BMoor's
Deck Garage Home
Pojo's MTG
MTG Home
Message Board
News & Archives
Deck Garage
BMoor
Dolf
BeJoSe
Columnists
Paul's Perspective
Jeff Zandi
DeQuan Watson
Jordon Kronick
IQ
Aburame Shino
Rare Hunter
Tim Stoltzfus
WiCkEd
Judge Bill's Corner
Trading Card Game
Card of the Day
Guide for Newbies
Decks to Beat
Featured Articles
Peasant Magic
Fan Tips
Tourney Reports
Other
Color Chart
Book Reviews
Online Play
MTG Links
Staff
120x90 Ad Space
For Rent!
|
|
BMoor's Magic
The
Gathering Deck Garage
Commander Contest Winner #4:
"Dromar's Banishing"
April 19, 2012
Welcome back to the Commander Contest
winners! This deck I chose because, like
Tuesday's Jenara deck, it has a lot of
synergy with its general without being too
reliant on it. It's full of good cards, but
the general makes them all better. Perhaps
you'll see what I mean-- here's Dromar the
Banisher.
--------
Dromar, the Banisher, by Clayton Romo
This deck is heavily based around
flicker/blink
effects. All creatures either have an ETB or
flicker effect. The commander that I use is
a 6/6 flying beater that can easily lock out
green and red players. The win condition is
to either get 21 commander damage with
Dromar or to control the board long enough
through shenanigans to be able to beat my
opponents down with my smaller creatures.
There is no mass removal, but a lot of spot
removal. Thanks to flicker abilities and
spells, removal is not a problem. The allies
play a great role in this deck by creating
huge amounts of card advantage (Sea Gate
Loremaster, Bala Ged Thief, Agadeem
Occultist). There are quite a few
(non-infinite) combos hidden throughout the
deck (flicker effects + Sundial of the
Infinite or Dreams of the Dead) (Sudden
Disappearance or Planar Guide + Gather
Specimens) (Mnemonic Wall + Ghostway) (Mistmeadow
Witch or Venser + Stonehorn Dignitary) In
addition to straight up beat down. This deck
has won games from dropping Massacre Wurm
against token decks and by using Hagra
Diabolist/Jwari Shapeshifter along with a
few allies and Ghostway to deal direct
damage. I would like to squeeze a Lilliana
Vess into the list to add some extra
tutoring but I don't know what to take out.
DECK LIST (100)
COMMANDER (1)
Dromar, the Banisher
CREATURES (32)
Agadeem Occultist
Angel of Dispair
Bala Ged Thief
Chancellor of the Spires
Clone
Entomber Exarch
Flickerwisp
Frost Titan
Galepowder Mage
Glimmerpoint Stag
Hagra Diabolist
Halimar Excavator
Jwari Shapeshifter
Man-o'-War
Massacre Wurm
Mistmeadow Witch
Mnemonic Wall
Nekrataal
Nevermaker
Pilgrim's Eye
Planar Guide
Riftwing Cloudskate
Rune-Scarred Demon
Sanctum Gargoyle
Sea Gate Loremaster
Shriekmaw
Skinrender
Stonehorn Dignitary
Sun Titan
Umara Raptor
Vedalken Aethermage
War Priest of Thrune
INSTANTS (16)
Condemn
Counterspell
Gather Specimens
Ghostway
Liberate
Momentary Blink
Mystical Teachings
Otherwordly Journey
Path to Exile
Pull from Eternity
Return to Dust
Slaughter Pact
Spell Crumple
Spin into Myth
Swords to Plowshares
Turn to Mist
SORCERIES (4)
Diabolic Tutor
Fabricate
Flicker
Sudden Disappearance
PLANESWALKERS (2)
Gideon Jura
Venser, the Sojourner
ENCHANTMENTS (1)
Dreams of the Dead
ARTIFACTS (6)
Armillary Sphere
Expedition Map
Oblisk of Esper
Sol Ring
Sundial of the Infinite
Lightning Greaves
LAND (38)
Arcane Sanctum
Calciform Pools
Celestial Colonnade
City of Brass
Command Tower
Creeping Tar Pits
Darkslick Shores
Drowned Catacomb
Glacial Fortress
Grand Colliseum
Isolated Chapel
Jwar Isle Refuge
Mystifying Maze
Reliquarn Tower
Rupture Spire
Seachrome Coast
Sejiri Refuge
Islands (8)
Plains (6)
Swamps (7)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dromar the Banisher is a tricky general to
use well. It's devastating against a green
or red deck, but if your opponent's worst
stuff is all the same color as something of
yours, well, then you're setting yourself
back as well and bouncing Dromar herself to
boot. How do you get around that? Well, you
could pack your deck full of Quickchanges
and Glamerdyes, but those cards are all
borderline-useless until Dromar's ready to
swing. What do you do if it doesn't connect?
The only other suggestion I've ever heard
that I liked was using Dromar as the general
of an Esper artifact deck, so that your best
creatures were colorless. But of course, all
the best Esper artifacts weren't colorless,
and most of Mirrodin's best artifacts
weren't even creatures in the first place.
Clayton, however, has turned this
double-edged
sword
into a boon for you and a bane for them. All
of his creatures want to be bounced back to
his hand, so that he can recycle their ETB
abilities. Your opponent may also have some
ETB abilities, but he's unlikely to have as
many as Clayton has, or to be as prepared to
reuse them. The Ally subtheme was a clever
addition-- Sea Gate Loremaster and Agadeem
Occultist don't actually have ETB or flicker
abilities, but as Allies their entering the
field will trigger their fellow Allies'
abilities. I also find it clever that
Clayton found a use for such a quirky old
card as Dreams of the Dead, which slots in
perfectly here.
The inclusion of so many flicker effects was
a nice choice as well. Not only does this
let you reuse an ETB ability on command, but
the original use of the flicker effect was
to save a creature from a kill spell
targeting it or a combat step gone awry.
Clayton's opponents will therefore find it
quite hard to make his creatures stay dead,
and that'll earn him a few victories right
there.
My feedback? The lack of Spellbook and
Venser's Journal is a bit troubling,
considering that returning several of your
own creatures to hand in one stroke is all
part of the plan. But Reliquary Tower is
here at least, so Clayton has at least given
that problem a little thought. There's also
no Soul Warden, Auriok Champion, Soul's
Attendant, or Suture Priest-- any one of
those seem an obvious include to me. It's
true that lifegain is a bit devalued due to
the existence of general damage, but driving
one's life total high enough so that the
enemy's general is the only creature they
have capable of defeating you is still a
decent strategy. I'm also a bit disappointed
that he included Entomber Exarch but neither
Deceiver nor Inquisitor Exarch, but that's
less a matter of deck quality and more my
own completionism-- even I have to admit
that Entomber is the best of the three, and
Inquisitor's WW mana cost means that by the
time a three-color deck has the mana to cast
it, a 2/2 is likely no longer relevant.
But these are minor squabbles, and none of
them prevented Clayton from winning.
Congratulations Clayton, please E-mail me
the address you'd like your prize sent to!
~BMoor
|