Overview:
Allahu Akbar! You should be yelling this at least once or twice each game to instill the fear of Hazezon Tamar and his army of sand warriors in your opponents' hearts.
This deck is very fun to play with and against. Careful planning is needed when piloting this deck to make sure you have the sufficient resources necessary to have an impact when Hazezon hits the field, but you can get fairly good combos going without playing him. The deck is geared more towards social play (Hazezon is very much a social commander, as his trigger is delayed and your opponents have a turn to prepare for your onslaught), but with a few extra tutors or card draw, the deck could be made competitively.
The deck has a heavy flicker sub-theme, to cater towards Hazezon's etb trigger, but also for the multiple etb effects attached to other creatures in the deck. Games generally revolve around early-game ramping, into setting up your combo and resources; you will need a sacrifice outlet for Hazezon to make sure his tokens stick around, a way to flicker him before you sac him, and of course, something for your tokens to do once they hit the field. Once you have these on field, you're ready to drop that Jihad faster than the BPM of a rave.
Flicker effects:
Flicker is key to this deck. It's the difference between dropping 11 sand warriors, or 22, or 33. As his sand warriors enter off a delayed trigger, the more times you bounce him, the more triggers go off. A well-timed flicker on Hazezon can mean pissing an opponent off or killing everyone at the table. Here are the flicker effects or tools that combine well with Hazezon and the other etb creatures in your deck.
Acrobatic Maneuver
, Cloudshift, Eerie Interlude. These are great to hold back. Conjurer's Closet is a great piece of equipment. Eldrazi Displacer is amazing both defensively and for Hazezon. Eldrazi Displacer + Felidar Guardian
or Restoration Angel gets around any spot removal as long as you have the mana, and once you begin to introduce other etb triggers like Sun Titan or Fiend Hunter, things can get out of control quickly as your opponents are helpless to stop your combo.
Glimmerpoint Stag
and Flickerwisp are good for delayed flickers, but I generally tend to use these for lands, protection from board wipes with Displacer, or against pesky opponent permanents like Maze of Ith or Propaganda. And of course Panharmonicon doubles everything again!
Sacrifice effects:
So, you've bounced Hazezon multiple times... now what? Well if his tokens enter the field and then see Hazezon leave play, they all get exiled! Not helpful at all! So unlike other commanders, you really want to try and get rid of Hazezon as soon as able. Easy ways are by attacking get getting killed if he has haste, or blocking an opponent's creature. That doesn't always happen though, so we need to take charge.
High Market is the best, although Miren, the Moaning Well is a good alternative. Ashnod's Altar, Goblin Bombardment and Evolutionary Leap are all cheap and easy to activate. Primal Growth for more lands. Eldrazi Monument if you stack the next upkeep triggers correctly. Or if you're in a bind, Fiend Hunter or Beast Within.
Token effects:
All going well, you will now have a butt-load of glorious warriors of Allah ready to smite the infidels. You want to make full use of this army, so you need to have something to do with them on the same turn, or else it could all be swept away.
Anger,
Flame-Kin Zealot
, Hammer of Purphoros,
Lovisa Coldeyes
, Sarkhan Vol and
Urabrask the Hidden
all give haste. Lovisa also buffs your warriors, along with Eldrazi Monument, Garruk Wildspeaker's ult,
Knight of New Alara
, Mirari's Wake and Oran-Rief, the Vastwood. If attacking isn't your thing, then you will not be disappointed! Most of your wins will come from Purphoros, God of the Forge or Warstorm Surge triggers, or simply shooting people with Goblin Bombardment. Aura Shards helps wipe the board, Fumigate will gain you a billion life, and Skullclamp will draw your deck. With a sac outlet, Stalking Vengeance will hit someone for a lot. My favourite secret bit of tech however, is
Martyr's Cry
! You get to draw a bunch of cards, and also get to exile any white creatures your opponents control. For WW!
Other useful tips and tricks:
There's a lot of graveyard recursion. Between Sun Titan, Eternal Witness, Karmic Guide and
Emeria Shepherd
, you'll never feel bad about getting milled. Swing with Titan, get back a fetch land, trigger Shepherd, sac the fetchland, get a plains to the field, get Karmic guide to the field, bring back Witness... I've done this combo many times and it's very fun to go from nothing to a lot.Add in flicker effects and Panharmonicon for extra fun.
Did you know you can abuse Hazezon LEAVING play? There's no end to the pain. When Hazezon leaves play, he exiles all Sand Warriors. Turn your opponent's creatures into Sand Warriors with Blades of Velis Vel and Shields of Velis Vel and exile them forever with very little effort. The best part is when you do it, your opponents are so confused and wonder wtf you're up to. Then you break it to them that you've just exiled their entire board for a single W.
Fiend Hunter
+
Sun Titan
is an infinite combo with an sac outlet. Exile Titan under Fiend hunter, sacrifice him, Sun Titan returns, bringing back Fiend hunter. Rinse and repeat. Good for infinite mana with Ashnod's Altar or infinite damage with Purphoros.
Stonehorn Dignitary and Heroic Intervention have saved my butt so many times, it's insane. Stonehorn's etb also stacks if he enters multiple times or with Panharmonicon. The most combat phases I've made an opponent skip in a row is 6! You can do better.
Alterations:
So I bet your main question is "Why no token doublers!"? The answer is extremely simple. Doubling Season and Parallel Lives are too slow and draw too much hate. All your tokens come from Hazezon's etb trigger. Now, would you rather have a 5 mana enchantment on the field (which is usually so expensive that you can't play Hazezon in the same turn) or Cloudshift, which costs W, is in your hand, can be played the same turn and has the same effect? It's a very easy choice when you look at it that way.
I've also tried some other sacrifice outlets, such as Martyr's Cause, but found I was either using the ones I've left in the deck more, or it just wasn't doing enough.
Ways to make the deck more competitive could be more card draw, tutors or ways to abuse cards like Protean Hulk even more than it already is. You could go straight for the Purphoros win and throw in enchantment tutors like Enlightened Tutor, and get him down consistently (or the budget
Impact Tremors
. I haven't gone too hard core on the card draw as the deck usually sets up then explodes, or you've ramped all your lands out anyway, so tend to draw into decent cards. And given it's not built to be uber oppressive, I haven't pushed the fact.