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Wyld Stallyns - Shadowfax, Lord of Horses

Commander / EDH Aggro Budget Creature Cheat Haste RW (Boros) Toolbox

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Creature (25)

Instant (12)

Land (35)

Sorcery (7)

Commander (1)

Commander: Shadowfax, Lord of Horses

Artifact (15)

Enchantment (5)

They say Shadowfax is lord of horses. But someone must have got their taxonomy wrong, cos this dude is the GOAT! (eh, eh?)

When a card like this is printed at uncommon, you know that power creep is real. Putting creatures into play for free is a very powerful mechanic, even with power restrictions. And the key thing with Shadowfax is that you can bend those restrictions to get some really big babies into play. Sensible mana curve, begone!

The order of the day is first, boost Shadowfax's power. Second, use your free creatures to lay down some dirty effects that disrupt your opponents' boards and beat 'em up. And third, use the mana you would normally waste on creatures on shenanigans.

This is a bit complicated, because you need enough density of damage boosters to always have one available (even if one gets removed), and enough density of nasty creatures to always be dropping one on attack, as well as a healthy chunk of card draw and the usual quota of removal and ramp. You get round this by having loads of power bumps tacked on to other stuff, anthems that provide some evasion or protection, and creatures that give you extra power, card draw and removal.

So (for instance) you've got seven lands in the deck that can give Shadowfax a power boost. Flavourful because it's like sending the horsey to do some exercise on the Teetering Peaks, get some fresh horseshoes at the Forge of Heroes or lick the crystals at the Tyrite Sanctum so he can be strong enough to carry a Myr Battlesphere into battle (quite the feat!).

The Tao of Boros sez, you gotta draw dem cards to keep from gassing out in the later turns. Even more true with Shadowfax, since free creatures empties the hand pretty quick, so Sandstone Oracle and Dragon Mage are star players. Tome of Legends and Bonders' Enclave provide a regular income, Into the Fire and Leave / Chance can get you a new grip when you are out of bombs, and Symmetry Matrix is an unreliable but potentially explosive card draw engine. There's a bunch of cantrips tacked on to other effects to keep things ticking along.

I like this deck because it gets around Boros's traditional struggle for mana, so you get going quicker early on, and later in the game you can make big plays like Blast-Furnace Hellkite while holding up mana to deal with the inevitable blowback. Lorehold Command is actually playable in this deck, which is a phrase I never thought I'd hear myself saying.

In terms of creatures, the vibe is power-lower-than-cmc-would-suggest tribal. Big butts or flying are also advisable, since you don't want your free creatures to die in combat after they drop. The perfect example (in fact the first thing I thought of when building the deck) is Luminate Primordial. Strong card, bit expensive cmc-wise for EDH in the present day... but not if it's free!

I set the power limit for my would-be free creatures at 5, because counting on getting Shadowfax up to power 7 is too much effort and too easy to disrupt. Most creatures are 4 or less to be super-sure that you are going to be able to drop them early. But thanks to your many anthems, these creatures frequently drop at power 6-7 anyway. There's also a bit of a go-wide subtheme to doubly exploit your anthems. Chancellor of the Forge and Nahiri's Resolve is a very tasty combination!

While not being super-busted it is actually a strong deck, fun to play, super-aggressive and not too durdley or linear, and pretty robust due to Shadowfax's haste, which gives you great bounce-backability against bordwipes. Best of all, being one of the few decks in which lands that come in tapped actually speed up the strategy, it is also super-cheap to build (with the exception of Esper Sentinel, which is replaceable).

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93% Casual

Competitive