Making decks for a Legends legend is not easy. There’s not many good cards to choose from, so the good decks have been pretty well established. And as much as I know I can do it, I don’t want my first deck in this series to be a goofy meme. It should be at least reasonable. So I picked a Commander that was overlooked in my previous article.
Commander
At first, I didn’t give Gwendlyn Di Corci enough credit. Tap to discard a card? There’s commons that do that now. But there’s two major differences. The first is that she’s your Commander, so you have ready access to the effect. And the second, which is significant, is that the discard is at random. Most effects either allow you to look at your opponent’s hand and choose a card (which are often on one-shot spells), or your opponent gets to pick (these are often repeatable effects). Random discarding has a chance to absolutely ruin your opponents’ plans.
Mana
Blue, black, and red don’t usually get great mana acceleration. What’s nice is that Gwen only costs 4 mana, so you don’t need more than one acceleration spell to get her out a turn early. 3 Signets, 3 Diamonds, Arcane Signet, Commander’s Sphere, Sol Ring. Standard artifact ramp package, nothing fancy. We’ll get to actual fun ramp later.
Card Draw
There’s a few simple card draw spells, but the real killers in this deck are the cards that make everyone discard cards and draw new cards. Since the Commander also involves discarding, you want to play cards that synergize with discard already. One of the best cards in this section is Geth’s Grimoire. Tap your Commander? Draw a card. Make everyone discard their hands and draw 7? Draw an extra dozen cards.
Removal
If things are going according to plan, you won’t need as much removal. If your opponents don’t get to cast their big spells because you discarded them, then you won’t need to remove their stuff. If you make this deck yourself, you may want more removal options, depending on your meta. There’s nothing too surprising here, except for maybe Visions of Ruin, added because you can flash it back after discarding it. What I wouldn’t give for Ancient Grudge…
Winning the Game: A+B
Some decks don’t have one category of card that enables their plan. Some have two, or even three, where you need at least one card from each section to make the gameplan start. This is one of those decks.
The first section of cards needed is “creatures that tap to make your opponents discard”. That’s your Commander, so you’re good there.
The second section is “cards that let you do that more than once a turn”. There’s plenty of blue creatures that untap permanents, which includes your Commander. They can also untap those mana artifacts, or lands, to get more mana in a pinch. The real spice of this section is Telekinetic Bonds. If you can make your opponents discard enough cards, that’s enough to untap lands and your commander, and you can do it again and again.
The third section is “cards that do things when your opponents discard cards”. You can’t just rely on them not having cards, you need to get around to winning. The king of these cards is Waste Not, but Bloodchief Ascension is also amazing. There’s some subpar options, but even those can close a game out.
Misc Top 3
- Battlemage’s Bracers. One of two cards that doubles up your Commander’s effect.
- Mithril Coat. You’ll want a few ways to keep your Commaander alive, since your deck really revolves around it.
- Bottomless Pit. It’s nice to have cards in the deck that do more discarding. One at a time won’t always get the job done.
Lands
I usually don’t put too much effort into the lands. But in this case, there’s a few that you really want to have, and it’s due to all the cards that untap target permanent. If you have a land that taps for more than one mana, untapping it is pretty powerful ramp. Green’s good at that, but blue is second best. I’m not going to fill out all the lands, just put in the decklist a good selection of lands that, if you draw them, can get you a lot of mana.
And that’s basically it. I haven’t built or tested this. Personally, I think it’s a bit underpowered. The Commander’s effect is nice, but you’ll make enemies with it, and it’s hard to win when everyone is after you.
That's Pretty NEET 