Cranial Plating, the EDH experience

Commander / EDH Aggro Artifact RW (Boros) Voltron

TheRedMage

Equipments (28)

• 1x Argentum Armor
• 1x Bonesplitter
• 1x Champion's Helm
• 1x Civic Saber
• 1x Conqueror's Flail
• 1x Cranial Plating
• 1x Darksteel Axe
• 1x Darksteel Plate
• 1x Grafted Exoskeleton
• 1x Grafted Wargear
• 1x Inquisitor's Flail
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Loxodon Warhammer
• 1x Mask of Memory
• 1x Masterwork of Ingenuity
• 1x O-Naginata
• 1x Stitcher's Graft
• 1x Sunforger
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Sword of Body and Mind
• 1x Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1x Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1x Sword of Light and Shadow
• 1x Sword of War and Peace
• 1x Tenza, Godo's Maul
• 1x Trailblazer's Boots
• 1x Umezawa's Jitte
• 1x Whispersilk Cloak

#JustSunforgerThings (8)

• 1x Boros Charm
• 1x Brave the Elements
• 1x Return to Dust
• 1x Shelter
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Temur Battle Rage
• 1x Valorous Stance
• 1x Wear / Tear

Lands (33)

• 1x Ancient Den
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Darksteel Citadel
• 1x Dust Bowl
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Great Furnace
• 1x Hanweir Battlements  ^Meld
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Mistveil Plains
• 4x Mountain
• 10x Plains
• 1x Plateau
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Seat of the Synod
• 1x Slayers' Stronghold
• 1x Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
• 1x Vault of Whispers
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Equipment Lovers (11)

• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Godo, Bandit Warlord
• 1x Leonin Abunas
• 1x Leonin Shikari
• 1x Open the Armory
• 1x Puresteel Paladin
• 1x Sigarda's Aid
• 1x Sram, Senior Edificer
• 1x Steelshaper's Gift
• 1x Stoneforge Mystic
• 1x Stonehewer Giant

Other (7)

• 1x Aurelia, the Warleader
• 1x Austere Command
• 1x Land Tax
• 1x Mother of Runes
• 1x Seize the Day
• 1x Vandalblast
• 1x Wheel of Fortune

Commanders (2)

Rocks (11)

• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Boros Signet
• 1x Everflowing Chalice
• 1x Hedron Archive
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Worn Powerstone

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To be perfectly honest, commander is not exactly my format. I have a deck or two built, sure, but there are of things that are presented as features of the format that to me are kinda just downsides - so, it's not often that I assemble new lists. That said, Akiri, Line-Slinger has a lot of things going that make me think of the 60-card formats I know and love, so I thought I gave her a shot.

This is an equipment-based Voltron deck that plays in a way somewhat reminiscent of modern affinity. It's fast, but fair and somewhat fragile.

Why play Akiri

Akiri's body is very efficient, and her ability is reminiscent of a card many modern players would be well acquainted with - she comes with her own Cranial Plating! To me that screamed one thing: go fast! This deck is full of 2-drop and 3-drop artifacts, and plays as many as 9 mana rocks, ensuring Akiri's power is as large as possible. We can vomit our hand on the table, kinda like modern Affinity does, and then start mowing down players.

You might like Akiri if:

• You like Equipments
• You like Voltron-style decks
• You want a deck that develops its board a lot faster than many other EDH decks do
• You think that eliminating a player is a perfectly acceptable way to answer a card in that player's hand

You might want to look elsewhere if:

• You like having an unbeatable late game
• You don't like losing to artifact wraths
• You like drawing a bunch of extra cards
• You don't like putting all your eggs in one basket

Some Cards Choices

Why Silas

My plan for this deck has always been that I wanted to build an Akiri deck. This meant I had some freedom in choosing her partner. The first option to come to mind was Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder as a way to give Akiri double strike when needed. I have done a little bit of testing with Bruse, and he seems strong - in one game, he even became a secondary voltron recipient, and stepped in to finish off a player after Akiri got killed one time too many.

I decided to go with Silas in the end. Gaining access to two more colors means we can run two more artifact lands (and from what I have observed there is a pretty direct correlation between how many artifact lands you draw and how busted your start gets). Getting access to black allows you to play Cranial Plating. Getting access to blue gives you access to Spellskite (which I am not running at the moment, but it's in the shortlist). Two more colors also mean a bunch more signets. Mana rocks are very good in this deck, allowing us to develop out mana while furthering our board, and signets are among the best of them. I do not think it's worth to play the ones that are completely off color, but the Boros (obviously), Azorius Signet and Orzhov Signet flavors are definitely worth it, and the Izzet Signet and Rakdos variants might.

Make no mistake, however, that Silas is just there to provide colors. I don't actually intend to cast him, and the two artifact lands and smattering of signets are the only sources of and in the deck.

Evasion

There are three pillars of a voltron strategy: Evasion, Resilience and Power. We rely on equipments to provide evasion, but it is honestly in my opinion the weakest of the three pillars. We have a full set of Swords of X and Y, plus Whispersilk Cloak and Trailblazer's Boots as pure evasion; O-Naginata and Tenza, Godo's Maul provide trample. We can also rely on a fraction of the Sunforger package, especially Temur Battle Rage , to help in this regard.

I think tailblazer's boots are better than Prowler's Helm , which is the other artifact I considered in the slot. I don't want to have both since at to cast plus to equip I have found them to be very clunky. Vorrac Battlehorns was also a consideration, but I would rather not put that much mana in an artifact that doesn't at least provide a stat boost if I can help it.

Power

There are three pillars of a voltron strategy: Evasion, Resilience and Power. As far as power goes, Akiri has it in spades. Because of the large number of artifact lands and mana rocks that we are playing - not to mention, the fact each equipment has an additional +1/+0 tacked onto it - Akiri often has 5 or 6 power by the time she swings for the first time, and it only goes up from there.

A lot of the equipments we chose are designed to pile as much power on her for as cheap as possible. Stitcher's Graft has virtually no downside because of vigilance; Inquisitor's Flail has a much reduced one because of first strike. O-Naginata , Bonesplitter and Civic Saber all provide large power boosts for a small amount of mana.

I am playing all five swords of X and Y at the moment - I have no justifications for some of them except I thought it was cute to run all five. It's possible the worst couple of them should (War and Peace and Body and Mind should get cut for more efficient equipment... Or maybe more rocks. The name of the game for this deck is to go fast, and 5 mana to get an equipment on are a lot, but so far I have been happy.

Argentum Armor is a similar deal, but having at least one over-the-top powerful piece of equipment for games that go longer than they should is pretty good, especially with so many efficient tutors.

Resilience

There are three pillars of a voltron strategy: Evasion, Resilience and Power. In Akiri's case, a lot of the resilience comes from the fact that she only costs , so replaying her a couple times should be relatively painless. Other than that, we rely on the Sunforger subsuite for resilience, with Shelter , Boros Charm, Brave the Elements and Valorous Stance to dodge removal. Mom is also there to help on occasion.

As with all things, we also have a few equipments to take care of this, although not a ton, and most of them pull double duty by providing haste (Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots) or evasion (Whispersilk Cloak). Darksteel Plate is the lone exception, though plate is definitely on the cutting block as a 6-mana investment that provides no power boost.

#JustSunforgerThings

I love Sunforger and have been dying to find a deck to use one in. The card is incredibly powerful in Akiri, providing a whopping 5 power to our First Striking commander and searching up a number of fundamental effects.

There is not a huge space for the Sunforger subsuite, so cards like Valorous Stance that can pull double duty (in this case, a removal spell or a protection spell) were prioritized. I consider Shelter and Brave the Elements to be part of that category, since they can protect Akiri or make her hard to block. Boros Charm obviously also falls in this category - it can either protect your board or kill someone out of nowhere.

The rest of the inclusions are wear/tear , Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile and Return to Dust as removal and Temur Battle Rage as an "I win" button. I feel like this isn't a bad mixture of spells, but there are a lot of different moving parts, and I wouldn't be surprised if some slightly different configuration was actually better. Fury Charm was a late cut and it's possible it should be in.

You can also play a deeper blue splash. In that case surprising your opponent with Hindering Light or even coutnerflux out of your Sunforger is not out of the question.

It's definitely possible to build the deck without including Sunforger at all, but my experience with the card have been nothing but positive. Its versatility definitely makes it the most tutored-for equipment in the deck.

Playing the Deck

The name of the game with this deck is speed. You just gotta go fast. Mow down your first opponent on turn 4 or 5, and then move to the rest of the table.

Prioritize getting Akiri on the field, then your rocks, then everything else. Try to be as efficient as possible with your mana. If you suspect someone could have an artifact wrath, go for them first since they are quite bad for you.

Notable Exclusions and Similar Builds

Coming Soon

Date added	8 years
Last updated	4 years
Exclude colors	UB
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	10 - 0 Mythic Rares 33 - 0 Rares 35 - 0 Uncommons 8 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.39
Tokens	Human 2/2 G, Wolf 2/2 G
Folders	EDH