A primer about a first draft


A daily mail delivery materializes through the aether.

The cards are ordered, and your spouse has noticed that you're getting a little more mail than usual; they left a tidy pile on the dining room table. A variety of envelopes and bubble mailers, some are handwritten, others have fancy labels. They arrive in waves from all over the country.
You know the idea is jank, but you've spent a considerable number of evenings pondering confusing corner cases. You've probably goldfished the deck almost a hundred times on the computer, and it seems like it could steal a win or two, but you haven't met up to challenge your playgroup yet.
As you tear past a handwritten caution, "DO NOT BEND," you briefly consider what the mail carrier might think. Does she have to manually sort and pull all of these out of a bin in her truck? Does she think, "These envelopes feel sturdier than usual?" Does repetition lead a postal worker to recognize the subtle differences between parcels or the tendencies of each house on their route?
There was that Saturday afternoon that your old postman caught you on the porch: "You get a lot of mail from those 'Game and Hobby' shops." He seemed excited to mention that he does one of those war games with the little painted miniatures. It was World War II themed, and you weren't entirely sure what he was talking about but you exchanged knowing nods; he gets it.
"Wait," you think to yourself, "are top loaders recyclable?"
How many separate municipal entities can you get to passively participate in your cardboard addiction by proxy? "Municipal Entities" sounds like a cool white/blue card. Did they print that in one of the Ravnica blocks? Was the card any good? Did you forget to order that one, can you run it in this deck?
A quick internet search reveals that you are mistaken. You must've been thinking about Azor's Elocutors and its filibuster counters. That sounds vaguely governmental, and Azorius is all legalese any way. But you cut the alternate win condition theme entirely. Apparently the division between real life and deck-building has blurred. You realize that you've been spending too much time thinking about this damn deck.
This stage of the deck-building process is unique. In constructing the first physical build of the deck, using real cards, you're full of excitement and anticipation. Being completely engaged in the brew, spending a disproportionate amount of mental energy considering themes and card interactions, it's possible that your overall understanding of the deck's function is at its highest when that first draft is built and you're waiting to play that first real game.

It is a strange mix of having a strong handle on the motifs contained within, but lacking concrete data as to how the deck will perform in real game situations. The first draft can be your deck at its purest, most janky, and absurd. The obscure pet-cards that define the deck now are the same ones that will be cut later in order to increase the deck's competitiveness and performance.

Within the subconscious, the ego actively craves validation from your future opponents.


After you've thumbed through today's deliveries, you find yourself bringing up cards in your Magic discussion chat or forum just to talk about some clever and arcane interaction that is only relevant to the deck you are building. You know that this interaction will almost never impact a game, but you can't play the deck yet, so you'll have to satisfy yourself by taking a few mental reps.
These one-sided discussions are a cheap shot of dopamine to the skull. You're a growing a baby in your brain-uterus and you want your peers to acknowledge how special it is.

Commander is a format which champions creativity and embraces deck brewing. It encourages a feeling of ownership and pride over the 99+1 cards that a player cobbles together into a game piece. However, the format is still homogenized and rife with standard archetypes and staple cards. Many primers further enforce this idea of "these are the correct cards to run in this deck, and this is the correct way to play it." There is value in acknowledging the build at this stage of the process and giving those suboptimal, bizarre, or otherwise unplayable cards and strategies an opportunity to get some recognition. The writings here are my one-sided shot of dopamine, blended with a little honest but selfish reflection, and with hopefully a little value to the reader stapled on.

As a player and a participant in the culture, I usually scoff at the idea of "The Spirit of EDH," but exploring decks through the lens of incompletion may get us closer to this spirit. It's possible that even the most cynical brewers have communed with the spirit at some point during their journey to building something oppressive.

This is a primer on process, or at least a snapshot of a very specific moment in the deck-building process. The moment when everything seems possible before you flood out in game one. It is a celebration of a deck in a state of being at its most thematically pure. An honest and introspective look at something that is technically unfinished and unplayed, but crafted with enthusiasm and the ignorance that comes from not yet being unable to draw the answer to an opponent's lethal threat or sitting around for ten turns drawing cards which do not impact the board.

Here is a deck. It's probably a bad deck and I've never actually played it against anyone, but I think it is cool. I'm not an expert or a pro, but let me tell you about it.

Unfavorable combat situations

This deck was built around the idea of forcing your opponents to attack into unfavorable boardstates. As most of the cards which force combat are red, part of the challenge in accomplishing this was intentionally selecting the Azorius color identity pair in order to run the oft-forgotten Ayesha Tanaka as the commander.



From left to right: Alpha 5, Command Tower

Ayesha Tanaka was selected primarily because she contains the very powerful, but frequently misunderstood, combat-based ability, "banding." She is the only Legendary Creature that has this keyword. The vast majority of creatures with this keyword are terrible, and running her as the commander gives us reliable access to banding while running the fewest number of bad banding cards. Yes, Soraya the Falconer exists and would grant access to the keyword, but mono-white Bird tribal is not only limiting in its construction, but likely already solved. I was looking for an excuse to do so, and building this deck has forced me to unravel the mystery surrounding banding.

It also helps that, at the time of this deck's initial construction as well as right now while I'm writing this, Ayesha Tanaka commands a mere 23 total decks submitted to EDHREC. Many of these are even less fleshed out than the cardpile we have here. Some try to simply cram every creature with the banding keyword into a deck, others muddy it up with more rules that are not widely understood. As an Azorius Commander with a rare and unique skillset, I think attempting to develop a reasonably competitive base decklist for her is both noble and necessary. She has the tools to establish her own flavorful archetype.

With that aside, I want to be clear that an understanding of how banding works, especially as it pertains to blocking, is critical to piloting this deck.

Ayesha Tanaka also possesses an activated ability to tax the activated abilities of artifacts. While this is definitely relevant in EDH, and you should be aware of this ability (especially against opponents that do not have access to white mana), this build does not explore this concept. Cards like Liquimetal Coating, Memnarch, and Mycosynth Lattice are intentionally not included. Besides, cards like Azorius Guildmage or Null Rod do a better job at shutting off activated abilities than Ayesha Tanaka. However, some kind of oppressive anti-artifact/anti-activated abilities brew would've been a perfectly reasonable direction to go with the deck.

Bandz a make her dance


A group of nightlife enthusiasts gather on a red leather couch awaiting an opportunity to pop bandz.
From left to right: Ayesha Tanaka, Juicy J, Ephara, God of the Polis, 2 Chainz, Mirror Entity


In the early 2010s, Memphis rapper Juicy J penned a song entitled, "Bandz A Make Her Dance." It was a resounding success, peaking at #29 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2012. The lyrics delve into alarming detail describing a raucous scene at a gentleman's club. Women dance, others are groped, drugs are consumed, buttocks clapped together, all the while leading up to the chorus/hook which repeats the phrase, "bandz a make her dance," in a menacing tone multiple times.

When Juicy J uses the term "bandz," he is describing the rubber bands used to hold a stack of paper currency bills, probably either in denominations of ones or hundreds, together in a group. Our keyword, banding, functions similarly.

Halfway through his first verse, after suggesting that he is going to leave the club with one of the women, Juicy J exclaims:

"She got friends, bring three, I got drugs, I got drinks."
- Juicy J, "Bandz A Make Her Dance"

Much like the woman mentioned in the song, Ayesha Tanaka wants to group up, or "band" with her friends when entering into potentially harrowing situations. There is safety in numbers when leaving the club with strange men that you have just met, especially those offering you indeterminate drugs in an unknown quantity/potency. A key component of this deck is utilizing banding in these types of group blocking or "safety in numbers" scenarios.

While there are subtle differences between attacking and blocking, in simplest terms banding allows you to control how combat damage is assigned to your creatures and spread that damage across bodies in a way that is most beneficial to you. The reminder text for banding is a great overview as to how the ability works. Since this deck has a focus on defensive banding, I'll bold the applicable parts related to blocking with banding:

Any creatures with banding, and up to one without, can attack in a band. Bands are blocked as a group. If any creatures with banding you control are blocking or being blocked by a creature, you divide that creature's combat damage, not its controller, among any of the creatures it's being blocked by or is blocking.

Stripping out the information related to attacking as a band, here is some modified reminder text:

If any creatures with banding you control are blocking a creature, you divide that creature's combat damage, not its controller, among any of the creatures it's being blocked by.

Here is a Gatherer Card Ruling which attempts to clarify this further:

10/1/2009: If a creature in combat has banding, its controller assigns damage for creatures blocking or blocked by it. That player can ignore the damage assignment order when making this assignment.

What this means is, if you group block an attacking creature and any of your blocking creatures in that group has banding, you get to choose how damage is assigned. You can block an opponent's Blightsteel Colossus with Ayesha Tanaka and a 1/1 Soldier token and assign all of the combat damage to the token (including the trample damage that is in excess of lethal damage). The token dies, but Ayesha Tanaka lives and you take no infect damage. As a banded blocker is able to assign combat damage however they'd like, the same would be true if the opponent were swinging in with the deathtouch keyworded, Damia, Sage of Stone. Returning to our analogy above, sometimes you've got to ditch one of your friends in order to get out of there in one piece.

In a more practical scenario, you can spread out the attacking creature's damage to assign a non-lethal amount to each creature in your banded block. Assigning one damage to Ayesha Tanaka and three damage to your Wall of Omens, while this doesn't explain why they are running the card in the first place, blocks and kills your opponent's attacking Shyft. Keep in mind that your banded group block isn't limited to two creatures, you could certainly add in a Psychic Membrane for extra value.

If you are familiar with the card Defensive Formation, group blocking with a banding creature works identically. However Defensive Formation is an anthem effect which grants all of your creatures non-keyworded banding while blocking. Blocking multiple attackers with keyworded banding creatures requires at least one creature with the ability per group block.

Attacking in a band is optional while piloting this deck, but can definitely be useful if you put the work into understanding its nuance. For example, consider the interaction between Mirror Entity and Fortified Area, then acknowledge that "Wall" is a creature type. Swaths of attacking bands certainly complicate combat math. If you're lucky, your opponent will just concede because they have no idea how banding works. If you have a good handle on the concept of dividing combat damage across multiple creatures, the leap to attacking as a band is not a far one. There are a couple of caveats to keep in mind though.

When attacking as a band, all creatures in the band must have the keyword "banding" with the exception of one. For example, if you have two creatures with banding, you can add in an additional creature to the band which does not have the keyword. Other keywords are not shared throughout the band, and the band is blocked as one creature. This means that just because one of your banded attackers has flying, it doesn't mean that the entire band has evasion.

Here is the reminder text referenced above with only the information applicable to attacking as a band left in:

Any creatures with banding, and up to one without, can attack in a band. Bands are blocked as a group. If any creatures with banding you control are being blocked by a creature, you divide that creature's combat damage among any of the creatures it's blocking.

The benefits of attacking in a band are similar to those which exist defensively. You can use this to your advantage in forcing your opponent to make unfavorable blocks or to sneak in combat damage when an opponent has blockers that they don't want to lose. Imagine a situation where an opponent has taken 19 commander damage from you, and has a 2/4 blocker on board. Swinging in with Ayesha Tanaka and Mentor of the Meek forces the opponent to block the band and lose their creature. In this scenario, we would assign one damage from our opponent's 2/4 to each of our banded creatures and all of our creature's damage to the opponent's 2/4.

This same premise allows us to attack with Ayesha Tanaka into a board with an opponent-controlled creature which has deathtouch, without fear of losing our commander. For example, we can attack safely into an Atraxa, Praetors' Voice with our Ayesha Tanaka banded with a 2/1 Cleric token (produced by Heliod, God of the Sun) and trade our token for our opponent's commander if they decide to block the band. If the opponent does not want to make this trade, we still deal commander damage equal to Ayesha Tanaka's power per standard commander damage assignment rules. Being in a band does not change the source of damage.

A summary and the concentration of motifs

When constructing a deck, I like to organize cards by theme to feel out the concentration of support for each of the goals that the deck is trying to accomplish. To survive the chopping block, cards either have to be one of the best ever printed to support a theme, or be versatile enough to be filed under multiple support categories. The standard pillars of EDH deck construction are considered here as well.

In reviewing the following, it is important to keep in mind that at this stage of the deck building process, these are the things I want to happen and the interactions that I want to focus on. The reality is that much of this will probably be blown up after the first evening of games.

Our Themes

While coercing combat was supposed to be one of the cornerstones of this build, the color identity of our commander cripples our ability to utilize this strategy. Still there are some reasonable repeatable options to consider when forcing an opponent to attack you. Gideon Jura can force a large-scale unfavorable attack every turn, and Enlightened Tutor can tutor up a Bident of Thassa to keep your opponents swinging (not necessarily at you). Keep in mind that forcing attacks also leaves your opponents vulnerable to a potentially lethal crackback attack. We've gotta find a way to scrape together a win, right?

Since compelling an opponent to attack appears to be, at best, a tertiary ability for blue as it relates to the color pie and nonexistent for white outside of Gideons, we are definitely scraping the bottom of the barrel for playables in this motif. Considering the draft status of the deck, further testing may suggest that cutting the two one-shot effects (Siren's Call and Taunt) as well as the wordy Arcum's Whistle is correct in lieu of bolstering one of the deck's other themes.

In situations where extra help is needed in order to address a difficult creature that was forced to attack, the deck has access to a plethora of options to "remove" threats from combat and/or prevent damage. Not only can they fix awkward combat, but these cards can keep a threat at bay until ... well, until you figure something out. Maybe sneak in for lethal damage or flip the table out of frustration? Yes they're unexciting, but these are real cards which aid in making our blocks better.

For this build we generally favor cards which either block well, make our creatures better blockers, or to a lesser extent, reduce the effectiveness of our opponent's attackers. Indestructible creatures like Oketra the True, and pseudo-indestructible creatures like Fog Bank, are reasonably high priority. Creatures with triggered abilities that fire when blocking, like Wall of Nets or Brimaz, King of Oreskos, are also important.

Remember that we are intending to block in bands, trigger these abilities, and redirect the damage. Fog Bank takes the damage, Wall of Nets takes the creature.



Fog Bank and Wall of Nets swallow a goblin token.

Brimaz, King of Oreskos and Oketra the True are notable because we have a minor token subtheme in order to create additional blocking bodies. These tokens will also hopefully aid in eventually closing out games. Fog Bank and Wall of Nets are a few of our many walls. Embracing a wall tribal subtheme is one of the major suboptimal choices made in constructing this deck. But, to be fair, the deck concept itself is also pretty suboptimal.

Regardless of overall power-level, you'll find that the majority of card selection decisions honor these remaining themes.

Due to the nature of forcing combat, we are given a choice as to if we want to allow creatures to swing in unblocked at an increased frequency over that of an average deck. Darien, King of Kjeldor was a last-second addition slotted in to embrace this idea. He also strengthens our token subtheme. Including Darien required a minor rework of the decklist. Some basic lands and a mana rock were swapped out for comparable cards with controlled/repeatable self-damaging effects.

The deck also contains a sub-package of cards which provide incidental life-gain. This ability is not a primary theme of the deck. However, because the deck's strategy is built around putting a target on our backs, we're going to inevitably lose some life. Yes it's a game and we are playing against people who are also trying to win, but losing life is probably going to happen at a faster clip than our opponents. These life-gain cards also increase the effectiveness of Drogskol Reaver, as well as mitigate some of the damage done by the support cards related to Darien, King of Kjeldor.

The Manabase

The concentrations of mana symbols in the casting costs our cards favor white at 66% to 34% for blue. This is misleading. Many of our early plays require two blue mana sources to cast, including Ayesha Tanaka herself. Our manabase acknowledges this and reflects a more even split between the two colors.

Removal Suite

Hopefully (but unrealistically) you're making a dent in your opponent's army through our combat-focus. This is particularly important because aside from Gideon Jura's -2 ability and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre's cast trigger, we're not running any targeted creature removal. And while I count it below, Cyclonic Rift just bare qualifies.

Luckily, walls and tokens come with low power and many of our larger creatures are indestructible. Much of our boardwipe strategy (and thus non-combat-based creature removal) is designed to acknowledge these attributes. Among others, Retribution of the Meek and Elspeth, Sun's Champion's -3 ability use the low attack power of our creatures to our advantage.

Unfortunately additional power-based board wipes like Solar Tide and Fell the Mighty couldn't quite find their way into the 99.

Our answers to non-creature permanents are pretty ramshackle as well. In those rare moments when the stars align, Ayesha Tanaka can obviously shut off a troublesome artifact for a turn. Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre was a bubble card which made the cut simply because he can blow up an artifact or enchantment on cast. At his time of inclusion, this ability pushed him over the edge into the 99. While it's not his only function in the deck, there are times when Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre should be thought of as an 11 mana Disenchant. This is by design.

The Graveyard

Sun Titan does not belong here, he's only in the deck as a utility creature. Sun Titan recurs things from the graveyard. He's a repeatable Regrowth effect in our colors. Sun Titan is 100% off-theme and single-purpose with minimal synergy. An argument could be made that the majority of our permanents are 3 CMC or less (the average converted mana cost of our spells is 3.58), but I don't buy it. We want to take a more holistic approach to our card inclusions than this.

  • He dies to all of the power-based boardwipes.
  • He doesn't block that great, in fact he encourages you to attack.
  • He doesn't have any on-theme abilities.
  • He forces the inclusion of cards like Aura of Silence simply because of the upside of possibly returning them to the battlefield.

Yes, Sun Titan warps parts of the deck around himself and his abilities. He is not a team player.

But without him, what've you got? You've got a one-shot effect in the Dawn side of Dusk / Dawn and a repeatable Mistveil Plains. How many ways are there to shuffle up after plopping a card on the bottom of the deck using Mistveil Plains? Yes there's a Flooded Strand and a Wayfarer's Bauble, but that might as well be it.

You could:

  1. Cast Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre.
  2. Have an Umezawa's Jitte packed with 10+ counters.
  3. Remove all of the counters from Umezawa's Jitte to kill Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre.
  4. Shuffle the graveyard into the damn library.

It's either that, ultimate Jace, Architect of Thought, or pitch Blightsteel Colossus. Terrible. And what's worse is that the above scenario with Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre just Mistveil Plains'd your entire graveyard, without even needing Mistveil Plains.

I guess there's also Myriad Landscape. Further investigation into other shuffling lands may prove fruitful. Slotting in Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse, and Ash Barrens for additional shuffle effects feels so bad though. It's even worse that they'd be targets for Sun Titan, further solidifying his slot in the deck.

You'd think that a deck with a bunch of walls that will probably die because they're blocking stuff would've figured out this whole graveyard thing, but nope. Considering that we're also only running a single method of exiling cards from our opponents' graveyards, this deck's relationship with that zone definitely needs work.

Card Draw

In incorporating card draw into our deck, every inclusion listed here should be able to be filed under multiple thematic and/or functional categories. Skullclamp may be the one exception, however I was able to justify it based on its synergy with tokens and walls that block and die. It also provides a small bump in power if we end up trying to win via commander damage or infect. I'm kind of reaching here, aren't I? Good card though.

Not quite

There are a lot of cards that were close, but didn't quite make this iteration of the deck. Listing all of them would be boring, but touching on a few may provide further insight as to the evolution of the deck concept.

Narrowing down the list of powerful defensive cards and anthem effects was challenging. Notable cards that almost made the "Building Blocks" list above include Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant, Concerted Effort, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Archetype of Imagination, and Eldrazi Monument.

Floodgate is a potentially game-breaking wall lacking any cards in the rest of the deck to abuse it, RIP obscure Mirage uncommon, you got cut. Interesting blockers, that definitely would've made the deck if their creature type had been "Wall," like Guard Gomazoa, Illusory Ambusher, and Stuffy Doll may someday find their way into the decklist. Similarly, cards which have combat-based Threaten-esque effects like Seraph, Charisma, and Scythe of the Wretched seem so close to being ideal inclusions. I'd love to find room for all of them.

Deathtouch is a keyword that was begging for better representation in the 99. Ultimately the concentration of walls with 0 power (which means they cannot touch things per rule 702.2c) led to cutting most of the enablers.

702.2c Any nonzero amount of combat damage assigned to a creature by a source with deathtouch is considered to be lethal damage for the purposes of determining if a proposed combat damage assignment is valid, regardless of that creature’s toughness.

Gorgon's Head and Quietus Spike were both considered. Gorgon Flail was even close because it adds +1 power, but Basilisk Collar was able to sneak into the list because of its keyword salad.

Perimeter Captain, which is rather mediocre on its own, seemed much more logical in an earlier sketch which had a concrete gain-life theme. Cards which trigger and gain life when opponents attack, like Righteous Cause, Orim's Prayer, and Patron of the Kitsune were also contenders in this version. These cards are usually bad, but paired with Drogskol Reaver and at the time Well of Lost Dreams, keeping them on the radar was important.

Win conditions in our color combination often focus on ending a game through the combo kill. In fact, albeit only loosely considered a combo, some of the life-gain related cards still included in this build are hold-overs from an earlier combo draft. This sketch, alluded to above, attempted to win via alternate win condition cards like Test of Endurance, Felidar Sovereign, and even Aetherflux Reservoir. While the wall tribal theme functions similarly to the pillow fort strategies that would normally employ this strategy, I chose to honor Ayesha Tanaka's natural affinity for combat.

Lastly, Kjeldoran Outpost was cut while it was en route to my house. Opening the envelope and immediately sliding the card into my trade binder was disappointing. This card generally wouldn't disrupt a manabase too badly, and in a deck with any sort of token theme, it's usually low impact with a high upside. Ultimately having only 9 total plains-type lands in the deck paired with a greedy manabase already bubbling over with nonbasics, Kjeldoran Outpost seemed too risky too keep in.

In closing

I'd like to believe that this deck can win. The variance of multiplayer commander might even allow this deck to win. And if not, the Johnny/Jenny psychographic profile works wonders to protect the ego. A player like me can hide behind theme and high concept and spin both losses and simply a bad build into a victory. "At least I was being creative," I might say to myself, "at least I was trying something unique."

Despite using a restrictive medium, deck-building as a creative exercise can certainly feel rewarding. It's a bit like building a cool tower out of a pile of LEGO. You can't create a new brick, but you can dig through the bin, find something you like, and arrange pieces in a way that is aesthetically pleasing to you.

Ultimately, this exercise afforded me an opportunity to flex my MTG-hipster muscles, not to mention all of the esoteric card interactions I had the opportunity to flaunt. Maybe there is a small victory here. Maybe this deck can just sit on the shelf, unplayed in crisp, new, jet-black sleeves and a plastic deckbox that is still off-gassing. The win has already been achieved, I got my shot of dopamine.

There is no secret to actually winning a game with this deck. You've got to force favorable blocks and make good attacks. You'll have a small army of tokens paired with mid-sized to enormous indestructible monsters at your disposal. Many of the cards which make your creatures better blockers also enhance their ability to attack. Akroma's Memorial, Odric, Lunarch Marshal, and others can help you get there.

...Or just kill them with your own Blightsteel Colossus, maybe? I dunno.

But really, I think this lyric from the timeless internet awkward teen video, Gellieman's "Aicha", says it best:

"Oh I don't know, I don't know. Aicha (sic) in my life."
- Gellieman, "Aicha"

I don't really know either.



A complicated love triangle.
From left to right: Chad, Gellieman, Ayesha Tanaka


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Date added 6 years
Last updated 5 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

15 - 0 Mythic Rares

40 - 0 Rares

28 - 0 Uncommons

8 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.58
Tokens 0/1 U Creature Plant Wall, Cat Soldier 1/1 W, Emblem Dovin Baan, Emblem Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Enchantment Cleric 2/1 W, Soldier 1/1 W, Warrior 1/1 W w/ Vigilance
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