Monologue TaxMonologue Tax | Art by Justine Cruz

Greetings and salutations my dear brewers, and welcome, welcome to the very last Branching Out. After scrounging the depths of EDHREC and racking my brain to find weird ideas for you to brew around, it's finally time to bring this series to a close.

Looking back at these past ten months, I can say without any ill-placed modesty that I'm rather happy with the results. 80 deck ideas, often janky, sometimes nuts, each equally loved, some of which I eventually ended up brewing for myself.

If you're curious about the previous iterations of this series, I've compiled a table to all of said articles, as well as links to my personal brews, which you can all find here.

So, before turning to the three lists I devised for this occasion, I'd like to offer a few personal thoughts about wacky builds, or as we like to call them in French, les decks de l'espace.

1. Don't Hold Back

This one is simple in its premise, but sometimes rather difficult to set in motion.

What I mean by this one is that you should never ever be afraid of trying something new. Magic: The Gathering is an astonishingly rich world made of cardboard and crazy ideas. With such a massive pool available, chances are the means to achieve your goals exist, no matter how deranged, convoluted, or counter-intuitive they might be.

I'm looking at you, Ashe, and your wonderful and equally terrifying Prismatic Piper deck. I'm looking at you, Cedrian, and your Wernog and Hargilde build that left me clueless. I'm looking at you, GoblinWaltz, and your incredibly efficient Esior and Falthis churning machine.

I'll go one step further: With all the technical means at hand today, brewing has never been easier. You can devise your deck list on Archidekt, Moxfield, Magicville, Deckcheck, or any other platform you want. You can play your decks on Spelltable or Convoke with most of said websites. You can goldfish to your heart's content, or even proxy cards to try your brew before taking the – sometimes expensive – next step.

So basically, knock yourself out, and don't believe for a second that you need to play staples to have fun.

2. Go All the Way

The second take concerns the actual lifespan of said decks. Some decks will last a win or two before you tire of the idea. Some will still offer new and unforeseen emotions after twenty, thirty, a hundred games. Some will require surgical fine-tuning to do their thing, while others will offer a plethora of options to achieve the desired effect.

I strongly advise you not to base your experience with a deck on a couple of games, or even worse, solely through goldfishing.

Don't get me wrong. If the vibe doesn't suit you one bit, that's totally fine. But if you took the time and brain power to build a specific deck, chances are you were looking for something in particular. If that's the case, it's possible that your deck doesn't succeed in scratching that itch the first time you take it out for a spin.

Sure, if after five games all you've achieved is playing some lackluster stuff or staying stuck at three lands, chances are something's wrong. Go back to the chalkboard, and try to figure out what's not ticking.

But you should never be afraid of doing too much.

Like an old acting teacher of mine said "If you feel like you're exaggerating on stage, for the public you're doing it right."

3. Keep Your Horizons Wide Open

For the longest time, I've been keen on building decks with exactly 100 cards. Only recently have I taken to actually building a sideboard of sorts, or more accurately, a maybeboard. I'm sure you've all felt that wrenching feeling at some point, when your list is down to 110 cards, and you don't want to cut anything else, because everything seems essential. Each card removed is a stab, each decision feels like you're committing treason against your commander.

That's exactly what the maybeboard is for. Instead of properly axing a card, never to be seen again, just shove it in the maybeboard, and swap some cards here and there between one game and the other. Not only will this help you figure out what works and what doesn't, it will also bring a whiff of fresh air to your build.

My most over-the-top application of this concept lies with my Jodah, the Unifier deck. The brew includes a large number of legendary creatures – usually in the 60-70 range – from which I'll randomly draw 24 each game, leading to a rather unique experience every single time.

I know, none of the lists I've submitted insofar had such maybeboards. I want to provide playable lists that don't require additional head-scratching. But this shouldn't prevent you from going the extra mile. Or the extra light-year, for the matter.

Which leads me to the final point: have fun. Winning is all well and good, but it's infinitely more gratifying if everyone around the table gets to show what their deck is supposed to do, with highs and lows around the table.

Oh, and as an added bonus: browse the old sets. There are many underplayed gems lying in wait there.

Three Wacky Ideas and Their Lists

Before diving in the lists proper, I'd like to thank the ones among you who commented in the last Branching Out and offered suggestions on which of those I should devise. A big thank you therefore to Boomdiddybop and to Flesh for submitting their picks. I chose one for each of you among your suggestions, and kept the last for myself. And I'm going to restrict this further with the following rules:

1. I decided to forego any list I had already brewed, to bring some of that aforementioned fresh air.
2. I'm also going to try keeping these Bracket 2 to low-3 power-wise, just because that's my favorite spot to play in.
3. Finally, I'm going to avoid Game Changers as much as possible.

Without further ado, let's begin with...

Temmet, Vizier of NaktamunTemmet, Vizier of Naktamun

Temmet is a fun chap to have around. As previously mentioned in the Azorius-dedicated article, I believe there's material here to make a deck that scales with whatever your opponents are playing.

The idea at heart is simple: play a bunch of clone effects that create tokens of creatures, make them unblockable with Temmet, and reap the benefits.

Clone Effects

Let's begin with the meat and bones of the deck. These will give you the means to copy any big bad wolf on the field you deem significant enough to be worth taking.

The beauty of this is that you'll not necessarily make an enemy of the player you're borrowing it from. In fact, it could be seen as a form of flattery: "Your creature is so big and impressive, mind if I get one for myself?"

In essence, these embody what the deck wants to achieve.

Plan Bs

Worse case scenario, your opponents don't provide any juicy morsels for you to copy. If that happens, you can resort to a bunch of fun alternatives of your own, so you don't run out of critters.

I particularly love Phyrexian ProcessorPhyrexian Processor here, especially if you manage to slap some lifegaining abilities onto its token. Having a 20/20 that can be chumped is not that scary. An unblockable 21/21 with lifelink is suddenly an entirely different threat altogether.

I've also included several Equipment with living weapon, as the generated Germ will indeed be rendered unblockable by your commander.

The rest includes the usual assortment of veggies (draw, ramp, removal, protection), as well as a few lifegain outlets.

All of this turns into...

Sapling of ColfenorSapling of Colfenor

With 467 decks to its name, the good old Sapling is definitely an underrated commander. Perhaps it's because of the rather lousy stats for its mana cost. Or maybe it's the lack of pointers towards an obvious strategy.

Whatever the reasons, I believe there's potential for a fun build here.

I see basically two major paths: Treefolk and Lifegain. And I do believe there's room for both merged in one deck.

Sapling of Colfenor excels at one thing in particular: swinging without fear of consequences. The in-built indestructibility means it can attack and trigger ad libitum, no matter the opposition in front (wither or infect excepted). Incidentally, the commander's indestructibility makes it impervious to a lot of board wipes, especially in Bracket 2.

This implies a rather big creature count, to maximize the chances of actually gaining life and drawing a card.

I also like the feel of older days transpiring from this card, when value had to be earned rather than being guaranteed. I'm willing to bet that if this card was released today, it would put the card in your hand no matter what was revealed, and maybe add a dash of surveil or scry to boot. But I digress.

Treefolk... and Friends

This is a creatures deck at its core. It wants to swing, deal a lot of damage, and take the heads of its enemies to adorn its branches back at home.

There's a total of 29 creatures in here, and if not for the veggies requirements, the count would have been even higher.

The main reason is simple: I want to provide some sort of consistency to the Sapling's trigger. Granted, the odds aren't great, but with the lands, ramp and draw, it's hard to push the total much higher.

One solution would be to add ways to sort the top cards of your deck, stuff like Sylvan LibrarySylvan Library, Sensei's Divining TopSensei's Divining Top, or Mirri's GuileMirri's Guile. Trouble is, these are all very expensive cards, and I wanted to keep the total value somewhat reasonable. But if you have access to these , I believe they're close to being auto-includes.

Also, this should ensure your board keeps reasonably threatening, or at the very least big enough to dissuade your opponents from coming your way.

Life, Oh Life... Oooooooh Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiife

Right, so I wanted to fit Des'ree's clip here, but I couldn't find any, grumble grumble.

Anyway, this is the second highlight of the deck: tinkering with life totals.

The Sapling by itself will usually net you some life. Even if you lose it on the spot, this will still register as your vitae going up, and will therefore trigger all sorts of fun outlets.

Aside from the commander, there are a few other lifegain outlets – Verdant Sun's AvatarVerdant Sun's Avatar, Ikra Shidiqi, the UsurperIkra Shidiqi, the Usurper – that will make sure your life total stays up.

And since you're likely to gain a decent amount of life, you might as well wield it as a weapon. The usual suspects are Sanguine BondSanguine Bond, Defiant BloodlordDefiant Bloodlord, and Enduring TenacityEnduring Tenacity, which will act as drain effects, sometimes turning into a double strike of sorts for your team.

I also have a fondness for Tivash, Gloom SummonerTivash, Gloom Summoner, which can pop massive Demons on each of your end steps, if you're so inclined.

The point of all of this is to play with a two-edged sword. On one hand, you'll have an army of trees, ready to take down Orthanc... erm, your opponents. On the other hand you'll be gaining life and life and life, and draining your opponents in the process.

All this leads to...

Baron Von Count

No, don't try to go to EDHREC's page for this commander. There isn't any, and for good reason.

I wanted to end this series with a fun note, and with one of the most exciting Rule Zero commanders to build around.

The good old Baron is, for all intents and purposes, the actual embodiment of a doomsday machine. You play him, and try to protect him as much as you can as the clock slowly ticks down.

To make things clearer, here's how it works: it starts with a counter on the 5. Then when you cast a spell that has the numeral 5 anywhere save for the border and/or the art, you move it one notch left. Repeat for all numerals until you move from 1, at which point it will reset, destroying a player in the process.

That's right. Destroy. The rules clarification clearly indicates that "There aren't any ways for a player to regenerate... yet".

This is a lovely deck to build for several reasons.

First, it requires you to dive deep into Magic's card pool. You need spells with numerals all around that are cheap to cast, to make sure you can trigger the good Baron as often as possible. Granted, you could actually go and have a look at the various deck lists here and there, but I promise you that doing that research by yourself is at least half the fun. While I'll provide such a list further down, I strongly urge you to make the journey by yourself.

Second, it's a game of skips and dodges. Your opponents will do their best to take your commander out as often as possible, so you need ways to either protect him or bring him back from the grave.

Third, when's the last time you had to look into a flavor text to find a golden nugget?

Lou Bega's in the House!

Ok, that was a dated reference if there ever was one. Nevertheless, this is the most important part of the deck.

Some of these spells are obvious choices:

• The infamous Zulaport EnforcerZulaport Enforcer has four of the five needed digits for a puny .
• Staff of DominationStaff of Domination has all five of them for .
• Barbarian ClassBarbarian Class has 1, 2, and 3 for .
• Acererak the ArchlichAcererak the Archlich has all but the 3 in its Secret Lair printing.
• Magus of the MoonMagus of the Moon has all of them and more, while remaining a very playable card.

You get the idea. Bring in as many of those spells as you can, and keep them cheap, ideally strictly under the four-mana value.

Serve and Protect

Do not underestimate this category. Your entire strategy revolves around your commander, so you absolutely need to make sure he stays around. I would play at the very least 10 spells that give it indestructible, hexproof, or bring it back from the dead.

You need it to be a relentless churning machine of doom, making your opponents' death an inevitable outcome; a Sword of Damocles ready to fall at any given moment; a Doctor Strangelove's device of death.

Furthermore, giving hexproof or shroud is rather difficult in Rakdos. Aside from Swiftfoot BootsSwiftfoot Boots and Lightning GreavesLightning Greaves, this will leave several outs for your opponents. Keep this in mind as you lay out your plan. Indestructibility, on the other hand, is extremely easy to give at instant speed in black.

You might notice that I have almost entirely foregone ramp. As the curve is at 1.85, I feel confident that playing 40-ish mana sources should be more than enough to make it through. Plus, I'm fully committed to the strategy.

For this very same reason, I've decided to include none of the classic removal spells. After all, player removal is threat removal.

Finally, you'll find in the Maybeboard a few cards from the other Un-sets. If your group is ok with those, I'd strongly recommend you add them to the list. They won't have any significant effect, but they're cheap and bare a lot if not all of the relevant numerals.

And Ashnod's CouponAshnod's Coupon is hilarious to play with the right table.

Ladies and Gents, Barons and Duchesses, Goblins and Zombies, behold...

Final, Utter, and Definitive Conclusion

I've said it in the past, I'll say it once more: writing this series for the past ten months has been a total and absolute blast.

These brews are a testament to what I believe Magic should be, and I very much hope you had as much enjoyment reading these articles as I had scribbling them.

My utmost thanks to all of you who took their precious time to read and comment. It means a lot, really.

I'll be back in two weeks with something different.

In the meantime, stay wild, brew madly, don't be scared of the wacky, and above everything else, have fun.