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Zurgo's Workforce Reduction Plan (Zurgo Primer)

Commander / EDH Aggro Aristocrats Bracket 3 RBW (Mardu) Sacrifice

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Creature (30)

Sorcery (4)

Land (32)

Enchantment (10)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Zurgo Stormrender

Instant (12)

Artifact (11)

"There is always strength in numbers. The more individuals or organizations that you can rally to your cause, the better"

— Mark Shields.

  1. Replaced Canyon Slough with Shadowy Backstreet for mana-balancing.
  2. Replaced Bone Devourer with Elegy Acolyte

This deck is an Aggrocrats deck built around the Mobilize mechanic. The strategy is simple: Make a ton of tokens on attack, deal as much damage as possible, deal a little more when the tokens die at end of turn. Of course, this means we first need a token army. Mobilize is the perfect way to get this temporary army.

Our first token generator is the commander himself, Zurgo Stormrender. This copy of Zurgo has Mobilize 1, meaning it makes a token each time it attacks. It also benefits immediately from Mobilize's forced sac mechanic. Zurgo Stormrender reads: "Whenever a creature token you control leaves the battlefield, draw a card if it was attacking. Otherwise, each opponent loses 1 life." This is a small pinging ability at first glance. In reality, it deals a ton of damage.

To make Zurgo worthwhile, we need more than just mobilize 1. We have a ton of creatures with Mobilize up to Mobilize X on Avenger of the Fallen, which is dependent on the number of creature cards in our graveyard. In total, we have nine creatures with Mobilize. This doesn't seem like a lot, but it is important to note that we have several creatures with a pseudo Mobilize ability.

Adeline, Resplendent Cathar says "whenever you attack, for each opponent, create a 1/1 white Human creature token that’s tapped and attacking that player or a planeswalker they control," or Pseudo-Mobilize X that makes Humans.

Ainok Strike Leader says "Whenever you attack with this creature and/or your commander, for each opponent, create a 1/1 red Goblin creature token that’s tapped and attacking that player," also has Pseudo-Mobilize X that makes Goblins.

Hero of Bladehold says "Whenever this attacks, create two 1/1 white soldier creature tokens that are tapped and attacking", essentially a Psuedo-Mobilize 2.

Mardu Siegebreaker says "When this creature enters, exile up to one other target creature you control until this creature leaves the battlefield. Whenever this creature attacks, for each opponent, create a tapped token that’s a copy of the exiled card attacking that opponent. At the beginning of your next end step, sacrifice those tokens," a Pseudo-Mobilize X that makes a copy of an exiled creature.

Mardu Strike Leader says "Whenever this creature attacks, create a 2/1 black Warrior creature token," essentially a Pseudo-Mobilize 1 that makes a 2/1 Black Warrior.

In total, we have 9 Mobilize creatures including our commander, and 5 Pseudo-Mobilize creatures. That brings our total to 14.

These aren't our only token generators, however. We do have some more passive token generation.

Elegy Acolyte Creates a 2/2 colorless Robot artifact creature token at the beginning of our end step if a nonland permanent left the battlefield this turn.

Ophiomancer makes a 1/1 black Snake with Deathtouch as long as we don't have a snake token at the beginning of our turn. This is an easy swing and sac creature in this deck.

Martial Coup makes X soldiers equal to the amount of mana pumped into it, which can be a game-ender with Ashnod's Altar.

Bitterblossom makes a 1/1 black Faerie Rogue creature token with flying at the beginning of our upkeep at the cost of 1 life.

Grand Crescendo also makes X 1/1 green and white Citizen tokens, which can also be a game-ender with Ashnod's Altar

Secure the Wastes also makes X 1/1 white Soldiers, which is a third game-ender with Ashnod's Altar

Will of the Mardu creates a number of 1/1 red Warrior tokens equal to the number of creatures an opponent controls

And of course we have Spawning Pit *list*, which lets us create a 2/2 Spawn token.

We also have a few artifacts that can help with token generation. Blade of Selves gives an equipped creature Myriad, which has some fun combos with a few different creatures, and Infantry Shield, which gives a creature Mobilize X, where X is equal to that creature's power. This has a very funny combo with creatures like Twilight Drover. Twilight Drover reads, "Whenever a creature token leaves the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on this." This means if five tokens die or are exiled, five +1/+1 counters are added to Twilight Drover. Generate another 5 tokens next turn? Now Twilight Drover is an 11/11. Drop Infantry shield on it? It has Mobilize 11. Of course this is assuming the creature is not killed by one of your opponents. Still, it is a fun combo to pull off.

We have a few one-time-only token generators as well.

Bastion of Remembrance creates a 1/1 white Soldier when it enters.

Within Range creates two 1/1 red Warrior creature tokens when it enters.

While we have way more ways to make creature tokens than just these, these are our main methods of outright token generation. With these, we can make a ton of tokens fast and quick, but with our doublers, we can get even more.

Since this deck relies on tokens and the death of said tokens, we need as many tokens as possible. Thankfully, white and red provides us a ton of ways to double our tokens.

Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation   triples our tokens every time we create them. The creature reads, "If one or more creature tokens would be created under your control, three times that many of those tokens are created instead." That means if we make 3 tokens, we actually make 9. If we make 12, we make 36. This is a massive boost to our token generation that can end games and wipe the board.

Anointed Procession does a similar effect, doubling our tokens instead of tripling them. It reads, "If an effect would create one or more tokens under your control, it creates twice that many of those tokens instead." As you can imagine, 3 tokens become 6, 12 become 24.

Redoubled Stormsinger also doubles our tokens on attack. It reads, "whenever this attacks, for each creature token you control that entered this turn, create a tapped and attacking token that’s a copy of that token." So if we made 9 tokens passively, we get 9 more on attack.

Of course we have a few combos that can be a pseudo-token doubler. We have Requiem Angel and Afterlife Insurance as a combo that gives two tokens per every one creature death. Essentially, create a ton of tokens, cast Afterlife Insurance before they die, and then either let them die or sacrifice them. The Afterlife 1 ability given to our creatures by Afterlife Insurance triggers, then Requiem Angel's ability triggers. This means if you had 5 tokens, you now have 10 1/1 spirit tokens.

Technically Isshin, Two Heavens as One is also a pseudo-token doubler by doubling attack triggers. Isshin reads, "If a creature attacking causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time." This means when we swing with a creature with Mobilize or some kind of pseudo-Mobilize creature, we get to make double what we normally would. If a creature has Mobilize 2, it now technically has Mobilize 4. If something has Mobilize 3, it now has Mobilize 6.

Three spells stand out as token doublers when used with Ashnod's Altar. Martial Coup, Secure the Wastes and Grand Crescendo can double the amount of tokens you had if you sacrifice the tokens to Ashnod's Altar. This means if you sacrifice 5 tokens to Ashnod's Altar and pump that 10 colorless mana into Martial Coup or Secure the Wastes or Grand Crescendo, you get 10 tokens in return.

Our tokens dying at end of turn is meant to make Mobilize balanced. Let's take advantage of their deaths.

The aristocrat part of this deck comes from these benefits. While you could overwhelm your enemies with a lot of creatures, this isn't always the greatest way to do this, especially since you have multiple ways to wipe the board. As such, let's bring in our modest number of aristocrats.

Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim causes each opponent to lose 1 life whenever a creature dies.

Mirkwood Bats causes each opponent to lose 1 life whenever a creature token is created or dies.

Morbid Opportunist lets us draw a card whenever one or more creatures die, although this only triggers once per turn.

While not a traditional aristocrat, Twilight Drover gets a +1/+1 counter anytime a creature leaves the battlefield. This lets us benefit from deaths, exiles, and sacrifices.

Of course we have more ways to benefit from the deaths of our creatures.

Bastion of Remembrance acts as both a way to ping our opponents and give us a little life whenever a creature we control dies.

Dictate of Erebos helps us either even the field or overwhelm the competition by forcing opponents to sacrifice a creature anytime a creature dies.

Of course we have everyone's favorite, Goblin Bombardment, which lets us ping a target opponent at the cost of sacrificing a creature. This works really well when sacrificing an army of tokens, although it is best used to clean up a single opponent or an overwhelming board state.

Plumb the Forbidden lets us sacrifice one or more creatures to copy the spell for each sacrificed creature. The spell itself lets us draw 1 card at the cost of 1 life. Empty your hand and want a new one? Just sac a few tokens before they die and draw a new hand.

Finally, we have Village Rites, which lets us draw two cards at the cost of and sacrificing a creature.

You need a place for your army to retreat to. This deck has ways to make that happen.

This deck's biggest weakness is the disappearing Mobilize army. Over your next several turns, you will be assaulted by opponents who see only a couple creatures on the board. Let's fix that.

Fanatical Devotion is a great sac outlet that lets up regenerate a target creature per sac. This means we can save our mobilize creatures by sacrificing mobilize tokens. With certain pieces on the board, the damage is dealt anyways. It's a wonderful tool in this deck!

Ghostly Prison is a way to punish our opponents for attacking us, requiring them to pay for each creature they attack us with. There is a creature equivalent in Windborn Muse, and an artifact equivalent in Norn's Annex that requires our opponents to pay .

Of course, these effects stack. So lets say you have Windborn Muse and Norn's Annex on the board at the same time. Now you opponents must pay for each creature they're attacking you with.

We also have a couple spells to help us remove specific threats and protect our board. For spot removal we have Swords to Plowshares, Fatal Push, Dismember, and Path to Exile. For board protection, we have Teferi's Protection, which not only preserves our board from massive boardwipes, but it also saves our tokens from Mobilize's sacrifice requirement. Make a massive board, use Teferi's Protection, and suddenly you have a massive army, or you preserve your army that would've been destroyed by a specific spell or board wipe.

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