Some time back I disassembled one of my longest-standing decks, Adun Oakenshield and His Beasts, so that I could build Ruric Thar and His Beastly Werewolf Fight Club. Since then Adun has perched on the shelf waiting to be rebuilt. Today I’m finally going to get around to it.

The idea is simply "cards I want to play." There are synergies with the commander, but since I love playing around with my graveyard anyway, it’s not a stretch to find some Jund-colored cards that both strike my fancy and fit into the deck.

I had another idea that’s pretty far outside the box: Adun Voltron. The whole purpose of the deck would be to kill with commander damage. That’s easy if you want to build Voltron with Rafiq of the Many or Uril, the Miststalker, but doing it with a 1/2 that has no relevant ability is a horse of a different ballpark. In the end, the idea felt pretty narrow—so much of the deck would be focused on doing a single thing that it would almost feel like a combo deck. It would be extremely fragile, and I eventually decided that it’d be too often disappointing.

The only self-imposed rule here is that I have to have all cards for both decks already available to me in foil, meaning that I have to already have the card in my collection of foils. The only exceptions I’ll allow are for cards not printed in foil, like those from the Commander set (and a few I’ll ask you about along the way). I’ll even avoid cards from Urza’s Saga and back just to make it a little tougher. I’ll allow myself to grab cards that are already in other decks, but I have to be willing to swap them out of that deck for good (so no cheats by having only one copy of something, taking it for this deck, and then going out and finding a replacement for it in the other deck). To be fair, there are some foils that I saved from the previous version specifically to rebuild the deck. I didn’t, for example, have foil shock lands just sitting around unused.

Adun Oakenshield

Sheldon Menery

0th Place at Test deck on 12-04-2013

Commander

Creatures (36)

Planeswalkers (2)

Lands (36)

Let’s go over why I chose what I did.

Artifacts

Gilded Lotus: Just a little artifact mana. Foil availability due to its release in M13.

Sensei’s Divining Top: This is another one that I had reserved to add to the deck once I rebuilt it. Since the card drawing is modest, a little library control goes a long way, especially with Lurking Predators onboard.

Sword of Body and Mind: I was going to put Rise of the Dark Realms in here. When I didn’t have one, I still kept the Sword because it’s simply good.

Artifact Creatures

Solemn Simulacrum: Another one that’s affordable because of its core set release, it’s the perfect card. And I want to regrow it with Adun and copy it with Kiki-Jiki. But then again, who doesn’t?

Creatures

Acidic Slime: Sometimes stuff needs to get blown up. Enter Acidic Slime. Because I have the ability to bring it back with Adun, I’ll be more likely to trade it in combat.

Big Game Hunter: Giant things must get killed, but the real reason it’s here is because of its interaction with Survival of the Fittest.

Bloodbraid Elf: Most of what I can cascade into here are creatures, so I’m always happy getting two for the price of one. There might be a few awkward moments when I cascade into Reroute, but at least it draws a card.

Borderland Ranger: Sometimes you make concessions when you have self-imposed restrictions. I didn’t have any foil Wood Elves, so the Ranger got promoted.

Burning-Tree Shaman: You’d be quite surprised at how much damage Burning-Tree Shaman ends up doing. People generally don’t mind taking the one point every now and again; it adds up.

Butcher of Malakir: I love this card, and I didn’t have a foil Grave Pact.

Chameleon Colossus: I’m not completely sold on the Colossus in a deck that’s not somehow beefing up his power in some other fashion, but we’ll see.

Civic Wayfinder: See Borderland Ranger.

Elvish Aberration: The first piece of value is Forestcycling. The second is I can put it back in my hand with Adun. Third is that it fills the graveyard for Oversold Cemetery.

Eternal Witness: Another one that I had saved a copy specifically for this deck. There isn’t actually that much crazy stuff to regrow.

Fertilid: Ramp and regrow. Ramp and regrow.

Genesis: A regular fixture in the format since its earliest days, Genesis has for the most part been overshadowed in recent years. If there’s a creature whose throwback jersey you get, it’s Genesis.

Golgari Brownscale: With Oversold Cemetery and Adun’s ability, I wanted a little bit of dredge to make an appearance—just not quite enough to play Life from the Loam.

Grave-Shell Scarab: A good body and good ability to go along with the dredging.

Ghor-Clan Rampager: Just like with dredge, I thought a little bloodrush might be cool with Adun. The dream will be having enough mana to attack, bloodrush, put it back with Adun, and bloodrush again.

Masked Admirers: The card I love so much that I once mistakenly (and quite unintentionally) had three in a deck (foils in two different languages and a non-foil), it does all the things you want a deck that regrows cards to do.

Massacre Wurm: Some of the most epic plays in the history of the format have happened with this card. I want more of them.

Molder Slug: I don’t have too many artifacts, and I think that Molder Slug can keep some decks in check.

Scavenging Ooze: Huzzah for M14! Affordable foily Scoozes! Okay, kind of affordable. Other people’s graveyards are scary, and stuff needs to get eaten out of them.

Shriekmaw: I can evoke and regrow Shriekmaw for the same as its casting cost, so it feels like all win.

Soul of the Harvest: I understand that drawing cards is good, and creatures that help you draw cards are even better. I’m a little sad that I didn’t also have a Harvester of Souls.

Sylvan Primordial: In any green deck, I want one of Sylvan Primordial, Terastodon, or Woodfall Primus (in some all three) in order to be able to take care of problematic noncreatures. The Primordial was all that I had in the box, so it was chicken dinner.

Undead Gladiator: A criminally underplayed card in the format, it turns on Oversold Cemetery or just keeps getting put back in my hand—either with its own graveyard-filling ability or Adun—to cycle again.

Wild Beastmaster: It was sitting there, and I wanted to play with it. I think it might eventually end up on the cutting room floor since I don’t have too many ways to make it bigger—although trigger on the stack + bloodrush might surprise someone.

Wilderness Elemental: Another throwback to the ancient days, Wilderness Elemental is always large regardless of when you play him.

Withered Wretch: Everyone’s favorite Zombie provides a little redundancy in keeping frightening graveyards in check, which I think is a first-rate survival technique in this format.

Zhur-Taa Druid: A little mana ramp and damage at the same time. One of my hopes is to ping away at players’ life totals so that while they’re slowly getting leeched they don’t feel it.

Zhur-Taa Swine: I like the affordability of the bloodrush ability on the Swine. It makes the play of bloodrushing twice via Adun a more likely possibility.

Legendary Creatures

Azusa, Lost But Seeking: If I get Azusa early, she’ll help me ramp up some. If I get her late, she’s getting pitched to Survival of the Fittest.

Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni: This is simply a card that I like to play. My most favorite card to ninjutsu will be Acidic Slime because who’s blocking that thing?

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker: There is much chicanery to be done with KJ. It’s a card that I previously considered lobbying my fellow RC members to consider for the banned list but then realized I didn’t think was all that dangerous but was just a little bored with seeing it.

Kokusho, the Evening Star: When you can play Kokopuffs, you play her, especially in a deck with recursion.

Sheoldred, Whispering One: Once considered the scariest of all the Praetors, we have come to learn it’s probably the least scary.

Enchantments

Compost: I bought three or four of these a while back when I realized how much dividends they would pay. I knew I’d put it in other decks in the future.

Feed the Pack: I wanted Greater Good. I got Feed the Pack. I feel like Charlie Brown at Halloween.

Fires of Yavimaya: Being able to attack right away with your creatures changes everyone’s math. The simple threat of something big coming will hold back some attacks, keeping your life total safer.

Goblin Bombardment: This might be my favorite enchantment ever. I love having a zero-cost sacrifice outlet, both to trigger dies abilities and to keep your grubby mitts off of my team.

Greater Good: Just kidding. I got Greater Good too.

Lurking Predators: I might still have two or three foil LPreds lying around after this one because I went kind of insane when it first came out and tried to corner the market. It’s actually not all that scary in this deck because of the small number of giant creatures.

Oversold Cemetery: If you’re playing against this deck and both Oversold Cemetery and Lurking Predators are on the battlefield, I think the better play is to blow up this. It’s one of the most solid control elements the deck has.

Pernicious Deed: Early in the format’s existence Pernicious Deed was used more to blow up everything. Now I find myself simply saving it for the token swarms. No mana, no muss, no fuss.

Survival of the Fittest: I most certainly didn’t have this lying around unused. I took it out of The Mimeoplasm since that deck already has enough ways of getting cards into the graveyard—and I’d rather have them in yours, not mine.

Instants

Hunter’s Insight: I like that I can have a creature murder a planeswalker and still get to draw the cards.

Momentous Fall: Probably my second-favorite instant ever after Fling, I will concede that I just don’t want people stealing my creatures.

Red Elemental Blast: Okay, you’re going to have to vote on this one. I have a Japanese Revised version that I figure is pimpy enough. If you think it violates the spirit, I’ll put in something else.

Reroute: My favorite Reroute play of all time was redirecting someone’s Tormod’s Crypt activation on my graveyard to theirs. And they were playing Karador, Ghost Chieftain.

Savage Beating: I like combat steps, and the best thing to do when you like something is to have more of them. Medium-power creatures can become quite devastating when they get double strike and attack twice.

Sudden Spoiling: Also among my all-time favorite instants, Sudden Spoiling has saved my bacon more times that I can count. Remember that it doesn’t work so well with creatures that have counters on them since you apply things that set power and toughness to a number before you apply counters. Still, I’ll take it.

Tangle: Spore Cloud doesn’t come in foil, but Tangle sure does. I can’t repeat enough that you need Fogs in your deck.

Planeswalkers

Garruk Wildspeaker: Garruk’s Overrun plus Savage Beating could be a thing.

Sorceries

Decree of Pain: Finding this in the box was like getting an early Christmas present. I wondered at how I had missed it all this time but was happy that I had.

Insurrection: The reason that this was available is that I had taken it out of most other decks that it was in. Hopefully it will underscore my "you need Fogs" message to people.

Kodama’s Reach: Not all cards need to be spectacular to be good. K-Reach is simply solid. That’s all you want it to be, and that’s all you need it to be.

Plague Wind: This makes me with I had a Rise of the Dark Realms available. Actually, I do, but I don’t want to take it out of Kresh. Still, Wrath of God for not me is worth nine mana.

Profane Command: Profane Command has been a wanderer in my suite of decks. It goes in; it comes out. It shows up elsewhere. I play it a little, and then it’s the cut for the exciting new cards. I hope it finds a home here.

Rampant Growth: Also a reader’s choice card since the one that I have is the Player’s Rewards full art/textless. Do I need to toss it and find something else?

Ranger’s Path: What do you get when you don’t have foil Skyshroud Claim? Ranger’s Path, which is close enough. If you play it turn 4, you probably weren’t going to cast anything for two anyway.

Tooth and Nail: I put Tooth and Nail in here because there are no native "I win" creature combos in the deck. I’ll get some value out of it, but without other stars aligning, it will never be a game ender, which is just fine with me.

The rebuilt Adun Oakenshield strikes the chords that I want it to. It’s a little good stuffish and a little durdly, but I think it will be enough fun, be able to keep up with other decks, and never be oppressive—in short, all I could ask for in a deck.

Finally, I want to thank everyone for the positive responses to last week’s article. I encourage continuing the discussion on tolerance and acceptance. The more we talk about it, the closer it is to becoming the way we routinely think.

Embracing the Chaos,

Sheldon

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Rebuilding Adun Oakenshield