Crowdsourcing Commander

Hey everyone! Sorry it's been a while, but life caught up to me and took me for a ride. (Not all bad, a lot of good actually.) Anyway, I've thought up a new idea for an article. Let me know what you think.


A bit of clarity: This series of articles is not about deck lists. My intention is to inspire my readers to think about deck building fundamentals. Themes, combos, interactions, changing drawbacks into advantages, and thinking outside the box. I will not post complete deck lists, but will suggest cards and combinations. The point of that is to make my readers better Magic players and deck builders by leading them in a good direction and letting them figure out the best way for them. I also encourage them to post suggestions in the comments section detailing how they would do things different. Thank you and please enjoy the article.

Vampires are categorically dangerous. They're intelligent, immortal, powerful, and they thirst for your blood... in general anyway. I've noticed however that if you're facing down another planeswalker they are quite happy to give them the worlds most noticeable hickey instead.

Today I'm brainstorming a Commander deck lead by Anowon the Ruin Sage. I chose him because I wanted to make a powerful tribal deck with a controlling commander. (Lies. I just got back into True Blood and I wanted to make a vampire deck.) He's a reasonably powerful board controlling creature that isn't absolutely necessary to win the game, and also steers me clearly in the direction of the vampire tribe.

Since the vast majority of creatures in the deck are going to be vampires, cards that favor the vampire creature type seem like an obvious inclusion. My first thought for the deck was Blood Tribute. I love this card because it drains a huge chunk of life for 6 mana and works hand in hand with the iconic bloodsuckers. My next idea was to include as many Vampire lords as possible. (For those who aren't in on the lingo, a “Lord” is a creature that increases the power and/or toughness and/or abilities of creatures of a certain type.) Vampire Nocturnus is like a double strength Eldrazi Monument. Captivating Vampire steals your opponent’s Commander and problematic creatures. Mephidross Vampire even makes all of your creatures into better Sengir Vampires and keeps them from being sacrificed to Anowons bloodlust. (Conspiracy could also be in the deck for that purpose.) Conspiracy also makes the already amazing Patriarchs Bidding even more unfair to your opponent than usual. Though, even without Conspiracy, Patriarchs Bidding will usually bring back almost all of your creatures if you go with a tribal theme.

Though, since many vampires cost a hefty amount of mana, I decided I'd like to pack in some mana ramp in the form of Mind Stone, Guardian Idol, Coldsteel Heart, and Everflowing Chalice. Mana ramp is a valuable thing to have, as a mana artifact can help fix a land deficit or advance your mana to the point where you can play your bigger threats.

In addition to the Vampire theme I want to use universally powerful cards. Perhaps the most flexible card ever printed is Nameless Inversion. If I want to deal more damage to my opponent, Nameless Inversion. If I want to kill a creature, Nameless Inversion. If I want to make my opponents big vampire vulnerable to Anowon, Nameless Inversion. (I know that's unlikely, but I want that to happen some day and I will take a picture.) Another useful card that should be played more often is Phyrexian Arena. It does something rare in black. It draws you cards. I know that's obvious, but it's a card that mono-black decks often don't include. It's one of the best draw cards ever printed and I typically include it in almost every black deck I make. (Even decks that include blue.) Damnation is another useful spell that usually makes the cut. (Just in case you need a reset button.) Though, one of the most useful cards you can include in a black deck is Demonic tutor. Getting exactly the card you need, when you need it, is a valuable thing. (I know many players won't have a Demonic Tutor, but Diabolic Tutor or other similar tutors make a fine substitute.) Speaking of tutoring, Liliana Vess is a great card that should be in almost any 99 card deck that can run her. She tutors, she reanimates, she makes your opponent discard. Speaking of which...

I'm going to go against my normal urges to play nice with this deck. (The Vampires made me do it!) I'm going to have a discard subtheme in my version. I can understand why most won't want to have any discard in their deck, as discard spells are a cardinal sin in Commander. Though I think it feels right for a vampire to turn its enemy into a vegetable. (A delicious blood filled vegetable.) Discard also makes Sangromancer a pretty good choice for the deck. That also leads me to cards like Nyxathid and Mortivore. (Not vampires, but powerful creatures none the less that get more powerful the more my opponent discards.)

All in all, building an Anowon the Ruin Sage deck, I'd probably include these.

Blood Tribute
Vampire Nocturnus
Captivating Vampire
Bloodlord of Vaasgoth
Mephidross Vampire
Conspiracy
Patriarchs Bidding
Nameless Inversion
Phyrexian Arena
Damnation
Demonic Tutor
Liliana Vess
Hymn To Tourach
Mind Twist
Nyxathid
Mortivore
Mind Stone
Coldsteel Heart
Guardian Idol
Everflowing Chalice


Of course that's just what I think, What do you say? I challenge you to suggest other things that would work well in the deck. Good luck and good brewing!


Well, that's all I've got for today. As always you can follow me here or on Twitter. @KuromanKuro And if you like what you read then go ahead and Digg/follow me.