Long-time readers will know that I’ve dedicated myself to building at least one deck of every possible color combination, currently numbering 27 (assuming you count "no color/artifacts" as one of them). Although I know that there are a number of folks who are trying the same thing, I credit the idea to former Level 5 Judge and dear friend Gis Hoogendijk.

After building a Karn, Silver Golem deck before Pro Tour London in 2005, Gis mentioned the idea and had started collecting cards for the project. By the time he visited me in Tampa in November 2007 (the first unofficial "DCI Policy Summit," where a bunch of L4 and L5 judges came to the house for several days leading up to Grand Prix Daytona Beach and no DCI Policy work actually happened—we ate, drank, and played poolside EDH), he had put together fifteen or sixteen of them. Gis has recently come back to judging (a real win for the Judge Program), so I imagine he’ll be completing his set sometime soon—since he just told me he was at 22.

Before we go anywhere, I’d like to tell you about playing against the Standard-legal Prime Speaker Zegana deck featured here last week. I sat down to a League game with Tom and League regulars Shea (Karador, Ghost Chieftain) and Jesse (The Mimeoplasm), choosing Animar for myself. Animar is the deck I’ve been most fond of lately, supplanting Karador as the "gotta take it every week" deck (although I played it this week and it was really good to me).

My opening hand was unexciting but keep-worthy, with Lotus Cobra; Relic of Progenitus; Invader Parasite; and four lands. Unfortunately for me, my next five draws were lands as well. I was pretty much a non-factor most of the game, but I got to watch plenty of action. Things got rolling slowly for everyone else as well, with Tom’s Master Biomancer and newly added Lumberknot setting the pace. Jesse turned the corner by getting out Szadek, Lord of Secrets and then Undead Alchemist. This looked really bad for all of us. Tom and I were creature-heavy, meaning Jesse was going to get loads of Zombies. More significantly, he was going to exile those creatures, threatening to neuter Shea’s whole strategy. It could get pretty ugly.

A turn after getting milled for ten and casting Prime Speaker to net nine cards, Tom tried to tap down Szadek with Dungeon Geists. Jesse, out of nowhere, came up with Not of This World, countering the trigger and getting a giant roar from the table and spectators. When Jesse went to battle on his turn, Tom had Rapid Hybridization ready. Jesse didn’t have another trick up his sleeve. The Szadek threat was gone for now. We were still dealing with Undead Alchemist, but the threat density was much lower.

Several turns later, Jesse upped the ante by finally casting The Mimeoplasm, deciding to copy his own Wrexial, the Risen Deep (which I had countered earlier with Fuel for the Cause) and use Szadek for counters. Sure, he wasn’t going to get the Wrexial triggers, but he was landwalking all over us. Shea, who had basically spent most of his time ramping, got out Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Butcher of Malakir. Tom had enough land to cast Boundless Realms and Silent Departure, ending the Mimeo-Wrexial threat.

I finally had some impact by topdecking Sylvan Primordial, taking out two copies of Alchemist’s Refuge and one Cabal Coffers. Jesse managed to kill Mikaeus and then recast The Mimeoplasm copying it. Creatures died left and right to Shea’s Butcher of Malakir coupled with High Market. He then started to get way out of hand by casting Sun Titan to get back his Cabal Coffers, gaining further control when he cast Beacon of Unrest to get my Sylvan Primordial. He went for further insanity by casting Phyrexian Delver, but Tom had Dissipate handy. Tom then cast Silklash Spider (criminally underplayed in the format) and Gutter Grime (ditto).

When it came back around to Shea’s turn, it looked really bad for us when he cast Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord. Tom once again came to the rescue with Counterlash, putting Snapcaster Mage into play, targeting Aetherize with its ability to at least Fog for this turn. Tom battled with Prime Speaker into Shea, who did what we’d all done so far: chump block instead of killing it. Prime Speaker is a little scary when it is large and attacks, but it’s even scarier when it can draw piles of cards.

On back-to-back turns, I’d cast Garruk’s Horde and Lurking Predators and had somehow managed to keep Animar on the battlefield (with enough counters that I was only casting stuff with the colored components). I had Vorrac Battlehorns on top when Shea Regrowed his Harmonic Sliver to kill LPreds. I shipped the Battlehorns, revealing Memnarch. I doubted it would save me much, but it gave me a chance.

I attempted to cast Memnarch for free, but Tom had Mystic Genesis. It’s rarely a bad play to counter someone’s Memnarch, but in this situation, I wasn’t really the threat. Again, it gives me the chance to do some stuff, but with only ten mana in play, it’s not likely I’m going to be able to steal everything on the board, which was getting pretty crowded with creatures. I followed that up with Spearbreaker Behemoth courtesy of Garruk’s Horde.

Shea had Oracle of Mul Daya, so we saw the Decree of Pain coming. His only hesitation was getting the "Dookie" penalty for drawing more than ten cards in a turn. Eventually, he shrugged and casts it for 28. I gave my guys indestructible, so I had a little bit of board presence. When it came around to Shea’s turn, he pretty much ended it by dropping Bojuka Bog on Tom and then casting Living Death. He brought back a pile of what he discarded last turn, including Avenger of Zendikar, which made 24 Plants. Concordant Crossroads came out next. He swung guys at all three of us but durdled the math a little, leaving me at two while killing Jesse and Tom. He was at a healthy 50-something, so I was probably down to the single out of Primal Surge and hope that Maelstrom Wanderer is one of the guys.

Maelstrom Wanderer was indeed one of the guys, but it was the one I drew. I cast Animar first in case something crazy happens. I’d only hit Shea for two with Animar so far, but you never know what will happen. The Wanderer cascaded into nothing of substance, and we were done.

Tom’s Standard-legal deck acquitted itself quite nicely. It put out a reasonable number of threats and had some timely answers. Like I mentioned last week, I’m still pretty sure Standard-legal Commander isn’t viable, but I think Tom’s deck is. We talked a little afterward, and he told me that he’s going to obviously put some Dragon’s Maze cards into it but then leave it like it is. It will stay this current Standard environment legal in perpetuity. We talked a little about Sylvan Primordial and Deadeye Navigator. When he stood firm about not adding DEN, I reminded him of how he couldn’t get us to kill Prime Speaker in order to recast it. As he walked away, he said with a smile, "I’m totally putting that card in the deck."

The Obzedat Deck

Even though I’m a Johnny Come Lately to the Chromatic Project idea, I’m going for it nonetheless. I’d like to get it done before the end of 2013, and I’d like you all to share the journey with me (and point me in what you think might be cool directions along the way).

While I currently have twenty decks, there are duplicates in Jund, Grixis, and Golgari, meaning that I still have twelve left. The first one I decided to take on is Obzedat, Ghost Council. I’d love to give you some high-minded ideal about why I picked it to be next, but the truth is that I’m lazy. I had recently disassembled a terrible, unfocused, not-particularly-well-themed Sol’Kanar the Swamp King deck and an already partially cannibalized mono-white deck. There was a pile of interesting foil black and white cards sitting there on the shelf waiting to be sorted and filed away. I decided that it would be better for efficiency’s sake ("efficiency" is just "do less work," right?) that I put them into a deck. Boom, Obzedat was born. Most of my decks start on paper. This one started with "ooh, piece of candy."

Overview

When you have a build-around commander, you build around it. I wanted to do three things with Obzedat: a little milling and Reanimation, some extorting, and making the environment hostile to creatures on other players’ turns. The latter is what Obzedat suggests in the first place since he’s not around when stuff happens. You can’t have an Orzhov commander without extort, which is why I included that. The mill / Reanimate stuff came from that pile of cards I mentioned earlier.

One of the joys of this format is that you can build decks with cards you just want to play with. Not everything has to be tightly optimized and laser-focused. Sure, we want decks that work (or avoid not working), but there’s a flavor element here—sometimes you just taste it.

Mana

In Orzhov, your ramp options are slim. It’s nice that you only have two colors to get, but we’re going to have difficulty keeping up with the decks with green in them. That means mana rocks. I’m not the biggest fan because they tend to get blown up by board sweepers, but it’s what we have.

I didn’t have a Wayfarer’s Bauble handy or it would have gone in. As I tweak the deck a little, it will probably get added (and thinking about the Bauble had me review all my decks without green to see if I have it in there). Crypt Ghast is a big helper in keeping up mana-wise with the rampy decks, and as soon as I score another Nirkana Revenant, I’ll probably toss that in as well.

Creature Hate

Creature hate comes in two basic forms: killing them and not letting them untap. Blind Obedience; Loxodon Gatekeeper; and Kismet (with the least cartoonish Kaja Foglio art ever) tap them when they come in. Meekstone; Marble Titan; and Crackdown keep creatures tapped. I ported over one of my favorite creatures in from my Karador deck, Deathbringer Liege, to be a major player in this effort (replacing it with Sepulchral Primordial). I should consider things like Angel’s Trumpet; Norritt; and Nettling Imp to make things even more uncomfortable for the creatures that get/stay tapped. I might also consider some of the many white tappers like Ballynock Trapper; Blinding Mage; and Court Street Denizen (which works really nicely with Obzedat), as well as classics like Icy Manipulator, among others.

As far as mass creature killing goes, I mostly wanted things to do on other players’ turns so that I could use them without fear of hitting Obzedat. Nevinyrral’s Disk; Bane of the Living; Havoc Demon (especially with a sac outlet); Kagemaro; and Rout all qualify. I wouldn’t mind finding room for Oblivion Stone as well. Elesh Norn obviously makes things uncomfortable for everyone else’s little guys. I considered Spreading Plague, especially since Obzedat could effectively render white and black creatures useless, but it would also kill my other guys. Myojin of Cleansing Fire is worth a thought, although Loyal Retainers bringing it back doesn’t really help.

Like any decent black deck, there’s good spot removal all around, with Avatar of Woe; Necrotic Sliver; Shriekmaw; Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet; and Vish Kal ready to do the heavy lifting. I’m sad from a flavor standpoint that I’m not playing Teysa, Orzhov Scion, but there aren’t enough white creatures or token-generators to make it worthwhile, even with the inclusion of the nicely flexible Trading Post.

If I really wanted to include her, I’d probably just pull out the mill and Reanimation elements in favor of making a bunch white tokens. Darien, King of Kjeldor; Decree of Justice; Elspeth Tirel; Elspeth, Knight-Errant; Emeria Angel; Increasing Devotion; Knight-Captain of Eos; Lingering Souls (shouting out to Tom Martell); Martial Coup; Mobilization; Murder Investigation; Spectral Procession; Storm Herd; and White Sun’s Zenith would all get consideration—but we’d also be talking about a major restructuring of what the deck does.

Other Stuff

One techy little bit from the milling / Reanimation suite is Millikin. It’s a mana rock that also puts stuff into the yard, so an early Reanimate is certainly possible. Infernal Genesis is one of those "just want to play it" cards which may or may not last in the long run. It’s certainly good for me when Elesh Norn is on the battlefield, but we can say that about a fair number of cards. The one thing I’m currently missing is Treasury Thrull, which I only have a single copy of (but I’m fixing that). It’ll probably come in for Thrull Parasite.

Obzedat, Ghost Council

Sheldon Menery

0th Place at Test deck on 03-24-2013

Commander

Creatures (29)

Lands (38)

I’ve played the deck twice already, and it’s been fun both times. There haven’t been any cards that I’ve hated when I drew them. Obzedat was key in both taking down other players and keeping me alive, and Meekstone did its work. The deck is still a little light on destroying things that aren’t creatures, so that merits some consideration. It also could be better at drawing cards. I’ve wanted to run the Necropotence / Repay in Kind combo…okay, actually I haven’t. It could probably use a Land Tax, which is kind of like drawing cards. I’ll keep playing the deck and let you know what tweaks it might want or need and how things turn out.

In the upcoming weeks, we’ll talk more about getting further into the Chromatic Project, as well as some of my thoughts on Commander Cube.

Continuing The Chromatic: Obzedat