Isshin, Dual Wielding the Heavens [Combat Primer] (Commander / EDH MTG Deck)

Featured card: Isshin, Two Heavens as One

Isshin, Dual Wielding the Heavens [Combat Primer]

Commander / EDH Aggro Group Slug Haste Humans Midrange Primer RBW (Mardu)

UltimateRoxas40

Land (35)

Creature (33)

Sorcery (3)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Isshin, Two Heavens as One

Artifact (11)

Instant (9)

Enchantment (8)

Maybeboard

Creature (7)

Artifact (2)

Sorcery (2)

Instant (2)

The first magic sets I ever actually played were the original Mirrodin and Kamigawa blocks, and by 'played', I mean kitchen-table Magic, nothing constructed. So needless to say, while I was happy with an 80-card Red White Samurai-Barbarian-Equipment deck, it wasn't very good haha. But, growing up with TV shows like Samurai Jack and Rurouni Kenshin and games like Dark Souls and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, it was hard not to see a bunch of samurai/katana/dragon cards and not be excited.

When Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty set was released, I got pretty excited (This set gave me vibes of Aku's future world from Samurai Jack), and when I saw Isshin, Two Heavens as One, I knew I had to build him and make him my aggro/combat-centric commander (Although the name did give me mild PTSD about a certain boss from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice haha).

Our Commander

Isshin, Two Heavens as One - Our commander is a legendary Human Samurai with "If a creature attacking causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time". He's the Panharmonicon or Yarok, the Desecrated of Attack Triggers! With him on the battlefield, all our attacks become twice as potent, whether it's doubling up on combat triggers and shenanigans, or creating twice as many token creatures.

Combat Shenanigans

Akroma's Will - We can choose one of two options: Creatures you control gain flying, vigilance and double strike until end of turn; or Creatures you control gain lifelink, indestructible and protection from all colors until end of turn. If we control our commander, we get both! With a large board, we would easily overwhelm our opponents, or put ourselves in such a position that it would be nigh impossible to defeat us.
Anduril, Narsil Reforged - A big source of +1/+1 Counters. When we attack, we put a +1/+1 counter on each creature we control. Not even other attacking creatures, but all of our creatures! And if Isshin is out, then that get doubled. And once we Ascend, which should be fairly easy with the token generators we have, Anduril puts two +1/+1 counters on each creature, which Isshin would double to Four! And all of this is before combat damage, it's just on attack!
Aurelia, the Warleader - When she attacks for the first time each turn, we can untap our creatures, then get an additional combat phase. With Isshin, Two Heavens as One, we will double the extra turn trigger, but not the extra untap all our creatures part. Not meant to be infinite turns, just a way to make a super impactful combat step.
Brutal Hordechief - Has "Whenever a creature you control attacks, defending player loses 1 life and you gain 1 life". The important thing here is that it's 'Whenever a creature...", so this can stack for each attacking creature, then doubled with Isshin, Two Heavens as One. Then, for , we can force our opponent's creature to block (if able), and we control how they block. The best part of this is that we can do it during our opponent's turn, making their boards weaker and less able to resist our onslaught of creatures!
Caustic Bronco - I've heard it compared to Dark Confidant, and I can get behind that. When we attack, we draw a card, then either lose life equal to the drawn card's mana cost, or if this creature is Saddled, all our opponent's lose life equal to the drawn card's mana cost. This would be a great turn two creature, then follow it up by casting Isshin, who happens to have 3 Power, so he can immediately Saddle this creature and swing out for card draw and damage. But we need to be careful with this card. There is no May ability, so if we don't Saddle this creature and attack with Isshin on the field, we will trigger it twice, and lose life twice. Don't want to accidentally draw Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger *f-etch* and damage ourselves!
Caesar, Legion's Emperor - This powerhouse almost made me reconsider who was going to be helming this deck. Caesar has it all: Token generation, Card Draw, and a finisher. A useful creature no matter when you play him. And the best thing is that he doesn't have to attack himself. All we need is another creature to sacrifice to him to start generating value over the course of the game.
Commissar Severina Raine - One of our big finishers! Whenever Commissar Severina Raine attacks, each opponent loses X life, where X is the number of other attacking creatures. Since it's an attack trigger, we can stack this to resolve last after creatures like Hero of Bladehold or Adeline, Resplendent Cathar have finished putting tapped and attacking creature tokens into play, so that she can drain the table for a ton of damage!
Craig Boone, Novac Guard - When we attack with two or more creatures, we put two Quest counters on Craig. We then deal damage equal to the number of quest counters to an opponents creature, or that opponent may choose to redirect the damage directly to them.
Etali, Primal Storm - I had originally built an Etali, Primal Storm centered around impactful combat steps and cheating out Eldrazi Titans or Ugin planeswalkers, but eventually that felt a little stale. I actually converted that deck into this when Isshin, Two Heavens as One was announced, although many cards did not survive the transformation. Regardless, I had to include this Elder Dinosaur. Whenever he attacks, we Exile the top card of each player's library, then we can cast any number of nonland cards from among them. With our commander and a typical four-man pod, we can potentially cast 8 cards in a single combat step!
Fervent Charge - A nice +2/+2 buff during combat. This only applies to creatures 'Declared as attackers', so the tapped and attacking tokens created by other creatures don't get this buff.
Guardian Scalelord - When it attacks, we a return target nonland permanent from our graveyard to the battlefield with a CMC of X or less, where X is this creature's power. It also has Backup, so we can give a +1/+1 counter to another creature and the above ability until the end of turn.
Iroas, God of Victory - Gives creatures we control Menace, and he prevents all damage dealt to attacking creatures we control, allowing us to swing with valuable pieces like Commissar Severina Raine or Hero of Bladehold without fear of losing them to combat damage.
Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant - Whenever we attack another player, we can Goad one of their creatures, then draw a card on subsequent turns when that creature is forced to attack another opponent.
Legion Loyalist - Whenever Legion Loyalist and at least two other creatures attack, creatures you control gain first strike and trample until end of turn and can't be blocked by tokens this turn. This allows us to circumvent other token decks, and get off First Strike damage to kill as many defenders before they can deal damage back to us.
Mishra, Claimed by Gix - Very similar to Commissar Severina Raine. Whenever Mishra, Claimed by Gix attacks, each opponent loses X life and we gain X life, where X is the number of other attacking creatures. Then, if we control/own both Mishra, Claimed by Gix and Phyrexian Dragon Engine and they are both attacking, we can Meld them into Mishra, Lost to Phyrexia .
Mishra, Lost to Phyrexia - This might be rare to pull off, but wow this card is crazy. When he enters the battlefield and attacks, we can pick three out of six effects: 1 - Target opponent discards two cards; 2 - Mishra deals 3 damage to any target; 3 - Destroy target artifact or planeswalker; 4 - Creatures you control gain menace and trample until end of turn; 5 - Creatures you don't control get -1/-1 until end of turn; 6 - Create two tapped Powerstone tokens. Tons of options, and with Isshin, Two Heavens as One, we could potentially trigger all six options in a single attack.
Ogre Battledriver - A fantastic Haste enabler and Token pumper! Since his trigger is when another creature enters the battlefield, all those tapped and attacking creature tokens will get an additional +2/0 buff during combat during the turn they were created.
Paladin Elizabeth Taggerdy - When Elizabeth attacks with at least two other creatures, we can put another creature from our hand into play tapped and attacking, as long as that creature's mana cost is equal to or less than Elizabeth's power. Since we have a few anthem effects and +1/+1 counter sources, and the majority of our creatures are 3-4 CMC, we can easily have two additional creatures come down during combat.
Rising of the Day - An all-around upgrade to Fevor. Since our deck is all about attacking, it's important to give all our creatures Haste, and the +1/0 buff to our legendary creatures is an extra bonus. And since it's an Enchantment, it gets around many of the removal/wipe spells that focus on creatures.
Skyhunter Strike Force - This creature has Melee - Whenever this creature attacks, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each opponent you attacked this combat), and if Isshin, Two Heavens as One is out, we both give Melee to all other creatures we control, and Melee with trigger twice, potentially giving all our 'declared attacking' creatures a +6/+6 boost until end of turn.
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger *f-etch* - Another of our big finishers. With Isshin, Two Heavens as One out, Ulamog's attack trigger can Exile Mill an opponent for 40 cards.

Creature Token Generator and Payoffs

Adeline, Resplendent Cathar - When we Attack, we create a 1/1 Human creature token tapped and attacking each opponent. This can double to two tokens if our commander is on the field. A good way to start building up our field with tokens. And since her power is based on the number of creatures we control, just attacking with her could boost her Power by six in a 4-man pod.
Anduril, Flame of the West - When the equipped creature attacks, we create two tapped 1/1 Spirit creature tokens with Flying, but if the equipped creature is legendary, we create two of the same tokens, but tapped and attacking. If equipped to Isshin, Two Heavens as One, we can create four tokens tapped and attacking our opponents!
Caesar, Legion's Emperor - When we attack, we can sacrifice another creature. If we do, we make two 1/1 Soldier tokens who are also tapped and attacking.
Charismatic Conqueror - Similar to Authority of the Consuls, this can slow down our opponents by giving them the option between their creatures and artifacts entering tapped (Looking at you Treasure tokens!) or giving us a 1/1 Vampire with Lifelink. It doesn't have anything to do with Isshin's attack triggers, but having some cheap blockers who can gain us life back is pretty nice.
Delina, Wild Mage - When she attacks, we roll a dice. On 1-14, we create a non-legendary token copy of another creature we control that's also tapped and attacking. If we roll 15-20, we create that token and then roll again. It's important to note that the token we create is made after combat has started, so anything we copy won't copy its Attack trigger. We are just making extra bodies during combat, not more triggers for Isshin, Two Heavens as One to double. But the extra bodies can be copies of our legendary creatures like Drakuseth, Maw of Flames, Iroas, God of Victory, or Mishra, Lost to Phyrexia to deal a ton of damage.
Hero of Bladehold - If this deck could have a lieutenant, this would be it. She creates two 1/1 Soldier creature tokens and provides a +1/0 Battle Cry boost to all attacking creatures, both of which Isshin, Two Heavens as One can double for us. Something useful to know about Battlecry is that if we order the stack so this is the last ability to resolve, any other tapped and attacking token creature we've made will get a boost. When you bring something into play tapped and attacking, it technically isn't 'declared as an attacker', so cards like Fervent Charge won't boost it, but since Battlecry looks at attacking creatures, they count.
Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin - When he attacks, he puts a +1/+1 counter on himself, then create a number of 1/1 Goblin creature tokens equal to the number of +1/+1 counters on him. Synergizes great with Cathars' Crusade, where all the creature tokens he creates on his first trigger will add +1/+1 counters to him, then the second time he triggers with Isshin, Two Heavens as One in play, he creates that many more Goblin tokens (Someone fact-check me if I didn't get this right haha. Isshin makes Math and Rulings slightly complicated).
Mardu Ascendancy - Whenever a nontoken creature attacks, we create a 1/1 Goblin creature token tapped and attacking. Good to double up, but also a good defensive option. If an opponent flashes in a blocker to kill one of our important token generators or combat pieces, we can sacrifice this enchantment to give a 0/+3 buff to all our creatures.
Myrel, Shield of Argive - When she attacks, she creates X 1/1 Soldier creature tokens, where X is the number of Soldiers we have in play. With cards like Brimaz, King of Oreskos and Hero of Bladehold, we can have many Soldier-type tokens to pump out even more tokens! Similar to Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin, the number of tokens created will increase between each trigger made by Isshin, Two Heavens as One.
Otharri, Suns' Glory - When it attacks, we gain an Experience counter, then create X 2/2 Rebel creature tokens, where X equals the number of Experience counters we have. I wish there were more cards with Experience counters that synergized with this deck's plan, but there's always hope for the future. If we get hit with a board wipe and lose Otharri, Suns' Glory and all our Rebel tokens, we have a sneaky backup with Glimmer Lens (ONC:44), which creates a 2/2 Rebel creature token that we could use to bring back our Phoenix.

Token Payoffs

Cathars' Crusade - With all the 1/1 or 2/2 creature tokens we are generating, we can start pumping up the board, especially strengthening our main attackers/token generators so that they survive the swing.
Mondrak, Glory Dominus - It can double the number of tokens generated, and if we pay and sacrifice three other creatures or artifacts, we can put an Indestructible counter on it to make it stick around. Good thing we have a ton of token creatures or artifacts at our disposal to do this.
Warleader's Call - Combination Impact Tremors and an anthem effect. Boosts all our tokens and deals damage when they enter the battlefield.

Mana Acceleration

Ideally, we'd ramp out a little, drop something with a good attack trigger on turn 2 or 3, then follow up the next turn with Isshin, Two Heavens as One to start capitalizing on our double attack triggers. To help with that, we have a suite of Mana rocks to help provide extra mana resources.

Arcane Signet, Boros Signet, Fellwar Stone, Sol Ring, Talisman of Conviction, Talisman of Hierarchy

We also have some cards that can help us get ahead through Treasure tokens or fetching lands, a rarity in non-green colors.

Goldspan Dragon - When this dragon either attacks or becomes the target of a spell, we can create treasure tokens. He also makes our Treasure tokens generate two mana!
Kellogg, Dangerous Mind - More straightforward than the above creature haha. When he attacks, we create a Treasure token, two if our commander is on the field. We can then sacrifice five Treasures to steal an opponent's creature.
Professional Face-Breaker - Whenever one or more of our creatures deals combat damage to a player, we create a Treasure token. Since this isn't an attack trigger, Isshin, Two Heavens as One won't double this for us, but it's still an effective way to get Treasures, and we can use Treasure tokens to Exile the top card of our library to potentially play it that turn. Useful in the mid-late game when we might be flush with mana and/or Treasure tokens and need more cards to play.

Card Draw and Advantage

Breena, the Demagogue - A fun political piece. When a player attacks one of our opponents, if they have more life than another opponent, they draw a card and we put two +1/+1 counters on a creature we control. So we can incentivize our opponents to attack each other, boost our board, and even draw some cards off it.
Caustic Bronco - I've heard it compared to Dark Confidant, and I can get behind that. When we attack, we draw a card, then either lose life equal to the drawn card's mana cost, or if this creature is Saddled, all our opponent's lose life equal to the drawn card's mana cost. This would be a great turn two creature, then follow it up by casting Isshin, who happens to have 3 Power, so he can immediately Saddle this creature and swing out for card draw and damage.
Caesar, Legion's Emperor - When we attack, we can sacrifice another creature. If we do, we draw a card and lose a life.
Commissar Severina Raine - We can basically turn all the token creatures we've made into Clue tokens. For and sacrificing a creature, we gain two life and draw a card.
Esper Sentinel - White's answer to Rhystic Study. Whenever an opponent casts their first noncreature spell, we draw a card unless that opponent pays mana equal to this creatures Power. And with our anthems and +1/+1 counters, its power can grow so that it becomes impossible to pay to prevent our card draw.
Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant - Whenever an opponent attacks another one of our opponents, both we and the attacking player lose 1 life and draw a card.
Skullclamp - The classic! With all the 1/1 tokens we create, this card can easily become , sacrifice a creature and draw two cards. Might be more difficult if something like Cathars' Crusade is in play pumping up our tokens, but we can still equip this to a token and swing away until the opponent either dies or is compelled to block.

Removal and Defense

Cards Considering/Removed

Mangara, the Diplomat - Doubling up on card draw whenever an opponent attacks us feels nice, but this is more of a defensive, sit-back kind of card, and I'd rather be attacking and generating tokens.
Karlach, Fury of Avernus - Similar to Aurelia, the Warleader, this gets us additional combat steps.

As I said, I'm a huge fan of Samurai Jack, and when I was much younger, I originally wanted to build a Samurai tribal-esque deck, but that didn't really pan out as much as I wanted. With Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, I got my Samurai commander, and although it isn't tribal, it does pay homage to Samurai Jack - having a Samurai dedicated to overthrowing the Imperials (or Aku) and putting the power into the hands of the people, fighting to bring freedom to the land (or seeking to return to the past, and undo the future that is AKU!).

In the meantime, I hope you liked the deck! If you have comments or suggestions, please let me know!

Huge shout out to Musashi's Mosh Pit [Primer], who inspired me to both update and upgrade this deck haha (It had been sitting on the back burner for a time while I focused on Phyrexia: All Will Be One). The love and attention to detail in their deck are evident, and anyone looking to get a deeper dive into Isshin, Two Heavens as One should definitely check them out!

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Revision 14 See all

(2 months ago)

Fellwar Stone

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Top Ranked	Achieved #36 position overall 1 year ago Achieved #31 position in Commander / EDH 1 year ago Achieved #2 position in Commander / EDH Group Slug 1 year ago Achieved #2 position in Commander / EDH Haste 1 year ago
Date added	1 year
Last updated	2 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	19 - 0 Mythic Rares 54 - 0 Rares 12 - 0 Uncommons 4 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.11
Tokens	City's Blessing, Copy Clone, Elephant 3/3 G, Experience Token, Gnome 1/1 C, Goblin 1/1 R, Human 1/1 W, Rebel 2/2 R, Soldier, Soldier 1/1 RW, Soldier 1/1 W, Spirit 1/1 W, Treasure, Vampire 1/1 W
Folders	My Deck Creations, References, commander
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