Director of Magic: The Gathering R&D Aaron Forsythe has been a fan of Commander since the early days and a friend even longer. He was one of the first people at Wizards of the Coast who fellow RC member Scott Larabee infected with the format after discovering it himself at Pro Tour Atlanta 2005. He’s also on a list of Magic dignitaries who have played poolside EDH here at our place in Tampa, having slung the spells with us a few years ago when he was the guest of Armada Games for one of their larger events.

Aaron has a few cool decks, but the one that struck my fancy is Ramses Overdark. Ramses is a build-around commander with a unique ability: destroy an enchanted creature. In fact, it’s the only card in Magic that says “target enchanted creature.” Aaron’s deck is built around Ramses’ one-of-a-kind ability, and he’s added some great cards—both old and new—to make a fantastic deck. He shows off some of the cards from the past that you know are simply favorites from a bygone day, as well as keeps it updated with new stuff. Here’s how an R&D member who really gets the format makes a deck:

Ramses Overdark

Aaron Forsythe

Test deck on 05-19-2013

Commander

Creatures (26)

Planeswalkers (1)

1 Jace Beleren

Lands (38)

Spells (35)

Artifacts

Champion’s Helm: Not every commander natively has hexproof, which is why Lightning Greaves, Whispersilk Cloak, and Swiftfoot Boots are all so popular. In fact, there are only six that have it (and mad props if you knew all six: Geist of Saint Traft; Lazav, Dimir Mastermind; Sigarda, Host of Herons; Thrun, the Last Troll; Uril, the Miststalker; and Zuo Ci, the Mocking Sage). Champion’s Helm is a techy way to keep people’s hands off your commander.

Crystal Chimes: In a deck where enchantments are important and you’re not playing white for Replenish, you need other ways of getting them back. Crystal Chimes is one of those ways. It might be strategically risky to put it out in hopes of using it later since while it’s not likely to get directly targeted by artifact removal because there’s way scarier stuff, it can end up as collateral damage to Akroma’s Vengeance or Oblivion Stone.

Dimir Signet: Dimir is not good at ramping, so mana rocks are required. I’m a bigger fan of getting additional lands into play instead of using rocks, but you do what you have to.

Lightning Greaves: There aren’t too many big beatsticks in the deck to Greaves up, so the main function here is to simply protect Ramses.

Loxodon Warhammer: Of course, you can make things into big beatsticks by giving them giant hammers. I think too many players undervalue life gain in this format, and I’m happy to see that Aaron doesn’t.

Mind Stone: Another mana rock, this one isn’t a dead draw later in the game. When you’re done with it, you can have it replace itself.

Oblivion Stone: Dimir colors are pretty lousy at getting rid of enchantments, so their reset buttons have to sweep all types of stuff. Aaron is old school enough to have a love for Nevinyrral’s Disk, but in a world where you need to also take out planeswalkers, O-Stone is the choice.

Skull of Orm: Cheap to cast and a little expensive to activate, Skull of Orm is another method of regrowing the enchantments which are critical to the deck. I’m willing to bet that the copy in Aaron’s deck is an original from The Dark.

Sol Ring: The king of mana rocks.

Talisman of Dominance: I didn’t get a chance to ask the question “why Talisman of Dominance instead of Dimir Cluestone?” but I think the simple answer is that it gets you up and running a turn faster.

Wayfarer’s Bauble: Untamed Wilds without the green, you can also drop it turn 1 and ramp on turn 2—one of the few ways to get extra lands in these colors.

Artifact Creatures

Phyrexian Metamorph: I don’t know if I’d call this an auto-include in blue, but it’s pretty close. Having the ability to copy either a creature or an artifact is marvelously flexible.

Solemn Simulacrum: No spoilers, but Gwyneth Paltrow is a complete badass in Iron Man 3. She also has the most ridiculous abs of any Oscar winner, including Daniel Day-Lewis.

Creatures

Baleful Strix: A cheap, flying, deathtouch rattlesnake that draws a card? Yes, please.

Bane of the Living: In a deck with several morphs, Bane of the Living will always get mistaken for Willbender, which means it’s less likely to get targeted by removal—because no one wants you changing the target to something of theirs. I liken Bane of the Living for some reason to Kagemaro, First to Suffer (probably because of the minuses), but Bane gives you a little more control of how big of a minus you want to give—you’re just paying a good deal more for the privilege.

Brine Elemental: Pickles lock? Boo-urns.

Chromeshell Crab: Going further into the morph subtheme, players seem to forget that when you unmorph it you can exchange ANY creature you control for something else, not just the Chromeshell Crab.

Dominating Licid: The cards rules gurus used to like to pretend didn’t exist, Licids do something that no other cards do: create an ability for a special action. When you have priority, you can pay the mana to end the effect and it can’t be responded to. You can see how the Licids were probably the template by which equipment was later designed. Strategically, it’s cool that you can steal one creature and then change your mind when something better comes along.

Fathom Seer: With the deck having a relatively low mana curve, returning two Islands isn’t all that expensive. Drawing cards for no mana is always great.

Glen Elendra Archmage: Sometimes, you just have to protect your stuff. You might not mind having one or two things nuked, but the things that will really wreck this deck (imagine Merciless Eviction) are noncreatures.

Havengul Lich: I’m personally only playing this in my Zombies deck, and Aaron’s inclusion here has gotten me thinking about maybe playing it in a few others. Design-wise, it’s just a cool card. You can always find stuff you want to cast in graveyards, including your own. Paying a measly one mana to do it screams value.

Iridescent Drake: This card requires a second reading to get it. You can attach an aura from ANY graveyard. There are a few good possibilities in this deck, like Casting of Bones and Shade’s Form, but imagine being able to grab someone else’s Eldrazi Conscription.

Mischievous Quanar: More morphs, perhaps my favorite of the bunch. Again, opponents always have to assume that it’s Willbender, so they’ll tend to steer clear of targeting it with removal. The crazy thing about this card is that you can turn it back face down for reuse later.

Mulldrifter: Simple and effective, Big Daddy Drifts just gets you there.

Nightveil Specter: The truth is simple. Aaron Forsythe is a great Magic player. He was a strong Pro Tour player and member of the 2000 World Championship team. You absolutely don’t want him playing off of your deck.

River Kelpie: River Kelpie will trigger off of every time that Dragon Shadow and Dragon Wings come back. You’d think the downside is that in this deck there are only three creatures—one of them being the commander and the other two being Oona, Queen of the Fae and Silent-Blade Oni (okay, and Brine Elemental, but that’s not coming onto the battlefield face up)—that will trigger those enchantments. That’s not the point of those cards in this deck, though. They trigger on ANY creature with a converted mana cost of six or greater coming into play, so when someone else plays a fatty, you just put the Shadow or Wings on it, draw a card, and then kill it with Ramses. That’s called “high synergy.”

Rootwater Matriarch: Alternately, you can put Dragon Wings / Dragon Shadow onto something huge and then steal it.

Shadowmage Infiltrator: Having the best player in Magic history, not to mention an old friend, battling on your side only makes sense.

Shriekmaw: Sometimes the cards are complex; sometimes they’re simple. Shriekmaw kills creatures.

Silent-Blade Oni: As with Nightveil Specter, you don’t want Aaron playing out of your hand. I’d be tempted to also run Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni in this deck to complete the “your library, hand, and graveyard all belong to me” trilogy.

Sower of Temptation: In a format where most of the creature removal comes in the form of sweepers, I suppose you’ll tend to keep what you tempt away a little longer than you might otherwise. I’m still not completely sold on Sower of Temptation without also having something to sacrifice the creature to in case you’re about to lose control of it.

Vesuvan Shapeshifter: An absolute house due to its ability to change what it’s copying for an extremely low price. Just remember to not miss the upkeep trigger.

Willbender: It’s always Willbender.

Legendary Creatures

Lazav, Dimir Mastermind: Making last week’s Lazav deck is what got me thinking about Aaron’s deck in the first place, so Lazav gets extra points for being in here. I really like the double advantage of killing something huge and then making Lazav into a hexproof version of it.

Oona, Queen of the Fae: There’s a theory that the player that spends the most mana wins, which means having untapped lands at the end of your last opponent’s turn is suboptimal. The term “mana sink” has changed from meaning “way to not take mana burn” to “useful outlet,” and there are few more useful outlets than Oona.

Sygg, River Cutthroat: I love what I call “passive advantage” cards, which are cards that do good things for you without having to invest anything in them beyond their initial mana cost. Sygg is one of those cards. Other examples include Oversold Cemetery, Rage Thrower, and Harvester of Souls.

Enchantments

Animate Dead: Animate it, Clone it, kill it with Ramses, and have Lazav become a better copy of it.

Casting of Bones: This is one of my favorite cards in the deck. Maybe it’s because it’s a reminder of the ancient days of the game, or maybe it’s because it nets you the best two of three cards when you kill an opponent’s creature.

Confiscate: One of the few enchantments in the deck that’s not specifically geared toward helping Ramses kill something, as cards get better, Confiscate gets better. Planeswalkers weren’t around when this came out in Urza’s Saga. If there’s ever a new kind of permanent, Confiscate will be able to steal that as well.

Dance of the Dead: Dance of the Dead is Animate Dead with the additional value of being able to keep a creature tapped down if the other player isn’t playing black. Or having him pay the mana and then killing it.

Despondency: Rancor is the only one of the recurring enchantment cycle which most players have seen. Despondency had its day in Limited and is obviously part of the clever use of the ability in this deck.

Dragon Shadow: We’ve already talked about the even cooler uses than normal for the Dragon enchantments. Let’s not forget the simple use of giving one of your own creatures fear so that it can bash.

Dragon Wings: Ditto, only with flying.

Enslave: Stealing someone’s monster, bashing them with it, and slowing draining away their life as well is the essence of Dimir.

Flight of Fancy: Draw cards, murder something. What’s not to like?

Fool’s Demise: Another of my favorite cards in the deck because you get to kill a creature and then have it play for your team AND get Fool’s Demise back to your hand. Makes me wonder why he’s also not playing False Demise.

Genju of the Fens: This is a card that might seem out of place because it doesn’t enchant a creature. What it will do in conjunction with Ramses is destroy a Swamp (or any land if Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth is out). This Forsythe fellow is quite tricky.

Glistening Oil: It’s a recurring enchantment so it has use with Ramses, but it might also end up as win condition in a long game or against an opponent with an extremely high life total.

Screams from Within: If there’s a next level recurring enchantment, this is it. Assuming no one has enchantment removal ready, you can kill a whole army of one toughness creatures with it, as it will kill one, trigger, come back, kill another, and so forth. Eventually, you can just put it onto something that has a toughness of two or greater. If you can’t, it goes away, but by then it’s done its work. It might be a card to consider in other decks as well.

Shade’s Form: Another card that might get some consideration for other decks, it’s either a way to take one of someone else’s creatures or a way to ensure that one of yours comes back after a board sweeper. If you put it on someone else’s creature, you can’t activate the pump ability because Shade’s Form grants the ability to the creature.

Takklemaggot: I’m pretty fond of Aaron’s love of old, confusing cards. You can’t have a deck without at least one wall of text card in it, right? Despite all those words, the card ends up being moderately simple. If your creature dies while enchanted with Takklemaggot, you get to put it on another creature. If you can’t, you get damaged by it on every one of your upkeeps.

Instants

Cryptic Command: Worst textless card ever.

Dismiss: Aaron’s an old-school guy, and old-school guys not named David Price made their bones by countering spells and drawing cards. This one does both.

Force of Will: Best use of Force of Will is the surprise hard cast, especially when it’s the last card in hand.

Mana Drain: The best card in the deck to combo with Mana Drain is clearly Oona, Queen of the Fae.

Memory Plunder: When I was verifying the cards on this list, I was surprised to find Memory Plunder is an instant. It’s just feels like a sorcery. Either way, it’s crazy good for four mana.

Planeswalkers

Jace Beleren: I see people all the time try to make friends by using the “all draw” ability. It never ends well.

Sorceries

Damnation: Sometimes, everybody’s gotta go.

Decree of Pain: And sometimes, you need to draw cards for each of them.

Demonic Tutor: The first and simplest of the tutors, I hope that the one in Aaron’s deck is from Beta.

Praetor’s Grasp: Played early, Praetor’s Grasp is a way to ramp or get a mana rock. Played late, it will get you exactly the answer you need (assuming you can cast it).

Lands

I’m not a huge fan of Darkslick Shores, and Salt Marsh should probably be replaced by Jwar Isle Refuge. But other than that, the list is full of the cast of characters one would expect in the colors.

Legendary Lands

Minamo, School at Water’s Edge: The inclusion of Minamo, which is obviously there to untap Ramses, makes me think that including Thousand-Year Elixir and/or Illusionist’s Bracers might be a good idea. Maybe even Sword of the Paruns.

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: I imagine that the main reason this is included is to be able to take out any troublesome land with Genju of the Fens. Otherwise, I see it helping opponents more than it does Aaron.

Volrath’s Stronghold: Even without a great number of enters-the-battlefield trigger creatures in the deck, Volrath’s Stronghold will let you get back the creature you really need at the moment. In addition to being able to get back one of the Pickles lock pieces, I envision a scenario where you constantly recur Glen Elendra Archmage to protect all your other stuff.

I don’t see too many changes I’d make to the deck. Other than the lands I’ve already mentioned, I’d perhaps add Dimir Cluestone instead of Talisman of Dominance. If I were making the deck for myself, I’d take out the Brine Elemental, replacing it with Sepulchral Primordial. If you’re going to kill creatures, you might as well reanimate them.

I’ve seen this deck in action, and it’s always loads of fun to watch and a challenge to play against. It needs a skilled hand—like the one that built it—to get the most mileage out of it, but it’s not so complicated that the rest of us wouldn’t have good times with it as well. Thanks to Aaron for agreeing to share the deck with us, not to mention all the great things he’s done for Magic over the years.

Embracing the Chaos,

Sheldon

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