The Road to the Pyramids by Edward Lear (1873). Ratchet Bomb by Dan Scott.

Today I've got a pretty special column to share with you.

We here at CoolStuffInc.com have managed to write our way through all of thelLegendary creatures in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty and I'm clear to tackle something else this week. If you've never written a weekly column, you might not appreciate the challenge of finding new ideas, new decks and new subject matter 52 times a year, for years on end. It's hands down one of the coolest things I've ever had the privilege to do (thank you, CoolStuffInc.com), but it isn't always easy.

I occasionally invite, and always welcome comments and suggestions from readers. You guys and gals are the reason I do this, so when Jonathan Birch popped up in the comments of my O-Kagachi Dragon Spirits column in early February and said that "I would absolutely love to see a Norin deck!" he got my attention.

I didn't tell him that there was one small problem with his suggestion.

As soon as I set my sights on writing about Norin the Wary - he was GONE!

All kidding aside, Norin may not be a hard subject matter to pin down, but he is a challenging creature to do anything useful with. When a player plays a spell or a creature attacks, he's outta there. He goes into exile and gets returned to play under his owner's control at end of turn.

When he goes from the battlefield to exile, you could put him into the command zone, and he is a great support creature for a deck focused on creatures entering the battlefield, but is there anything more I can do with him? That's what I'm going to try to figure out in today's column.

I should note that I'm going to avoid leaning on EDHREC.com when writing this column. That might mean I'll miss something I should have included. My goal is to make this list my own, not to rehash tried and proven strategies other players have come up with. I'll probably hit a lot of cards you'd find on EDHRec.com. Great minds think alike, so it stands to reason that my okay mind will probably come to many of the same conclusions that other equally okay minds have come to. My goal will be to find something new and interesting to do with Norin, but in my effort to also build a playable deck, I'm going to play at least a few auto-includes for Norin.

Norin's Limitations

Before we launch into whatever weird brew I come up with, it's worth looking at Norin's limitations. At first glance he might look like the second coming of Maelstrom Wanderer, but that's only when I don't have my glasses on and I've had a little too much to drink. In actuality, he is an unassuming 1/1 Human Warrior that you can't attack with, can't block with, and can't really rely on to be on the battlefield for the purpose of building a strategy around him.

The glorious, beautiful, amazing thing about Commander is that there is a deck to be built for every possible commander, and there's a power level and a pod waiting out there for that deck where it will be able to shine. You just have to find the right table where you aren't going to be overwhelmed but you also hopefully won't run away with the game too easily.

Norin's first limitation is clearly that he leaves at the first glimmer of anything interesting happening in the game.

Cast a spell?

He's gone.

Attack with a creature?

He's outta there.

That's a pretty big drawback.

I think his second limitation is that he comes back at the end of the turn.

If that doesn't initially make sense, let me play out an example. Let's imagine we have a way to give our board haste or trample or some other keyword until end of turn when a Warrior enters the battlefield.

Norin is a Warrior, but he isn't going to give me that ETB trigger until the end step. I might build around ETB triggers, but I probably shouldn't focus on triggers that could help me in combat because Norin does me no good. He'll show up again for sure, but long after he'd be able to have any influence on my combat step even if I were to build around extra combat steps.

Norin's Strengths

It's hard to wax rhapsodic over a commander like Norin the Wary, but there are definitely some things Norin will bring to a game.

It might seem obvious, but you'll probably be able to fly under the radar with this deck. I've played plenty of kill-on-sight commanders and plenty of commanders that might be described as wallflowers. Norin is the ultimate wallflower. He'll be hanging out in the corner at the school dance and if anyone even thinks about asking him to dance, he's gone. He'll be back at the end of the song, but good luck getting him out on the dance floor for the next one.

Norin's other strength is obvious. He is a reliable source of regular enter- and leave-the-battlefield triggers. Calling this a strength might be overly kind, but it is what it is. Norin's party trick might be weird, and it might make him the kind of guy you don't invite to your next party, but he's easy to cast, easy to re-cast and he is nothing if not reliable.

Most of my experience building decks around ETB triggers involve either a combo or the sort of overwhelming influx of creatures or creature tokens that my opponents go from being fine to being in trouble or even dead in a single turn. Norin might be a combo piece somewhere, but I can't think of how. That means this deck is going to play a relatively fair game, but I've got some tricks up my sleeve that I think can make this Norin list pretty fun to play.

All Creature Types

My earlier example of a way to get triggers off of having a Warrior enter the battlefield wasn't a reference to some obscure Norin combo piece. You could run Obsidian Battle-Axe and attach it to Norin every time he comes back at the end of a turn without paying equip costs, but unless you're seriously into playing silly jank cards that don't help you in any real way, I wouldn't bother.

What I would bother with is this wonderful little artifact that turns Norin the Wary from a slow ETB damage commander into something much more.

This 4-mana artifact will give all of your creatures all creature types, including creatures in your deck that aren't on the battlefield. For 3 mana, you can tap Maskwood Nexus to create a 2/2 Blue Shapeshifter creature token, but that's much less relevant than giving your creatures all creature types.

Maskwood Nexus opens this deck up to all kinds of shenanigans. With it on the battlefield, Norin is a Treefolk, an Elf, a Dwarf, a Goblin, a Dragon, a Kraken, a Lhurgoyf and everything else all at the same time.

That means that my original plan of playing generic ETB triggers to squeeze a little value out of his jack-in-the-box act can now lean on some much more interesting and powerful cards.

Allies are a fantastic tribe to look at for enter-the-battlefield triggers that affect other creatures, but most of those allies just give creatures a keyword until end of turn. As I mentioned earlier, trample or haste won't do much good if Norin is showing up on your end step. Fortunately, there are a few allies worth running in this odd little deck. Keep in mind that Norin will be entering as an Ally, along with having all other creature types.

Kazuul Warlord gives out +1/+1 counters. Over the course of a turn cycle you could easily get four at a four-player table, assuming every player either casts a spell or attacks. Murasa Pyromancer will push out damage equal to the number of Allies you control. With Maskwood Nexus out, your creatures will all be Allies, so this should be a good, steady source of removal or just direct damage to a player. Tuktuk Scrapper will let you blow up artifacts, which is good, but is better if you're able to play Liquimetal Torque and turn your opponents' creatures, enchantments and planeswalkers into artifacts.

If I've written 10 words about how amazing these next three creatures are, I've written a 100, and could easily write a few hundred more. For sake of brevity, I'll try to stay on track.

If Norin is now a Dragon (and every other creature type as well), he can enter the battlefield and trigger Lathliss to make a 5/5 Red Dragon creature token with flying. If Scourge of Valkas is on the battlefield, he'll do damage to a target equal to the number of creatures you control, as they'll also have all creature types. Terror of the Peaks might be the weakest of these three for this deck, only letting you do damage equal to the entering creature's power to any target. If Lathliss is out, you'd also make that 5/5 Dragon token and be pushing out six damage on every end step where Norin stepped out during the turn.

Coercive Recruiter will be very happy for your Norin the Wary to also be a Pirate, along with being an Ally, a Dragon and every other creature type. Norin will come back at the beginning of the end step and with Recruiter on the field you'll get to steal an opponent's creature. That creature will untap and will get haste, but it's the end step, so your best option is probably just to flush it into an Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar or Altar of Dementia. This might not seem like great value, but if the good Pirate Norin can let you remove four creatures every turn cycle just by doing his weird little party trick, it's hard not to see that as a pretty strong play.

It is worth noting that Sundial of the Infinite, which lets you end the turn, does not work with a card like Coercive Recruiter to allow you to keep your newly stolen creature. If Recruiter had an "at the beginning of the next end step" delayed trigger, that trigger would go on the stack and you might use Sundial to end the turn and keep the new conscript. Coercive Recruiter reads "until end of turn," which means that the cleanup step is when the creature will be returned to your opponent. If you were to use Sundial to end the turn, the cleanup step still happens and you don't keep the creature.

Coercive Recruiter can combo with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. I am running Kiki in this list, but I'm as wary as Norin about leaning into too many high-powered combos. One might argue that if you're going to run Kiki-Jiki in the 99, you might as well just make him the commander, load up on your combo pieces and have a winning deck. If that's your style, you should do that, but this isn't that deck. Coercive Recruiter works with Maskwood Nexus and a sacrifice outlet really well, and I can see running Kiki to work with Recruiter, but I'll draw the line there. I'm fine with having a combo, but I don't want to take this deck away from its real focus.

Norin Staples

I don't know if the plan I've outlined above is considered a "normal" Norin the Wary strategy, but I'm absolutely not above running a bunch of cards that I am 100% certain are Norin staples.

When you're likely to be able to guarantee at least as many ETB triggers as there are players in the game, it makes sense to run enchantments like Impact Tremors and Purphoros, God of the Forge. Looking at a turn cycle at a four-player table, I'll be pushing out four points of damage to the whole table with Impact Tremors or eight points of damage with Purphoros, God of the Forge. I decided to throw in Torbran, Thane of Red Fell, as he will add 2 to any damage I deal from a Red source. Adding 2 damage is good but tripling my damage output is great. Fiery Emancipation will do that for me.

There's one card that requires a special mention, as it is more than a little insane with Norin.

Confusion in the Ranks is an interesting enchantment. My initial thought was that I could use one of my sacrifice outlets to flush any creature I stole, but the reality is that my Norin will be leaving the field on pretty much every turn and will come back under my control on the end step, letting me switch it with another creature. Stealing a creature on every end step is amazing. This little piece of synergy might be better than my Maskwood Nexus plan, but there's room for both in today's list.

I might end up losing a key permanent thanks to Confusion in the Ranks, but the level of chaos this enchantment can bring is worth the risk. I was tempted to throw in Possibility Storm as well, but that creates the kind of game some players just loathe. I did include Blood Moon and Stranglehold, so if you're more into being an agent of chaos than slowing down your tablemates you might drop one of those two and run Possibility Storm.

Maskwood Norin

This build suffers from having a key card it wants to get, but not being in black so it doesn't have as many tutors available to it. That doesn't mean Norin can't be a fun deck even if you don't manage to find Maskwood Nexus. I've included plenty of wheels but I can guarantee there will be games where that artifact remains hidden in the library. I think the key to this deck is just to have fun with it, take whatever your draws give you and accept that you'll be most at home playing at casual, lower-powered tables.

Maskwood Norin | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Norin the Wary

• Creatures (24)
• 1 Alloy Myr
• 1 Coercive Recruiter
• 1 Etali, Primal Storm
• 1 Goblin Welder
• 1 Grinning Ignus
• 1 Hoarding Dragon
• 1 Ingot Chewer
• 1 Iron Myr
• 1 Junk Diver
• 1 Kazuul Warlord
• 1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
• 1 Kuldotha Forgemaster
• 1 Lathliss, Dragon Queen
• 1 Magus of the Moon
• 1 Magus of the Wheel
• 1 Murasa Pyromancer
• 1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
• 1 Scourge of Valkas
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Terror of the Peaks
• 1 Torbran, Thane of Red Fell
• 1 Tuktuk Grunts
• 1 Tuktuk Scrapper
• 1 Urabrask the Hidden

• Instants (11)
• 1 Abrade
• 1 Burnout
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Deflecting Swat
• 1 Lightning Bolt
• 1 Pyroblast
• 1 Reiterate
• 1 Sarkhan's Triumph
• 1 Seething Song
• 1 Skred
• 1 Valakut Awakening

• Sorceries (7)
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Dragonstorm
• 1 Gamble
• 1 Jeska's Will
• 1 Mana Geyser
• 1 Trash for Treasure
• 1 Wheel of Misfortune

• Enchantments (6)
• 1 Blood Moon
• 1 Confusion in the Ranks
• 1 Fiery Emancipation
• 1 Impact Tremors
• 1 Possibility Storm
• 1 Stranglehold

• Artifacts (15)
• 1 Altar of Dementia
• 1 Altar of the Brood
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Ashnod's Altar
• 1 Caged Sun
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Extraplanar Lens
• 1 Fellwar Stone
• 1 Liquimetal Torque
• 1 Maskwood Nexus
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Panharmonicon
• 1 Phyrexian Altar
• 1 Ruby Medallion
• 1 Sol Ring

• Planeswalker (1)
• 1 Daretti, Scrap Savant

• Lands (35)
• 26 Snow-Covered Mountain
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Homeward Path
• 1 Inventors' Fair
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1 Urza's Factory
• 1 Urza's Mine
• 1 Urza's Tower
• 1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

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If you're going to build Maskwood Norin, you should absolutely make it your own. Don't worry about the Snow-Covered Mountains if you don't have easy access to them. I'd probably drop out Stranglehold and throw in Possibility Storm because I love that enchantment and the chaos it adds to a game. You might want to throw in a few more lands or a few cards like Traveler's Amulet, Wayfarer's Bauble and Expedition Map if you're concerned about hitting your land drops. I'm comfortable running my land base in the mid-30's but some players swear you shouldn't ever go under 40. Neither position is more right than the other, and you should just build the deck and tweak it to the point where you are happy with how it's running.

Final Thoughts

I think this Maskwood Nexus strategy will be a lot of fun in the games where you're able to get it out and hit something synergistic like Lathliss, Dragon Queen or Coercive Recruiter. In games where you're just playing more generic Norin cards, it can still be a lot of fun at the right table. You're definitely looking for longer games and a more casual power level. I've never heard of a fringe cEDH Norin the Wary build, and I'm not sure such a thing is even possible. All the fast mana in the world won't make Norin into the next Godo, Bandit Warlord and that's okay.

This column was a lot of fun to put together, so I'd like to thank Jonathan Birch for putting in his request. I have no illusions that the list I came up with will have much overlap with Jon's card collection and I know nothing about his meta, so hopefully this will give him and you some interesting ideas on what you could do with Norin.

The one thing I should say is that if I were to build Norin, I would absolutely paint or commission an alter with him gone from the dark cavern and just his torch lying on the floor. The idea is that you play him but swap the "Norin isn't here anymore" alter in for when he's in exile. I've seen similar Norin alters in the past and I think if I were to build and play Norin I would have to have one for the deck.

If you enjoyed this column and wonder what sort of list I could come up with for another commander, please feel free to leave a comment and make another reader request. I can't tell you when I'll able to jump on it, but don't let that deter you. I'm always happy to hear from readers and if you comment during the week after this column goes up, there's a good chance I'll see your suggestion.

That's all I've got for you today. Thanks again, Jon, for the great suggestion and I'll see you back here next week!