Vial Smasher and Sidar Kondo, a (un)surprising partnership

Welcome to our very first article!

This one's been done by Simon, and discusses a game and format he's fond of (it's Magic, and Commander - surprised? no? good!) and the principles that he keeps in mind when he approaches the format, whether it's constructing a deck or playing an unfamiliar one. A prolific deckbuilder and brewer, Simon has played since 4th edition and owns Rabblemaster Games, the store that brings the collectable industry back to Fremantle after twenty years.

Hey readers and customers!

Today we're talking about the Commander format and how I approach deck construction. Many people, Tom Macmillan included, will see what cards are popularly played with a certain commander via EDHrec, but personally, I don't like to do this, as your deck frequently ends up looking like everyone else's.
Tom's Rhys deck is a bit of an exception to this rule, at least, owing to the enchantment subtheme.
Staples are all well and good, but I've always been a brewer, and put a personal touch on everything I build, net-decked list or otherwise. The best tool I find is simply the gatherer advanced search - but you have to have a fair idea of what you want to build to start with. EDHrec likely has a similar search, but old habits die hard, and I'm no longer a young man!

The deck I've played the most around the tables recently started with Saskia the Unyielding as the commander, and I began by searching the terms "can't", "each player", "each opponent" and "if able" and looking to force players to attack each other. I never ended up casting her - the commanders are now Vial Smasher, the Fierce and Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa, a much better embodiment of the deck's ideals - and there was no great need to force players to attack, because they usually will if they can in any case! This decks wants to do these things:

1) Ramp - essential in Commander. If you're playing four-drops while the table plays eight and nine-drops, you're not going to win.

2) Discourage attacks against it - again essential in Commander, because there's three other players, minimum, out for your blood. It can be done by either by staying under the radar, making other players a better target than you, or playing defensive permanents
(this deck does all three)

3) Chip damage. Commander players don't notice or care about one or two damage at a time, and when it's happening to the opponents too, well, that permanent usually gets to stay right where it is.

4) Chip lifegain. Necessary in Commander, because other players will play sources of chip damage, or just hit you in order to trigger their own creatures' on-hit abilities. Eventually you become an easy target

5) This is likely the most important overall - be versatile! Other players will have ridiculous strategies to end the game, and you need to be prepared to deal with infinite combinations of various types, huge hordes of indestructible tramplers, swarms of goblins, or just a huge Exsanguinate for 40 to everyone

6) Have a combination finish (not necessarily an infinite one) to ensure games don't drag on until midnight

7) Have permanents providing a steady advantage over time

8) Benefit from other players doing things. In Commander, the opponents' mana is triple (at a minimum) what yours is. You either out-do them, or find a way to ensure theirs is spent for your benefit.

OK here's the list, and why some cards have been chosen:

Versatility:

Demonic Tutor (finds anything)

Eladamri's Call (finds creatures; the deck's combo finish is creature-based)

Enlightened Tutor (finds equipment, including Sunforger)

Traverse the Ulvenwald (the deck plays all permanent types, delirium is easy to get)

Sunforger (reusable, and disgustingly powerful, refer below)

Ramp & fix:

Weathered Wayfarer (can be turned off by ramping too hard, but usually someone is still ahead. Don't forget you can land-search in response to cracking a fetchland!)
Sol Ring (as close to an auto-include as it gets)
Farseek (also finds Mistveil Plains)
Kodama's Reach
Rites of Flourishing (share the love)
Tempt with Discovery (share, but share more with me!)
Eternal Dragon (finds Mistveil Plains, late-game recursive threat)
Karametra, God of Harvests (also finds Mistveil Plains)

Chip damage / lifegain:

Vial Smasher, the Fierce (random hits don't draw as much attention as targeted ones)
Suture Priest (stops infinite creature combinations)
Cryptolith Fragment (I don't expect this to transform)
Burning-Tree Shaman (stops infinite activation combinations)
Zhur-Taa Druid (is also ramp)
Charging Cinderhorn (also encourages attacking)
Fate Unraveler (also stops people drawing their entire deck)
Kambal, Consul of Allocation (both lifegain and damage)
Shattered Angel (this trigger goes off all the time)
Exquisite Blood (no Sanguine Bond - I just want to gain life when other players are attacked)

Defense / encouragement to look elsewhere:

Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs (can block infinite creatures)
Ghostly Prison
Windborn Muse
Sphere of Safety (these three also discourage attacks by infinite creatures)
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight (best "hey look over there" effect in the game)
Mogg Maniac, Stuffy Doll and Boros Reckoner (naturally defensive, but also a combo-kill with Volcano Hellion or Fire Covenant)
Gahiji, Honoured One (power boost for all when attacking my opponents)
Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa (grants evasion to opponents' weenies)
Vraska the Unseen (discourages attacks, and is also removal)
Marchesa's Decree, and Queen Marchesa (monarchy is effective card advantage in this deck, as it is difficult to attack)
Fumiko the Lowblood (great interaction with Ghostly Prison - if the opponent chooses me and not to pay for Prison, they are forced to attack elsewhere)
Rite of the Raging Storm (Lightning Ragers can't attack me)
Karmic Justice (hands off my things!)

Steady advantage:

Nahiri, the Lithomancer (the -2 is also recursion)
Stonehewer Giant (can search for and attach a lifelink equipment to Volcano Hellion at instant speed; allows for an infinite life combo)
Godo, Bandit Warlord (for finding Sunforger)
Stoneforge Mystic (for finding Sunforger)
and their associated equipments...
Behemoth Sledge, and
Loxodon Warhammer (great when equipped to Vial Smasher, Charging Cinderhorn, Fate Unraveler, Burning-Tree Shaman or Zhur-Taa Druid)
Lightning Greaves (search out with Stonehewer Giant to foil removal!)
Lurking Predators (other players should kill this on sight, but don't)
Oath of Druids (other players will use their free creatures to attack each other, while you're safe behind a couple of prisons)
Erebos, God of the Dead (also prevents lifegain)
Phyrexian Arena (1 card = 1 life; a rate set by Necropotence many, many years ago)
Tainted Remedy (stops players undoing all that chip damage)
Skyline Despot (Monarchy, as mentioned above, plus free dudes)

Giant punches in the face:

Painful Quandary (makes everyone hurt - this WILL attract attention on the table, so have some defenses up!)
Heartless Hidetsugu (also a fan of holding a Warhammer/Sledge)
Fire Covenant (gets pointed at Boros Reckoner & co)
Blasphemous Act (board wipe plus reflected damage from Reckoner & co )
Volcano Hellion (likewise, however damage amount is unbounded)

Random recursive effect:
Obzedat's Aid (deck plays all permanent types)

Sunforger's greatest hits:

Abzan Charm (only way to draw 2 without blue at instant speed)
Crackling Doom (sacrifice effect & chip damage)
Wrecking Ball (to hit Gaea's Cradle, Reliquary Tower, etc)
Rakdos Charm (to ruin token players' or reanimator players' days)
Comeuppance (to ruin craterhoof-boys' days)
Utter End (THE all-purpose solution - except for lands, that is)
Oblation (friendly version of Utter End)
Volcanic Fallout (also ruins token players' days)
Also found by Sunforger in this deck, and already mentioned above, are Enlightened Tutor, Eladamri's Call and Fire Covenant

Sunforger is in my humble opinion, by far the most versatile card in the entire game, and it's perfect for this deck; it can find a solution to almost any problem. It also provides inevitability with Mistveil Plains, which returns used instants to the deck in order to be searched out again. The deck is at heart a Sunforger deck; the rest is, well, not quite window dressing, but almost. There are a lot of interlocking pieces, and Sunforger is what ties many of them together.

I rejected these cards as potential Sunforger targets:
Urza's Rage (was too mana-intensive to kick it)
Debt of Loyalty (too situational)
Deflecting Palm (Comeuppance always trumped it in testing)
Swords to Plowshares (it was a very hard cut, I promise)
Skullcrack (this effect is now on permanents in this deck)
Holy Day (Comeuppance is a better fog. Batwing Brume is a pet card that doesn't work with Sunforger, it was therefore rejected)
Tithe (I simply don't own one and nobody has brought me one in trade - would consider cutting something for it)

Tutor chains in the deck can be involved, and approaching the situation in reverse is a great way to deal with it.
e.g. you're playing this deck, and topdeck a Stoneforge Mystic while hellbent; in play is a Boros Reckoner equipped with Lightning Greaves - can you search up a possible win, this turn, provided you have the mana and are ahead in life totals? You should be ahead in life totals, of course, but it's never a guarantee, and if not, you can still tie the game.

1) Boros Reckoner must be hit with either Fire Covenant or Volcano Hellion, but has shroud; another creature is needed, but the SFM should suffice.
2) Fire Covenant can only be found with Sunforger or Demonic Tutor; Volcano Hellion can be found with Eladamri's Call, a delirious Traverse, or Demonic Tutor.
3) Eladamri's Call can also be found by Sunforger
4) Sunforger is therefore the obvious piece of equipment to find with SFM

So yes, you can. SFM finds Sunforger -> equip Greaves to SFM -> drop Sunforger for 1W -> attach Sunforger to Reckoner-> unattach it to search for and cast Eladamri's Call -> find Volcano Hellion -> play it and roast Boros Reckoner for your opponents' life total.
If you've already used Eladamri's Call to find something earlier, you can terminate the chain by unattaching Sunforger to search for and cast Fire Covenant instead.

Nahri, the Lithomancer's +1 makes a token and attaches Sunforger to it. This token, with RW up, is now the best defensive creature in the game; it can hold off a horde of Craterhoof-powered elves, a single 72/72 flying attacker or simply wipe the field clear of five hundred attacking goblin tokens. An indestructible man-land is about the only thing getting through unscathed!

Sunforger; available with a small package of spells in the Saskia the Unyielding Commander 2016 precon. Get your filthy mitts on one today and discover the many uses of Magic's best Swiss army knife. It also provides a power boost of +4; shockingly, the least relevant part of the equipment!
For your reference, readers, this is the list of things you can do with a Sunforger, my pick for most versatile card in Commander

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx…

Do you have a contender for most versatile card in Commander?
Sound off below!