Gilanra, Caller of WirewoodGilanra, Caller of Wirewood | Art by Jehan Choo

Get Ready to Party!

Hello, and welcome to the new series Partner Party, where I will highlight the near-endless possibilities of brewing around partner commanders by building a deck from a randomly chosen pair each week.

Since Commander 2016, when the first fifteen partner commanders were released, certain pairs have floated to the top of high-powered Commander and cEDH and have caused some players to view the entire mechanic in a negative light.

Commander Legends brought another forty-one partner commanders with it, and, again, a few select legends took the spotlight. Rograkh, Son of RohgahhRograkh, Son of Rohgahh, Malcolm, Keen-Eyed NavigatorMalcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator, and Krark, the ThumblessKrark, the Thumbless had huge impacts on cEDH, but does anyone remember Esior, Wardwing FamiliarEsior, Wardwing Familiar? What about Halana, Kessig RangerHalana, Kessig Ranger?

There are currently fifty-six legendary creatures with partner, excluding "partners with" legends that can only pair with a specific other legend. This means there are a whopping 1,540 possible combinations, each with their own brewing potential.

Among these combinations are decks of every power level, spanning tons of strategies, and often in novel color combinations for those strategies.

Some of these pairings will have tons of data from which to draw, since they're popular partners, and some, like this week's deck, will be uncharted territory, unbrewed strategy.

Which brings me to the partners for today: Armix, Filigree ThrasherArmix, Filigree Thrasher and Gilanra, Caller of WirewoodGilanra, Caller of Wirewood.

Both uncommons from Commander Legends, neither of these legends have huge followings. Armix forms half of the lead of 2,802 decks, and Gilanra helps helm 3,704.

On their own, these numbers would be impressive, but we've got to remember that these are actually the sum of fifty-five different decks for each of these commanders.

There are a grand total of zero decks on EDHREC helmed by exactly by Armix, Filigree ThrasherArmix, Filigree Thrasher and Gilanra, Caller of WirewoodGilanra, Caller of Wirewood, so this may be the very first.

A Promising Alliance

Gilanra, Caller of WirewoodGilanra, Caller of Wirewood is a fine mana-producer and a powerful card draw engine. He works similarly to Up the BeanstalkUp the Beanstalk, which is now banned in both Modern and Standard.

Gilanra can only draw one card per turn, making it less broken than the enchantment, but he works just as well with spells that have a higher mana value than the actual mana we'll be using to cast them.

Armix, Filigree ThrasherArmix, Filigree Thrasher cares about artifacts and discarding and acts as removal in the command zone, pushing us to run as many artifacts as possible and to be able to interact with them in the graveyard.

Putting these two commanders together, one strategy instantly comes to mind. There are multiple high-mana-value cards with affinity for artifacts, meaning we will be able to cast them for cheap but still benefit from Gilanra's draw ability.

Myr EnforcerMyr Enforcer and Mycosynth GolemMycosynth Golem have been around for a long time, but more recently we've gotten Sojourner's CompanionSojourner's Companion and Demonic JunkerDemonic Junker as well.

In this deck, these are efficient beaters that also cantrip, making our opponents reluctant to spend resources dealing with them.

Some other high-cost artifacts function similarly to these affinity spells. Metalwork ColossusMetalwork Colossus will be a cheap 10/10 in this deck, and will also play well with Armix's graveyard synergies.

Excalibur, Sword of EdenExcalibur, Sword of Eden can also come down cheap, especially if we already have a huge historic permanent in play and can give a huge buff to either of our commanders.

And The Capitoline TriadThe Capitoline Triad can benefit off of our graveyard filling and can threaten a huge end game by turning our board into 9/9s.

Moving away from our colorless haymakers, we get to play a few big black creatures that we can easily cast for reduced cost. Herald of AnguishHerald of Anguish lets us improvise to get it out at a discount, and is a massive threat on the board, pressuring our opponents' boards and hands at the same time.

CrabominationCrabomination can emerge from any of our artifacts, and can cast free cards from an opponent. Finally, Salvage TitanSalvage Titan is perfect for this deck, working well with the graveyard and being able to cast itself for free repeatedly.

Tying it All Together

For this deck to function, we need to amass a reasonable number of artifacts in order to fuel both Armix, Filigree ThrasherArmix, Filigree Thrasher and our affinity cards.

Cheap artifacts, like Mishra's BaubleMishra's Bauble, Ichor WellspringIchor Wellspring, and Chromatic StarChromatic Star, are perfect for this deck as an easy way to put artifacts into play without costing us cards.

In this deck specifically, Blood FountainBlood Fountain is a great way to work with the cards we'll be discarding, as are Buried TreasureBuried Treasure and Jack-o'-LanternJack-o'-Lantern once we discard them.

Leaning in further to the fact that we'll be discarding cards regularly, we can throw in some cheap artifacts that reward us for doing just that.

Currency ConverterCurrency Converter and Bag of HoldingBag of Holding are great ways to gain advantage from effects that make us discard, such as Armix's attack trigger.

Containment ConstructContainment Construct lets us cast the cards we discard, negating the card disadvantage, and Monument to EnduranceMonument to Endurance can give us long-term advantage as long as we keep pitching cards.

While we want artifacts in play, we also want to stay in control of how many we have. Gilanra, Caller of WirewoodGilanra, Caller of Wirewood only draws us cards if we use his mana to cast a spell, so we won't draw if our Myr EnforcerMyr Enforcer is entirely free.

A lot of our artifacts can sacrifice themselves, but for the ones that can't we can use Deadly DisputeDeadly Dispute and Fanatical OfferingFanatical Offering to replace them with tokens that we can cash in.

Eviscerator's InsightEviscerator's Insight also joins the club, but is especially nice here since we can discard it for value.

Finally, this deck is fairly dependent on its commanders, so we'll want to include some redundancy to keep our engine going through disruption. The first part of this equation is running a hearty dose of recursion in order to bring our key pieces back, but having a plan B never hurts.

To back up Gilanra, Caller of WirewoodGilanra, Caller of Wirewood, we're running Up the BeanstalkUp the Beanstalk as well as Shred MemoryShred Memory as a way to search it up, and in place of Armix, Filigree ThrasherArmix, Filigree Thrasher, we're playing the newly printed Ninja's BladesNinja's Blades.

The Blades give us a similar discard effect, and work with the high mana values we have in the deck, but goes straight for an opponent's life total rather than targeting their creatures.

These two colors are not commonly played as an artifacts strategy, so there are some powerful recursion pieces we get to play that are usually balanced by the color identity.

Skeleton ShardSkeleton Shard is a crazy rate, letting us loop through powerful artifact creatures, like Noxious GearhulkNoxious Gearhulk or even the lowly Haywire MiteHaywire Mite, repeatedly.

Glissa, the TraitorGlissa, the Traitor is an engine in and of herself, bringing back all of our trinkets as the game progresses.

For perspective, Glissa offers at three mana what we would have to pay six for in colorless in Salvaging StationSalvaging Station, and even the more expensive card is worth a slot in this deck.

Finally, Sarinth SteelseekerSarinth Steelseeker is a great way to fill our graveyard and hit our land drops, and should trigger multiple times per turn.

Spicy Inclusions

Ancient CellarspawnAncient Cellarspawn briefly excited some Legacy players who wanted to use it alongside spells like Force of WillForce of Will to burn out opponents in a Control deck, but that hype faded quickly.

This, however, is an incredible home for the Horror. It will reliably hit opponents in chunks of five or even ten, making it a real threat once life totals start to dip.

Fangren MarauderFangren Marauder is not cheap for a creature that just gains life, but once it's in play it can get ridiculous. Five life for every Urza's BaubleUrza's Bauble or TerrarionTerrarion we crack adds up quickly, and it even counts our opponents' artifacts as well.

Plus, we want our chunky spells to cost six or more so we can draw off of Gilanra, Caller of WirewoodGilanra, Caller of Wirewood, so this fits into our curve perfectly.

Ovalchase DaredevilOvalchase Daredevil is the perfect card to discard. It comes right back almost at will in this deck, and can even pull its weight on the battlefield as a recursive blocker or decently sized threat.

Winning the Game

This is a grindy, attrition-based deck through and through, looking to interact with our opponents' threats and keep our hand full. Most of our creatures are chunky, if not huge.

Mycosynth GolemMycosynth Golem won't make anyone run away in fear, but it can get quite a bit of work done, and if we can manage to cantrip off of all of our 4/4s and 4/5s, then we can certainly build up quite the board.

That being said, there are a few cards that can accelerate this plan quite a bit. The Capitoline TriadThe Capitoline Triad's ability is actually very easy to activate in this deck, since we combine plenty of discard with high mana values, and that emblem can make even our humble commanders into game-ending threats.

And speaking of game-ending commanders, Excalibur, Sword of EdenExcalibur, Sword of Eden can turn either commander into a two-turn clock, especially if we can use Rogue's PassageRogue's Passage to make it unblockable.

The Decklist

This is both a fun deck to play and a deck that I never would have thought of without trying to find the common ground between these two partners.

In a way, the fact that Armix and Gilanra are so different from each other defines a very specific niche of cards that works well with both and provides a clear path for brewing a deck around them.

I've always wanted a reason to play Myr EnforcerMyr Enforcer in Commander, and this is the perfect deck for it, alongside some of my favorite cards like Currency ConverterCurrency Converter and Metalwork ColossusMetalwork Colossus.

If you like grinding out value using a ton of underplayed cards with overlapping synergies, give this deck a whirl, or try out your own fun new partner deck!

Is this how you would have built the deck? Do you have a version of this deck in paper that EDHREC hasn't found? Let me know in the comments!