Checkmate., a Vorthos EDH Primer

Commander / EDH Aristocrats Casual Primer Theme/Gimmick Vorthos WB (Orzhov)

Specialsauce

Board Wipes/Mass Removal (6)

• 1x Akroma's Vengeance
• 1x End Hostilities
• 1x Fumigate
• 1x Magus of the Tabernacle
• 1x Necromantic Selection
• 1x Tragic Arrogance

Card Draw/Advantage (12)

• 1x Bankrupt in Blood
• 1x Bushmeat Poacher
• 1x Bygone Bishop
• 1x Castle Locthwain
• 1x Dark Prophecy
• 1x Grim Haruspex
• 1x Liliana's Standard Bearer
• 1x Mentor of the Meek
• 1x Midnight Reaper
• 1x Priest of Forgotten Gods
• 1x Vampiric Rites
• 1x Vulturous Aven

Creature Cantrips (4)

• 1x Dusk Legion Zealot
• 1x Farsight Adept
• 1x Militia Bugler
• 1x Thraben Inspector

Death Payoffs (4)

• 1x Bastion of Remembrance
• 1x Falkenrath Noble
• 1x Vindictive Vampire
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Lands (37)

• 1x Cabal Stronghold
• 1x Castle Ardenvale
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Everglades
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Forsaken Sanctuary
• 1x Karoo
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Orzhov Basilica
• 1x Orzhov Guildgate
• 12x Plains
• 1x Scoured Barrens
• 12x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Field

Other (3)

• 1x Ajani, Caller of the Pride
• 1x Castle
• 1x Forerunner of the Legion

Ramp (13)

• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Gold Myr
• 1x Guardian Idol
• 1x Heartless Summoning
• 1x Leaden Myr
• 1x Mana Geode
• 1x Manakin
• 1x Millikin
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Prismatic Lens
• 1x Star Compass
• 1x Talisman of Hierarchy
• 1x Vesper Ghoul

Recursion (8)

• 1x Brood of Cockroaches
• 1x Devoted Crop-Mate
• 1x Krovikan Horror
• 1x Mistmoon Griffin
• 1x Reassembling Skeleton
• 1x Sanitarium Skeleton
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Timely Hordemate

Sacrifice (4)

• 1x Bontu the Glorified
• 1x Burnt Offering
• 1x Mind Slash
• 1x Nezumi Bone-Reader

Single Target Removal/Protection (8)

• 1x Alseid of Life's Bounty
• 1x Avacyn, Guardian Angel
• 1x Captured by the Consulate
• 1x Dismantling Wave
• 1x Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
• 1x Fragmentize
• 1x Reliquary Monk
• 1x Spark Harvest

Commander (1)

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stuff

Welcome to Chechmate., a Vorthos Budget EDH primer.

SOURCES FOR THIS PRIMER: Wickepedia, Chess.com, FIDE, Scryfall, The Commander's Quarters, Command Zone, and Tolarian Community College, Youtube, EDHREC, Gamepedia, Britannica

Disclaimer

This primer will make absolutely no sense to anyone who doesn't have at least a basic understanding of the board game Chess.

The other day I was re-watching a fairly old or at least not new episode of The Tolarian Community College (great youtube channel by the way) that discussed why parents should want their kids to play Magic. The Professor told this beautiful story about a time when he explained to his principle just how complex and deep MTG is through it's similarities to Chess, and that got me thinking: How much is Chess like Magic?

This primer and deck aims to mechanically and aesthetically relate Chess and MTG through gameplay on all sides of the board.

FLAVOUR!

Our Chess Pieces

An exact replica of the components of the Chess board.

Quick explanation: I didn't show this above because I find it visually annoying to look at several 2 card sections and would not be surprised if others do too.

2x White bishops

( Bygone Bishop , Magus of the Tabernacle )

2x Black bishops

( Nezumi Bone-Reader , Priest of Forgotten Gods )

2x Black knights

( Midnight Reaper , Liliana's Standard Bearer )

2x White knights

( Forerunner of the Legion , Sun Titan )

2x White Rooks

( Castle Ardenvale , Castle )

2x Black Rooks

( Cabal Stronghold , Castle Locthwain )

1x White king

( Ajani, Caller of the Pride )

1x Black king

( Bontu the Glorified )

1x White queen

( Avacyn, Guardian Angel )

1x Black queen

( Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief )

8x Black pawns to be ran into things or sacrificed

( Reassembling Skeleton , Sanitarium Skeleton , Brood of Cockroaches , Dusk Legion Zealot , Krovikan Horror , Vindictive Vampire , Vesper Ghoul , Grim Haruspex )

8x White pawns to be ran into things or sacrificed

( Thraben Inspector , Farsight Adept , Mentor of the Meek , Devoted Crop-Mate , Militia Bugler , Mistmoon Griffin , Alseid of Life's Bounty , Timely Hordemate )

Honorable Mentions

But that's not all for our flavourful cards! Here are some more honourable mentions and flavour explanations.

Castle

Castling is a special move in Chess where you move your Rook two spaces sideways and then your King two spaces in the opposite direction. This can be done only if neither has been moved in the game. This action is often used to move a king out of danger, making Castle an even more fitting card here as it protects your creatures.

Athreos the god of passage

When you're forked.

Captured by the Consulate

When a piece is captured.

Mind Slash

When you're simply overwhelmed by the complexity of the game.

Tragic Arrogance

When you gave up all of your pieces for a checkmate that didn't work out.

End Hostilities

"Draw?"

"I Accept."

Hostilities are ended.

Jeskai monk blows everyone up.

Okay, maybe that's just a card I like and want to put in. It's not easy being on a budget, okay?!

Dauntless Bodyguard

When you have to throw your knight in front of your king. It hurts, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Vindictive Vampire

When you're salty.

Bastion of Remembrance

When you accidentally got your queen captured. I also think that this idea of remembrance (in this case dead pieces) associated with a little creature (pawn) could nod to getting a pawn into the back row.

Sacrifice

One of the most important aspects of Chess as a game is trading, the process of using your piece to leverage board state or remove another piece and in return have one of your pieces removed. This also literally exists in Magic during the combat phase, but it's also embodied in another strategy: sacrifice. During the process of sacrificing a creature, you ideally have some sort of payoff for the creature's death, that payoff sometimes being directly killing another. Simply here instead of in combat, it's resource management, similar to the precise and calculated trades that take place in Chess. This deck is also more aristocrats-y than token sacrifice-y which is closer to Chess gameplay where there are very, very limited resources.

Story Time!

Recently I've begun a habit of going to my commander's MTG Gamepedia page to get a better sense of where they fit in the story and then embodying that somehow in the deck. I went a bit more light on this here because the focus of the deck is specifically a Chess theme, but there's a still a bit of Athreos flavour in the list.

Athreos is a god on Theros who fulfills the role of ferrying dead souls to the underworld by magically transforming his staff into a boat, similar to and presumably inspired by the character Charon in Greek Mythology. During the journey through the five rings, he sends skeletal birds to fetch anyone who goes off-path.

This is why I absolutely LOVE these cards in the deck:

Vulturous Aven

Mistmoon Griffin

These are both birds that deal with the graveyard, just like Athreos' pets. I know this is a small addition but I enjoy at least doing the research on my commander; for me this brings an extra level of depth to playing with the deck. So dutiful to personal tradition, these griffins have been included and given a panel.

Last, and yes, in opinion least, is function.

How the Deck Plays

Aristocrats

I'm quite sure you've already noticed this, but if not, I'll mention it here: this an Aristocrats deck. Aristocrats aims to play small recurrable or efficient creatures and to then sacrifice them to low to the ground sacrifice outlets for value and death payoffs.

Athreos's Function

Before we jump into the rest of this section of the primer, let's further discuss the commander: Athreos, God of Passage .

The important text on Athreos is his triggered ability: "Whenever another creature you own dies, return it to your hand unless target opponent pays 3 life."

The ability assumes three primary roles:

1) A mega blood artist

3 life per creature we control dying is a big deal. It only takes 8 instances of this to reduce an opponent to more or less what I consider to be a precarious life total (In my opinion, one generally has to begin really worrying about their life total when it's at 15 or less, as it's now conceivable for it be eliminated in one turn.) Hence, Athreos is our primary payoff and win condition.

2) An engine

In addition to our many recurable creatures, Athreos provides an excellent supplement of recursion, allowing all of our other payoffs and sacrifice outlets to really shine.

3) A political tool

Athreos having indestructible, his triggered ability will usually become a passive reality for all players at the table, an annoying one at that...for some. So why is this not just going to anger our opponents like any group slug effect? Because it's not group slug. This is a targeted effect that can be aimed in accordance with your interests, or someone else's. This possible dynamic allows us to sometimes assume a "hired thug" role, draining some opponents, in exchange for rewards from others.

4)-ish. This isn't a use of Athreos, but rather another one of his qualities: protection. Staying an enchantment protects him from creature removal and being indestructible saves him from, well, a lot more removal. Because of this, we don't have to worry much about our general's safety. If needed, Athreos being three mana also makes him quite replay-able.

Between life drain, recursion, and protection, Athreos proves a potent commander to lead us to victory.

Budget

If you haven't already noticed, this deck is relatively budget in relation to most commander decks; my budget it $60 TCG Player before tax and sleeves. Yes, this budget hugely affects the deck's nature, so I thought I'd briefly go over that as well as how I deal with deck budgets.

How the budget affects this deck

Power level: Alright, I'll admit it here: budget decks can be extremely powerful (if you don't believe me, watch The Commander's Quarters), but this one is not. I'll talk more about power level later, but for now please bear in mind that the deck's primary focus' are flavour and fun.

Alternate win conditions: This isn't universally true, but alternate win conditions can be often be more than 70¢ (which I generally want my card prices to be at). As a result, this deck has less flexibility, meaning that we have less capability to go off track to deal with opponents, as our game plan is fragile.

How I deal with budget restrictions

First, I would like to note that this applies to everyone. While some's are greater than other's, everyone has a budget. With that out of the way, here are some ways I cope with budget restrictions:

1) I like to set a general bar for card prices. In my case for this deck, that's ¢70<. This number can go up and down for some cards like win cons and other important game pieces, but it's still useful to have as a guideline.

2) This might be different for other people, but I like adding cards more than cutting cards. To avoid having to cut cards I like, I prefer to air on the side of trying to go below my total budget on my first deck draft. If I'm above that budget, sucks for me, but I still saved important cards I'd have to cut otherwise. If I'm right on the line, great. If what usually happens, which is I still have some money to burn, is the case, it's a blast. In this scenario there is way more flexibility for cards to cut; now I can cut a utility card rather than an expensive win condition that I've grown attached to.

3) This hasn't applied to me as my playgroup's budgets are relatively level, but I've heard this advice from several articles and podcasts (The Command Zone primarily) that resonated with me and I thought I should echo it here: if you have challenges keeping up with your playgroup because of your budget, talk to them (that's not a direct quote). Whether you want to create some playgroup budget restrictions, use proxies, have some people lower their power levels, borrow a deck, trade for some cards, or anything else, us humans are incredibly neurologically sophisticated creatures that are capable of effective communication, though we're not smart enough to stop destroying our planet...

This is an incredibly interesting topic that one could talk for days about, but I have to move on with the primer, so to sum things up: ration your budget smartly and don't be afraid to ask for help.

Strategy

This panel will be broken into two parts: tactics and pitfalls.

Tactics

1) Hold up mana when Athreos triggers...or not. When your opponent sees you have mana up, they don't want you to recur the creature because you can just replay it, meaning they'll likely take 3. But if you want your creature back, you can instead not leave any mana open, meaning they'll be less scared to let you recur it.

2) Chose who you target with Athreos carefully! Different people will want to pick different options and we can benefit from that. For example, if Mat is at 15, they won't want to take 3, so take advantage of that by targeting him to get the recursion (if you want it). Whereas Jill may be preparing to alpha strike you, meaning they _will _ take 3 to suppress a blocker.

3) When you have instant speed sac outlets, use them when you've sucked the most value out of the creature; wait until the last moment to sacrifice it so you've held it up as a blocker.

4) Don't be afraid to board wipe. Board wipes are great ways to "sacrifice" our creatures while simultaneously killing our opponents'. We're running quite a few so they don't always have to be treated as sacred cards to be saved; we should still only board wipe when we're sacrificing a good amount of creatures, but it doesn't only have to be to deal an opponents'.

5) Sequence your plays. When you have enough mana, it's usually good to cast card draw spells and use other means of card draw before doing other things on your turn as your options might change. This is especially relevant in this deck as there are several ways to draw cards from sacrificing creatures

Pitfalls:

1) If Athreos becomes a creature, not the biggest deal because he has indestructible, but exile effects still work on him, meaning we should try to avoid this. Luckily, we are well equipped to do so as we're constantly getting creatures in and out of our graveyard and battlefield, so just being smart with when we recur, play, and sacrifice creatures can allow us to order our plays so that we don't lose any value but also protect our general by managing our devotion.

2) Don't make an enemy of the graveyard hate player. Plain and simple.

3) It's usually best to play our massive death payoffs like Vindictive Vampire only once we have a lot of creatures to sacrifice or board wipe. We are constantly setting things up so let's only play the pieces that don't recur themselves last. This way we can also avoid being a high threat while setting up.

Gameplan

So what does a game with this deck ideally look like? Here's a summary:

Turns 1-3: Ramp.

Turns 4-5: Play recurable creatures and Athreos.

Turn 6: Play sac outlets.

Turn 7: Finish up the engine. Starting now you should be able to reliably sac around 2 creatures per turn, have payoffs (whether that be the sac outlet or or some other payoff), and also be able to chump block pretty much anything.

Turn 8-9: To drag out the game even longer, in these turns, unless our board's really thriving, we want to board wipe, and do so in a manner that lets us bounce back the next turn with recursion.

Turn 10: If not already done, here we want to mainly regulate our opponents. We also now want to get our engines back online.

11-12: They should be significantly lowered by Athreos by now, meaning that we can start making them hurt through combat. As previously stated, I consider someone in the life total danger zone at about 15-.

That all being said, there's room for about 1-2 turns of leeway in all of that.

Ideal and Unideal Metagames

Every deck performs better in some metas and play groups and worse in others, this deck included. Let's jump into some of the metagames and play groups that this deck does best and worst in.

Performance is Better

1) Slow metas

The deck takes a while to set up and an overwhelming amount of pressure early on can severely compromise it's chance of success.

2) Politically friendly metas

This deck benefits from using politics to advance and smooth out it's gameplan.

3) Vorthos-y plagroupes

It's a Vorthos deck. The goal is to be flavourful. This is most highly valued in Vorthos playgroups.

Performance is Worse

1) Metas with lots of graveyard hate

This deck relies on the graveyard. Plain and simple.

2) CEDH

I do not have the money to make even a budget or fringe CEDH playable deck. Besides, I'm really not interested.

3) Playgroups that don't like excessive board wipes

This deck runs more board wipes than usually would be ran in a b/w aristocrats deck.

4) Playgroups that don't enjoy discard

Personally I'm fine with it, but some people HATE discard, so just keep in mind that we're running a few repeatable discard sources.

Power Level

I like to use the Command Zone Podcast's criteria for this:

Based on that criteria, I'd say that Checkmate. is a six as it's budget and mostly flavour restrictions hold it back from further optimization, but thought has been put into the deck-building and the cards synergies. In terms of flavour I like to consider it an 8, seeing that it is definitely prioritizing flavour, but isn't flavourfully blinged out as I don't have the money for that.

Feel free to comment with any criticisms, feedback, corrections, suggestions, opinions, or anything else. It is always much appreciated when people take the time to leave a comment, whatever it be about. Also, if you enjoyed this deck or primer, please consider leaving an upvote. If you want to see more budget builds, check out my page at: Specialsauce.

If you'll excuse me, I need to go rant in another deck description now. Stay safe and support your LGS if able!

Thanks for Reading!

Date added	3 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 0 Mythic Rares 24 - 0 Rares 26 - 0 Uncommons 21 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.95
Tokens	Cat 2/2 W, Clue, Human 1/1 W, Human Soldier 1/1 W, Morph 2/2 C