Pako/Haldan - The Goodest Boy & His Scientist

Commander / EDH RUG (Temur)

OttersaurusRex

Instant (26)

• 1x Abrade
• 1x Artifact Mutation
• 1x Barrier Breach
• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Deflecting Swat
• 1x Electrodominance
• 1x Expansion / Explosion
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Fling
• 1x Fury Storm
• 1x Growth Spiral
• 1x Hunter's Insight
• 1x Invigorating Surge
• 1x Kazuul's Fury  ^Flip
• 1x Memory Lapse
• 1x Narset's Reversal
• 1x Obscuring Haze
• 1x Polymorphist's Jest
• 1x Pongify
• 1x Reality Shift
• 1x Return of the Wildspeaker
• 1x Temur Battle Rage
• 1x Turn to Frog

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Aqueous Form
• 1x Bear Umbra
• 1x Hadana's Climb  ^Flip
• 1x Rancor
• 1x Shark Typhoon
• 1x Stolen Strategy
• 1x Wilderness Reclamation

Land (36)

• 1x Ash Barrens
• 1x Cascade Bluffs
• 1x Cinder Glade
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 1x Fire-Lit Thicket
• 7x Forest
• 1x Frontier Bivouac
• 7x Island
• 1x Kessig Wolf Run
• 1x Ketria Triome
• 1x Mossfire Valley
• 5x Mountain
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Temple of Abandon
• 1x Temple of Epiphany
• 1x Temple of Mystery
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse

Sorcery (19)

• 1x Aminatou's Augury
• 1x Baral's Expertise
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Explore
• 1x Explosive Vegetation
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Finale of Revelation
• 1x Guided Passage
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Migration Path
• 1x Mythos of Illuna
• 1x Rampant Growth
• 1x Relentless Assault
• 1x Rishkar's Expertise
• 1x See the Truth
• 1x Seize the Day
• 1x Unexpected Results
• 1x Urban Evolution
• 1x Volcanic Vision

Commanders (2)

Artifact (8)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mage Slayer
• 1x Manascape Refractor
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x The Ozolith
• 1x Whispersilk Cloak

Creature (1)

• 1x Flux Channeler

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Saheeli, Sublime Artificer

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{U}{R}{G} Pako, Arcane Retriever & Haldan, Avid Arcanist {U}{R}{G}

The Deck

This deck came about pretty quickly. I've been staring a Pako, Arcane Retriever & Haldan, Avid Arcanist for a while thinking: "Man I'd love to build that deck, but I don't know what to build it as... I already have an artifact and spellslingers deck, I could do enchantress, but without white? Will that work?" And then I saw Extra Turns where Jimmy played a Pako & Haldan deck and realized: "Hey they seem strong enough on their own that I can just slap some things together and try it out!" Plus with the dog secret lair that just came out... I mean if I ever get my hands on the Lightning Greaves or Dig Through Time, I mean it's just too perfect!

The Project

The way I usually build decks is I plan everything out and wait to actually play the deck until I have every card. Now this makes it so that as soon as I play a new deck it's, for the most part very strong. Additonally, this means I don't do a lot of changes in the deck after initial play testing. Which I enjoy, I do love just watching for new sets to power up my decks instead of having to power them up as I go, but there's something fun, exciting and almost nostalgic about slapping together a deck and slowly powering it up.

Pako & Haldan seem perfect for this type of project deck. Because I'm playing cards out of other people's libraries, they should, hopefully, scale well to the table.So I can play this deck now all while powering it up in the futur! So this is my little project and I will be giving the updates to the deck here.

Update 1 - The First Run

SO since I posted this deck, two things happened. I asked for help on Reddit and they were pretty much useless. They all recommended better ramp and evasion even though I specifically asked not to help with that, explained why and asked for their Temur pet cards. So naturally, they suggested more ramp and evasion... Thanks Reddit. Ok not true not everyone was that bad I got a few fun suggestions, but only one made the cut that you will see later on when I go through the update.

The second thing that happened, was I tested out the deck and holy crap did it hit hard! I built the deck because of Pako, yes his ability is strog but I built it around him more in a, omg I love dogs, and he is the bestest boy type of way. So because of that I did not expect that much. But this deck won most games it was in. The first game I played I ramped Pako out on turn 3, killed one of my opponents with commander damage a few turns later and took the rest of the table out shortly after/ It out performed itself!

But of course, being my project deck, there will be multiple updates and after my first time playing it, this is where we are at. The update will be divided in three parts: Ugh Reddit, Pet Cards and Land.

1) Ugh Reddit I was so tired of seeing the same comment over and over again on Reddit that I caved... I know... My project deck, the thing I will cultivate for a few years to come (at least I hope) and I caved to a bunch of random people on the internet. Either way, I know I wanna try these cards out anyway but they showed up sooner than expected. I am, however only touching the evasion cards that they suggested, I'm good to stick with my ramp for a bit. So without further ado, here are the cards: In: Rancor, Aqueous Form & Whispersilk Cloak Out: Vivien Reid, Hinder & Nissa's Pilgrimage

2) Pet Cards As I said not all of Reddit was bad, one person gave me the idea for the first in card that didn't even know existed. The second in card is a pet card of my brother's and I think it fits perfectly in this deck. In: Guided Passage & Unexpected Results Out: Bow of Nylea & Basilisk Collar

3)Lands As weird as this sounds, picking out the basic lands in my decks is possibly one of my favourite parts. I just think there is some really amazing art, beautiful designs and I love the different bordering on some of them (Unstable vs Unhinged Vs. Zendikar vs. etc.) So I thought about for a while and thought... huh what would be the most on theme... and then I remembered Unsanctioned basics had squirrels hidden in the art. And dogs chase squirrels right? I thought it would be a fun little easter egg for myself.

Media Influences

The title is a little misleading, it's not all media influences. It actually started off talking with a friend (who recommended the first two cards) and the watching some Command Zone/Game Knights. One of the recommendations my friend made was Rishkar's Expertise, which I immediately fell in love with!! This is the perfect type of card for this deck. But this got me thinking, ok well what other cards cares about how huge Pako is getting, and then I watched the Command Zone on MDFCs and the Zendikar Rising Game Knights and found the others! In: Mage Slayer, Rishkar's Expertise, Baral's Expertise, Kazuul's Fury  , The Ozolith, Invigorating Surege & Fling. Out: An Island, Leadership Vacuum, Herald of Secret Streams, Blatant Thievery, Krosan Grip, Tatyova, Benthic Druid & Sword of War and Peace

I feel like I need to mention why I took out the sword, as that is probably one of the best cards in the deck... I took it because it's going to go in other decks and this deck isn't looking to be at that level necessarily.

Are You Looking to Help?

insert "I want you" meme here. For this deck I would love your help, but I am not looking for super powerful cards. I know this can go infinite if I put in Aggravated Assault, I know that Sensei's Divining Top will go great in this deck, I know I can better lands. All of that (minus the infinite combo) will be coming down the road when I have a bit more money. I want to hear your favourite cards in these colours, I want to hear your pet cards that may seem a little silly (mine is Polymorphist's Jest btw), I wanna hear about cards that are not played too often that definitely should!

Thank you for your help!

Date added	4 years
Last updated	6 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	3 - 0 Mythic Rares 36 - 0 Rares 26 - 0 Uncommons 16 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.11
Tokens	Ape 3/3 G, Beast 3/3 G, Copy Clone, Manifest 2/2 C, Saproling 1/1 G, Servo 1/1 C, Shark X/X U