Let's build around Unplayable Commanders; Nagao, Bound by honor
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on Sept. 9, 2016, 11:14 p.m. by joecool1299
So Tappedout has a list of Legendary creatures that are so bad that no one will build around them. You can find that list here.
List of EDHREC unplayed commanders
Casual
SCORE: 5 | 2 COMMENTS | 4662 VIEWS | IN 4 FOLDERS
And me not having a single normal deck in my collection and a fair amount of time on my hands, I thought "let's remedy that".
Let's build a deck around every single one.
Huh?
I'll randomly select a commander. I'll build the rough skeleton. You send me suggestions for weird cards for it. And we'll cut it down and ship it. Let's put the minds of the internet to the test
Why would you build around (Insert bad commander) when you could play (Insert better commander in the same archetype or colors) instead, what's the point?
First off the object should not be to just build good stuff with X. If we're building Rohgahh of Kher Keep we aren't building R/B good stuff. We're building around Rohgahh of Kher Keep. Weird drawbacks and neat side effects and all.
Because if you limit yourself to just the best deck of their colors, you limit yourself to 30 decks in the entirety of the format (Mono color, guilds, shards ect), But the great thing about commander is that there are hundreds of ways to build around one commander. I can build Zedruu the Greathearted as a prison deck, a evil santa deck, a group hug deck, Heck I could build voltron Zedruu, Sky's the limit.
So instead of simply looking at the cards and seeing what they aren't, let's look and see what they bring to the table. No matter how bad it looks. No matter how weird it is.
Plus it'll be a lot of fun.
TLDR; What's the deck already?
So sticking the list into a random list sorter we get...
Alright. Here's the building blocks of the deck. I'll add suggestions from the comments as we go.
Samurai are cool, right?
Commander / EDH*
SCORE: 1 | 3 COMMENTS | 92 VIEWS
Finished now. With a full description with the decklist. Enjoy!
also, you should try to get this featured as an article. this is a cool idea =]
September 10, 2016 1:21 a.m.
joecool1299 says... #4
Gattison I like that direction. The one thing is that it's not very in theme with Nagao, Bound by Honor, It's also pretty original though so I think it's probably what we'll do.
Thanks! I'm pretty new to tapped out so I'm not exactly sure how to get it featured. I'll look into it.
September 10, 2016 12:36 p.m.
joecool1299 says... #5
And there are only 21 white Samurai in all of magic. This should be fun.
September 10, 2016 1:56 p.m.
Sim_Will_CMcantfindmehopefully says... #6
Tutors, scrying, prison cards.
September 10, 2016 2:03 p.m.
joecool1299 says... #7
Simon_Williamson I'll fiddle with the basics but mainly I wanna focus on whatever the theme is.
Anybody wanna tell me what Nagao's deal is? Or anything about Kamigawa's story?
September 10, 2016 3:28 p.m.
I took this challenge, focusing on Myojin of Life's Web. At the helm, the card's better than it looks.
September 10, 2016 6:16 p.m.
joecool1299 says... #9
Phaetion: Wow. Nagao seems kinda sucky from his bio. He survives getting stabbed so that's pretty cool, I guess.
There are actually some good ones in that list. Alexi, Zephyr Mage is one I'm really excited for. Dig Myosin too.
Thanks for the thoughts.
September 10, 2016 9:43 p.m.
joecool1299 says... #10
Well the deck has 122 cards in it. Time for cuts!
I tried to stay in theme as much as possible. Playing every playable samurai, and Changeling. As well as vigilance cards because Samurai. And other cool themed cards like Honor of the Pure and KOGRDUIKOSIRXJG, sleeping dragon.
Some cards are just too good to cut even though they aren't technically in flavor like Stoneforge Mystic and Loreseeker's Stone. And some reanimator stuff for long game. Although I'm not sold on super expensive stuff like Avacyn, Angel of Hope.
Also is Umezawa's Jitte out of flavor? Were the Samurai using it or the Kami? I don't know anything about Kamigawa's story.
I'm still open to taking suggestions so keep sending them in.
September 10, 2016 11:35 p.m.
joecool1299 says... #11
Also I realized that Kentaro, the Smiling Cat is also on the Unplayable commander list. Should I just have this be a deck for that as well or build another deck for it when the time comes?
September 10, 2016 11:38 p.m.
joecool1299 says... #12
IT. IS. FINISHED!
So one unplayable commander finally has a deck to call home. I won't end the suggestions but I won't tinker very hand with the deck either. It's done and I don't plan on messing with it.
I'll have the next commander up in a couple day's. Link will be in the topic starter for this.
Also I'll have another decklist for Kentaro, the Smiling Cat with maybe a couple tweaks from the Nagao one. Since It's redundant to build basically the same deck twice with this.
September 13, 2016 1:55 a.m.
btw, i believe ChiefBell is the person to speak to about getting threads featured as articles. I believe he also helps with formatting and editing. Hope you do it. =)
September 13, 2016 6:34 p.m.
joecool1299 says... #14
Gattison Thanks! I'll contact him. Maybe I can turn these into articles. I'll probably still do the thread though.
September 14, 2016 1:06 a.m.
joecool1299 says... #15
Here's the link to this weeks deck.
http://tappedout.net/mtg-forum/commander-deck-help/lets-build-around-unplayable-commanders-kodama-of-the-center-tree/?page=1#c2803141
Anybody know who to make the links clickable?
September 15, 2016 11:58 p.m.
Click the button 4th from the left above the text-field at the bottom of this page (the button that looks like two chain-links, in-between the "header" and "insert picture" buttons). copy and paste the full web address into the little window that pops up entitled "Insert Hyperlink."
Bam. mission accomplished. boyee.
September 16, 2016 12:24 a.m.
Kentaro, the Smiling Cat seems like he would work nicely with artifact ramp. Maybe a white MLD or stax deck?
September 19, 2016 2:04 a.m.
joecool1299 says... #18
phc: I actually came up with some ideas for kentaro. I like the idea of stax too. But we probably have a long way to go.
Gattison says... #2
How about graveyard manip + samurai tribal?
Samurai support:
Takeno, Samurai General
Sensei Golden-Tail
Indebted Samurai
Self-Mill:
Grindclock
Grindstone
Sands of Delirium
Whetstone
Recursion:
Artisan of Kozilek
Breath of Life
Bruna, the Fading Light
Colfenor's Urn
Emeria, The Sky Ruin
Enduring Renewal
False Defeat
...and so on
I guess you would need artifact tutors too, like Enlightened Tutor... might be too fragile. But still would be cool when it goes off.
September 10, 2016 1:14 a.m.