Gau, Feral YouthGau, Feral Youth | Art by Eglė Mosakaitė

Welcome to our deck tech featuring one of Final Fantasy VI's most unique characters. Gau grew up in the Veldt, an area teeming with dangerous monsters, where he was left there by his father. Despite this unceremonious parting, Gau grew up and learned to fend for himself. Despite being largely detached from society and the nearby town of Mobliz, Gau becomes an unlikely ally of The Returners. In the upcoming Magic Final Fantasy set, Gau has his own card, Gau, Feral YouthGau, Feral Youth, and in this article we're exploring a way to build Gau into a recursion machine.

What Does Gau, Feral Youth Do?

Gau is a 2/2 Human Berserker that costs to cast. He has two abilities that work in tandem to produce a unique effect in red. The first is a triggered ability that reads, "Whenever Gau attacks, put a +1/+1 counter on it." This ability is not unique, with dozens of other cards having the same or similar abilities. The second ability, however, is unique for a red card, reading "At the beginning of each end step, if a card left your graveyard this turn, Gau deals damage equal to its power to each opponent." Effects that care about cards leaving the graveyard exist in Magic, but mainly in black.

The strategy of this deck centers around triggering Gau's second ability as much as possible using artifact recursion, taking advantage of the fact that Gau can trigger every end step, not just your end step, for maximum damage.

The deck has three distinct components to facilitate this objective. The first is recurring artifacts, either to your hand or to the battlefield, satisfying the condition for Gau to trigger at the end step. The second is to allow Gau to attack while staying protected, to get the boost from its first ability and to perhaps deal some extra damage. The third is to boost Gau's power so when he does trigger, it will pack a bigger punch. In the way we're using Gau for this deck, there are several red commanders that have decks built in similar fashions. Examples include Daretti, Rocketeer EngineerDaretti, Rocketeer Engineer and Slobad, Iron GoblinSlobad, Iron Goblin.

Gau's Shiny Treasures

The core pieces of this deck involve causing cards to leave your graveyard as often as possible. This deck mainly uses artifact recursion pieces to accomplish this, and red and colorless have many options for this purpose. Cards like Goblin WelderGoblin Welder and Scrap TrawlerScrap Trawler are pivotal to this objective, and can be triggered or activated at instant speed so Gau will trigger during an opponent's turn. The deck also uses many utility artifacts like Ichor WellspringIchor Wellspring and Prized StatuePrized Statue to get extra advantage from the constant cycle of artifacts leaving and entering the battlefield. Cards like Slobad, Iron GoblinSlobad, Iron Goblin and Krark-Clan IronworksKrark-Clan Ironworks serve as sacrifice outlets, allowing cards like Scrap Trawler to then trigger with ease.

While the main purpose of the deck centers around recurring artifacts, several other effects are also included that can help Gau trigger. The deck contains several cards with flashback, such as Faithless LootingFaithless Looting and Isengard UnleashedIsengard Unleashed, as casting them for their flashback costs will cause them to leave the graveyard. Some other notable ways to trigger Gau include Elixir of ImmortalityElixir of Immortality and Scrap MasteryScrap Mastery, among many others.

This deck also includes cards with the sole purpose of helping Gau deal more damage when it does trigger. Cards like NettlecystNettlecyst work extremely well in this deck, boosting Gau's power by a large amount due to the number of artifacts the deck contains. Excalibur, Sword of EdenExcalibur, Sword of Eden is another very useful buff piece that should be fairly cheap to cast. While these cards boost Gau's power directly, City on FireCity on Fire and other cards simply amplify the damage dealt by Gau, causing a similar effect overall.

Several cards are also included to protect Gau when it attacks, such as Brotherhood RegaliaBrotherhood Regalia and Whispersilk CloakWhispersilk Cloak. However, with Gau only costing , he won't be outlandishly expensive to recast even if he's wiped off the board a couple times. Many of the buff effects (like the Equipment mentioned earlier) are also not very expensive to reattach to Gau, so him being wiped off the board is nowhere near game-ending. While keeping Gau around is best to stack counters from attacking, the deck can still function fine with just using external buffs.

How Will Gau End the Game?

The main way Gau plans to end the game is by damage dealt with its second ability. Over the course of the game, Gau should be able to be buffed and fling a considerable amount of damage at opponents. Even if he isn't heavily buffed, dealing damage during each end step can quickly add up to a devastating amount if left unchecked. The deck does contain a few pieces of redundancy that can also fling damage, and possibly end the game on their own. This includes cards like Fuming EffigyFuming Effigy or Reckless FireweaverReckless Fireweaver, which can supplement Gau's damage or continue to deal damage if Gau happens to leave the battlefield.

This deck does contain some other possible win conditions. One such condition is combat damage, as we're constantly attacking (hopefully) with Gau and maybe other creatures, which can be amplified by the damage increasers and possibly end a game. This method, of course, isn't the primary focus or an overly reliable plan, but it could work in a pinch.

The deck also contains several combos that, when paired with some payoffs, can end the game on the spot. According to Commander Spellbook's Find My Combos feature, this deck contains eight infinite combos. These combos can largely trigger Reckless Fireweaver or similar cards repeatedly, leading to infinite damage and thus ending the game. Let's work through one of the simplest combos in the deck:

To perform this combo, cast Myr Retriever for . When it enters, Mirrorworks and Reckless Fireweaver trigger, dealing one damage to each opponent and triggering you to pay to copy Myr Retriever. You can then sacrifice the nontoken Myr Retriever to Krark-Clan Ironwroks for . Myr Retriever will trigger, allowing you to return another artifact card from your graveyard to your hand. Then, repeat the same process with the token Myr Retriever, instead returning the nontoken Myr Retriever to your hand. From here, repeat the combo infinitely until the game ends from Reckless Fireweaver's damage. Below are a few other possible combos in this deck, thanks to help from Commander Spellbook.

With that out of the way, let's get to the fun part: the deck.

Gau, Feral Youth's Artifact Déjà Vu - Deck List

Conclusion

This deck is a fun way to explore a unique card while having a legitimate chance of winning a few games. It fits well into Bracket 3 - being reasonably strong while not being excruciating to play against. It's probably not going to fare well against ultra-polished Bracket 4/5 decks, but it fits well for the average casual player who wants to play something unique and different. It is worth noting that Gau is not the optimal recursion commander - cards like Tormod, the DesecratorTormod, the Desecrator have far more options and are generally more useful.

At the end of the day, Commander is about having fun, especially in a casual environment. Gau allows you to have fun while pioneering a reasonably strong deck. However, if you're looking for an extremely strong or polished commander, especially for cEDH, I would recommend checking out Tormod or other options instead. Perhaps, if Gau was in Rakdos, you could make it a lot stronger and accomplish this, but it doesn't seem to be possible with it in mono-red.