My Commander decks 2: Selesnya Indestructable Tokens

So this is the second in my series about Commander/EDH decks that I have built. This first one was about my red/black Goblin tribal deck, Wort's Goblin Horde.

This second deck was built around differing ideas from the tribal one. First off, it focuses on tokens, and getting them out as quickly as possible, with as many as possible, and making them as big as possible. The second idea this deck is built around is using a Commander that most players consider to be junk, Emmara Tandris. When she was released in Dragon's Maze, I think she disappointed a lot of people, who were expecting much more of the Selesnya guild champion. She suffers from too high a casting cost for her effect, she doesn't protect herself in any way (nor does she extend her protection to herself), and her stats are horribly mismatched to her artwork: she looks like a fragile elven maiden, but has 5 power and 7(!!) toughness. With all that being said, I still love the card (for some reason) and really wanted to build a deck with her as its Commander. As can be seen from the decklist, there is already one card in there which would probably serve as a "better" Commander, but I am sticking with Emmara (even if i acquire Trostani, Selesnya's Voice). So anyway, on to the decklist:

General

Creature (25)

• 1x Arbor Elf
• 1x Attended Knight
• 1x Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 1x Avenger of Zendikar
• 1x Caller of the Claw
• 1x Courser of Kruphix
• 1x Doomed Traveler
• 1x Geist-Honored Monk
• 1x Gyre Sage
• 1x Herald of Anafenza
• 1x Hornet Queen
• 1x Kalonian Twingrove
• 1x Karametra, God of Harvests
• 1x Mausoleum Guard
• 1x Phantom General
• 1x Rampaging Baloths
• 1x Renowned Weaver
• 1x Rhys the Redeemed
• 1x Risen Sanctuary
• 1x Scion of Vitu-Ghazi
• 1x Seedborn Muse
• 1x Trostani's Summoner
• 1x Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage
• 1x Voice of Resurgence
• 1x Wayfaring Temple

Instant (7)

• 1x Druid's Deliverance
• 1x Eyes in the Skies
• 1x Fated Intervention
• 1x Raise the Alarm
• 1x Rootborn Defenses
• 1x Sundering Growth
• 1x Trostani's Judgment

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Ajani, Mentor of Heroes

Enchantment (16)

• 1x Armadillo Cloak
• 1x Collective Blessing
• 1x Druid's Call
• 1x Elephant Guide
• 1x Fertile Ground
• 1x Glorious Anthem
• 1x Ground Seal
• 1x Gutter Grime
• 1x Intangible Virtue
• 1x Mirari's Wake
• 1x Oblivion Ring
• 1x Ooze Flux
• 1x Parallel Lives
• 1x Primeval Bounty
• 1x Spirit Bonds
• 1x Unflinching Courage

Land (35)

• 1x Blossoming Sands
• 1x Elfhame Palace
• 13x Forest
• 1x Grove of the Guardian
• 1x New Benalia
• 13x Plains
• 1x Selesnya Guildgate
• 1x Selesnya Sanctuary
• 1x Sunpetal Grove
• 1x Temple of Plenty
• 1x Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree

Artifact (5)

• 1x Druidic Satchel
• 1x Ring of Kalonia
• 1x Seer's Sundial
• 1x Selesnya Cluestone
• 1x Selesnya Keyrune

Sorcery (10)

• 1x Alive / Well
• 1x Call of the Conclave
• 1x Captain's Call
• 1x Coursers' Accord
• 1x Devout Invocation
• 1x Gather the Townsfolk
• 1x Gelatinous Genesis
• 1x Miming Slime
• 1x Slime Molding
• 1x Wake the Reflections

Development

 First build

The first thing I realised as I built this deck was that it would probably draw heavily on cards with Populate, the Selesnya mechanic from Return to Ravnica. Since I built this initially from cards that i had in my collection, this was a good thing as I had a decent amount of RTR cards, along with the preconstructed Selesnya Surge deck. I quickly pillaged that for cards that would be auto-includes such as Grove of the Guardian, Wayfaring Temple, Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage and Phantom General. The precon gave me 13 cards to start with, on top of my general, which left me looking for another 86 cards to round out my deck.

Once I had delved into the preconstructed deck, it was time to scour my trade binder to see if I had any useful cards there that would make the cut. This gave me some really useful cards, as I had Scion of Vitu-Ghazi, Parallel Lives, Geist Honored Monk, Caller of the Claw, Gyre Sage, Kalonian Twingrove, and Seedborn Muse in my creatures all of which would either fit well or play a key role in this deck. The  Parallel Lives really was a key find for this deck, allowing me to double the number of tokens I was making. 

 With the two obvious ports of call rummaged through, I went to the bulk of my collection, looking in particular for Populate cards, but also for cards that played well in token creation in other ways, for example Slime Molding, or Gather the Townsfolk. During this search, I managed to turn up a Devout Invocation I had forgotten about so that seemed like a decent fit and was included. This search gave me enough cards to make up the 100, but it was pretty weak at first glance. This is when I remembered that I had one of the Commander 2013 preconstructed decks stashed away in a drawer, Nature of the Beast. This was a Naya deck, so could well feature cards I might want, time to go check it out.

My findings from the precon were surprisingly productive, adding an Avenger of Zendikar, a Druidic Satchel, and a Seer's Sundial to the deck, along with some non-basic lands that would work nicely in this deck (Vitu-Ghazi, the City Tree; New Benalia, and a Selesnya Sanctuary). I would have taken the Sol Ring and the Swiftfoot Boots, but they had already been pillaged for Wort's Goblin Horde, and I didn't necessarily feel like I needed them in this deck.

This rounded out my first pass for the deck, and I happily went off to play test this with my play group.the results as expected were somewhat middling, as the deck wasn't really very well developed, and had too much filler in it. I decided I would use the next few months to improve it, to get it to a state where it would play better.

Autumn 2014

So over the course of autumn 2014, I managed to trade for, or open some cards which I thought would improve this deck, with the crowning glory going to opening a Voice of Resurgence in a free booster pack from Manaleak.com! I also got hold of a Karametra, God of Harvests in a booster, and a foil Fated Intervention in the same box. Both of these were added but I didn't record what they replaced. Trading with my play group gave me a Hornet Queen, which came in for a Seller of Songbirds, and I got hold of  Courser of Kruphix, which replaced Sporemound, giving me access to potentially an extra card a turn and helping hit land drops. Khans of Tarkir's release in mid September gave me a really handy rare from a booster in the form of Herald of Anafenza, so that was brought in to replace an Elvish Pioneer who was really only filler.

Scouring eBay gave me some more cards which helped power up this deck. I got a Sunpetal Grove for a good price, replacing a somewhat redundant Vitality Charm. This gave me an extra land which is a good thing with high converted mana cost cards in the deck. I also purchased a Collective Blessing, which along with a Mirari's Wake recovered from an old deck i had built gave my creatures a huge boost, as well as some mana ramp from the Wake.

Late on in the Autumn I was lucky enough to get hold of one of the few cards I considered swapping Emmara Tandris out for: Rhys the Redeemed. In the end I stayed loyal to my junky general, but Rhys was an auto-include without a shadow of a doubt, replacing a Viridian Acolyte (which in all honesty I hadn't read properly. I though it gave multicolour ramping... nope just filtering that I didn't need. Valuable lesson learned on reading cards properly).

Areas for Improvement

I guess the most obvious one would be replacing my general, but I'm keeping her! The really obvious areas for improvement would be the addition of some board sweepers. Something like a Wrath of God, or a Mass Calcify would allow this deck to clear a path, but Hour of Reckoning would really be sweet here I think.

Another thing I have been thinking about is adding more artifact and enchantment destruction in. So far only Sundering Growth has that angle covered, and i think a 100 card deck needs more than that. Perhaps dropping  a token generator or two would be useful?

One card which would really be an auto-include would be Doubling Season, as it does what Parallel Lives does and more. The two combined (along with Rhys the Redeemed) would really make for a crazy deck. Problem is, at the time of writing, that card is £25 when you can get one. Ouch.

There have been some improvements suggested to me from fellow users of TappedOut.net, and they pointed out that the addition of Giant Adephage and/or Armada Wurm would really beef this deck's creature suite up a lot. Those two are definitely on my watch list

My Commander deck 1: Wort's Goblin Horde

First of all, it turns out that being a new dad is considerably more time consuming that I had anticipated, so this is my first post for a good while (almost 6 weeks in fact). However, I think that things might be calming down now, and I will hopefully get chance to update this blog much more frequently again.

This post is the first in hopefully a series of posts about the Magic: the Gathering format, Commander. I am a huge fan of Commander, and it is my favourite way of playing Magic. I got into it when looking for a way to use a good portion of my collection in new ways. I have a collection that is wide in nature rather than deep, due to having been in and out of the game since the late 1990s. A format that allows me to build 100 card decks that have only one of each card in them sounds great to me. I dabbled with a few ideas of what to build for my first deck, but settled eventually on Goblins, as they are fun and fast to play, and I really felt like I would enjoy a Goblin Commander deck. I had a few problems building it, but here is the deck list as it stands currently:

General

Creature (30)

• 1x Archetype of Finality
• 1x Blackcleave Goblin
• 1x Caterwauling Boggart
• 1x Festering Goblin
• 1x Flamestick Courier
• 1x Foundry Street Denizen
• 1x Goblin Battle Jester
• 1x Goblin Chieftain
• 1x Goblin Gaveleer
• 1x Goblin Grappler
• 1x Goblin Piledriver
• 1x Goblin Shortcutter
• 1x Goblin Sledder
• 1x Goblin Turncoat
• 1x Goblin Warchief
• 1x Guttersnipe
• 1x Krenko, Mob Boss
• 1x Krenko's Enforcer
• 1x Mad Auntie
• 1x Mogg War Marshal
• 1x Reckless One
• 1x Rock Jockey
• 1x Rummaging Goblin
• 1x Siege-Gang Commander
• 1x Skirk Commando
• 1x Skirk Drill Sergeant
• 1x Spikeshot Goblin
• 1x Tsabo Tavoc
• 1x Wall of Fire
• 1x Warren Pilferers

Sorcery (13)

• 1x Act of Treason
• 1x Burn at the Stake
• 1x Cleaver Riot
• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Fireball
• 1x Goblin Rally
• 1x Goblin War Strike
• 1x Krenko's Command
• 1x Pillar of Flame
• 1x Rupture
• 1x Sizzle
• 1x Survey the Wreckage
• 1x Vandalblast

Land (33)

• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Goblin Burrows
• 16x Mountain
• 1x Opal Palace
• 4x Swamp
• 7x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Malice
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse

Instant (5)

• 1x Dogpile
• 1x Dynacharge
• 1x Fling
• 1x Massive Raid
• 1x Titan's Strength

Artifact (12)

• 1x Akroma's Memorial
• 1x Bladed Pinions
• 1x Bonesplitter
• 1x Hall of Triumph
• 1x Mask of Avacyn
• 1x Ring of Three Wishes
• 1x Ring of Valkas
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Slagwurm Armor
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Whispersilk Cloak

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Barrage of Expendables
• 1x Five-Alarm Fire
• 1x Goblin War Paint
• 1x Goblinslide
• 1x Madcap Skills
• 1x War Cadence

 Building this deck gave me an immediate issue: who to chose as a Commander? I didn't actually have a Legendary Goblin, so actually settled initially on Tsabo Tavoc, as she gave me access to both red and black, and there are some interesting goblin cards in black. The second colour also gave me access to some really good spells, and some card draw, a weakness for red. With this in mind I searched my collection for suitable goblins, and quickly found I had far more than I could ever include in the deck, so that was a good thing. There were some auto-includes on that list (Siege-Gang Commander, Goblin Piledriver, and Goblin Warchief) plus some that I could see would be interesting to include. The first draft of the deck (which I no longer retain the list for, unfortunately) was a very fast, much more creature focused list, with few artifacts and only a handful of spells. I confidently took it along to Nebula Custom Gaming, and promptly lost badly! Later I tried it out with some friends and was convinced it wasn't good. So back to the drawing board.










 Development

So I needed a real goblin for a Commander, and that pointed me toward Wort, Boggart Auntie. She gave me access to my two colours still, and also allows me to bring back a dead goblin every turn for free. This is very useful, as goblins die very easily. Many folk kept telling me to use Krenko, Mob Boss, and this was tempting. However, he is mono-red, and that ruled out my black goblins, plus I can also make sure he stays on the table by pulling him out of my yard with Wort, so I decided on the Boggart Auntie.

Once I had my new Commander in place, I needed a strategy. In my first runs, the goblins came out of the gate fast, but very quickly became outclassed, and I was left with an empty hand. To further compound this, Wort kept on being removed due to her lack of protection, and this meant she couldn't get goblins back out. So first of all I needed some protection for her: Slagwurm Armor, Whispersilk Cloak, Swiftfoot Boots and Mask of Avacyn were selected to loan Wort some protection, and the inclusion of all four allows some redundancy. In addition, each had their own little advantage, so Whispersilk Cloak allowed for unblockable Commander damage, Slagwurm Armor is transferable should it need to be, and Mask of Avacyn allows for a small power boost. Due to the width of my collection, I had all of these cards in my collection and this meant I didn't need to buy them in. This is a heck of a boon!

So now my Commander was protected, I needed some win conditions in the deck. Here I wanted to give myself some variety. The usual goblin modus operandi of swarm isn't that great in Commander, so it needed something else. Here I added Blackcleave Goblin, to allow me to hit my opponent with Infect (10 points of Infect damage and the game is over for my opponent.). Wort allows me to pull this card out of the graveyard when it dies, and the addition of Whispersilk Cloak allows it to get in often... nasty.
Krenko, Mob Boss comes in for the next few conditions: swarm is made much better when you have potentially tens of new goblins each turn. These can then be used as ammunition for Siege-Gang Commander, and also for Barrage of Expendables to cause damage to my opponents directly for the cost of some replaceable tokens. Massive raid allows me to hit with a large amount of damage due to high creature numbers, as does Dogpile and Goblin War Strike. To make the swarm really useful I added in Akroma's Memorial: this artifact allows me to have have a swarm of flying, haste, first strike, trample and protection goblins. The other lord effects on some of the goblins (Mad Auntie, Goblin Chieftan) and Hall of Triumph add to the goblin's power which mean the weak horde all of a sudden looks much tougher.

Finally i looked at how I could solve my card draw problem. In a word: Skullclamp! Owning a wide selection of cards really helps when you realise one of the most broken cards ever is in your collection. This artifact allows me to kill off goblin tokens for 2 cards at the cost of one mana. If this card gets going, things get horrible very quickly. If I can tutor this up, then the deck really takes off. It is very vulnerable to removal, however,  and the deck hasn't got a way of recovering it.



Outcome

Once these changes were made, the deck got a whole lot more effective! When I don't get the chance to build up, then keeping Wort alive and using her to hit for Commander damage proves very effective. Allowing the goblin horde to grow gets really scary, as the card draw allowed by Skullclamp, and the tokens or Festering Goblin being the fuel for it mean that i can get ahead on card advantage very quickly, making the deck pretty scary. However it isn't so scary that you get ganged up on, and it certainly is fun to play.

Areas for Improvements

There are some obvious ways that this deck could be improved. First off, I think it could do with more card draw. I need to add some black card draw cards, perhaps Sign in Blood, or Read the Bones: Bitter Revelation may also help here as it could add goblins to the graveyard that Wort can pull out. Bloodgift Demon could help with the card draw as well as adding a large flyer, which is another area the deck is weak.

The deck lacks for mass removal, and therefor something like Mizzium Mortars or Drown in Sorrow might help on that front, but this may just remains a place this deck stays weak.

So that is my goblin deck. I am enjoying playing it, and I am now working on improving it and also foiling it out, for sheer bling value. The next article will look at a different deck completely, one that I built with a specific strategy in mind: Selesnya Tokens.