Creativity And Cromat

Sometimes an idea comes from a strange place. The best thing I can say is run with it. Shutting down your creativity will hurt a lot more efforts than it will ever boost. Do you think Patrick Chapin became known as the Innovator by saying no to his creative thoughts? Would Terese Nielsen make art so wonderfully if she said no to her creativity? Would Ben and Jerry have such wonderful ice cream if they stopped being creative? Don’t do this in Commander either!

Commander decks sometimes come from weird ideas. We have essentially limitless options, so a deck seed can come from very odd places. The best thing about this is that we can set aside some staples for more exciting things that match the deck’s theme or goal. Staples may be good to hold up something, but you want to see the nice painting, not all the staples holding the canvas to the frame.

So where do some deck ideas come from? Mechanics like making Kresh the Bloodbraided huge, themes like scale birds in the art, hat tribal, or a theme like a Dune themed deck. But sometimes the deck is a small little seed. Like wanting to use Amulet of Vigor and Cromat as a commander.

Cromat caught my eye a while ago as a five-color commander who doesn’t signal degeneracy to the table. Some of the options? Scion of the Ur-Dragon, which is often at the helm of a Hermit Druid Combo deck. I’ll pass. The Slivers either signal Slivers or a combo deck that wants all five colors. Also going to pass. Child of Alara…maybe? But that is a lot of battlefield wiping. Atogatog…pass. Reaper King is cool, but everyone will think I’m going to constantly Vindicate everything so my opponents will likely gang up on me.

The choices I liked were Progenitus; Karona, False God; and Cromat. Karona wants a tribe to lead, and I didn’t want to go down that path. Progenitus is solid, but really, really expensive to cast.

But Cromat? Boom! This legendary Illusion is the little Swiss Army knife that could. Where did Amulet of Vigor fit in? I thought about running the five enemy-colored Ravnica: City of Guilds bounce lands (Izzet Boilerworks and friends) to pay for Cromat’s effects. Then, I thought, can I run all ten bounce lands? But they present a huge issue in tempo loss, so I thought Amulet of Vigor would be a great card to use.

Thus began the deck construction with twelve cards. I quickly added the five Planeshift Battlemages because they are underused and a fun way to get a neat effects. The Emissary cycle came next and then the Volvers. Invasion block had a lot of great multicolor cycles to use in the deck. I rounded the deck out with the Bringer cycle from Fifth Dawn and added enough stuff to make the deck actually function. Function should be sacrificed as little as possible for form; there are always options that meet a goal and still drive the deck towards victory.

Cromat

Erik Tiernan

Test deck on 07-11-2016

Commander

Creatures (29)

Planeswalkers (1)

1 Kiora, the Crashing Wave

Lands (38)

Mana

The basics are boring, so I’m skipping that section. Just season to taste. The bounce lands provide a big chunk of the deck’s manabase. With a five-color commander the deck really wants… options in the mana. Command Tower is a powerhouse on mana fixing for this deck with City of Brass and Mana Confluence as close seconds. Rupture Spire has a bit of a tempo loss, but the color fixing is extremely important. Fertile Thicket, Evolving Wilds, and Terramorphic Expanse have similar uses of trading a bit of tempo for color fixing.

The most fun land is Gemstone Mine. Under most circumstances this land is a piece of garbage. However, with ten lands that return a land to my hand when they enter the battlefield, Gemstone Mine gets a lot of mileage. The three counters do tick off quickly if I’m short on colors, but resetting Gemstone Mine helps until I have enough mana to not need to use it all the time.

Ramp

Ramp, ramp, ramp. Easy peasy. The mana rocks are basic and provide all the colors of the wind. Chromatic Lantern in particular is useful, with it out all my lands are five color lands.

The green ramp cards are relatively simple. Not terribly creative. The most useful ramp is actually the cards like Oracle of Mul Daya that provide additional land drops to help the bounce lands. Tap a basic, bounce a basic, replay a basic. Boom! Like I said, not creative, but useful. Being creative to the point of a deck not functioning is not something I enjoy.

Cycles

The Battlemages from Invasion do not get enough love in Commander. Many decks that are in any of the shard color combinations could use the Battlemages for good effect. Their stats alone aren’t too impressive; no one really wants a Gray Ogre in their deck. But a Gray Ogre that comes with other spells built in is pretty sweet. Sunscape Battlemage can Plummet a creature and provide a Divination. The best part of the Battlemages is that you don’t need to do any effect. You can pick and choose what you need.

The Emissary cycle works in a similar, if more limited way. The creatures themselves aren’t too powerful, but the utility is highly valued. The Volver cycle provides more power for the times when Cromat is off the battlefield. They also have kicker, but in the wedge color combinations.

The Bringer cycle is either extremely expensive, or wonderfully costed for WUBRG. These 5/5 Bringers provide solid effects in their colors. Bringer of the Red Dawn, if it miraculously lives long enough, can take out an opponent with his or her own commander. The others provide two cards, a specific card, a Ceast, or an artifact returned from the graveyard every upkeep.

Artifacts

Artifacts are colorless. Obvious statement aside, their casting eases the mana requirements of the deck. Erratic Portal can be used to get more value from the Emissaries and Battlemages. It also works to return and recast a Volver creature that didn’t have both kicker costs paid. The portal also works to prevent any of the small utility creatures from getting blown out in combat. If you’re lucky it can even bounce something an opponent controls. Steel Hellkite is a solid utility creature on a respectable body.

Many of the other artifacts are easy enough to cast but get better when all five colors are present. Obelisk of Alara is easy enough to cast but requires colored mana to activate. Despite looking underwhelming, this card does a little bit of everything: lifegain, card selection, killing off utility creatures (or making combat math hard for opponents), chipping away at an opponent’s life, or pumping a creature (ideally Cromat) for combat.

If I can’t activate some of the abilities right away, it is still a serviceable card and many opponents are much more worried about a Sword of Feast and Famine or Nevinyrral’s Disk than Obelisk of Alara. People can cheat out a Blightsteel Colossus in this format; Obelisk of Alara is not a priority for people and that is why I love this card.

Meanwhile Tek is… well, honestly, Tek is here so I can make jokes. I have a foil copy. I get to make jokes about how my deck is running “Sweet Tek (Tech)” and my friends groan. Commander can always use more giggles. In seriousness, this card is often a 4/4 flying, first striking, trampling creature for five mana. That isn’t too bad, even if it isn’t a Baneslayer Angel. But workhorse cards win games, just like the second and third leg of a relay race being as vital as the anchor for a win.

While Tek is a little workhorse and a bit of a joke, Draco is no laughing matter. This dragon has a truly outstanding mana cost that even beats Emrakul, the Aeons Torn for cost. Can we call this a hidden gem? I’m doing so. With a full domain, Draco is only six mana to cast. Six mana for a 9/9 with evasion. Draco does have some rough edges; it comes from an era when creatures weren’t all that great, so it has a drawback. However, with domain the upkeep cost is gone. Even though Commander is ruled by Dragons and the fattest of creatures, a 9/9 is still a big fat monster on the battlefield.

The last artifact is Legacy Weapon. Sometimes you just need to get rid of a problem. It costs WUBRG to activate, but a repeatable source of exile is extremely worthwhile for this deck. It also adds another card from the Invasion block to the deck, which is always fun.

Making Cromat Count

These cards all improve Cromat’s impact on the table. Strength of Unity is the most simplistic, providing a nice boost to Cromat. Get a full domain, enchant Cromat, attack. No worries, no finicky things.

Rings of Brighthearth help turn odd color combinations for Cromat’s many effects into more useful ones. The RW ability for +1/+1 is extremely useful, but I don’t always have enough red or white mana. The rings let me copy any of Cromat’s effects or any other activated ability in the deck. This card is fantastic, and completely worth the cost. The budget, and more limited, option is Illusionist’s Bracers. These work very similarly on Cromat but can’t copy every activated ability the deck has.

The last two cards that make Cromat count are multicolor. Chromanticore is the little legend that wasn’t, but it still gives a monstrous boost to Cromat: +4/+4, flying, first strike, vigilance, trample, and lifelink. If someone kills Cromat in response to the bestow, Chromanticore sticks around to help comfort the loss of a commander.

Flying Crane Technique is more limited but adds more awesome. This Sealed blowout card is so much fun to surprise an opponent with! Almost no one plays this card and no one sees it coming. Even the Battlemages are useful in combat with flying and double strike. If needed, the card can be cast on an opponent’s turn for the ultimate combat trick.

Utility

Sometimes you need to get a little serious. I prefer themes in the deck’s main functions and my utility answers to pack some serious punch. So I have a few boring cards like Swords to Plowshares, Return to Dust, Factor Fiction, and Diabolic Tutor. These cards keep me in the game but are rather bland to discuss.

Let’s cut right to more fun stuff: two-color utility! Utter End handles everything. Big brother Merciless Eviction handles everything of a specific type all at once. I have all five colors, so why not use them? Hull Breach is a two-for-one 90% of the time. For two mana you can kill a problem artifact and a problem enchantment. Value! Dismantling Blow is often a Disenchant, but if I have the mana it comes with extra cards. Most decks in blue and white need to rethink Disenchant over Dismantling Blow. The card is really good.

Now we get to the really good stuff. Abzan Charm removes every creature in Commander. Yes, you can be pedantic and talk about the utility critters it misses. Don’t care. It gets rid of every creature in Commander. You can also draw some cards at instant speed; even blue has limited options for that. Abzan Charm also helps pump Cromat. This card is fifty cents! Why are so few Commander players using this?

Sultai Charm is the same utility category. Remove a problem creature. Even in multicolor decks, many players run a lot of mono-colored creatures. Plus, this only cares about color, not color identity. Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest can get wrecked just as easily as Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite. Sultai Charm also hits an artifact or enchantment; you can always use a little more artifact and enchantment destruction. Finally, the Charm draws you two cards, and then you discard. Again, why do so few players use these cards?

Guided Passage is both a wondrous troll card and an extremely useful tutor to cast. For three mana you get a land, a creature, and a noncreature, nonland card. An opponent gets to pick, but you can make do. Sometimes you even get good cards to deal with a Blightsteel Colossus, Eldrazi Titan, or some other horrific monstrosity on the battlefield. You also get to watch your opponent try to figure out what is happening in the deck. If you are playing with friends, this is the perfect bathroom break card. Cast it, run to the bathroom, wash hands (always), return to see what Santa brought for Christmas.

Prismatic Omen helps power up several cards. For two mana, all your color problems are gone, Tek is useful, Draco is on god-mode, Cromat is way easier to cast and use its abilities, and the Battlemages, Emissaries, Volvers, and Bingers are all on optimal mode. This card can actually scare a table when you have a full grip. It makes the whole deck better. Nothing else in the deck compares. This card is expensive to pick up currently and Chromatic Lantern does most of this utility. But the value from Prismatic Omen is worth making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and skipping going out for lunch one day.

Giggles

Commander games are often lacking in giggles and joy. Bring them back with weird decks that throw off a table. How many games have you seen the Battlemages win? I have won games recently where Cromat was too expensive to cast, so I looped Nightscape Battlemage and Thornscape Battlemage with Erratic Portal to strip away my remaining opponent’s permanents. Attack, bounce, recast Nightscape, bounce Thornscape, hit your commander, and blow up your Command Tower, go. It is a great sequence of plays. I recommend it.

What Commander decks do you have that show off more of the art on the canvas than the staples? Do you impose challenges like a five-color deck with no dual lands, shocklands, or fetchlands? What part of Commander brings out the most giggles?

Think about it. We can make our format fun and powerful if we try.