Zurgo v3: Rush

Commander / EDH RBW (Mardu)

mq2thez

Land (33)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Blackcleave Cliffs
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Clifftop Retreat
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Concealed Courtyard
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Inspiring Vantage
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Luxury Suite
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 3x Mountain
• 11x Plains
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 3x Swamp
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Tutor (7)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Idyllic Tutor
• 1x Open the Armory
• 1x Steelshaper's Gift
• 1x Stoneforge Mystic
• 1x Sunforger

Draw (5)

• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Read the Bones
• 1x Reforge the Soul
• 1x Scroll Rack

Equipping (3)

• 1x Hammer of Nazahn
• 1x Sigarda's Aid
• 1x Stoneforge Mystic

Pillowfort (1)

• 1x Thaumatic Compass  ^Flip

Tax (1)

• 1x Smothering Tithe

Protection (1)

• 1x Reconnaissance

Ramp (11)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Boros Signet
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Dockside Extortionist
• 1x Land Tax
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence
• 1x Thaumatic Compass  ^Flip

Unblockable (8)

• 1x Loxodon Warhammer
• 1x Ride Down
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Rush of Adrenaline
• 1x Shadowspear
• 1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 1x Trailblazer's Boots
• 1x Whispersilk Cloak

Lifegain (6)

• 1x Authority of the Consuls
• 1x Basilisk Collar
• 1x Blind Obedience
• 1x Loxodon Warhammer
• 1x Shadowspear
• 1x Whip of Erebos

Protection (6)

• 1x Boros Charm
• 1x Champion's Helm
• 1x Darksteel Plate
• 1x Hammer of Nazahn
• 1x Mask of Avacyn
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots

MultiCombat (3)

• 1x Onward / Victory
• 1x Savage Beating
• 1x Seize the Day

Utility (1)

• 1x Shadowspear

Utility (1)

• 1x Reconnaissance

Commander (1)

Removal (8)

• 1x Grasp of Fate
• 1x Mortify
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Rakdos Charm
• 1x Scavenger Grounds
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Terminate
• 1x Utter End

Boardwipe (7)

• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Chandra's Ignition
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Last One Standing
• 1x Settle the Wreckage
• 1x Vandalblast
• 1x Wrath of God

DoubleDamage (5)

• 1x Boros Charm
• 1x Duelist's Heritage
• 1x Onward / Victory
• 1x Savage Beating
• 1x Temur Battle Rage

Stax (5)

• 1x Authority of the Consuls
• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Blind Obedience
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Linvala, Keeper of Silence

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Maybeboard

Other (13)

• 1x Aggravated Assault
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Comeuppance
• 1x Deflecting Palm
• 1x Despark
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Relentless Assault
• 1x Single Combat
• 1x Skullcrack
• 1x Stranglehold
• 1x Tainted Strike
• 1x Winter Orb
• 1x World at War

Protection (3)

• 1x Assault Suit
• 1x Not of this World
• 1x Rebuff the Wicked

Ramp (2)

• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Treasure Nabber

Draw (1)

• 1x Psychotic Fury

Land (1)

• 1x Cabal Coffers

Removal (1)

• 1x Aura of Silence

Stax (3)

• 1x Aura of Silence
• 1x Suppression Field
• 1x Treasure Nabber

Boardwipe (1)

• 1x Worldslayer

DoubleDamage (1)

• 1x Psychotic Fury

MultiCombat (1)

• 1x Waves of Aggression

Tutor (1)

• 1x Beseech the Queen

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Forked from:

• v2: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/zurgo-pillowfort/
• v1: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/09-10-18-zurgo/

First step of changes:

• removed Pillowfort-y cards
• Added Seize the Day, Chandra's Ignition, Loxodon Warhammer, Aura of Silence
• Did not add Winter Orb for now, but it could be an extremely nasty stax piece to drop right after Zurgo hits the field
• Beseech the Queen seemed too slow for just now
• Can replace Aven Mindcensor with Stranglehold
• Skullcrack moved out in favor of Savage Beating
• Worldslayer and Assault Suit feel like they're on the cusp -- they are really nice cards, but it seems like they might be too expensive to consistently produce a win

While pillowfort has been fun and voltron was hilarious, both strategies have weaknesses:

• It's challenging to invest too much into Pillowfort in Mardu colors while also keeping commander damage via Zurgo a viable win condition. Trying to balance these two means that neither had all of the necessary tools
• Pillowfort did lead to some more interesting additions -- stax/tax/denial cards such as Authority of the Consuls, Smothering Tithe, Blind Obedience were extremely potent. Cards such as Linvala, Keeper of Silence and Grand Abolisher kept options open for denying counterplay.
• However, cards such as Ghostly Prison, Aurification, Bitterblossom, Norn's Annex, and Curse of Opulence painted too much of a target on me without enough gain. Often, the 1-turn delays were greatly offset by drawing the attention of the entire table to me by making it that much harder to attack.
• Furthermore, (keeping in line with the weakness of more traditional Voltron builds), equipping artifacts remains a significant mana and turn sink. Even before equipping-helper cards were removed, it wasn't possible to smooth out this curve enough to make the equipment reliable. Instead, it became much more interesting to rely on a more minimal protection-equipment package (focusing on shroud/hexproof and invulnerability).
• In general, some of the deck's most interesting opportunities come from appearing weak without being weak. In this case, Settle the Wreckage is a significant counterplay, and other jujitsu-style cards (such as Deflecting Palm) would be solid additions. Having a powerful boardstate makes Zurgo a massive target, because it's significantly more obvious when I'm setting up to hit people hard.
• Instead, aiming for instant/sorcery spells which enable huge plays has a much bigger possible upside. Unblockability is a solid improvement, but there have been any number of decks which saw the artifacts/lands which enabled this and were prepared. Having instants or sorceries which set up big swings will help significantly with this. Something like Chandra's Ignition, which causes Zurgo to deal 7 damage to every player and creature, could be a massive setup. Zurgo only needs to get +4 power in order for double-strike to one-shot people, so being able to take out a ton of creatures right before combat would be a very big surprise that leads to a game-ender.
• In the same vein as instants/sorceries to enable higher/surprise damage, double-combat spells like Seize the Day will greatly magnify the effect. Most of our instants/sorceries buff Zurgo until the end of the turn, so Seize would give us another combat (or two!) to make use of those one-shot spells.

So, to sum up:

• Less focus on board state and self protection, removing a bunch of the Pillowfort cards in favor of instant/sorcery answers
• Continued focus on stax/denial as main drivers of boardstate
• Increased focus on multiple combat phases and/or surprise combat cards

Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 0 Mythic Rares 46 - 0 Rares 22 - 0 Uncommons 6 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.52
Tokens	Treasure
Based on	Zurgo Pillowfort mq2thez EDH