Sram, Serious Smasher (Commander / EDH MTG Deck)

Sram, Serious Smasher

Commander / EDH Aggro Mono-White Voltron

MegaMatt13

Sram Trigger (42)

Weenies (7)

Tutor (5)

Voltron Pump (19)

Land Base (34)

Ramp (10)

Equip Reduction (8)

Recursion (4)

Commander (1)

Removal (12)

Protection (11)

Evasion (9)

Card Draw (5)

Alternate WinCon (3)

Maybeboard

Other (1)

1x Ajani, Caller of the Pride

Card advantage in mono-white?! Sram says yes! This is an aura/equipment deck that can either go voltron commander damage or swing in with buffed up weenies. This is my first aura/equipment heavy deck so feedback is much appreciated. Click on the "Custom Categories" to see what roles each card fills.

Deck Cycling

A lot of the early game is about cycling through the deck to get to the more powerful auras and equipment. There are many 0 and 1 drop spells that are relatively weak but with Sram's ability will allow you to cycle to the next card. Despite only having 34 lands (I usually run 37-38), land drops are smoothed out by all the cheap cycling Sram is doing.

With an average CMC below 3, it's actually ok to only have 2 lands in the opening hand. That's enough to cast Sram on turn 2 and then start playing the cheap auras and equipment to cycle through the deck.

A notable one in this category is Flickering Ward. This cheap aura can be bounced back to hand at instant speed and then recast. This will allow you to cycle through the deck rapidly.

Key Voltron Buffs

Now for the juicy stuff we're cycling for to buff up Sram and make him a real voltron threat.

Trailblazer's Boots, Prowler's Helm, Spirit Mantle, and Unquestioned Authority: All of these effectively make Sram unblockable ensuring our Commander damage gets through. Rogue's Passage fills this role too.

Armored Ascension, Batterskull, Argentum Armor, Sword of Kaldra, Inquisitor's Flail, Fireshrieker, Empyrial Armor and Empyrial Plate: All of these give Sram large power boosts to speed up the number of turns needed to finish off opponents. The first two also grant flying which is a very relevant form of evasion.

Hammer of Nazahn, Champion's Helm, Loxodon Warhammer, Godsend, Sword of Feast and Famine, Sword of War and Peace, Sword of Fire and Ice, and Sword of Vengeance: Somewhat smaller power buffs than the previous category but come with relevant evasion or removal.

Champion's Helm, Hammer of Nazahn, Bastion Protector, Shielded by Faith, Gift of Immortality, Darksteel Plate, Hyena Umbra, Mask of Avacyn, Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots: Help protect Sram from removal.

Removal

Most of the removal in this deck consists of auras and equipment:

Prison Term, Arrest, and Darksteel Mutation to effectively remove creatures.

Godsend, Basilisk Collar and Sword of Kaldra act as rattlesnakes making it difficult for opponents to attack or block you.

There are a few commander staples in here that aren't either category to ensure the deck has enough flexible removal:

Wrath of God and Day of Judgment for well-costed board wipes.

Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile for cheap instant removal.

Cast Out and Banishing Light to get rid of any permanent type.

Return to Dust for a little extra artifact/enchantment hate

Tutors and Recursion

As well as cycling for bomb cards, the deck runs a few ways to straight up tutor what we need:

Stonehewer Giant: fetches any equipment and then cheats the equip cost. Works great with Argentum Armor, Batterskull, or any of the Swords.

Enlightened Tutor: flexibly grabs voltron pieces or enablers like Sigarda's Aid.

Steelshaper's Gift: 1 mana to fetch whatever equipment is needed.

Open the Armory: Well costed at 2 mana, this tutor has the nice flexibility of fetching an aura or equipment.

Inventors' Fair: Newer card from Kaladesh. Gives you a little passive life gain and allows you to grab the artifact most needed.

Opponents are going to blow up our key equipment and auras. This deck runs a fair bit of graveyard recursion to bring back key pieces:

Sun Titan: With an average CMC lower than 3, Sun Titan can bring back the majority of the deck. Equipment, auras, utility weenies, Sun Titan has great value in this deck!

Nahiri, the Lithomancer: Not only can she act as recursion, she also spits out weenies and attaches equipment to them for more aggro.

Buried Ruin: Nice that it only takes up a land spot and can cheaply bring back an artifact.

Alternate Win Cons

One of the weaknesses of Voltron strategies is that they tend to have a one-track mind. Make a commander big and then swing him/her sideways. Opponents will continue to hate the commander out of play until it becomes more and more unfeasible to cast. Fortunately Sram only costs 2 mana so he can afford to be removed a few times without being set back too much. Still, I like to have a few other ways to finish games.

Indomitable Archangel: reasonably costed flyer that synergize with the theme of the deck.

Mishra's Factory, and Blinkmoth Nexus: The "manlands" are similar to the vehicles in that they are relatively safe from sorcery speed removal. Suit up one of your lands after a boardwipe and get some easy damage in.

Armory Automaton + Balan, the Wandering Knight: Equipment magnets that become scary at a very low cost. They can easily swing in for fatal.

Kemba, Kha Regent : while this isn't really a token deck, she can get out of hand and provide the board presence necessary to close out a game.

Stonehewer Giant and Sun Titan: the two giants come with vigilance which helps out a lot as well as large bodies and equipment synergy.

Suggestions

Updates Add

Reducing Curve — Sept. 29, 2017

Edit

Past couple weeks I've swapped out some cards that weren't performing for me. Overall this reduces the mana curve even further:

Argentum Armor ---> Conqueror's Flail: Argentum Armor is undeniably powerful. I may reconsider putting it back in. However, 6 to cast and 6 to equip is a lot. I could rarely do that in one turn (unless I was lucky and had Puresteel Paladin out). The deck has a lot of powerful equipment with cheaper equip costs. Still...considering throwing it back in. Conqueror's Flail gives some protection from counterspells and instant speed shenanigans which are common in my meta.

Restoration Specialist ---> Banishing Light: Similar to cutting Ironclad Slayer last time, I find I rarely use Restoration Specialist. There are always replacement equipment in hand. Sun Titan and Nahiri stay in their deck to their flexibility and ability to bring equipment back right to the battlefield which is better than back to hand. I regretted previously cutting Banishing Light as it made the deck a little light on flexible removal.

Indomitable Archangel ---> Prowler's Helm: Again, because of the deck's draw power, I don't really find that I need to protect my artifacts with shroud. There are always tons of replacements in hand. Prowler's Helm gives me another way to ensure Sram connects.

Bloodforged Battle-Axe — Sept. 3, 2017

Edit

Commander 2017 — Aug. 16, 2017

Edit

Bastion Protector — July 16, 2017

Edit

Champion's Helm — July 1, 2017

Edit

Amonkhet — April 29, 2017

Edit

Significant renovation — April 17, 2017

Edit

More Equip Reductions — April 12, 2017

Edit

More Aggro — April 8, 2017

Edit

New Name and Minor Changes — April 1, 2017

Edit

Custom Categories — March 13, 2017

Edit

Playtesting Adjustments — March 8, 2017

Edit

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Revision 50 See all

(6 years ago)

+1	Ajani, Caller of the Pride	maybe
-1	Elspeth, Knight-Errant	maybe

Top Ranked	Achieved #7 position overall 7 years ago
Date added	7 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	7 - 0 Mythic Rares 33 - 0 Rares 29 - 0 Uncommons 7 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.61
Tokens	Copy Clone, Emblem Elspeth, Knight-Errant, Kor Soldier 1/1 W, Phyrexian Germ 0/0 B, Plant 0/2 G, Soldier 1/1 W, Stoneforged Blade
Folders	Cool decks, W, Interesting Commander Decks, decks I like, Ideas, EDH (ELITE), Legit, EDH/ 3 Budget, seen, Cool!
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Based on	Odric's White Weenies MegaMatt13 EDH
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