Thrasios Control

Commander / EDH Control RGWU

Let_It_RIP

Lands (51)

• 1x Alchemist's Refuge
• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Botanical Sanctum
• 1x Bountiful Promenade
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Castle Garenbrig
• 1x Clifftop Retreat
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Field of the Dead
• 1x Forest
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Hashep Oasis
• 1x Hinterland Harbor
• 1x Ipnu Rivulet
• 4x Island
• 1x Kessig Wolf Run
• 1x Ketria Triome
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 1x Plains
• 1x Ramunap Ruins
• 1x Raugrin Triome
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Rejuvenating Springs
• 1x Rootbound Crag
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Scavenger Grounds
• 1x Sea of Clouds
• 1x Shefet Dunes
• 1x Shivan Reef
• 1x Spectator Seating
• 1x Spire Garden
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Sulfur Falls
• 1x Sunpetal Grove
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Temple of Abandon
• 1x Temple of Enlightenment
• 1x Temple of Epiphany
• 1x Temple of Mystery
• 1x Temple of Plenty
• 1x Training Center
• 1x Tropical Island
• 1x Yavimaya Coast

Counter Spells (14)

• 1x Bant Charm
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Dovin's Veto
• 1x Fierce Guardianship
• 1x Force of Negation
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mindbreak Trap
• 1x Negate
• 1x Ojutai's Command
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Rewind
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Unwind

Removal (12)

• 1x Abrade
• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Force of Vigor
• 1x Fracturing Gust
• 1x Naya Charm
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Settle the Wreckage
• 1x Supreme Verdict
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Valorous Stance
• 1x Zacama, Primal Calamity

Win Condition (7)

• 1x Approach of the Second Sun
• 1x Dualcaster Mage
• 1x Mana Geyser
• 1x Reiterate
• 1x Rude Awakening
• 1x Soulfire Grand Master *f-pre*
• 1x Twinflame

Commanders (2)

Thrasios Synergies (11)

• 1x Awakening
• 1x Biomancer's Familiar *f-pre*
• 1x Elvish Spirit Guide
• 1x Heartstone
• 1x Manamorphose
• 1x Seedborn Muse
• 1x Simian Spirit Guide
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Training Grounds
• 1x Wilderness Reclamation
• 1x Zirda, the Dawnwaker *f-pre*

Miscellaneous (3)

• 1x Flawless Maneuver
• 1x Snapcaster Mage
• 1x Teferi's Protection

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This deck is based on Richard's Star of Extinction Deck from MTGGoldfish's Commander Clash: Season 4 Episode 1 As you may be able to tell, the list has developed significantly since its inception and no longer has Star of Extinction. The new goal of the deck is to activate Thrasios, Triton Hero as many times as possible. In order to do this, the deck is designed to can cast the commander on turn two and then maximize his activations from there. When playing the deck, my goal is to do nothing but activate the commander as possible. Since my core focus is activating his ability, most of the remaining cards protect and keeping the commander in play. The deck should play out almost entirely at instant speed allowing you to hold up mana to protect your commander and if the mana is not needed you can then activate his ability. My playgroup has started targeting my Thrasios, Triton Hero as a method to beat the deck. This has progressed to more and more reactive elements in the deck. There are many ways to keep him alive. By the end of most games, I have far more lands than any other deck at the table and far more cards. Further breakdown on how the deck plays is below.

The deck will play out as a control deck with a combo finish. I have broken the deck into 6 categories: Lands, Counter Spells, Removal, Miscellaneous, Thrasios Synergies, and Win Conditions. I am going to break down each category below in order to provide additional detail and clarity regarding card decisions for each. With this, I hope that you can gain a better clarity of this oddity of a deck and see its power. If you have any question please feel free to add them in the comments below and we can have a discourse.

The first section is the lands category. Your first thought is most likely: “Why is he playing 51 lands,” this is because when activating my commander my primary goal is usually to ramp. By having over half of the deck be lands, it gives me a high chance of hitting a land on each activation. The deck developed this was as I slowly removed the cards I just never wanted to reveal with the commander and added the cards I did, lands. Since I am playing such a high volume of lands in this deck, I can play many utility lands and land packages. The first land package in the deck is the desert package. The primary reason for the deserts in the deck is for Scavenger Grounds fodder so I can interact with graveyards repeatedly. Additionally, the deserts can allow you to dig for your Approach of the Second Sun with Ipnu Rivulet much like you could when it was standard legal. Alchemist's Refuge and Winding Canyons allow you to maintain your plan of playing on your opponent’s turns. The final noteworthy inclusion in the lands section is the Kessig Wolf Run. Frequently when playing this deck you will have over 20 lands in play. The miser Kessig Wolf Run lets you cast Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder to give Thrasios, Triton Hero double strike. You then Kessig Wolf Run your opponent for lethal commander damage. There are no fetch lands in the deck because the deck can scry so many times that I prefer to not shuffle my scry away and I prefer to maintain the land concentration in the deck as high as possible. The final comment I have on the lands in this deck is that the mana base I weighted in a manner to cast the commander on turn two as frequently as possible. If my hand cannot cast Thrasios, Triton Hero on turn two I normally mulligan the hand.

The second section of the deck is the Counter Spells. The counter spells are used in the deck in three ways. 1) Keep Thrasios, Triton Hero on the table as long as possible 2) Do not lose the game 3) Protect your combo. The counter spell package is basic. I have included all of the best free counter magic available to me. I have also included my favorite generic counter magic. The only notable counter spells are the Stifle variants in the deck. I have won numerous occasions by countering activated and triggered abilities. I think this effect is underrated and unexpected. With the amount of cards, this deck sees each game their inclusion is a free role, and a powerful utility to have access to in your deck. Ojutai's Command is a unique inclusion as it can reanimate Thrasios, Triton Hero and add additional value at instant speed.

The removal section, similar to the counter spells is very generic. The primary consideration on the inclusions in the deck is flexibility and efficiency. Settle the Wreckage is an underestimated deterrent in the deck. Frequently, players know about the card after a reveal from the commander’s activation, and this leads to many players never wanting to risk their boards with an attack. Settle the Wreckage is also a four mana spell and is easily disguised as a Thrasios, Triton Hero Activation. Many of the other inclusions in the removal suite is a concession to Animar, Soul of Elements. Electrolyze is a great example of a card designed to kill Animar, Soul of Elements that has random utility and has a floor of cycling. Fracturing Gust is a new inclusion to the deck and I have not cast it yet. The card may be bad; however, the blowout potential is high and worth a slot in a deck with so much card selection. Valorous Stance is a card I have never seen any other player use in commander. This card has been extremely powerful and flexible in this deck. Valorous Stance is either a two-mana protection spell for Thrasios, Triton Hero or a kill spell for most of the threatening creatures in the format. This versatility is unparalleled.

The Miscellaneous section is two cards, Snapcaster Mage and Teferi's Protection. I could not find a category for either of these cards, but their power level demands their inclusion in the deck. Snapcaster Mage is an extremely powerful and versatile instant speed card. Being an instant is important for the deck and is why this card and Naya Charm see play over the common Eternal Witness. By now, everyone should know how absurd Teferi's Protection can be. This card can single-handedly win you the game and at worst is a Fog. There is no particular category for this card but it is effectively an auto-include in a control deck like this.

The main engine of the deck is the Thrasios Synergies section of the deck. I have included 10 cards in this section and they come in three sub categories of cards: Fast Mana, Cheaper activations, and untapping lands. The Elvish Spirit Guide and Simian Spirit Guide package is in the deck for two main reasons. The first reason is a desire to one day exile both spirit guides to cast a Manamorphose into a Counterspell, the ultimate meme. The second, and more valid, reason for inclusion in the deck is accelerated commander activations. Their ability allows you to activate Thrasios, Triton Hero on turn three and turn them into a pseudo ramp spell. This is also the reason for the inclusion of Sol Ring as an early Sol Ring can also lead to a turn three activation. The cards that reduce the cost of activated abilities are the most powerful cards in the deck. Thrasios, Triton Hero has a powerful ability at face value, but when his ability only costs two, he becomes unlimited rampant growths or card draw. If you get a turn where the ability only costs 1 mana you are almost certainly going to with the game. The three cards that allow you to untap lands allow you to have extremely explosive turns and take over games quickly. They are effectively additional turns. Manamorphose is in the deck so that when you have infinite red mana you can draw your deck, case Manamorphose for white, white, and cast Approach of the Second Sun twice.

The final piece of this deck is finding a way to win. Everything before this section discusses how to activate your commander as frequently as possible to ramp and accrue value. Now it is time to end the fun game we have been playing. There are three ways to win the game in the deck. We discussed how to win with Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder + Kessig Wolf Run earlier. This leaves us two other ways to win: Approach of the Second Sun and Dualcaster Mage. Approach of the Second Sun is easy to see how it wins, since it says, “win the game” on the card. This deck sees many cards and has a lot of mana. This card allows us to win by accident some times and win when we have infinite mana. Dualcaster Mage, aside from being a good value piece in the deck, can combo to win the game. Casting Dualcaster Mage + Twinflame should win the game. You win by casting Twinflame targeting Thrasios, Triton Hero and holding priority. With priority held, you cast Dualcaster Mage copying Twinflame. This gives you a new Dualcaster Mage with haste that copies the spell again. This builds a Splinter Twin combo and gives you infinite Dualcaster Mages with haste. The other four cards in this section are methods to gain infinite mana. With infinite mana, you can draw your entire deck with Thrasios, Triton Here. With you entire deck in your hand and infinite mana you should be able to find any way to win the game. The infinite mana combos worth by combining either Soulfire Grand Master or Reiterate and Rude Awakening or Mana Geyser. The first two cards allow you to gain infinite casts or copies of the second two spells that generate mana. The benefit of these methods of infinite mana in this deck is that Soulfire Grand Master and Reiterate have additional value outside of the combo as they can give you additional copies of any spell. Rude Awakening can be used much like Zacama, Primal Calamity to untap all of your lands and allow additional Thrasios, Triton Hero activations in a single turn cycle. The same is true with Mana Geyser. By giving you this burst of mana, you can generate huge long-term mana advantage with your commander and leverage this mana advantage to either get more mana and cards or control the game.

In general, this deck has been by far my favorite commander deck to play. It is unique and fun to play. I can play it in any power level group as it can control the game and combo against high competition or it can just sit back and have fun against pre-cons. If you are, looking for a fun control deck that draws a lot of cards and gets an obscene amount of lands into play, look no further. If you have seen the Command Zone episodes Commander Gameplay STATS Part 1 and Part 2 you know the value of having the most lands in play. This deck usually has the most lands in play and the tools to stay alive. With that said, you should not be a surprised that I have a much higher than average win rate with the deck, even when I am the table’s target.

One important note is you really need your commander in play for the deck to function. Play him early and protect him. There is nearly no ramp or card draw in the deck. Thrasios, Triton Hero is your ramp and card draw. Without the commander and you will find it hard to win.

If you have, any questions or comments please let me know. There is a reason for every card in the deck as the deck is very tuned. Let us have a fun dialog.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	2 years
Key combos	Dualcaster Mage + Twinflame Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder + Kessig Wolf Run
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	10 - 0 Mythic Rares 62 - 0 Rares 16 - 0 Uncommons 5 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.18
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Copy Clone, Zombie 2/2 B