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<PRIMER> Shirei, Guiding the Dead </PRIMER>

Commander / EDH Aristocrats Mono-Black Primer Value Engine Weenie

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Commander (1)

Commander: Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker

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Land (34)

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Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker and an army of tiny, tiny creatures that die spontaneously.

This deck is a deck built to sacrifice its creatures and have them come back. Because Shirei's ability works on every person's turn, it is beneficial to end step all of your opponents -- Shirei works better the more people are at the table.
The commander. Some might argue, the most important part of a deck. The lead singer, the headliner, the general. This is the part of the deck people will look for.

So why Shirei, a really decrepit-looking old lady standing in a graveyard with a number of eyes that makes her look like she just stepped out of Night Vale? Not to mention old -- not a new player at all. There are three reasons I run her:

1.) Sheer power level. No matter how much we hate playing with creatures or dislike the idea that creatures' power wins games, we commander players generally look at a card with text like Shirei's and think, "only 1 power?" Well, that covers a lot of ground. Think of the aristocrats package. Myr Retriever. And not only these cards that we know and love, but other ones that we would otherwise see in a list and either glaze over or laugh at: Death Cultist. Blood Pet. These cards have an inherent power in the deck that goes through the roof when our commander is out: Would you be willing to play a 1-mana card that can kill a 4-toughness creature -- every single round of the table? Festering Mummy can do that with Shirei on the field.

2.) Subtlety. Like I was pointing out before, people don't give two f***s when they see an Overeager Apprentice hit the table. And because Shirei returns every turn, we can turn the table into a toad in boiling water -- playing a deck like Muldrotha, the Gravetide and having extremely explosive turns will be like a boiling pot: everyone at the table will do everything in their power to get out of the pot -- including killing the pilot. With Shirei, we can slowly turn up the heat -- have turns early on where we have very little impact, and slowly build up a tolerance around the table until we are entirely overwhelming.

3.) I love commanders that use every person's turn. I just do. Some people rag on these commanders because they take so much time or take the spotlight off of the person who's turn it is, but I disagree. If you do all your stuff during an end step, people will almost always see it like just another triggered ability, similar to a Verdant Force or something: its just something the player needs to do. Doing your sacrificing in response to a fetchland ... well, I can see people getting annoyed.

So, yeah. Shirei has a question that comes up pretty quickly when you build her: how will I win? Its not like these creatures will do s*** when they attack a player, they have 1 power! And the answer that always comes up is -- you guessed it -- aristocrats.
Some background on the term: Back in 2012 (13?), when Innistrad and Return to Ravnica was in Standard, a deck was very prevalent called Dirty Aristocrats based around the card Cartel Aristocrat. The goal of this deck was to get a bunch of creatures you didn't care very much about, get a Cartel Aristocrat, get a Blood Artist or Falkenrath Noble, sacrifice all the creatures you didn't care about to the Cartel Aristocrat, deal damage, attack with impunity. (Everyone who played Standard at the time feel free to correct me; this is second- or third-hand knowledge.) For whatever reason, WOTC continued printing cards like this and has been ever since: Zulaport Cutthroat, Mayhem Devil, Cruel Celebrant ... the strategy has been pushed for a really long time and, at this point, is a well-known deck shell in commander. I don't know any commander players who didn't know about Blood Artist before I met them. In fact, you are probably rolling your eyes right now, thinking, "Why did this guy think he had to talk about the origin of aristocrats?" And the answer is: I want to make this clear. I don't mean to be a hipster, doing my own thing with this list. This is just the way I would build this deck, and also the way most people build Shirei.

Also, another fun question: In the previous example of Cartel Aristocrat and Blood Artist it was very easy to pin down which one was the aristocrat: Cartel Aristocrat. However, as the strategy has evolved, the lines have become more blurred: is it an aristocrat if it can sacrifice creatures? Wouldn't that make Ashnod's Altar an aristocrat? Or is it an aristocrat if it deals damage? For the purposes of this primer, I will say "Cartel" if it sacrifices creatures and "Artist" if it deals damage, in honor of the original cards.

I generally like Cartels that can do one of three things: give us mana, hurt opponents (including removal), or give us card draw. The best of these are Ashnod's Altar, Plagued Rusalka, and Smothering Abomination, respectively. We have tons of other Cartels in this deck, but these are the ones we most want to see. Another Cartel that doesn't usually get noticed are ... well ... self-Cartels, I guess. Creatures that sacrifice themselves. This includes stuff like Blood Pet, Carrion Feeder, or Overeager Apprentice.
There are a couple requirements for Artists: we want them to be small enough that Shirei can bring them back, for one. Pretty simple. The second is a little more complex. Of course, we want to be dealing damage. Also, in the words of Lieutenant Tuvok (don't roll your eyes!), "the strongest tactical move is always the one where you will reap the highest gain at the lowest cost." It may seem simple to distill this into: get the most efficient Artists. However, the last part of Tuvok's sentence contradicts this: "at the lowest cost." Now, this cost in commander is very difficult to quantify, but the prices for an Artist are twofold: 1.) Losing efficiency and 2.) drawing hate. If we play a Zulaport Cutthroat, we are drawing hate from every single one of the other three players -- that is our cost. If we play a Blood Artist, we are sacrificing the efficiency of Cutthroat (taking 2 life away from the whole table) for lower amounts of hate (hitting one player instead of three). In fact, this might even draw some favors:

"Hey guys, I could hit you with this Blood Artist, but I'm going to throw some damage at the real problem person so that we can put them within striking distance. Back off for a little while, or I'll start hitting you instead."

I've said that line so many times.

But of course, we still want flexibility, so I put several of each of these types of cards into the deck. Depending on the dynamics of the group, you might want more or less of either one.

This is the part of the deck that Shirei truly wants and needs: any creature that, when it dies, has 1 or less power. She doesn't care what they are, but I do. We can't have every creature with 1 or 0 power; that would exceed the 100 card limit all on its own. I want five types of these creatures: ones that hurt opponents' board states, ones that hurt opponents' life total or other resources like hands, ones that get me more resources like life or cards, ones that advance my board state, or ones that can gain me advantage from other players.

These creatures are mostly ones that kill other creatures. This includes Bone Shredder, Abyssal Gatekeeper, or any of the creatures that can decrease the power of creatures steadily until they die, like Festering Mummy. the second type is useful for another reason: they can decrease the power of our own creatures if they are bigger than Shirei wants them to be.
I'm playing mono black, so this should be an obvious category: forcing opponents to discard cards. Black Cat, Burglar Rat, etc. Those two are the most useful as the first doesn't give them a choice about what cards to discard, and the second hits everyone. The same logic about Artists fits here as well.
The main resource I get out of these creatures is card draw. Dusk Legion Zealot, Skyscanner, and several others will draw me cards when they enter or leave the battlefield. The only other card that gives me a resource when it dies is Bottle Gnomes, but the lifegain on this card is surprisingly impactful, especially in a group without very much voltron.
These are mostly creatures that do one of two things: 1.) give me tokens, or 2.) get creatures back from my graveyard. The first type is cards like Marsh Flitter, and the second is cards like Cadaver Imp. One type of creature that might look like it fits into this category but actually doesn't is cards like Carrion Feeder: I only put these cards in the deck if they can sacrifice themselves; then, I can sacrifice a bunch of creatures to its ability in response to its ability, and then sacrifice it at the end in response to its ability so that none of them actually put counters on it.
This category is very slim in this deck, but could probably be bigger. It is also very abstract in its definition: Sometimes it is literally making a political move like giving something to someone else, like making a huge attacker going at an ally 0/2 with a Sorceress Queen, and sometimes it is the threat of removing something or hurting a person, like I was talking about with Artists. Because of this, the Artists like Blood Artist and Falkenrath Noble can fit into this category.
Obviously, if a creature in this deck doesn't have 1 or 0 power, it has to highly benefit the strategy -- similar to a cycling deck or a spellslinger deck or a tribal deck, anything outside the type of card that your commander wants has to be really good to be considered.

The creatures that can't come back with Shirei in this deck fit into three categories: sacrifice outlets, making others of its kind viable for Shirei, or Artist-esque creatures that do something else whenever a creature dies, like making tokens or drawing cards.

These creatures are the kind of cards that make this engine run: if you depend on your opponents killing your creatures, you have a bunch of fuel sitting in your engine without anything to burn it. These include Smothering Abomination -- actually, this is currently the only creature above the threshold currently in the deck that fits into this category, and it also fits into the third category.
This is kind of a weird category that I don't often see in Shirei lists. Maybe other people are less attached to her triggering? Anyway, these creatures either place -1/-1 counters on creatures, or give them -X/-X for a certain amount of time, or straight up making them tiny. This includes cards like Sorceress Queen and Phyrexian Plaguelord. The advantage of these creatures is that 1.) they can shrink creatures to make them viable for Shirei, or 2.) shrink other players' creatures for benefits like dying to a boardwipe or dealing less damage to an ally.
These are some of the most fun creatures in the entire deck. These are cards like Pawn of Ulamog, Sifter of Skulls, or Midnight Reaper. I really enjoy these creatures, but they can lead to some really long turns/end steps. Make sure your playgroup is ok with this happening and if not, maybe try setting up all the death triggers ahead of time? During your turn? Not sure how to remedy this issue.
At this point you might be wondering when I will talk about the actual strategy of the deck. Just you wait! I want to talk about the rest of the cards (so far I have only talked about creatures). I will go through by category of card as quickly as I can.

Ok, the most obvious part of this section: sacrifice outlets. Ashnod's Altar and Attrition are obvious: the former is part of so many infinites in aristocrats decks, and in tons of other decks that don't even care about creatures dying. The latter is an awesome removal spell: you only have to pay to kill a creature (so long as you have a creature out). Two others I really like are Dark Privilege and Gift of Doom: both are infinite (kinna?) sacrifice outlets that can also protect the commander. Gift of Doom is a bit conditional, but it is really fun in a boardwipe:

"I cast Wrath of God."

"In response, I will pay the morph cost of Gift of Doom, turn it face up and put it on my commander. Now she is indestructible, so all the creatures that just died will come back."

The Achilles's heel of this deck is the commander herself. You might notice the last part of her text: "... if Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker is still on the battlefield." This can be visualized by thinking of her as a guide that shows the way for all the dead creatures to return; if she dies, she can't guide them home. So, we need ways to protect her. I use the basic stuff for voltron, plus some aristocratic protection, but one could be a little more creative if one cared enough. This is pretty dirty/inefficient protection for her but it works.

These include: Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Whispersilk Cloak, Dark Privilege ... you get the idea.

You probably can predict these cards. Say it with me: Grave Pact, Dictate of Erebos, Dark Prophecy. Another card I think fits into this category is the first card you saw for this deck: Desecrated Tomb! I've always wanted to use this card in a deck, but I think most decks can't really support it. Shirei absolutely can.
...

SIGH never mind, just go on to the next section.

Finally, the part of this that you have been waiting for (and might have skipped everything else to read): the strategy of the deck.

The first thing to do when the game starts is: start playing low-power creatures. I feel like there are two kinds of commanders: the ones that want previous setup before they come out, and the ones that your deck needs in order to get into the game. Examples of these would be Mizzix of the Izmagnus as the second type: she wants you to start emptying your hand when she comes out, but if you do it before you get her, she can't reduce the costs. Shirei is the first type: she wants you to set up some tiny creatures before she comes out so that you don't have to spend extra mana to get the deck going.

All of this is what I categorize in my head as "pre-Shirei gameplay": all of the setup; card draw, ramp, small creatures, and all of the other stuff commander decks do. This is turns 1-4 (unless you get mana screwed). Turn 5, play Shirei. The less time people have to counter her the better. If you have to wait until turn 7 to start sacrificing stuff, the game will go very poorly. So, no matter what your hand looks like, get Shirei AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE.

After this part of the game is what I think of as the actual game: the part when we start sacrificing creatures every turn, only to have them come back, tinier than ever. This is when you wish you had a sacrifice outlet (if you don't), because your opponents are not likely to help you kill your creatures.

Then comes the inevitable part of the game: Shirei gets killed. A boardwipe happens. Someone exiles your graveyard before Shirei can bring some creatures back. What do you do in this situation?

...

You rebuild.

You get more tiny creatures.

You recast Shirei.

And then you get back in the game.

This doesn't actually take as long as you might think. Ideally, by this point you have enough mana to recast your commander the next turn, so all you need to do is get the creatures back (or find new ones if your graveyard is gone). Don't worry. The game goes on. Don't waste time mourning.

I think decks need to follow a certain amount of the builder's personality. This is how most decks are born, after all. However, I think they need to go against that personality a little bit, like a phlegmatic person playing a red deck. This can add some really great interaction and fun moments in which one can question what the deck wants them to do versus what the personality of the person wants to do; also, if the deck perfectly follows the personality of the builder, there won't be any surprises for the player or their opponents. The player only has to ask themselves what they want to do, and that will be the best thing the deck could do. On the opposite end of the spectrum, if a phlegmatic person playing a very red, very chaotic, very reckless deck gets into a position where they have the choice of whether to kill a player and take heavy casualties or stay back and continue preparing, this can add a very interesting dilemma for the player as other pilots of other decks, strategies, and personality types try to convince them to do a particular way. This deck talks to my need to do stuff on other people's turns, but speaks against my leanings towards infinite combos: a lot of my decks use an infinite to win, but this one doesn't. The first time I played it, I felt lost and confused. No joke. Now, I love the deck and its feel, despite it still going against that part of my personality.

Thanks for sticking through the primer if you did, and go back and read it if you didn't! Its (hopefully) good reading material for something you love in a time of almost complete boredom. Get outside today, think through a commander you want to build, go for a bike ride, or do something else to get the endorphins pumping hard. We all need some more entertainment, so I hope this helped.

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Jumpstart — June 22, 2020
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Ok I want to put it out there first: Tinybones would be TERRIBLE for most Shirei decks. The only Shirei deck it would be good in is one already focused on forcing people to discard cards, in which case you should switch commanders now that you have access to Tinybones (which sounds like it will be hard to get a hold of anyway).

The reason is the dreaded BCSM -- best-case-scenario mentality (shout out to Limited Resources). Imagine the best scenario for this guy in my deck: I have Tinybones, Trinket Thief, Black Cat, a sacrifice outlet, and a protected Shirei in play. Now, I can force each opponent to discard a card at random every turn and draw four cards and lose 4 life every round of the table! And if Tinybones dies, she will come back! That's pretty good, right?

Now the worst case scenario: I have Tinybones and nothing else. She does nothing for me. No ETB triggers. No death triggers. No sacrifice outlet. She is effectively an Omega Myr, which can clearly not go in the deck. (Plus she's $60 ...)

Now if we balance these extremes and take into consideration the fact that the hand hate in this deck is practically nonexistent, she's not great for the deck. Put her in a deck with tons of Black Cat, Burglar Rat, and Sadistic Hypnotist effects. Not here.

Other than that, Jumpstart is ... another failure for Shirei. However, they have been hinting that they will go back to Kamigawa soon, so hopefully we get some more tools? ...

M21 Sucks — June 16, 2020
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