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By: Leviathan, Mike Morales
Sep 23 2011 8:48am
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INTRODUCTION:  BACK IN BLACK!

So I've been gone for a little while.  I was off of MTGO for a couple of weeks, essentially due to schedule issues and the inability to find time to get online.  Once I got back on, I got a few questions about where I had been and when I was going to write again.  Honestly, I didn't think I would be missed, but it seems that at least a few of you like it enough that my absence was noticed.  So I am going to try and continue writing at least semi-regularly, or as long as I have time to get games in.  In case you were curious about my intentions.  Which I'm sure most of you aren't.  Oh well.

I had been on a budget deck building kick for a little while.  Building on a budget is interesting and challenging, as you can't just rely on the expensive staples, such as Primeval Titan or Demonic Tutor, to put your deck over the top.  Instead, I end up searching for little seen or used cards that fill in holes in my decks, or just stuff that I have thought about but could never find a home for.  In addition, I really like using Commanders that aren't often played.  Of course, building on a budget and using a Commander that is not as powerful as the ones typically played makes things difficult, but I like the challenge.  

So I was browsing my collection when I found the guy I am going to write about today.  He came out during Time Spiral block as a shout out to Fallen Empires, widely considered among the sets with the least amount of power available (I guess Homelands has an argument as well).  Now, most of you that were playing back when Empires came out might not have the best memories of the set, but for an old timer like me, the nostalgia makes the deck more fun.  Let's get to it!

THE DECK:  BREEDING FOR FUN AND PROFIT

Let's take a closer look at our Master Breeder:

endrek sahr, master breeder

For those of you that didn't play during Fallen Empires, thrulls were created to sacrifice themselves for beneficial, but typically small effects.  According to the flavor of the set, they were used by the Order of the Ebon Hand as fodder for their rituals.  Eventually, the thrulls became too numerous, and overthrew their masters during the great Thrull Rebellion.  It just goes to show that if you have enough little guys, you can win at just about any game.


Even if they look like this!

Endrek embodies the flavor of being able to create and breed thrulls, as well as their eventual rebellion.  He basically gives you free creatures for doing something that most decks like to do anyways, which is to cast creatures.  However, if there are too many thrulls in play, they start their own little rebellion and take Mr. Sahr out.  In order to make Endrek effective, we need to have ways to sacrifice our little friends so that we don't have to keep re-casting him.  In addition, we need to make sure that our creature count is high enough that we can continue to make thrull tokens.  Essentially we are looking at a variation of a mono-Black control deck, and hoping to keep it around 20 tickets as well.  Let's see how I did.

 

Looks like we can kill off a lot of our critters for good effects.  Let's take a closer look!

Sac Outlets  
viscera seer

Corpse HarvesterDimir House GuardFallen AngelKrovikan HorrorPhyrexian PlaguelordSadistic HypnotistTar FiendVampire AristocratViscera SeerAshnod's AltarCarnage AltarHelm of PossessionAttritionFallen IdealGate to PhyrexiaMalevolent Awakening 
Corpse Harvester, Dimir House Guard, Fallen Angel, Krovikan Horror, Phyrexian Plaguelord, Sadistic Hypnotist, Tar Fiend, Vampire Aristocrat, Viscera Seer, Ashnod's Altar, Carnage Altar, Helm of Possession, Attrition, Fallen Ideal, Gate to Phyrexia, Malevolent Awakening:  So we have a wide variety of stuff here.  The free sacrifice outlets are the best, obviously, but the others are great as well.  We have card draw, creature pump, tutoring, direct damage, creature control, recursion, theft, and the ability to destroy artifacts with Gate to Phyrexia.  The Gate was an all-star for me, but you have to remember to set a stop during your upkeep!  

The other card that performed better than expected was Fallen Ideal.  This makes any of your creatures a huge pumpable beatstick, and typically goes best on Endrek himself to help facilitate Commander kills.  The fact that it returns to your hand is icing on the cake.

Recursion  
malevolent awakening WoebearerXiahou Dun, the One-EyedMalevolent AwakeningPhyrexian ReclamationBeacon of Unrest 
Nezumi Graverobber, Woebearer, Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed, Malevolent Awakening, Phyrexian Reclamation, Beacon of Unrest: The deck needs to make sure that it has its best spells available, even if they go to the graveyard.  Many times you are going to want to make sure that you can continue casting creatures just to make sure that you still have thrulls to abuse.  The best way to do this is by returning the creatures back to your hand, so that you can cast them again.  As such, Woebearer, Malevolent Awakening and Phyrexian Reclamation are all great in the deck. 
Card Draw  
minions' murmurs Graveborn MuseCarnage AltarMind's EyeSkullclampPhyrexian ArenaMikokoro, Center of the Seaminions' murmurs 
Graveborn Muse, Carnage Altar, Mind's Eye, Skullclamp, Phyrexian Arena, Mikokoro, Center of the Sea, Minions' Murmurs:  There's nothing worse that can happen with the deck than to run out of creatures to cast with Endrek out.  As such, card draw is essential.  Most of the stuff here is pretty typical for Black and token decks, but the card that I found that surprised me was Minions' Murmurs.  This little seen sorcery can often draw 6 or more cards.  And most of the time, due to Endrek's restriction, you don't have to worry about losing a ton of life to it.  Skullclamp is another all-star in the deck.  
Tutors  
rune-scarred demon Corpse HarvesterDimir House GuardRune-Scarred DemonBeseech the QueenDiabolic TutorPraetor's Grasp 
Corpse Harvester, Dimir House Guard, Rune-Scarred Demon, Beseech the Queen, Diabolic Tutor, Praetor's Grasp: I tried not to go overboard with the tutors, but that's tough to do in Black.  The Harvester has 6 other zombies you can go looking for to help you out.  Dimir House Guard and transmute for anything from Grave Pact to Xiahou Dun.  Praetor's Grasp and the Demon are both cards that I used for the first time in this deck, and they both worked out very well, with the Grasp doing yeoman's work for me.  The Demon is just a big, scary beatstick along with his tutoring ability.
Destruction  
life's finale

Bone ShredderFleshbag MarauderReiver DemonShriekmawSpine of Ish SahAttritionBarter in BloodLife's FinaleMutilate 
Bone Shredder, Fleshbag Marauder, Reiver Demon, Shriekmaw, Spine of Ish Sah, Attrition, Barter in Blood, Life's Finale, Mutilate:  On top of targeted creature destruction, I quickly found that I had to have a couple of Wrath effects.  The creatures in this deck by themselves aren't that huge, and sometimes a board re-set is necessary.  Being able to cast Life's Finale and Beacon of Unrest on the same turn is always fun.

Spine of Ish Sah is the deck's sole out to enchantments.  I even included Phyrexia's Core just for the possibility of re-using the Spine.  I actually had this come up one time in a game, and it lead directly to my win. 

The Abyss Effects  
braids, cabal minion

Magus of the AbyssKuon, Ogre AscendantButcher of MalakirGrave PactBraids, Cabal Minion
Magus of the Abyss, Kuon, Ogre Ascendant, Butcher of Malakir, Grave Pact, Braids, Cabal Minion:  Since I plan on having a constant supply of thrulls to sacrifice, I thought it would be good to have ways to make people get rid of their huge bombs.  Flipping Kuon should be pretty easy with all the sacrificing going on, and his main benefit is that when he becomes Kuon's Essence, he doesn't target, like Magus of the Abyss does.

Having Braids in the deck may be scary at first, but it is definitely not the intention of the deck to rush her out there as fast as possible.  She never gets cast before turn 6, and by then typically she can either be dealt with or worked around by opponents.  But sometimes she can get rid of enchantments and artifacts, which is her main purpose.

In addition, the deck has some graveyard hate in Bojuka Bog, Withered Wretch and Nezumi Graverobber, as well as some life gain in the form of Paradise Plume, Exsanguinate and Deathgreeter.  The Deathgreeter triggers can actually add up to a good amount of life.  Blade of the Bloodchief and Khabal Ghoul both get bigger with each death that occurs.

The deck is a grinder, and often times even when you think you have the game under control it only takes one or two removal spells to set you back.  But if you are a fan of controlling, grinding decks, this isn't a bad place to start.

Now there are a couple of cards that many Endrek decks run that aren't in here:

brainspoil conspiracy

The idea is that you set Conspiracy to something besides thrull, and that way Endrek's death trigger can never occur.  Brainspoil is just another tutor to get Conspiracy.  In theory, this sounds like a great idea.  But I found that I never really needed or wanted Conspiracy.  There was never a time when I had a tutor that I thought Conspiracy was the card to get me out of a bad situation.  So I had to cut it.  However, if you did decide to throw Conspiracy into the deck, I would probably pick zombie as the creature type, as it works well with Corpse Harvester.

There were also a whole bunch of cards that I wanted to fit into the deck, but couldn't due to the high number of creatures that I wanted to play.

hecatomb

Hecatomb seems like a great sacrifice outlet, and also a way to use excess mana in the late game.  However, I found that I was typically using up all my mana every turn, and the few times that I did cast it, it didn't really come into play.  Plus, there were often times when I didn't want to sacrifice 4 thrulls at the same time.  As such, Hecatomb had to go.

contamination

This one just seemed like a brutal equalizer.  You keep it fed, and it hoses all the multi-colored decks and any deck that doesn't play Black.  People can still use artifact mana, but it's still a pretty paralyzing card.  Contamination just seemed a little more unfair than I wanted to deal with, preventing people from being able to play their cards.  It had to be cut due to being unfun.

mind slash

Targeted discard is helpful, especially against control decks.  It seemed like it would be great in theory.  However, I already have some discard in the form of Sadistic Hypnotist and Tar Fiend, and both of those are creatures as well.  Cuts had to be made, and this was one of them.

devouring strossus

This was a guy that I really, really wanted to include in the deck.  He's a huge flying trampler that can really change the game.  I figured if there was ever going to be a deck that would want the Strossus, this would be it.  However, he was just too big.  I already had 3 creatures that would automatically kill Endrek upon casting (Butcher of Malakir, Reiver Demon, and Rune-Scarred Demon) and adding another was problematic.  The top of the curve was heavy enough, so he didn't make the cut.

So there's the deck.  Let's see it in action! 

THE GAME:  FIGHT!

Here are my opponents for this game:

Momir Vig, Simic Visionary  Adun Oakenshield

Momir is probably the biggest threat here.  His ability to tutor, plus being the only Blue player at the table, can lead to some bad things.  Momir players typically come in 2 flavors.  The first is the kind that tutors up Teferi and Seedborn Muse and tries to lock people out, while playing Time Warp type of effects.  The second is the guy who just thought that Momir was cool, and puts every Simic creature he can into the deck.  We will see which one this Momir player is.  Both Karador and Adun use graveyard based strategies, so Withered Wretch will be useful. 

Momir wins the roll.  First hand:

Braids, Cabal MinionKuon, Ogre AscendantJourneyer's KiteSwampSpine of Ish SahPhyrexia's CoreShriekmaw
Braids, Cabal Minion, Kuon, Ogre Ascendant, Journeyer's Kite, Swamp, Spine of Ish Sah, Phyrexia's Core, Shriekmaw

One thing I have learned when playing this deck is that you cannot depend on drawing that third land.  So even though I may be able to play the Kite on the second turn, I might not be able to activate it.  I had strange mana issues with this deck, where I was either always drawing land, or I was never getting any.  I knew that I had to send this hand back.  Here is the second hand:

Praetor's GraspAscendant EvincarSwampSwampSwampReassembling SkeletonFallen Ideal
Praetor's Grasp, Ascendant Evincar, Swamp, Swamp, Swamp, Reassembling Skeleton, Fallen Ideal

Three lands is a keeper, and I can probably use the Praetor's Grasp to find additional mana help if necessary.  Adun mulligans to 5.  As usual, Momir = M, Adun = A and Karador = K.

Round 1
M:  Oran-Rief, the Vastwood.
K:  Grasslands.

grasslands
Cheap fetch land that's useful.

A:  Forest.
Me:  Draw Corpse Harvester, play a Swamp.

Round 2
M:  Island, Sakura-Tribe Elder, sacrificing it for another Island.
K:  Forest, then sacrifices the Grasslands for Temple Garden.
A:  Nothing.  Uh oh.

Here's the thing.  A had already mulliganed to 5 so he was obviously having mana problems.  I know that I have had several games with early mana issues, but I try to stick them out.  You never know if someone may play a Howling Mine or Wheel of Fortune to completely change your luck.  I have had games where things change by the 6th turn and all of a sudden I am in the game.  Of course, it doesn't always work out, but it's worth a shot.

Me:  Draw a Swamp, and play it.  Then play Reassembling Skeleton.

Round 3
M:  Forest, then Jace Beleren, using Jace to draw a card.
K:  Savannah, then Cultivate, putting a Plains into play and a Swamp in his hand.
A:  Forest, then Sylvan Ranger grabbing a Swamp.
Me:  Draw Reliquary Tower.  Play a Swamp, then attack Jace, knocking his loyalty down to 1.  I’m hoping that M will let everyone draw to increase Jace’s loyalty.  Then I cast Praetor's Grasp.  Two of my opponents are playing Black, but the Momir player seems like he could have some good stuff as well.  K has dropped a dual land, so I choose him.  

K  has some scary, high powered stuff.  Primeval Titan, Mana Reflection, Pernicious Deed, Angel of Despair, Sheoldred, Soltari Visionary (a nice piece of tech I hadn't seen before).  But nothing that looks overly abusive.  I pick Solemn Simulacrum to insure that I continue to get land, and for possible sacrifice fodder in the future.

Round 4
M:  Coiling Oracle, revealing Consecrated Sphinx.  Doesn’t share the love with Jace, instead drawing a card himself,  killing off Jace.  Plays an Island, then Compulsive Research, discarding Redirect and Willbender.
K:  Command Tower, then Academy Rector.
A:  Swamp, then Crystal Ball.  Hopefully that will help smooth his draws.

Me:  Draw a Swamp and then play Reliquary Tower and the Solemn Simulacrum I Grasped from K, getting another Swamp.

Round 5
M:  Forest, and suspends Ancestral Vision.  Then plays Honden of Seeing Winds.  Obviously likes his card draw effects.
K:  Forest, then Glissa Sunseeker.

glissa sunseeker
The forgotten Glissa, fun artifact destruction.

A:  Skinshifter.
Me:  Draw a Swamp and play it.  I attack M with my Skeleton and Simulacrum (37).  I don't really recommend this sort of unprovoked attacking in a control deck like this one.  The 3 damage probably won't make much of a difference.  But it was apparent that M was going to be a big threat, and I'm not very patient.  Then cast Endrek.

Round 6
M:  Island, then Consecrated Sphinx.  Ooof.
K:  Forest, then Planar Cleansing.


KA-BOOOM!
 

A uses his Crystal Ball before it blows up, and I draw Barter in Blood from the death of the Simulacrum.  K grabs Mana Reflection and puts it into play with the death of Academy Rector.  That's going to be a problem.
A:  Misty Rainforest.  It’s at this point that A notes his deck is made up completely of draft leftovers.
Me:  Draw a Swamp and play it.  Then play Endrek again.

Round 7
M:  Birds of Paradise and Oracle of Mul Daya, revealing Sol Ring.  Plays a Forest and an Island, then Fact or Fiction.  He chooses K to make the split, who puts Academy Ruins, Elvish Visionary, Myojin of Seeing Winds, and Sol Ring in one pile and Temporal Manipulation in the other.  M picks the bigger pile, with Mana Crypt being on the top of his library now.
K:  Swamp, then Recollect targeting his Solemn Simulacrum, which he plays getting a Swamp.  Then Diabolic Tutor.
A:  Sacrifices Misty Rainforest (39) for a Forest.
Me:  Draw a Swamp and play it.  Then play Ascendant Evincar, getting 6 thrulls and killing M’s Birds of Paradise.  I then attack M with Endrek (34, 3 Commander damage!).

Round 8
M:  Draws Mana Crypt, which he plays, revealing Forest, which he plays, revealing Simic Growth Chamber.  Plays Sol Ring, then Capture of Jingzhou.  Then casts Elvish Visionary, drawing the Growth Chamber and revealing Miren, the Moaning Well, which he plays, revealing an Island.  Then casts Restock, returning Capture of Jingzhou and Consecrated Sphinx to his hand.

restock
2 for the price of 1!

M:  On his extra turn, his Ancestral Vision goes off and he draws a bunch of stuff and wins his Mana Crypt roll.  (I never win those freaking rolls!)  He plays Future Sight, then the Green Sun's Zenith from the top of his library getting Primeval Titan, which searches up Reliquary Tower and Diamond Valley.  Finally he plays Fauna Shaman, Simic Growth Chamber and an Island.  The top of his library is Vesuvan Shapeshifter.
K:  Forest, then a Primeval Titan of his own, searching up Maze of Ith and Scrubland. 
A:  Forest.
Me:  Draw Diabolic Tutor.  M is tapped out and doesn’t have any fliers, so I realize that I have a shot at the rare Commander kill.  I play a Swamp, then enchant Endrek with Fallen Ideal.  I then sacrifice 5 thrulls to Endrek, making him a 13/8 flier.  Then I cast Corpse Harvester, getting 5 more thrulls.  I attack M with Endrek, feeding him 3 more thrulls and making him 19/11, enough to kill M with Commander damage.

I also attack K with Crovax (37).  Afterwards M notes that he could have gone off during the previous turn, but that he held back, and that he wouldn’t be so nice in the next games he was playing.  He likely thought that I wasn’t a threat at all, and it just goes to show that you never know what can happen in one of these games.

Round 9
K:  Casts Sylvan Scrying, then attacks A with the Titan (34), getting Temple of the False God and Vesuva, copying his Maze of Ith.  At this point K only has 2 cards in hand, but Karador is a card advantage machine.
A:  During his turn, A concedes due to lack of Mountains.  Sad times.
Me:  Draw Terrain Generator and play it.  I attack K with Endrek, Crovax and all 3 thrulls.  K uses the Maze on Crovax, and not Endrek, which is interesting.  He blocks a thrull with his Simulacrum, drawing a card and dropping to 31.  I’m not keen on the idea of another Commander kill, as it will be tough to get past K’s 2 Mazes.  I then cast Barter in Blood, making K sacrifice his Titan while I sac 2 thrulls.  I then cast Diabolic Tutor.  I either need to deal with Mana Reflection, which means getting Spine of Ish Sah, or nuke his graveyard, which means getting Bojuka Bog, Withered Wretch or Nezumi Graverobber.  I think that taking away the graveyard as a resource is a good idea, so I go for the Bog, forgetting that I already played a land this turn.  The Wretch would have likely been a better choice anyway.  At the end of my turn, K cast Eladamri's Call, putting Celestial Force on the top of his library.

Round 10
K:  Plays the Celestial Force.  At the end of his turn I use Corpse Harvester to get Fleshbag Marauder to get rid of K's sole creature. 
Me:  Play the Fleshbag and K concedes.

CONCLUSION

Like most games, this one had a few things go right for me to "win" it.  First, the Momir player decided not to take a bunch of turns in a row or go all out, leaving him open to being killed via Commander damage.  He likely thought that the board wasn't very threatening and decided to "take it easy" on the rest of the table.  The Adun player obviously had mana issues, and I think that the Karador player just packed it up when the game was 1 on 1.  While I was in a pretty good position, having an active Corpse Harvester (was probably going to look up Graveborn Muse next) and a Bojuka Bog in hand to stop some of his Karador based recursion, all he needed was a Wrath effect to start things over.  But this gives you an idea of what the deck can do.

The deck comes out to somewhere around 23 tickets.  Cards 1 ticket or more in the deck include Braids, Mind's Eye, Mutilate, Phyrexian Arena, Helm of Possession and Mikokoro.  Actually, until now I had no idea that Mikokoro was over 2 tickets, so you can probably replace that with another Swamp or Mystifying Maze or something.   Obviously if you were going to put some money into the deck, one of the first cards you would add is Cabal Coffers, followed up by Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Grave Titan.  You could probably change up some of the tutors to the more expensive ones, like Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor as well.

I have to admit that this deck was really swingy.  I ended up being in control on several occasions, but getting blown out by mass sweepers.  Essentially, the deck led to a lot of second place finishes.  I honestly think that part of the problem is that I am not a control player at heart, and that I like to play aggressively.  This leads to me creating enemies during games, where I should be sitting back and answering threats instead.  I'm sure the deck could do better with a more conservative player at the helm.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the deck.  Until next time!

Leviathan, aka Tarasco on MTGO
mrmorale32 at yahoo dot com

CONQUEROR & COMMANDER ARCHIVE 

13 Comments

It was fun watching and by Paul Leicht at Fri, 09/23/2011 - 10:31
Paul Leicht's picture
5

It was fun watching and testing this with you. The deck had a rocky start and I admit I was a little skeptical but you showed us how to do it with style. I am glad you chose to include praetor's grasp which as I said is a real beating for black in commander. Sangromancer is a true roleplayer for this deck as it keeps you alive when you are dealing with your enemies creatures. And obviously the new Demon tutor guy is insanely good for a cheap rare. (.08 on traders I think?) Great to have you back in the saddle again. I look forward to your next adventure in the format! :D

No you thought wrong; your by Lord Erman at Fri, 09/23/2011 - 10:45
Lord Erman's picture
5

No you thought wrong; your absence was felt and yes, it's good to see you back writing. This site needs a good Commander writer (a regular one) and you should definitely make time for writing.

Good to have you back. And black tokens are fun!

LE

Great read as always. It's by themonkey at Fri, 09/23/2011 - 11:56
themonkey's picture

Great read as always. It's good to see you back.

You wound up making a game fun that I probably would have just been frustrated with. The four players were your fun budget deck, a huge power combo deck, a deck thrown together with extra cards from a draft, and a deck that had mana problems. That means they probably ranged in power from 9 (out of 10) down to 2 or 3. Not the best mix for a fun game.

I like this by apaulogy at Fri, 09/23/2011 - 13:28
apaulogy's picture
5

Nice plays that edged the "broken deck" out of the game.

Of course he could have gone off earlier...

I like to play blue and want to build a deck that is not Vendilion Clique (my natural "spike" inclin). Care to do one about a mono blue budget deck?

Thanks.

The other "strong" blue by walkerdog at Fri, 09/23/2011 - 15:55
walkerdog's picture

The other "strong" blue generals include Azami, Thada Adel, Erayo (eww, don't do that, but if you want to I guess...), and Teferi.

Didn't Erayo get banned? by apaulogy at Fri, 09/23/2011 - 16:07
apaulogy's picture

I thought he did on the 20th....

Like the Teferi Idea.

EDIT: Nope, guess he didn't...

erayo did get banned on the by ShardFenix at Sat, 09/24/2011 - 12:05
ShardFenix's picture

erayo did get banned on the 20th actually. at least for paper edh

Thanks for the compliments by Leviathan at Fri, 09/23/2011 - 14:59
Leviathan's picture

Thanks for the compliments guys. Yeah, the Momir deck certainly could have gone off a turn earlier. Of course, he made a conscious decision not to do so, and ended up paying the price. I think he's not going to make the same mistake again.

I don't think I emphasized enough in the article just how good Fallen Ideal was in the deck. I threw it in on a lark, but it ended up being one of the most impressive cards in the deck when Endrek was out. It allowed for Commander kills, as well as huge beatings out of nowhere. And you could put it on any creature. It was pretty much the all-star of the deck.

As for a mono-Blue budget deck, I have an idea in mind but I don't think it will be nearly as cheap as the 20 tickets I usually stick to. I will see what I can do though. In the meantime you can work off of my old Sakashima list if you want:

http://puremtgo.com/articles/conquerer-commander-vol-vi-sakashima-imposter

There are a couple of pricey cards on the list, like the Swords, Venser, Kira, Disk, Time Spiral and Bribery (16 tickets!?!?! Holy Cow!) but it's the basis for a fun deck that isn't overly powerful. And you cand take out a bunch of those cards for new stuff that has been printed in the last year, like Blue Sun's Zenith or Consecrated Sphinx or whatever. But like I said, I will try to build something new here within the next 3 articles or so (working on something else for the next one already).

Welcome back! :-) by PiDave at Fri, 09/23/2011 - 15:02
PiDave's picture
5

Welcome back! :-)

Nice by Lythand at Fri, 09/23/2011 - 15:29
Lythand's picture
5

Nice to see another article. If all goes well, I should be back soon myself.

Happy to have you back by PatrykG at Sat, 09/24/2011 - 17:55
PatrykG's picture
5

I too echo the sentiments that you were missed. I pretty much only play Commander anymore, and I always loved reading your articles. As usual, this one did not disappoint - especially with the focus being on FUN as compared to cutthroat :-D

Can't wait for the next article. Complete side note, what would you recommend for a fun, something-non-green commander? I have my Omnath, my Edric, and a few other blue-green decks but I wanna do something different and I think the only way to do it is to avoid green like the plague.

You could try any of the by Leviathan at Sun, 09/25/2011 - 16:01
Leviathan's picture

You could try any of the Izzet legends. Each of those guys are different from most commanders with Green in them that you should have fun. In addition you could pick any of the legends from my "25 Unloved Commanders" article. It's in my archives, article 49. There are a lot of unusual legends in there to take a look at. They aren't your typical power guys but they do provide deck building challenges. Good luck!

This deck is untested yet but by Paul Leicht at Sun, 09/25/2011 - 22:50
Paul Leicht's picture

This deck is untested yet but looks like it will be fun. I did fish with it and liked the results.

1 Summoning Trap
1 Repopulate
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Yavimaya Granger
1 Masked Admirers
1 Verdant Force
1 Thelonite Hermit
1 Acidic Slime
1 Harmonize
1 Thicket Elemental
1 Triskelion
1 Genesis Wave
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Citanul Flute
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Momentous Fall
1 Mycosynth Wellspring
1 Essence Warden
1 Howl of the Night Pack
1 Wickerbough Elder
1 Indrik Stomphowler
1 Dramatic Entrance
1 Journeyer's Kite
1 Thopter Assembly
1 Nullmage Shepherd
1 Citanul Hierophants
1 Sylvan Tutor
1 Yavimaya Elder
1 Regrowth
1 Praetor's Counsel
1 Loaming Shaman
1 Jade Mage
1 Life from the Loam
1 Primal Command
1 Bosk Banneret
1 Arachnus Web
1 Krosan Tusker
1 Orochi Eggwatcher
1 Vigor
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Duplicant
1 Sporogenesis
1 Elvish Visionary
1 Triskelavus
1 Expedition Map
1 Arachnus Spinner
1 Beast Within
1 Ichor Wellspring
1 Kazandu Tuskcaller
1 Mul Daya Channelers
1 Viridian Shaman
1 Clone Shell
1 Sylvok Replica
1 Keeper of the Beasts
1 Journey of Discovery
1 Gelatinous Genesis
1 Gigantomancer
1 Sylvok Lifestaff
1 Artisan of Kozilek
1 Krosan Grip
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Far Wanderings
1 Strength of the Tajuru
1 Spine of Ish Sah
1 Khalni Garden
1 Naya Panorama
1 Quicksand
1 Mishra's Factory
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
1 Slippery Karst
1 Stalking Stones
1 Buried Ruin
1 Gargoyle Castle
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Temple of the False God
1 Mystifying Maze
1 Phyrexia's Core
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Llanowar Reborn
19 Forest

Sideboard
1 Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro