First, let me thank everyone for the great feedback on my column from last week—I got a ton of comments and emails from people, and it’s good to know that the “rogue spirit” lives in a lot of people for whatever reason! I thought it interesting that the “value of rogue” got some love from other authors this week too—from Sam Black How to Become a Deckbuilder on Premium to Shaheen Soorani Originality vs. Mainstream on Select. Both of these are top-notch players who know how to build rogue decks that win, so make sure to check out what they have to say.

So… back to Commander!

Not long ago I got an email from Jeff Reynolds:

Hey, I really enjoy your articles about EDH. I started playing that mode almost exclusively about two years ago because I have some older cards that were just sitting around doing nothing.

Anyway I never seem to win at Commander though I’m not a great player. However when I played your Uril, the Miststalker deck with a few variations, I won! So I am looking to you for some help. Please. One of my favorite cards is Lord of Tresserhorn and I’ve started with a zombie theme. Could you give some ideas?

Lord of Tresserhorn—what a cool card! This email reminded me that I’ve long wanted to build a Commander deck around him but have forgotten all about him in the rush of all the cool new legends that have come out over the past few years—not least of which the cards made for the pre-built Commander decks.

Lord of Tresserhorn was printed in Alliances, and it’s interesting to see some parallels between him and another popular Commander from the same set: Phelddagrif! Both cost four mana, including three different colored mana, and both have effects that cause an opponent to draw cards. Both even have the same four toughness…but while Phelddagrif makes a good political or even “care bear Magic” Commander, Lord of Tresserhorn is built to be aggressive—just check out that ten power! The tiniest power boost makes him a two-hit killer with Commander damage. For just four mana, that’s a pretty scary and potent option to have so early in the game.

Of course, the Lord demands payment beyond just mana to rule the Red Zone. The two-point life loss is negligible in Commander, and giving an opponent two cards is usually not a big deal—use it to help someone who appears to be mana screwed and you can gain a temporary ally, though the safe bet is to give two cards to whomever looks to be playing a deck that might struggle dealing with a ten-power regenerator. You can also punish the card draw with stuff like Underworld Dreams, Psychosis Crawler, Sudden Impact, Molten Psyche, or get in on the fun with Mind’s Eye (providing you have enough extra mana) or Consecrated Sphinx.

No, the biggest price the Lord demands is the blood of two creatures. Luckily for us, his colors—especially black—offer plenty of fodder that’s fine going to the graveyard. Let’s take a look at some creatures that I think are perfectly fine Commander cards:

Born to Die: Gravecrawler, Butcher Ghoul, Reassembling Skeleton, Bloodghast, Nether Shadow, Nether Traitor, Carrionette, Squee, Goblin Nabob, Ashen Ghoul, Anger, Filth, Wonder, Krovikan Horror, River Kelpie, Kher Keep

Ashen Ghoul is a Zombie, by the way…

When researching for these sorts of cards, I rediscovered Carrionette, a card I’d forgotten all about but one that’s pretty sweet! Once it’s in the graveyard, you’ve got a removal spell ready whenever an opponent taps down to less than two mana, and exiling a creature is extremely handy in Commander–even if it’ll only stop an actual Commander briefly.

Even though not all of these cards will ultimately make the cut in this deck, a lot of them will. Having easy sacrificial fodder also makes cards like Skullclamp and Black Market—already really good Commander cards—even better! And you might want to consider cards like Deathgreeter, Blood Artist, Thornbite Staff, Jar of Eyeballs, Mimic Vat, Falkenrath Noble, Sangromancer, and Harvester of Souls.

Now, Jeff said he wanted to build a Zombie themed deck with Lord of Tresserhorn, which is super-sweet given how graveyard-savvy the Zombie tribe tends to be. Even sweeter is the fact that Lord of Tresserhorn has been errata’d as a Legendary Creature—Zombie (even though it doesn’t say that on the actual card). There are a ton of Commander-quality Zombies we could include in this deck:

Zombies: Gravecrawler, Shepherd of Rot, Zombie Infestation, Butcher Ghoul, Nightscape Familiar, Plaguebearer, Withered Wretch, Gempalm Polluter, Lord of the Undead, Cemetery Reaper, Death Baron, Diregraf Captain, Lichlord of Unx, Zombie Trailblazer, Anathemancer, Fleshbag Marauder, Gutless Ghoul, Undead Gladiator, Endless Ranks of the Dead, Graveborn Muse, Tombstone Stairwell, Undead Warchief, Undead Alchemist, Vengeful Dead, Balthor the Defiled, Fatestitcher, Unliving Psychopath, Cairn Wanderer, Call to the Grave, Corpse Harvester, Noxious Ghoul, Syphon Flesh, Corpse Connoisseur, Grimgrin, Corpse-Born, Havengul Lich, Grave Titan, Gravespawn Sovereign, Rooftop Storm, Zombie Apocalypse, Geth, Lord of the Vault, Helldozer, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, Grave Betrayal, Thraximundar, Army of the Damned

Keep in mind that Tombstone Stairwell makes 2/2 Tombspawn tokens for you and your opponents, but the errata on this card makes these Zombie tokens as well, and you can set your deck up to make a lot better use of all these extra Zombies than most of your opponents. Also, the tokens that are made are destroyed at the end of each turn rather than exiled, so it combos quite nicely with Massacre Wurm, no?

Going with the Zombie theme, we quickly run out of room, and are forced to make some hard choices. Here’s what I’ve decided to go with:

Lord of Tresserhorn

Bennie Smith

Test deck on 02-17-2013

Commander

Creatures (35)

Lands (39)

Some additional notes:

Mana: Going with the heavy zombie theme pushed me hard into black, and I ended up with an extremely black deck with small splashes of red and blue. Of course, the problem is your Commander—who can potentially hit the board turn 3 or 4—requires red and blue in addition to black. I made pretty heavy use of dual lands to help with this, but also dipped into artifact sources. Rakdos Signet, Fellwar Stone, Darksteel Ingot, Chromatic Lantern, and Izzet Keyrune are easy inclusions, but since I’ll need early creatures to sacrifice to Lord of Tresserhorn, Paradise Mantle and Springleaf Drum seemed like good additional color-fixing.

Protection: Lord of Tresserhorn, especially played early, is going to freak people out. Expect removal to be used early and often against him, which will be quite frustrating given the extra price you’ve paid to put him into play. That’s why I made sure to add Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots to the mix, and you should also be careful to keep up a black mana for regeneration, especially when you first cast him. But if people keep killing him off, don’t worry too much—the zombie tribal synergy is strong enough to win all on its own even without the Lord.

Rooftop Storm: I expect this card to do a ton of good work in this deck, especially after a big Spoils of Evil-fueled Stroke of Genius, or a boost from Disciple of Bolas or Syphon Mind.

Army of the Damned: This may seem overly ambitious, but between Cabal Coffers, Black Market or Spoils of Evil, it shouldn’t be that hard to cast or flash back. Break out the Zombie tokens!

So what do you think? What do you have in your Lord of Tresserhorn deck that I didn’t touch on here? Let us know in the comments below!

Bonus Commander deck!

Recently I tweeted out thanks to Wizards for finally making a badass Minotaur in Boros Reckoner. I’ve long had a beef with Magic’s long portrayal of Minotaurs as rather mediocre creatures. Even the legendary Minotaur hero Tahngarth got overshadowed by stoopid Flametongue Kavu! Minotaurs of myth—as well as Minotaurs of Dungeons & Dragons—are supposed to be fierce, scary… well, badasses! Boros Reckoner qualifies.

Jonathan Richmond (AKA @norbert88) replied to my tweet and pointed out that Zedruu the Greathearted and Etherium-Horn Sorcerer are quite the sweet Minotaurs for Commander, and followed up by sending along his Tribal Minotaurs (!) Zedruu list. I thought I’d share that with you:

Zedruu the Greathearted

Jonathan Richmond

Test deck on 02-17-2013

Commander

Creatures (36)

Lands (37)

Pretty sweet, huh? Of course, any Commander that can cast white and red has been instantly juiced up by Boros Charm!

By the way, if you’re in the area this weekend, Richmond Comix is attempting to fire up a Standard tournament in addition to their normal Draft for Friday Night Magic. $5 entry fee and just straight up Swiss rounds and payout in store credit based on how many wins you rack up—similar to how prereleases are run. You also get a booster pack of Gatecrash just for playing! I’m sleeving up a new Gatecrash-infused brew that I hope does well enough for me to write about next week. Maybe I’ll see you there?

Take care,

Bennie

starcitygeezer AT gmail DOT com

Make sure to follow my Twitter feed (@blairwitchgreen). I check it often so feel free to send me feedback, ideas, and random thoughts. I’ve also created a Facebook page where I’ll be posting up deck ideas and will happily discuss Magic, life, or anything else you want to talk about!

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)