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Taste my horns!
--Tahngarth of the Weatherlight

Deck Tour UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Tahngarth, First Mate is the ultimate bovine bro - he's just looking for a fun gamenight with the mates. His goal is to hang out with every other lad at the table and prove he can be first among mates.

But for real, ol' Garth has such an interesting ability to pass around the table to other attacking players. That gives him the chance to get in for some solid swings on every player's turn - around and around and around he can go. And if he ever faces a table that is reconsidering swinging in on their turns, we have many ways to force them to let Tahngarth in.

It's important to note that Tahngarth unfortunately will not get attack triggers when we pass him on to other players, and because our goal is to set up as many attacks on other player turns as possible each round, we don't want a bunch of attack trigger pieces useless in our hand for much of his attacking. Instead we focus on combat damage triggers so those can trigger each combat.

First up, some cool combos:

  • Tahngarth + Beamtown Beatstick: make Tahngarth unblockable and shake down opponents for treasure, all for the low cost of .
  • Tahngarth + Komainu Battle Armor: make Tahngarth unblockable - more costly than the Beatstick but with the awesome advantage of goading all creatures of the damaged opponent to keep the attack cycles going.
  • Tahngarth + Scepter of Celebration: as Tahngarth makes his cycle around the table, make a smattering of tokens - and trample helps him get through!
  • Tahngarth + Assault Suit: while Tahngarth doesn't need to be donated using Assault Suit, the Suit keeps him from, on rare occasion, being pointed back at you if an opponent finds a way to keep him. (In fact, I wouldn't use the Suit to donate Tahngarth to opponents, because it untaps him, and an opponent might choose to not attack with him in order to lock him out of the attack cycles for the rest of the round.)
  • Tahngarth + Popular Entertainer: while Tahngarth is under an opponent's control and attacking another opponent, when he deals combat damage to another opponent, one of that other opponent's creatures of his controller's choice gets goaded. Keep the attack engine running!
  • Tahngarth + Unnatural Growth: very cool that Unnatural Growth triggers at the beginning of combat, before an opponent has declared attacks, so we still control Tahngarth at that moment and can double his power and toughness until the end of the turn - then pass him to an opponent all beefed up in the declare attackers step!
  • Vengeful Ancestor + Disrupt Decorum: sow chaos and burn your opponents while they attack each other.
  • Baeloth Barrityl, Entertainer + Unnatural Growth: Growth's timing here is great once more - double Baeloth's power at the start of opponent combat phases and then goad lots more of your opponents' creatures, just in time for them to have to attack!
  • Unnatural Growth + Seize the Day: on our turn, when we go to combat, we can double Tahngarth's power and toughness. Then do it again, for a lovely 20/20! Any other buff spell or equipment gets us the magical 21 commander damage in one swing as long as we have evasion of some sort.
  • One with Nature + Geode Rager: as we go around the table attacking, as long as we can get some damage through, we'll trigger One With Nature and get a basic, triggering Rager. This allows us to goad the next player in the turn cycle, and ensures we can pass Tahngarth to them when they're forced to attack on their turn. With some good evasion, we can keep the cycle going turn after turn.

Getting the attack cycle started:

  • Any of the goad cards in the deck help force opponents to attack each other, opening the door to pass Tahngarth around:
  • Bothersome Quasit especially helps by keeping all the goaded creatures from blocking, reducing opponents' ability to stop Tahngarth.

Also, a couple nonbos to beware of:

  • Tahngarth + Death Kiss: while opponents are attacking each other, Death Kiss doubles the power of those creatures, but note that we can't double Tahngarth's power when he joins an opponent, as he's not declared as an attacker.
  • Remember: although Popular Entertainer grants its benefit to Tahngarth no matter who controls him (since it's "Commander creatures you own"), Tahngarth's controller gets to choose which of the defender's creature to goad. And it doesn't require Tahngarth to somehow be attacking us - any other creature that player controls that's attacking us while they control Tahngarth will allow the attacker to goad one of our creatures. So be careful playing this background into a board that's overflowing with threats, otherwise our opponents may pull us into the goading circus.

Stuff I'm considering for the deck, but not currently making the cut:

  • Homeward Path: get Tahngarth back out of any sticky situation. Since the deck revolves around him, making sure we have access to him is really important. And Path can ensure we snag him back out of a combat situation that becomes too dangerous for him.
  • Latulla's Orders: destroying artifacts every time Tahngarth gets in for damage seems real good. Would add if we had one more slot.
  • Berserk: the classic, and here we can get around the main drawback - since Tahngarth isn't declared as an attacker when he gets added to opponent attacks, we can buff one of his attacks without having to sac him at end of turn. Would probably be the first addition if we had one more slot.

Currently we're not running any cards that allow Tahngarth to tap for other reasons, necessitating attacking with him so he's tapped and ready to hand out on subsequent player turns. Adding a tapper or two could be helpful if we don't have a good attack to make on our turn, but currently they're maybes. I only considered stuff at CMC 2 or lower with an equip cost of 2 or lower:

  • Paradise Mantle: a classic piece, giving us a skosh of ramp for the low low price of . Best of the bunch due to its insane low cost. Should prolly be in the short list above.
  • Leonin Bola: pretty cheap, to cast and to equip, though it has to be unequipped as part of tapping. It does allow us to tap down an annoying blocker, however, so that's handy.
  • Manriki-Gusari: little more expensive than the previous two, and I think not quite as universally useful as the Bola, but the ability to destroy a pesky Lightning Greaves or Skullclamp is not without value.
  • High-Speed Hoverbike: vehicles are an easy way to tap Tahngarth and still get a bit of attacking in, and Hoverbike is cheap and has fly for easier attacks. Also lets us tap an annoying blocker one time.
  • Cryptolith Rite: bit of a different option here; this could help us tap Garth when attacks aren't as great, but also allow us to tap some of our utility creatures for extra mana. And for only 2 mana. Worth considering I think.
  • Careful Cultivation: a nice power and especially toughness boost, and a nice bit of ramp. Seems like it could be useful.
  • Cultivator's Caravan: Another vehicle that offers some ramp for tapping, or a 5/5 to swing with. Bit pricier than our other options though.
  • Utopia Vow: this is mostly funny but not actually good.

Some cards would just be nice flavor wins to add to the deck if we had any space:

  • Ferocity: look, it's our boy! A little lasting bonus when Tahngarth blocks or gets blocked on his various travels. Cheap, but I don't know if it quite does enough. Could rack up over time though...
  • Tahngarth's Rage: more classic minotaur energy, and with all the time Tahngarth will spend attacking, that's a solid power boost. But knocking him down to a 3/4 when blocking or outside of combat is a bit risky. Only though...and how often will he really be blocking, instead of joining an opponent's attack? Probably only when they're swinging solely at us...
  • Maniacal Rage: incredible art and flavor text, and not being able to block prolly isn't a huge deal, but I'm not sure if +2/+2 for 2 mana is great. Evasion of some sort is prolly more helpful when it comes to small buff spells...
  • Flaming Sword: an instant speed combat trick with a nice close up of Tahngarth. Worth considering...
  • Seething Anger: a repeatable buff, some Tahngarth art...seems neat. Sorcery speed prolly keeps it out of the list though.
  • Slice and Dice: very sick art, the new deck image, a boardwipe that won't kill Tahngarth, or cycle it to wipe out some tokens maybe. 6 CMC ain't great though.
  • Tahngarth, Talruum Hero: the classic Tahngarth, potentially useful to clear out opponent utility creatures, etc.
  • Quietus Spike: with Tahngarth attacking players left and right, halving their health each swing could be really powerful. But I think it's too strong for the deck, actually- it basically demands an immediate answer, and we want to try to get away with some attacks before the table tires of our antics. We'll already be loading him up, doubling his power, etc. so this one feels a bit too much.

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96% Casual

Competitive

Date added 1 year
Last updated 4 months
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

2 - 0 Mythic Rares

48 - 0 Rares

29 - 0 Uncommons

11 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.88
Tokens Beast 3/3 G, Citizen 1/1 GW, Copy Clone, Timeless Witness 4/4 B, Treasure
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