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Tinybones, Bladerunner [PRIMER]

Commander / EDH* Combo Control Discard Group Slug Mono-Black Primer

Icaruskid

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Artifact (16)

Creature (12)

Planeswalker (2)

Sorcery (16)

Land (33)

Commander (1)

Commander: Tinybones, Trinket Thief

Enchantment (13)

Instant (7)

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"I need ya, Deck. This is a bad one, the worst yet. I need the old blade runner. I need your magic." - Bryant, Blade Runner (1982)

Sushi Master: "He say you under arrest, Mister Deckard."
Deckard: "Got the wrong guy, pal."
Sushi Master: "He say you blade runner."

Tinybones, Trinket Thief is a rogue that puts replicants, your opponents, in top deck mode, drawing cards and dealing damage every turn they discard, running life totals down a knife's edge to a near suicide combo finish.

  • You find unconventional decks appealing.
  • You prefer to play your commander every game.
  • You enjoy using your life total as a resource.
  • You have fun playing in a proactive and disruptive style.
  • You feel great pulling off a combination win.
  • You want an unusual commander that can also serve as a wincon.
  • You like rogues.
  • You dislike attacking opponents' hands.
  • You don't want to play your commander every game.
  • You prefer to win through combat damage.
  • You enjoy games with low risk.
  • You prefer to play under the radar.
  • You are on a budget.
  • You have a conscience.

"The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long and you have burned so very, very brightly" - Tyrell

Tinybones, Trinket Thief draws cards when opponents discard, making discard an efficient strategy to accelerate through the library. And with almost 25 discard effects in the deck, there is little need for unconditional draw spells because discard is draw.

So play Tinybones, Trinket Thief and discard effects as soon as possible to get the draw engine online, quickening the hunt for damage sources and combo pieces.

Optimal piloting involves leaning into the discard strategy because the velocity it generates and the disruption that slows opponents down are essential to survival. Do not fear going down to 5 life if it creates a critical mass of card loss for opponents and puts combo pieces in hand! Being bold with discard creates winning opportunities that a conservative play style will not.

Embracing risk, plummeting life totals, and living on the edge of the knife is what it means to be a blade runner.

"Gosh, you've... really got some nice toys here." - Battie

  1. Faith's Abyss
    With Faith of the Devoted and Skirge Familiar in play, use Necropotence or Peer into the Abyss to get 20 cards in hand. Then use Skirge Familiar to discard 20 cards and sink 20 mana into Faith of the Devoted doing 40 damage to each opponent.

  2. Little Death
    With Tinybones, Trinket Thief and Skirge Familiar in play, use Necropotence or Peer into the Abyss to get 18 cards in hand. Then discard 18 cards, creating 18 mana off of Skirge Familiar 's ability and activate Tinybones lifedrain ability 3 times to do 30 damage to each opponent without cards in their hand. With other damage effects and natural gameplay this should be enough to win.

  3. Bloodcrank
    Get Bloodchief Ascension online and Mindcrank in play so any card hitting their graveyard finishes off an opponent.

  4. Group Slug
    Drain opponent lifetotals by discarding them to death. Bloodchief Ascension , Faith of the Devoted , Painful Quandary , and Gibbering Descent do incremental damage. Twilight Prophet and Bolas's Citadel can also add to lethal damage.

Alternative combos not featured in this list:

“That Voight-Kampf test of yours. Have you ever tried to take that test yourself?” – Rachael

Discard and Tutors are the primary parts of the machine that probe your memories and those of your enemies to arrive at the truth, and win.

DISCARD
Tinybones, Trinket Thief only draws you one card per turn no matter how many opponents have discarded or how many cards they have discarded that turn. So it is important to choose diverse discard effects that enable both abilities from Tinybones balancing single-target discard vs multiplayer discard, one-time discard vs repeatable discard, cheap discard vs more mana-intensive multicard discard, discard on your turn vs discard on opponent turns, discard that you choose vs discard of an opponent's choice.

Efficient, repeatable, multicard, multiplayer, multiturn discard are preferable and rarely exist all in one card.

  • Efficient discard is important because it gets the draw engine going as soon as Tinybones is in play. Since this can happen as soon as turn 1 or 2, having a 1 mana discard effect puts the foot on the gas.
  • Multiturn is important because it gets 3 cards as each opponent plays their turns.
  • Repeatable and multiplayer are the only hope of bringing more than one opponent to zero cards in hand and are essential to Tinybones as a win condition.
  • Discard density matters. Decks with 10 or 15 discard effects are only reliable when running low lands, all the expensive fast mana rocks and all of the expensive tutors. As this deck is not built that way, 20+ discard effects is the minimum.

Here is the breakdown of discard effects with different combinations of these features and a few bonuses:

Anvil of Bogardan - Efficient, repeatable, multiplayer, multiturn.
Arterial Flow - Multiplayer, multicard. Lifedrain bonus.
Bottomless Pit - Repeatable, multiplayer, multiturn. Random selection of what gets discarded.
Burglar Rat - Efficient, multiplayer.
Court of Ambition - Repeatable, multiplayer, multicard. Damage bonus.
Duress - Efficient.
Gibbering Descent - Repeatable, multiplayer, multiturn. Adds damage.
Inquisition of Kozilek - Efficient. Choice of what gets discarded is a bonus.
Liliana of the Veil - Repeatable, multiplayer. Ultimate is a bonus.
Mind Rake - Multicard, multiplayer.
Necrogen Mists - Repeatable, multiplayer, multiturn.
Oppression - Repeatable, multiplayer, multiturn.
Painful Quandary - Repeatable, multiplayer, multiturn. Adds damage.
Plaguecrafter - Multiplayer. Adds removal of creatures and planeswalkers.
Rankle, Master of Pranks - Repeatable, multiplayer. Removal mode is a bonus.
Rotting Rats - Efficient, repeatable, multiplayer.
Smallpox - Efficient, multiplayer. Removal bonus.
Syphon Mind - Multiplayer. Big draw bonus.
Tasigur's Cruelty - Efficient, multiplayer, multicard.
Thoughtseize - Efficient. Choice of what gets discarded is a bonus.
Vicious Rumors - Efficient, multiplayer, multicard. Damage bonus.

TUTORS
Vampiric Tutor , Demonic Tutor , and Grim Tutor speak for themselves as efficient tutors without restrictions.

One of the benefits of running the relatively high amount of 34+ lands in this deck is that it renders the restriction of Beseech the Queen almost irrelevant. And given the ramp density Dark Petition is easily viable, especially as it casts any 4 out of 5 combo pieces for free.

Scheming Symmetry is efficient but has the downside of giving an opponent a tutor too. That downside is mitigated by winning on the same turn, or when opponents are forced to discard their hand, or by a follow up target-player-discard effect like Thoughtseize .

The top targets for tutors are combo pieces and the best of those is Necropotence because it also draws cards efficiently if other combos are off the table. But if you have Mindcrank or Bloodchief Ascension in hand then those combo pieces, or a damage enabler like Liliana's Caress , might be preferable.

Tyrell: "Would you... like to be upgraded?"
Batty: "I had in mind something a little more...radical."

A quick reference of competitive alternatives:
Beseech the Queen > Imperial Seal
Syphon Mind > Diabolic Intent
Inquisition of Kozilek > Chains of Mephistopheles
Peer into the Abyss > Ad Nauseam
Swamp > The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
Swamp > Lotus Petal
Swamp > Mox Diamond

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Casual

94% Competitive

Revision 31 See all

(4 years ago)

-1 Arterial Flow main
+1 Dauthi Voidwalker main
+1 Elderfang Disciple main
-1 Imp's Mischief maybe
+1 Necrogoyf main
-1 Sangromancer main
-1 Stunning Reversal maybe
-1 Swamp main
+1 Tourach, Dread Cantor main
-2 Vedalken Orrery main
-1 Words of Waste maybe