Wraith, Vicious VigilanteWraith, Vicious Vigilante | Art by Nereida

The Marvel's Spider-Man set is finally here! That means I'm undoubtedly at my local game store to get my hands on the many, many legends from this set I'm planning to build on the day this article goes out. One of those legends is Wraith, Vicious VigilanteWraith, Vicious Vigilante, who I'll be covering in this deck tech.

In my years as a Modern grinder, I dreaded pairing against Hammer Time. Now that Hammer Time has largely been relegated to the fringes of the format rather than being one of the best decks, I actually find myself experiencing a bizarre nostalgia for it; this Wraith deck is my attempt to harness that nostalgia.

What Does Wraith, Vicious Vigilante Do?

Wraith is an incredibly simple card. She's a 1/1 with just two lines of text: Wraith, Vicious VigilanteWraith, Vicious Vigilante has double strike, and she cannot be blocked.

Without any modifications, an unblockable 1/1, even one with double strike, is unimpressive. However, anyone that's ever played a deck like Hammer Time or Bogles knows these abilities can be incredibly venomous when properly leveraged.

There are two equally compelling directions one can take a Wraith commander deck in: Equipment or Auras. I'm choosing the Equipment flavor of Voltron strategies here, but both blue and white offer a fantastic selection of cards for either direction.

Key Cards for Wraith, Vicious Vigilante

Shoring Up Weaknesses

Wraith, Vicious VigilanteWraith, Vicious Vigilante comes with evasion and double strike built-in, which eliminates the need for some of the categories of Equipment normally featured in Voltron decks. Brotherhood RegaliaBrotherhood Regalia and FireshriekerFireshrieker, for example, are rendered redundant by Wraith's abilities. Wraith's weaknesses are her complete vulnerability to removal and her low power.

Robe of StarsRobe of Stars is the most versatile piece of protection in this deck. For the admittedly steep cost of two mana, Robe of Stars can phase the equipped creature out at any time. This ability can be used to dodge anything and will make it nearly impossible for an opponent to remove Wraith.

Mithril CoatMithril Coat is a piece of protection that plays a little differently to Robe of Stars. This Equipment spell has flash and attaches itself to a legendary creature when it enters. The fact that Mithril Coat circumvents its own equip cost and be case both proactively and reactively pushes it into being one of the most powerful ways to protect a legendary creature.

Hammer Time

Colossus HammerColossus Hammer is my favorite Equipment ever printed. It provides a huge buff at a huge cost, but since its printing in 2020, players have been finding ways to circumvent that cost. This deck includes as many of them as I could find. A particular favorite of mine is Stonehewer GiantStonehewer Giant, which is both a way to tutor for Colossus Hammer and a way to attach it to a creature without paying its steep equip cost.

In Modern, the most common way to die to Colossus Hammer is the opponent flashing it in to be attached to an OrnithopterOrnithopter or Inkmoth NexusInkmoth Nexus using Sigarda's AidSigarda's Aid.

Playing Voltron Without Playing for Second Place

The eternal struggle of Voltron strategies in Commander is that, once the opponents figure out what's going on, they gang up on the Voltron player and eliminate them faster than the three combat steps the Voltron player needs to win the game. This results in Voltron decks like this one getting more second place finishes than first. I'm not particularly content with second, so this Wraith deck will need a few tricks to prevent that.

Silent ArbiterSilent Arbiter is a symmetrical stax piece that isn't very symmetrical. Each player being limited to one attacking creature each turn isn't a big deal for Wraith, Vicious VigilanteWraith, Vicious Vigilante. However, most common Commander strategies can be crippled by this restriction.

PropagandaPropaganda is another way to keep opposing creatures off of Wraith's back. I often say that the real text on Propaganda is "Opponents cannot attack you unless they really want to." However, I've been choosing to include it in my decks more often lately and I've found that it actually wards off attacks more often than I predicted or put my opponents in awkward positions where they had to choose between developing their board further or applying pressure to me and both of those choices seem favorable enough that this enchantment warrants its inclusion here.

Cloudsteel KirinCloudsteel Kirin is a really fun reconfigure creature that pairs well with equip-enablers, like Forge AnewForge Anew and Puresteel PaladinPuresteel Paladin. Rather than a simple stax piece, Cloudsteel Kirin takes a proactive approach to fending off opposing pressure. As long as it's equipped to a creature, Cloudsteel Kirin's controller can't lose the game. With the other tricks this deck has up its sleeve, like Sigarda's AidSigarda's Aid and Whir of InventionWhir of Invention, this effect can even be accessed at instant speed!

Overthinking Tutors

Open the ArmoryOpen the Armory is, at face value, a less efficient Equipment tutor than Steelshaper's GiftSteelshaper's Gift in this deck. However, it can also be used to grab Auras, and there's a little bit of value to be squeezed out of this one. Alongside all the wonderful Equipment spells that Wraith, Vicious VigilanteWraith, Vicious Vigilante loves to take advantage of, Open the Armory can find a removal spell in Unable to ScreamUnable to Scream and a draw engine in Combat ResearchCombat Research. Open the Armory is also accessible via Muddle the MixtureMuddle the Mixture's transmute ability, making those tools even more accessible! I treat Unable to Scream and Combat Research as free spaces. Every deck is already devoting a certain amount of space to removal and card draw, so why not fill those slots with cards that can be accessed incidentally by tutors the deck was always going to play anyways?

In the later stages of building this deck, I ended up cutting Steelshaper's GiftSteelshaper's Gift for Whir of InventionWhir of Invention. In retrospect, it was a pretty obvious inclusion. Most of the time, this deck will have a bunch of Equipment sitting on the battlefield to tap with improvise and Whir of Invention can find all the cards that Steelshaper's Gift can while also being able to access a plethora of other utility artifacts. Having additional ways to find critical pieces like Silent ArbiterSilent Arbiter can't be a bad thing!

How Does Wraith, Vicious Vigilante Win the Game?

A Wraith with Colossus HammerColossus Hammer equipped kills a player. It really is that simple. Of course, this strategy alone can win the game in a minimum of three combat steps and after one player gets beaten down with the Hammer, the other two opponents will begin turning their attention and their interaction towards Wraith. In theory, this deck is built to handle that kind of heat and survive in spite of the remaining opponents' best effort.

There is one fairly convoluted way for Wraith, Vicious VigilanteWraith, Vicious Vigilante to eliminate all three opponents in a single turn! If both Genji GloveGenji Glove and Masterwork of IngenuityMasterwork of Ingenuity as a copy of Genji Glove are attached to Wraith along with any way to give her vigilance, she can attack, get two additional combats from the two Genji Gloves, and then kill all three opponents as long as her power is high enough. The vigilance-enabler is required as the trigger from Genji Glove that provides an extra combat untaps the equipped creature immediately, and the second additional combat won't be of much use if Wraith is tapped at the beginning of that step.

Wraith, Vicious Vigilante Commander Decklist

Conclusion

I'm so excited to take this deck for a test drive! In a couple articles about decks like this, I've said that I'm on a little bit of a Voltron kick lately. By the ninth month of saying that, it is possible that this is just my preferred style of play and that my non-Voltron decks are the real abnormalities.

This Wraith, Vicious VigilanteWraith, Vicious Vigilante deck has a surprising amount of depth for such a simple strategy. I'd recommend this one to someone that loves Voltron but wants a bit of a challenge. The experience I'm always trying to capture in my Commander decks is reaching that moment where I look at the cards in my hand, do a little math, tap my fingers on the table while I think for a moment, and then realize that I can kill someone this turn. That's a typical turn four or five with Wraith!