Category Archives: Commander

Epic Ninja Skills

Commander, Deck tech, Game day, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

After taking Mum for her weekly Monday shopping trip to Morrison’s, I needed to play some MtG to unwind.

Luckily my FLGS as regular readers will know, runs a Commander Monday thing for those that find themselves at a lose end on a Monday afternoon.

When I got there all that was going on in store was a game of 40k. So while I was waiting for other Commander players to show up I made some changes to the ninja assassin deck.

Andy and Sam turned up with their Commander decks, and thus combat was started.

I was stuck on 3 mana for a few turns. It didn’t help that Sam countered or removed a couple of pieces that would have aided in me being able to play stuff. Whilst I was basically defenceless Sam then got a few cheap shots in with a 1/1 flyer. I was feeling a bit targeted by Sam.

For a ninja deck, my ninjas were staying rather well hidden. The only one I was able to ninjitsu out was my Commander!

Once my deck started delivering lands and cards so I could start stabilising and doing stuff, I was way behind on the mana front. Luckily Andy saw Sam as more of a threat than me, so he targeted Sam and not me. That really did give me the breathing space to get ready for the moment Sam was killed.

Fortunately for me, in a fitting moment of revenge it was me that delivered the killing blow to Sam.

The showdown between Andy and me was epic. He was casting cards from hand for free. Luckily Rhystic Study and God-Pharaoh’s Statue provided some cost to him. It also helped that he was top decking as well. Andy also had a massive life total. My only chance of victory was Commander damage.

But I was getting to a board state that if Andy didn’t do anything was going to give me the win. My Commander was buffed and unblockable by Andy. Archetype of Imagination really helped with that. Plus all my creatures were ninjas thanks to Conspiracy.

So I was swinging in for 4 Commander damage each turn. And that’s how I won. Sadly for Andy his Cyclonic Rift remained locked deep in his deck.

I like this deck a lot. It’s fun to play. At best I’d say that power wise it’s a 6.

On the way home I started thinking about updating the mono red aggro deck. I’ll play that next.

Ok you are probably at least curious about the changes I made to the deck. So for your entertainment and great comedic effect here is the section of the post that lists version 2 of the deck.

But before I go any further it’s probably best I give my boiler plate get out of jail disclaimer for my decks.

“I’m not claiming these are the best decks in the world, they certainly are not top competitive decks. They are hopefully fun, affordable (subjective I know) decks. I don’t try and keep to a target price point. I try and use as many cards in my collection as possible to keep my costs down. I’m certainly not a master deck builder claiming this deck will win tournaments, if it is fun to play and does it thing then I’ll be happy.“

16 new cards (bold italics below), which sees lands decrease to 34 from 37. The lands also see a rejig with the number of basic lands dropping also to make room for some more non-basic lands, including the new staple (for me anyway) Lotus Field.

I’ve added a bit more removal that allows me to handle Planeswalkers. But still nothing that allows me to get rid of enchantments specifically. I’m still relying on the rather blunt instrument of bouncing all permanents back to hand. Not ideal. But for now it’ll have to do.

Creatures:36

1 Changeling Outcast
1 Hired Poisoner
1 Mist-Cloaked Herald
1 Pilfering Imp
1 Siren Stormtamer
1 Cerulean Drake
1 Daring Saboteur
1 Duskmantle Operative
1 Metropolis Sprite
1 Skullsnatcher
1 Thrill-Kill Assassin
1 Warkite Marauder
1 Adaptive Automaton
1 Eyeblight Assassin
1 Mist-Syndicate Naga
1 Mistblade Shinobi
1 Slippery Scoundrel
1 Stronghold Assassin
1 Throatseeker
1 True-Name Nemesis
1 Walker of Secret Ways
1 Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow (Commander)
1 Azra Smokeshaper
1 Etrata, the Silencer
1 Ingenious Infiltrator
1 Moonblade Shinobi
1 Ninja of the Deep Hours
1 Storm Sculptor
1 Fallen Shinobi
1 Higure, the Still Wind
1 Ninja of the New Moon
1 Okiba-Gang Shinobi
1 Throat Slitter
1 Archetype of Imagination
1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
1 Silent-Blade Oni

Spells:30

1 Bag of Holding
1 Brainstorm
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
1 Price of Betrayal
1 Scheming Symmetry
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Silent Gravestone
1 Sol Ring
1 Crook of Condemnation
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Pillar of Origins
1 The Elderspell
1 As Foretold
1 Commander’s Sphere
1 Golden Demise
1 Icon of Ancestry
1 Rhystic Study
1 Urza’s Incubator
1 Cryptic Command
1 Damnation
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Mass Manipulation
1 Mastermind’s Acquisition
1 Vraska’s Contempt
1 Conspiracy
1 Devastation Tide
1 Increasing Ambition
1 Vanquisher’s Banner
1 God-Pharaoh’s Statue
1 The Immortal Sun

Lands:34

1 Arcane Lighthouse
1 Barren Moor
1 Blasted Landscape
1 Command Tower
1 Cryptic Caves
1 Crystal Vein
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Dimir Guildgate (a)
1 Dismal Backwater
1 Dreadship Reef
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Field of Ruin
1 Gateway Plaza
1 Guildmages’ Forum
1 Halimar Depths
5 Island
1 Isolated Watchtower
1 Jwar Isle Refuge
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 Lotus Field
1 Morphic Pool
1 Mortuary Mire
4 Swamp
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Unknown Shores
1 Watery Grave

So now you know the cards in the deck, it’s time for those pointless graphs.

What do you think of the changes?

I’m thinking I might try and squeeze in the leylines. Not sure what they would replace.

Silent but deadly

Commander, Deck tech, Game day, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

For the holidays my FLGS is running daily events on the days it’s open. Luckily for me there were a handful of us with spare time and a Commander deck at the store to play some Commander yesterday afternoon.

My initial activities at the store involved me putting the finishing touches to my Ninja Assassin deck. I’d got the majority of the cards I needed. I just hadn’t put the finishing touches to it. So I added some new Core Set 2020 “staples”, plus I took one or two cards out of my Scarab God Zombie deck.

It certainly could do with some optimisation. But as a “first draft” check I’m I’m along the right lines and that the general game plan works, it’d do.

I also got a rather nice fancy deck box for it. That fancy box being the Dragon Shield N100+ (or something like that).

It’s like a slim version of an Ultrapro deck box I have. The Ultrapro box is rather fancy, and was extremely difficult to get hold of at the time. These cool Dragon Shield N100+ boxes are easy to get for starters. Which is a big big plus.

We managed a couple of Commander games. The first one was a 3 player (Glen, Alex and myself) game, and I had Grafdigger’s Cage out, and it was keeping Glen’s deck under control. It stopped him using some graveyard shenanigans. So Alex kept attacking me! Naturally once I was out of the picture Glen was able to step up his game, use those shenanigans I’d kept under control and win.

Our second game was a five player game. Most of us had our moments, and were able to do something pretty cool. I particularly liked that I was getting to play some of those new “staples”. Scheming Symmetry was used really effectively in this game. I went and got a 7 CMC ninja and put on the top of my deck. Whilst the player I selected to join me in finding a card and putting it on top of their deck, went and chose a card that was going to be painless if used against them. That’s the nice thing having a ninja threat that let’s you exile the top 2 cards of their deck and cast the cards for free! Remember that 7 CMC ninja? Well with my Commander connecting that meant I hit everyone for 7 damage.

In the end Glenn and myself were head to head. But he was able to lock me down with enchantments long enough to grab the win.

I actually really enjoyed playing this deck. I love the ninjitsu mechanic. The deck needs some form of enchantment/artifact removal. Also I may have to dig out a Settle the score for those indestructible creatures. But I’m happy with the power level. It’s a 5 at best. Which is about right.

But before I go any further it’s probably best I give my boiler plate get out of jail disclaimer for my decks.

“I’m not claiming these are the best decks in the world, they certainly are not top competitive decks. They are hopefully fun, affordable (subjective I know) decks. I don’t try and keep to a target price point. I try and use as many cards in my collection as possible to keep my costs down. I’m certainly not a master deck builder claiming this deck will win tournaments, if it is fun to play and does it thing then I’ll be happy.“

Creatures:36

1 Changeling Outcast
1 Hired Poisoner
1 Mist-Cloaked Herald
1 Pilfering Imp
1 Siren Stormtamer
1 Cerulean Drake
1 Daring Saboteur
1 Duskmantle Operative
1 Metropolis Sprite
1 Skullsnatcher
1 Thrill-Kill Assassin
1 Warkite Marauder
1 Adaptive Automaton
1 Darkblade Agent
1 Eyeblight Assassin
1 Mist-Syndicate Naga
1 Mistblade Shinobi
1 Slippery Scoundrel
1 Stronghold Assassin
1 Throatseeker
1 Walker of Secret Ways
1 Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow (Commander)
1 Azra Smokeshaper
1 Etrata, the Silencer
1 Ingenious Infiltrator
1 Moonblade Shinobi
1 Nightshade Assassin
1 Ninja of the Deep Hours
1 Storm Sculptor
1 Fallen Shinobi
1 Higure, the Still Wind
1 Ninja of the New Moon
1 Okiba-Gang Shinobi
1 Throat Slitter
1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
1 Silent-Blade Oni

Spells:27

1 Bag of Holding
1 Brainstorm
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
1 Scheming Symmetry
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Silent Gravestone
1 Sol Ring
1 Crook of Condemnation
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Dowsing Dagger
1 Pillar of Origins
1 Assassinate
1 Commander’s Sphere
1 Dimir Locket
1 Icon of Ancestry
1 Murder
1 Rhystic Study
1 Urza’s Incubator
1 Creeping Chill
1 Cryptic Command
1 Damnation
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Drawn from Dreams
1 Mastermind’s Acquisition
1 Conspiracy
1 God-Pharaoh’s Statue
1 The Immortal Sun

Lands:37

1 Arcane Lighthouse
1 Barren Moor
1 Blasted Landscape
1 Command Tower
1 Cryptic Caves
1 Crystal Vein
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Dimir Guildgate (a)
1 Dismal Backwater
1 Dreadship Reef
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Field of Ruin
1 Gateway Plaza
1 Guildmages’ Forum
8 Island
1 Isolated Watchtower
1 Karn’s Bastion
1 Morphic Pool
8 Swamp
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Unknown Shores
1 Watery Grave

Oh and here is the obligatory mana curve.

Token Spam Monday

Commander, Game day, magic, MtG

I was able to get along to a Commander Monday at my FLGS The Hobbit Hole. One of the benefits of Easter holidays and working in education.

I took along 3 decks with me today. 3 decks that I hadn’t played for a long while.

In the first game I played my mono white angel deck that has Lyra Dawnbringer as it’s Commander.

I was mana screwed with the deck. Naturally with a lack of lands or ramp I was behind the curve of the others. Eventually I was able to get Reya Dawnbringer out, but she was bounced back to my hand before I could use her ability.

Eventually I did get Reya out, which allowed me to pull back Emeria Shepherd from my graveyard. I then cleverly played one of my elusive lands to trigger Emeria’s ability to put another angel on the battlefield.

But getting this combo off was the highlight of the game for me. It was also one of the last things I got to do before meeting my demise.

Game 2 saw my Trostani token spam deck hit the table.

This deck went silly at one point with soldier tokens. Seedborn Muse allowed me to fire off the Rhys the Redeemed 6 CMC ability during the other players turns.

When you are basically doubling everything. It soon gets silly. By the time I was board wiped I had 108 tokens out. Sadly for the guy that did the board wipe he drew a card for each creature killed. Basically milling himself.

So yeah I didn’t win after that. But I did something pretty awesome and cool.

The third and final game was with my elf deck that got show down by a bloody angel that switched off activated abilities on creatures. So all of a sudden after that was played no tapping for mana, to add life, or buff up a creature. It was kinda funny really. I play the same angel in my angel deck, and had done so in the earlier game. Sadly it’s a great card against my elves.

So not a win in sight, but I had a blast. Did some cool stuff. Great company. What more could you want?

Horrors from the deep surface

Commander, Game day, magic, MtG

I’ve not been to a Monday Commander session at my FLGS The Hobbit Hole since the first one was held a few weeks ago.

So half term gave me the ideal excuse to get along to another one.

When I arrived a couple of ex-students of mine Josh and Tom were there, as was Andy a regular at the shop and training MtG judge. It appeared a bit of Commander deck building advice was being given to Josh.

I used my Muldrotha deck for the first game of Commander. Which was a true roller coaster ride. I do regret using my Cyclonic Rift to save Tom from a massive attack by Andy that would have killed him. I had already “bluffed” Andy not to attack me the previous turn of his. Well it wasn’t a bluff, I had the card in hand with the mana open to cast it. But Andy wasn’t sure of that.

What was my reward for saving Tom’s butt? Yeah you guessed it, a few rounds later he killed me first before moving on and killing Andy and Josh in a single strike.

Game two for the afternoon saw the Horrors from the Deep wake from their slumber and head towards the surface to wreck havoc and destruction.

Trench Gorger is such a great card to play once you have sufficient mana out. As you can see in the game yesterday it got rid of my remaining 22 lands, to become a 22/22. With trample. Which is nice. But the big benefit is that it gets rid of dead draws. Well not completely. There were still one or two cards that were in the deck to help me ramp and get lands, and therefore useless now. But that’s better than nearing 30.

Andy took out Josh. His threat assessment was that Josh was the bigger threat. Well he’d know because it was his deck Josh was playing.

With my big threats on the board I was able to take Andy out, well at that point I had them all with flying whilst grounding everyone else’s fliers.

It then took a couple of rounds for the horrors that had surfaced to pound Tom into submission. And get me my first win with this deck. Wow.

It was great to catch up with Josh and Tom. Everyone had a fun time. It’s great that The Hobbit Hole hosts this for those that are at a lose end on a Monday.

Commander Deck Ideas Update January 2019

Commander, magic, MtG

Long time sufferers of this blog will recall that from time to time I like to update my list of Commander deck ideas.

With the arrival of some cards to use in Commander decks I thought I’d share with you the new cards that have arrived and latest version of the list of deck ideas.

These first three cards I want to find homes in existing decks. Waste Not can slot into two of my decks. The first will be the Death and Taxes deck. I think it would also be good in the Scarab God Zombie deck I have. My only concern is that I don’t remember having cards in the deck to force opponents to discard. So most of the time I don’t think it would be doing anything. I’ll have to revisit the deck list.

Return to the Earth definitely will be going in decks that have green. Big Green Stompy needs more flying removal, and the fact it can target artifacts or enchantments also. I like it.

Murmuring Mystic will be going into my upgraded wizards precon, I can’t remember the Commander, but I went in the spellslinger direction. So getting a 1/1 body each time I cast a spell, I’ll take that. Plus a 1/5 as a blocker, so hard to remove and can block. Sweet.


Rooftop Storm, how did I not know about this card? Thanks to Dean (he also put me onto some of these other cards also) I now do. This has to find a place in the Scarab God zombie deck. Cast them for free? Yes please. Only time I wouldn’t want to do this is with an X cost. But I don’t think,I had any zombies like that.

Pitiless Plunderer is in for a new deck idea. That idea is an artifacts deck. It will hopefully combo with Revel in Riches and Mechanised Production. I’m also looking at using it in a standard deck, that will either be blue/black or possible black/white.

I so wish Kaya, Ghost Assassin had blue instead of white in it’s casting costs. It would have been nice to have the card in the ninja/assassin deck. But she will go nicely into the planned abuse etb deck.

The final card to arrive was Profane Command. This has to be a prime candidate for a Commander staple that should be in every deck that splashes black. It’s a card that should go alongside Torment of Hailfire.

Here is the updated list of deck ideas:

Trostani token spam
Infect/wither deck (Atraxa as the commander possibly)
Atraxa deck upgraded
Death and Taxes
Care bear
Abuse etb
Saproling and fungus (go wide or go home!) possible Commander Slimefoot, the Stowaway
Ninja/Assassin
Artifacts deck
Eldrazi
Demon tribal

Competitive crushes casual

Commander, Game day, magic, MtG

My FLGS The Hobbit Hole has started a Monday afternoon Commander club. It’s aimed at those at a lose end basically, like those between jobs, students, the retired, on holiday or some other reason.

I found myself at a lose end after taking mum shopping in the morning. So I thought why not?

Three decks found their way into my bag, Trostani, my mono red goblins, and the new death and taxes deck.

Once at The Hobbit Hole 3 other people for whatever reason found themselves at a lose end also, and decided to do some Commanderin’.

The good news from the afternoon of playing luxury cardboard rectangles was I got to play all 3 decks, and long story short they at least got to do their thing (to some extent) but didn’t come close to winning.

My decks weren’t bad decks in my opinion. Well I’ve admitted my death and taxes is a work in progress and needs at least it’s mana base revisiting. But they were out classed. As were the decks of 2 of the other players.

If we use the Command Zone podcasts power rating for decks (see graphic below, and a whole podcast here) which runs on a scale of 1 to 10 for the rest of this post it will help give a point of reference.

So the graphic they did maps like this. It should be noted for reference purposes the precons that WotC sell each year come in on this scale as casual decks and a power ranking of about 4 (in the opinion of The Command Zone presenters, and I wouldn’t disagree with that).


So where do my decks fall on this scale? I would rate my decks between 4 and 6 depending on the deck, so either casual/focused decks.

In yesterday’s 3 games two of us where definitely playing decks between 4 and 6 on the power scale. While one was boarderline between 6/7, and the archenemy player was definitely 8/9 on the power scale with his decks. I’m calling the player with the over powered decks the archenemy because that’s the way the games ended up. One against many.

It should be a testament to the archenemy player that despite the three of us trying to gang up and take him out, he still wiped the floor with us. His decks were way to powerful.

I did try Krenko, Mob Boss as my commander with the goblins. Partly inspired by seeing him used in Bob’s goblin deck as the commander the previous week. I hadn’t really settled on the commander for the deck. So having the chance to try this card out was good. I liked it as the commander. Much better than Squee. Although I do like the idea of using Zo-Zu as the commander also.

Funny enough Treasure Nabber came out in my death and taxes deck but not my goblin deck. Which is when I’d have loved to have used it, as the goblins were up against an artifacts deck. Apparently whispering subliminal messages of “use your sol ring” or “use your artifacts” while Treasure Nabber is out doesn’t brainwash them into using their artifacts. It did slow down the others though because they refused to use their sol rings, or other mana generating artifacts. Sadly it didn’t affect the archenemy.

Island Sanctuary did get a chance to hit the table, sadly not with the other half of the combo. It gave me a couple of turns protection, and was useless once the archenemy got a steel hellkite out.

At the end of the session thinking aloud the archenemy player suggested he might build his next deck and not optimise it as much as he normally does. Luckily I don’t play commander against this player normally. I think this was the first time I had. But to be honest I don’t think I’d play with this guy again, unless he did turn down the level of his decks. It might be “fun” for him. But for me, and I suspect the others it wasn’t much fun for us. The little fun I did get was from my decks getting to do a little of what they were meant to do. Like generate goblin tokens or lots of tokens in general.

I suppose to some extent we didn’t fully establish the social contract and the power levels of decks that everyone was going to be playing. We ruled out mass land destruction, and going infinite. But the power level got missed. So a little blame does rest on the rest of us for the way this session turned out.

I know on a Friday evening the commander sessions are promoted as mildly competitive. That’s fine. I don’t play there on a Friday. For me Commander is a casual game that is meant to be fun.

If the game is with similar powered decks, or one or two are slightly higher on the power level, then the game is going to ebb and flow. And in general the majority will be having fun. But when there is such a big gap between power levels of decks. Then we get something like this session.

Potential Death and Taxes Commanders

Commander, Deck tech, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

So you remember Tuesday when I talked about when that potato mountain thing happens?

It finally looks like the death and taxes deck idea is getting its moment in the sun.

I have an idea of the cards I’m going or want to include in the deck. Sadly as you will see from the possible candidates of suitable Commanders below running a 5 colour deck isn’t an option. And I’m not sure there is enough justification to put effort into trying to get that option on the table.

So let’s look at the cards I found out about (mainly from a reddit post).


Azor, the Lawbringer – I like the card, the etb is a nice bonus. The whenever attacks is really nice, life gain and card draw. It has 2 of the colours I want access to. If it had black it’d be perfect. One of the 99 I think.

Gaddock Teeg – I really like this card. 2 CMC, shuts down noncreature spells such as Torment of Hailfire or Omniscience. Sadly it’s just white and green. So it’d fit nicely into say my Trostani deck. But regrettably doesn’t give me access to blue or black,

Kambul, Consul of Allocation – punishing opponents for casting noncreature spells really like it. Like Azor it’s short a colour, this time blue. But will make a great card as one of the 99.

Captain Sisay – what a great ability this card has. Tutoring for that legendary creature as and when you need it. Wow. But sadly like Gaddot the colours it gives access to is its drawback for me.

Grand Arbiter Augustin IV – this is a fun card, reduce the cost of your own spells while taxing your opponents. If it had a third colour like black it would be ideal. But I think at best for me it’s one of the 99.

Alesha, Who Smiles at Death – a 3 colour Commander giving me access to red. The ability is cool. But no blue! A great one of the 99 if red becomes an option.

Tymna the Weaver & Thrasios, Triton Hero – I’m not overly sold on these 2 cards as Commanders. The abilities just don’t wow me, or inspire.

Oloro, Ageless Ascetic – now this is a card and a half. Plus it’s the perfect 3 colours that I want in this deck. a very strong contender for the Commander. But I feel the emphasis with Oloro should be away from my death and taxes plan, and more life gain. Which is a completely separate deck.

Karador, Ghost Chieftain – this card might just be going into my Muldrotha deck. I like the ability a lot, gets around Commander tax. But it has no blue. So for me not an option for the deck at all.

Hokori, Dust Drinker – mono white. Sadly this is only a one of the 99 candidate.

Am I placing too much emphasis on blue? If the cards above aren’t good enough to be the Commander, but are great one of the 99 cards. Most of those have blue in their cost. I think they are good enough to make sure whichever Commander is chosen gives me access to those cards.

As I was writing this post I thought I wonder what other partner Commanders are there? So I googled them to find out the answer. And came up with this pairing.


First off it gives me 4 colours. Which admittedly is harder to build a mana base for. But it gives me access to the ideal 4 colours for this deck. That splash of red gets me access to Harsh Mentor and Rampaging Ferocidon, 2 great punishing cards. I prefer red over green as the fourth colour because it gives me a lot more cards that fit in with the plan for this deck. Although being able to play Sisay and Gaddock would be sweet.

These 2 fit more with the plan in my opinion than the pairing above suggested on that reddit thread.

So it looks like for the time being my death and taxes deck will be using 2 Commanders.

Trostani Token Spam Commander Deck V2

Commander, Deck tech, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building


Sorry Jonathan yet another MtG post. I had something else lined up but I was tweaking this deck yesterday and discussing a similar deck a friend had created on Messenger. They had gone with Emmara, Soul of the Accord as their commander. There was some crossover with cards used, which you’d expect.


But naturally the friend had cards that allowed them to untap/tap outside of the normal steps of a turn. Which is what you want to be doing with their commander.

My friend wasn’t happy with the way the deck performed against a Niv-Mizzet deck another friend was playing. That draw card, 1 damage was keeping the token spamming under control, along with the usual blue control stuff. Sometimes there are just bad match ups, it’s the nature of the game.

So we were talking, I pointed them in the direction of my deck list, and edhrec for ideas. Which brings me to this post. I thought I better share my current untested updated deck list with the tweaks I’ve made.

It’d be interesting to see my deck against this Niv-Mizzet deck. I think I’m generating tokens at a faster rate, and buffing them up quicker so it may fair better. Especially if I could politic the other players to pick on Niv-Mizzet.

So in this new version we now have the new combo I discussed in a previous post (Island Sanctuary and Sandwurm Convergence). There are a couple of cards that make use of the populate keyword (Growing Ranks and Sundering Growth). Which copies a token. A little bit more removal (Sundering Growth and Hour of Reckoning), followed by some protection with Privileged Position. Tolsimir Wolfblood gives an extra anthem/lord effect, and along with Oketra the True and Sandwurm Convergence more token generating.

Here is the updated deck stats for this second version of the deck.


There is an expensive to cast sorcery I’d like to squeeze in somehow, it’s basically a board wipe (potentially), especially against other token spam decks. That card is Ezuri’s Predation.


I’m thinking maybe History of Benalia as the card to make way for it. Might try the deck with and without.

Here is the updated deck list (new additions in bold).

Creatures:24

1 Haazda Marshal
1 Rhys the Redeemed
1 Conclave Guildmage
1 Emmara, Soul of the Accord
1 Shanna, Sisay’s Legacy
1 District Guide
1 Eldrazi Displacer
1 Flickerwisp
1 Ledev Champion
1 Mentor of the Meek
1 Rhonas the Indomitable
1 Conclave Cavalier
1 Felidar Guardian
1 Leonin Warleader
1 Oketra the True
1 Sumala Woodshaper
1 Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice
1 Vizier of the Menagerie
1 Seedborn Muse
1 Trostani Discordant
1 Tolsimir Wolfblood
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Silent Sentinel
1 Trostani’s Summoner

Spells:43

1 Authority of the Consuls
1 Cloudshift
1 Flower // Flourish
1 Legion’s Landing
1 Sol Ring
1 Dawn of Hope
1 Dowsing Dagger
1 Island Sanctuary
1 Martial Coup
1 Momentary Blink
1 Quest for Renewal
1 Saproling Migration
1 Sundering Growth
1 Acrobatic Maneuver
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Commander’s Sphere
1 History of Benalia
1 Idyllic Tutor
1 March of the Multitudes
1 Selesnya Locket
1 Spear of Heliod
1 Sprouting Renewal
1 Teferi’s Protection
1 Anointed Procession
1 Circuitous Route
1 Growing Ranks
1 Panharmonicon
1 Parallel Lives
1 Second Harvest
1 Settle the Wreckage
1 Wrath of God
1 Conjurer’s Closet
1 Divine Visitation
1 Doubling Season
1 Fumigate
1 Primal Vigor
1 Privileged Position
1 Vivien Reid
1 Hour of Revelation
1 The Immortal Sun
1 Approach of the Second Sun
1 Hour of Reckoning
1 Sandwurm Convergence

Lands:33

1 Blossoming Sands
1 Bountiful Promenade
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Desert of the True
1 Drifting Meadow
1 Field of Ruin
7 Forest
1 Foundry of the Consuls
1 Krosan Verge
8 Plains
1 Secluded Steppe
1 Selesnya Guildgate (a)
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Shefet Dunes
1 Survivors’ Encampment
1 Temple Garden
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Tranquil Expanse
1 Vivid Meadow
1 Warped Landscape

Drafting Dream Eater

Commander, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

Dream Eater from Guilds of Ravnica…
I kinda like the card. I can see it fitting into my Muldrotha Commander deck. That deck wants cards in the graveyard, and surveil was built for that deck. So being able to look at 4 cards, arrange them in any order and put back on top of the library, or put them into the graveyard is huge.

For 6 CMC there seems to be a lot of value when casting it. Firstly it has Flash, so you get to play it like an instant.

It’s a flying 4/3, which isn’t too shabby. But the card can be taken out by single hit removal like a lightning bolt. Which kinda is a negative.

Finally there is the surveil 4 that I’ve already talked about. Which to me is it’s big advantage. Flash out on the end step before your turn, allows you to make sure you are hopefully drawing the right card for the turn and putting useful stuff in the graveyard.

Not sure yet which card will get replaced by Dream Eater in the Muldrotha deck. But I do have a couple of “upgrades” I’m thinking about adding to the deck. So I can look at them at the same time I’m evaluating cards against Dream Eater. A deck is never finished…

Ninjas meet Assassins

Commander, Deck tech, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

One of my planned Commander deck ideas is a ninja themed deck with Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow from Commander 2018 as it’s Commander.

I think it’s accepted that there are not enough (good) ninjas to make a deck with. Which has been a bit of a brake on the brewing of the deck.

But then I had a moment of clarity when I saw the card Etrata, the Silencer.


Assassins are like ninjas! How about if I make the deck a ninjas and assassins deck?

Thematically it works. Or it does in my little make believe world.

It means I can’t use tribal boosters, or if I do it will be to boost a subset of the creature base. Unless I run Arcane Adaptation to make them all one creature type. The half way solution could be to run a mix of general boosts and tribal ones.

But that’s the updated plan for the ninja deck, or ninjas and assassins deck. What assassins should I put in the deck?