George Lambert, View of Box Hill, Surrey (1733). Grand Warlord Radha, by Anna Steinbauer.

This week I've got another of those delightful "Choose a Background" commanders to share with you. It's a card that I think would have been fantastic in the pre-Treasure era, but now that we're in year 6 MTE (Magic's Treasure Era), today's Commander is fun, but not great. Without further ado, let me introduce you to the topic of today's column...

Sarevok, Deathbringer's party trick is a really interesting one. At the beginning of each player's end step, if no permanents left the battlefield this turn that player loses X life, where X is his power. He also lets you choose a background.

His ability can hit me as easily as it can hit any of my opponents, so I need to be careful about how I build this deck. I could set myself up to just die on my end step if I'm at a low enough life total or he is at a high enough power. In a game of Magic, killing yourself can be a silly and fun way to bow out of a game, but I sure don't want that to be the main goal of this deck.

The first big question is which Legendary background enchantment I'll want to pair up with my Black Knight. I could see arguments for a lot of them, but the following three are at the top of my list.

Pairing Sarevok with Far Traveler as his background would let me flicker up to one target tapped creature I control. That would put me in Orzhov colors, which isn't a problem, and it would solve my problem of needing a permanent to leave the battlefield each turn. This might be the easiest option.

If I wanted to be Rakdos, I could go with Guild Artisan. I'd be incentivized to attack the opponents with the highest life total each turn, I'd make two Treasure tokens which I could use to pay for spells in my second main phase and thereby dodge Sarevok's end of turn life loss trigger.

Raised by Giants puts me in Golgari and simply makes Sarevok a base 10/10 Giant Human Knight. It does nothing to help me with my need to have permanents leave the battlefield but it does put me in a color (Green) that has plenty of ways to make Sarevok even bigger.

This week none of my top picks for a background would relegate me to playing a mono-colored deck. I'm not inclined to want to take the easy way out. I find it more interesting to have to jump through a few hoops to avoid dinging myself for a huge amount of life loss. The smart choice may well be Far Traveler or Guild Artisan, but I think I'm going to go big.

Sarevok, Giant Deathbringer doesn't have quite the ring to it as last week's deck name, Gale, Tavern Brawler, but it'll do.

This Deck's Goal

Nearly every deck I build is built to try to win games.

That is the goal of a game of Commander, but I don't always build my decks as optimized as possible to win as many games as you could possibly win. I just want my decks to have a decent chance at winning their "fair share" at a table that is made up of decks that are roughly the same power level. That's easier to say than to do, but most of my decks also have additional goals that they want to achieve.

As an example, my Muldrotha deck is chock full of nasty combos, but the deck's name on TappedOut.net is "Splendid Muldrotha." My ultimate goal is to mill myself in a major way (Traumatize, Tunnel Vision) and then use Splendid Reclamation to put a dozen or more lands from my graveyard onto the battlefield. If I can untap them with an Amulet of Vigor, that's even better. From there, it isn't as hard to find a path to victory, but the real goal is that "soft wincon" of a single turn of insane ramp.

Sarevok wants to do one thing as a deck, beyond just the natural desire to try to win a few games. It wants to put players in the position where they have to make hard decisions or cut some serious deals in order to not lose a huge chunk of life.

I want to see players become indebted to each other for having their lives saved.

I want to see a player at the mercy of another player's decision of whether or not to sacrifice a lowly Traveler's Amulet or Wayfarer's Bauble. I want to see games where a player is literally begging for another player to crack a Clue or Treasure token because if a permanent doesn't leave the battlefield, they're going to be losing 20, or 40, or even 60 life.

I want to learn things about these tablemates that your average EDH game might not expose.

Would YOU crack an Evolving Wilds to save a tablemate who had been attacking you earlier?

Would you try to extract some sort of value out of the situation, or would you just decide that keeping a friend in the game is reward enough?

Sure, this deck will want to murder people, but if you dig a little deeper there's all kinds of interesting things you can get out of playing a deck like Sarevok.

Size Matters

In this deck, bigger is most definitely better. I want to be able to take Sarevok and make him big enough that my opponents will really need to figure out a way to dodge his end of turn life loss trigger.

Unnatural Growth is an enchantment that will simply double the power and toughness of each creature I control until end of turn. Going from 3 to 6 isn't a big deal, but going from 10 to 20 power is where Sarevok becomes a real threat. Colossus Hammer might have a massive equip cost, but I'm in green so I should be able to get to where I can pay that much mana. +10/+10 is nothing to sneeze at. Colossification will add twice as much power and toughness, and will tap the creature it is enchanting when it enters the battlefield.

A dream scenario of having Raised by Giants and all three of the above cards in play at once would put Sarevok at 80 power. Anyone unable to remove Sarevok or have a permanent leave the battlefield on their turn will probably be dead on their end step, including myself.

Choose Your Weapon can be used as removal for flyers, but I'm more likely to try to catch an opponent thinking they can just squeeze through their end step without dying. Doubling Sarevok's power at instant speed can also be used as a combat trick if that's what I need. Another classic combat trick in the deck is Berserk. I can only use it before the combat damage step but since the Sarevok and the Berserk triggers are both my triggers I can control the order in which they resolve. Berserk will have me destroy the creature if it attacked, so it can also be used to remove an opponent's creature that might eventually come at me.

Traverse the Outlands will put basic lands onto my battlefield equal to the greatest power among creatures I control. That's a nice bit of ramp if I can pull it off. Sarevok is bound to get targeted for removal so I'm running a handful of protection spells. Heroic Intervention and Tamiyo's Safekeeping can protect my commander and Sheltering Word can gain me a boatload of life if I've been able to make him truly swole.

I've got a few other tricks up my sleeve. Both Rishkar's Expertise and Greater Good will draw cards equal to the greatest power among creatures I control. The latter will have me discard 3 cards and I'll have to recast Sarevok. I might not have a huge creature count in this deck, but Pathbreaker Ibex will give my creatures +X/+X and trample when it attacks, where X is the greatest power among creatures I control. Altar of Dementia may just be a sacrifice outlet, but if Sarevok is big enough and I've got an opponent with a small enough library, there's always a chance I'll be able to mill someone out. I'll be sacrificing Sarevok, but he's not that expensive to have to re-cast.

Staying Alive

This deck's game plan isn't without risks. I need to have ways to make sure permanents are leaving the battlefield on my turn. Fortunately, that's not too hard.

Lands are fairly easy to use for LTB (leave the battlefield) triggers. Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse, Myriad Landscape, Blighted Woodland, Prismatic Vista and Grim Backwoods can all do the job. Golgari Rot Farm will bounce a land to my hand, though I'm not running Guild Commons because it only produces colorless mana. Just to be safe I also decided to run all the fetchlands that can get either a Forest or a Swamp. Each each be cracked at the cost of a life to get me a land. If that seems like a lot of lands, you're not wrong.

Thirteen lands might not be enough ways to have a permanent leave the battlefield. I'm not above being hoisted on my own petard, as the Shakespeare scholars like to say. I'm sure I'll lose a few games when I can't draw into a way to dodge that end of turn life loss.

I don't run Commander's Sphere in many decks these days, but when it fits into the gameplan of a commander it makes sense to run it. Commander's Sphere and Mind Stone can both be sacrificed to draw a card. Traveler's Amulet, Wayfarer's Bauble and Expedition Map can each be sacrificed to get a land. Rocks are good, but creatures can block. I've got Caustic Caterpillar and Thrashing Brontodon in the list to destroy artifacts and enchantments, Burnished Hart, Oashra Cultivator and Sakura-Tribe Elder can all be sacrificed to get me more lands, and Sidisi, Undead Vizier can sacrifice a creature when it enters the battlefield to let me tutor a card to my hand.

Instant and sorcery removal spells are also important and can both serve to have a permanent leave the battlefield and if I'm careful, help to keep someone else from winning or doing something too powerful. Putrefy, Assassin's Trophy, Beast Within, Krosan Grip and Return to Nature round out my removal package and might just help me dodge a Sarevok trigger.

Earlier in this column, I mentioned that we are in year six of the Magic Treasure Era. You might think I'm kidding, and of course I am, but there's a kernel of truth in my joke. Treasures are everywhere. That means lots of my tablemates may hesitate to crack those treasures until they really need them to stay alive. It also means that they're more likely to have ways to dodge Sarevok triggers.

It's impossible to deny that a deck running Treasure token generators will be harder to deal with, so I might as well run a whole bunch of them.

Glittermonger taps to make a treasure token. That's about as simple as you can get. Ruthless Knave, Pitiless Plunderer and Tireless Provisioner can also get me treasures, each in their own way. Revel in Riches is unlikely to win me the game, but it can give me a treasure each time a creature an opponent controls dies. Old Gnawbone needs no introduction. She'll give me treasure tokens equal to the combat damage my creatures do. She may cost 7 mana, but she's a 7/7 and will probably be able to hit someone and give me seven treasures.

Early Results

I was able to play an earlier draft of this deck in one of my Thursday night Tabletop Simulator games. I had thrown together that initial list about as fast as I could type, in the hours before we were set to play. It had removal, ramp, pump, and the same land package that you see in today's list, but there were a lot fewer creatures.

It ended up being a pretty weird game, with nearly everything seeming to play out not in my favor. One player on a mono-White deck got Smothering Tithe out early and never had to be concerned with having a permanent leave the battlefield. Another player spent what felt like a really long time with Sheoldred, Whispering One on the field. Having to sacrifice a creature every turn kept Sarevok off of my battlefield for much of the game.

My third opponent got control of Sarevok when he died, had enough creatures to not worry about Sheoldred's upkeep triggers, and never really had much to worry about with permanents leaving the battlefield. That same opponent, playing a "steal your stuff" strategy, also got control of my Old Gnawbone and made himself a bunch of treasures.

I eventually got my commander back onto my battlefield and was able to get him up to 60/60 at one point, but never had a way to get him through blockers. My Rogue's Passage wasn't out and that early draft had fewer ways to give a creature trample or make Sarevok unblockable.

One of the major takeaways from that game, other than the fact that I had some deck editing to do, was that Sarevok, Deathbringer doesn't have to be under your control to wreak havoc on a table!

Everyone has to deal with his triggers, and your job as the Sarevok player is to have a deck that can do that better than anyone else at the table.

Another takeaway was how powerful those treasures were in a game against Sarevok. It just negates your ability to force a table to start dealing with his end of turn lifeloss trigger.

I did get to see a moment of tension where a player was trying to figure out how to finagle their way out of suffering that Sarevok life loss. It was pretty sweet, to be honest. It was the player who had played Sheoldred who needed help dodging that trigger, and if I remember correctly, nobody really wanted to help him. That's what you get for playing any Praetor not named Urabrask.

I didn't win the game, nor did I deserve to. I might have been a little cranky by the end, as the game played out so poorly for my deck. Even in that bad game, Sarevok was relevant and I was able to do a little of what I hoped to do with him. If I had drawn that Rogue's Passage I'd have had a shot at the win, which isn't nothing.

At the end of the game I wasn't feeling like I wanted to write about the deck.

It was thinking about that moment of tension, and also realizing that not every game will be a treasure-fest with Sarevok being lost to a Sheoldred trigger and then stolen by another player, spending much of the game not even on my battlefield. I'm confident that if this deck sees enough games, there will be times where the deck does its thing and does quite well.

Between the first game and sitting down to write this column, I made some key adjustments. Some Instant speed removal came out to be replaced by Caustic Caterpillar and Thrashing Brontodon, both of which can be sacrificed. An instant-speed protection spell was dropped out to be replaced by Guardian Augmenter. I also took a few card ideas out of my Multani, Maro-Sorcerer deck, including Rishkar's Expertise, Pathbreaker Ibex and Traverse the Outlands. All in all, I'm much happier with this list, but I'm sure it could be improved even further.

Sarevok Raised by Giants | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Sarevok, Deathbringer

• Background (1)
• 1 Raised by Giants

• Creatures (20)
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Caustic Caterpillar
• 1 Dawntreader Elk
• 1 Fertilid
• 1 Glittermonger
• 1 Guardian Augmenter
• 1 Oashra Cultivator
• 1 Old Gnawbone
• 1 Pathbreaker Ibex
• 1 Pitiless Plunderer
• 1 Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1 Ruthless Knave
• 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Springbloom Druid
• 1 Thrashing Brontodon
• 1 Thunderfoot Baloth
• 1 Tireless Provisioner
• 1 Tireless Tracker

• Instants (12)
• 1 Assassin's Trophy
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Berserk
• 1 Choose Your Weapon
• 1 Harrow
• 1 Heroic Intervention
• 1 Krosan Grip
• 1 Putrefy
• 1 Return to Nature
• 1 Roiling Regrowth
• 1 Sheltering Word
• 1 Tamiyo's Safekeeping

• Sorceries (8)
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Damnation
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 In Garruk's Wake
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Rampant Growth
• 1 Rishkar's Expertise
• 1 Traverse the Outlands

• Enchantments (5)
• 1 Colossification
• 1 Exquisite Blood
• 1 Greater Good
• 1 Revel in Riches
• 1 Unnatural Growth

• Artifacts (16)
• 1 Altar of Dementia
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Birthing Pod
• 1 Blackblade Reforged
• 1 Bootleggers' Stash
• 1 Colossus Hammer
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Golgari Signet
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Strata Scythe
• 1 Strionic Resonator
• 1 Trailblazer's Boots
• 1 Traveler's Amulet
• 1 Wayfarer's Bauble

• Land (37)
• 10 Forest
• 5 Swamp
• 1 Blighted Woodland
• 1 Bloodstained Mire
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Deathcap Glade
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Golgari Rot Farm
• 1 Grim Backwoods
• 1 Marsh Flats
• 1 Misty Rainforest
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Nurturing Peatland
• 1 Polluted Delta
• 1 Prismatic Vista
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Tainted Wood
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Undergrowth Stadium
• 1 Verdant Catacombs
• 1 Windswept Heath
• 1 Wooded Foothills
• 1 Woodland Cemetery

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If you wanted to tune this list up, you could add in fast mana, but it's going to always suffer from the fact that some tables just aren't going to need to worry about permanents leaving the battlefield. Few players build their decks with LTB triggers in mind, but there are lots of permanents that can be sacrificed or bounced and there are lots of decks that excel at removing things. I could see moving this deck into more of a voltron direction. I've got a few ways to get through blockers, but one might argue that with a 10/10 commander I should be running a lot more.

Final Thoughts

If you've enjoyed this and last week's column and would like to see more of these "Choose a Background" decks, please let me know in the comments. I've enjoyed writing them. While I always insist that these decks are just starting points for you to evolve the list into your own, I think they are pretty good starting points. I can assure you, I'm not going to cover over two dozen of these new legendary creatures, but I suspect I've got a few more that I could brew up and have some fun with.

The more I think about it the more I think a heavier focus on commander damage and voltron auras and equipment makes sense. If nothing else, adding more ways to get through damage, like Dryad's Favor for forestwalk, Dauthi Embrace for shadow or Whispersilk Cloak would make a lot of sense.

When this column hits the web, I'll have just arrived home from Commandfest Montreal. I won't be able to make it down to CoolStuffInc.com's Orlando Commandfest, but I very much wish I could. When I went to Commandfest D.C. a few years back I wrote about the experience, so you'll probably get a recap soon.

That's all I've got for today. Thanks for reading!