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Damage redirection shenanigans!


As should be obvious, this isn't really a Zurgo Helmsmasher deck -- it's a damage redirection deck that runs Zurgo as a combo piece and a Plan B. The plan is to make people scared to target you by threatening redirection spells or retaliation with Zurgo, then win by either landing a perfectly timed redirection spell or comboing off with some silly shit.

The combos here all deal with damage redirection. The goal is to play a creature like High Priest of Penance or Boros Reckoner with an ability that triggers when it's dealt damage, give it indestructible, then finish with a combo piece like Pariah , Arcbond , Pyrohemia or Furnace of Rath . The "Damagers" cards can burn everything to keep the board clear, or be used to combo off with a Boros Reckoner ability and a damage doubler like Dictate of the Twin Gods . Instant-speed tutors like Sunforger and Tainted Pact allow you to pull up silver bullets reliably, leading to blowouts with cards like Rakdos Charm , Comeuppance and Master Warcraft . A few of the format's most powerful tutors have been included -- I usually shy away from these for fear of making a deck "unfun," but most of the combos in this deck are 3+ cards, so they feel necessary / not busted. Darksteel Plate is the most important card in the deck for comboing, so several tutors ( Dimir Machinations , Steelshaper's Gift ) have been included specifically to grab it.


Aaand you get the point -- there are definitely more combos in there if you look hard enough. Some of these require up to four cards, so they seem unlikely on paper, but the sheer volume of them makes it pretty likely that you'll go off somehow, some way. If you don't then you'll at least be a pain in the ass, and isn't that what commander's all about anyway?


I want this deck to be strong, and I want to win games with it, but I also want it to be fun to play / fun to play against. I feel like that's a pretty common goal in commander. That said, I've considered the following cards and decided that they just aren't fun to play against. I'm already toeing the line by running Stuffy Doll , I don't need to give opponents any extra excuses to be salty.

  • Sanguine Bond and Exquisite Blood : this is a cheap win that everyone's sick of seeing. Either one of these cards would be great in this deck, but people assume you're running the combo when they see either and you end up being targeted, so I'm staying away from both.
  • Land destruction. Maybe it's a personal preference, but I don't think most people would call LD "fun." Jokulhaups with Zurgo out is too easy.
  • Tainted Strike : entirely too cheesy.
  • Guilty Conscience : doesn't do enough on its own to justify the slot, unless you get it out with Stuffy Doll , in which case you cheese one player out of the game and then have nothing left on board or in hand to deal with the other players.

Any suggestions for further shenanigans to add, or any suggestions to generally make this thing more playable, would be welcome.

Thanks for checking it out!

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Updates Add

I held out on tutors for a long time with this build, but I just wasn't having a lot of fun that way in playtesting -- it felt like I was never quite able to pull a combo off in time for it to matter. Things just go a lot more smoothly with the tutors, and combos still don't feel overpowered since most of them require several cards to function. Overall, the goal of the most recent edits was to cut the least synergistic cards and focus on getting faster / more consistent combos with more aggressive ramping and tutoring. I'd say the deck is definitely better off for it.

Notable additions include High Priest of Penance, Pyrohemia, Pestilence and Death Pits of Rath, all of which open up some sweet new options for shenanigans.

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Revision 18 See all

(3 years ago)

+1 Arcane Signet side
+1 Ascent of the Worthy side
+1 Axgard Armory side
+1 Blackblade Reforged side
+1 Blazing Sunsteel side
+1 Blightstep Pathway  Flip side
+1 Bonders' Enclave side
+1 Brash Taunter side
+1 Brightclimb Pathway  Flip side
+1 Chandra's Incinerator side
+1 Commander's Plate side
+1 Crackle with Power side
+1 Deflecting Swat side
+1 Fiendlash side
+1 Fiery Emancipation side
+1 Fighter Class side
+1 Flumph side
+1 Furycalm Snarl side
+1 Hellish Rebuke side
+1 Hurl Through Hell side
and 51 other change(s)
Top Ranked
  • Achieved #12 position overall 9 years ago
Date added 9 years
Last updated 3 years
Key combos
Legality

This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

6 - 8 Mythic Rares

63 - 35 Rares

22 - 7 Uncommons

5 - 1 Commons

Cards 99
Avg. CMC 3.13
Tokens Copy Clone, Demon X/X B, Dinosaur 3/3 G w/ Trample, Spirit 1/1 C
Folders EDH, Cool Decks, Cool decks , I like it, notdecks, EDH Bookmarks, Edh, EDH Ideas, EDH, Ideas
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