(Captain Lannery Storm | Art by Chris Rallis)

These Pirates and Their Treasure...

Good day, friends! Welcome back to Commander Fusion, the series where we scratch that ol’ Simic Biomancer itch and see if we can combine two random commanders into one (semi)coherent deck, using EDHREC data! Today, we have the challenge of joining together two notable swashbucklers from Magic’s history, one a scourge of the sky and the other of the sea. Our commanders today are Vhati il-Dal and Captain Lannery Storm! Let’s jump in, and mind the mainsail while you’re at it.

Vhat-i Are You Doing?

First up on the list today we have Vhati il-Dal, second-in-command of the Flagship Predator, evil counterpart to the Weatherlight we know and love. Vhati teaches us an important lesson whose wisdom we would do well to note: if you’re going to attempt to murder your evil boss with a cannon, make sure you have good aim. Vhati’s first and only appearance in card form comes to us from 1997’s Tempest, with a reprint about once each decade after that. In fact, with his last “reprint” being in 2015’s Tempest Remastered, we may be due for another appearance soon. Anyway, what does Vhati actually do? He’s a 4-mana 3/3 in Golgari () who can tap to give any target creature base power OR toughness 1. What sort of strategies does having this effect in the Command Zone open up to us? Here’s Vhati’s top 10 synergistic cards gathered from his EDHREC page:

1. Massacre Girl, Known Killer
2. Screams from Within
3. Tree of Perdition
4. Patriar's Seal
5. Kaervek, the Spiteful
6. Night of Souls' Betrayal
7. Sting, the Glinting Dagger
8. Pestilence
9. Deathreap Ritual
10. Instill Energy

Honorable mention to Maha, Its Feathers Night, which is still too new at time of writing to be included in this list, but is currently sitting as the most synergistic card in Vhati’s 99. That should give you a pretty good clue as to the main strategy with Vhati- his ability to easily reduce any creature’s toughness to 1 makes it easy to take out event the most intimidating threat with one measly -1/-1 counter. Massacre Girl gives all your creatures wither, meaning a creature just needs to deal one damage to another to kill it after it’s been targeted by Vhati.

Notably, -1/-1 counters are a sneaky way to get around indestructible, as they can reduce a creature’s toughness to 0 while skirting around the direct damage clause. Stacking up Screams from Within, Kaervek, the Spiteful, and Night of Souls’ Betrayal quickly leads to a board state where few creatures your opponents control will be able to survive. Patriar’s Seal, Instill Energy, and Sting also let you untap Vhati to hit as many targets as possible as often as possible. Tree of Perdition gives us some insight into the minds of Vhati players- target the Tree with Vhati’s ability to reduce its toughness to 1, then tap the Tree to bring the life total of the Zoraline, Cosmos Caller player sitting across from you down from 152 to 1 in one fell swoop.

This can be an incredibly controlling and oppressive play style. Is that why Vhati has only 361 decks to his name at this time? No, I don’t think EDH players are always that kind. I mean, Baral exists for a reason, right? I think it’s another case of better options. We’ve already talked about Massacre Girl, who gives all our creatures wither from the command zone, allowing us much more efficiency in our massacre-ing activities. Plus, in the same colors and for two less mana, you have Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons, who rewards us with deathtouch-ing Snakes when we distribute our not-so-pleasant presents. It seems Vhati may be fated to continue being second-best for now.

Storm's A-Brewin'

Moving on, we have Ixalan’s very own Captain Lannery Storm. First appearing in the eponymous 2017 set Ixalan, Captain Storm sailed her way into our hearts with her quippy flavor text appearances (including Rivals of Ixalan’s appearance of THE Colossal Dreadmaw) and her strong Pirate typal and Treasure synergies. Notably, this was at the introduction of Treasure-based strategies, as evidenced by the OG rules text having to explain to everyone exactly what a Treasure token was and what it did, a move which would likely be seen as Rules-splaining today; Treasure strategies, after all, currently sit as the most popular non-typal theme for an EDH deck according to EDHREC data! Captain Storm has provided a pillar in the 99 of these decks; let’s take a look at her synergies down below.

1. Xorn
2. Diamond Pick-Axe
3. Swashbuckler Extraordinaire
4. Brass's Bounty
5. Crime Novelist
6. Sticky Fingers
7. Breeches, Eager Pillager
8. Pirate's Pillage
9. Hit the Mother Lode
10. Academy Manufactor

Captain Storm, true to her name, wants to come in strong and fast. Getting a power boost with each Treasure sacrificed, her top cards encourage an aggressive play style that hits as hard as possible and makes as much Treasure as possible to do it all again. Xorn passively generates more treasure, and Academy Manufactor gives you Food and Clues to play with as well. Diamond Pick-Axe, Swashbuckler Extraordinaire, Sticky Fingers, and Breeches, Eager Pillager all encourage you to swing out, rewarding you with Treasure for doing so. Crime Novelist gets bigger and bigger the more Treasure you spend and gives you more mana to cast big, flashy spells like Brass’s Bounty and Hit the Mother Lode. Captain Lannery Storm is not quiet, and playing her deck will make sure you have the attention of everyone in your pod.

So, how do we explain the fact that she only leads 131 decks at this time? While Captain Storm is a Captain in her own right, she is also subordinate to Admiral Beckett Brass as a member of the Brazen Coalition. I think this is reflected in her play style, too. Captain Storm really shines in the 99 of other Treasure and Pirate commanders, such as both versions of the aforementioned Admiral Brass and others like Edward Kenway; Mr. House, President and CEO; Vihaan, Goldwaker; and Don Andres, the Renegade. Playing the Captain on her own leads to a deck that will likely have big, flashy turns early on, but will fizzle out quickly due to lack of reliable card draw in mono-red.

I Am Your Captain Now

Ok, time for a fusion. Combining both Vhati’s color identity with Captain Storm’s gives us access to black, red, and green cards, a combination also known as Jund. Taking a look at each EDHREC page for the 20 cards we outlined above, let’s generate a shortlist of the top 5 commanders in Jund in which those cards most often appear:

1. Vazi, Keen Negotiator
2. Yurlok of Scorch Thrash
3. The Beamtown Bullies
4. Ognis, the Dragon's Lash
5. Xira, the Golden Sting

I’m starting to sense a theme forming. I love seeing Vazi, Keen Negotiator at the top of this list, as I feel she has such an interesting design space for Jund- Vazi wants to load our opponents up with Treasure, while we reap the rewards from their usage in the form of +1/+1 counters and card draw. With the exception of Ognis, the other commanders on this list also want to give away gifts to our opponents, but at a cost: Yurlok of Scorch Thrash gives extra mana but burns our opponents when they don’t (or can’t) use it, and The Beamtown Bullies want to give away a creature from our graveyard, often an undesirable one. Xira, the Golden Sting give away Egg counters which hatch into delightfully proper little Insects (seriously, I hate wasps, but this token is adorable.) Halloween is on the horizon, and this deck is shaping up to match the spirit perfectly: giving our opponents what appear to be treats, but turn out to be tricks in the end.

How About Tricks AND Treats?

“You must never try to make all the money that’s in a deal. Let the other fellow make some money too, because if you have a reputation for always making all the money, you won’t have many deals.”

– J. Paul Getty, who probably never played Magic

Making a Treasure deck in Jund is similar to what I imagine it would be like to let my son loose in a candy store; all kinds of amazing treats, but not great for my wallet. Seriously folks, take a look at the average Korvold, Fae-Cursed King decklist on the Treasure theme page (and while you’re there, stop a moment and pay your respects to Dockside Extortionist). So much good stuff it will make you sick. We don’t really do generic here at Commander Fusion, and while I recognize the strength of that sort of deck, I’m looking to lean a little bit more heavily into the “giving things away” theme rather than just straight Treasure, Treasure, Treasure.

So, in addition to Vazi’s ability, what other cards out there can just give away treasure to our opponents? Pain Distributor is the perfect example of what we’re trying to do. This non-model citizen gives a Treasure to each player for casting their first spell each turn, but then pings our opponents for 1 each time they use one. A nice little present…at a cost to them. The new Bloodroot Apothecary from the Bloomburrow commander decks really makes our opponents sweat by giving away two poison counters for each non-creature token sacrificed. If an opponent sacs five treasure, that’s game right there. Generous Plunderer; Jolene, the Plunder Queen; Marching Duodrone; and Rankle and Torbran also offer various ways to get Treasure into our opponents’ hands. Descent into Avernus can supply this effect while really speeding up a game, while Bucknard’s Everfull Purse and Contested Game Ball can be passed around the table for everyone’s enjoyment as well. Tempting Contract is another artifact that will make sure everyone at the table has plenty of Treasure to go around.

The more Treasure the table has, the better our deck gets. Cavern-Hoard Dragon can come out quickly with its cost reduction, and can easily replenish our supply of Treasure, which allows us to give more to our opponents, and the cycle continues from there. Sardian Avenger gets a big power buff the more artifacts our opponents control, and like Pain Distributor, punishes them for using the gifts we provide. Vengeful Tracker really puts the hurt on our opponents, burning them for two for each Treasure spent.

But we’re feeling generous here. We don’t want to JUST give away Treasure. What other kinds of things can we give our opponents? In our colors, we have access to four “hunted” cards, i.e., creatures with “Hunted” in their name that are typically undercosted (like a 2-mana 7/7, for example) that come with the “drawback” of giving a number of creature tokens to your opponents. In our deck, however, that’s no drawback! Whether you give creatures away as a political maneuver, or you’re hoping to see the rest of your table beat each other to death with them, this is something we want more of. Hunted Bonebrute, Hunted Dragon, Hunted Horror, and Hunted Troll all slot into this deck quite nicely, alongside Clackbridge Troll, which is almost part of the club but doesn’t have “Hunted” in his name.

We also just got access to a new group of cards that give permanents to our opponents, almost always to our benefit. All of the “Gift” cards from Bloomburrow work nicely here as well. Blooming Blast is the best one in this deck, dealing out a total of five damage and giving an opponent a Treasure. Coiling Rebirth lets us recur a nonlegendary creature from the graveyard and make a token copy of it, for the small price of an opponent drawing a card. Cruelclaw's Heist lets us steal a card from an opponent’s hand, as long as we let them draw and replace it. Finally, Scrapshooter provides valuable removal in exchange for a card as well.

What if gifts aren’t the right love language for your opponents? You could give them the gift of choice! Voting and choice cards let everyone feel like they have a say in the goings-on at the table. Emissary Green is the best one for us; no matter how our opponents vote, we’re either getting Treasure, +1/+1 counters, or both. Seize the Spotlight also give us an opportunity to make more Treasure.

To finish out a game, as always, you want to have options. Revel in Riches, of course, is a tried-and-true wincon for Treasure decks, and getting 10 Treasure tokens in Jund is almost as easy as drawing cards in blue. Great Train Heist is probably the most natural conclusion to Vazi’s gameplan; once your board has been loaded with +1/+1 counters and you’ve drawn Great Train Heist, wait until the perfect time to cast it, buff your creatures even more, and have an extra combat just to drive the point home. I think the most flavorful win for our deck, however, is Captive Audience. What a perfect way to end a game for a deck that is all about not-so-great gifts! If you can wait until it’s a 1v1 game, throw down Captive Audience and watch your opponent cringe. Hope you brought enchantment removal! I believe that is one thing this deck does not give away.

Never Look a Gift Horse...Something Something

There you have it! I hope you all are feeling inspired and refreshed to give your own brewing process a go. Let me know what you think, what synergies I missed, or anything else in the comments down below. Remember, treasure those in your playgroup. In the sense of valuing them as people, of course, but also in the sense of literally smothering them with Treasure. I can’t wait to join you all again for our next Commander Fusion!

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