For the time being this is my final version of my Dinosaur Tribal deck for Commander.

It’s not that too different from before. There is one extra dinosaur, which is the Polyraptor. On the spell front the lightning bolt, Ashes of the Abhorrent and Rain of Thorns are gone. Lightning Greaves is in, as is a Madblind Mountain in the lands.

In games Zacama once out on the battlefield is devastating. Talk about controlling the battlefield with those activated abilities. I don’t think much more needs to be said about the deck. So here is the version 2 deck list…

Creatures:38

1 Kinjalli’s Caller
1 Drover of the Mighty
1 Otepec Huntmaster
1 Raptor Hatchling
1 Atzocan Seer
1 Deathgorge Scavenger
1 Frilled Deathspitter
1 Kinjalli’s Sunwing
1 Rampaging Ferocidon
1 Ranging Raptors
1 Ravenous Daggertooth
1 Thrashing Brontodon
1 Wayward Swordtooth
1 Forerunner of the Empire
1 Grazing Whiptail
1 Imperial Aerosaur
1 Knight of the Stampede
1 Raging Regisaur
1 Ripjaw Raptor
1 Charging Monstrosaur
1 Charging Tuskodon
1 Crested Herdcaller
1 Imperial Ceratops
1 Raging Swordtooth
1 Regisaur Alpha
1 Snapping Sailback
1 Bellowing Aegisaur
1 Burning Sun’s Avatar
1 Carnage Tyrant
1 Etali, Primal Storm
1 Sun-Crowned Hunters
1 Thundering Spineback
1 Gishath, Sun’s Avatar
1 Polyraptor
1 Wakening Sun’s Avatar
1 Zetalpa, Primal Dawn
1 Zacama, Primal Calamity
1 Ghalta, Primal Hunger

Spells:30

1 Blazing Volley
1 By Force
1 Commune with Dinosaurs
1 Silent Gravestone
1 Sol Ring
1 Abrade
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Path of Mettle
1 Blood Sun
1 Commander’s Sphere
1 Crushing Canopy
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Gift of Paradise
1 Growing Rites of Itlimoc
1 Harvest Season
1 Herald’s Horn
1 Karmic Justice
1 New Horizons
1 Sweltering Suns
1 Teferi’s Protection
1 Huatli, Radiant Champion
1 Return to Dust
1 Fumigate
1 Huatli, Warrior Poet
1 Vanquisher’s Banner
1 Kindred Charge
1 Planar Cleansing
1 The Immortal Sun
1 Star of Extinction
1 Zendikar Resurgent

Lands:32

1 Blighted Steppe
1 Blighted Woodland
1 Blossoming Sands
1 Boros Garrison
1 Command Tower
1 Fertile Thicket
5 Forest
1 Jungle Shrine
1 Madblind Mountain
5 Mountain
1 Opal Palace
1 Path of Ancestry
5 Plains
1 Ramunap Ruins
1 Rugged Highlands
1 Scattered Groves
1 Stone Quarry
1 Sunpetal Grove
1 Wind-Scarred Crag
1 Windswept Heath

Ok so the verbal diarrhea is back. I’m going to bore you with some of the cards I like from Rivals of Ixalan for Commander.

As you can see my first cards are The Immortal Sun (TIS) and Blood Sun (BS). At the time of writing TIS is going for around £7, and BS for a more reasonable £1.50 on Magic Madhouse.

So why do I like them in Commander? Well TIS does a lot for it’s 6 mana cost. Switching off Planeswalker loyalty abilities is really useful. In my local Commander meta (ie the students I play Commander with at work) there are one or two Planeswalkers in the decks. Heck I even use them in my Dinosaur tribal deck and a couple of others. I don’t mind taking the hit from this ability on my own Planeswalkers to stop an opponent using theirs. Getting the extra card draw each turn is immense. Card advantage and hopefully getting to a card you want faster is not something to be laughed at. But then I can cast my spells for a reduced cost on top of that! Then the universal buff to all my creatures of +1/+1. I think the value this card gives me when it hits the battlefield is way more than the 6 mana it costs me.

BS on the other hand is a great card. 2 and a mountain, I draw a card, and switch off all those non-basic lands except for generating mana. It means when I play a non-basic land it doesn’t come in tapped, or force me to return a land to my hand. Ok I won’t gain a life either, but then I won’t lose one. Yeah it benefits my opponents also. But it stops them tapping and sacrificing a ramunap ruins to do me 2 to the face.

I currently have both cards in the 2 decks I have built (Dinosaurs Tribal and Mono Red) and the Wizards one I am upgrading.

I had to build this deck, angels are cool. Especially Archangel Avacyn and the Felicia Day look a like Archangel of Thune (wish I could take credit for that one, but that goes to Day 9 and the MtG show that they used to produce for the Geek and Sundry YouTube channel).

Naturally I would like Archangel Avacyn to transform into Avacyn, the Purifier. Sometimes I will throw a wall or Honour Guard under the bus, after I have flashed her out in the combat stage to get her to transform straight away.

But the transformation I really am after is from Gisela and Bruna to get Brisela, Voice of Nightmares out. I’ll happily play Gisela as early as possible, chump block with her, whatever. I’m not really worried if she gets to the graveyard. Playing Bruna allows me to fetch Gisela from the graveyard and instantly get Brisela at the end of that turn. The double card creature truly is an amazing thing to see on the battlefield.

The main thing I needed to solve for this deck was surviving long enough to play all these beautiful costly angels. The solution I game up with was 10 walls, 2 Tocatli Honor Guards. I’m basically using Winged Shepherd for it’s cycle ability, but can also be pulled back from the graveyard using Bruna if need be. Authority of the Consuls puts an end to haste and flash causing creatures to etb tapped, and gives me a life. Cast Out gives me that bit of getting removal of big threats. And Rout is just a good ol’ board wipe. Although Overwhelming Splendor is a funny card to play.

This deck also needs some serious ramp. That’s where the Tron Lands come into play. All three out they tap for 7 mana. I also get a little discount with The Immortal Sun, and creature buff. And with the Tron lands it’s 6 cost is nothing. I’ve had this out turn 4!!

So here is the all important deck list that I know you are dying to look at and pick holes in.

Creatures:29

4 Wall of Hope
2 Angelic Wall
2 Tocatli Honor Guard
4 Wall of Omens
2 Gisela, the Broken Blade
2 Angel of Invention
1 Angel of Sanctions
3 Archangel Avacyn
2 Archangel of Thune
2 Linvala, the Preserver
2 Winged Shepherd
3 Bruna, the Fading Light

Spells:9

1 Authority of the Consuls
2 The Immortal Sun
2 Cast Out
2 Rout
2 Overwhelming Splendor

Lands:22

2 Evolving Wilds
8 Plains
4 Urza’s Mine
4 Urza’s Power Plant
4 Urza’s Tower

Sideboard:15

2 Angelic Wall
1 Gisela, the Broken Blade
1 Linvala, the Preserver
1 Bruna, the Fading Light
1 Authority of the Consuls
2 Demystify
2 Searing Light
1 Ashes of the Abhorrent
1 Dazzling Reflection
1 Cast Out
2 Rout

For fun I did play a version of this deck with a couple of Approach of the Second Sun slotted in. That was fun, and an easy card to cast with the Tron lands.

Commander Decks Update

So that is the deck, it’s now going to be broken up and used to form the basis of an Angels Commander deck.

If I haven’t forgotten anything then I think this is the list of my planned Commander decks that I want to build.

• The just mentioned Angel deck
• A Death and Taxes deck
• Elves

I currently have 3 Commander decks in progress.

• A dinosaur commander deck
• A mono red deck with land hate in it
• Upgrading the Arcane Wizardry Precon.

The dinosaur deck is nearly if not there. You have seen the deck list already for the initial effort. When you see the “final” deck list I don’t think that you will see much difference.

Mono red is also close to being there I think. I’m waiting for a couple of cards to arrive that need fitting in. Then I need to come up with a version without the land hate.

I have a Wizards deck with some changes made to it. But there are a few more to do to this one. I have those changes on the way.

I enjoyed the pauper black aggro deck that Strictly Better MtG did. So once again I felt inspired, and decided to build a black aggro deck.

For my deck I wanted to make use of some of the cards I thought were cool in Rivals of Ixalan. I love Ravenous Chupacabra, a 4 cost 2/2 that removes an opponents creature also when it enters the battlefield, I’ll take that. Especially when I can get it back from the graveyard to my hand easily. Tetzimoc is my big hitter, and also with his ability removal. When you start putting out those pray counters it’s putting a timer on your opponent. Do something about this fast or you are stuffed. I love Mastermind’s Acquisition, being able to go and get the exact card you need is awesome.

Naturally I have removal in my spells, but I also have a little graveyard hate available to me just to make sure some stuff stays dead! The nice thing about Scarab Feast and Wander in Death is they can also cycle. So I have that option there depending on the game of going searching for the card I want.

Ok here is a look at the mana curve for the deck. I’m pretty happy with that and having the AMC under 3.

So here is my black aggro deck list…

Creatures:20

4 Skittering Heartstopper
4 Vicious Conquistador
3 Dinosaur Hunter
4 Gifted Aetherborn
3 Ravenous Chupacabra
2 Tetzimoc, Primal Death

Spells:16

2 Duress
2 Fatal Push
2 Scarab Feast
2 Walk the Plank
2 Never // Return
2 Recover
2 Wander in Death
2 Mastermind’s Acquisition

Lands:24

24 Swamp

Sadly there is no sideboard at the moment. But when I do come up with one I think it will have the other two copies of Fatal Push and Never//Return. I’ll probably look at Gonti and Dire Fleet Poisoner also. After that I don’t know.

What would you have in the sideboard? What would you replace in the main deck?

When I got the Rookie Red deck from CardKingdom last year I was taken aback with it’s speed and how fun it was. It offered great value also. But I wanted to do my take on the deck. How would I do a red aggro deck?

From Saturdays post you know I spent sometime testing this deck with Justin, and a little bit more time on Sunday as well (before swapping over to play with other decks). In the games Saturday my initial version of the deck was just getting it’s butt handed to it by Justin’s Vampire/Zombie token deck. I needed a solution. Ok I needed a legal version of Scalding Salamander (it’s legal in Commander/Legacy and Vintage, but not Modern). I didn’t have a creature like it, but I did come across Pyroclasm. So I ordered a play set of the card. I thought in the meantime seeing as this was a casual game, I’d play 3 copies of the Scalding Salamander for fun. They worked like a charm against those tokens. After I had finished playing with the deck, before moving on I thought “you know what? I’ll see what cards CardKingdom put in their sideboard pack for red”. Guess what was in there? Yep 2 copies of the Pyroclasm. I could have been testing with those!

So what is this deck all about? Speed. Hit them hard and fast.

What am I looking for in the opening hand? 3 or 4 mana, Bloodlust Inciter, a 2 drop and 3 drop, possibly one of the removal cards as well. I like Mutiny and Hijack. Using the opponents creatures against them is fun. And could be with Hijack that little extra bit of damage to push you over the finish line. I think in the initial version I had the 2 cost Lightning Strike because that is the card I layed my hands on first, but I do like the 1 cost Lightning Bolt more, so I dug that out for this deck to use instead.

The sideboard is more of the same, if anything I could add in something to get rid of enchantments. Which I am missing. But there is artefact removal, one or two more big creatures to swing in with if needed. Plus cards to remove those nasty tokens.

So let’s look at those lovely graphics and stats that the Decked app gives me for a deck.

Not surprisingly the AMC is under 2. Which is what I want, and allows for that hit them fast and hard.

22 lands seems about right

Creatures:26

4 Bloodlust Inciter
4 Fanatical Firebrand
4 Goblin Trailblazer
2 Nest Robber
3 Raptor Hatchling
2 Swab Goblin
2 Wily Goblin
1 Combat Celebrant
3 Frilled Deathspitter
1 Charging Tuskodon

Spells:12

2 Blazing Volley
3 Lightning Bolt
3 Mutiny
1 Bombard
3 Hijack

Lands:22

22 Mountain

Sideboard:15

1 Weaver of Lightning
1 Charging Monstrosaur
1 Sun-Crowned Hunters
2 Dual Shot
1 Earthquake
1 Lightning Bolt
3 Smelt
1 Abrade
2 Fling
2 Pyroclasm

So that is my take on the CardKingdom Rookie Red deck. What do you think? What would you change?