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Honor's Perpendicularity v5 *PRIMER*

Commander / EDH Equip Mono-White

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Artifact (29)

Draw (16)

Lands Utility (6)

Evasion (5)

Lands Fetch (5)

Spawn (4)

Protection (3)

Recursion (1)

Lands All (38)

Ramp (17)

Tutor (10)

Enablers (5)

Free Equip (5)

Indestructible (4)

Attacker (3)

Wrath (3)

Commander (1)

Commander: Balan, Wandering Knight

Equipment (19)

Creature (15)

Removal (9)

Hexproof (5)

Lifelink (4)

Graveyard Hate (3)

Lands Basic (18)

Sideboard

Draw (8)

Removal (5)

Lands All (3)

Equipment (2)

Enablers (1)

Lifelink (1)

Planeswalker (1)

Tutor (1)

Other (8)

Creature (4)

Land (3)

Wrath (3)

Indestructible (1)

Protection (1)

Ramp (8)

Artifact (3)

Enabler (3)

Recursion (3)

Counter (1)

Lands Utility (1)

Maybeboard

Enablers (35)

Weak (11)

Wrath (11)

Planeswalker (7)

Evasion (4)

Indestructible (3)

Damage (31)

Land (22)

Recursion (8)

Attacker (5)

Hexproof (3)

Lifelink (2)

Ramp (28)

Draw (21)

Removal (10)

Tutor (7)

Other (3)

v5 Started September 2022

The deck is a toolbox filled with redundant effects to enable consistent gameplay. Cards are sorted by default to my custom groupings of card function. The maybeboard is full of interesting alternative cards that I felt were weaker or lacked key synergy with my primary strategy.

The deck's plan is to suit up Balan with indestructible, hexproof and evasion to directly attack and eliminate opponents with commander damage.

I'm new to evaluating power level, but I'd optimistically peg this current iteration at a focused-optimized 7/10.

This is my first attempt at a guide. I've examined and rexamined these cards for far too long, but this exercise has been helpful for organizing my thoughts and recording them for future play. Please let me know your thoughts. Thanks for reading.

Last update: 2021-04-03 Previous Version: 2019-11-10 This is an 'unlimited budget' and tuned version of the original.

The priority for Balan's equipment is generally in the following order. Note that damage is a low priority. You only need Balan to be at 10 power total with two equipment and evasion to eliminate a player each turn. Between his base 3 and incidental 1s and 2s with his other equipment, you will rarely need direct damage.

  1. Hexproof/Haste
  2. Utility
  3. Indestructible
  4. Evasion
  5. Surplus Utility/Damage

Hexproof/Haste

The combination of haste and hexproof here make early turn prioritization very high value. Hexproof is important enough for additional redundancy. Consider Champion's Helm or Mask of Avacyn from the maybe board.

  1. Lightning Greaves The shroud isn't substantially inferior to hexproof and the equip 0 cost is extremely useful for a turn 4 Balan.
  2. Whispersilk Cloak Lacks haste, but has evasion. Better for mid/late game when haste isn't as important.
  3. Swiftfoot Boots I play this if I draw it; I won't tutor for it unless Lightning Greaves is in the graveyard/exile.

Utility

I would generally prefer Indestructible over utility, but the ability to Ramp or Draw early is too valuable to pass up on. Choose one and consider coming back for another once you meet your other requirements.

  1. Sword of Feast and Famine Evasion redundancy, damage and pseudo-ramp. The discard is negligible.
  2. Sword of Fire and Ice Evasion redundancy, damage and card draw. The bonus targeted burn damage can act as pseudo-removal.
  3. Sword of the Animist Ramp your mana base and ensure an extra land drop each turn is a great long term investment.
  4. Mask of Memory Replaces Infiltration Lens. Planning to hit another player, but if that's not possible, may need to be swapped back out (Previous text: Cheap card draw with a cheap equip cost allows you to move this to another creature once evasion is present on the board.)

Indestructible

Both of these options have their benefits to consider situationally. Indestructible is almost always essential to avoid our own removal and wrath/removal from opponents. It may not be necessary if you have the protection/evasion from the utility swords.

  1. Hammer of Nazahn This allows you to to freely equip new items when they are cast and some incidental damage.
  2. Darksteel Plate The equipment is also indestructible which helps counter some removal.

Evasion

This may be skipped if you have sufficient evasion from the swords in the utility category.

  1. Whispersilk Cloak Evasion and shroud redundancy.
  2. Prowler's Helm Walls are more rare than a lack of non-basic lands. An alternative would be Trailblazer's Boots from the maybe board.

Surplus

  1. Batterskull Vigilance is incredibly useful. Pair that with damage and lifelink are this is one of the most fetched equipment in the deck. I would consider vigilance redundancy with Sword of Vengeance
  2. Argentum Armor Targeted removal and 6 damage. You can even attack one player and destroy a permanent belonging to a different player.
  3. Colossus Hammer 10 Damage for 1 mana is insane, but generally unnecessary. If all you need is damage, then this is an option. An alternative is Blackblade Reforged from the Maybeboard.

Here are some suggestions for what to fetch with each Tutor. There are only two tutors we need to discuss in detail as the remaining four only fetch equipment; equipment priority is in the previous section.

**Recruiter of the Guard **

Here are the valid creatures from the deck and their qualities worth considering:

  1. Puresteel Paladin Card draw and free equip costs
  2. Metalworker Great mana ramp
  3. Stoneforge Mystic Tutor for a tutor? If you need the equipment that badly.

Lower priority options:

Enlightened Tutor

This can get equipment if you need it, but it can also get one of these goodies:

  1. Land Tax Almost always hit your land drops with this enchantment. And it's cheap!

Lower priority possibilities:

Equipment Tutors

Refer to the equipment list above. These tutors are:

  1. Steelshaper's Gift
  2. Open the Armory
  3. Stoneforge Mystic
  4. Stonehewer Giant

Honor's Perpendicularity refers to my favorite book series, The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. In an effort to avoid spoilers, just go read the books. You won't be disappointed.

By "unlimited budget" I mean that I do not plan to acquire the deck, merely to play with it in a digital format. I continue to specifically avoid certain cards, such as Mana Crypt and Mox Diamond due to their high price tag. However, here are some alternatives to reduce the deck price. If you remove these cards, the deck will end up around $300 (about $525 less than the full deck here).

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32% Casual

68% Competitive