MTG Commander Deck of the Week: Sheldon, The Commander

Sheldon’s Spellbook, a special Secret Lair offered earlier this year to honor Sheldon Menery’s life and contributions to the Magic community, as well as to benefit cancer research charities, has finally begun to arrive in our mailboxes. I got mine a couple of weeks ago, and I immediately felt the need to build a deck around Sheldon, the Commander, a reskin of Ruhan of the Fomori.

Sheldon had a Ruhan deck that he loved to play and made (in)famous, called quite appropriately “You Did This to Yourself”, chock-full of reactive cards that turned players’ spells or creatures against them, often in spectacular fashion. You can read about it below:

Everything I Know About You Did This To Yourself In Commander

I thought about copying Sheldon’s decklist directly, but ultimately I thought it would be a better homage to the man and the format he so lovingly stewarded so many years if I built the deck myself from scratch, using the philosophy of “you did this to yourself” as my guide for many of the card choices.

While Sheldon, the Commander’s Jeskai color identity didn’t allow for all of the cards from Sheldon’s Spellbook, I did cram in what I could: Sol Ring, Teferi’s Protection, and Command Tower.

I also added a copy of Equal Treatment, signed and given to me by Sheldon; the card name evokes Sheldon’s vocal insistence that all of us are treated equally fairly, both within the Magic community and in society at large.

The card also happens to be a sweet reactive spell that will often surprise players who expect a huge pumped-up attack to dish out a ton of damage, or to diminish the effects of a Blasphemous Act that would otherwise kill everyone’s creatures.

Let’s dig into the cards I pulled together in Sheldon’s honor!

Classic “You Did This to Yourself”

I believe most of these are in Sheldon’s list, many providing a backlash against an opponent that is trying to deal a bunch of damage, such as Deflecting Palm and Comeuppance. Settle the Wreckage and Aetherspouts will punish someone who’s attacking you with an overwhelming force.

Mercadia’s Downfall is a more aggressive card, punishing players who have too greedy of a manabase by pumping up the attackers based on the defender’s nonbasic land count.

Brash Taunter is some of my own spice, a card that excels at punishing someone who’s cast some creature that’s absurdly huge with the expectation of dominating the battlefield. It’s also just excellent at blocking non-trampling monsters, since Ruhan mostly will be tapped from attacking each turn and can’t block for you.

Thanks for the (Fill in the Blank)

I picked these cards to expand on the notion of “you did this to yourself”. Fumble will punish Voltron players who try to pile Equipment or Auras on one creature; bouncing the creature and moving all that stuff to Sheldon, the Commander sounds like justice to me!

I try to find room for Exchange of Words in Commander decks wherever I can, and it fits perfectly in this deck’s theme. You deploy a creature with an incredibly powerful text box?  How about we swap that text with Sheldon, the Commander instead!

Fractured Identity has a long history of hilarious plays and seems perfect with the theme; oh, that’s a spicy nonland permanent you got there, seems like all the other players should have one instead!  Firbolg Flutist and Molten Primordial let you borrow the best creature(s) on the battlefield for the turn and perhaps crash into their owner first.  Zygon Infiltrator is a wild card that I still find odd I don’t see much, tapping down the best creature on the battlefield and becoming a copy of it.

Mirrorweave is another card with a long history of wild plays; it’s especially awesome to cast during combat, or perhaps, in response to a battlefield sweeper, you turn everything into a Blood Artist. The sky’s the limit when it comes to Mirrorweave’s capabilities.

Removal

Past the theme, the deck still needs to do the basic meat and potatoes of being a Magic deck, so I’ve got some good removal spells in here too. Gimli’s Reckless Might is cool. It gives your creatures haste so that Sheldon, the Commander can attack a random opponent right away, and if you’ve got one extra power on a creature lying about, you can have Sheldon smash an opponent’s creature for seven too!  Time Wipe and Realm-Cloaked Giant’s Adventure side are battlefield sweepers that keep Sheldon, the Commander around, and Spiteful Banditry will usually be a small enough value to leave a 7/7 intact.

Other Interaction

I love Barrow-Blade in many decks. I like it even more here, since occasionally Sheldon’s random attack might send him directly into someone with deathtouch blockers or something indestructible, so Barrow-Blade will nullify that issue. Loading Sheldon up with Blackblade Reforged and Embercleave is a muscular commander damage end-game, especially with extra attacks from Moraug, Fury of Akoum.

If I had an extra Deflecting Swat, I’d definitely slot it in here, since turning a removal spell back on its controller is in keeping with the theme. I’ve got the next best things with Bolt Bend and morph twins Willbender and Boltbender. Spellskite isn’t quite as good at aikido, but in addition to protecting other things from removal, you can give Aura decks fits until they can get rid of it.

With Sheldon attacking each turn, giving him lifelink with Shadowspear or Basilisk Collar will help you race against counterattacks, along with “you did this to yourself” cards. Speaking of those cards, if you give them lifelink with Firesong and Sunspeaker, you’ll gain a bunch of life along the way.

I haven’t broken out Archangel Avacyn in a while, but I love it here as a way to turn the tide in response to a battlefield sweeper, where the caster expects to have a reset, but instead your entire team will remain intact to put the game away.

Final-Word Phantom has been looking for a home. I like it here, since often I’ll be holding up mana for a “you did this to yourself” spell, and if there’s not a good time to run that out, Final-Word Phantom will let me use that mana for something else at flash speed during each opponent’s end step.

Card Draw/Selection

Speaking of sinks for unused mana, I’m running Triskaidekaphile and Mystic Archaeologist to turn that extra mana into fresh new cards, and of course Sphinx’s Revelation is the classic way to turn a bunch of extra mana into a new infusion of gasoline. Tome of Legends is awesome for any deck with an aggressive commander, and since Sheldon has to attack each turn, this should provide a steady stream of extra cards.

Mana Ramp

Nongreen cards really lean on mana rocks for ramp, so I made room for Darksteel Ingot to protect a bit from artifact removal setting me too far back. I also really like Soulbright Flamekin, which can help push Sheldon damage through by giving him trample, and if you spend six mana on its activation, you get back a whopping eight red mana.

The Deck 

Okay, here’s the full decklist!

Here are the deck stats from our friends at Archidekt:

So, what other cards would you run a You Did This to Yourself Sheldon, the Commander deck?

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. 

***

SCG CON is coming to Tampa, FL on September 6-8! The world’s premier trading card game convention features three full days of Magic: The Gathering, Flesh and Blood, Disney Lorcana, and Star Wars Unlimited action:

• Magic: The Gathering Modern $10Ks on Friday and Saturday; cEDH $5K; Super Sunday Regional Championship Qualifiers in Standard, Pioneer, and Modern; and Commander Celebration
• Flesh and Blood Rosetta World Premiere, Calling, and Battle Hardened events
• Disney Lorcana Core Constructed $2K and $1K events
• Star Wars Unlimited Premier Constructed $2K and $1K events
• Side events all weekend long

And so much more!

Plus, meet fan-favorite special guests and artists!

Best of all, SCG CON is free to attend!

Make your plans for SCG CON Tampa!