and you're going to build a deck around every Mole that fits in Anzrag's color identity. Whatever you do, I hope you find a way to brew an explosive and fun Anzrag list that is fun and uniquely your own.

That's all I've got for today. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!