The Karador Do-Over

It’s time to climb the next rung on the Do-Over Project ladder! This is the Do-Over that I’ve both been looking forward to and dreading. Halloween with
Karador is one of my favorite decks, and doing something different with it feels like cheating on a spouse. I swear, original Karador, I was thinking about you the whole time. Still, it must be done. So what to do? When I originally scoped out the
project, I thought that making a deck out of all the cards that have come out of previous incarnations of the deck would be cool since I could call it
Karador’s Benchwarmers. The problem with that is playing with a pile of cards in service to a funny name that gets less funny each time. I’m still going to
comb the configuration control document to see if there are cards that seem like fun (Doomgape is at the top of the list).

Remember that the self-imposed rules of this project mean that I can’t repeat any of the non-mana producing cards which are currently in the deck (and that
I haven’t gamed the system and taken stuff out of the original just to put it in this one). Non-lands are completely off the table. Lands which do
something else in addition to or other than producing mana, like Krosan Verge, Maze of Ith, or Grim Backwoods, are similarly barred from inclusion. I’m
going to try to do this one with no repeats in dual lands either-so no Temple Garden, Savannah, etc. As I’ve done with previous deck builds, I’d like to
take you along with my thought processes leading into the build, an on-going narration of what I’m thinking as I’m choosing cards.

Thematically, I don’t want to do the same kind of toolbox/good stuff deck. I considered centaur tribal, but the selection is less than spicy. When I talked
about the Fate Reforged changes I was going to make, I mentioned that there were two cards I was saving specifically for this Do Over: Warden of the First
Tree and Daghatar the Adamant. Let’s have the two of them inform the direction we’re headed. The clear picture here is of creatures with +1/+1 counters on
them. Since Karador is a centaur spirit, maybe there’s a subtheme of some kind there. We’ll investigate that as we go along.

We can’t ignore Karador’s ability. Casting creatures out of the graveyard is why one plays him as a commander. Dredge suggests itself, but I’ve never
really been a fan for some reason. I’m not going to completely ignore dredge; something like Shambling Shell seems interesting. I think what I’d really
like to do here is have Karador be the backup plan-get stuff running independently and then be able to repeat in case someone casts Wrath of God. I think
we also keep the mana curve a little tight. My current Karador needs time to get going; I’d like for this one to do stuff right out of the gate.

The first thing we’ll focus on is the +1+/1 counter theme. Our first stop on that path is the Abzan cards from Khans of Tarkir. Abzan Ascendancy plays
right into our hand, both with the counters and the spirit subtheme. We’ll also look at cards that put +1/+1 counters on everything, so the various Ajani
incarnations leap to mind, as well as Archangel of Thune and Cathar’s Crusade. The latter card is so silly (and a pain to keep up with) that I might
consider not playing it. I took it out of Rith because it was such an administrative hassle. Since we’re doing spirits, we’ll look at the Phantom creatures
that have +1/+1 counters. Looking further into the spirits, Twilight Drover has some possibilities. We won’t ignore the king of +1/+1 counter cards, Mr.
Babycakes, otherwise known as Forgotten Ancient. When +1/+1 counters matter, you have to think of creatures with persist-but the best of them, Puppeteer
Clique and Woodfall Primus-are already in the primary Karador. The idea of persist, however, leads me to the very cheeky choice of Cauldron of Souls-since
most of my creatures come back with +1/+1 counters, they’ll wipe out the -1/-1, making them ready to persist again.

If we’re putting counters on our creatures, we’ll want to be able to remove them to do things. Triskelion is the first thing that comes to mind; we’ll play
it, but without any cheesy combos. We’ll look at a few of the spikes, most notably Spike Feeder and Spike Weaver. Drakestown Forgotten gets some
consideration here, but it might be a little expensive to activate. Korozda Gorgon might be a little better in that regard. Retribution of the Ancients is
probably more what we’re looking for here.

Even making hard choices on the list of artifacts, creatures and enchantments where +1/+1 counters matter, the first draft list is huge (just under 70
cards):

Armament Corps; Archangel of Thune; Champion of Lambholt; Chronicler of Heroes; Consumptive Goo; Corpsejack Menace; Custodi Soulbinders; Cytoplast Root-Kin; Dark Impostor; Dirtcowl Wurm; Dragonscale General; Elite Scaleguard; Fangren Firstborn; Fertilid; Forgotten Ancient; Golgari Grave-Troll;
Grave-Shell Scarab; Heartmender; Heroes’ Bane; High Sentinels of Arashin; Hunting Moa; Ivorytusk Fortress; Juniper Order Ranger; Kitchen Finks; Kithkin Spellduster; Lotleth Troll; Lifeblood Hydra; Marrow Chomper; Mindless Automaton; Mortician Beetle; Mycoloth; Necropolis Regent; Nessian Demolok; Phantom Centaur; Phantom Nishoba; Realm Seekers; Sandsteppe Outcast; Scavenging Ooze; Shambling Shell; Shinewend; Skullmulcher; Spike Feeder; Spike Weaver;
Triskelion; Undergrowth Scavenger; Vigor; Vulturous Zombie; Warden of the First Tree; Anafenza, the Foremost; Asmira, Holy Avenger; Chorus of the Conclave;
Daghatar the Adamant; Dromoka, the Eternal; Ghave, Guru of Spores; Mikaeus, the Lunarch; Ob Nixilis, Unshackled; Skullbriar, the Walking Grave; Abzan Ascendancy; Hardened Scales; Doubling Season; Ordeal of Nylea; Primal Vigor; Primeval Bounty; Retribution of the Ancients; Unspeakable Symbol; Bow of Nylea; Cauldron of Souls; Power Conduit.

Looking at this list, it occurs to me how bonkers Reveillark would be-but it’s already in the primary. We obviously can’t play all of them, and we still
have to consider some of the other things we want the deck to do. We’ll want some utility, some ramp, some card draw, some sacrifice outlets, some board
control, and as I continue telling everyone, some Fog effects. There are a few things already on the list that will help us do that, but we’ll have to have
a little more. Looking over the Karador list, I see that Fracturing Gust is no longer there (I’d love to be able to give my enchantments persist too!), so
that’s a strong call, as is Acidic Slime. Dictate of Erebos is a reasonable replacement for Grave Pact, and we’ll be sacrificing some stuff here. There
isn’t so much ramp in the original that we are out of choices-most notably Sakura-Tribe Elder-and Map the Wastes fits right in as well. We’ll slot in
Tangle and Spore Cloud as our Fog effects, but we’ll revisit them once we’ve chosen all our creatures.

At this point, I’ve identified 4 artifacts, 9 enchantments, 10 instants, 5 sorceries, and 2 planeswalkers that I want to play, a total of 30 cards. If
we’re going to assume 37 lands-which I think we can get away with because of how tight our curve will be-that leaves us with 32 slots for creatures. It’s
time to start culling the list. After having added some cards to the list just because they’re cool, I have 72 creatures on it, which means I’m going to
have to cut more than I keep. The first I’ll do is go over the list and highlight the must-keep creatures (and “I really want to play this card” qualifies
it as a must); then we’ll see how many more slots are left over.

That’s already 22 of our 32 slots. We have most of the utility we need. The card draw is a little weak, and we’re missing the odd beefy creature. We’ll use
Mindless Automoton, Skullmulcher, and Masked Admirers for card draw; Requiem Angel, Doomgape, Vulturous Zombie, and Lord of Extinction for fat; and Loaming
Shaman, Treasury Thrull, and Creakwood Liege for the last three. That actually leaves us with 64 cards, so we’ll have to cut two more. As techy as
Unspeakable Symbol is, there’s probably not enough lifegain to make it worthwhile (although with the ultimate from Ajani, Mentor of Heroes…). Last cut was
going to be Retribution of the Ancients, but then I realized two things. First, it might be the only way to get rid of indestructible creatures. If someone
wants to wrath with Avacyn in play, I can just minus it up. Sure, it’s an onboard trick, but it’s a nice rattlesnake. Second, I was just trying to be too
cute with Athreos. The idea was to give opponents a choice of damnations, either letting me recast stuff or have it in my yard for Karador. In the end, it
seemed a little narrow. I managed to not reuse any nonbasic lands for the deck. Here’s what the list looks like:

Karador Do Over

Sheldon Menery

Test deck on 02-12-2015

Commander

Creatures (33)

Planeswalkers (3)

Lands (37)

I’ll briefly break down the choices:

Creatures

Anafenza, the Foremost: She’s awesome, she doesn’t have a deck of her own, and she keeps other peoples’ graveyards in check.

Daghatar the Adamant: As mentioned, one of the driving forces of the deck. I love that Daghatar can steal counters from creatures I don’t control.

Ghave, Guru of Spores: I’ve never played with Ghave, and this deck is the perfect fit.

Mikaeus, the Lunarch: Cast early or cast late, will always be valuable.

Acidic Slime: There are things which need to get blown up. Acidic Slime takes care of most of them.

Archangel of Thune: I intentionally left out Cathar’s Crusade because of its overhead requirement; I might need to rethink that in the light of Archangel
of Thune and Ajani.

Corpsejack Menace: Moving counters around with Forgotten Ancient never got more fun!

Creakwood Liege: I wanted some token creation to be able to do some sacrifice tricks. This has the added benefit of buffing nearly everything in the deck.

Dauntless Escort: You’ll see a few cards that protect me from opponents’ wraths, this being a cheap one and fitting well into the ability of Karador.

Disciple of Griselbrand: Sac outlet, lifegain for cheap.

Doomgape: This is definitely just a card I want to play. I may have to sacrifice a Lord of Extinction at some point.

Fertilid: Fitting well into both the +1/+1 counters theme and working with Karador’s ability, this should be a valuable player.

Forgotten Ancient: The only thing about this that’s forgotten is the occasional trigger.

Ivorytusk Fortress: This is a nice change up from Seedborn Muse.

Juniper Order Ranger: Obviously absurd with persist creatures, it’s one of those cards that looks okay but turns out awesome.

Loaming Shaman: I don’t have any other ways of reusing the noncreatures in the deck. Loaming Shaman does double duty in shuffling back in super-scary
graveyards. Too bad it doesn’t have flash for maximum blowouts.

Lord of Extinction: Two words: Boom tube.

Loxodon Hierarch: Another card that seems underplayed in the format. I like my creatures, if you please.

Lifeblood Hydra: The dream play would be sacrificing this to Doomgape.

Masked Admirers: Just simple card draw that I can bring back a different way if I need to.

Mindless Automaton: One of my longtime favorite cards, it doesn’t get played much anymore. I want to change that.

Phantom Nishoba: Harkening from the olden days of the format, there’s still plenty of opportunity for this to be an MVP. It survives all the red damage
board wipes, gains life, and beats face. What more do you want?

Qasali Pridemage: A card built for Karador, I’m not really sure why it’s not in the original. I checked the configuration control document and found that
it’s never been in the deck. Surpassing strange.

Realm Seekers: In the few times I’ve played the card so far, it’s always been immense. Getting lands is cool, crushing skulls is even better.

Requiem Angel: We didn’t really explore the spirit subtheme that much, but this card is nice enough to help rebuild after someone wraths. Too bad Hallowed
Spiritkeeper is already in the original.

Sakura-Tribe Elder: No one is sad to see this in their opening hand-unless they don’t have any green mana.

Scavenging Ooze: Another way to help control problematic graveyards, I was so happy when this got printing in M14 because that meant foily versions were
readily available.

Skullmulcher: I see people hang onto this card, waiting for the big hit. I think it’s worth it just for three or four cards, especially in a deck like this
in which you can get the stuff back anyway.

Spike Weaver: Remember, kids-stay in school and play Fog effects.

Treasury Thrull: Having extort is good, its utility at getting back enchantments is well worth its cost.

Vigor: Once Vigor is in play, I can start just slamming creatures into everyone. I dare you to Blasphemous Act.

Vulturous Zombie: Things are going to other folks’ graveyards. Even if I don’t take direct action to make too much of it happen, Vulturous Zombie gets
large very quickly.

Warden of the First Tree: There aren’t too many other decks it can go in, and it should be fun to play with.

Artifacts

Bow of Nylea: This was one the cutting room floor when I realized what a mistake that would be. I spliced it back in.

Cauldron of Souls: As mentioned, it’s cute to persist back stuff that enters the battlefield with +1/+1 counters. I guess that Cathar’s Crusade argument is
getting stronger and stronger.

Contagion Engine: More room for proliferate would be nice. If there’s only one card to do it with, Contagion Engine is the one.

Eldrazi Monument: I got very excited about Eldrazi Monument while looking through sacrifice outlets. Very excited indeed.

Enchantments

Abzan Ascendancy: I’m going to have to get a large pile of spirit tokens.

Attrition: There’s so much synergy here between Attrition and other cards in the deck, like Abzan Ascendancy and Requiem Angel. I’m definitely sad that
Teysa is in the original deck and can’t make an appearance here.

Dictate of Erebos: I’m happy to pay the one extra for this to have flash, although I think we find ourselves frequently casting it well before EOT of the
opponent to our right because someone is always trying to kill our creatures.

Hardened Scales: Someone good at math is going to have to explain to me what happens when Hardened Scales and Primal Vigor are in play at the same time.
And the big reason Doubling Season isn’t in the deck is that I don’t have another one laying around.

Perilous Forays: I love this card. It’s a cheap sacrifice outlet that thins the deck and ramps you up. It’s not going to lead to early explosions; it’s a
midgame card that will make sure you’re drawing mostly gas later.

Primal Vigor: Hey, Doubling Season. Someone unbrokened you.

Primeval Bounty: This card does everything! Love it.

Retribution of the Ancients: Especially with Primal Vigor in play, there will be counters to spare.

Instants

Abzan Charm: Even though the second and third modes are super-useful, I have a feeling that the first mode is the one that will get used most.

Batwing Brume: Upon further consideration of Spore Cloud, which is awesome, I felt like I should take the opportunity to play Batwing Brume in a deck that
could support its colors.

Cauldron Haze: A Cauldron of Souls redundancy, this will also be full of laughs when someone else plays Horobi, Death’s Wail.

Fracturing Gust: I certainly considered Cleansing Meditation for this slot. We’ll see how it works out.

Momentous Fall: I like to draw cards, and I like to gain life. I think that means I like to play Magic.

Ready: This came out of the original back in December, and it’s a card that I really want to keep playing.

Rootborn Defenses: The populate part isn’t all that significant, but there’s a reasonably good chance I’ll have a token to copy. Making my creatures
indestructible is the thing.

Return to Dust: Exile is the thing that must happen when there are gods in the world. Trust me on this one.

Tangle: Dawn Charm might also be a viable choice here. Blunt the Assault or Respite might also work, based on your local environment. Hindervines could be
viable in this deck because of the counters. In the end, you have many choices.

Worthy Cause: I’ve learned that having one or two non-permanent versions of sacrifice outlets keeps other players on their toes.

Planeswalkers

Ajani Goldmane: While the ultimate is desirable, this isn’t a planeswalker that I would try racing to get to the big ability of. The first two will be
quite useful, thanks.

Ajani, Mentor of Heroes: Ditto for this one.

Sorceries

Damnation: Sometimes, you just gotta kill everybody in the room. Accept no substitutes.

Explosive Vegetation: While the default for this slot might be Skyshroud Claim, that’s less valuable when you aren’t playing dual lands (plus it’s in the
original).

Far Wanderings: A little alternate take on ramp, I’ll admit that Cultivate is probably better in getting you going faster, but the upside on this is worth
it. It’s definitely a better card later in the game.

Kirtar’s Wrath: I should have threshold a fair amount, so playing a wrath effect that most folks don’t see that often is worthwhile.

Map the Wastes: If I’m desperate for the land, I’ll play this without having a creature. Most of the situations I’ll be in, I expect this to do double
duty.

Lands

Brushland: Instead of playing shocklands, I’m going to keep a count of how much damage I’ll take from painlands instead. Game to game, it’ll probably be
slightly more, but still in the noise.

Gavony Township: Yeah, Cathar’s Crusade doesn’t seem all that unwieldy anymore.

High Market: A sacrifice outlet that’s unlikely to be on the wrong end of Wasteland. Miren, the Moaning Well and Diamond Valley were also choices here (but
I didn’t have one of the latter anyway).

Horizon Canopy: This is a really good land, and I don’t think I’ve ever played it.

Llanowar Reborn: It’s here for the graft.

Llanowar Wastes: See Brushland. I can’t play Caves of Koilos because for some reason, it’s in the original. Probably because I had a foily one laying
around not doing anything.

Oran-Rief, the Vastwood: Loved playing this in Standard. No reason to believe I won’t love it in a format that I like even more.

Phyrexian Tower: Sacrifice outlet, mana generator.

Tainted Field: I have enough swamps to turn on my tainted lands, and someone’s probably playing Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth anyway.

Tainted Wood: In my head, I sing Tainted Love every time I drop this.

Temple of Malady, Temple of Plenty, Temple of Silence: I like scry better than gain one life.

Temple of the False God: A little power boost.

Vault of the Archangel: Took this out of the original a while back because 1) I wanted to put in more basic lands for Hermit Druid and 2) I had too many
colorless mana sources. Shouldn’t be a problem here.

This week’s Deck Without Comment is the primary Karador, so that you can compare.

Halloween With Karador

Sheldon Menery

Test deck on 02-11-2015