Samurai Local #42

Commander / EDH Aggro Casual RW (Boros) Samurai Theme/Gimmick

gildan_bladeborn

Land (36)

• 1x Alpine Meadow
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Battlefield Forge
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Clifftop Retreat
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Elegant Parlor
• 1x Emeria, the Sky Ruin
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 1x Forbidden Orchard
• 1x Inspiring Vantage
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Needleverge Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Plains
• 1x Plains
• 1x Plains
• 1x Plains
• 1x Plains
• 1x Plains
• 1x Plains
• 1x Plains
• 1x Plains
• 1x Plains
• 1x Plains
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Rugged Prairie
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Sacred Peaks
• 1x Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
• 1x Slayers' Stronghold
• 1x Spectator Seating
• 1x Sundown Pass
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse

Sorcery (3)

• 1x Red Sun's Zenith
• 1x Terminus
• 1x Winds of Abandon

Creature (35)

• 1x Akki Battle Squad
• 1x Akki Ronin
• 1x Asari Captain
• 1x Aurelia, the Warleader
• 1x Bushi Tenderfoot  ^Flip
• 1x Fumiko the Lowblood
• 1x Godo, Bandit Warlord
• 1x Goro-Goro, Disciple of Ryusei
• 1x Hand of Honor
• 1x Heiko Yamazaki, the General
• 1x Heliod, God of the Sun
• 1x Iizuka the Ruthless
• 1x Ironsoul Enforcer
• 1x Kentaro, the Smiling Cat
• 1x Kitsune Blademaster
• 1x Konda, Lord of Eiganjo
• 1x Masako the Humorless
• 1x Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker
• 1x Nagao, Bound by Honor
• 1x Norika Yamazaki, the Poet
• 1x Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo
• 1x Peerless Samurai
• 1x Raiyuu, Storm's Edge
• 1x Reinforced Ronin
• 1x Risona, Asari Commander
• 1x Ronin Cliffrider
• 1x Samurai of the Pale Curtain
• 1x Selfless Samurai
• 1x Sensei Golden-Tail
• 1x Seven-Tail Mentor
• 1x Sky-Blessed Samurai
• 1x Sunblade Samurai
• 1x Takeno, Samurai General
• 1x The Wandering Rescuer
• 1x Winota, Joiner of Forces

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Chandra, Torch of Defiance

Commander (1)

Enchantment (12)

• 1x Aggravated Assault
• 1x Cathars' Crusade
• 1x Court of Ire
• 1x Dictate of Heliod
• 1x Fires of Invention
• 1x Flowering of the White Tree
• 1x Ghostly Prison
• 1x Grasp of Fate
• 1x Legion's Initiative
• 1x Lightmine Field
• 1x Marshal's Anthem
• 1x True Conviction

Artifact (12)

• 1x Akroma's Memorial
• 1x Door of Destinies
• 1x Ghirapur Orrery
• 1x Manriki-Gusari
• 1x Neko-Te
• 1x Norn's Annex
• 1x Quietus Spike
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Spear of Heliod
• 1x Strixhaven Stadium
• 1x That Which Was Taken
• 1x Vanquisher's Banner

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Tribal decks with bad tribes are a good idea, right?

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The Way of the Samurai, or, How I Learned to Quit Worrying and Love Bushido

Kamigawa was a great block. Not in the sense that the majority of the cards in it are actually any good - the block was incredibly underpowered overall (with a few hilarious exceptions that are generally the only cards anyone these days even remembers from Kamigawa, and a handful of "perfectly fine" ones that people are continually surprised to learn exist) and it was rife with parasitic mechanics that don't play well with cards from out of block (and weren't all that hot in-block if we're being completely honest here) - but from a flavor perspective it was amazing: there was some great (and for a lot of the spirits, rather disturbing) artwork, neat creature types, more legendary creatures than the set called Legends, and some pretty cool ideas mixed in with the ill-conceived mechanics and badly over-costed cards the sets are infamous for.

One of those creature types is Samurai - ever since I learned of their existence I had the idea to make an EDH deck centered around them A) because I thought they seemed cool (without being at all "good"), and B) because I'm the guy in my meta who designs things like "tribal werewolves EDH"; the appeal of a deck based around creatures that pretty much nobody else would ever be running was rather high.

I set about actually making a list for it not long after I built my first couple of EDH decks, but it was a purely mental exercise since I started playing Magic around the beginning of 2014 and therefore didn't own pretty much any of the cards I'd want to put in it, and couldn't justify the expense. At the time I think I had Anax and Cymede as the commander, mostly because I already had a couple of those and to keep the price down a bit if I ever did get around to building it, so there were a lot more heroic enablers kicking around the list. It was also pretty crap overall - playtesting it against the other decks I'd built amply illustrated just what a horrible idea it was, but I loved it as an unachievable concept anyhow.

Then Journey into Nyx was spoiled and I saw what Iroas, God of Victory *list* did, and he pretty much immediately took over as the general because dang. Reworking the deck around the new general changed it from a sub-par R/W heroic deck (that used purposely terrible creatures) to an actually pretty decent R/W creature-based aggro deck with much better support for the still purposely terrible creatures it used, now that there was no point in running various cards I'd included originally just to trigger heroic.

With Iroas at the helm the pile o' samurai tested much better against my other decks, and I'd continue to tinker around with it from time to time, but it was still firmly entrenched in my personal "decks I'd really like to build but probably never actually will" mental filing cabinet for the same reason it always had been from the start - I was looking at having to purchase pretty much the entirety of the deck apart from some of the lands and a couple other spells, and the list, while not extravagant, was also not particularly cheap.

It wasn't until I picked up a couple of the pieces I needed for the deck via trades that I finally broke down and went line by line to find out exactly what it would cost to build and which cards in it were the ones driving up the price, and lo and behold, I discovered that with some minor modifications to the list I could get pretty much the entire deck (less the cards I already had on-hand that would be going in it) for a grand total of $60. And so I did, and this moved from the realm of the hypothetical into the realm of decks that actually exist (as time passed and my financial situation improved, I then made numerous changes to it, that subsequently drove up the overall price so far past the point of what I used to consider "too expensive" that I would have never even idly contemplated ever constructing it back then).

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The Bonds of Bushido are Strong - What's in this deck and why

I could have just made a typical tribal deck, albeit one with an oddball tribe consisting almost entirely of "unplayable" creatures, throwing the various members of my chosen tribe in with the obligatory support mechanisms one expects from tribal decks and making the best of a bad starting point, but that wasn't nearly silly enough for me, so I made an additional stipulation: only samurai get to be non-legendary in this deck, because reasons. Also, cards from actual Kamigawa are given precedence over good cards I should be running instead of those ones about 99% of the time, even though that's not a good idea. Especially because that's not a good idea - whimsy and fun take precedence over "winning" in this format you see.

Date added	10 years
Last updated	3 weeks
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	16 - 0 Mythic Rares 45 - 0 Rares 14 - 0 Uncommons 7 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.78
Tokens	Dragon Spirit 5/5 R, Emblem Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Enchantment Cleric 2/1 W, Spirit 1/1 C, Monarch Emblem
Folders	Commander decks that exist, samurai, Boros/Jeskai, EDH/Commander Decks, EDH, Samurai, EDH decks, Samurai Deck, Commander Favorites, SAMURAI