Syr Gwyn Beatdown EDH

Commander / EDH Aggro Artifact Battlecruiser RBW (Mardu) Voltron

Ijjo

Artifact (34)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Argentum Armor
• 1x Blackblade Reforged
• 1x Boros Locket
• 1x Boros Signet
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Colossus Hammer
• 1x Cranial Plating
• 1x Embercleave
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Godsend
• 1x Grafted Exoskeleton
• 1x Heartseeker
• 1x Hedron Archive
• 1x Helm of the Host
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Loxodon Warhammer
• 1x Mask of Avacyn
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Rogue's Gloves
• 1x Shadowspear
• 1x Sigiled Sword of Valeron
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Static Orb
• 1x Sunforger
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1x Sword of the Animist
• 1x Talisman of Conviction
• 1x Talisman of Hierarchy
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence
• 1x Umezawa's Jitte
• 1x Winter Orb

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

Land (34)

• 1x Ancient Den
• 1x Battlefield Forge
• 1x Boros Garrison
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Castle Ardenvale
• 1x Castle Locthwain
• 1x Clifftop Retreat
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Great Furnace
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Mistveil Plains
• 2x Mountain
• 1x Nomad Outpost
• 6x Plains
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
• 2x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Malice
• 1x Temple of Silence
• 1x Temple of Triumph
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Tournament Grounds
• 1x Vault of Whispers

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Austere Command
• 1x Chandra's Ignition
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Mass Calcify
• 1x Merciless Eviction
• 1x Open the Armory
• 1x Single Combat
• 1x Tragic Arrogance

Commander (1)

Creature (10)

• 1x Avacyn, Angel of Hope
• 1x Cavalier of Dawn
• 1x Danitha Capashen, Paragon
• 1x Foundry Inspector
• 1x Kinsbaile Cavalier
• 1x Knight Exemplar
• 1x Silverblade Paladin
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Stonehewer Giant
• 1x Stormfist Crusader

Instant (9)

• 1x Boros Charm
• 1x Deflecting Palm
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Fire Covenant
• 1x Gods Willing
• 1x Kaya's Guile
• 1x Seething Song
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Utter End

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Phyrexian Scriptures
• 1x Reconnaissance
• 1x Sigarda's Aid

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Maybeboard

Creature (11)

• 1x Bastion Protector
• 1x Dark Confidant
• 1x Dauntless Bodyguard
• 1x Ethersworn Canonist
• 1x Giver of Runes
• 1x Goblin Engineer
• 1x Jhoira's Familiar
• 1x Sram, Senior Edificer
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Valiant Knight
• 1x Wintermoor Commander

Artifact (6)

• 1x Blade of Selves
• 1x Darksteel Forge
• 1x Nim Deathmantle
• 1x Paradise Mantle
• 1x Spellbinder
• 1x Surestrike Trident

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Fanatical Devotion
• 1x Gift of Immortality
• 1x Smoke

Instant (4)

• 1x Despark
• 1x Heliod's Intervention
• 1x Mardu Charm
• 1x Vona's Hunger

Sorcery (3)

• 1x Armageddon
• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Vandalblast

Land (1)

• 1x Bojuka Bog

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Syr Gwyn had me aching to go Knights Tribal when she was spoiled. After building it, I realized that there aren't many EDH playable knights, and Syr Gwyn cares more about Equipment than she does knights anyways. So instead of leaning into knights, I leaned into equipment and built her as a voltron commander. While her card draw trigger can be sweet if you manage to get a board full of knights with an equipment on each and an opportunity to swing out, but I think suiting her up and having a phyrexian arena on legs is passable enough to justify taking this path. Making equipment attach for free seems like a small effect, but there are a few cards that love this clause. Furthermore, I haven't completely ditched the tribal angle--while not quite deep enough to make an entire tribal deck, there are a handful of knights with good enough effects on their own. Kinsbaile Cavalier and Knight Exemplar are Voltron pieces on their own, and Cavalier of Dawn is a sweet one-two answer+recursion spell that hits like a truck and draws cards when equipped.

Things I kept in mind when building:

1. Gwyn's equipment clause wants equipment that is cheap to cast and expensive to equip (Colossus Hammer, for example), bonus points for equipment like Sunforger and Heartseeker, which unequip for value and can be reloaded for free.
2. Gwyn needs to be equipped -and- attacking in order to profit from his draw trigger, making him somewhat unreliable as a card advantage engine. Additional sources of card draw are necessary, hopefully with minimal opportunity cost. Rogue's Gloves is an equipment, Stormfist Crusader is a knight that sacs to Edicts, Castle Lochtwain is a land, etc.
3. Given that Gwyn wants equipment, and is a 6-drop in ramp-lite colors, artifacts are huge. I want to run a ton of mana rocks, and cards like Cranial Plating that take advantage of the number of artifacts I might have lying around.
4. While Knight-Tribal is not the dominant theme, they do synergize with Gwyn. Voltron builds also want extra bodies to throw to Edict effects, so Knights that buff Gwyn and knight token-makers are very good.
5. Vigilance and Menace aren't seen often, but can be taken advantage of. Cards that keep creatures tapped down like Winter/Static Orb are asymmetrical in our favor, and Menace makes Choose-One-Kill-The-Rest board wipes like Single Combat very powerful for clearing a path.
6. Sunforger is another synergy I want to lean on. I want as many of my single-target answers to be >4-drop instants as I can, as well as protection spells like Gods Willing to get the most out of the card as possible. Searching up Sunforger and having access to an entire toolbox seems like a good strategy in a vacuum. This is why I'm considering Kaya's Guile (which can be entwined when cast for free!) and Mardu Charm, as they add many more possible uses to Sunforger. Mistveil Plains can also put instants back into our library, allowing us to always have answers like Gods Willing up.

I have yet to test this, still figuring out the optimal mix of protection/card advantage/flexibility, or if Voltron is even the correct build for this general. Recommendations are welcome.

Date added	4 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 42 - 0 Rares 26 - 0 Uncommons 14 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.08
Tokens	Copy Clone, Emblem Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, Golem 3/3 C, Human 1/1 W, Knight 2/2 W w/ Vigilance, Knight Ally 2/2 W, Spirit 1/1 WB