Mr. Ruhan Goes to Washington

Commander / EDH Aggro Combo RW (Boros) UR (Izzet) Voltron WU (Azorius)

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Land (36)

• 1x Academy Ruins
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Clifftop Retreat
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Eiganjo Castle
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Homeward Path
• 4x Island
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 4x Mountain
• 4x Plains
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Seachrome Coast
• 1x Slayers' Stronghold
• 1x Spinerock Knoll
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Sulfur Falls
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Creature (9)

• 1x Echo Mage
• 1x Gilded Drake
• 1x Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer
• 1x Leonin Shikari
• 1x Mother of Runes
• 1x Nin, the Pain Artist
• 1x Puresteel Paladin
• 1x Stoneforge Mystic
• 1x Stonehewer Giant

Instant (18)

• 1x Capsize
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Double Cleave
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Fatal Frenzy
• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x Fury Charm
• 1x Increasing Vengeance
• 1x Mana Tithe
• 1x Oblation
• 1x Psychotic Fury
• 1x Remand
• 1x Return to Dust
• 1x Rush of Blood
• 1x Savage Beating
• 1x Soul's Fire
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Wild Ricochet

Sorcery (12)

• 1x Armageddon
• 1x Artful Dodge
• 1x Austere Command
• 1x Distortion Strike
• 1x Fabricate
• 1x Gitaxian Probe
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Serum Visions
• 1x Steelshaper's Gift
• 1x Waves of Aggression
• 1x World at War

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Aggravated Assault
• 1x Land Tax
• 1x Steel of the Godhead

Commander (1)

Artifact (17)

• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Batterskull
• 1x Boros Signet
• 1x Cellar Door
• 1x Citanul Flute
• 1x Coalition Relic
• 1x Darksteel Ingot
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Fireshrieker
• 1x Inquisitor's Flail
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Obsidian Battle-Axe
• 1x Runechanter's Pike
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Sunforger
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Winter Orb

Planeswalker (4)

• 1x Ajani, Caller of the Pride
• 1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
• 1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• 1x Tezzeret the Seeker

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Maybeboard

Artifact (2)

• 1x Crucible of Worlds
• 1x Surestrike Trident

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Rhystic Study

Creature (1)

• 1x Snapcaster Mage

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"I'll smash your political system like your politicians smashed your flimsy American economy. RUHAN FOR PRESIDENT, VOTE FOR RUHAN!"
     --Ruhan of the Fomori 

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An explosive combo deck that aims to deal 21 with Ruhan of the Fomori. Designed to play in up-to-4-player-multiplayer. Brutal against fewer players. Ruhan doesn't care about your political machinations. Ruhan just wants to Smash Your Face (insert Uncle Sam picture here). Likely to win the first time you face a group of opponents (but possible to get hated out after that). Go beat up your friends with it!
 

Sunforger is the obvious trick, used to tutor for:

• Rush of Blood
• Psychotic Fury
• Double Cleave
• Fatal Frenzy
• Soul's Fire

 

Copy effects make Rush of Blood and Fatal Frenzy lethal in one turn:

• Wild Ricochet
• Increasing Vengeance
• Echo Mage

 

Or we can just take a 2nd combat step:

• Aggravated Assault
• Waves of Aggression
• Savage Beating
• World at War

 

To find Sunforger, we have:

• Stoneforge Mystic
• Stonehewer Giant
• Fabricate
• Steelshaper's Gift
• Enlightened Tutor
• Tezzeret the Seeker

 

To punch through this damage we want some evasion:

• Artful Dodge
• Distortion Strike
• Steel of the Godhead
• Fury Charm for trample, searchable by Sunforger
• Mother of Runes

 

and some removal:

• Capsize
• Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• Oblation
• Swords to Plowshares (their life total is irrelevant)
• Austere Command
• Nin, the Pain Artist
• Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer
• Chaos Warp
• Return to Dust

 

Signets and other mana rocks help us ramp into Ruhan as early as turn 2 (turn 1 island ==> Sol Ring ==> Boros Signet = turn 2 Ruhan). Since the deck hugs a low curve, Winter Orb and Armageddon can lead to some utter blowouts, and the six mana rocks and Land Tax will help us recover more quickly than the typical durdling EDH deck. 

Now, what you probably didn't expect is a Runechanter's Pike. With 30 instants/sorceries the pike should be +4/+0 pretty fast, which is enough to win the game with any kind of double strike. Normally, dig spells are too weak for use in most EDH decks, but here we want to see as many cards as possible on the early turns, so we have a small cantrip/pike package:

• Ponder
• Preordain
• Serum Visions
• Gitaxian Probe

 

And some countermagic protects Ruhan while feeding the Runechanter's Pike:

• Remand
• Flusterstorm
• Mana Tithe is searchable by Sunforger

 

Since we really only have one win condition (Ruhan), we need to be able to protect him. Citanul Flute and sometimes Cellar Door can get him back if he gets tucked with Hinder or similar. Homeward Path is important if he's stolen. Swiftfoot Boots are important and are better than Lightning Greaves in this deck since we need to be able to target Ruhan. 

Other equipment buffs Ruhan and makes nasty combos with Puresteel Paladin and Leonin Shikari:

• Fireshrieker
• Batterskull
• Inquisitor's Flail is brutal, but you need to have evasion. More sources of trample would make this even better but for now we are happy with it as-is.
• Obsidian Battle-Axe

 

For lands, I don't have access to original duals right now, but they would be a prime addition. Instead, we have lots of fetchlands since our life total is mostly irrelevant and they help thin our deck. During the early turns we can't afford to have our lands enter play tapped, so I've limited the number of slow lands to just Glacial Fortress, Clifftop Retreat, and Sulfur Falls. If you count Cavern of Souls there are five colorless lands, which might be too many for this deck, but they are all important:

• Academy Ruins gets back sunforger
• Maze of Ith is one of our only defenses
• Homeward Path gets back Ruhan if he's stolen
• Cavern of Souls avoids countermagic
• Slayers' Stronghold got the nod over Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion because i have lots of double strike effects.

 

Spinerock Knoll is actually really good with Ruhan. 
The planeswalkers in this list might seem weird, but they have their purposes:

• Ajani, Caller of the Pride's -3 for double strike and flying should be a kill, then he can buff Ruhan or just be a Fog for a few points of damage.
• Elspeth, Knight-Errant's 2nd ability should also be a kill and she should also be a Fog.
• Tezzeret the Seeker is fine as a tutor for Sunforger and a Fog, but I don't mind ramping with him and some signets.
• Jace, the Mind Sculptor is everything we want. His -1 will probably be the most helpful, but as always he will draw lots of hate.

 

Other cards that I'm considering adding:

• Rhystic Study should be great here since it would either keep your hand fueled or punish decks who are actually willing to lose tempo by spending mana.
• Crucible of Worlds to recover from Armageddon and reuse fetchlands. Strip Mine and/or
• Wasteland would also be nice if you don't mind losing friends.
• Surestrike Trident is just more evasion for Ruhan, but it allows him to target a specific opponent, keep him out of combat if that's desirable, and works well with vigilance from something like Slayers' Stronghold. Add untap effects like Freed from the Real if that's your thing.
• Snapcaster Mage really belongs in any deck running this many instants/sorceries, but I haven't made room for him yet.

Top Ranked	Achieved #59 position overall 11 years ago
Date added	11 years
Last updated	7 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 0 Mythic Rares 47 - 0 Rares 16 - 0 Uncommons 16 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.61
Tokens	Cat 2/2 W, Emblem Elspeth, Knight-Errant, Phyrexian Germ 0/0 B, Soldier 1/1 W, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	Favorite EDH, EDH, Interesting Decks