Isamaru - The Howling Blade

Commander / EDH Competitive Mono-White Multiplayer Voltron

ShinobiWnKenobi

Creature (27)

• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Drannith Magistrate
• 1x Ethersworn Canonist
• 1x Giver of Runes
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Hokori, Dust Drinker
• 1x Karmic Guide
• 1x Knight of the White Orchid
• 1x Leonin Arbiter
• 1x Linvala, Keeper of Silence
• 1x Lodestone Golem
• 1x Phyrexian Revoker
• 1x Puresteel Paladin
• 1x Ranger-Captain of Eos
• 1x Ranger of Eos
• 1x Recruiter of the Guard
• 1x Relic Seeker
• 1x Reveillark
• 1x Salvage Scout
• 1x Silverblade Paladin
• 1x Sram, Senior Edificer
• 1x Stoneforge Mystic
• 1x Stonehewer Giant
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle
• 1x Thalia, Heretic Cathar
• 1x Weathered Wayfarer

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Aura of Silence
• 1x Land Tax
• 1x Sigarda's Aid
• 1x Smothering Tithe

Artifact (20)

• 1x Crucible of Worlds
• 1x Fireshrieker
• 1x Hammer of Nazahn
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Quietus Spike
• 1x Scroll Rack
• 1x Shadowspear
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Static Orb
• 1x Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1x Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1x Sword of Light and Shadow
• 1x Sword of the Animist
• 1x Sword of Truth and Justice
• 1x Uba Mask
• 1x Umezawa's Jitte
• 1x Winter Orb

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Armageddon
• 1x Austere Command
• 1x Catastrophe
• 1x Day of Judgment
• 1x Dismantling Wave
• 1x Ravages of War
• 1x Steelshaper's Gift
• 1x Wrath of God

Planeswalker (3)

• 1x Ajani, Caller of the Pride
• 1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
• 1x Karn, the Great Creator

Commander (1)

Land (32)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
• 1x Emeria, the Sky Ruin
• 1x Flagstones of Trokair
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x High Market
• 1x Inkmoth Nexus
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 19x Plains
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Wasteland
• 1x Windswept Heath

Instant (5)

• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Return to Dust
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Unexpectedly Absent

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Maybeboard

Creature (4)

• 1x Bounty Agent
• 1x Heliod, Sun-Crowned
• 1x Leonin Abunas
• 1x Walking Ballista

Instant (1)

• 1x Lapse of Certainty

Artifact (3)

• 1x Aether Vial
• 1x Scytheclaw
• 1x Spear of Heliod

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Ravnica at War

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Gideon Blackblade
• 1x Serra the Benevolent

Land (1)

• 1x Kjeldoran Outpost

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Overview

Before I go into further detail about my deck, I want to defer you to this retired primer that served as the inspiration to make this deck and take it further: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/multiplayer-commander-decklists/490576-isamaru-the-howling-blade-my-dog-wields-swords

_**As of now this deck has been retired, Isamaru is hard to work with in the current environment and has been surpassed by Yoshimaru. I'll keep the deck up for archive and reference purposes, but as of now The Howling Blade 2 is Isamaru's replacement.

(http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/the-howling-blade-2-your-sister-is-a-werewolf/)**_

It's been a few since I first constructed this deck, in the beginning the deck looked a lot like an amalgamation of the deck in that link allowing with the suggestions from people who replied to that thread. Over the years, however, I've made significant changes to tighten the deck's focus on Equipment Voltron while trying to counterbalance Mono-White's inherent lack of card drawing.

As it stands now, alot of the cards in this deck are set in stone so a VERY strong argument would have to be made to justify removing a bulk of these cards in favor of others. Even removing something as simple as Winter Orb changes the deck's strategy substantially, as such it's become increasingly difficult to make changes to the deck as new cards become introduced.

This is where the sideboard comes in. Up until now I've largely ignored the allowed 10 card side board for EDH, comfortable that my decks were capable of handling most of what comes at them. With Isamaru being such a tightly focused deck that hinges on a lot of key cards, the only solution was to make a sideboard for it.

Deck Philosophy Show

So before I go into combos, card breakdowns, and strategies I wanted to touch a little on my philosphy for the deck. Infinite combos are pretty heavy in my playgroups, with board lockdowns not too far behind; so when I put this deck together I wanted to make a deck that had ZERO infinites in it. I wanted to make something that was effective and able to win games in my playgroups without having to rely on an infinite combo to achieve it.

When I originally constructed Isamaru using that Primer as a guideline, the only EDH deck I had was Animar, Soul of Elements. Since it was the only deck I was using for about 3 years, overtime Animar became Infinite Win Combos.dec with anywhere from 5-10 different game winning infinites it had little trouble building to.

So having spent a lot of time playing a ridiculous deck that won through infinites I wanted to move to something a little different, which eventually led me to Isamaru. So one theme I remain adamant about sticking to is avoiding infinite combos when possible, but that doesn't mean the deck is without its combos it's just that most of them can only be executed once a turn or are more synergetic/interaction based.

Core Strategy Show

Isamaru is a pretty straight forward deck at first glance; you play puppy T1, play some equipment, then go all Cujo on your opponents. Simple. Efficient. Effective. Over time you stack your equipment while using stax cards to disrupt their gameplan and/or mana bases.

Underneath the surface, however, there is much more to this deck than simple mauling. Being one of the few solid one mana generals in the format offers Isamaru an option few generals have in the early game: Choice.

Consistently dropping turn 1 means Puppy can swing the game right out of the gate and as such Isamaru presents you one of two choices: spread the damage around or single someone out. Both choices are viable for their own reasons and obviously the structure of your playgroup will have one choice favored over the other, but just having them is one of the reasons this deck is fun to play.

Having said that, here is a minor breakdown of the two strategies Isamaru has available on turn 2.

Spread The Love Show

This is one I often use in my playgroups because it's the strategy that induces the least amount of rage. Basically, on turn 2 you pick someone and smack them for 2 damage. On your next turn, you choose a different person, so on and so forth. Spreading the love doesn't garner a lot of hate because most players will understand you're playing an aggro deck so you'd have to be stupid to not at least turn a dude sideways every turn. By hitting different players for (as best you can) an equal amount of damage won't cause of them to start hard targetting you.

If you go this route you will want to fly under the radar for as long as possible. Smack a player here, play a dude there, drop an equipment, and so on. Keep your resources tight and refrain from blowing out your hand as much as possible. By being that guy that gets a hit in once in awhile while refraining from creating a large field, you'll allow that one person to become the target instead of you...buying you time to come off the leash when the moment presents itself.

Usually you'll play things safe while you use cards like Weathered Wayfarer, Puresteel Paladin, Scroll Rack, Enlightened Tutor, and so on to dig through your deck and fill out your hand. If you have to drop that Winter Orb or Static Orb to slow things down or keep that threatening player under control, then do so, but don't do it unless you're ready for the amount of attention those cards are gonna bring your way.

One main advantage to this strategy is that by presenting yourself as a minor threat in relation to your other opponents, it buys you time to dig for a card that would swing the game almost entirely in your favor. You'd be surprised how taking a lesson from Jeb Bush by going slow and steady will win you the game because you managed to build up to an Indomitable Archangel or Puresteel Paladin with some equipment then follow that up with a Boseiju, Who Shelters All protected Armageddon or Catastrophe. Then all of a sudden your opponents are looking at you, their lack of a landbase, and a very large and scary creature staring them down.

Go For The Throat Show

I want to stress this right now: Only use this if you have a consistently threatening player in your group or if you play with someone you REALLY hate. This strategy has caused a large amount of butthurt in my playgroup just from the simple fact that NOBODY likes to be targeted by someone right out of the gate. It's one thing if a player did some stuff to make them a target, but considering puppy swings turn 2 you're talking about making someone your primary target from that second turn and onward. People tend to not like that and it will make whoever you are targetting fairly upset.

Having said that, let's continue. This strategy is extremely straight forward, but has to be played very carefully cause a lot can go wrong. All you have to do is by Turn 2 you decide which of your opponents would be the biggest threat to your chances at winning the game and single that person out. You're gonna want a VERY favorable hand if you decide to go with this strategy, so typically speaking you'll be looking for to have at least 1 combination consisting of the following cards by Turn 3:

Rogue's Passage

Quietus Spike

Sword of Feast and Famine

Winter Orb

Inkmoth Nexus

Sword of the Animist

Fireshrieker

Once your target catches wind of what you're doing (typically 3rd or 4th turn), they're gonna start dedicating a decent amount of their resources fending you off. This is where this strategy can fall apart on you, because if you blow your resources just on them it leaves you wide open to the two other players in your group in addition to your very angry target.

As such, the combinations you'll be looking for from the mentioned cards that will help you achieve your goal quickly and efficiently are as follows:

Quietus Spike + Fireshrieker An EXTREMELY deadly combination that will put your target on a 3 turn clock at most (if they are close to starting life) if you just have these two and Isamaru. If you throw in ANY other equipment you reduce that 3 turn clock to 2 turns or instant kill.

Winter Orb + Sword of Feast and Famine This will make an instant target out of you by the whole board, so use this with caution. If you're lucky you'll get a few turns out of this before either the Sword or Orb get nuked, so take that time to plan out your recovery options and how you'll defend yourself when the hate turns towards your side of the table.

Inkmoth Nexus + Fireshrieker/Sword of Feast and Famine

Inkmoth Nexus has proven itself on too many occasions for me to ever consider cutting it from the deck. You'll be surprised how many times players in my group forget about this land becoming a 1/1 infect creature until it suddenly smacks them for 10 infect out of the blue. This is a slower and more mana intensive method of taking your target out of the game (5 turns with shrieker, 3 with one of the 4 Swords), but it's still an effectively method since they can't just gain life to nullify your damage. Sword of Feast and Famine is the best sword to have in this scenario for the obvious reason that it'll untap Inkmoth Nexus when the Nexus hits your opponent, but any of the other 3 swords will work fine if you have one of those instead of the F&F.

deck:Rogue's Passage & Sword of the Animist This isn't a combination so much as these two cards are important to your strategy; Rogue's Passage will always guarantee you a hit once you have the mana for it while Sword of the Animist lets you thin your deck & accelerate out lands with each swing. In short; getting consistent hits in and/or keeping ahead of their mana base is important if you're gonna single someone out.

Combos & Synergy Show

Reveillark + Karmic Guide + High Market

A simple once a turn combo that lets you reanimate any 2 power or less creature from your graveyard each turn. All you have to do is either have Reveillark in your graveyard when you play Karmic Guide or just skip paying Karmic Guide's echo cost with Reveillark on the field. Once that's set up each turn you sac the Reveillark to bring back Karmic Guide and another creature, then the Karmic Guide brings back Reveillark. On the following turn, you skip the echo cost and do it again.

For you Infinite users out there, you can replace High Market with Ashnod's Altar for infinite colorless mana, Altar of Dementia for infinite mill, Blasting Station for infinite damage, and/or Martyr's Cause to take no damage from all sources.

Emeria, The Sky Ruin + High Market

Repeat any creature ETB effect once per turn, very effective when in a pinch.

Land Tax + Scroll Rack

As long as someone controls more lands than you, every turn you search for your 3 Plains then activate Scroll Rack to draw 3 cards and put the 3 Plains back on top of your library. Then next turn when you tutor again, they get shuffled back in.

Overall this is the THE most effective means of digging into your deck while also offering the choice of catching up on land drops. Right behind this is Nahiri, the Lithomancer + Skullclamp (consistent 3 cards a turn), with Puresteel Paladin & Sram, Senior Edificer being last.

Winter Orb/Static Orb + Thalia, Heretic Cathar

Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle + Salvage Scout

Crucible of Worlds + Strip Mine/Wasteland

Last, but not least.

Sideboard Choices Show

Containment Priest

This is a swap in for Ethersworn Canonist when you run up against decks with a lot of recursion. Note that it does hamper some of your strategies so it'll have to be played around, but if it stops someone from reanimating something stupid like Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger then it's worth boarding in.

Hushwing Gryff

Replace Brightling with this if you go up against a deck(s) that heavily rely on creature ETB effects like Animar, Soul of Elements.

Rest in Peace

Like Containment Priest this card is a hate card, pure and simple. If you're running up against decks that run heavy on the recursion then swap out Bloodforged Battle-Axe for this.

Phyrexian Revoker

Pretty self explanatory, this is a single focus hate card pure and simple. I'd personally swap out Bloodforged Battle-Axe for this card but the choice is really up to you.

Alternative Playstyle Show

So let's say you don't really like the idea of being THAT person at the table and you'd rather not use cards like Armageddon, Catastrophe, and Winter Orb. I run these cards in the deck so it stays roughly competitive with the rest of my group, but I can understand if that style of play doesn't really resonate with you.

Well, here's a list of cards to remove and what to replace them with:

Winter Orb -> Godsend

Static Orb -> Danitha Capashen, Paragon

Crucible of Worlds -> Leonin Shikari

Hokori, Dust Drinker -> Balan, Wandering Knight

Tomik, Distinguished Advokist -> Condemn

Ravages of War -> Divine Reckoning

Armageddon -> Grappling Hook

Catastrophe -> Scytheclaw

Aura of Silence -> Gideon Blackblade

Flagstones of Trokair -> Scrying Sheets

Wasteland -> Mouth of Ronom

Ethersworn Canonist -> Masterwork of Ingenuity

Plains -> Snow-Covered Plains

This removes the bulk of the unfun elements in favor of moving more towards Voltron and adding in some utility in the form of Scrying Sheets. I'l be testing this list out over the coming weeks and anything that doesn't work I'll adjust until I find a suitable replacement.

Date added	8 years
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	21 - 0 Mythic Rares 47 - 0 Rares 8 - 0 Uncommons 1 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.72
Tokens	Cat 2/2 W, Emblem Elspeth, Knight-Errant, Soldier 1/1 W, Treasure
Folders	favorite, Commander, Misc, Rando Fun, Commander Ideas