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Orochimaru, the snake ninja

Commander / EDH Midrange Ramp Tempo Theme/Gimmick Tribal

juldawg

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Creature (37)

Instant (11)

Land (35)

Artifact (7)

Commander (1)

Commander: Kaseto, Orochi Archmage

Enchantment (7)

Sorcery (2)

Sideboard

Creature (6)

Instant (2)

The Orochimaru deck

A deck inspired and built around the animated tv-series character, Orochimaru, from Naruto. This build is also ok to be read even if you never saw any Naruto episodes. Anyways gather up your chackra and read how this twisted and creepy snake-ninja wins you some games. This has been by far one of my favorite Commander decks. It is a flavour and theme based deck that is still responsive and fun to play. Drawing cards and having a lot of options is at least in my books a more fun way to play the game. The decks idea is kept simple enough and the build is pretty straight forward. The deck does not have to be too expensive. There are so many budget ways to make this deck work. And again in controversy it can be modified to be more competitive with just slight additions on the expensive cards. The main idea remains the same - Sneak through enemy defenses and conquer the world!!

So the commander of the deck is without doubt Kaseto, Orochi Archmage. That sets up the theme of the commander deck and the colors to play it. Around these themes, the deck was easy to start building around: Snakes: Mystic Snake, Ninjas: Sakashima's Student, Asian: Kami of the Crescent Moon, Creepy: Viseling, etc. themed cards are preferred. Deranged Hermit's art work as an example is just like Orochimaru himself and it seems to work well with Kaseto, Orochi Archmage and the Ninjutsu abilities, so the card was added.

Mechanics

This is a tempo based deck that snowballs into a beast. Look through the list of cards and you'll get the idea. Blue loves removal via bouncing and drawing. So the main idea is as simple as sneaking in the right creatures with our commander or Sun Quan, Lord of Wu and then drawing more, bouncing creatures/permanents back to the opponents hand or other benefiting effects from dealing the combat damage to the opposing player. Card advantage and board control mostly get us the win. Numerous benefits have been added for the combat damage going through the defense. Bouncing works great with our Viseling and Black Vise. This deck gets some massive draws, so cards like Sturmgeist, Lorescale Coatl and Sage of Ancient Lore   etc are great here.

Bouncing our own is also a effective way in some situations. Doing it for Equilibrium as an example is a good enough reason to do it on its own. Ninjutsu- bouncing ability synergy works also great with our commander and some creatures that enter the battlefield with effects like Deranged Hermit.

Enchantments like Beastmaster's Ascension:, Coastal Piracy and Nature's Will sure have their place in the deck with all the snakes walking trough the enemy defenses.

Psychic Venom is a under powered card, but it works ok in this deck. For the theme it sure works 100%. The reason it is included is that constant bouncing of enemy creatures, causes the enemy to keep taking the maximum out of their manapool. If they do it, they get hit. This has many times been an mistake for the enemy. Since this is quite an aggroish deck and those few lives that this venom takes, might be crucial.

Removals main focus is revolved around bounce and countering spells. There are some single creature, artifact and enchantment removals too.

More fitting cards needed

There are so any Magic the Gathering cards that I sure have missed out some. Comment and let me know if you have some sweet fitting cards that could work here. Remember, my main goal is not to make the most competitive deck. I value fun and theme too.

Also what do you guys think about this one. With all the drawing, should I include some mana ramps such as Azuza, Lost but Seeking?

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