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Balan, One-Punch Woman

Commander / EDH Aggro Artifact Attach Bracket 4 Competitive Equip Mono-White Primer Protection Theme/Gimmick Voltron

Monomanamaniac

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Equipment (24)

Interaction (8)

Mana advantage (19)

Card Advantage (15)

Commander (1)

Commander: Balan, Wandering Knight

Land (33)

A vicious voltron style deck that kills opponents with a single attack step. Balan is a very powerful commander with a single goal, cheat on equip costs and strike to deal 21 commander damage as fast a possible. With the help of a few powerful equipment this deck can devastate opponents. The main one punch combos are: Balan, Wandering Knight + Grafted Exoskeleton + Whispersilk Cloak , Balan, Wandering Knight + Colossus Hammer + Trailblazer's Boots , or Balan, Wandering Knight + Commander's Plate + Inquisitor's Flail as well as many others will let you end the game with one punch

Normally equipment have a much higher cost than you think. You must pay to cast and you must pay to equip, and that means that even the cheapest equipment also cost their equip costs. Balan cheats this system by having an ability that allows you to equip them for 1 at instant speed. This makes some equipment that might not work otherwise great additions to the deck. This ability doesn't target, so it can be used even if Balan has shroud.

Balan is the focus of the deck, and she's accompanied by a cast of low mana value creatures that generate value over time and or soak up early removal and damage.

Esper Sentinel can come down early and generate a ton of card draw and can be equipped later on to make his effect harder to pay for. This creature has proven itself to be a staple in this deck.

Giver of Runes and Mother of Runes provide protection from specific colors, granting evasion and limited protection from spot removal. They're reliable and reusable on offense and defense

Weathered Wayfarer a land tutor on a body that is repeatable.

Knight of the White Orchid fetches a basic plains upon etb, otherwise it's just another efficient body

Puresteel Paladin one of the Ace creatures in the deck, turns all equipment into cantrips that replace themselves. Also reducers equip cost to 0, which can make them even cheaper than just with Balan. Works extremely well with Bloodforged Battle-Axe + Puresteel Paladin

Sram, Senior Edificer turns casting equipment into card draw.

Stoneforge Mystic another Ace creature in the deck that can single handedly take over games. Her first ability tutors for an equipment to hand and her second ability allows equipment to be played for often less. She works well with blinking, especially Stoneforge Mystic + Sword of Hearth and Home .

Lion Sash a hybrid equipment creature that acts as graveyard hate and can give Balan a huge power boost.

Archivist of Oghma a situational draw engine that will draw a lot more cards than the amount of hate that it'll draw. A deceptively strong creature

Oswald Fiddlebender essentially birthing pod for artifacts, Oswald can generate a ton of value by turning decent equipment into the perfect answer.

Deep Gnome Terramancer a repeatable ramp source that punished opponents for searching for lands. Land ramp is among the most common and safest types, so this triggers often

The deck utilizes a small number of spells to hamper opponents and provide solutions for problems that might occur.

Enlightened Tutor tutors any artifact or encouragement to the top of the library

Path to Exile an exile removal spell that the deck can actually take advantage of. It can also be used as bad ramp

Steelshaper's Gift, Open the Armory tutors any equipment to hand

Swords to Plowsharessingle target exile creature removal. One of the most played cards in the format

Heliod's Intervention can be used to destroy any number of artifacts and encouragement, or less often can be used to gain life.

Winds of Abandon single target exile removal that can be overloaded to turn into a one sided board wipe.

Flawless Maneuver free instant speed indestructible

Generous Gift destroys any permanent and replaces it with a 3/3 elephant.

Excise the Imperfect exile based removal for any non-land permanent. Replaces it with an incubation token

Teferi's Protection one of the best cards to protect against just about any situation.

This deck runs very few enchantments. Enchantments do not progress any of Balan's plans. Even with that in mind, a few made the list

Land Tax repeatedly fetches 3 lands to hand wherever needed. Can be used for land fixing and land thinning

Forge Anew gives equipment flash speed and can cheat on equip costs. Better in the early turns for getting equipment onto other creatures without having to invest additional mana. Also has a recursion ability that can bring an equipment straight to the battlefield.

Smothering Tithe heavily taxes opponents for card draw or creates a ton of treasures. A staple card of white.

Artifacts help provide card advantage and mana ramp. These tools provide the means to execute Balan's plans early.

Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Everflowing Chalice, Mana Vault, Mana Crypt, Jeweled Lotus, Mox Opal, mana rocks provide a fragile but precious resource that can accelerate the plan.

Wayfarer's Bauble land ramp that is great in the early turns.

Archaeomancer's Map tutors 2 plains to hand, then provides a way to ramp lands from hand if opponents use land ramp.

Sensei's Divining Top provides card selection from the top of the library and can be great for setting up future turns.

Scroll Rack can provide card selection and advantage with the various tutor effects

Mystic Forge a key combo card for the deck, can cast artifacts from the top of the library Mystic Forge + Sensei's Divining Top is a powerful card draw engine

Equipment provide the main strategy for the deck. Balan needs to deal 21 commander damage to eliminate an opponent, and ideally it needs to be in a single attack step. Equipment provide land ramp and card draw, as well as pumping up Balan's power and giving her protection and evasion

Bloodforged Battle-Axe this axe can quickly make deadly copies of itself. One interaction with this card is that if Balan is equipped with this equipment only, and she hits an opponent, she can use get activated ability to attach the copy at instant speed and gain double-strike by having 2 equipped.

Colossus Hammer provides Balan with the power needed to become lethal with any other equipment. Combos with a lot of the equipment in the deck.

Commander's Plate gives Balan a nice power boost and pro red, blue, green, and black.

Shadowspear grants great key words and a small power boost. Can be used to remove hexproof and indestructible

Golem-Skin Gauntlets gives Balan a power boost equal to the number of equipment attached to her.

Blackblade Reforged provides a huge power boost equal to the number of lands under Balan's control. Works well with the land ramp equipment.

Conqueror's Flail provides a small power boost and stops opponents from casting spells on Balan's turn.

Inquisitor's Flail halves the amount of power needed to kill opponents by doubling damage output.

Lightning Greaves Swiftfoot Boots grants haste and protection from targeted removal. With balan you don't have to worry about shroud slowing her down too much, because she can bypass it with her ability, and haste is great.

Robe of Stars gives a toughness boost and the ability can be used to protect Balan from removal with phasing.

Sanctuary Blade gives a decent power boost and a flexible protection. Works well for getting any protection colors that Balan might not have, or give her the ability to swing at someone she might not otherwise have.

Sword of the Animist provides a small power boost and reliable and repeatable land ramp.

Trailblazer's Boots grants evasion to Balan for any player who has a nonbasic land.

Umezawa's Jitte a versatile card that gets counters upon combat damage. Can be used for removal, but also the counters can be removed between first strike damage and normal damage to grant the power boost right away

Thran Power Suit gives a massive power boost equal to the number of equipment attached to Balan and gives her ward 2, making her much harder to target.

Dowsing Dagger   gives a decent power boost but mainly used to transform for extra mana

Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus a living weapon that can serve in the early turns, then gives Balan a small power boost and ramps lands.

Mithril Coat is indestructible and grants Balan indestructible, and can equip the first time for free.

Nettlecyst a living weapon that gives Balan a huge power boost equal to the number of artifacts and enchantments under Balan's control.

Sword of Fire and Ice grants protection from red and from blue and gives a decent power boost. The ability can be used to snipe down creatures or deal extra damage plus card draw.

Sword of Feast and Famine grants protection from green and from black as well as a decent power boost. If Balan doesn't kill the player she's attacking with this, they'll be 2 lands down, and the untapping land helps Balan deal with the rest of the table.

Sword of Hearth and Home grants protection from green and white as well as a decent power boost. The blinking creatures ability is fairly limited, but the ability to land ramp twice per turn is impressive.

Sword of Forge and Frontier grants protection from red and green as well as a decent power boost. Impulse draw 4 and 2 extra land drops every turn is a ton of value.

Sword of Vengeance grants a ton of important keywords like haste, trample, and vigilance, as well as giving a decent power boost.

Grafted Exoskeleton grants infect, and a nice power boost. Makes Balan lethal with any other equipment

Hammer of Nazahn grants indestructible and a decent power boost. The hammer allows equipment to be attached for free when they etb

This deck has a very low curve and can afford to play both a slim mana base as well as several utility lands. The basic lands count has to remain reasonable though so that land ramp effects can still work

Bonders' Enclave repeatable card draw on a utility land

Buried Ruin a utility land that can be used to bring back lost artifacts

Command Beacon a utility land that can move Balan to hand if her command tax becomes too steep

Emeria, the Sky Ruin comes into play tapped but produces white and can eventually recur creatures from the graveyard

Geier Reach Sanitarium a utility land with repeatable looting effect

Gemstone cavern can occasionally be played as a pregame action

Inventors' Fair a utility land that gives a passive life gain effect and can be sacrificed to tutor for any artifact.

Mikokoro, Center of the Sea symmetrical card draw and it's also a utility land

Minas Tirith can come into play tapped, produces white, and can be used for repeated card draw

Myriad Landscape comes into play tapped and is a utility land that can be sacrificed for land ramp.

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx a utility land that can be tapped to produce mana equal to the devotion to white

Ancient Den artifact land produces white and helps with metalcraft.

Rogue's Passage a utility land that can make Balan unblockable

Treasure Vault a utility land that can be sacrificed to produce treasures

Tyrite Sanctum a utility land that can power Balan up, turn her into a god, and make her indestructible.

Urza's Saga a utility land that can produce a body and fetch a needed artifact.

War Room a utility land that can be used to draw cards

This deck begins the game as quickly as it can, utilizing spells and creatures while playing key equipment early even if they're not getting equipped. The first goal is to get 2 or more equipment and be able to produce 6 mama by turn 3-4. Once that is accomplished the deck moves into phase 2, dropping in Balan and using her ability immediately equip every equipment on the board to her. If that goes right and she ends up with haste then The goal is to slam her into the strongest player on the board. Usually Balan kills opponents in a single attack, going around the table until every player is defeated. The focus of this deck is speed, evasion, and ramp as much as possible.

Balan, One-Punch Woman

Commander / EDH Monomanamaniac

SCORE: 103 | 47 COMMENTS | 15602 VIEWS | IN 42 FOLDERS

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Updates Add

Back by popular demand — Dec. 5, 2022
Edit

Due to the overwhelming positivity that I've received for this deck I've decided to revive it and give it some new life. There's a lot of cards going in and coming out. If you have any thoughts or comments, adds or removals I'd welcome the help. Thank you everyone for helping me see that this unique commander still deserves some love

Big changes — July 20, 2021
Edit
About to invest in serious upgrades — Oct. 20, 2020
Edit
New cards and synergies — Oct. 5, 2020
Edit
Opinion on power level — Aug. 28, 2020
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Revision 43 See all

(4 months ago)

+1 Adaptive Omnitool main
+1 Aetherflux Reservoir main
+1 Assault Suit main
-1 Blackblade Reforged main
-1 Bloodforged Battle-Axe main
+1 Bloodthirsty Blade main
+1 Brotherhood Regalia main
+1 Caduceus, Staff of Hermes main
+1 Champion's Helm main
+1 Chrome Mox main
+1 Claim Jumper main
+1 Cloud Key main
-1 Dowsing Dagger  Flip main
-1 Everflowing Chalice main
-1 Flawless Maneuver main
-1 Forge Anew main
+1 Foundry Inspector main
-1 Giver of Runes main
-1 Golem-Skin Gauntlets main
-1 Grafted Exoskeleton main
and 42 other change(s)