Building a Powerful Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient Commander Deck

<h6 style="text-align: right;">(<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed" href="#" target="_blank">Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed</a> | Art by <a href="https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3A%E2%80%9CJunko+Taguchi%E2%80%9D&amp;unique=art">Junko Taguchi</a>)</h6>
<h1>One-Eyed Willy</h1>
Hello again, friends! My name is Seth Cross, and welcome back to Uncommonders, the series that explores underappreciated commanders printed at the uncommon level. Though this series started with Dominaria's twenty uncommon legends, I also wanted to include older Uncommonders, as well as rares that were downshifted in rarity, to see how brand new cards affect those uncommon legends and make them more powerful.
As a Golgari and generally mono-black player, one of the most exciting new cards from War of the Spark is <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Bolas’s Citadel" href="#" target="_blank">Bolas’s Citadel</a>, with all its delicious combo potential. Looking through all the pre-Dominaria Uncommonders, I noticed an Uncommonder that can run Citadel with ease. Of course, I'm talking about...
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed</h2>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed"></div></div>
Xiahou is a unique commander due to the wording of the printed ability and the fact that Horsemanship is a fairly rare mechanic. Since the card does not have reminder text, Horsemanship means “this creature can’t be blocked except by creatures with Horsemanship.” Basically, a different version of flying.
Xiahou’s other ability is unique because of the timing restrictions (pre-combat main phase only) and that it retrieves from your graveyard any black card, not just a creature. This enables a few interesting strategies, but for us, it can act as recursion for <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Bolas&#039;s Citadel" href="#" target="_blank">Bolas&#039;s Citadel</a>, since it is a black card instead of a regular colorless artifact. This gives us the ability to play some cool spells, then play them again and again.
Normally, Xiahou is built with powerful black instants and sorceries - a card type mono-black cannot regularly recur. I'd like to break that tradition, though. There are only a few key cards he needs to recur, namely that precious, precious Citadel. Let's lean into that Citadel synergy - instead of building an instant and sorcery Xiahou Dun deck, we're building a mono-black artifact master.
<hr />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Some Necessary Artifice</h3>
To properly build around <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Bolas&#039;s Citadel" href="#" target="_blank">Bolas&#039;s Citadel</a>, let's see what cards are most often paired with it. Looking at the artifact's main EDHREC page, I was not at all surprised to see <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Aetherflux Reservoir" href="#" target="_blank">Aetherflux Reservoir</a> as part of the Signature Cards and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Sensei’s Divining Top" href="#" target="_blank">Sensei’s Divining Top</a> in the Top Cards.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-33418 aligncenter" src="https://articles.edhrec.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/EDHREC.png" alt="" width="700" height="408" />
While Citadel lets us play the first land that winds up on top of our deck, we cannot be expected to have too many extra land drops without green in the deck. Top helps us move them away and keep the combo going. Reservoir’s lifegain keeps us alive as we start to combo off, since we will be paying life to play cards from our deck.
<hr />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Insurance In-Depth</h3>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Krark-Clan Ironworks"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Buried Ruin"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Trading Post"></div></div>
Both Reservoir and Citadel are very dangerous cards to see on the battlefield, and will attract removal spells. Xiahou can retrieve Citadel, and artifacts can often be recurred by other artifacts, though we should be wary of exile effects like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Return to Dust" href="#" target="_blank">Return to Dust</a>. We'd much prefer our artifacts end up in the graveyard than in exile, so to guarantee our artifacts don't go away forever, we'll include some sacrifice outlets, to make sure we can recur those artifacts if we need to. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Trading Post" href="#" target="_blank">Trading Post</a> is a staple in artifact-based decks because it can both sacrifice and recur our important pieces. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Krark-Clan Ironworks" href="#" target="_blank">Krark-Clan Ironworks</a> gives us an instant-speed sacrifice to generate mana. The other two options I like for the deck are <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Claws of Gix" href="#" target="_blank">Claws of Gix</a>, which has recently seen some love on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5d1KNNFArSNNRrpJjhf1WrwwuZqUcg0K">Commander Vs</a>, and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Syndicate Trafficker" href="#" target="_blank">Syndicate Trafficker</a>, a more recent addition to the package.
Unfortunately, mono-black has few options to return artifacts from the graveyard when those artifacts are not creatures. By few of course, we mean next to none. The only ones I know of are <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Beacon of Unrest" href="#" target="_blank">Beacon of Unrest</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Fortuitous Find" href="#" target="_blank">Fortuitous Find</a>. The latter isn't very impressive, and though the former is nice enough for recursion, it doesn't synergize with Xiahou's ability, since it shuffles back into the library.
We can therefore facilitate our recursion by running the staples like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Myr Retriever" href="#" target="_blank">Myr Retriever</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Junk Diver" href="#" target="_blank">Junk Diver</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Buried Ruin" href="#" target="_blank">Buried Ruin</a>, and depending on how artifact-heavy the list becomes, maybe <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Scrap Trawler" href="#" target="_blank">Scrap Trawler</a>. The idea of making Treasure tokens and sacrificing them to the aforementioned Ironworks is too much fun to not include, so you may notice both <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Pitiless Plunderer" href="#" target="_blank">Pitiless Plunderer</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Revel in Riches" href="#" target="_blank">Revel in Riches</a> in the deck, too. Then, since we are looking at sacrificing some Treasure tokens, I cannot resist running my favorite card from all of Kaladesh block, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Marionette Master" href="#" target="_blank">Marionette Master</a>.
<hr />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Cheating on Your Taxes</h3>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Palace Siege"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Volrath’s Stronghold"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Phyrexian Reclamation"></div></div>
A quick disclaimer: this section is about cheating on your commander tax! Do not cheat on your real taxes! You have been warned!
Xiahou does not suffer from the problem experienced by other commanders with "dies" triggers, such as <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Elenda, the Dusk Rose" href="#" target="_blank">Elenda, the Dusk Rose</a>. With his updated oracle text, he can sacrifice himself to his own ability, be replaced into the command zone, and still return a black card to your hand. This is a cool advantage to have, but it will increase commander tax. Let's look at ways to avoid increased commander tax; since mono-black is the color of recursion, we have many options.
I am always an advocate of repeatable effects, so <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Volrath’s Stronghold" href="#" target="_blank">Volrath’s Stronghold</a> is great for the deck. It is doubly synergistic because, with Citadel out, we can pay four life to replay Xiahou, potentially getting back multiple cards in one turn! Another repeatable effect is <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Palace Siege" href="#" target="_blank">Palace Siege</a>, naming 'Khans' to return creatures, though funny enough, Xiahou can also return this enchantment if need be! <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Victimize" href="#" target="_blank">Victimize</a> is not normally a repeatable effect, but with Xiahou’s ability and enough mana, we can keep looping the spell for maximum value. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Helm of the Host" href="#" target="_blank">Helm of the Host</a> seems to be good in any deck that runs it, and this is no exception. Making nonlegendary copies of Xiahou to recur spells is pure value. Then there's <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Phyrexian Reclamation" href="#" target="_blank">Phyrexian Reclamation</a>, also repeatable recursion, and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mimic Vat" href="#" target="_blank">Mimic Vat</a>, which can help us make Xiahou copies once a turn.
NOTE: It is important to be careful with Vat. If Xiahou is exiled under it and Vat is destroyed, there is no way to return him to the command zone. Make sure you have some creature sacrifice outlets that you can activate to push Xiahou back into the graveyard if someone goes to remove Vat. For the most part, sacrifice outlets that act as mana abilities (<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Phyrexian Altar" href="#" target="_blank">Phyrexian Altar</a> or <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Ashnod’s Altar" href="#" target="_blank">Ashnod’s Altar</a> for example) are best, to avoid the green player’s <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Krosan Grip" href="#" target="_blank">Krosan Grip</a>.
<hr />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Panic Buttons!</h3>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Perpetual Timepiece"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Whip of Erebos"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Relic of Progenitus"></div></div>
For the sake of safety, I do like have a safety button or two when it comes to putting my commander in the graveyard. If someone goes to disrupt your recursion, and Xiahou winds up stuck in the graveyard, things can get rough. In these instances, exiling Xiahou and putting him into the command zone via replacement effect might be the only answer. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Relic of Progenitus" href="#" target="_blank">Relic of Progenitus</a> is one such example. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Whip of Erebos" href="#" target="_blank">Whip of Erebos</a> is another good option, because we can still sacrifice Xiahou before he gets exiled at the end of turn. I also enjoy <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Perpetual Timepiece" href="#" target="_blank">Perpetual Timepiece</a> to shuffle our graveyard back into our deck, also triggering a commander replacement effect when Xiahou would change zones. While this may take away some of our options for Xiahou later, the ends justify the means if we need our commander back. It also doubles up on value if Citadel is on the battlefield, and we need to shave a couple of lands off the top of our library (plus, any black cards we mill are great targets for Xiahou later)!
Throw in a couple Wrath effects (I count <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Living Death" href="#" target="_blank">Living Death</a> as the first one), some removal, ramp and card advantage (especially anything that is black that Xiahou can recur) and the list might look something like this:
<div class="edhrecp__deck mtgh"></div> 
[Commander] 
*1 Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed 
[/Commander] 
[Artifact] 
*1 Aetherflux Reservoir 
*1 Blackblade Reforged 
*1 Bolas's Citadel 
*1 Claws of Gix 
*1 Crucible of Worlds 
*1 Expedition Map 
*1 Gilded Lotus 
*1 Helm of the Host 
*1 Jet Medallion 
*1 Krark-Clan Ironworks 
*1 Lashwrithe 
*1 Mimic Vat 
*1 Mind Stone 
*1 Nevinyrral's Disk 
*1 Nim Deathmantle 
*1 Perpetual Timepiece 
*1 Phyrexian Altar 
*1 Relic of Progenitus 
*1 Sensei's Divining Top 
*1 Skullclamp 
*1 Sol Ring 
*1 Spine of Ish Sah 
*1 Trading Post 
[/artifact] 
[Land] 
*1 Bojuka Bog 
*1 Buried Ruin 
*1 Cabal Coffers 
*1 Cabal Stronghold 
*1 Command Beacon 
*1 Inventors' Fair 
*1 Myriad Landscape 
*1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx 
*26 Snow-Covered Swamp 
*1 Strip Mine 
*1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 
*1 Volrath's Stronghold 
[/Land] 
[Instant] 
*1 Cabal Ritual 
*1 Dark Ritual 
*1 Entomb 
*1 Hatred 
*1 Vampiric Tutor 
[/Instant] 
[Creature] 
*1 Junk Diver 
*1 Marionette Master 
*1 Midnight Reaper 
*1 Mindslicer 
*1 Myr Retriever 
*1 Necrotic Ooze 
*1 Pitiless Plunderer 
*1 Plaguecrafter 
*1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier 
*1 Solemn Simulacrum 
*1 Syndicate Trafficker 
*1 Vampire Hexmage 
[/creature] 
[Planeswalker] 
*1 Liliana, Dreadhorde General 
[/Planeswalker] 
[Enchantment] 
*1 Arguel's Blood Fast 
*1 Palace Siege 
*1 Phyrexian Reclamation 
*1 Revel in Riches 
*1 Whip of Erebos 
[/Enchantment] 
[Sorcery] 
*1 Beacon of Unrest 
*1 Buried Alive 
*1 Damnation 
*1 Living Death 
*1 Read the Bones 
*1 Reanimate 
*1 Sign in Blood 
*1 Toxic Deluge 
*1 Victimize 
*1 Yawgmoth's Will 
[/Sorcery] 
[/Deck]

<hr />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Different Brewing Angles</h3>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Bolas’s Citadel"></div></div>
For this deck, the commander is mostly a facilitator for <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Bolas&#039;s Citadel" href="#" target="_blank">Bolas&#039;s Citadel</a> in the 99. Paying life instead of mana is extremely powerful in Magic, so I'm happy to build around what is easily one of my favorite cards from War of the Spark. This take isn't necessarily mainstream for Xiahou - playing a support role rather than the leading role - but it is interesting space to explore.
Looking back at the comments on last week's article from Twitter, Reddit and the comment section of the article itself, my favorite came from /u/TheCinniWinni on Reddit, who wrote:
<blockquote>Hello my friend! I have a [[Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed]] edh deck, and it's super flexible!! Also, he has horsemanship, which is pseudo-unblockable, and black has a ton of ways to buff him by sacrificing your own creatures.</blockquote>
They went more in-depth with their response and you can read the rest of it by clicking <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/EDH/comments/bkaozk/think_those_sonic_images_are_bad_check_out_how/emhwfyz?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=web2x">here</a>. We can get inspired by so many different aspects of the game, including someone else’s ideas or basic concepts, and that is awesome to see. When brewing decks, try to surround yourself with those personalities, to bounce ideas around and come up with something new and cool!
Of course, if you want to bounce ideas for decks with me or just talk about Commander or Magic in general with me, make sure you are <a href="https://www.twitter.com/DM_Cross">following me on Twitter</a>. I am also a part of the Praetor Magic group, where we make <a href="https://www.youtube.com/praetormagic">YouTube videos</a> every month, perform a live Podcast <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/praetormagic">Twitch stream</a> as well as gameplay streams every week and host a <a href="https://discord.gg/CrNHmTE">public Discord server</a> dedicated to bringing people together over the idea of cheap Commander games! I hope to see you out there and until next time, you know what to do;
Keep reanimating those bombs! (Because casting them just once is never enough!)

Uncommonders - Xiahou, Bolas's Janitor

Well, ladies and goblins we are back for another installment of Replacement commanders! This series looks at all the non-face, non-Eminence or “alternate” legendary creatures for the commander 2017 precons and breaks each one down by their colors, stats, types and abilities. Once we identify the different traits of each commander, we look at the data present in EDHREC.com and compile a decklist of the most synergistic cards for the given commander. The overall result is a “precon”-esque list that normally spotlights many different qualities of the commander. From there, we use themes, searches and other filters from EDHREC.com and sometimes the EDHREC.com-powered Scryfall.com to plot and scheme a few different strategies for each legendary creature that can surprise, shock and awe our opponents at the table. This is the seventh installment of this eight-article series, so that means we have covered most of the “alternate” commanders from the precons. We have seen all the Vampires and Wizards and there is only a Cat and a Dragon left. As always, I posted a poll on my Twitter (@DM_Cross) for people to tell me which one they wanted to see first. And the winner for this week is… <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Ramos, Dragon Engine" href="#" target="_blank">Ramos, Dragon Engine</a>!
<hr />
<h2>Ramos is THE Engine!</h2>
I am going to be completely upfront and honest with all of you readers. When I first thought of this series, I was more excited about certain commanders over others. I started the series off writing about <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mathas, Fiend Seeker" href="#" target="_blank">Mathas, Fiend Seeker</a> because I am partial to political commanders and Vampires and he is both rolled into one commander. Some of the other legendary creatures, however, I had no idea where I was going until I sat down and clicked around on EDHREC.com and Scryfall.com. These were <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Licia, Sanguine Tribune" href="#" target="_blank">Licia, Sanguine Tribune</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami" href="#" target="_blank">O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami</a> and they became some of my favorite parts of the series. But now… I finally can talk about one of the legendary creatures I was the most excited for when they were all spoiled a few months ago. Ramos has an amazing ability because he is not really a DRAGON engine… He is a VALUE ENGINE!
<img decoding="async" id="ctl00_ctl00_ctl00_MainContent_SubContent_SubContent_cardImage" class="aligncenter" src="http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=433296&amp;type=card" alt="Ramos, Dragon Engine" />
“Why?” you may ask. “What is so great about <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Ramos, Dragon Engine" href="#" target="_blank">Ramos, Dragon Engine</a>?” I cannot wait to tell you! The Dragon Engine has many interesting qualities and I do admit that not all of them make him stronger. The first thing we should notice is that he is not just a legendary creature, but a Legendary Artifact Creature. This means he can interact with cards that deal with artifacts (oh, hello there, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Darksteel Forge" href="#" target="_blank">Darksteel Forge</a>) but it also means that he is open to an entire new suite of removal and hate cards that normal creatures do not have to worry about. Having said that, I believe this is a fair trade-off for the fact that we can cast our commander for any mixture of six mana while also having a five-color deck. So if we draw three <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Island" href="#" target="_blank">Island</a>s in a row, we still have access to our commander as soon as we have six lands (or additional sources of mana, of course)! Looking at the power and toughness, we might think that a 4/4 for six mana is not optimal, but Ramos probably will not stay a mere 4/4 for very long. One thing we are going to notice in the EDHREC.com generated decklist is that there are more multi-colored spells than mono-colored spells. The more colors of the spells we cast, the faster we stack counters on Ramos and can potentially hit people for Blackjack (see: commander Damage) and then remove the counters to keep casting even more spells. Like I said, this dragon is a pure value engine! Let us look at the list from EDHREC.com:
<div class="edhrecp__deck mtgh"><span class="edhrecp__deck-s" name="Ramos, Value Engine" site="edhrec" archidekt_link="" cards="[Commander]
*1 Ramos, Dragon Engine
[/commander]
[Lands]
*1 Arid Mesa
*1 Breeding Pool
*1 Command Tower
*1 Evolving Wilds
*1 Exotic Orchard
*1 Flooded Strand
*4 Forest
*4 Island
*1 Mana Confluence
*1 Marsh Flats
*1 Misty Rainforest
*3 Mountain
*1 Opulent Palace
*1 Overgrown Tomb
*1 Path of Ancestry
*3 Plains
*1 Polluted Delta
*1 Reflecting Pool
*1 Scalding Tarn
*4 Swamp
*1 Terramorphic Expanse
*1 Verdant Catacombs
*1 Watery Grave
[/Lands]
[Enchantments]
*1 Doubling Season
*1 Hardened Scales
*1 Inexorable Tide
*1 Maelstrom Nexus
*1 Mayael&#039;s Aria
*1 Mirari&#039;s Wake
*1 Prismatic Omen
*1 Rhystic Study
*1 Sunbird&#039;s Invocation
*1 Temur Ascendancy
[/Enchantments]
[Sorceries]
*1 All Suns&#039; Dawn
*1 Bring to Light
*1 Conflux
*1 Cruel Ultimatum
*1 Crux of Fate
*1 Cultivate
*1 Decimate
*1 Demonic Tutor
*1 Duneblast
*1 Farseek
*1 Increasing Savagery
*1 Kodama&#039;s Reach
*1 Merciless Eviction
*1 Seasons Past
*1 Supreme Verdict
*1 Tempt with Discovery
*1 Villainous Wealth
[/Sorceries]
[Artifacts]
*1 Chromatic Lantern
*1 commander&#039;s Sphere
*1 Darksteel Ingot
*1 Door to Nothingness
*1 Fellwar Stone
*1 Fist of Suns
*1 Legacy Weapon
*1 Lightning Greaves
*1 Primal Amulet
*1 Prismatic Geoscope
*1 Vedalken Orrery
[/Artifacts]
[Planeswalker]
*1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
[/Planeswalker]
[Creatures]
*1 Atraxa, Praetors&#039; Voice
*1 Birds of Paradise
*1 Chromanticore
*1 Corpsejack Menace
*1 Etched Monstrosity
*1 Forgotten Ancient
*1 Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis
*1 Maelstrom Archangel
*1 Maelstrom Wanderer
*1 Marchesa, the Black Rose
*1 Rashmi, Eternities Crafter
*1 Reyhan, Last of the Abzan
*1 Transguild Courier
*1 Vorel of the Hull Clade
*1 Winding Constrictor
*1 Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder
[/Creatures]
[Instants]
*1 Abzan Charm
*1 Anguished Unmaking
*1 Boros Charm
*1 Golgari Charm
*1 Jund Charm
*1 Mortify
*1 Simic Charm
*1 Vampiric Tutor
[/Instants]"></div>
NOTE: I want to point out that when I was building the mana base, I noticed that the casting cost of the cards leaned heavily toward green, black, and blue, in that order. Therefore, I catered more toward those colors when it came to dual-colored lands and ways to fetch them out. The result was that those three colors were equally represented in my mana base at 23.4% while white and red were still decently present at 14.9% each. I also focused more on mana rocks that were capable of multiple (or simply all) colors to try to help balance things out.
Let us look at some of the cards in this list for a moment. Three stand out to me the most and they are <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Atraxa, Praetors&#039; Voice" href="#" target="_blank">Atraxa, Praetors&#039; Voice</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis" href="#" target="_blank">Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis</a>, and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder" href="#" target="_blank">Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder</a>. Not only are these four-colored creature spells, they have great effects that interact with what Ramos wants to do. Cascade allows you to cast the card you cascade into, Atraxa will help increase the number of counters on the Dragon Engine and K-and-T helps us draw cards and put any land onto the battlefield. Some other good cards are <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Hardened Scales" href="#" target="_blank">Hardened Scales</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Winding Constrictor" href="#" target="_blank">Winding Constrictor</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Doubling Season" href="#" target="_blank">Doubling Season</a>, and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Corpsejack Menace" href="#" target="_blank">Corpsejack Menace</a> which also turn even mono-colored spells into multiple counters for Ramos and accelerate the value we pump out. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Fist of Suns" href="#" target="_blank">Fist of Suns</a> is an interesting card for Ramos decks because it allows us to basically pump out two big spells if we pop Ramos' second ability.
&nbsp;
<h3>Focus Fire on Three Color Ramos!</h3>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-13650 aligncenter" src="http://articles.edhrec.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/DS.jpg" alt="" width="666" height="307" />
We briefly touched on the fact that we do not need access to all five colors of mana to cast Ramos. We can take this one step further and build a deck that has only uses certain colors. Given that the Dragon Engine deals with +1/+1 counters, I think the best color combination for him are Abzan colors, so white, black and green. Envision using a shell like that of a <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Ghave, Guru of Spores" href="#" target="_blank">Ghave, Guru of Spores</a> deck. We already had <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Corpsejack Menace" href="#" target="_blank">Corpsejack Menace</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Hardened Scales" href="#" target="_blank">Hardened Scales</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Winding Constrictor" href="#" target="_blank">Winding Constrictor</a>, and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Doubling Season" href="#" target="_blank">Doubling Season</a>, so we know we are going to generate a large amount of counters. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Cathars&#039; Crusade" href="#" target="_blank">Cathars&#039; Crusade</a> will generate even more with token makers, which will also benefit from the <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Doubling Season" href="#" target="_blank">Doubling Season</a> we already have. Toss in <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Anointed Procession" href="#" target="_blank">Anointed Procession</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Parallel Lives" href="#" target="_blank">Parallel Lives</a> means even more tokens and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Primal Vigor" href="#" target="_blank">Primal Vigor</a> is the best of both worlds. Token generators like Ghave, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Avenger of Zendikar" href="#" target="_blank">Avenger of Zendikar</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Grave Titan" href="#" target="_blank">Grave Titan</a> will help us <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Overrun" href="#" target="_blank">Overrun</a> the field for a victory.
&nbsp;
<h3>When in Doubt, Chaos 'em Out!</h3>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-13649 aligncenter" src="http://articles.edhrec.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Ramos_Chaos.jpg" alt="" width="668" height="309" />
Over the years, I've played many Commander decks using many strategies and archetypes. One that I've never really played, because I have simply never enjoyed it, is chaos. The idea of a chaos deck is to play cards that disrupt everyone's plan by making people play spells randomly, switch up board states or just overall create (you guessed it!) chaos and confusion. For the most part, EDHREC.com shows us that chaos decks are dominantly red with splashes of blue, which sounds like we would be playing a five-color commander in only two colors, like how we streamlined the strategy above to three colors. But we can still take advantage of our three other colors by accelerating the game through some group hug cards and encouraging everyone to benefit from the chaos. Starting with the chaos part of this idea, I love that <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Sunbird&#039;s Invocation" href="#" target="_blank">Sunbird&#039;s Invocation</a> is one of the “New Cards” for chaos decks because we get to cast spells for free. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Wild Evocation" href="#" target="_blank">Wild Evocation</a> synergizes with Invocation very well, allowing us to either drop a land or randomly cast a spell which will “cascade” into another spell. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Possibility Storm" href="#" target="_blank">Possibility Storm</a> allows us to cast our commander from the command zone while disrupt everyone else by stating that no one will know what they are going to cast until it is resolving. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Etherium-Horn Sorcerer" href="#" target="_blank">Etherium-Horn Sorcerer</a> can help us cascade into spells while <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Vial Smasher the Fierce" href="#" target="_blank">Vial Smasher the Fierce</a> will randomly sling damage around while we are casting spells. For hug effects, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Zhur-Taa Ancient" href="#" target="_blank">Zhur-Taa Ancient</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Dictate of Karametra" href="#" target="_blank">Dictate of Karametra</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mana Flare" href="#" target="_blank">Mana Flare</a> makes the game escalate quickly. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Dictate of Kruphix" href="#" target="_blank">Dictate of Kruphix</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Howling Mine" href="#" target="_blank">Howling Mine</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Forced Fruition" href="#" target="_blank">Forced Fruition</a> will keep hands full of chaos to cast. If we want to add a few more wheel effects in, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Laboratory Maniac" href="#" target="_blank">Laboratory Maniac</a> can be a win condition. A surprise <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Dictate of the Twin Gods" href="#" target="_blank">Dictate of the Twin Gods</a> when people think they are safe for a turn, especially if we time it properly after casting something silly like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Disrupt Decorum" href="#" target="_blank">Disrupt Decorum</a> during our turn.
Commander has many archetypes and many players that try them out in different ways. It is probably one of the greatest traits of the format; the versatility is nearly endless. In my experience, I have watched players that prefer the grind of control decks feel the thrill of aggressive, “battlecruiser” style decks, while I once personally started in mono-green, moved to Dimir, then Rakdos and starting to settle into Golgari colors. commanders like Ramos embody this part of the format because we can build whatever we want in whatever colors we want. I look forward to future Commander products where Wizards of the Coast give us more legendary creatures this vague, but powerful.
<hr />
<h2>The Final Roar</h2>
Here we are. There is only one more Replacement Commander to examine. In a couple of weeks, we will talk about <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Nazahn, Revered Blademaster" href="#" target="_blank">Nazahn, Revered Blademaster</a> and finish out this crazy ride we have been on together. I will say more on this in that article, but I do hope you have enjoyed reading the articles as much as I have enjoyed writing them. There will not be a poll on my Twitter, since there is only one card left, but I hope to see you out there in the Tweeterverse! Until next time, have a good one!

artifact commander

Building a Powerful Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient Commander Deck

Uncommonders - Xiahou, Bolas's Janitor

Replacement Commanders — Revving up this Engine