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I'm Gonna Didgeridoo You in the Ass

Commander / EDH* Aggro BR (Rakdos) Combo Infinite Combo Minotaur Theme/Gimmick

MahBoi100

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Commander: foil Sethron, Hurloon General

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The only sound worse than a furious "moo" in the darkness is the silence that follows.

I have been a fan of minotaurs ever since I opened a Rageblood Shaman in original Theros back in 2013. Not long after, I made a minotaur tribal deck, which was decent enough. The next natural step seemed to be to make a commander deck starring the raging bovines, however there were no good legendary minotaur to put at the helm. Enter Amonkhet, which gave us Neheb, the Worthy. For a long time, he was the only rakdos coloured commander we had to work with. I would rather play Neheb, the Eternal, but as he isn't RB, I couldn't without shaving half the deck.

EDIT: But in the year of 2020, Wizards graced us with a new RB Minotaur tribal commander in the form of Sethron, Hurloon General. I haven't been that stoked for a card reveal in a long time! Anyways, Sethron is everything we could ever want in a minotaur tribal deck: he makes additional minotaurs whenever we play our minotaurs, and as if that wasn't enough, he also pumps all our minotaurs' stats and give them two much coveted abilities in Menace and Haste. Welcome, Sethron, to the herd!

The creation of this deck was inspired by the printing of Deathbellow War Cry, which gives minotaurs a double Tooth and Nail for one less mana, which is crazy good. Of course, minotaurs aren't the best of tribes, although they've recieved some good lords in later years. That being said, there are a handful of really good minotaurs, and they will have to do some heavy lifting in this deck. Among them is an infinite mana combo, which I will describe further down.

Sethron, Hurloon Generalfoil moves minotaur tribal as a deck up several tiers all by himself. He patches up multiple weaknesses that minotaurs have struggled with before his time:

  • Numbers. Minotaurs have a tradition of having stats slightly below their CMC's worth, which makes them clunky and slow to play most of the time. Even though this is less of a problem now than before, Sethron circumvents this altogether by always ensuring that our minotaurs come in pairs, making value creation much easier.

  • Tokens. Closely related to the point above. Ironically, despite the lacking stats of the average minotaur, the minotaur token is surprisingly strong when compared to your usual spirit-, zombie- and elf tokens. Despite this, the only other card that makes minotaur tokens is Flurry of Horns, which, on its own, doesn't do much for our game plan in the long run. Sethron gives the deck much-needed stability on that front. Trading a token for an opponent's card always feels good!

  • Card Advantage/Value. This is also related to the point above about numbers. Sethron's token production provides us with expendable creatures to throw at our opponents without losing much card-by-card value. Before Sethron, we were forced to load our overpriced cows into our cannons and shoot with reckless abandon. Now we can stay aggressive without forsaking our board state entirely, and trading with enemy creatures is much less of a problem. In addition to all this, the tokens also benefit from our lords, making the already nice 2/3 tokens genuine troublemakers.

  • Speed/Efficiency. In addition to the aforementioned token production, Sethron's activated ability also provides the deck with much-needed streamlining in speed and efficiency. Minotaurs are quite slow but have great potential if they survive a turn to attack, which makes Haste extremely powerful. This is also why Kragma Warcaller is one of our best cards despite costing 5 mana. Sethron gives us another way to grant haste to everyone. Menace is also not to be underestimated, as it effectively cleaves the opponents' defences in half.

While not a tier 1 tribe by a long shot, minotaurs benefit from having been around since Alpha, their long stay providing them with some obscure and weird cards that ultimately seperates them from other tribal decks. All tribes are unique to a certain extent of course, but the cards minotaur tribal has to work with are quite refreshing to say the least. Below I have compiled a list over the most interesting cards minotaur tribal has to offer:

  • Sethron, Hurloon Generalfoil. This guy needs little introduction, mostly because I have already given him one. He provides a lot of value as a lord of an underappreciated tribe.

  • Neheb, the Eternal. You all know how stupidly bonkers this card is, so I'll be brief here. He being a minotaur means that you have a perfectly legitimate reason to run him besides the obvious and usual shenanigans you do with him.

  • Deathbellow War Cry. Everyone has a relationship with Tooth and Nail. Whether positive or not, no one will dispute that the card is very good and serves as a strong finisher in most creature based decks. What if I told you then that minotaurs got their own entwined Tooth and Nail except twice as powerful and one mana cheaper? This card is absolutely insane! I have already talked about this card in the description, but I still felt I had to mention it here as well. It is our very own ultimate spell!

  • Didgeridoo. On the topic of cards I talk about elsewhere but still have to mention here, say hello to Didgeridoo. It is the namesake of the deck and provides minotaurs with a repeatable Quicksilver Amulet that costs 3 less to cast and 1 less to activate! This card is as good as it is hilarious.

  • Ragemonger. There are only a handful of cards like this in the entire game. Minotaurs having access to their own Edgewalker is low key insane. It makes prime lords, such as Neheb, the Worthy and Kragma Warcaller, stupidly cheap. Slaughter-Priest of Mogis even becomes free! The cost reduction that Ragemonger provides also snowballs quite well with our commander on the battlefield, gaining a flux of minotaur tokens on short notice.

  • Moraug, Fury of Akoum. He grants us an increased damage output and rewards us for running (and saving) our fetchlands. His first ability alone impacts the board right away even if you don't have any land drops at the moment. Unlike Aggravated Assault he doesn't give us additional main phases after the combat steps he creates, meaning that he doesn't combo with Neheb, the Eternal. Even so, his very presence can end games when deployed at an opportune moment.

  • Magar of the Magic Strings. This card is relatively new, just like the shenanigans he contributes with to the deck. He has the unconventional ability to "reanimate" instants and sorceries into creatures. The potential of this guy is insane, allowing for repeatable free castings of our most powerful spells. Just imagine casting a Deathbellow War Cry every turn! The creatures Magar makes really benefit from the multiple combat steps that Moraug, Fury of Akoum and Aggravated Assault provide, as well as the Double Strike from Rage Reflection. Additionally, you can activate Magar's ability at instant speed, partially circumventing the creatures' lack of Haste.

  • Felhide Spiritbinder. I'll be the first to admit that this card has a couple of shortcomings. It costs 4 mana with a below-average statline and needs to untap to be anything more than a vanilla creature. If you jump through these hoops, however, you can suddenly make a copy of any creature on the board, be it another player's bomb or just one of your own minotaurs. There is much utility to be found in an ability like this. Felhide Spiritbinder is currently sitting on the bench. It may return in the future.

  • Oracle of Bones. While not absurdly powerful it has deceptively strong potential as a political bargaining chip, seeing as you're the one who chooses which opponent that pays tribute (or not). Sometimes you can make a sweet deal with someone, or stab them in the back, but the latter is not recommended. This guy is usually a 4 mana 5/3 with Haste because your opponent is afraid of you casting a free Deathbellow War Cry, but that is still decent.

  • Glint-Horn Buccaneer. This guy has great stats for its cost and even has the coveted Haste. It also lets you rummage for something that you may need. What makes this card interesting, however, is its ability to deal damage whenever you discard a card. I'm not running many proper wheel effects in this deck, but this card is a good reason to do just that. It also holds equipment really well.

  • Tahngarth, Talruum Hero. He is weird for two reasons. First, he is an old minotaur with a 4/4 statline rather than the usual formula of having one power less than toughness. Second, he is a mono red creature with Vigilance. While this is so that his fight ability works better, it is still notably strange, not to mention welcome.

Unsurprisingly perhaps, the deck revolves around Sethron, Hurloon Generalfoil being on the table. Therefore it is crucial both getting him on the board as early as possible as well as gaining enough mana to reliably recast him should he be dealt with. To that end, the deck sports a large variety of ramp cards. In addition to the usual suspects, I am also experimenting with running a couple of ritual effects in Seething Song and Vessel of Volatility, which both lets us potentially cast Sethron on turn 3. In addition of being a decent ramp card Sword of Hearth and Home also doubles up as a great way to reuse ETBs, especially getting more minotaurs with Sethron.

The point of this deck is simple: summon cow and bull alike to gore your opponents like they were some freshly skewered shish kebab on a hot summer day. Despite the unimpressive statline on a lot of our minotaurs, we have quite a few lords that provide relevant abilities. Neheb, the Worthy, for example, gives all our minotaurs First Strike, which is useful for pushing damage through blocks that would otherwise be trades. If we add Felhide Petrifier to the mix, we suddenly have a board of minotaurs that are incredibly hard to block. Ragemonger is quite special in the way that it reduces the cost of our minotaurs by colored mana instead of generic mana.

We have some interesting options in terms of support, like Didgeridoo and the aforementioned Deathbellow War Cry, and I think it's on the back of these cards that minotaur tribal may rise to become something unique in a format that otherwise lets people do whatever carzy stuff they want.

On the topic of Didgeridoo, I want to quickly specify just what this card does:

  • It lets us play any minotaur for 3 mana, disregarding even colour requirements.
  • It lets us play our minotaurs at instant speed.
  • Lastly, we're not actually casting the minotaurs, but putting them in play with an activated ability, meaning that our minotaurs cannot be countered!
  • Additionally, it lets you replace the word "casting" with "dooting in", which is objectively surperior.

Just like how all roads lead to Rome, there are many ways to make Deathbellow War Cry ridiculously strong. It grabbing FOUR minotaurs from our deck means that it can singlehandedly establish a multitude of combos and match whatever need you have at the moment. You hopefully have Sethron, Hurloon Generalfoil on the battlefield to get those 4 extra free cows. Below I will list my preferred picks and elaborate slightly on why I think so:

-Tappedout is dumb, so I need to put this line here for the listing below to work.

  • Kragma Warcaller. This expensive guy is our premier Haste enabler! Warcaller singlehandedly enables our army to charge in right away. Getting him out is essential to maximize our damage output! Him also being quite expensive makes getting him out through Deathbellow War Cry feel that much better!

  • Neheb, the Eternal. This guy is practically a must if he is in your deck. He will provide you with an absurd amount of mana to deploy whatever you need in the following main phase. He also combos with both direct damage and combat damage, making him a flexible and powerful pick.

  • Fanatic of Mogis. This guy deals a great amount of damage to each opponent, especially if you get him alongside 3 other minotaurs through Deathbellow War Cry. He pairs really nicely with Neheb, the Eternal because he guarantees you damage, and thus mana, even if you don't attack. Neheb looks at life lost by all opponents, meaning whatever damage Fanatic deals results in triple that much mana with Neheb!

  • Rageblood Shaman. Him granting Trample to all our minotaurs provides the final push of damage we need to close out the game. Pair him up with Felhide Petrifier and you have a massacre at your hands. Him having two red mana symbols in his mana cost also gives us a bit more value with Fanatic of Mogis.

The reason I'm running Valakut Awakening   before any other wheels (though I should run more I admit) in this deck is that it lets us put important combo pieces back in the deck. Drawing Kragma Warcaller, for example, always feels bittersweet because it means you cannot fetch it with Deathbellow War Cry anymore.

This combo involves Neheb, the Eternal and Aggravated Assault.

Assuming your opponents have lost at least 5 life this turn, you can spend 5 mana to create an extra combat step with Assault, which in turn creates an additional postcombat main phase where Neheb, the Eternal gives us mana. You don't even need to attack in the extra combat steps, just pass to your postcombat main phase to regain the mana. The mana disappears between phases, though, so your shenanigans will only truly work if you're able to continuously damage your opponents. If you do, you will gradually gain more mana from Neheb, the Eternal. You don't even need more than 10 mana from the aforementioned combination to murder everyone with Zealot of the God-Pharaoh, which is a potential line of victory in this deck.

So that's minotaur tribal with Sethron at the helm. I hope this decklist will inspire more people to give the minotaurs a chance!

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98% Casual

Competitive

Top Ranked
Date added 4 years
Last updated 1 month
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

8 - 4 Mythic Rares

43 - 11 Rares

27 - 5 Uncommons

8 - 7 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.19
Tokens Copy Clone, Minotaur 2/3 R, Shapeshifter 3/2 C, Treasure
Folders edh, Want to Build, I like, Inspiration, Great Decks, To be made, cool, Commander Decks!, CMD, Need to Build
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