Zetalpa, Elder Dinosaur of Steel

Commander / EDH DragonShield Deck Challenge: Superman

DiegoDLegend

Artifact (29)

• 1x Azor's Gateway  ^Flip
• 1x Blackblade Reforged
• 1x Bonder's Ornament
• 1x Caged Sun
• 1x Coldsteel Heart
• 1x Darksteel Forge
• 1x Darksteel Ingot
• 1x Doubling Cube
• 1x Endless Atlas
• 1x Extraplanar Lens
• 1x Gauntlet of Power
• 1x Godsend
• 1x Hedron Archive
• 1x Hero's Blade
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Marble Diamond
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Mind's Eye
• 1x Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1x Pariah's Shield
• 1x Seer's Sundial
• 1x Shadowspear
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x The Immortal Sun
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble
• 1x Worldslayer
• 1x Worn Powerstone

Land (36)

• 1x Arcane Lighthouse
• 1x Arch of Orazca
• 1x Bonders' Enclave
• 1x Darksteel Citadel
• 1x Forge of Heroes
• 1x Homeward Path
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Opal Palace
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 24x Snow-Covered Plains
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Terrain Generator

Instant (8)

• 1x Disenchant
• 1x Emerge Unscathed
• 1x Flawless Maneuver
• 1x Generous Gift
• 1x Moment of Heroism
• 1x Not of this World
• 1x Rebuff the Wicked
• 1x Teferi's Protection

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Akroma's Vengeance
• 1x Cleansing Nova
• 1x Day of Judgment
• 1x End Hostilities
• 1x Planar Outburst
• 1x Revoke Existence
• 1x Shatter the Sky
• 1x Wrath of God

Commander (1)

Creature (10)

• 1x Avacyn, Angel of Hope
• 1x Emeria Shepherd
• 1x Foundry Inspector
• 1x Geode Golem
• 1x Jhoira's Familiar
• 1x Metalworker
• 1x Meteor Golem
• 1x Seraph of the Suns
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Wakening Sun's Avatar

Planeswalker (5)

• 1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
• 1x Gideon Blackblade
• 1x Gideon, the Oathsworn
• 1x Ugin, the Ineffable
• 1x Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Authority of the Consuls
• 1x Endless Horizons
• 1x True Conviction

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Superman is known for having just...all the powers: super-strength, super-speed, flight, invulnerability, etc. And, similarly, the commander with all the powers is Zetalpa, Primal Dawn. With double-strike and trample to represent the super-strength, indestructible and vigilance to represent invulnerability, and flying to represent the...flying, Zetalpa is basically the Man of Steel already. The mono-white color identity is particularly fitting for Superman although it limits the amount of cards that can represent other people and villains related to him, so instead of trying to represent Lois Lane or Darkseid I tried to have the deck represent aspects of Superman's character himself, with a few potential exceptions like Shadowspear representing Zetalpa's "kryptonite" as an indestructible creature and Ugin representing Superman's ghostly sage father Jor-El.

This deck tries to outfit Zetalpa with the tools to even better role-play as the Man of Steel while still playing well as a deck...as good as a mono-white commander deck can be, anyway. This ended up making it have a strong artifacts theme as it complements Zetalpa's high mana cost and Voltron aggro strategy. Although this made it so I had to put a few relative flavor-fails like Metalworker and Foundry Inspector for practical purposes, most of the cards are still tied to Superman's backstory and powers. With mana rocks that look like Kryptonian crystals, cards like Meteor Golem and Not From this World to allude to his extraterrestrial origins, and equipment like Swiftfoot Boots to give him his super-speed (haste) and Worldslayer to make him so strong he could destroy the world in one blow (although as a hero he would never do that...unless someone in the playgroup was playing stax.) Other aspects are that a lot of cards are related to the sun which is Superman's source of power, as well as there being some other "kryptonians" like Gideon and Avacyn.

Date added	4 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	11 - 0 Mythic Rares 32 - 0 Rares 23 - 0 Uncommons 10 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	4.00
Tokens	City's Blessing, Elephant 3/3 G, Emblem Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Soldier 1/1 W, Spirit 2/2 C