Two New Commander Decks Led By Dominaria United Legends

One of the two great things that happens when new Magic sets are released is that we get to build new Commander decks with the legendary creatures featured therein (the other is updating our decks, like I did last time).  The downside is that there’s no way (unless you’re Brian Canada) to build every one that you want to.  There are simply too many to choose from and not enough time and resources to design and assemble them all.  For Dominaria United, in which I’m including Dominaria United Commander and Legends Retold, there are 72 different choices.  72!  The hardest part won’t be brewing up something; it’ll be whittling down the list to the ones that we actually will take the time to put together.  For me, that means both physically building them and putting the list into Archidekt. 

The season is currently quite busy and not just with new product.  As the first of you are reading this, I’ll be in Portland recording episodes of Tolarian Community College and his gameplay series Shuffle Up and Play.  Less than a month later, I’ll be winging my way to Las Vegas for Magic 30.  Just a few weeks after that, it’s off to Salt Lake City for the Magic Summit. 

The upshot here is that if I want to build these decks, I really need to get busy with it so that they’re ready to travel with me.  There’s no sense in putting together new stuff and then just leaving it home.  We’re also doing two sub-formats for Shuffle Up and Play (you’ll need to tune in to find out which), so I have to finish putting those together.  I wonder if I can build it all with just what I have on hand (and not currently in another deck).  Let’s find out.

The Finalists

The first task is to pare down to a manageable number which I’m going to build.  For most new sets, my target is generally three.  Because of the other projects going, I’m going to start with two and see where we might go.  That’s throwing quite a bit off the raft, so let’s do it in stages.  Here are the Top Ten finalists and the directions I’d want to go with them:

Astor, Bearer of Blades

A powerful role-player in any Equipment or Vehicles deck, Astor suggests Voltron.  I’d start with some cards that have reasonable costs to cast but whose equip abilities get expensive, like Colossus Hammer or Batterskull.  We’d certainly want to jam Commander’s Plate.  The lower equip cost would allow us to play some blink effects on Astor in order to run through his enters-the-battlefield trigger again.

Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim

Another card that flourishes in the 99. The first cards I’d run with Elas are Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder and Abhorrent Overlord.  We gain the life for our little swarms entering the battlefield, then drain life away via sacrifice outlets like Phyrexian Altar.  There’s also a whole line of things we could go down which we’ll see with Necrons in Warhammer 40,000 Commander. 

Ertai Resurrected

Having a creature with flash live in the command zone feels pretty good.  I’d want to explore a line in which we use Ertai’s triggered ability that destroys a creature on our own so that we could draw and gain other benefits.  We wouldn’t mind killing off our own creature if we have Grave Pact or Dictate of Erebos on the battlefield.  Alternately, we build Flash Legendary Creature tribal.  Anything that gets us playing more of Thryx, the Sudden Storm is all right by me.

The Ever-Changing ‘Dane

There are two major reasons to sacrifice creatures in our The Ever-Changing ‘Dane deck.  One is to get dies triggers and the other is to have creatures in the graveyard so that we can reanimate them.  It’s almost too easy to build an infinite combo which fits into our schemes around Nim Deathmantle and a sacrifice outlet.  Clearly the first creature we add is Phyrexian Dreadnought.  12/12 trampling commanders are winners. 

Najal, the Storm Runner

The first card that goes into a Najal, the Storm Runner deck is Melek, Izzet Paragon, the Izzet commander we’ve wanted to work all along but just got too pricey to cast.  After that, we’re just copying stuff like crazy.  I wouldn’t go too far into the extra turns stuff, since I feel about them like I feel about Mindslaver (one is fine; multiples is boring), but a couple might slip in.  If I were to build this one, Najal would likely have one of the lowest creature counts of all my decks.

Ratadrabik of Urborg

Orzhov Zombies intrigues me, but there aren’t that many white Zombies.  I suppose Ratadrabik is more about looping legendary creatures in and out of the graveyard to get copies and triggers—maybe Elenda, the Dusk Rose as the secret commander. 

Rith, Liberated Primeval

In order to ensure Rith’s trigger happens, we’ll want both trample for our creatures (maybe an old classic like Gruul War Plow, but likely a strong one such as Archetype of Aggression) and Lure effects to make sure excess damage happens.  If we also give our creatures deathtouch, then we only need to assign one from our tramplers to get over. I’d actually avoid Dragon tribal with this version of Rith.

Shanid, Sleepers’ Scourge

“Legendary matters” is a fine theme.  With 668 choices in Mardu color identity, we can mix and match to suit our desires.  There are also quite a few legendary noncreature cards that’ll trigger Shanid’s last ability, like Akroma’s Memorial and Avacyn’s Memorial.  Some lifegain to offset that life loss is in order; fortunately, Shanid is in the right colors to make it happen—like with Dihada, Binder of Wills’s +2 ability. 

Verrak, Warped Sengir

Verrak is the one that would require the deepest delve into Scryfall searches.  Razaketh, the Foulblooded is the first one to come to mind.  By copying the ability instead of activating it again, we save having to sacrifice another creature; it’d be the same for any other ability which has a cost in addition to the life payment.  I’d want to Voltron up Verrak in order to take advantage of his lifelink ability, gaining back more of that life that we’ll pay. That way we can also play Black Market Connections and not worry about the six life we’re losing every turn. 

Xira, the Golden Sting

Who can resist an Insect in a big hat?  How we build Xira is all about which cards we want to send to the graveyard.  Being in Jund, there’s plenty of reanimation.  The first stop for me is Izoni, Thousand-Eyed, not just because it makes Insects, but because we can use its ability to sacrifice the thing that we just put an egg counter on.  That way we’ll get two cards, an Insect, and one life.  From there, it’s more about the colors and what creatures we want to use—like why I had never heard of Zangief, the Red Cyclone?  Nothing stops us from putting egg counters on opponents’ creatures, either, but I’d prefer more control over when we’re drawing those cards. 

Other Considerations

I didn’t strongly consider any mono-colored decks.  Sheoldred, the Apocalypse would have been the front-runner there alongside another black card, Braids, Arisen Nightmare.  The solution is clearly to just play one of the other commanders that has black in it so that I can jam both of them into the deck (making it one that has red and/or blue in it so that I can play Wheels just for the haters?). 

In the end, I decided to take a big-picture approach and lay out two commanders that let me delve into all five colors.  With black as the only overlapping color, I’ve chosen Xira, the Golden Sting and The Ever-Changing ‘Dane.  I’ll get to explore Dominaria United cards of all colors and swing into action.  Additionally, since both are Legends Retold, I get to put the original version of both into the decks. 

The Ever-Changing ‘Dane

This deck becomes about what we want to change our commander into.  The OG Halfdane of course gets a spot, as does the aforementioned Phyrexian Dreadnought.  Creatures with persist came to mind, although in Esper we don’t have access to the mac-daddy of them all, Woodfall Primus.  There’s still enough, although I ended cutting River Kelpie because it has double blue in its cost and my commitment to blue is quite low.

The deck creates value chains by send creatures in and out of the graveyard.  It doesn’t have any infinite combos, seeking to win through combat damage/commander kills and a few on-board shenanigans with turning ‘Dane into other legendary creatures that have dies triggers, like Kokusho, the Evening Star.  Since they’ll be legal soon, you’ll notice I slipped a few Warhammer 40,000 cards into the mix.  It swims in the battlecruiser section of the Commander pool.

Xira, the Golden Sting

Assassin tribal wasn’t particularly exciting, although it got me to Mari, the Killing Quill; Ravenloft Adventurer; and hit counters.  I made a pretty good pass over the seventeen cards in the appropriate colors which reference initiative.  The phrase if you’ve completed a dungeon started looking pretty attractive, especially Caves of Chaos Adventurer; Safana, Calimport Cutthroat; and Undermountain Adventurer. 

The question is if I could, like I’ve done with the monarch mechanic, introduce it into the game and then never try to reclaim it, instead letting opponents beat on each other to gain the crown.  The problem is that the benefits of getting through Undercity are pretty good and more tangible than just drawing a card.  I continued to get seduced by Bloodboil Sorcerer and Dungeoneer’s Pack (maybe alongside some Glissa, the Traitor action). 

In the end, I decided to not go in the dungeon direction for two reasons.  First, I already have a dungeon deck with Sefris of the Hidden Ways, which I’d rather just update to include initiative cards and the Undercity dungeon.  Second, all of my play at home is still via webcam, and I just don’t find it a good online mechanic for on-camera games.  I’d rather wait until I’m playing more games with people all at the same table.

That still left room for direction.  Having started with Izoni, I just continued along the Insect line to see where it led.  Then I looked into the newest sets for cards that I just wanted the opportunity to play with.  Insects ended as a sub-theme, complementing some other cards that piqued my interest, also giving us a sacrifice sub-theme that can be a path of victory.  I absolutely look forward to Thromok and Warstorm Surge being able to dome someone.

Another?

I doubt that I stop with Dominaria United with just two decks.  It brings such strong suggestions that there are more of those Top Ten above in danger of getting assembled.  It’s just a case of so many new cards, so little time.

As always, we have a channel on the Commander RC Discord server dedicated to discussing my articles.  I’d love to hear about features that you’d like to see, material you want more coverage on, or even things that you think just aren’t working.  We’re happy to listen to even the wildest ideas.  Join more than 7,000 friends for discussion of not just this piece, but on a wide variety of topics—both Commander-related and not.  Hope to see you there!