my commander decks

Punch Party

This deck was the first commander deck that I made by scratch. Being a Gruul deck, it's all about hitting your opponents fast and hard before they know what hit them. The first few iterations of this deck were made from what I could find during my years at uni, but since I graduated, this deck has slowly and steadily evolved to become an intensely formidable presence at the table; a deck that I am incredibly proud and fond of. Many a fond memory was made playing ol' Xena-Goose against my friends at the gaming society meets, the local pub, at big commander events and online over tabletop simulator, and thus it has become a personal symbol of what this game means to me. I hope to continue growing the Punch Party for as long as I find enjoyment in playing this wonderful game.

The commander; Xenagos, God of Revels

Xenagos as a commander is an efficient and reliable enabler for our game plan as he serves as a speed ramp to launch massive threats as soon as they hit the field. Once he's out of the command zone, your opponents will be on edge, uncertain of their safety for what could come on your next turn. Being a Theros god, his steep devotion requirement actually works in our favour, allowing him to dodge common creature-based removal as long as your devotion remains below seven. Hitting the devotion threshold simply means we can start using Xenagos himself to push our advantage by swinging in, or by holding him back as a decently strong blocker if needed. For most of the time though, it's best to keep him from becoming a creature, since in this format it's far easier to remove an indestructible creature than it is to remove an indestructible enchantment.

Ramping Out

Xenagos stocks his parties well, with plenty of nibbles and morsels to enjoy. The deck runs a lot of the staple mana rocks: Sol Ring (duh), Arcane Signet, Gruul Signet and Talisman of Impulse are incredibly efficient ramp pieces at their mana cost, and are essential for a deck such as this one that needs to get mana fast. This deck also runs Goblin Anarchomancer to get a mana discount throughout the game, as well as Bramble familiar; a mana dork that can help us dig for a big beater later should we need one.

If you've got a bigger appetite, the deck also makes use of certain 4 mana ramp spells like Migration Path and Skyshroud Claim, since we're not trying to curve directly into Xenagos, rather the creatures we will be playing after he's on the field. One of my recent favourite ramp additions has been Open the Way. Often times, I end up casting this spell for X=2, so it works like the other 4 mana ramp spells, except there's a chance it hits some of our important nonbasic lands instead. However, being able to cast this for 3 mana or even 5 mana gives it some really interesting flexibility, where it can save a struggling opening hand, or provide you with a big boost and some strong deck thinning in the late game when played for 5 mana.

Diggin' for Gold

For the times when guests get lost on their way to the party, Xenagos knows how to bring them home. There's a broad variety of cards in this deck for digging for an answer fast, one of my favourites in particular being Oath of Druids. This card in an opening hand of lands and a fat lot of nothing else is more than playable. Oath hitting the table as soon as you can cast it means that if any other player throws a creature out, you'll be able to quite reliably cheat out a really big threat way ahead of schedule. Smarter players will recognise this, meaning as long as you're not playing creatures, no one else will be either, giving you free reign to ramp and get your commander online. It truly is a win-win situation! This is another rare example of Xenagos' devotion ability coming in really handy as Theros gods are among the only kinds of creature spells you can cast without triggering Oath of Druids for your other players.

The Party Starters

The meat and potatoes that we chuck over dinnertables with reckless abandon. These creatures are our key to closing out games and shutting down opponents that threaten our board state and gameplan. There is quite litereally a party starter here for every situation! Give the artifact player an aneurysm by stealing their entire board with Hellkite Tyrant. Watch the elf player beg for mercy as a Balefire Dragon torches their treetop civilisation. Use Cityscape Leveler or Ulamog to meddle with Voltron players by stripping away their layers of protection.

Backup Plan

Being a ramp to aggro deck comes with the caveats that you can't be aggro if you don't ramp, and you can't be aggro if you don't have any creatures to be aggro with. But worry not! Xenagos brought a few surprises to the punch party. In the event that your opening hand looks a little slow, wrath spells like Blasphemous Act, Anger of the Gods and Spiteful Banditry can allow you to play a conservative opening, allowing your opponents to play out their creatures and commanders before wiping them all out, buying you more precious time to set up.

Kami Lunacy

Originally named "Student Loans" and originally conceptualised as "mono-blue chaos," this deck follows an unconventional strategy of overwhelming your opponents with suffocating card draw.

Kitchen Gun

This deck turned out to be my most ambitious yet, aspiring to be a rube-goldberg combo machine that can tear pieces of itself off and throw them about the table to maintain control.