This is my Zurgo Helmsmasher EDH Voltron Deck. This is not meant to be a cEDH deck, but it should be able to hold its own in many different playgroups. This is a Voltron deck built to deal 21 commander damage to all opponents in the fastest time possible. This is an equipment Voltron, so unlike Tuvasa decks.
Introduction
You may like this deck if:
-You like playing aggressive creature oriented decks
-You like smashing faces
-You hate politics
You may not like this deck if:
-You like playing slower control decks
-You enjoy politics
-You like to play intricate combos
This deck is made for more casual magic but can stand its own against better, control/combo decks. This deck will not do well in cEDH metas and will be too good for a few bad playgroups. The deck's design was to be a fast deck that could race a few of my playgroup's combo decks. This deck was also built to not be too over the top powerful for some of the other decks in my playgroup.
Why Mardu?
I've always wanted to play a Voltron deck that suits up one creature to crush all of my friends into dust. I first began looking into Zurgo Helmsmasher when I saw the nice synergy between him and Chandra's Ignition. Other Voltron decks like Sram, Senior Edificer were interesting to me but I like to play multicolor decks in order to have access to more fun cards. I originally wanted to play red because of cards like Chandra's Ignition, Arcbond, Seize the Day, Aurelia, the Warleader, Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, and Aggravated Assault. White was and obvious color choice because of cards like Sram, Senior Artificer, Sigarda's Aid, and Open the Armory. Lastly, black contains some of best removal, tutors, and card draw in magic (not like I have any of the good ones). Some of the shortcomings of these colors are stack interaction and heavy ramp.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
This deck is very good against other creature decks and decks without a lot of stack interaction and/or counter spells. We are able to get past all of the creatures and without many significant to remove our equipment, it should be an easy game. Some of the colors we are good against are green and black.
Weaknesses
Our weakness is getting Zurgo Helmsmasher countered on the way down or killed immediately, especially if we don't have enough mana to recast him. Some colors that we have trouble with are red and blue because red has lots of forms of artifact destruction, and blue has lots of Counterspells. Some things we need to improve in this deck are resiliency, and stack interaction, among other things. Suggestions about this would be much appreciated.
Game Plan
Early Game
In the First 1-3 turns you want to be ramping and dropping lower costed artifacts like Shadowspear and Lightning Greaves. Ideally you will have Zurgo Helmsmasher out by turn 4 and start smashing face.
Mid Game
Once you get Zurgo out(assuming he hasn't already died)and have a couple equipment you should start hitting people to bring up their commander damage to 21. During this stage of the game you should start playing board wipes to clear out everybody's creatures so you can start hitting them with Zurgo Helmsmasher (because he has indestructible on your turn). Also, you want to be getting out equipment to make Zurgo a much faster clock. Sunforger helps a lot in getting special removal spells and utility to help you beat face.
Late Game
If you are at this stage of the game and haven't won, our deck is much worse at generating value than other commander decks, you will probably lose if you haven't won already.
Card Choices
This section will contain reasons why every card is played (other than lands).
Big Z's Stuff (Equipment)
Sword of Vengeance Lots of abilities, what's not to love?
Loxodon Warhammer Breaks through blockers and gains us some life
Swiftfoot Boots Protects him from removal
Grappling Hook Extra Damage and creature removal if needed
Shadowspear Same as Loxodon Warhammer and makes their permanents vulnerable
Sword of the Animist Ramp
Hammer of Nazahn Free equips
Lightning Greaves Protects from removal
Prowler's Helm Can't be blocked
Worldslayer Destroys everything but it and zurgo helsmasher
Mask of Avacyn Protects from Removal
Infiltration Lens Who loves drawing cards? We do! Also deters blocks
Trailblazer's Boots In commander, can't be blocked
Sunforger Nice power boost and great utility
Conqueror's Flail Prevents mean blue shenanigans and gives a nice power boost
Mask of Memory Draw some cards for a low cost
Inquisitor's Flail Extra damage.
Darksteel Plate Prevents removal on other player's turns.
Blackblade Reforged Great power boost, low cost.
Embercleave Lots of extra damage and surprise wins.
Good Creatures
Danitha Capashen, Paragon Cost reducer and a nice blocker
Mother of Runes Protects Zurgo and gets him past potential blockers
Monastery Mentor Great finisher if we can't get Zurgo out again and equipments trigger him.
Sublime Archangel Usually will at least give Zurgo +2+2, and if I have three or more creatures out it becomes really good for only 4 mana.
Stax-y pieces
Hushbringer Shuts down ETB heavy decks like Yarok, the Desecrated and Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
Thalia, Heretic Cathar Significantly slows down decks with expensive lands and creature oriented decks.
Presence of the Master Evil, Evil card against enchantment decks, kinda a dead card otherwise
Linvala, Keeper of Silence Shuts off mana dorks and decks like Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
Card Draw
Moonlight Bargain Nice card draw and filter
Ambition's Cost Decent amount of cards with a slight drawback
Syr Gwyn, Hero of Ashvale Consistent card draw and a good backup plan if Zurgo dies one too many times.
Sram, Senior Edificer Best engine in the deck, should on average draw you about 2+ cards a turn
Sweepers
These cards clear the board for our Z-Man to run amok in.
Fumigate Gains us some decent life
Planar Outburst Nice upside if you have more mana than you need
Arcbond More situational, you usually want to play this after blockers are declared as to catch the blocker(And other players) by surprise. Really good with Zurgo Helmsmashers ability
Rout Stops regeneration cards/decks like Ezuri, Renegade Leader and Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
Chandra's Ignition Usually a board wipe and gives Zurgo an unholy amount of counters
Shatter the Sky usually gives everyone a card(including us) and then wipes everything other than Zurgo
Removal
It is very important to remove direct threats before the become a pain in our a$$, like Shattergang Brothers
Murderous Rider Good creature/planeswalker removal that comes with a blocker
Utter End Answers anything and also exiles it, great card
Generous Gift Answers anything, and also problematic lands. A 3/3 for your opponent is not even that bad. There are also situations where we would use this on one of our lands to get a blocker.
Vindicate Answers everything, only downside is sorcery speed which isn't even that important. Best removal in out deck.
Path to Exile Great low-mana answer, make sure to play it later in the game or the ramp is problematic.
Mortify Not as good as the others, but still warrants a spot.
Heliod's Intervention Kills multiple problematic artifacts or enchantments and can gain us life in the case that our opponents have nothing we care about.
Swords to Plowshares We are killing with commander damage, so we don't care about your life total.
Karmic Justice Our opponents will never remove any of our artifacts. Ever.
Extra Damage
Cards that give us extra damage or extra combat steps are very valuable as we can win very quickly, in one turn sometimes.
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight Zurgo deals double damage which becomes a fast clock, and Gisela severely slows down creature strategies.
Aggravated Assault Great card, if we have enough mana it can give us 2 extra combat steps, which is crazy.
Seize the Day 7 mana for two extra attack phases?? Sign me up.
Aurelia, the Warleader Comes out of nowhere with haste and can win games on the turn it enters.
True Conviction Double strike and lifelink is very good.
Utility
This is the section for cards that help me to win the game, but are not very powerful by themselves.
Sigarda's Aid Good for a surprise, and cheats equip costs, but your playground will wise up and destroy this on sight soon.
Grand Abolisher Stupid blue players and their countermagic
Open the Armory Gets the best equipment for the job, which is usually Worldslayer unless you need something like Sunforger or Conquerer's Flail
Mastermind's Acquisition Finds anything, and since I play casual, can also find huge eldrazi monstrosities.
Boros Charm Protects all our stuff from a wipe, can surprise people with the double strike, and can finish someone off. Just a great card.
Kaya, Orzhov Usurper Totally hurts graveyard deck, and can also deal with some huge tokens or cards like sol ring.
Leonin Shikari enables us to do shenanigans at instant speed, also a good blocker.
Infect
Tainted Strike Evil card, and I only want to play one infect card or the deck gets annoying to play against.
Ramp
Kinda dumb to have this section last, but whatever.
Talisman of Conviction Good ramp and we can tap it for colorless if we don't want to lose life.
Talisman of Hierarchy See above.
Sol Ring I do not need to explain this one.
Boros Signet Gives us two of our colors and is quick to get out.
Orzhov Signet See above.
Smothering Tithe Great ramp and especially good if other players are playing a lot of card draw.
Opening Hand and Mulligans
This deck mulligans pretty well, but we usually want to see around one source of card draw/ utility/stax, 3-4 lands/ramp and 2-3 equipment. A two land hand is playable if you have at least 2 sources of ramp or a Sol Ring. Also make sure you have all the colors in your opening hand because, believe me, you do not want to get mana screwed.
Building the Deck
I believe the deck is easy to play and has an easy learning curve, because it is pretty easy to understand the strategy.
-Get Zurgo Helmsmasher out.
-Attach his stuff.
-Kill everyone else with commander damage.
Although tappedout displays the deck as around 300$, I built most of it for around 75$. The mana base is more expensive and I got most of the cards from trades. The deck can play fine without expensive lands or more expensive cards like Grand Abolisher or Conqueror's Flail, and it wouldn't decrease the consistency of the deck too much. I would recomend switching cards like this out for O-Naginata and/or other cheap equipment. As for the lands, taplands or basics would be just fine.
I would greatly Appreciate if you would upvote the deck and give some suggestions, as this is a work in progress I need your help on. Special thanks to Thx4TheSwampChief for helping me with building the deck and helping me with the primer. Thank you all for reading!
