An Arab Caravan Outside a Fortified Town by Jean-Leon Gerome (1824-1904). Arashin Sovereign Promo by David Palombo.
We wrapped up our final week of EDH League last Saturday. I missed the games, having just gotten home after a trip to visit family in Pennsylvania, but arrived in time to run the points and figure out who won the month. Zedruu did well enough that I was able to stay "on the board" at our LGS, ranking fifth in points for the month thanks to one game where I landed both Enchanted Evening / Aura Thief and Leveler / Fractured Identity.
I'm no longer in serious contention for the year-end point competitions, but I do want to play something fun for my December EDH League games. Rather than just pick something and run with it, I decided it would be fun to ask for feedback from the wise minds in my favorite Facebook Group, Magic the Gathering EDH-Commander.
The Voice of the People
I wanted to put every legendary creature I had kicking around my rare binder into a poll, but Facebook would only allow me to put in 10 options. Creating a poll that was open for anyone to add options would result in the inevitable 521 votes for Storm Crow, 38 vote for Harambe and at least a half dozen variations on "git gud you f#ckin' noob" so I decided to just pick the ten I felt would be the most interesting to build.
The 10 entries I wound up with included 2 decks I had already built but hadn't played for league. I set it up to allow for multiple votes and the results were as follows:
27 votes for Ruric Thar, The Unbowed (because f#ck your instants & sorceries)
11 votes for Oona, Queen of the Fae (I do have both rings & monolith)
8 votes for The Mimeoplasm (Flash Hulk build)
5 votes for Norin the Wary (chaos, Panharmonicon ETB abuse)
5 votes for Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper (Darksteel Citadel for the win?)
3 votes for Sydri, Galvanic Genius (I so love that artwork...)
2 votes for Captain Lannery Storm (arr.... Pirates! Treasure! Drawbacks of mono-red!)
2 votes for Kambal, Consul of Allocation (could be a staxy build...)
1 vote for Anafenza, the Foremost (because screw your recursion strategy)
1 vote for Tasigur, the Golden Fang (let's make a deal!)
The only decks that were already built were Anafenza and The Mimeoplasm. I was intrigued by the idea of building Oona, but was happy to get a red/green commander for December, as those colors are commonly associated with Christmas and the holiday season. What better way to embody the spirit of the winter holidays than to subject my friends and fellow EDH League players to four weeks of good old fashioned Gruul punishment?
I actually have a pile of werewolves lined up to build around either Ruric Thar or Arlinn Kord. I'm not a fan of playing decks where I have to pay incredibly close attention to everyone's turn to make sure I catch whether or not my triggers need to happen. I also shy away from Managorger Hydra, Taurean Mauler and Sunscorch Regent for similar reasons. Someday I should really build that werewolves deck but I decided this build would be a little less tribal and a little more pain. Ruric Thar is the guy I'm going to be building around.
A Closer Look at Ruric Thar
Before we dive into this build, let's take a look at our commander.
He's a 2-headed Ogre Warrior with rage issues. He is actually featured in one of the stories Wizards of the Coast has published about the characters in Magic, but as of this writing I haven't yet read it. I'm more into the game than the lore.
He costs 4RG, so while he isn't cheap, he's in colors that should let us ramp and he's no more expensive than Narset, Enlightened Master. He's got vigilance and reach and must attack each turn if able. That means there will be times where we have to hit a "soft target" just to make sure he isn't killed by blockers. There will also be times where he's just going to die whether we like it or not because we'll have to swing with him on a battlefield with no good targets.
Ruric Thar's second ability is far more interesting. Whenever a player casts a noncreature spell, Ruric Thar deals 6 damage to them. That includes me, so we want to run an awful lot of creatures. We're also going to have games where we get hated off the table. For anyone wanting to play a creature-light strategy, he's a serious problem. For anyone wanting to win quickly, he's just a nuisance. A 40 life total gives Commander players lots of room to take damage if they are planning on winning quickly with only a handful of powerful spells.
The need to minimize our deck's non-creature spells is going to affect a lot of decisions about how we throw this list together. It's going to make it a weaker deck in some ways but it should also make it a unique and interesting build that will provide a different kind of game from my usual decks.
How We Ramp
Most decks want to ramp by getting more lands onto the table but we need to use creatures to ramp so we're going to wind up using a lot of mana dorks. Our main focus is going to be to get Ruric Thar out as quickly as possible without running instants, sorceries or mana rocks. We want him to do as much damage as possible so getting him out early is key. With enough mana dorks in our list, we should be able to get him on the board as early as turn three or four, with turn five being a mediocre start and turn 6 or later as a slow start to a game.
I built this deck with cards I had lying around, so my selection might not represent optimal choices. I was able to find a decent assortment of cheap creatures. Arbor Elf and Elvish Mystic will give us more green mana and the EDH staple Birds of Paradise will help us with both red and green mana. "BoP" is a rare flying blocker in this deck, but if we use it to cast our Commander he has vigilance and reach so we won't be leaving ourselves unable to block a flyer. Skyshroud Ranger will be fantastic on games where we start with way too many lands in hand. Orcish Lumberjack will cost us a forest, but could help to enable a rare turn 3 Ruric Thar.
Moving into 2-drop territory, Gyre Sage's Evolve ability should give us a little extra green mana if we've been casting creatures. Naga Vitalist and Voyaging Satyr will both help get our colors if we've got both a mountain and a forest out. Whisperer of the Wilds will make green and will tap for 2 once Ruric Thar has joined the party. Zhur-Taa Druid is our first punishment-oriented card, but won't be our last. She does 1 damage to each opponent when tapped for mana.
While 10 mana dorks might seem like a lot, we are far from done.
Mana dorks really want to be 1-drops and 2-drops but the additional cost usually brings us some kind of benefit. Lifespring Druid will tap for any color, which could come in handy if we're having trouble finding a mountain. Somberwald Sage will only help us cast creature spells, but we'll be running well over fifty so she's an auto-include and could enable a turn 3 Ruric Thar. Karametra's Acolyte will be a huge mana source once we've got enough creatures out, though if our commander is staying on the field, we may find ourselves with tons of mana and nowhere to put it. Oasis Naturalist taps for one mana and has an exert ability that will net us 2 mana of any one color. Mina and Denn, Wildborn will let us play lands faster and can let us give Ruric Thar trample in a pinch if we need to get some damage through.
I may run Generator Servant, which acts as a haste enabler and a quick extra bit of mana to get our commander out early. A couple of cost-saving creatures will also find their way into my list. Brighthearth Banneret will let warriors cost one mana less. Krosan Drover will let creature spells with a CMC of 6 or more cost 2 less to cast. If nothing else, we should have no problem establishing a boardstate early in the game. Rebounding from boardwipes will probably be a serious challenge for this deck. I'll need to work on trying not to overextend, and I'll definitely want to add some ability to draw cards.
How we Draw Cards
I'm already pretty bad at building draw into my decks. Building in Gruul should give us access to some card draw in green, but we're going to focus on creatures so that means no Harmonize or Shamanic Revelation.
Regal Behemoth will make us the monarch, giving us a card draw on our end step for as long as we can keep from taking combat damage. Abzan Beastmaster may not help us late game if our opponents have big creatures out, but Ruric Thar should be big enough to let us draw a few cards in the early game and mid-game. Drumhunter is both a mana dork and with our commander out we'll be drawing an extra card on our end step. Soul of the Harvest will turn our ridiculous amount of creature spells into card draw, and it's a 6/6 with trample as well so it should be able to do a little work on the battlefield.
The all-star in this deck could wind up being Garruk's Horde. With the top card of our deck revealed and available to cast, we could get a whole mess of creatures onto the battlefield from this if we're lucky enough to hit a bunch of them in a row. Garruk's Packleader will also find a home in this deck, giving us card draw for any creature power 3 or greater entering the battlefield under our control. Regal Force may need to join the party too, as it will provide a lot of draw power if we've got enough green creatures out.
Helping out our Commander
Ruric Thar is going to have to attack every turn. That's a real downside but if we're going to have to be aggressive we might as well run some creatures to will help him get the job done.
Hanweir Lancer can pair with Ruric Thar to give him first strike. That will go a long way toward surviving combat with deathtouch blockers, which could really pose a problem. Bloodsworn Steward is a haste enabler and will turn our 6/6 from a four turn "clock" into an 8/8 three turn "clock". Lovisa Coldeyes will give Ruric Thar +2/+2 and haste, but will also help out other Barbarians, Warriors and Berserkers, even if they aren't ours. That'll force me to occasionally play politics which in turn makes the deck more fun. Giving Ruric Thar +2/+2 seems to be a trend here. Thunderfoot Baloth will do that but also give it trample, which will absolutely help us get damage through if we want to kill someone with commander damage.
The last card listed above is a personal favorite. I've never used it to any great effect in a deck, but the image of Ruric Thar straddling a Pathbreaker Wurm and riding it into battle is something I find pretty amusing, so this deck is going to be my excuse to run it. As I add other cards into the mix, I expect the soulbond creatures may be the first to get cut.
Getting Damage Through
Trample will help us to get damage through, but there are other ways to get that done.
Prized Unicorn, Noble Quarry and Shinen of Life's Roar will all allow me to attack with Ruric Thar and get damage through blockers. If my board is wide enough that could wind up being a serious amount of damage. Seismic Elemental will let me swing against anyone without fliers. Bellowing Tanglewurm will give my commander Intimidate along with any other green creatures under my control. None of these cards would normally find their way into a top tier deck but in the wonderful world of mid-range EDH tricks like this should let me steal the occasional game and have a good time along the way.
Fun Stuff
So far we've covered ramp, draw, doing a little something to pump up our commander and doing a little something to try to get damage through. We haven't really added any game-breaking cards or strategies yet so let's see what we can do about that. We should be able to find some neat tricks to add to our build. Some of these are defensive, some are chaotic and some should help us win games.
Playing a deck with over 50 creatures means Lurking Predators will probably be worth 6 mana and 6 life if we draw into it when Ruric Thar is out. The potential for a ridiculous boardstate is definitely there if I've got a 50/50 chance of revealing something I can put on the field. For another way to protect Ruric Thar, Grip of Chaos will add an element of craziness to a game. Anyone trying to remove him with a spell that targets is going to have to get very lucky, and it will mess with a lot of other strategies that rely on targeting an opponent or a creature.
If Ruric Thar is out, Wild Evocation will have the chance to do a lot of work. At the beginning of each player's upkeep they have to reveal a card and if it is a spell of any kind they have to cast it. That means they could run into 6 damage from Ruric Thar at any time and while it might help them do something useful, the idea of someone accidentally Rampant Growth and Cultivating themselves to death is just too hilarious to not give it a try. In actual games I've seen opponents reveal a Counterspell (which they couldn't cast) and a Cataclysmic Gearhulk so it's certainly capable of whiffing or backfiring mightily.
If chaos spells are going to have a place in this deck, Possibility Storm is an auto-include. When this enchantment is out, if a player casts a spell from his or her hand, they exile it and then reveal cards from their deck until they get to another spell of the same type. They may then cast that spell. Ruric Thar doesn't care where a spell is coming from so both the original spell and the second spell would cause them to take damage.
The number of mana dorks in this deck is going to mean we may get some good sized armies, so adding Craterhoof Behemoth gives us another potential way to swing for a win if we've got enough creatures out. I borrowed him out of my old Yisan deck because I hate to play a deck without at least a few wincons.
This deck is meant to be a "punishment" deck, so I'm happy to be able to include Zo-Zu the Punisher. He will do 2 damage to anyone for playing a land. I plan to embrace this and play through it with a smile, daring my opponents to ramp like crazy or burn a removal spell for him. If they play a lot of lands, Manabarbs is an enchantment that will make everyone take 1 damage for each land they tap. That will include me, so I've got to be judicious in when I play this. Losing to a lifegain deck will be a real possibility with stuff like this on the field, as they can just outlast me if they've got much of a pillowfort in place. Dictate of the Twin Gods is a damage doubler that might not seem to make sense until you realize it has flash. If someone is at a low life total but wants to win the game, I can flash this in to double any damage an opponent would take when his damage trigger goes on the stack. I'll still take 6 but my damage trigger would resolve before Dictate resolves. If an opponent is at 7 to 12 life and thinks they can cast their "I win" spell safely, I'll be able to try to kill them in response.
Vigor is a creature I've struggled to find a deck for. With the number of mana dorks and creatures in this build I think this might just be the perfect spot for him. There are enough spells and effects that damage creatures even outside of combat that this card could be an all-star even without thinking about how this might affect our ability to swing out with a bunch of mana dorks. When they take damage they'll instead get +1/+1 counters put on them. My last must-have for this deck is my copy of Maze of Ith. I move it around, playing it in the deck I'm playing for EDH league each month. If I have an attack that would result in Ruric Thar getting killed, I can just untap it and remove it from combat before it is dealt damage. He'll be dealing commander damage, so very few opponents will want to let him connect, and plenty of them will want him dead so they can go back to casting noncreature spells. Being able to "maze" him will almost certainly help me out at some point in time.
Final Thoughts
There are lots of other red and green creatures that could find a home in this deck. I've tried to keep my focus on creature ramp, punishment and chaos, and the few casual games the deck has seen have been a success. I won the first and was a major player in the second, though I didn't end up winning. Both were fun, and the psychological effect a card like Grip of Chaos has on a table is worth noting. When that enchantment started affecting play it seemed like everyone just relaxed and started really having fun. Losing your ability to successfully target permanents is a powerful thing. It does hand the reins over to the combo decks to some extent, as everyone relying on removing combo pieces with targeting removal spells are going to have a harder time.
This deck was finished and this article was mostly written up when Friday morning brought us the announcement from the Commander rules committee that silver-bordered cards would be legal in our format until January 15th. That meant that before yesterday's league games I could add un-set cards to the deck.
I was able to pick up a copy of Frazzled Editor later that day and expect it to act as a stellar blocker against lots of cards in our format so long as they don't fly, have other forms of evasion or have trample. I borrowed Yet Another Aether Vortex for my League games today only the former showed up in a game and it didn't have a huge impact.
I was also able to add Garruk Caller of Beasts, Treacherous Terrain and Purphoros, God of the Forge to the deck. The two games that Ruric Thar got to play yesterday weren't terrible, but he didn't win either of them. I'm thinking that I might need to add in a vehicle or two so that I have ways to tap him when I don't have a profitable attack to make.
I normally play the same commander all month long but this month's announcement that silver-bordered cards are legal has thrown me a real curveball and I'm probably going to be building at least one or two unCommander decks to play for the rest of our league games in December.
It's a free league so I fully expect our players to be able to roll with this punch and find a way to have fun. I also full expect that we'll vote on not allowing silver bordered cards in January and that the vote will probably pass so we can get back to "business as usual" in our league. The points leaders for the year are probably far enough ahead that they're not really at risk of losing their top spot because of the inclusion of silver bordered cards in our format. They might not all enjoy it but they don't have to put any into their decks and they're all mature enough to be able to accept what they can't change and try to make the best of it.
Ruric Thar Punishment on TappedOut.net
Other News
I had planned to write about the Chaos draft I ran on the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend but with the big unCommander news coming from the rules committee I expect next week I may wind up writing about unCommander. I've got plans to either build new decks or possibly put some unstable cards into existing decks.
Right now I'm thinking of writing up an overview of all the legendary creatures in Unstable with notes on what blackbordered cards I think will work best with them. I think it'll be an interesting exercise and should go a long way towards helping me figure out what I'm going to run next week. It won't be Ruric Thar despite the fact that I usually run the same general all month long. This silver-bordered thing is temporary and I'd be a fool not to make the most of it.
I hope you all will try to find ways to have fun with silver-bordered cards. If you're just dead-set against them, maybe you should play really fast combo or heavy control for a while and embrace the role of store curmudgeon. Whatever you do - try to have fun with it.
Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!