Honest RutsteinHonest Rutstein | Art by Javier Charro

Continuing with the theme from last week of creature types featured in Secrets of Strixhaven that start with the letter “W,” our subject this week is a relatively new creature type to the game of Magic. In fact, I didn’t even know that this creature type was a thing growing up; I thought it was just a variant of Wizard. Learning about this creature type in Dungeons & Dragons taught me about the very nature of magic in fantasy settings. And I am forever grateful to this type for that.

Have you guessed it? It’s Warlocks!

This Warlock deck is going to be largely influenced by the Witherbloom College on Strixhaven and the flavor represented by the College specifically and by the teamwork that schools tend to require in general. The concept for the union of these pieces is the Warlock class in Dungeons & Dragons. Specifically, it’s based on this quote from Richard Baker, author of Complete Arcane:

“The Warlock only knows a handful of different tricks. On the bright side, the tricks are all spooky, creepy, and oozing with flavor.”

The source of a Warlock’s power is the pact they’ve made with a non-divine supernatural entity. The Gloom, Dark, Fey, and Infernal pacts seem easiest to convert to Magic. Gloom connects with the shadows and binds opponents, which works with Silverquill’s Aura theme and could be commanded by Eriette of the Charmed AppleEriette of the Charmed Apple.

Dark grants spells of plagues, illness, and disease and could be commanded by Lynde, Cheerful TormentorLynde, Cheerful Tormentor. Fey gives the user access to wondrous and dangerous spells and could be commanded by Hama, the BloodbenderHama, the Bloodbender.

Each of these could be really cool builds and might be revisited later. For now, though, we’re going to build around a different pact: Honest RutsteinHonest Rutstein, with the Infernal pact.

Warlock History

The Infernal pact is an intriguing one; it grants the user powers of hellish and demonic proportions. This Commander deck will be focused on the demonic proportions aspect, as well as the Eldritch Blast attack Warlocks are known for. It will do this by exploiting the primary difference between Wizards and Warlocks in Magic: Wizards gain temporary power from instants and sorcery spells, while Warlocks gain power by loading up the graveyard with creatures.

Interestingly, Warlocks were late additions to both Magic and Dungeons & Dragons. In Magic, Warlocks weren’t introduced until Throne of Eldraine in 2019. In Dungeons & Dragons, the Warlock class was introduced in 3.5 Edition, with the Pacts being introduced in 4th Edition. In both, Warlocks tend to be darker, edgier spellcasters that draw their power from their relationship with their patron instead of from the knowledge they’ve gained through studying, like a Wizard.

While the Wizards of Prismari work together to cast big, splashy spells, the Warlocks of Witherbloom are playing in the dirt together. We’re looking to load up the graveyard, dig our way out of the depths, and smack our opponents in the face with the friends we’ve met along the way.

But how do we win with these grave shenanigans? And what do we do while setting up our engines?

What Does Honest RutsteinHonest Rutstein Do?

Similar to Kaza, Roil ChaserKaza, Roil Chaser from last week, Honest RutsteinHonest Rutstein is a neat role player of a commander. It also helps with our explosiveness by providing mana with a bit of upside.

Many commanders make things easy by providing clear directions to build with both engines and payoffs on the card itself. Kaza and Rutstein each come down early and make our other cards better, but won’t be winning any games by themselves, which is just how I like it. This is where creativity comes from.

Rutstein’s primary ability is the static cost reduction provided to our creature spells. Since this is a Typal deck, we will have plenty of creatures to reduce, and this helps us cast multiple spells in a turn. Since we're building around using and abusing the graveyard, we can recover quickly from a board wipe. This is why we don’t worry about overextending with Rutstein’s cost reduction.

In fact, we want our creatures going to the graveyard.

Speaking of the graveyard, Rutstein’s secondary ability makes it a cheaper, stronger GravediggerGravedigger. GravediggerGravedigger has been a staple for so long, it even got an upgrade in GraveshifterGraveshifter, a changeling version of the creature. The Raise DeadRaise Dead effect lets us use our grave as a second hand, getting our Warlocks back to use again, even cheaper with the cost reduction.

But how can we win with a role-playing commander? And what do these Warlocks actually do?

Key Cards for Honest RutsteinHonest Rutstein

Warlocks might not have been a supported type for long, but Witherbloom College and the Elves of Lorwyn Eclipsed have provided a decent enough group of playable creatures that an identity can begin to form. In particular, we’re going to focus on Warlocks that fill the graveyard or provide some modicum of incremental advantage, like our commander’s Raise DeadRaise Dead ability.

We start with a couple of bangers from Secrets of Strixhaven, showing off the new prepare creatures. Scar, from the Lion King, would be proud, as Honest RutsteinHonest Rutstein’s cost reduction makes it so we can often have our creatures be prepared to use their spells as soon as they come out and the Raise DeadRaise Dead effectively brings two spells back for the price of one.

And what spells they are, as Emeritus of WoeEmeritus of Woe gives us Demonic TutorDemonic Tutor and Grave ResearcherGrave Researcher gives us ReanimateReanimate, both classic black staples.

The Emeritus isn’t our only means of tutoring, as Vile EntomberVile Entomber and Oriq LoremageOriq Loremage, the latter a holdover from the first Strixhaven set, both tutor up creatures to put in our graveyard. While EntombEntomb is a powerful spell, the fact that we can put it on a body that Rutstein can discount and reanimate to use again means that we can do the job with Warlocks, always key to a Typal strategy.

But what do we do with the creatures once we’ve put them there?

While our commander does give us access to the graveyard, it can only do that once (unless it dies, but more on that in a bit), and it only puts the creature into our hand. Sometimes we need board presence more than cute tricks. And even a cost reduction can be too much.

Sidisi lets us reanimate a creature by sacrificing a creature with one less mana in its cost (see? That didn’t take long). Bonebind OratorBonebind Orator is another Raise DeadRaise Dead effect, and we even get another one with Cheerful OsteomancerCheerful Osteomancer. It’s becoming a recurring ability and part of what gives a creature type unique flavor.

We have plenty of creatures that fill our grave, but sometimes we want to do it a bit faster. Ripples of UndeathRipples of Undeath is a classic grave filler, giving us incremental advantage turn after turn by letting us choose what we want now and what to set aside for later. Deadbridge ChantDeadbridge Chant, on the other hand, is a massive piece of self-mill with reanimation attached, doing pretty much everything we want in one, albeit pricey, card.

We can also sacrifice creatures to certain enchantments for graveyard purposes as well as for advantage. Phyrexian ReclamationPhyrexian Reclamation and Tortured ExistenceTortured Existence are both cheap engine cards that trade creatures for resources. They also happen to be enchantments, like Ripples and the Chant, the importance of which will be seen momentarily.

High MarketHigh Market lets us sneak another sacrifice effect into our manabase, while Volrath's StrongholdVolrath's Stronghold is another piece of reanimation tech. If we can draw cards at instant speed, we can even recover the creature the Stronghold put on top the same turn. Mana efficiency is vital when we need to pay for the effects and use the land in addition, which is where Rutstein’s cost reduction is key.

How Does This Honest RutsteinHonest Rutstein Commander Deck Win?

Season of LossSeason of Loss and The Final DaysThe Final Days have powerful and relatively unique abilities that replicate the burst of damage that Eldritch Blast provides. While they haven’t been printed enough to be the bread and butter of the deck the way Eldritch Blast is to Dungeons & Dragons Warlocks, they do a great job of ending games.

Season of LossSeason of Loss makes opponents lose life equal to the number of creatures in our grave, and The Final DaysThe Final Days does so in a roundabout way, by making Zombies for each creature in our grave. Both have additional functionality and provide a potent payoff for our graveyard filling. O

ne of the bigger risks with a creature type that uses zones other than the battlefield as part of its setup is that its boards can get overwhelmed, but bursts of noncombat damage and "armies in a can" (singular cards that provide a massive board state) can break board stalls and win races.

Strength from the FallenStrength from the Fallen is perhaps the riskiest card in the deck. It pumps a creature by the amount of creatures in our grave each time an enchantment enters. For this to work, we need creatures on board, creatures in the grave, and enchantments entering. Some decks make this work by using enchantment creatures. We do it by using creatures and permanents that fill our grave alongside roleplaying enchantments, many of which have been featured in previous sections.

Criminal PastCriminal Past is one such enchantment, pumping our commander for each creature in our grave. We can stack the pumps with the strength, making it so we can even commander damage a player with our roleplaying commander. Now that’s an accomplishment!

Honest Rutstein Commander Deck List

Conclusion

Warlocks are an open canvas with several different ways to build: self-mill, Curses, Demons, Auras, stealing…all provide different and fun play patterns.

But how would you build Warlocks? And are there other routes than the ones listed?