Must Blockables - The Art of War

Commander / EDH BRGW

Magicannon_Final_Spark

Land (38)

• 1x Blossoming Sands
• 1x Boseiju, Who Endures
• 1x Botanical Plaza
• 1x Canopy Vista
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Darkbore Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 10x Forest
• 1x Geothermal Bog
• 1x Jungle Hollow
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Nomad Outpost
• 1x Plains
• 1x Racers' Ring
• 1x Radiant Grove
• 1x Sacred Peaks
• 1x Slagwoods Bridge
• 1x Spire Garden
• 1x Sunlit Marsh
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Malady
• 1x Thriving Grove
• 1x Thriving Heath
• 1x Tramway Station
• 1x Uncharted Haven
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Wooded Ridgeline

Sorcery (5)

• 1x Farseek
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Roar of Challenge
• 1x Skyshroud Claim

Creature (27)

• 1x Assembled Alphas
• 1x Boros Reckoner
• 1x Brash Taunter
• 1x Cockatrice
• 1x Cryptborn Horror
• 1x Elven Warhounds
• 1x Elvish Scout
• 1x Engulfing Slagwurm
• 1x General Marhault Elsdragon
• 1x Gloom Sower
• 1x Grasping Giant
• 1x Gustcloak Savior
• 1x Neyith of the Dire Hunt
• 1x Noble Quarry
• 1x Pygmy Troll
• 1x Ravenous Slime
• 1x Saber Ants
• 1x Scaled Herbalist
• 1x Shinen of Life's Roar
• 1x Spitemare
• 1x Stuffy Doll
• 1x Tangle Asp
• 1x Taunting Elf
• 1x Tempting Licid
• 1x Teneb, the Harvester
• 1x Venomous Dragonfly
• 1x Vicious Battlerager

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Druid's Call
• 1x Guardian Project
• 1x Lure
• 1x Reconnaissance
• 1x Venom

Commander (1)

Artifact (13)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Blazing Sunsteel
• 1x Boros Signet
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Dead-Iron Sledge
• 1x Gruul Signet
• 1x Helm of Chatzuk
• 1x Infiltration Lens
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Nemesis Mask
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots

Instant (11)

• 1x Boros Charm
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Fog
• 1x Foxfire
• 1x Gaze of the Gorgon
• 1x Gorilla War Cry
• 1x Provoke
• 1x Roiling Regrowth
• 1x Season of Renewal
• 1x Terminate
• 1x Venomous Breath

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"I'll win but never fight, that's the Art of War!" -Sabaton-

The Art of War is one of the most influential works of writing in both military and philosophical applications. One core theme of the text is winning against overwhelming odds by turning the opponents' strengths against them. Know yourself and the enemy, and you can turn the tide of war from insurmountable defeat to a crushing victory.

The deck is built around forcing your opponents to block your creatures and getting value off of combat interactions. Example of interactions involve destroying the creatures that blocked, redirecting the combat damage to another target, creating lots of tokens and making other creatures unblockable. It is a deck that rewards playing off of your opponents' strength - the wider their board, the more powerful their creatures are, the more they will be punished for it. Most of your early turns will involve building up your manabase since many key pieces of your deck require 4-5 CMC cards. While this might be detrimental in most decks, in my deck it gives opponents a chance to develop their side of the board as well which is important for our lategame plan.

Once the key pieces are in place and the board is set, it is time to attack and turn your opponents strengths into their despair! Here are some fun interactions you can perform with this deck:

• If your opponent has a wide board, attack with cards like Vicious Battlerager with an "all creatures must block" ability from cards like nemesis mask. For each of your opponents creatures that block your Vicious Battlerager, they will lose a whopping 5 life - imagine the havoc on their life totals when they thought they were safe behind their wall of 30+ tokens.
• Your opponents are smugly hiding behind their 40/40 vigilance creatures with hexproof, thinking that surely nothing can get behind their impenetrable wall. Watch as their face crumples when their massive creature deals combat damage to your stuffy doll, sending 40 damage to its master! Have your Brash Taunter fight with that creature for good measure.
• Your Orzhov opponent has half their creatures out on the board, just waiting for someone to kill those creatures so they get all the #Value. "Kill my creatures, I dare you" says the Aristocrats player, with their Blood Artists and Bastion of Remembrances. Of course, you will have all those creatures block your Elven Warhounds to send their entire board back onto their library instead of their graveyard!

This deck is my favorite deck I've built so far. It requires your opponents to be in a stronger position for it to be impactful, which means it actively encourages your opponents to play their deck. However, it is also a very difficult deck to play well. Many key pieces of the deck are, as mentioned before, mana expensive cards. The deck also lacks removal and interaction, since most of the time you don't want to be slowing your opponents down too much. Furthermore, it is often difficult to decide when the best time to strike is - striking too early may give your opponents a chance to rebuild and defeat you, striking too late may give your opponents time to build up too much advantage to overcome. But that is what I find fun about the deck - it forces you to understand how you and your opponents decks work in order to win. Know yourself and the enemy, and you need not fear the result of a hundred battles!

Date added	1 year
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	1 - 0 Mythic Rares 25 - 0 Rares 21 - 0 Uncommons 33 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.03
Tokens	Dungeon: Undercity, Insect 1/1 G, Skeleton 4/1 B, Squirrel 1/1 G, The Initiative, Treasure