Introduction
A little backstory on this deck: I have been playing MTG for many years now, and fell into a slump with deckbuilding. Most of my decks devolved into combo decks, and I wanted to move away from that into a new area. I tried build synergistic decks, but they were usually highly commander dependent and didn't function that well unless there were multiple pieces out. I realized that most of my decks were not very aggressive, instead more of engine-building, and wanted to try something new. I wanted to build a deck that satisfies that Timmy side of every Magic player, the desire to slam down a powerful card and threaten the very existence of my opponents. At the same time, I didn't want to make the same deck as everyone else, and wanted to bring my own flair to a commander.
Enter Saskia the Unyielding.
Her ability to double damage/spread it out among more than one opponent is quite powerful, but something I noticed is that people were not taking advantage of her ability when coupled with damage-doubling (or tripling) cards like Fiendish Duo or Fiery Emancipation. This deck satisfies my desire for synergy by coupling her with those cards, but also the thrill of playing singularly powerful cards like Aurelia, the Warleader, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, and Finale of Devastation. It also satisfies my engine-building urge through cards like Phyrexian Arena and Breena, the Demagogue.
The Core: Smashing Face!
The core of this deck revolves around combat, and so we have plenty of combat-focused cards.
Cards like Fiendish Duo, Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, Fiery Emancipation, and City on Fire help boost our damage in combat, and work quite well with Saskia's ability. For example, with Fiery Emancipation out, if Saskia connects with an opponent, she will deal 9 damage to that opponent, and then 27 damage to the opponent chosen through her ability (because the trigger is separate from the combat damage, so it will be tripled). So just with our commander and Fiery Emancipation, we can easily deal 36 damage! Seems pretty strong to me, and this forms the backbone of the deck - getting two or more damage multiplying effects, especially with Saskia on the table.
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Pathbreaker Ibex, and Unnatural Growth work to increase the stopping power of our creatures and turn them into deadly threats.
Aurelia, the Warleader, Karlach, Fury of Avernus, and Port Razer give us extra combat steps to get those reps in, and work very well with cards like Pathbreaker Ibex and Unnatural Growth.
If we ever need to finish the game off, cards like Finale of Devastation and Triumph of the Hordes help us do just that. Finale lets us tutor a card like Aurelia, the Warleader or Pathbreaker Ibex to push in for the win, and Triump of the Hordes lets us surprise our opponents with infect.
Doomsday is an odd choice for this deck, but I love it here as a way to stack your powerful cards on to your deck and forces you to go all-in. Plus, cards like Aurelia, Elesh Norn, and Fiery Emancipation seem fitting for bringing about the apocalypse!
The Support: Card Draw and Mana
All decks need some good ol' card draw and ramp, and so here is my package:
For ramp, I am using some classics in Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Farseek, and a host of 1-mana creatures. But the all-stars are Bloom Tender and Faeburrow Elder, as they generate 4 mana each with Saskia on the field. Most of my tutors are used on turns 1 and 2 just to find them, since they so dramatically accelerate the gameplan.
Most of the cards I have for card-draw are self explanatory, but some of the spiciest are Dark Confidant, Stronghold Arena, and Keen Duelist. Dark Confidant and Stronghold Arena are rather risky in this deck, since the average mana value of cards is so high, but I found that getting a card-drawing engine out as soon as possible is worth it - we generally lose because we didn't get to enact our gameplan fast enough, not due to incremental lifeloss. Keen Duelist is kind of like a reverse Confidant - she allows us to turn our high cost into an advantage, as we can target an opponent who has low-cmc in their deck to stave off the life loss.
We also have a number of tutors in the deck. The vast majority of the time I use them turns 1 and 2 to grab a source of mana or card draw, whichever I am lacking. If I need mana, Bloom Tender and Faeburrow Elder are my go-to. If I need card draw, Breena, the Demagogue, Tymna the Weaver, or Esper Sentinel are my typical targets.
The Protection: Removal and Utility
The enemy always seems to have a removal spell handy, so we need to be proactive! Heroic Intervention and Teferi's Protection keep our board safe from the enemy. Lightning Greaves and Rhythm of the Wild provide the oh-so valuable haste while also protecting from targeted removal or counterspells. And Conqueror's Flail protects our turn, ensuring that our gameplan is enacted as planned.
Speaking of having a removal spell handy, we have a few of our own. Assassin's Trophy is a catch-all answer. Swords to Plowshares, Bitter Triumph, and Damn help remove single-target threats, with the latter working with Damnation to clear the board (bonus points of you have a Heroic Intervention to protect your own board). Lastly, Terror of the Peaks works well with the damage doubling and tripling cards, as he can repeatedly snipe opposing creatures until we need to smash our opponents face with some damage.
Finally, we come to the utility cards. We have some powerful creatures, so Animate Dead and Phyrexian Reclamation are very useful at returning our threats should they be answered. Dauthi Voidwalker smashes graveyard strategies. Because we are generally only casting one non-creature spell a turn, Deafening Silence is useful at slowing our opponents and halting combo and storm strategies. Drannith Magistrate also slows our opponents down by preventing them from casting their commanders, as well as cheating spells from exile or the graveyard. Lastly, Wandering Archaic
makes our opponents think twice before casting their spells, even something as innocuous as Rampant Growth, as we get to do the same.
The Gameplan
Turns 1-2 are mainly used to establish your engine. Use the fetch lands to fix your mana base and the assortment of tutors to either grab ramp (usually Faeburrow Elder or Bloom Tender) or card draw (such as Dark Confidant, Phyrexian Arena, and Breena, the Demagogue), depending on what you need.
Turns 4-6 are used to play your big threats, such as Fiery Emancipation, Aurelia, the Warleader, and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite.
Once the engine is online of steady card draw and mana, the goal is to just keep dumping threat after threat onto the table until the enemy stops moving.
If you stuck around to read this long, thank you! This deck has been a pleasure to put together, and I'm glad to share they joy with you. Please leave a comment to give me some of your thoughts, and feel free to upvote!
