Sword of a Tribal Deck

Commander / EDH* BR (Rakdos)

TypicalTimmy

Swords (29)

• 1x Banshee's Blade
• 1x Blackblade Reforged
• 1x Blade of the Oni
• 1x Blazing Sunsteel
• 1x Drach'Nyen
• 1x Embercleave
• 1x Enormous Energy Blade
• 1x Forebear's Blade
• 1x Hero's Blade
• 1x Hero's Heirloom
• 1x No-Dachi
• 1x Pact Weapon
• 1x Scavenged Blade
• 1x Sword of Body and Mind
• 1x Sword of Dungeons & Dragons
• 1x Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1x Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1x Sword of Forge and Frontier
• 1x Sword of Hearth and Home
• 1x Sword of Hours
• 1x Sword of Kaldra
• 1x Sword of Light and Shadow
• 1x Sword of Once and Future
• 1x Sword of Sinew and Steel
• 1x Sword of Truth and Justice
• 1x Sword of Vengeance
• 1x Sword of War and Peace
• 1x Sword of the Animist
• 1x Vorpal Sword

Lands (32)

• 16x Mountain
• 16x Swamp

Removal (12)

• 1x Doom Blade
• 1x Dreadbore
• 1x Force of Despair
• 1x Hero's Downfall
• 1x Hex
• 1x Kindred Dominance
• 1x Murder
• 1x Nahiri's Wrath
• 1x Necromantic Selection
• 1x Power Word Kill
• 1x Terminate
• 1x Walk the Plank

Enchantments (11)

• 1x Crippling Blight
• 1x Curse of the Restless Dead
• 1x Demonic Vigor
• 1x Frenzied Rage
• 1x Inner Demon
• 1x Latulla's Orders
• 1x Necromancer's Magemark
• 1x Spiteful Shadows
• 1x Unholy Indenture
• 1x Unholy Strength
• 1x Unquenchable Fury

A little spice is nice (3)

• 1x Brass Squire
• 1x Fury of the Horde
• 1x World at War

Lifelink (3)

• 1x Blessing of Belzenlok
• 1x Butcher's Glee
• 1x Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord

Commanders (2)

Ramp (8)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Birgi, God of Storytelling  ^Flip
• 1x Coldsteel Heart
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sol Ring

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Nocturno of Myra's Marvels and Ignacio of Myra's Marvels Swords tribal.

How does the deck function, and what words are we choosing at all times?

The deck functions by choosing two specific words, one for each commander. For Nocturno, we choose the word "Creature", and for Ignacio, we choose the word "Sword".

When choosing equipment, how are we deciding what makes the deck and what is cut?

Unless the equipment is insanely powerful and useful, the real deciding factor is actually its equip cost. Ignacio will give us 2x Treasure tokens. As long as our equip cost is 2 or less, we can equip it essentially for free. While it is not "free", what I mean is that we generate the mana to immediately use to equip it. Any player who uses equipment knows the difficulty of finding the mana to both cast and equip at the same time. Ignacio covers this for us, taking the burden off quite a bit.

It would appear losing life will be a problem. How do we circumvent this?

There are auras, equipment, sorceries and instants in the game that allow lifelink. These will be useful in recovering a lot of our life. However, many of these do not have swords in their artwork, reference the word "creature", and few are permanents. I did my best to select what I could, given the lack of true choice available to me.

Yes, technically speaking Multiclass Baldric does fulfill both requirements of showcasing a sword as well as having "creature" in its text box. The issue here is that in order to gain lifelink, the equipped creature must be a cleric, of which neither Ignacio of Myra's Marvels nor Nocturno of Myra's Marvels are. So no, it doesn't work. And no, I am not slotting Conspiracy just to do that. Besides, I can't. No sword in the artwork ;)

And again, yes technically Eater of Virtue also does. The problem is, neither of my creatures naturally come with lifelink. So when they die and are exiled, this card does nothing. The same is true for cards such as Soulflayer. Nothing in my graveyard will have lifelink, so nothing on my battlefield gains it.

What is the wincon of the deck?

The wincon, as with any voltron deck, is to deal enough combat damage via Commander Damage to fell our opponent as swiftly as possible. What makes this especially easy is that black has a lot of means to give us lifelink and red has a lot of ways to give us doublestrike. With a little bit of trample, we can push tremendous amounts of damage through, quickly. While it is true that Commander Damage is not cumulative, that is alright. Nocturno and Ignacio will be tracking their own combat damage separately. So 8 from one and 13 from another is not going to fell an opponent, despite being 21 total Commander Damage. That being said, we can actually use this to our advantage and attack two opponents at once. We could theoretically fell two opponents to Commander Damage simultaneously.

How do you handle removal?

When dealing with Voltron decks, you often find yourself at the mercy of removal spells. Obviously the Sword list will help with protection, as will Hexproof. That said, each Commander only costs 4 mana. It is easy to have a game go on long enough that you end up paying 10 or 12 mana for a Commander. This is not an issue. So spot removal / dies to combat / wraths aren't really something to be all that worried about.

As the game progresses, the number of Treasure tokens you'll have will pile up. This is because as the game continues, more and more lands and mana rocks will fall onto the battlefield, meaning you rely less and less on treasures. This means re-equipping lost equipment won't be too difficult.

As for spells such as Vandalblast, in my personal experience I have found it best to not worry about singular cards. Sure, this one card could and likely will demolish my entire deck. That isn't the end of the world. We aren't aiming to win 100% of the matches we are up against. If an opponent happens to slot VB into their +99, so be it. We can win another game at another time. It isn't the end of the world.

Why is Sword of Dungeons and Dragons in here? That isn't EDH legal?

Ayy, shut up.

Consider it as a placeholder. We are still missing two Swords; Gruul and Dimir. Once one of these are made, I can slot it in here. Once the other is made, that can replace another card that feels appropriate for that time.

Wait, so literally every card, with the exception of ramp such as Sol Ring and Arcane Signet, has a Sword in the artwork and mentions the word Creature in its text box?

Yes. This is even true for Birgi, God of Storytelling   who shows a sword in the flames on the bottom right corner of the artwork. Dreadbore shows it on his hip (left side of the artwork). Kindred Dominance and Necromantic Selection both show swords amid the devastation in their foreground, both on the bottom right corner. Even the basic lands show swords in their artwork. I spent a lot of time and sifted through Scryfall for hours to ensure everything has it accordingly.

Date added	2 years
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	17 - 0 Mythic Rares 19 - 0 Rares 18 - 0 Uncommons 14 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.85
Tokens	4/4 O Token Creature Dragon, Human 2/2 G, Treasure, Wolf 2/2 G, Zombie 2/2 B w/ Decayed