Last week, I showed off a not-very-good commander deck I made with cards pulled from packs previously showcased on HIVE. This week, I will try to make it a little bit better.
It's still a casual deck, as opposed to cutthroat competitive, but that is fine by me. Now it should actually have some cohesion at least. Further refinement is always an option, but it should work now.
First, a brief overview of the format:
- Exactly 100 cards are required for a deck
- One legendary creature is selected as a commander.
- All mana symbols in the commander's cost and a abilities define its color identity.
- The commander is played from a special command zone, and can be re-cast if it leaves the battlefield for any reason. However, an extra two generic mana must be paid each time it is re-cast.
- The other 99 cards form a standard library, and can only include colors in the commander's color identity. Any card with a different mana symbol, even as an optional cost or ability cost, is not allowed.
- There can only be one copy of any card, except for basic lands or a few cards which specifically say any number may appear in your deck.
- A few cards are banned, and may not be played without your opponent's consent, mostly because they severely unbalance the game.
As a general rule, the 99 are selected to take advantage of the Commander's abilities. For example, my Goblin Tribal deck is all about making lots of goblins, and making those goblins more dangerous. So let's take another look at the commander for this deck.
Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons is a green and black Legendary Creature - Human Cleric with two key abilities:
Whenever Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons deals combat damage to a player, you may put a -1/-1 counter on target creature.
Whenever you put one or more -1/-1 counters on a creature, create a 1/1 green Snake creature token with deathtouch.
It may be difficult to trigger the first ability unless I add a lot of evasion, and that is more of a blue mechanic. However, I can exploit the heck out of the second ability. I have older cards with the wither, infect, and proliferate mechanics to make that happen. The ultra-low CMC 2 (BG) casting cost means she can be easily re-summoned a few times if necessary despite the additional commander tax. So let's start by addressing that shortcoming from the first deck with a bunch of new creatures.
I also have these neat token counters I rediscovered.
I also found myself adding in a lot of green mana ramp, and I decided to include a potential alternative commander in the 99 in case I want to test this new option, too. I would probably swap out some of the Infect cards for basic lands and draw support for this guy.
With these ideas in mind, what do you think of the new and improved, nigh-unrecognizable revised deck list? There are still 20 non-land cards from the original build in there by my count, including the commander. I haven't gone through the artifacts in my collection, so more Infect could come from there. Splitting the focus between Hapatra and Gitrog means I will probably want to refine the deck for one or the other unless I just build into a second Golgari deck altogether. Chime in below!