Two Ways To Wade Into Battle

I hope everyone has been enjoying their holidays and is ready to kick off 2016 in spectacular fashion! We had last Friday off for Christmas, but I’m back this week to continue going over each of the Commander 2015 precon decks and walking through how we can use the cards in the deck as a base to build around each of the two new legends. So far I’ve covered the U/R deck Seize Control with Mizzix of the Izmagnus and Arjun, the Shifting Flame, and the G/B Plunder the Graves deck featuring Meren of Clan Nel Toth and Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest.

Today I want to look at the R/W deck Wade into Battle, featuring two sweet new legends: the Giant Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas and Anya, Merciless Angel. I’ve rarely dipped into the Boros color combination for Commander because in general the legends push you towards being rather aggressive.

As I was going through the list, I saw quite a few cards that can easily port over to a more focused and powered up version built around either Kalemne or Anya, including many cards I’ll want in both decks. Let’s talk about those first: Sol Ring, Blade of Selves, Boros Signet, Mind Stone, Thought Vessel, Fellwar Stone, Lightning Greaves, Oreskos Explorer, Breath of Darigaaz, Magus Of The Wheel, Orim’s Thunder, Boros Cluestone, Darksteel Ingot, Loxodon Warhammer, Urza’s Incubator, Banishing Light, Faith’s Fetters, Hammerfist Giant, Inferno Titan, Sun Titan, Warstorm Surge, Magma Giant

First off, Wade into Battle features the hottest new card to hit Commander: Blade of Selves! There are tons of great creatures to equip it to already in the deck, and there are bound to be other great cards that we add. Breath of Darigaaz is a wee little spell that I’ve never played in Commander, but I think it fits into both decks. It can clean up any small aggressive creatures that may be worrying you as you’re trying to get your Giants online with Kalemne, and in Anya it’s a way to dish out damage to everyone and just might tip someone low enough for Anya to get a boost.

Urza’s Incubator is a slam-dunk inclusion in Kalemne since it’s easy to satisfy Kalemne’s ability by going Giant tribal, but I think it also fits nicely in Anya since there are a fair number of Angels we’ll want in that deck too. It’s one way to ensure we can cast Anya early if we want to, or to pay one bit of Commander tax later on.

Much like Breath of Darigaaz, Hammerfist Giant and Magma Giant fit in Anya because it deals out damage to all players.

Okay, so these are the common cards that start us on our journey, but now we’re at a fork in the road. The first path leads us to back to Lorwyn‘s Giants by way of Theros.

Path 1: Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas

Kalemne comes down fast and hits hard without anything else going on, but we certainly don’t want to stop there. Kalemne wants to be the vanguard of an avalanche of big creatures that will start coming down every turn after she’s played, and each one cast makes Kalemne two pips more lethal. There are quite a few Giants and a few tribal cards in Wade into Battle, and since most Giants tend to cost five or more mana, this seems the natural direction to go with this deck. An alternative would be just to include a ton of “good stuff” creatures that cost five mana or more.

Giant Tribal

Wade into Battle: Stinkdrinker Daredevil, Taurean Mauler, Desolation Giant, Stoneshock Giant, Thundercloud Giant, Warchief Giant, Kalemne’s Captain, Sunrise Sovereign; Jareth, Leonin Titan , Hamletback Goliath, Arbiter of Knollridge, Borderland Behemoth

New additions: Door of Destinies, Mana Echoes, Brion Stoutarm, Giant Harbinger, Stonehewer Giant, Wandering Graybeard, Bloodshot Cyclops, Oathsworn Giant, Quarry Colossus

Wade into Battle has a ton of great Giants, but we have room for even more. Quarry Colossus is a particularly devastating Giant to equip with Blade of Selves. Brion Stoutarm may not cost enough to trigger Kalemne, but you can gain a lot of life by throwing Giants at peoples’ life totals.

With enough Giants in play Mana Echoes, can help chain a couple Giants in a single turn to really get Kalemne pumped up.

Other Cards

Wade into Battle: Fall Of The Hammer, Basalt Monolith, Worn Powerstone

New additions: O-Naginata, Skullclamp, Crush Underfoot, Swiftfoot Boots, Nim Deathmantle; Tenza, Godo’s Maul; Wall of Reverence, Hedron Archive, Return to Dust; Iroas, God of Victory; Rout, Cauldron of Souls

Kalemne can get downright scary but is imminently chump-blockable, so giving her trample is helpful. O-Naginata should have no trouble finding eligible creatures to equip and give trample to. Tenza, Godo’s Maul helps in a similar fashion, and if it’s equipped to a legendary red creature, look out!

With all these giant Giants roaming the battlefield, Wall of Reverence seemed like a no-brainer to really cushion our life totals in case we get into a real back-and-forth in the damage race.

Iroas, God of Victory won’t trigger Kalemne’s ability, and it’s not a Giant, but Kalemne is a Disciple of Iroas so I figured it would be pretty sweet to have her God show up and join in the battle sometimes. Making it more difficult to block your huge creatures can be helpful to the cause even without enough devotion.

Here’s what I cooked up for our journey’s end down this path:

Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas

Bennie Smith

Test deck on 01-01-2016

Commander

Creatures (28)

Lands (40)

The other fork in the path leads to the skies above overlooking blood-soaked battlefields.

Path 2: Anya, Merciless Angel

Where does Anya come from? I don’t know, but she’s all about bringing the pain. She has a very interesting tension going with her—while you may want to accelerate and play her early, you may also want to wait until one of your opponents finds him or herself at twenty life or less. At that point, Anya hits the battlefield as a 7/7 indestructible flier, which is quite impressive. What’s really cool about that though is she gets better the more opponents are at twenty life or less… but not dead, so you have incentives to spread around the pain but not necessarily to finish people off right away. If three of your opponents are all at twenty or less life, Anya is a 13/13 indestructible beating stick! So we want to encourage lots of bloodshed around the table.

Dishing Out Damage

Wade into Battle: Fumiko the Lowblood, Fiery Confluence; Gisela, Blade of Goldnight; Earthquake

New additions: Blind Obedience, Stigma Lasher, Mogg Maniac, Mages’ Contest, Quietus Spike, Furnace of Rath, Overblaze, Comeuppance, Heartless Hidetsugu, Scytheclaw, Illicit Auction, Dictate Of The Twin Gods, Gratuitous Violence, Goblin Game, Blessed Wind, Divine Deflection

I was going to leave Fumiko the Lowblood on the cutting room floor, but then I realized she encourages bloodshed by forcing your opponents’ creatures to attack each turn. She can play decent defense and discourage those attacks coming your way depending on how many creatures are attacking.

The reprinted Gisela, Blade of Goldnight is the perfect companion to Anya, making sure that damaged dished out to your opponents are doubly painful while damage dealt to you and yours hurt only half as much. Fiery Confluence is a flexible spell, but it can knock a huge chunk of damage out of your opponents for just four mana and potentially boost Anya right before she goes on offensive.

Rounding out the damage theme, I found quite a few red cards out there: There have been quite a few variants of Furnace of Rath over the years. Depending on life totals, Heartless Hidetsugu can potentially knock everyone down into Anya-boosting range. Quietus Spike and the new living weapon Scytheclaw play right into the life-having game. Speaking of games, how about Goblin Game? I’ve never felt the urge to play that card in Commander before now, but it seems like the perfect inclusion for Anya. Similar cards fit the theme too: Mages’ Contest and Illicit Auction.

Blessed Wind is pricey, but it sets someone’s life total to exactly half their starting life total in Commander. I like some of the white cards like Comeuppance or Divine Deflection as ways to unexpectedly drop someone’s life totals and bring Anya online.

Other cards

Wade into Battle: Dawnglare Invoker, Dawnbreak Reclaimer, Angel of Serenity

New additions: Mother of Runes, Skullclamp, Basilisk Collar, Swiftfoot Boots, Shaman en-Kor, Mark of Asylum; Tenza, Godo’s Maul; Wheel of Fortune, General’s Regalia, Worship, Wrath of God, Return to Dust, Seht’s Tiger, Route, Adarkar Valkyrie, Resolute Archangel

One thing I wanted to take advantage of was Anya being indestructible a good amount of the time, so I’ve added General’s Regalia and Worship to the mix. Shaman en-Kor can effectively spread around that indestructibility in regards to damage and can also do some serious shenanigans with Mogg Maniac.

Dawnglare Invoker is an interesting card that I don’t normally consider for Commander, but it’s a great lategame card that can really cause some havoc on the board.

I slipped Mark of Asylum into the mix mainly because it’s filthy with Hammerfist Giant.

Here’s what I cooked up for our journey’s end down this path:

Anya, Merciless Angel

Bennie Smith

Test deck on 01-01-2016

Commander

Creatures (20)

Lands (38)

What do you think of these two directions for the Wade into Battle precon? How would you do things differently? If you have any questions about any of my card choices, please feel free to ask.

This leaves the U/G and B/W precons to do in the coming weeks—which would you like me to work on next?

New to Commander?

If you’re just curious about the format, building your first deck, or trying to take your Commander deck up a notch, here are some handy links:

Commander Primer Part 1
(Why play Commander? Rules Overview, Picking your Commander)
Commander Primer Part 2
(Mana Requirements, Randomness, Card Advantage)
Commander Primer Part 3
(Power vs. Synergy, Griefing, Staples, Building a Doran Deck)
Commander Starter Kits 1
(kick start your allied two-color decks for $25)
Commander Starter Kits 2
(kick start your enemy two-color decks for $25)
Commander Starter Kits 3
(kick start your shard three-color decks for $25)