Category: Commander

The banana man

11/1/2023

I know it might be hard to believe in an era of secret lairs and collector boosters, but there used to be a time where alternate arts were rare and even sought after. [1] There was a time when you could hear “Bolt, Snap, Bolt,” from across the room at some Friday Night Magic events. [2] Okay, yah it wasn’t played that often but it was still played in fringe decks like Jeskai control, Breach, and the rare Grixis control, and yes you can technically still play them to some success, but magic for better or worse has moved on. Players have set aside their triple blue Cryptic Commands for four color Omnaths. Though one thing has not changed, there’s always that one player with a fully blinged-out alt art deck worth its weight in gold. [3] As much as we might resent them, we all know it's because they love the game and more importantly they love their deck. Even as alt art cards slide in value, as a whole the sentiment still lingers. Spending the time to pick out each individual piece of art in your deck shows the love that used to be linked with monetary value. Most of the time these cards are just another game piece to me, but one commander deck embodies that era of magic that I love and thus gets all the bling of an old control deck.

Tasigur, The Golden Fang (aka The Banana Man) used to be the spicy Gurmag Angler for control decks. [4] This was of course before Death Shadow crept out of the bulk bin cosplaying as Frank Reynolds with his classic problematic catch phrase “Suicide’s badass.” In eternal formats delve told you to ignore any generic mana costs. This finally gave Tarmogofy its first real competitors for beat stick extraordinaire. Now the main difference between Gurmag and Tasigur was a single point of power and an activated ability.

For an agro deck that point matters but Tasigur has one of the most disrespectful abilities in magic, so of course control players of the time tried to make it work. For 2 generic and 2 mana in any combination of green and or blue, you get to tell your opponent that they aren’t even worth your time. The ability has you mill two cards which just feels like you're wasting everyone’s time from the start and then has an opponent of your choice choose from the non-land cards in your graveyard and then you put that card directly in your hand. So let’s recap, Tasigur is a one mana ⅘, Tasigur’s ability cost either blue and or green, Tasigur lets your opponent pick their own poison. Now you might be right to pick out that this card is weak to graveyard hate but take a look at Tasigur’s color identity. That’s right, Tasigur has the color pairings of never ending removal (Golgari), you didn’t want to have fun anyways (Dimir), and endless value train (Simic). This seems great on paper but nowadays you’d be hard pressed to play a Sultai commander not solely focused on permanents or permanents in your graveyard. Of course this might be due to the one spell based Sultai commander being the one we shall not name and in that case I guess good job Wizards, I think? [5] Ever since then Sultai control decks have had one weakness. They’re clunky as all heck.

This deck is probably the closest I’ll get to casting an Ancestral Vision off of suspend ever again. [6] A deck with the equivalent energy of a villain giving their villain monologue in the first act. Just udderly disrespectful. First off the only “Synergy” in the deck is that every card can either reduce Tasigur’s cost or be returned with Tasigur’s ability which is like saying having lands and spells is a “Combo.” Secondly there are three types of cards in this deck: cards that help cast cards that say nope (ramp and tutors), cards that might as well have nope written across them in sharpie (removal, counters, and taxes), and finally the Celestial Colonnades of the deck (Thassa’s Oracle, Jace Wielder of Mysteries, and Villainous Wealth). [7] On paper this might seem like a fine deck, a deck for bullies, but a fine functional deck until you remember how a control rises in a format. Only through a relatively stable meta can a control deck truly function at peak efficiency. Casual commander can only be best described as a fictional fight between toy capsule machines and yes your rich friend can bring his best buy vending machine, sorry. So you can imagine the conflicting nope cards you might need to beat a Zune player and bouncy ball. [8] What magical Christmas land can you get both a can of soda and one of those sticky hands from the same vending machine? [9] Well that’s my vending machine. I built it. It’s mine and no I don’t have enough sticky hands for everyone. Go, take care of your own bouncy ball related problems.

nope

Let’s start with cards in the deck that best exemplify the “Bolt, Snap, Bolt” era. Versatile removal that’s cheap enough to hold up a second one, maybe even a third, just in case. Cards like Rapid Hybridization, Cyber Conversion, and Deadly Rollick provide spot removal at the right price with little restriction. More specifically, providing a creature in return for their cost falls right in line with Deadly Rollick’s cost reduction of needing your commander because the creatures provided are unlikely to make it past Tasigur.

Now cards like sexy Oko and Weeping Angel provide a way to continually remove creatures and artifacts. Both have the advantage of sticking around with Weeping Angel guarding you with its dreaded shuffle removal while sexy Oko has his elk based powers. Lastly there’s the only board wipes that we can get in black and green. Besides Damnation, black board wipes become more convoluted the cheaper they get, but it's commander so we’ll take all as many as we can get. With green we can destroy more than just creatures. With Pernicious Deed and Bane of Progress we can destroy all of those pesky artifacts and enchantments although with Gaze of Granite we can destroy any pesky permanent type that Wizards decides to invent next year. [10] A control deck’s strength comes from always having an out and that’s why the alternative to “Bolt, Snap, Bolt” is “Cryptic, pass, Snap, Cryptic.” [11]

Now I didn’t include Cryptic Command due to its more limited effect in a multiplayer format, but in its stead are 8 cheaper and less versatile counterspells. I’m gonna be honest most of these are included for their alt art instead of their optimized counterparts. Right off the top is the secret lair Voidslime with its bright pink background and cartoon aesthetic, competing against its “strictly” better comrade. Sure Disallow costs a generic mana instead of green, but where’s the pazazz of throwing my green goop into an arrogant wizard’s mouth? That’s right I’m calling you out Baral for being technically correct but boring. Mental Misstep’s inclusion on the other hand embraces this lapse in judgment with one of the cutest kitty arts. Though its use might be limited, that’s exactly why its inclusion can be so exhilarating. Imagine drawing this cute little cat and being left with two possibilities, you either get to have the biggest, most impressive brain at the table or you get to sit at the table and stare at this perfect little cat for the next hour, win-win. [12] Unfortunately the rest of the counterspells only stand out with alt frames just waiting to be replaced by the next dazzling altar to grace Wizard’s hit or miss secret lair store.

Where counterspells often tell your opponent nope once, tax cards let you say nope for as long you want. It might seem underwhelming to tell your friend’s many artifacts to calm down, but with Collector Ouphe you can be assured that the inner machinations of their mind will stay an enigma. Now that their toys are out of power, they might start looking for some removal but with Notion Thief they can now help you look for the protection you need on their dime instead. With things looking dire, their last place for any sort of advantage lies in their graveyard but with Dauthi Voidwalker you can literally steal their last ray of hope by not only exiling any card that craves death but by casting their haymaker once they’ve lost all hope. Due to Dauthi’s placement of void counters, you can recur its spell cheating ability with previously exiled cards by using tasigur’s ability to ask nicely.

While these next few cards might not explicitly say nope, they do ask for a payment. Propaganda and its bigger brother Collective Restraint ask for your friend’s mana. Like any American tax it's not for you to decide but for your opponent to simply price themselves out of any unbecoming behavior. [13] Rounding out this cavalcade of annoying cards is every standard player’s favorite card, Sheoldred, the Apocalypse. If your opponents want to draw a card, they are free to, at the new totally fair rate of 2 life. Ask any Nekusar player! That’s a fair rate. If at this point you are thinking “Boy there sure are a lot of different types of nope cards. How do you always have the right type of nope?” It’s because I like to commit crime, but not like a cool crime. Like a lame Office space type crime. [14]

a nope themed platform

As discussed in The Goose Deck deck-tech, green ramp is far and above abusing the color pie due to the social stigma placed on its one counter play, land destruction. Due to this loophole this deck focuses on playing extra lands with few cards needing to ever stay around. There’s the classic 2 mana green sorceries that fetch a single land allowing the deck to curve up to four mana every game. Extra land drop cards like Explorations, Oracle of Mul Daya, and Wrenn and Seven provide smooth transitions with the Ravnica bounce lands.

To go over the top in mana production Training Grounds, Biomancer’s Familiar, and Seedborn Muse turbo charge Tasigurs ability into a gatling of pour choices. Imagine if the knight templar in the last crusade kept asking you to find the holy grail for hours. [15] One slip up and you could get the bad guy in a Spielberg movie treatment. [16] The only notable inclusion is strangely enough Birds of Paradise which I mean is a great card in general but in a control deck lacks the permanence that lands provide. Even with its lightning rod attributes recurring it later can be a detriment as it provides minimal advantage in the late game. [17] This has led to a sort of ironic inclusion in the deck (or lack of removal from the deck). My friends always ask if birds is in my yard, and hey I’d hate to disappoint them, especially if I’m gonna ask nicely for that board wipe not even a second later.

Now we get to talk about the real crimes: tutors. As much as I’d like to just spin my wheels, sometimes I need that one answer to an opponent's unbeatable threat. The three main war crimes I run are Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, and Chord of Calling, but remember we are committing tax fraud and nothing else. Often these tutors fetch our turbo chargers for Tasigur’s gatling of bad choices, occasionally snatching a board wipe to clean up a few problems at once. [18] As Tasigur fills the yard, a second set of war crimes develop: regrowths. A few single use regrowths fill the deck along with case use cards like snapcaster and Ramunap Excavator to round out our options. At the highest level of crimes, Muldrotha acts as a sister companion to Tasigur picking up from where Tasigur left off.

Celestial Colonnades

With the cards that say nope and cards that help you say nope out of the way, I can finally talk about the deck’s Celestial Colonnades. There are two stages to the late late game. [19] Ramping leads to mana abundance out the wazoo with one outlet besides Tasigur in my favorite pet card Villainous Wealth. [20] By the time we get to 20 mana we get to play a fifth of an opponent’s library and with a regrowth we can often get the taste of second. If for some reason that doesn’t end the game, there is one final stop gap. Thassa’s Oracle and Jace, Wielder of Mystery provide the final stop in our wild ride of a deck. [21]

I wanted the most useless win condition and this led to running lab maniac fairly. The only way to win in a consistent manner is to go through every single card in my library, wearing out the entire table in the process. Like the colonnades of old by the time they’re even a consideration your opponents will be asking for a swift end that you simply will not want to give them.

Those Things That Get Us There

As an epilogue, I’d like to go over the lands that always seem to get us there no matter how many we keep in our opening hand. 38 lands might seem robust in the current mana rock meta of today but the deck still needs that extra umph so each bounce land is included to artificially boost that count. The Standard array of shocks, buddy, fast, battle, and triome lands supplement the three color deck but nothing more. Takenuma, and Boseiju sneak some spells into our more risky keeps while the castles can catch you up from the “ I thought it was keep-able hand" as you tread water. Barad-dur, Hall of Storm Giants, and Field of the Dead provide a modicum of defense or maybe even a mercy kill. Finally my favorite card holds the deck together in thick and thin by milling when Tasigur costs just a bit too much and provides a cute little bear to boot: Argoth, Sanctum of Nature. Yes, Titania, Voice of Gaea is in the deck but only because it can recoup some life throughout a game. In general though, melding the two usually ends in disappointment so I just stick with my little bear replicator for the most part.

Decklist

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The goose deck

10/7/2023

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For the sake of continuity's sake, by all means this deck was inevitable given *Gestures broadly around the website you're currently browsing*. You get the point right? Good!

honkin' goose list

…you’re still here? Were the goose pictures not enough? Fine, but I’m warning you. There is some poor reasoning, mostly irrelevant anecdotes, and let’s call them choices waiting for you just beyond this sloppy intro. In a cascading chorus most of my friends have asked me at some point, “Beach, you’re gonna build this deck, right?” and with varying degrees of enthusiasm I responded, “Probably,” every time. I’m sure they all had a mental image of me shrugging and then walking off or at least I hope. Though some just assumed correctly and continued on living in the never end nightmare that is spoiler season. Now on paper this commander seemed like it would be right up my alley, but it's been 10 years and I’ve explored and decorated every inch of this Thursday trash pickup of an alleyway. I have a ramp deck, a voltron equipment deck, an artifact deck, and a token deck already. To its credit though The Goose Mother has the potential to include all 4 strategies. Did I end up including them all? kinda…

Ramp to Goose

There’s a good reason for Green's strong position in the overall format of commander. No one wants to run land destruction because, wait, let me pull up a quote, ahem, “Land destruction is not fun.” To those who can’t stomach magic in its full cringy glory, I say, “Thanks, bro, ” because to the heavens I am absolved of all sin. When I have 30 mana to your puny 8 you’ll only have yourself to blame, for I am simply growing my forests upon your ignorance! You may assume I am merely supplementing the mana rocks that other colors have to run but I say, “nah.” I bask under the canopy of an ever expanding wilds. 37% of this deck produces additional mana in some way or form, meaning with lands 72% of this deck revolves around mana generation. For the love of Goose I shall cast my commander.

Not all ramp cards are created equal. 21 of the 37 ramp cards have no additional benefits while the other 16 add to the deck’s effect pool. Legendary effects like haste from Runadi, fighting from Gargos, regrowth from Shigeki, and uhm… Urza, Lord High Artificer. Of course there are ramp cards that also draw cards because Simic would be nothing without its oatmeal mechanics, but we all know they single handedly keep our decks going. Cards like Kiora, and the other Kiora, and Urza, Lord High Artificer do their best to keep a deck of 21 do-nothing cards from top decking like a draft deck. Of course there is one ramp card above all else. The one that’s most in service of Honk, Urza, Lord High Artificer.

The Notorious Three

Evasion, draw, and protection, the three effects in every deck built with an ounce of compassion for their own commander. Of course goose fashion is an obvious inclusion for any Goose Mother deck complete with boots, cloaks, grieves, rings, and warhammers. Protective companions like Spearbreaker Behemoth and Archetype of Endurance can support the goose against even your opponent’s most mid plays. There are six generic draw spells that could be anything because let’s be honest most draw spells are interchangeable without notice. One draw spell stands above the rest though, Clan Crafter supports my deck in its darkest times. If you need cards the crafter transforms into a draw engine that can also allow a goose to double its power over time. Additionally crafter is my deck’s only haphazard answer to a Darksteel Mutation in a color combination that should really put up more of a fight against the basic concept of auras.

If You Ain’t First

The last ten non land cards in the deck sit in two states simultaneously while in your deck: the winning and also win more cards. Six of these cards simply increase the damage of the goose so the more you have the less useful the next one becomes, with a low floor of 21 damage, but play without those ten cards and you’ll fail to reach it. For good reason these cards are printed with targets on their backs. When was the last time someone had to argue against the destruction of their doubling season? Believe them when they say it's a do nothing enchantment because you will make it so when you rightfully destroy it.

Three cards pull from your pool of tokens to assemble a second front of damage with Esix creating the oddest win conditions. Finally there's the ace (wink) up my sleeve with Simic Ascendancy. A card capable of getting us out of the stickiest situations. Can’t attack because of an archon? Just win the game. Has your goose been imprisoned in the freaking moon? Have you thought of just winning the game instead? Sick of the never ending wraths your opponents beg you to endure? Win the game.

Of Notes and Controversy

When building this deck I wanted to pull most of the cards from my collection to keep this deck more casual but there were a few cards that seemed too bombastic and or flavorful to not be included. A few cards allow food tokens to add mana which can lock in the inevitably of The Goose Mother such as Jaheira, Urza, Lord High Artificer, and Night of the Sweets' Revenge. There are a few cards that might be overpowered for the original aim of the deck. Primal Vigor is probably the least offensive as it applies its effects symmetrically. While this may seem like a kind gesture on the surface, those who can actually generate a threat to The Goose Mother will die to the honking first accelerated with Primal Vigor’s effect. Lastly there are two cards that are maybe just too egregious but for the reasons mentioned above had to be included: Doubling Season, and Urza, Lord High Artificer. I’m sorry but I am weak to the temptations of broken cards™ and please pray that I do not fall further into the pits of competitive play. For each promise of an easy win, I will be the only player basking in enjoyment.

Even with my follies, this deck does contain the 4 main themes of the goose deck, but to do this a choice was made. No counter spells shuffle through the deck because absolutely no card without any dedication to The Goose Mother made the cut. This level of delusion led to the complete absence of the card type instant. This abandonment of interaction simply affirms my dedication, for all must serve in the presence of The Goose Mother.

To those who have no instant I say
Fear not for I as well have no instant,
but to those that try to bargain
I have no say
for The Goose Mother must always
honk.

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The Chaos Deck

8/20/2023

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Spite might invoke an aura of pettiness for the sake of pettiness or maybe even an underdog resilience for those that should but never will. In this case it exhibits both meanings. It may be childish while also holding great importance. When faced with the opinion that fun can only exist in a controlled environment, spite takes over. I knew for a fact winning meant nothing if only one person could have it, so I built a deck for everyone of my friends but one. The one friend who thought Possibility Storm was a bad card. Just two hours after once again arguing over how commander isn't just for the winners: a cedh rebuttal, I had constructed a deck that would be known to all from that point on as The Chaos Deck.

Now I know you probably already skimmed the decklist and are asking “Beach, why aren't there a lot of coin flipping / dice rolling effects?” because this isn't a deck about chance, it's about chaos. Chance multiplied will eventually give you the outcome you want, probably. Chaos is about living in the unknown, living in a world where friends become enemies, time flows out of order, and events without meaning are constant. This is the principle compass for my Norin the Wary commander deck. What happens, happens.

Win conditions

Yes! My chaos deck has a couple win conditions. Every commander needs a win condition or two unless you’re a pacifist I guess. I would argue that depriving this deck of the possibility of winning would ultimately limit the amount of chaos by reducing the number of possible outcomes, so here are the basic win conditions of the deck. The three common etb deal damage enchantments are there and so is the Rose Room treasurer which is less likely to deal damage but can. There is a 4th etb damage card from New Cappena but I’ll add it whenever I remember to buy it. As well there is a favorite win con which is Genesis Chamber which is a carry over from Norin soul sisters Modern deck. Not only does it generate value for me but for my opponents as well which is a theme that will come up again, and who doesn’t love those adorable little Myr.

Cards of Havoc

These first two cards are the crown jewels of the chaos deck: Possibility Storm, and Timesifter. These cards alter how the game can be played. Possibility Storm reduces the knowledge of all cards down to their mana value and type. All other effects are a mystery until you’ve cast it. Suddenly the game enters a new round of working with what you can get and the knowledge of your decklist could help but you’re most likely to have the type you have most in your hand so chaos is inevitable. Kill spells become counters, board wipes become regrowths, and mana dorks become craterhooves.

The second card Timesifter sets the turn order on its head with the saving grace being that you will still know who you’re passing to. Suddenly games can play out like Planet of the Apes or the time machine. Some players can end up stuck in the stone age compared to the aged behemoths dueling for victory. Two things become important: deck construction and upkeep effects. Those with the higher mana cards can pile on the turns but can still lose the advantage to their high land counts. Those with punishing cards like Mogis, god of Slaughter, Sheolred, the Apocalypse, or Nekusar, the Mindrazer can both put a target on their back and kill those who have all of the turns. Now that it becomes a one sided 1v3 everyone can only sit back and hope for their time at bat or time on the cursed throne.

A Mad Mad World

These 4 cards change the dynamic of the game on a pivot. Changing ownership of cards with cards like Scrambleverse can send the advantage bar spinning. Strategies collide when the red player can end their turn with a consecrated sphinx primed to set a race against the control player with a master of cruelties. Cards like Over the Top and Pyxis of Pandemonium simply turn the volume up as they dump player’s decks on to the field.

To truly keep players on their toes two play test cards were added. Mana Abundance changes the game for those with the right affects to abuse it. Cards with flash and mana sinks become a luxury like no other, while control decks fall into a pile of counters at a moments notice as they feed each other the mana to continue to the last spell in hand. Just like his predecessor Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded (which you know that meme is in the deck) Tibalt the Chaotic will keep even its control on their toes as each ability has one of three random outcomes spelled out only by the card name. I would list their effects if it even mattered slightly this card is simply a chaos engine with endless possibilities at the perfectly wrong time.

Six monkey paws

First there are the three cards promising returns for your generosity. Curse of Opulence and Bucknard’s Everfull Purse hand out treasure for those that agree to their terms. Who gains the most from these agreements and when is too late to even have the choice? Pendant of Prosperity on the other hand is an offering hand to those who left behind which can even lead to an agreement of partnership. This may be appealing but others might see it as appeasement and punish you for handing over resources. Questions of loyalty can quickly lead to aggression leading into the politics of free power

These cards set the world ablaze with fire. Mass Hysteria gives powerful decks the needed push to start the next war today. Cards with attack triggers become devastating to those expecting time to respond. Paired with Blast-Furnace Hellkite, Opponents begin discussing the end of such wars as the dominos fall into place and everyone wants to be the one left with removal. Eye of Doom sets these unstable alliances into discussion as matters of opinion are laid out on the table clear as day. You hate rhystic study because it belongs to the strongest player. I hate it because you made them the strongest player. We are not the same. Debate will be as unhinged as any power scaling discussion and you’ll never hear “He’s about to win” more in your life than when you need to bargain with the red player for removal.

Pet Cards

Hanweir, the Writhing Township is the inscription on the inside of the crown. I mean two middle of the roads combining to make one big card is probably the silliest thing to strive for but I could never see taking it out. As a result it sits silently in the background until someone asks “Wait… do you have the other half in there?”

Next are the myr makers: Myr Turbine and Myr Matrix. These complete the mini theme of mrys with Genesis Chamber. As well they reflect the past of magic design where a 5 cmc artifact can only do some things. Even the synergies once present in a 2013 era deck can be seen on Myr Turbine with its second ability to tutor a myr that now only shuffles your library due to changing times.

Because it’s a Red Deck

These cards are here because you should still be running removal, but because it's a red deck we are left with some of the strangest and most punishing removal cards. Cards like Boil and Decree of Annihilation lean over the edge of casual play. One of the best removal effects red has is player removal so cards like Sulfuric Vortex, and Ankh of Mishra set the goal ever closer of “remove target player”. Why would you care if you get dinged in the process?

Mana!

There are 36 lands and 8 mana rocks. The land base consists of 14 basic mountains, 1 basic wastes, and 21 non basic lands. Because of loose color requirements of a mono colored deck most of those non basics provide some utility or humor. Cards like Madblind Mountain and Command Tower provide the silly gameplay you’d expect from a chaos deck. Lastly we have Springleaf Drum (in german for some reason). As one of the only two targets for Urza’s Saga in the deck this card helps replace the mana ability of Urza’s Saga with our commander’s eternal suffering always supplying us with a creature to tap.

Decklist

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The banana man

nope

a nope themed platform

Celestial Colonnades

Those Things That Get Us There

The goose deck

Ramp to Goose

The Notorious Three

If You Ain’t First

Of Notes and Controversy

The Chaos Deck

Win conditions

Cards of Havoc

A Mad Mad World

Six monkey paws

Pet Cards

Because it’s a Red Deck

Mana!

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