Brion, Jarad, Ukkima, and Kenrith have a fling

Commander / EDH Aggro Battlecruiser Counters Jank Sacrifice Stompy Theme/Gimmick Trample

resplendentobscurity

Land (36)

• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Fetid Heath
• 1x Flagstones of Trokair
• 1x Flooded Grove
• 1x Forbidden Orchard
• 4x Forest
• 1x Graven Cairns
• 1x Hinterland Harbor
• 1x Indatha Triome
• 2x Island
• 1x Karplusan Forest
• 1x Ketria Triome
• 3x Mountain
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 2x Plains
• 1x Rootbound Crag
• 1x Savai Triome
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Sunpetal Grove
• 3x Swamp
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Twilight Mire
• 1x Woodland Cemetery
• 1x Yavimaya Coast
• 1x Zagoth Triome

Draw (11)

• 1x Fathom Mage
• 1x Greater Good
• 1x Inspiring Call
• 1x Momentous Fall
• 1x Neyith of the Dire Hunt
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Return of the Wildspeaker
• 1x Rishkar's Expertise
• 1x The Great Henge
• 1x Toothy, Imaginary Friend
• 1x Zendikar Resurgent

Protection (2)

• 1x Heroic Intervention
• 1x Inspiring Call

Pump'em (18)

• 1x Boros Charm
• 1x Cazur, Ruthless Stalker  ^Flip
• 1x Corpsejack Menace
• 1x Dromoka's Command
• 1x Forgotten Ancient
• 1x Hadana's Climb  ^Flip
• 1x Kalonian Hydra
• 1x Kresh the Bloodbraided
• 1x Neyith of the Dire Hunt
• 1x Pir, Imaginative Rascal
• 1x Primal Might
• 1x Solidarity of Heroes
• 1x The Great Henge
• 1x The Ozolith
• 1x Unleash Fury
• 1x Vigor
• 1x Winding Constrictor
• 1x Xenagos, God of Revels

Interaction (14)

• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Chandra's Ignition
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Despark
• 1x Dromoka's Command
• 1x Generous Gift
• 1x Mythos of Nethroi
• 1x Neyith of the Dire Hunt
• 1x Polukranos, Unchained
• 1x Primal Might
• 1x Scavenging Ooze
• 1x Steelbane Hydra
• 1x Voracious Hydra

Fling (10)

• 1x Brash Taunter
• 1x Brion Stoutarm
• 1x Chandra's Ignition
• 1x Dying Wish
• 1x Fling
• 1x Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
• 1x Kazuul's Fury  ^Flip
• 1x Rite of Consumption
• 1x Soul's Fire
• 1x Ukkima, Stalking Shadow  ^Flip

Commander (1)

Fling'em (16)

• 1x Capricopian
• 1x Fathom Mage
• 1x Forgotten Ancient
• 1x Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker
• 1x Kalonian Hydra
• 1x Kresh the Bloodbraided
• 1x Managorger Hydra
• 1x Polukranos, Unchained
• 1x Realm Seekers
• 1x Reyhan, Last of the Abzan
• 1x Scavenging Ooze
• 1x Shabraz, the Skyshark  ^Flip
• 1x Steelbane Hydra
• 1x Toothy, Imaginary Friend
• 1x Ukkima, Stalking Shadow  ^Flip
• 1x Voracious Hydra

Ramp (11)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Harrow
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Rampant Growth
• 1x Skyshroud Claim
• 1x Smothering Tithe
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x The Great Henge
• 1x Zendikar Resurgent

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Maybeboard

Pump'em (5)

• 1x Berserk
• 1x Branching Evolution
• 1x Deepglow Skate
• 1x Invigorating Surge
• 1x Master Biomancer

Ramp (1)

• 1x Pir's Whim

Interaction (3)

• 1x Bane of Progress
• 1x Berserk
• 1x Pir's Whim

Other (2)

• 1x Chasm Skulker
• 1x Kalamax, the Stormsire

Fling'em (2)

• 1x Bane of Progress
• 1x Ravenous Slime

Fling (1)

• 1x Flesh / Blood

Utility (1)

• 1x Bioshift

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Overview

This is a Fling deck with Brion Stoutarm, Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord, and Ukkima, Stalking Shadow as the hidden commanders.

I've had the idea and desire to make a fling deck for a while, because I think Brion Stoutarm is a hilarious card, but didn't necessarily want to play Boros. I considered and toyed around with 4 color with either Saskia or Reyhan / Bruse Tarl, for a while, but couldn't make it work like I wanted. Then Kenrith, the Returned King came out, and he's perfect for the deck, plus with the addition of Ukkima, Stalking Shadow I had to make it 5 colour.

Yes, Kenrith is a bunch of generic value tacked onto a creature, as if he wouldn't be good, but every activated ability this deck not only values from, but also wants and is synergistic.

• Haste and (?!?!?!) Trample. Great with big dudes.
• Life gain - we play pain lands and shocks (okay may this one is just generic value :P )
• Draw cards - more explained below
• Reanimation. Big dudes die. We're going to sac our own big dudes for death and value. I wanted to run more Hydra's but they don't synergize well with reanimation or one of the themes / restrictions of the deck.

This isn't a deck where our goal is to run our commandy out asap. He synergizes well, but just adds that additional value, rather than being a key piece. Except for the haste and trample. Thats usually the reason to play him early.

General Goal of the deck

Pretty Straight forward. This deck wants to play creatures that either are, or that we can grow into big beaters with various +1/+1 counter synergies, and then use various fling effects to close out the game. Despite being straightforward, there's lots of play that this deck has that is explained a little bit more in the next section.

I wanted a lot of creatures that enter the battlefield with lots of +1/+1 counters naturally like Ignition Team or Realm Seekers or creatures that grow themselves through various means, such as; Forgotten Ancient, Shabraz, the Skyshark, Kalamax, the Stormsire, etc. A lot of these creatures also give us additional value, like lands, interaction, and card draw.

I wanted to run a bunch of Hydras, because they're fun and I think they're cool, but the x cost can be prohibitive in the sense that they can be huge mana sinks late game, but early can be a bit underwhelming. We do have Zendikar Resurgent, and the with recent reprinting of Mana Reflection making it more affordable, we could we could lean into more of a big mana theme to aid this, but not sure if that's the direction I necessarily want to go. Though, if we did, we could then run Gargos, Vicious Watcher as another hidden commandy and have some hydra tribal going on. Plus he fits in well with a subtheme that's explained in the next section.

Themes, Subthemes and other Various Synergies

The obvious theme is +1/+1 counters. However, there is enough overlap between the counters, the general deck strategy, and a few other themes that allows us to play particular cards. These are also cards that I had laying around, thought were cool and / or just wanted to play.

For example, we have a slight card draw matters theme. Because we can grow huge creatures and have access to things like Return of the Wildspeaker, we can run things like Shabraz, the Skyshark, Chasm Skulker, and Toothy, Imaginary Friend. I'm considering adding some wheels and 1 or two more creatures that grow when I draw cards, partly because of Smothering Tithe, and partly because we could then run Brallin, Skyshark Rider   as another win condition. Even without the wheels, I've drawn so many cards before that ditching down to 7 could be enough to run him. Plus all of the card draw matters creatures combo well with Toothy, Imaginary Friend. It also means we can use things like Greater Good and Return of the Wildspeaker as combat tricks, which leads to our next theme.

Kalamax, the Stormsire might not be the best way to grow a huge creature just by himself, however, we are running various combat tricks like Unleash Fury, so we can double them up. This deck also took up a lot of card slots and didn't have a lot of room for cards that did just one thing, which meant I had to find synergy and overlap wherever I could, and as such, the removal suite may be a little clunky, so Kalamx, the Stormsire gives us added value on most of our removal, our combat tricks, and instant speed fling effects.

We also have a slight fight subtheme. I really wanted to run Neyith of the Dire Hunt because she doubles power, draws cards, is removal and Kenrith gives trample, so we don't care that a creature must be blocked. She's so much overlap, and I love the art, so I wanted to build around her. This explains cards like Dromoka's Command, which also happens to be flexible. Fight also works well with Vigor

Notable Inclusions, Exclusions, and Card Selection Explanations

Exclusions:

Seedborne Muse: Tempting, but this isn't that Kenrith deck. Doesn't synergize with the overall theme.

Berserk: Didn't fit the budget at the time I bought the cards that I didn't have. Will get one at some point. Running Unleash Fury instead.

Branching Evolution: Didn't fit the budget. Will probably get one at some point. Running Solidarity of Heroes and Corpsejack Menace instead. Though, the deck may not need it. We'll see.

Doubling Season: Great with counters. But that's it. Doesn't justify the cost, despite being reprinted. I have a Deepglow Skate in the maybeboard I might try as a budget alternative - it can also be reanimated with Kenrith, so there's potential for abuse.

Taurean Mauler: Great card. Fits the theme. Didn't like the art.

Hardened Scales: I know it's efficient, however, I had a Pir, Imaginative Rascal and and Winding Constrictor laying around. Constrictor also works better with The Ozolith.

Herald of Secret Streams: Undoubtedly would be great in this deck, but it's also kind of unfun/uninteractive, and we're running fling effects for when we can get through with combat. It also just does the one thing, and I wanted as much overlap as possible in my card selection. Most Fling effects can be removal if need be, as most can hit creatures / planeswalkers. They can also be just be player removal...

Gyre Sage: I probably could be convinced to run it or at least try it out, especially since it works really well with Kenrith's +1/+1 ability. But it is still just a mana dork.

Marchesa, the Black Rose: Admittedly would be great, especially with Kenrith's ability to put counters on things. Could also be fun to steal people's creatures... I may have just convinced myself... hmm.

Bane of Progress: It was in the initial build. Ticks the box of dual purpose. But we do run some key artifacts and enchantments. It was also a meta choice - with the potential to recur Bane over and over again, it can feel oppressive? May slot it in later if I need the effect.

Proliferate effects: Didn't think it was necessary, and requires too many card slots.

Inclusions:

I feel like I've talked about a lot of the niche includes already, but I'll also include them here.

Kalamax, the Stormsire: Gives additional value for removal spells and combat tricks.

Flagstones of Trokair: When making the 'Kalamax' section I included Harrow. Flagstones is a great target for it. Ignition Team also animates lands, if we need it in the bin. A deck in my local meta runs some MLD to help him close out games. Sometimes it's just the little synergies.

Shabraz, the Skyshark: He grows when we draw cards. We can draw a lot of cards in a burst. We also have a none negligible amount of a humans (Kenrith for a sneaky voltron win, Fathom Mage, Kresh, Reyhan, Neyith, Cazur, Pir) that we can give flying.

Neyith of the Dire Hunt: Probably not that notable but she's the reason I've decided to include some fight cards.

Cazur, Ruthless Stalker  : I feel he is a loose include. When hitting with a 20/20 getting 1 more counter is a bit 'meh'. But, he finds Ukkima, which is nice, and playing Ukkima w/o Cazur didn't feel great because of the engine they create. May replace with Bioshift if he underperforms.

Solidarity of Heroes: Obviously good in this deck, but I don't like the art (just bit a 'meh') and wanted to run Invigorating Surge instead but decided to run with it anyway. May get it altered.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths: - Highly synergistic with lots of play.

• It's a big Timmy deck, but also appeals to my Jonny sensibilities with neat interactions.

• Lots of cards serve dual or triple purposes.

• I'm playing cards that I really like and want to play, many of which I already had.

• Lots of ways to change it up if play gets stale.

• Can draw a ton of cards

• If all else fails, just play Kenrith and see what happens.

• Can sneak in kills / wins with combat tricks.

Weaknesses: - Relies on Creatures.

• Wins are usually telegraphed.

• Can be targeted simply because having big creatures is scary / people don't like aggro. Can take a bit of politicking.

• Can be a bit slow to build up.

• Can draw the wrong half of the deck because there's quite of few moving pieces. Sometimes you get a hand with fight cards and combat tricks and you're like welp.... .

• Clunky removal in the form of Steelbane Hydra Polukranos, Unchained, etc

• Relies on mostly conditional draw.

Edits

As of the time I'm writing this I have yet to play a real game with this deck because I live in Australia, and my cards are still enroot because Covid despite ordering them over almost 2 months ago.

That said, I've play tested it a bunch and its a blast!

Always happy to hear suggestions, and if you like it give it an up vote :).

Also, I'd like to find room for Brash Taunter but I'm unsure what to take out. Perhaps replace a fling effect with it?

Date added	4 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	12 - 0 Mythic Rares 51 - 0 Rares 13 - 0 Uncommons 10 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.45
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Elephant 3/3 G, Spirit 1/1 C, Treasure