Commander Deck of the Week: Traxos, Scourge of Kroog

While Wizards of the Coast has been pushing Eldrazi lately as colorless commanders, I still prefer my colorless deck built around good ol’ Traxos, Scourge of Kroog!

Traxos is a big monster, a 7/7 trampler for just four mana with a drawback of entering the battlefield tapped and it doesn’t untap during your untap step. However, whenever you cast a historic spell, you get to untap Traxos; since this is a colorless deck I run a ton of artifacts, each of which will untap our massive commander when I cast them. So, my game plan is simple – smash face with Traxos turn after turn until my opponents are dead!

Now I simply love utility lands, so being able to stuff this deck full of lands that do stuff other than tap for colorless mana really is quite fun!

Let’s dig in!

Untap Traxos

Even though Traxos’s trigger will untap it, I wanted to run a few more ways to untap Traxos in case I don’t have a historic spell to cast, or if I want to give Traxos pseudo-vigilance. Manifold Key pulls double duty, either untapping Traxos or making it (or some other creature) unblockable for the turn. Being able to untap other artifacts is quite useful too, even if it’s just squeezing extra mana from Sol Ring.

Colorless Matters

While Ugin’s Mastery and Abstruse Archaic aren’t historic, there is enough colorless spells in this deck that I think they’re worth running. An attacking Traxos easily satisfies Ugin’s Mastery’s second ability to turn up a facedown creature you may have manifested. Zhulodok, Void Gorger is legendary, so it is a historic card, and giving my more expensive colorless spells “cascade, cascade” is going to lead to some wild turns!

Artifacts Matter

I’m a big fan of Etched Champion and Darksteel Juggernaut in this deck, both end up being quite good in a deck chock full of artifacts and can be problematic to deal with. I love the card drawing power of Canoptek Spyder and the Tinker-licious power of Kuldotha Forgemaster, which honestly goes and finds Blightsteel Colossus if left unchecked.

Karn, Silver Golem is here mostly to pick off random Treasure tokens if an opponent isn’t using them right away, but it will also animate a problematic artifact or two in response to a battlefield sweeper for creatures.

Card Draw/Selection

I’ve got a ton of card draw to keep the gas pedal on full-speed when I can and have been pleasantly surprised about Hylda’s Crown of Winter, which can easily draw a new full grip of cards for six mana after opponents have swung out with a bunch of creatures.

The only big Eldrazi I’m running are the first two versions of Kozilek, which seem much fairer and “Commander friendly” than other options and also quite nicely draw extra cards.

Removal

Colorless options for removal have grown in recent years, between The Mightstone and Weakstone, Cityscape Leveler, and Portal to Phyrexia. I’m a huge fan of Eldrazi Confluence, which offers some incredibly flexible interaction at instant speed, something that had been sorely lacking.  Calamity of the Titans is a cool battlefield sweeper along the lines of All Is Dust. 

Helm of Possession is a card I generally feel is too “mean” for most Commander decks, but running a colorless deck can leave some vulnerabilities that can be solved by stealing a creature of color to block or attack with. I think it’s okay here since I don’t have too many ways to bring creatures back to sacrifice to the Helm.

Spine of Ish Sah is a great late-game card – killing a permanent on the way in, then you can sacrifice it to Kuldotha Forgemaster and get Spine back to your hand to cast again, perhaps triggering “cascade, cascade” from Zhulodok, Void Gorger. 

Interaction

So many great lands here, with Witch’s Clinic leading the way, giving lifelink to such a huge commander is going to be nice for racing. Dust Bowl and Field of Ruin are here for overpowered lands that might take over the game like Cabal Coffers or Gaea’s Cradle, but I will also take down a Maze of Ith that might otherwise make my game plan of beating down with Traxos problematic. I love Mirrorpool – ask me about the Mirrorpool dance the next time you see me in person – and its ability to copy stuff is super fun.

Blackblade Reforged is one of my favorite cards and goes in a ton of my Commander decks, but it truly shines in a deck with a commander that starts so big and has trample; it’s pretty easy to get Traxos out of Blasphemous Act range with this sweet Equipment.

Chaos Wand and Mirage Mirror are additional ways to expand the capabilities outside the limits of a colorless deck by stealing some sweet spells from opponents, or copying a sweet artifact, creature, enchantment or land for the turn.

Batterskull serves several roles here.  Primarily, it can equip Traxos to give it vigilance and lifelink, which makes for an incredible 11/11 attacker and blocker! But you can also bounce it back to your hand to play again, triggering Traxos’s ability to untap if you need it.

I do have some equipment that Armory Automaton can take advantage of, but it’s here mostly as a way to disrupt opponents who rely too heavily on equipment. Forcing them to re-equip each turn.

Mana Ramp

I’m running quite an extended mana curve, with a fair number of spells costing seven or more so I need all the mana I can get. I have a ton of utility lands too, so excess mana won’t go to waste.

Mimic and Dire Mimic are two of my favorite D&D-themed cards, and while they’re here as a way to eventually cast one of my more expensive spells, they can also animate and beat down if needed along the way.

I like running Plague Myr here for mana production, and in a pinch you can boost it’s power and kill someone who’s gained an arbitrarily large amount of life with poison counters. I even have Inkmoth Nexus among my lands for that same line of play.

Okay, here’s the full deck list!

Here are the deck stats from our friends at Archidekt:

So, what other cards would you run in a Traxos, Scourge of Kroog deck?  Once I get my hands on a copy of Excalibur, Sword of Eden I definitely want to slot it into this deck.  The huge power boost and vigilance is superb with the already large and trampling Traxos!

Talk to Me

Do me a solid and follow me on Twitter!  I run polls and start conversations 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. 

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