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Norin the Wary: I Have a Bad Feeling About This

Commander / EDH*

alfindeol


Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Not Paying Commander Tax!

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In the early days of EDH, there was no commander derided like Norin the Wary. "You're going to build a mono red deck with a general who can't attack or block? Come now, that's nonsense." Their lack of faith is our gain. Norin is a sneaky good commander with a number of powerful synergies that players typically fail to see until it's far too late.

Norin's primary game plan is simple. Put Norin, a value engine and something disruptive into play as quickly as possible. As everyone else struggles through the disruption, Norin simple generates repeated advantage until you can bury your opponents in it. The best engines take advantage of the fact that Norin ETBs every turn. Confusion in the Ranks lets you steal all the best creature on the battlefield, Genesis Chamber gets you a rough 3-1 advantage on generating Myr tokens, Purphoros, God of the Forge, Impact Tremors and Warstorm Surge just win you the game after a few turns. In the meantime, you're making sure your opponents struggle with Possibility Storm, Grip of Chaos , Stranglehold or Glacial Chasm preventing them from playing their game.

Sometimes though, you need to do something... splashier. Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Zealous Conscripts end the game on their own with infinite tokens. Insurrection often reads "you win the game" as well. Don't like having friends? The deck can also loop Mindslaver using Goblin Welder, Daretti, Scrap Savant or Buried Ruin.

The rest of the deck is made up of interactive spells and goblins. As one of the few tutorable types in red, the goblins in the deck function as an effective tool box to deal with certain decks. Goblin Sharpshooter counters token strategies. Goblin Assassin takes care of voltron and hexproof creatures. Goblin Tinkerer eats Sol Rings and Mana Crypts and lives to tell the tale. Squee, Goblin Nabob does.... stuff... I think... Most of them also interact well with the Norin engines mentioned above giving some additional speed to the deck.

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Amonkhet has no goblins and few artifacts, so is there anything here for us? Let's take a look...

By Force - Here's a place to start. There's no shortage of this effect available to us now, but which ones should we be playing. Vandalblast and Shattering Spree are the best for sure. After that, I think you're fine playing this or Release the Gremlins if you want a third version of this effect.

Glorious End - This kind of feels like a Norin card! This effect is very, very powerful which is probably why it has "You Lose the Game" stapled to it. I think you can play this, but ONLY if you're not playing Possibility Storm. That combination of cards is... not ideal.

Harsh Mentor - I like this card, and this effect in the deck. It punishes players for durdling about and lowers life totals so you can steal a game. It also forces some combo players to waste an answer on it. I'll be finding a slot for it.

Hazoret the Fervent - I like how this interacts with Squee, Goblin Nabob.... I appreciate that it gives us reach, but it's a little too narrow with the rest of the deck.

Insult / Injury - There are versions of this deck that want damage doublers. Go ham if that's you.

Hazoret's Monument - Again, good with Squee. If you're playing a more goblin focused version of the deck, this could be really good.

Oracle's Vault - We're on mono-red, so any kind of card advantage is pretty good. This has some play to it. Being an artifact gives it some added synergy and, if left unchecked, it could do some seriously good work. I also like that it gets around Possibility Storm which is one of my favorite disruptive cards in the deck.

Throne of the God-Pharaoh - If you're playing a more token-y version of the deck, this is going to end games very, VERY fast. I think this is a sleeper card from the set and one that's going to win a LOT more games that you'd initially think.

There you have it! I'm looking at finding room for Harsh Mentor and almost certainly testing Oracle's Vault to see what it does. Anything I missed? What are you picking up from the set?

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Date added 7 years
Last updated 6 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

14 - 0 Mythic Rares

47 - 0 Rares

13 - 0 Uncommons

10 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.21
Tokens Copy Clone, Emblem Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Emblem Daretti, Scrap Savant, Goat 0/1 W, Goblin 1/1 R, Kobolds of Kher Keep 0/1 R, Myr 1/1 C, Thopter 1/1 C
Folders Norin, Decks I Like, EDH Decks, cool decks, Decks, EDH Fun, N I C E
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