This is a new refinement of a deck I have been trying to get to work for quite a while. I mentioned Ruric Thar, The Unbowed at the end of December in my Introduction to Commander post. Now I am actually ready to go over the deck I built around him. As a quick refresher, EDH/Commander is a 100-card singleton format built around a legendary creature which defines the color identity, and typically the strategy, of the other 99 cards.
I am also trying out DeckStats.net with this post, and you can find the full deck contents here.
Ruric Thar, the Unbowed is a 6/6 Legendary Creature — Ogre Warrior with the keyword abilities vigilance and reach. This makes him an absolute monster in combat, and he can swat down most dragons. His first special rule states he must attack each turn if able, which can be a problem if he is forced to charge into indestructible blockers, big monsters, or worst of all, something with the deathtouch ability. My goal is to get him on the table and swinging early on before my opponents can prepare to stop him.
His second special rule is a triggered ability which automatically applies when conditions are met, in this case, whenever any player casts a non-creature spell, they take six points of damage. That is why this deck is built around nothing but creatures. I don't want my commander to hit me, but I want to really slap down some deck archetypes which rely on instants, sorceries, enchantments, and non-creature artifacts.
The creature cards in the rest of the deck are a combination of mana dorks and other ramping options so I can bring the big guns out faster, ETB and ability effects which mimic those other spell types I am avoiding, and support abilities to beef up my beatstick boys so I can win through brute force.
Now, let's try some of the tools at DeckStats and weigh some pros and cons of this build.
That mana curve isn't bad, with that peak at cards costing 2 mana, but there aren't many CMC-1 cards for that first turn splash. Ideally, there would also be a smoother curve especially from 2-3-4-5, but this is a bit ragged. A few games will tell me whether this is actually a problem or not. I do have Yisan, the Wanderer Bard and Elvish Piper to help ramp critters though.
As noted in the deck plan, there is nothing here except land and creatures. No instants, sorceries, enchantments, or non-creature artifacts to be seen. In a 100-card deck, this just says I have 36 lands and 64 creatures. Most decks should have a much better balance of instant-speed responses, powerful sorcery spells, and enchantments. That is the fun in Commander, though. There is room for decks with gimmicks.
Mana costs are split between forests (green) and Mountains (red), but this iteration is heavily skewed toward green. The roughly 60/40 split might be a problem in playtesting, but that remains to be seen. There is a lot of generic mana required for a lot of these spells, leaving wiggle room aplenty for actual casting costs. I should also note the mana dorks (creatures which can tap for mana) also skew green.
One third of my lands are non-basic, some offering dual colors, Ancient Zigurrat technically offering any color, and a few offering only colorless mana. Some lands give special boosts, like Rogue's Passage which can alternatively make a creature unblockable if you can afford the cost. The land base is one of the more difficult factors in any deck. How many do you need to have in your opening hand to reliably get started, and about how often do you need to keep drawing new lands? Do you have ways to fetch lands using spells you cast or creature abilities? Can you enchant lands to tap for more mana? I have no idea what I will need to tweak here.
Prices are always subject to change in any collectibles market, but I do want to brag a bit here. My foil Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger, in particular, is somewhat collectible on the market nowadays. Other notable cards include Birds of Paradise, Elvish Piper, Stomping Ground, Grove of the Burnwillows, and Castle Garenbrig. A lot of these cards are quite cheap, though, despite the number of rares and uncommons.
Now it's your turn. Chime in, and good comments earn PIZZA tokens! What do you think of DeckStats.net? While TappedOut is OK, I'm exploring the alternatives like this, and I want to know your favorite deck list site, too. What do you think of this deck? I know it's a gimmicky casual deck with a little bite if it's allowed to play the long game relatively unopposed by removals and board wipes. What cards would you swap out? What decks do you have that might crush it, or find it an unexpected challenge?
