A Commander Compulsion #1

A Commander Compulsion

squire1

5 December 2014

3655 views

Welcome to the first edition of A Commander Compulsion.

Since this is my first article in what i hope will be a continuing series, let me take some time to explain the idea behind the series. in each article I will select a legendary creature at random a build a deck for it. I will explain the cards I looked at in doing so and what decisions I made in making the deck what I did.

Additionally, it is important to understand the perspective from which I am building. I am building for casual multiplayer Commander. I am not building decks with budget in mind. I always build the what the deck should be in my head and then modify for real life applications according to budget restrictions. My meta spans from MTG grinders to true kitchen table casuals and consists of a lot of removal and sweeps and very little counter magic. I always try to build around many situations, but you may see a lean toward the aforementioned meta in my builds. I am a Johnny at heart. I love to win in crazy durdley ways, but realize that this is not for everyone and not realistic in every deck; that said, i will likely build with synergy and combo in mind very often.

Lastly, I would like to assert the idea that Commander is a very personal thing to many people including myself. Building decks that are a reflection of self is very important to a lot of players. I will often add cards that are in there because of my affinity for its particular shenanigans rather than it being the perfect and most efficient card in every situation.

With all that said, let's get this thing started!

The random number generator landed on 330. Which according to http://magiccards.info/ is:

When I begin building a commander deck for a specific commander, I often start by simply examining the creature for what it has to offer and what parts of it might result in build around strategies. Our friend Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis has exalted which may lead to a voltron strategy. This strategy is helped by the fact that he has evasion. His third ability also leans toward a voltron strategy since it only triggers when he attacks alone. Other than that he likes to make people sacrifice creatures which means that death triggers could be a sub-theme, as well as, sacrifice effects for creature removal. Other than that, he (I assume he, maybe it?) is a demon. There is not a ton of demon tribal support, so likely not the direction I would go.

Lone attacking

Searching for exalted like abilities in black and colorless we unfortunately only end up with six cards for a monoblack deck. Many of these cards are not very good. Cathedral of War can easily be accommodated, while Duskmantle Prowler and Knight of Infamy are the only exalted black cards I would even consider playing. But they will likely get the ax by the end. Since a commander damage voltron strategy is viable with his evasion, I do want to have it as at lease a sub theme. Making him unblockable is very important to this strategy even though he has evasion. I like whispersilk cloak for this application as it has the added bonus of some protection. [[Rogue's passage and Shizo, Death's Storehouse seem like auto includes here as well adding to his evasion.

Once he gets through, we get a sweet triggered ability which we could copy with Strionic Resonator (but that might be too cute), but how will we win in a pod of 4 doing 6 commander damage every turn? I think that cards like Hatred or even howl from beyond can help a great deal with this by making him a one hit win. While there are also a ton of equipments and enchantments that buff, I think that [[argentum armor and Lashwrithe are some good options. Argentum Armor also allows us to destroy another permanent when he attacks, so with his third ability we are on our way to value town. In addition, black has a very difficult time killing certain types of permanents (artifacts and enchantments) and argentum armor will help there. As a part of all voltron strategies, protecting him is very important for this w will look at the usual suspects of Swiftfoot Boots, lightning graves and Darksteel Plate. The two former of which add the bonus of haste.

Since Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis wants to attack alone, I would consider enforcing that restriction on other players as well. Silent Arbiter and Crawlspace do a great job of this. If I only keep one it will likely be Crawlspace due to it being harder for some decks to deal with.

Death triggers

I am planning on triggering Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis as often as possible to make my opponents' creature die. Because of this, i think it would be nice to get some extra value. Overseer of the Damned, Harvester of Souls and Grave Betrayal are all great options here, getting a ton of value from creatures dying. None of these will be helpful against token decks however, something I need to consider later. Black Market will also benefit greatly from this and is a fantastic resource in the mid to late game. black market also allows me to play around controlly strategies like [[worms of the earth, which seems like amazing jank that will likely get cut. Blood Artist and Falkenrath Noble are both options for when creatures die a lot as well; however, they are extremely fragile and since their effect is targeted it is not really amazing in multiplayer commander. They may make the cut, but I am really not sure yet. Along the same lines as Grave Betrayal, It That Betrays works very well when we are dealing with forced sacrifice effects like the commander has.

Removal

Sweepers

It is well known that removal is an important part of Commander. There are constant threats to mitigate and board states to clear up. First lets take a look at the sweepers I am thinking about. I am going to shy away from symmetrical sweep effects because I want to reap the rewards of the death triggers I just discussed and I do not plan on much recursion. So cards like Damnation and Nevinyrral's Disk will not be used, except for maybe Decree of Pain because If I have to blow up my board to draw 10+ cards, so be it. I also have a slight love affair with Dread Cacodemon he is a real problem solver. Aside from those, I am considering In Garruk's Wake since it deals with walkers too, Reiver Demon because i like my wraths on a body, and Plague Wind. I think that of the three I would keep In Garruk's Wake first. Previously I mentioned tokens as a possible issue, because of that, I like either Pestilence Demon or pestilence. I will likely go with Pestilence over the demon because it is cheaper and harder to remove, but if I have room I'll use both.

Exile effects

Let's face it though, this is Commander and destroy effects don't always cut it. For exile creature effects I like Ashes to Ashes in some decks, but I do not really have much life gain in this deck and that might be too taxing. Gild is a fine card but it is single use. Silence the Believers is again single use, but takes care of a few targets, so worth considering. Sever the Bloodline is a great add here since it often can cripple a token deck, take out an avacyn, and be cast twice. We also have the king of exile, Karn Liberated; he is an instant add in monoblack for difficult to remove permanents and is repeatable. And then we have a cute single use option that I will add just because I like it, Oubliette. Yeah...who knew that card existed? We do not want a ton of these cards because we want death triggers, but some are necessary.

Sacrifice effects

What's that you say? Hexproof and shoud and indestructible creature and out commander can't get through. Ok, so we need some extra sacrifice effects also. It That Betrays should love that. Chainer's Edict is the only single target edict effect i will consider because I would rather get multiple triggers from the creatures dying. Chainer's Edict is nice though due to its reusability. Sheoldred, Whispering One is a near auto-include in any black deck and certainly in a monoblack build. The sac effect alone is amazing and with an added recursion bonus. Syphon Flesh does an amazing job of triggering all of the death triggers and giving me a group of chump blockers to boot. We have some old standbys in Slum Reaper and Fleshbag Marauder, they are both just flat out amazing here. There are also the symmetrical death/sac effect cards, Grave Pact, Dictate of Erebos, and Butcher of Malakir. I do not find these to be very useful in this build because we are not trying to get our stuff to die. I will keep the butcher only because he is a multitasker. phyrexian oblitorator seems like a nice fit too and could act as your creature attacking alone very effectively. If they block, value; if they burn it out, value; if someone Blasphemous Acts, VALUE. I like it all around. Desecration Demon is another big body (which i need) for cheap that promotes opponents sacrificing creature, I think he makes a lot of sense here. One last card that fits here is Liliana of the Veil. Now she is amazing in heads up MTG, but a bit weaker in multiplayer. She is still amazing because of the repeatable nature of her ability, but the discard is a little still since I have limited recursion. This might stay and might get cut.

Destroying/exiling non-creatures

As mentioned earlier, black has a tough time with getting rid of artifacts and enchantments, so I want to put in a few things to help. Now Gate to Phyrexia is one option that I love because its odd and old and no one sees it coming. If you have artifact decks running rampant, then this might be a good option. I don't think it makes the cut here though. Spine of Ish Sah is amazing for taking out all kinds of nasties and needed in this deck. I think that the newly released Unstable Obelisk also does a great job as a less efficient spine. Steel Hellkite will also help make up some ground in this deficient area of black.

Lands can also be a problem. I do not want to add hard land destruction in here, but getting shut down by a Maze of Ith or Mystifying Maze is almost as fun as dying to Thespian's Stage and Dark Depths. To take care of these I am going with Dust Bowl, Strip Mine, Ghost Quarter, and Wasteland.

Destroying/exiling non-creatures

The last type of removal to consider is graveyard removal. I want to be able to stop strategies that rely of the graveyard heaviliy as a resource. Bojuka Bog is in every deck i build that is allowed to use it. Great utility land. Something like Tormod's Crypt could also be good, but since I am not relying on my graveyard, I think Relic of Progenitus will do nicley.

Other tech

So far I have a pretty grindy control shell put together. A couple of other cards will round this out. Currently the only card draw mentioned is from Harvester of Souls and decree of pain. A bit more draw power would be good though. I am going to use Phyrexian Arena and Bloodgift Demon. Baleful Force might work too, but you lose a lot of life with that guy, so I would just as soon leave it out. In addition to card draw we might also need tutors to find the right pieces. Demonic Tutor is certainly going in. I am not a fan of many other tutors available, but I am considering Increasing Ambition only because of the flashback for extra use. I will likely end up with Diabolic Tutor as well. You never can have enough tutors. I am also adding a pseudo Propaganda in black that people never really play even in esper with Ghostly Prison and Propaganda, Koskun Falls. I think this card will help with limiting the crack backs that I might have to deal with throughout the games.

Now most controlly decks have the benefit of blue in them for some counter magic backup. I would be remiss to leave out the fact that black has two amazing Counterspells, Withering Boon and Dash Hopes. But seriously, they are both horrible. I love both of them because, design space! but they are bad. Don't play these.

Other than that, I am adding some common commander stuff like Sol Ring for ramp, Sensei's Divining Top for filtering draws, Jet Medallion for ramp, Cabal Coffers for ramp, some mana rocks for more ramp, Artisan of Kozilek and Volrath's Stronghold for a touch of recursion, and Arcane Lighthouse for exactly what it does.

Alright, well that about does it. Lets take a look at the final deck.

A Commander Compulsion #1

Commander / EDH* squire1

SCORE: 13 | 7 COMMENTS | 822 VIEWS | IN 3 FOLDERS

Well, that's all for the first article in the series. Please feel free to leave comments regarding things that you wish I had covered better or more in depth in the article. Let me know what you would like this to look like for future articles so that I can continue to evolve.