Hey Kmwark10149, thank you very much! Always makes me happy when people like the list.

As for Marisi, its funny you mention it. I was just considering putting it in before I saw your comment. Its an interesting card, but I dont know if it goes in. Here are my thoughts.

It is one of those cards that I wish cost 1 more and had haste or cost 1 less and had less power and toughness. 4 is so awkward. I have to pretend it costs 5, because Saskia is the 4 drop.

So if I play it out on turn 5, it essentially means I can attack unopposed on turn 6. It takes some setting up, but it is a board breaker. Im unsure honestly, I think it will need to be tested first. Do you have any experience playing it by chance?

Unfortunately Blitzak, I don't have much experience with the card yet. The system that I play test on hasn't really worked out most of the kinks with C19 cards. But I can actually see this hitting the board before Saskia, because it will either eat remove meant for Saskia or it could open up the oppenents defenses for a full swing on the following turn.

Just wanted to say how awesome this deck is.

So Kmwark10149, I tested Marisi out and he is really good. Especially with only 2 opponents. You just play them off each other and own the table. I usually play 1 on 1, but definitely worth a slot when playing multi.

Thanks DankMagicianD! I think so too, haha.

Blitzak I'm glad to here it. I finally got to test him myself and it has never been a dead card in hand.

This looks very strong and a lot of fun! What do you think about Tahngarth, First Made? I think it would be great at dealing more damage to opponents. I am aware that it might have the same issue as Marisi like you mentioned in the other comment, but I am not sure.

What do you think of Legion Warboss ?

And what about Varchild's War-Riders

Hey Malistros, you are right, Marisi and Tahngarth are very similar. In a multiplayer game they're both way better. I could see them getting switched in if that was something you wanted to do. War-Riders was in the deck for a long time at the start, but it made more problems than it was worth sadly.

DankMagicianD that is a great suggestion too, Legion Warboss is really good. Its like having a second Goblin Rabblemaster almost. I have thought about using it but the hard part is finding room, there are so many strong 3 drops!

Hey Blitzak,

I am working on a Saskia the Unyielding deck myself, and I had some questions about piloting the deck.

1. When you play Saskia, who do you normally name? The same person you are swinging at for the double damage, or a separate opponent for more evenly spread damage. Do you find it easier to focus one player at a time, or use Saskia to focus two.
2. When the person you named with Saskia dies, what how do you reset Saskia's target? If you don't does that mean you are often loosing potential damage?
3. Would you consider a card like Restoration Angel? As it has pseudo haste buy having flash, and can also reset Saskia for more beat down and/or save one of your creatures from targeted removal.
4. How often do you find you run out of gas? Or do you aim to close out games fast enough that it doesn't often become an issue?
5. How do you deal with board wipes? Aside from Boros Charm I feel like you must get blown out quite often to boardwipes, no?
6. A card like Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, seems like it would be an amazing finisher in a deck like this, especially since it has so much synergy with Saskia. Do you find its not good enough for the mana cost?
7. This is kind of a catch all question, but what do you find your biggest hurdles are when piloting the deck, and what are some tips and tricks that your wealth of experience might offer to other Saskia pilots.

Thank you for taking the time to read my questions :) I hope they aren't too much!

Hey aviark13, thanks for taking an interest! I'm going to answer these in the context of a 3 player game. I don't really play Saskia in games of 4+.

1. I usually try to get double damage on the more dangerous opponent. Sometimes when they are especially hard to attack, or the other opponent is especially easy, I will split the damage.

2. I didn't worry about resetting Saskia because once I can kill one person, my board can usually finish off the other person as well.

3. Resto angel would be a good choice if you wanted some options to change targets, I just chose to focus more on pure aggression.

4. I have added a lot of card advantage/tutors and am at a point where I rarely run out of gas. Like you say, these games end up being fast.

5. Board wipes are the biggest issue for any creature based deck, but I have more than just Boros Charm. Gaddock Teeg and Thoughtseize both function as anti-board wipes. Even when I do get board wiped, the deck is very good at recovering. Combine that with my opponents being low on life before the wipe, and closing out game isn't often a problem.

6. Gisela is a great card, but it never got cast even when I did draw it. I had the same issue with Elesh Norn, they just cost too much for this deck. I wouldn't question a deck running either of those cards, they were just too slow for me.

7. The hardest part is finding the line for cards to put in the deck. There are so many cards that seem like auto includes on paper that just don't work the way you want them to in a game. There are a lot of cards that are traps too. Damage doublers combo great with Saskia, but I haven't included them in favour of things that play a more active role.

Other than that the two most important things are keeping the curve down and knowing what you want to be doing each turn. You can't spend your first 2 or 3 turns ramping and then play Saskia into an empty board. That just isn't how she wins.

Hope that answered your questions! I'd love to see a link to your list when you get it ready!

Since this deck gets a lot of power onto the board faster than almost any other deck , what about Realm Razer to lock down the game?

Xenagos, God of Revels is a massive threat and really at home in a deck like this.

Hey, I am happy to see that you really ended up playing Mirri's Guile. How is it performing so far?
Also, sorry if this question has already been answered, but why are there so few anti-control cards or hatebears in the deck? Cards like Smol Thalia or Silence.

Hi DankMagicianD! Realm Razer is a pretty interesting suggestion! It's like an armageddon that costs 2 more and comes with a creature. It could be worth it, but likely suffers from the same issue as armageddon. There is no middle ground with cards like this. Either they win you the game or sit in your hand because you arent far enough ahead. It could be worth testing, Realm Razer might be better more often.

Hello CaptCreek! I should probably give Xenagos another shot, he was in very early versions of the deck but came out because I made him a commander of a different deck and just never replaced him... Hard part here is cuts. It would have to be something that costs 3 or more I think. I have many 3s. Any thoughts?

Hello again TCG-Player! Yes! Thank you again for that suggestion, Mirri's is always great. I would rather it than something that just draws a card honestly. You can't compete with that on turn 1. I had Thalia in there, but took her out because she wasn't as strong of a deterrent as I hoped. Maybe I just never got her out in the right game, I know she is very powerful. Silence is one I haven't tried here, could steal some games. To answer the question more broadly, its a difficult balance to jam in hatebears without slowing down the aggro too much. I could see switching out maybe Giver of Runes for a different hate bear. Do you think it should be Thalia?

Blitzak How attached are you to Zurgo Helmsmasher? It could maybe be swapped for Xenny.

@Blitzak
Glad to hear that!
It is undeniably true that most hatebears can't compete with the raw piles of stats that are some of this deck's creatures, but as of recent, I really found myself enjoying some stax pieces in various decks. A deck that is oddly similar to this one is my Nath of the Guilt Leaf Elf/Discard deck (I am not going to put a link to it here, since I am not trying to advertise my own deck right now, if you really wanna check it out, feel free to look trough my decks). While it is not entirely fast-paced aggro, it resembles the same overall game plan: Kill your opponents before they have a chance to get their deck to work or before they can interact with your stuff. In case of my Elf-deck, I don't necessarily try to outspeed my opponents, I rather take all their resources and options to destroy my board and then beat them with my army of creatures, one at a time. And stax pieces play a key role in that strategy.

A few examples:
- I assembled a giant Elf-army, but I know that at least 2 of my opponents are likely to have a boardwipe in hand. My last card in hand is Demonic Tutor --> Winter Orb. Everyone is tapped out, so the table scoops.
- Every time I play a Collector Ouphe the table collectively sighs and spends the next few rotation to do everything they can to get rid of it (even wasting entire turns and tutors)
- Turn 2 Oppression --> no opponent has cards in hand by turn 5, let the beating begin.

My point is, that there are many great cards out there that punish more reactive strategies.I think this deck's biggest weakness is that you can only be so fast. I think this deck is perfectly tuned in this regard, but if you can't go faster, the only way is to make everyone else slower. So I think the trade off that must be considered is how much speed you have to sacrifice in order to slow down your opponents to an amount that makes it worth it. Obviously, hate/stax in the form or creatures if way better fitted for this deck's aggressive strategy, because it would be fatal to take a key turn off to play a hate-piece without advancing your offensive power.

Smol Thalia could be really great, but this deck plays quite a lot of non-creature spells itself. Collector Ouphe for example has proven incredibly useful and I think it would very well be worth the trade-off, as it sometimes literally cuts people's mana in half. If you would like me to create a list of hatebears that I would suggest, just let me know ;)

I love love love the way this deck looks! I been looking to make a saskia aggro type deck. I just have a concern with having 34 lands. I know its an aggro deck but there is no way to ramp for reasons I understand because of the low curve just missing land drops in EDH can be tough. But I'm curious to know how its been running.

Also how about Odric, Lunarch Marshal, got lots of keywords in there. :)

Also, to add, how about Anax, Hardened in the Forge for some board wipe value?

Hey man !

I love the deck and Saskia, I used to run Blood Pod, and Recently started Saskia, and im just curios, How about stuff like:

[Fiendish Duo], I know you’ve talked about Gisela, but Duo is easier to cast, and comes down a turn before, and could be a finisher?

Is [Eldritch Evolution] and hardcasting the only Way to get Hoof Down? And why not [Natural Order]?

Have you ever tested [Grim Flayer]?

And is hate pieces like [Magus of the Moon] too hard on the mana base and too understated ?

And is not running [Gaea’s Cradle] a budget issue or because its too slow ?

CaptCreek, Zurgo fills a pretty similar role to Xenagos, so thats a pretty good suggestion. I am hesitant to take him out because I have never been sad to draw him. I would really rather cut down on my 3 drops!

TCG-Player! I have spent a lot of time thinking about what you said, and I think you might be right. "if you can't go faster, the only way is to make everyone else slower" has really stuck with me recently. I have been thinking of adding more things like Thalia, Heretic Cathar. If you had to suggest two to add what would you pick? I'm guessing Collector Ouphe is one of them! haha

Hey Cruizen93! I'm glad you like it! 34 is the lowest I would go, I don't often have issues but it does happen sometimes. I have considered going back up to 35, but it isn't a problem often enough to make me do it yet. As for your suggestions, I really considered Anax, Hardened in the Forge when he came out but I'm not sure I have enough red. He could be worth it just for the second ability though. Odric is pretty good, but I have to look at him as a 5 drop. In that case he just isn't quite on the same level as the things I'm playing at that point in the game. He's really close though.

Hi Kirkensgaard!

Thank you for your suggestions and thought provoking questions! Lets get into it...

Fiendish Duo is really tempting. The only thing holding it back is the lack of haste. If it (or Gisela) had that, I would have to find a place. Even if it was one less mana I would consider it. As it is, it is still a bit too slow I think.

Those are the only ways currently, yeah. I would consider other ways to sneak them in, but natural order doesn't do the trick here. It used to be in, but I just don't have the green creatures to be able to cast it reliably. Including Saskia I only have 12, and I really don't want to sac her either!

I did try Grim Flayer when it came out, but my deck doesn't get the cards into the graveyard fast enough for it to get the +2+2. I have to get really lucky with its ETB.

As you suspected, Magus of The Moon would hurt me more than probably any other deck I play against.

Gaea's Cradle is because of speed, I have one in my elf deck. It used to be in here, but when it's my only source of green there were times I got really screwed.

Blitzak

Maybe Drana, Liberator of Malakir? It seems good but it seemed like maybe a lower impact 3 drop, and definitely lower impact than Xenagos.

(I really like your list btw! Saskia is badass!)

@Blitzak
I looked up a few utility creatures that you might want to consider.

• Collector Ouphe: Green is the one color without creature-boardwipes, but also the only color with land ramp. Every other color has to relies on artifacts (mostly) to have a form of acceleration. The Ouphe is always greeted with eye rolling and sighs as he usually slows down at least half the decks on the table. Many greenless decks are completely screwed and can't do anything but sit there and wait to draw another land.
• Kataki, War's Wage: Does basically the same, shuts down all mana rocks.
• Thalia, Guardian of Thraben: Makes not only all boardwipes cost more, but also slows down all acceleration except for dorks (witch are all green). Not sure, if it conflicts with this deck's high number of own non-creature spells.
• Vryn Wingmare: If Thalia works really well, there is another.
• Sanctum Prelate: If you know your meta well, you might be able to turn off almost all boardwipes. The stats are quite bad tho.
• Leonin Arbiter: Definitely better in more competitive metas. Shuts down fetchlands (also your own!), ruins all fast combo decks and prevents tutoring for boardwipes.
• Aven Mindcensor: Same thing.
• Deathrite Shaman: I know this card used to be in the deck, but I think this is one of the best cards in commander, period. Depending on your meta (the amount of fetches), it always produces meta. You could also max out on your own fetches. But the most important thing is: Many decks straight up can't attempt to pull of their combo, against instant speed graveyard hate.
• Anafenza, the Foremost: I really think this card should be in the deck. Great stats, a nice attack trigger and a passive ability that cripples lots of decks just added on top (also prevents lots of combos).
• Selfless Spirit: Not a hatebear, but I don't know why this card is not in the deck.
• Dauntless Escort: Slightly worse.

Loving the deck! Have you considered strangleroot geist?