Commander Deck Of The Week: Durnan Of The Yawning Portal

By my reckoning, Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate was the coolest set for Commander in 2022, and a big part of that was the Background enchantments and the legendary creatures with the Choose a Background mechanic.  The wide variety of abilities in the two groups meant you could really cobble together any color combination and do something fun with it.  I’ve built several of these mix-and-match decks in paper, and today I wanted to share my Golgari deck built around Durnan of the Yawning Portal!

I love Durnan for several reasons.  First, it encourages attacking, which I find leads to much more interesting games of Commander. Its attack trigger encourages playing lots of creatures, which happens to be my favorite Magic card type. With enough creatures in the deck, you’re going to practically draw a creature each time you attack, but it’s even better than raw card draw—you’ll get to store the card in exile, so it’s immune to discard effects like Wheel of Fortune and its ilk.

Further, the creature has undaunted, which means it costs one generic mana less to cast for each opponent.  In a typical Commander pod, that means discounting by three generic mana, so either you get to cast a medium-size creature for cheap, or you get to cast a huge monster for a lot less than normal.

Agent D

Of course, Durnan is just a 3/3 for four mana, so safe lines of attack can dry up pretty quickly in most games of Commander.  That’s why I’ve chosen Agent of the Shadow Thieves as its Background.

This is a cheap enchantment that helps Durnan attack with impunity, so long as you’re attacking an opponent who has the most life.  Deathtouch and indestructible mean Durnan will likely be chump blocked by something that’s expendable, and to be honest, that’s perfectly fine—we’re just wanting to get that attack trigger each turn.  Agent also slowly grows Durnan too, which might eventually become relevant.

Playing the deck, I typically try to get Durnan out on Turn 3 and start attacking on Turn 4.  I usually stockpile my undaunted creatures while playing out my hand, unless there’s a pressing reason not to; that way, the exiled creatures offer a way to “reload” if my options in hand dry up.

Okay, let’s dig in!

Top of Library

Even though I have a high density of creatures, randomization means there’s a chance for a miss with Durnan’s attack trigger, so I’ve got a bunch of ways to help manipulate the top of my library to ensure a hit each time. I’m glad to have Doom Whisperer here as a huge flying creature with an ability that synergizes well with my primary game plan.  Keen Duelist benefits from manipulating the top of your deck, potentially even killing an opponent if the creature on top of your library is expensive enough.

Exile Matters

Wizards of the Coast (WotC) has been putting out “cast from exile” synergy cards the past few years, but unfortunately not many of those cards are available in Golgari. Tlincalli Hunter is one of the few, with its ability to cast one creature per turn from exile for zero mana often being quite amazing.  If drawn late-game, the Adventure side Retrieve Prey can even function as a reanimation effect for a useful creature in the graveyard.

Dream Devourer is another way to discount expensive creatures you naturally draw by paying two mana early to foretell them, though the ability works for any nonland card so we can tuck away a big, splashy spell for later.

Big Creatures

I’ve got more high-mana creatures than I’d normally run to have better hits with Durnan’s triggered ability. I especially love the big Dragons from Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate, Ancient Bronze Dragon and Ancient Brass Dragon; rolling that d20 for the combat damage trigger is such a big moment in any Commander game! 

Not many decks can afford to run Apex Devastator, but shaving three mana off its whopping ten mana value helps a lot, and cascading four times when you cast this is always a good time.  And if you’ve not had a chance to try The Tarrasque yet, you should give it a whirl. The creature is a ton of fun!

Commander Magic Deck Of The Week: The Tarrasque

I’ve been impressed by Old One Eye in multiple decks since Warhammer 40,000 Commander came out. Bringing eleven power of trampling damage spread across two bodies is an incredible rate for six mana, and you can even discard two cards to bring it back from the graveyard if it dies.

Big Creatures Matter

Since the goal is to cast big creatures for cheap, I’ve included a bunch of cards that synergize well with big creatures. Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma is particularly sweet here. If you hit it off a Durnan trigger, it will usually just cost a single green mana to cast, and then giving your other large creatures a two-mana discount and pumping them with trample when it attacks is using every piece of the puzzle.

I also love running Surrak, the Hunt Caller in these sorts of decks, the haste is rare but welcome in Golgari. Doom Weaver and Shadowheart, Dark Justiciar can draw a bunch of sweet cards from our large creatures dying, and since they’re creatures, they help keep that density high for Durnan hits. 

Monster Manual is an impressive way to cheat an expensive creature from your hand onto the battlefield at instant speed even during an opponent’s turn, which will certainly make them sweat before attacking into open mana.

Durnan Attacks

An ill-timed removal spell taking out Agent of the Shadow Thieves when you’re attacking with Durnan can mean doom for our hero, so I’ve added a few more creature-based ways to help keen Durnan healthy and free from harm. Falthis, Shadowcat Familiar gives commanders menace and deathtouch, so if someone wants to double-block, that’s decent card value there.  Anara, Wolvid Familiar gives backup indestructible during your turn, so we can attack whomever we want to.  So does Stonehoof Chieftain, another expensive creature that benefits quite well from shaving up to three mana from its casting cost.

Card Draw

I’ve included a fair amount of card draw in the deck, including as many options attached to creatures as I could squeeze in.  Mainly, I want to keep making land drops each turn so that later in the game I can just hard-cast any big creatures I draw.  Ohran Frostfang is a favorite here, since I already want to be attacking early and often.

Removal

I’m playing a bunch of removal effects tied to creatures, and I especially love the flexibility of modes for Silverback Elder and Primaris Eliminator.  If I suspect there’s an Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines lurking about in anyone’s 99 (or, heaven forbid, in someone’s command zone), I will keep one of my creature removal spells on hand to take Elesh Norn down, since it shuts down so many of my creatures with enters-the-battlefield triggers.

Interaction

Hive of the Eye Tyrant and Deathgorge Scavenger supply a little bit of graveyard control, while Tamiyo’s Safekeeping is a surprise that usually keeps a huge creature from dying to a battlefield sweeper.

Mana Ramp

Almost all of my mana ramp options are designed to ramp on Turn 2 so I can cast Durnan on Turn 3 and start attacking on Turn 4 before too many defenses get put up.  Of course, that also means that Durnan might eat an early removal spell, but we still have to try!  I also love having any excuse to run the Quincy Harker Dracula skin of Reclusive Taxidermist whenever I can.

The List

Okay, here is the full decklist:

Here are the deck stats from our friends at Archidekt:

What must-have cards might I have missed including in this deck?  Are there any other cool new cards from Phyrexia: All Will Be One that I should consider?

Talk to Me

Do me a solid and follow me on Twitter!  I run polls and get conversations started about Commander all the time, so get in on the fun!  You can also find my LinkTree on my profile page there with links to all my content.

I’d also love it if you followed my Twitch channel TheCompleteCommander, where I do Commander, Brawl and sometimes other Magic-related streams when I can.  If you can’t join me live, the videos are available on demand for a few weeks on Twitch, but I also upload them to my YouTube channel.  You can also find the lists for my paper decks over on Archidekt if you want to dig into how I put together my own decks and brews. 

And lastly, I just want to say: let us love each other and stay healthy and happy.