Monkey Business, With a Dash of Piracy

Commander / EDH* Casual Mono-Red Theme/Gimmick

skyh3lm

Artifact (22)

• 1x Avarice Amulet
• 1x Glaring Spotlight
• 1x Heart of Kiran
• 1x Hero's Blade
• 1x Inspiring Statuary
• 1x Key to the City
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Magebane Armor
• 1x Pyromancer's Gauntlet
• 1x Pyromancer's Goggles
• 1x Rogue's Gloves
• 1x Ronin Warclub
• 1x Sai of the Shinobi
• 1x Seer's Sundial
• 1x Skeleton Key
• 1x Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Stormrider Rig
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Tenza, Godo's Maul
• 1x Vorrac Battlehorns
• 1x Whispersilk Cloak

Instant (12)

• 1x Arcbond
• 1x Blazing Salvo
• 1x Chandra's Fury
• 1x Cleansing Beam
• 1x Comet Storm
• 1x Electrickery
• 1x Grab the Reins
• 1x Incendiary Sabotage
• 1x Magnetic Theft
• 1x Shock
• 1x Starstorm
• 1x Word of Seizing

Creature (22)

• 1x Akki Lavarunner  ^Flip
• 1x Akoum Hellkite
• 1x Bearer of the Heavens
• 1x Brass Squire
• 1x Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh  ^Flip
• 1x Combustible Gearhulk
• 1x Embermaw Hellion
• 1x Fire Servant
• 1x Hanweir Garrison  ^Meld
• 1x Hellkite Tyrant
• 1x Hoarding Dragon
• 1x Hope of Ghirapur
• 1x Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
• 1x Myr Retriever
• 1x Ogre Battledriver
• 1x Ornithopter
• 1x Paragon of Fierce Defiance
• 1x Pia Nalaar
• 1x Ruinous Gremlin
• 1x Scrap Trawler
• 1x Silent Arbiter
• 1x Skyship Stalker

Land (30)

• 1x Arcane Lighthouse
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Dormant Volcano
• 1x Forgotten Cave
• 1x Hanweir Battlements  ^Meld
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 1x Madblind Mountain
• 20x Mountain
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Spinerock Knoll
• 1x Temple of the False God

Commander (1)

Sorcery (14)

• 1x Browbeat
• 1x Destructive Tampering
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Hijack
• 1x Indomitable Creativity
• 1x Kari Zev's Expertise
• 1x Mizzium Mortars
• 1x Molten Disaster
• 1x Release the Gremlins
• 1x Renegade Tactics
• 1x Slagstorm
• 1x Spark of Creativity
• 1x Trash for Treasure
• 1x Wrangle

Enchantment (4)

• 1x In the Web of War
• 1x Pia's Revolution
• 1x Pyromancer's Assault
• 1x Siege Modification

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Chandra, Torch of Defiance
• 1x Daretti, Scrap Savant

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Nobody tells Kari Zev what to do, and absolutely nobody tells her monkey Ragavan what to do. This deck is for someone who wants to play a thematic EDH deck that's more fun than a barrel full of monkeys. Confuse your enemies with diversionary tactics! Take their things (temporarily)! Blow their stuff up when things get out of hand! Control the battlefield by forcing difficult choices! All this and more in this bananas bonanza of a deck! Cards in this deck fall into one of a few categories: Monkeying Around, Captain's Loot, Artillery/Aiming, Gathering Shinies, Extortion, Smiling Dragons, and Ship's Crew.

MONKEYING AROUND

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It's probably obvious, but these are cards that are in the deck for the purpose of boosting Kari's Prince, Ragavan. Ragavan is a Legendary Red Monkey Creature that enters play tapped and attacking whenever Kari Zev, Skyship Raider attacks and gets exiled in the end step. You might think this would be rather difficult to build around. You would be wrong. We've got equipment for that!

But wait, can't you only equip as a sorcery? In most cases, yes, strange contrarian voice in my head. But as anyone who's had to deal with a Brass Squire before will tell you, there are some situations where you can attach equipment at instant speed! In fact, there are several pieces of equipment Ragavan can pick up simply for entering the battlefield without activating any abilities (just watch out for pesky Torpor Orbs)!

Stormrider Rig and Sai of the Shinobi can both optionally equip whenever a creature enters the battlefield. Sure, a mere +1/+1 on a 2/1 token doesn't sound like a lot, but keep in mind that that's a 50% increase to our monkey friend's damage. Not quite a super-combo, but it makes the monkey a lot more difficult to just sweep under the rug.

Ronin Warclub MUST equip whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control and grants +2/+1 to that creature. It's basically two Ragavans for the price of one! Which is nothing! Still not convinced? Well, I saved Ragavan's favorite piece of loot for last.

Hero's Blade can equip whenever a Legendary Creature enters the battlefield, and Ragavan IS Legendary, so he gets a 150% increase to power and gets TRIPLE his base toughness (which isn't saying much, considering he starts with one, but still). A monkey with a sword? NOW THAT'S BANANAS!

And there's more! Ragavan doesn't just have shiny things helping him, he's also got an ogre!

An Ogre Battledriver, to be precise! That's another doubling of his base power! Sure, the haste isn't useful, but all these damage boosts on Ragavan really put the pressure on an opponent. Or perhaps whipping a primate doesn't seem right to you (totally fair). In which case, perhaps I can interest you in an identical effect in Enchantment form: In the Web of War. Or, if your morals are a bit more flexible, try combining them! Tack on Paragon of Fierce Defiance and, hypothetically, you could have a 14/7 Ragavan with all these buffs! Talk about monkey business!

"But wait," you say, "They could just block him." You're right...kind of. Using Brass Squire or Magnetic Theft can stick Whispersilk Cloak or Tenza, Godo's Maul onto Ragavan in a pinch, making him either a much beefier, trampling monkey, or a sneaky, unblockable monkey. And of course, that's assuming we're not playing any of our other tricks...

CAPTAIN'S LOOT

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No pirate captain is complete without her fair share of loot, and while Kari is more than willing to share equipment with her Prince, there's some things she wants for herself. Most of these contribute to keeping her alive in some form or another, or help her get back on her feet if someone shoots her down.

Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots are both clean protection and haste for an early attacking Commander. The choice of Hexproof or Shroud is a difficult one, what with cards like Glaring Spotlight (see Artillery/Targeting for more on this), Bonds of Mortality, and Archetype of Endurance ably eliminating hexproof, but shroud preventing you from sticking more loot on your Commander. Fortunately, with this deck, this is usually less a matter of choice and more a matter of which one you've drawn. These boots are useful when drawn and after Kari inevitably gets eliminated to get back up and running once again.

Magebane Armor can keep Kari alive when you're casting some of your less discriminatory AoE (see Artillery/Targeting), and is just generally a useful card for keeping your Commander alive. It won't save her in combat, which seems unusual for a Commander who wants to be attacking, but trust me, it's enough just to stop that noncombat damage once or twice.

But she also needs to stay alive. Menace only keeps Kari safe for so long. Luckily, it's not difficult to set up a situation where the board state prevents your opponents from blocking her entirely!

Silent Arbiter and Vorrac Battlehorns both turn Menace into Unblockable (see also, Tromokratis decks), while also stemming incoming tides of tokens or Eldrazi (Breaker of Armies isn't so special now, is he?). Alternatively, skip the rules abuse entirely and just protect her and sneak her minor Commander damage in every turn with Whispersilk Cloak.

If you're not feeling (or drawing) any of these, Key to the City can keep her from getting chump-blocked and feed your draw (at a bit of a cost).

All of these can nicely tie in with the ever-helpful Rogue's Gloves for bonus card advantage when Kari sneaks in and nabs what she wants.

ARTILLERY/AIMING

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No pirate ship is complete without its fair share of big (and little) guns. Most of this deck's removal comes in the form of direct-damage spells, and so as pirates are wont to do, we've brought along a few improvised implements to boost our not-always-perfect firepower.

Manning the guns, we have Akki Lavarunner, or, more accurately, Tok-Tok, providing a nice, solid, incremental boost to damage from everything. In a pinch, we can always replace our blackpowder with whatever the heck makes Embermaw Hellion so funky fresh. If things are getting really hectic, Pyromancer's Gauntlet does the job, just only for our instants and sorceries. To be fair, that's where our removal lies, and Mizzium Mortars for six damage to everything is a pretty devastating broadside, all things considered. Even Electrickery or a three-mana Starstorm pose deadly threats with one or two of these cards on the field.

Needless to say, the best damage-booster we have is Fire Servant, especially if we also have one or two of those boosters our. 12 damage to everything I don't control? Now that's what I call a board wipe!

Of course, artillery is only as good as your aim with it, and your enemies are bound to try and keep their creatures safe by hiding in the shadows. Luckily, we've got our Arcane Lighthouse and Glaring Spotlight to light the way and get rid of those pesky Shroud and Hexproof abilities in those rare circumstances where we want to target something in particular, like with Cleansing Beam, Shock, Comet Storm, Release the Gremlins, or Indomitable Creativity. And we can't forget the benefit of being able to target what we want when we're stealing from our enemies. Speaking of which...

GATHERING SHINIES

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These cards are for taking things. Because we're pirates, and pirates take things. Almost always by force. And sometimes by drawing.

Some of this is instant speed, which I really recommend saving for emergencies. Grab the Reins, Magnetic Theft, and Word of Seizing are all best saved for pulling the rug out from under your enemy. Nothing's quite like the look on someone's face when the 24/24 Hydra they just blocked Ragavan with is now literally being thrown back in their face.

Wrangle and Hijack can turn the tables at key moments or compound a lead, but should be used more freely than the instant-speed theft cards. All of these do only last til end of turn, so use them wisely...The most brutal taker of the shinies, though, is Hellkite Tyrant. If Kari's the Captain and Ragavan is the Prince, then this guy is your First Mate. Providing an alternate win-condition, a large flying threat, and the ability to take all you're enemies' fun artifacts makes him a core card in this deck. No shinies are safe with this guy on the field, and you're a ticking time bomb to victory.

You can also get better access to your own shinies with things like Rogue's Gloves, Key to the City, Seer's Sundial, Avarice Amulet, and Faithless Looting. Sure, they're not all really efficient, but red isn't exactly swimming in draw, and you gotta get that booty somehow.

Inventors' Fair, Hoarding Dragon, and Spinerock Knoll can all nab you a key piece of equipment or important creature at the right time, massively improving the deck's flexibility and reliability.

Scrap Trawler, Myr Retriever, and Pia's Revolution all help you come back after someone plays a Fracturing Gust or Vandalblast to get rid of your artifacts, while Browbeat and Combustible Gearhulk force your enemies to decide between taking damage or giving you draw. Oh! That reminds me, you owe me...

EXTORTION

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Pirates aren't complete without taking hostages, and red is full of fun quandaries to throw at your enemies. I've already mentioned the damage-or-draw question provided by Browbeat and Combustible Gearhulk, but what about holding an opponent's creature's hostage? As a spell, you've got Blazing Salvo, which makes them decide between taking damage themselves or having a creature (probably) die. But this deck's best hostage taker is Bearer of the Heavens, who holds the entire battlefield in his hands, even the lands. This guy basically gives you free reign over the battlefield when he resolves, because nobody wants to see his endgame. It's basically a boardstate reset at end of turn, and you get to decide when that happens. It's especially amusing to throw him at an enemy's life total with Grab the Reins during a postcombat main phase and watch everyone scramble to escape the inevitable devastation. Add Fire Servant or any of our damage boosts for added hilarity.

SMILING DRAGONS

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Unfortunately for us, Kari's own ship--the Dragon's Smile--wasn't printed as a card. However, that's not stopping her from taking the Consul's prize Skysovereign, Consul Flagship for a spin, or using the Heart of Kiran (which I've mostly included in this list because I pulled it in a pack) or Hope of Ghirapur to rain on her enemies' parade. For added fun, we've brought along some dragons to aid our skyships. Some of them got shoutouts in the Grabbing Shinies section, but Skyship Stalker and Akoum Hellkite deserve their own mentions. The former doesn't look like much, but firebreathing and first strike on a flier are a potent combination, and it's a cheap dragon. It's no Gisela, the Broken Blade, but I'll take it. The latter turns every land drop into a potential creature kill, or else a chip in an opponent's life total.

Don't want to tap your creatures to crew those ships? Well, you have options! Spend loyalty counters off of Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Chandra, Roaring Flame  , or Daretti, Scrap Savant to keep the Heart of Kiran in the air. Or, if you're feeling it, throw a Siege Modification on one of them to make it a creature forever (and give it trample)! But while we're at it, let's talk about those crew, shall we?

SHIP'S CREW

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This is a catchall for basically every critter that's not here for another reason. The deck has a few fun ways to get around the problem posed by one of its favorite cards: Silent Arbiter. Hanweir, the Writing Township spawns 2 3/2 Eldrazi every time it attacks. One of its component cards, Hanweir Garrison can also send out a pair of attacking creatures, only 1/1 Humans this time, though.

Jaya Ballard, Taskmage and Pia Nalaar both provide options for damage and combat, while the Ruinous Gremlin can take out particularly pesky artifacts, like Eldrazi Monument or Akroma's Memorial for cheap. Our Chandras are here for even more damage, and Daretti and our various artifact creatures keep our artifacts from staying gone for long.

It's possible you'll want to make the deck a bit more budget. After all, I only included Heart of Kiran because I pulled it in a pack. Chandra, Pyrogenius is a suitable replacement for Chandra, Torch of Defiance at a considerably lower price (plus, you can include that one fetch card). The deck is five cards over legal anyway (a factor of me not owning everything and not knowing what the deck needs), so any cards you take out are really just pulling it back into that range anyway.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	7 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 0 Mythic Rares 34 - 0 Rares 32 - 0 Uncommons 12 - 0 Commons
Cards	107
Avg. CMC	3.00
Tokens	Emblem Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh, Emblem Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Emblem Daretti, Scrap Savant, Gremlin 2/2 R, Human 1/1 R, Ragavan, Thopter 1/1 C