Commander Deck Of The Week: Etali, Primal Conqueror

When I opened up my very first Unlimited starter deck of Magic in 1994, one of the rares was Force of Nature.

The card instantly hooked me on Magic. When looking at all the other random creatures in the deck – Benalish Hero, Drudge Skeleton, Hill Giant, Prodigal Sorcerer – clearly green was the place to be!  This thing was massive, a whopping 8/8, and with an ability that was a little bit confusing to my novice eyes, but I was pretty sure it would just crash over anything that might want to block it.  I was a green mage from day one.

Several years later, I’d grown weary of being a green mage.  You see, no matter how much mana I spent on my beefy green monsters, it seemed they’d always be answered simply and efficiently with a Terror, or a Swords to Plowshares, or – if I’d overextended onto the battlefield – a Wrath of God. Then a friend suggested I add black to my deck and use cards like Oath of Ghouls, Recurring Nightmare, and Living Death to just get all my deck green monsters right back to the battlefield again.  And with that, I became a Golgari mage, even before the first Ravnica set was released and my guild affiliation codified.

Changing Colors

Once I started playing EDH (later called Commander), I ran into a bit of a problem with my favorite color combination – many of the legendary Golgari creatures weren’t all that interesting to me. For every Glissa, the Traitor that seemed cool, there were five cards like Savra, Queen of the Golgari that didn’t feel at all cool to me.

In recent years, another green color combination has caught my eye with really cool and different legendary creatures:  Gruul!

As of a week or so ago, I had these six Gruul decks sleeved up:

I even have a Kibo, Uktabi Prince deck “in progress” on my desk (still just a pile of cards). But before I got a chance to finalize my Kibo deck, March of the Machine previews revealed yet another Gruul legend that I instantly wanted to build around:  Etali, Primal Conqueror!

Sorry, Kibo—you’ll have to wait!  Once my preorder cards came in, I built the deck and wanted to share it with any of you who might also want to build around this sweet Dinosaur.

Visiting Etali

So, why do I like this Etali so much?  Is a seven-mana commander even viable these days?  I think that’s part of the charm. People dismissing a legend as “too expensive” to build around is deckbuilding catnip to me. The fact that Etali has green in its color identity means that its casting cost is not nearly as big of a problem as it would be in other colors. And I love that Etali gives you value immediately upon hitting the battlefield, exiling cards from each player’s deck until they exile a nonland card and you get to cast any number of those cards without paying the mana cost.  In a typical Commander pod, that’ll be up to four free spells, and with different opponents each game, Etali has variable gameplay built right in to keep things fresh.

To get Etali onto the battlefield a turn or two ahead of curve, I’ll want to play a lot of land ramp in the deck, which can sometimes lead to drawing a bunch of land and ramp spells and little action.  I love that Etali has a big ol’ mana sink built right in, with the ability for nine or ten mana to transform into Etali, Primal Sickness.  This version does a pretty good Darksteel Colossus impression, being an 11/11 with trample and indestructible and, whenever combat damage is dealt to an opponent, they get that many poison counters.

Okay, let’s dig in to my decklist!

Etali Spice

Sword of Hearth and Home, Cauldron of Souls, and Conjurer’s Closet are fantastic ways we can squeeze extra value out of Etali’s enters-the-battlefield trigger. I even threw in one of my all-time favorite cards, Mirrorpool, which can potentially copy Etali in case it gets targeted with a removal spell anyway.

Even though I love the randomness of Etali’s triggered ability, I did go ahead and slot in my Scroll Rack here, since occasionally being able to set up the top of my deck will be quite helpful.  Also, with all the land ramp spells, it’ll be easy to shuffle away cards in my hand that I don’t currently want for some fresh new cards.

With all the land ramp, I also wanted to pepper in some landfall cards to take advantage of that, so in went Tireless Tracker, Tireless Provisioner, and Geode Rager.  I also went ahead and tossed in a Rootpath Purifier, which makes all my lands “basic” and will let me search up specific nonbasic lands with basic land search spells.

Vorinclex is a great bridge to Etali by being a five-mana creature that will let you search up two more lands to ensure you get up to seven mana. Its reach ability will randomly be helpful in defending against flyers, but its activated ability also makes for an excellent mana sink for extra mana.

Last but not least, there’s another favorite of mine, Blackblade Reforged!  Particularly when your commander has trample, this is an excellent card to press through massive damage.  With all the mana ramp in the deck, don’t overlook the potential of paying the seven-mana equip cost to suit up a small nonlegendary creature that can dish out a lot of damage.

Big Mana Ramp

I wanted to focus more on “big” mana ramp options rather than small-ball cards like Rampant Growth or Nature’s Lore. Invasion of Zendikar, Hour of Promise, and Explore the Underdark are great ways to bridge up to the turn I want to cast my commander.  I like the flexibility of Titania’s Command and Storm the Festival, which will often get lands but may also supply some extra utility. Ulvenwald Hydra will get that seventh land, and it also just loves being in a deck that ramps out a bunch of lands so that it gets huge.

Gwenna, Eyes of Gaea and Undermountain Adventurer are “big mana creatures,” and Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma offers up a nice mana discount for larger creatures.

I also put in Bear Umbra and Nature’s Will with the idea that I could cast Etali on my first main phase, attack with another creature, and, with one of these effects, untap my lands and potentially have enough mana to transform Etali. Savage Ventmaw attacking can also provide a bunch of extra mana during your second main phase.

Removal

I was a little careful in what creature sweeper spells I put in the deck. I’d hate to exile Blasphemous Act with Etali and just have to leave it in exile because I didn’t want to destroy my own battlefield. Instead, I happily put in Ezuri’s Predation, which would be awesome to cast for free with Etali but is also quite viable to hard-cast in this mana-ramp deck. Burn Down the House is the other one; in a pinch, I could make five 1/1 Devils if I didn’t want to cast the damage side of it.

Liquimetal Torque is a great mana rock that also synergizes quite nicely with all the various ways I have to destroy artifacts, and I mostly use that to kill creatures I might otherwise have difficulty destroying.

Card Draw

Some of the go-to card draw spells that I’d otherwise put in this deck, such as The Great Henge, Guardian Project, and Ohran Frostfang, are in other decks and unfortunately way too expensive to want to buy more. Even so, I’ve got quite a few ways to keep the cards flowing with action; Imposing Grandeur does a pretty nice one-sided Wheel of Fortune impression that’s not nearly so tempting for my opponents who are playing their low-cost and efficient commanders.

Interaction

I’m a big fan of Sardian Avenger, which just so happens to punish people who lean too hard on Treasure production. It comes down early, hits hard, and scales nicely with the later stages of the game where random mana rocks and equipment can really boost its power. Questing Beast is here to turn off Fog effects since I like to attack with creatures, and Brooding Saurian is to stop players from stealing my creatures, particularly my commander. Rhythm of the Wild stops people from counterspelling my creatures, which is pretty clutch when my commander costs seven. Soul-Guide Lantern, Armored Scrapgorger, and Deathgorge Scavenger give a measure of graveyard control.

Even though my commander already has trample, Kessig Wolf Run still does a nice job of being an excellent mana sink for extra mana, enabling a smaller creature to punch through for big damage when needed.

Other Mana Ramp

Lastly, I did still include some “small-ball” mana ramp options, like the staple Sol Ring, Kodama’s Reach, and Cultivate. I’ve also slotted in the new Equipment Beamtown Beatstick, which is incredibly mana-efficient for what it does!  I can see an early creature picking this up and using menace to sneak past singular blockers and generate a couple of Treasures along the way.  Late-game, even Etali can make use of the menace ability quite nicely.

The Deck

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 here?  What’s your favorite Gruul commander?

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.