This deck was inspired by a desire to spend more time in the combat phase of my turns during games. When I decided to make a combat-centric deck I had the choice between going wide or going tall. Although I know token decks can be quite effective, I have always loved being able to swing in with big creatures that make a significant and abrupt impact on the game. The only issue I’ve experienced with playing large creatures in the past is that it’s a bit more difficult to spread around the love than it is when you have a bunch of tokens; Saskia the Unyielding solves that problem and does it beautifully.

There are a few things I absolutely love about this deck, number one being that you just get big bois out, everyone loves having a big boi on their field. Although, perhaps the best thing about the deck is that you can attack the person that is the biggest threat even if you can’t attack them. How many times have you been playing a deck and you want to swing in at the person with the highest life total and best board state, but you can’t because you wouldn’t be able to get through their defenses or they would wreck your army? Now think of how many times you’ve played an EDH game where one person doesn’t really have that many creatures or a lot of block potential on their board… I would venture a guess that practically every game of EDH you’ve played had one of the scenarios at some point during the game, and likely even both at the same time. You still get to swing in your big bois and punch face even if you can’t get through to the person you want to hit.

Now to the play style, obviously this is a creature based deck with a focus on beefy lads. Due to the size of the creatures you’re playing here, the average CMC for them tends to be pretty high, which means ramp. This deck plays a lot of ramp, but it is vital that you get as many lands onto your field as quickly as possible. Because of the amount of ramping you should be doing in the early game, this deck tends to be fairly slow on the uptake, it is not uncommon for me to go through the first 5 turns without having done much besides ramping. However, don’t fret, you will still be able to use many of your removal spells during this time, so you won’t simply be sitting at the table watching others play. This lack of initial board presence can often be a blessing in disguise, players will frequently ignore you during this time except for the occasional chip damage from small attackers. The delay also gives you time to assess threats and plan targets for when you finally drop your commander. Once you have a hefty land base you will want to start playing your beefy bois, you may only be able to play one per turn but up to this point in the game you have not been a threat to the other players so there is lower risk or removal. The most important thing to remember is to only play your commander on the turn you’re going to attack!! You definitely want the element of surprise when you name a player, fortunately it’s when it’s entering the battlefield so your opponent’s playing blue don’t get to know if they want to counter it. The rest of the game just includes swinging your team every turn you can and playing another creature.

If your named opponent gets knocked out of the game early, you’ll want to get Saskia to enter again using Temur Sabertooth or Sanctum of Eternity. The alternative is to try to make attacks where the opponent can easily kill your commander so you can recast it, even better if you have Gift of Immortality on it. Occasionally players will see that you want your commander to die and refuse to block so they just take the 3 damage, but we don’t complain about getting in some free chip damage though.

Here are the beefy lads that are going to give you the game:

Combat Celebrant – Take an extra combat? Yes please!

Caller of the Pack – Imagine getting through on just one opponent with this boi. You get to keep him safe when you throw and there is massive damage potential for the poor person you named with Saskia

Angrath's Marauders – Look at any Saskia deck and I bet there’s at least one damage doubler in there

Gaea's Revenge – You don’t have to wait a whole turn for this guy to attack and that can take a game out of nowhere

Thorn Elemental – Sometimes even better than trample, it’s guaranteed combat damage to the face

Evra, Halcyon Witness – My personal favorite, pop that ability when there’s no blocks and guess who just doubled their life total and did some big damage

And there’s just one oddball interaction that I put in this deck just for fun and want to highlight: Sengir Nosferatu + Gyrus, Waker of Corpses

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97% Casual

Competitive

Date added 3 years
Last updated 3 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

7 - 0 Mythic Rares

27 - 0 Rares

32 - 0 Uncommons

17 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.89
Tokens 1/1 N Creature Sand, Bat 1/2 B, Copy Clone, Eldrazi Spawn 0/1 C, Emblem Ob Nixilis Reignited, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie Knight 2/2 B
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