#cromat

Cromat

Cromat | Art by Donato Giancola

Tumblr says this is my 200th post, but that includes all the reblogs I’ve made, but who cares! I want to celebrate having gone this far by sharing with you a personal decklist of mine in this edition of Commander Corner: Cromat’s Lucky Charms!

I made this deck some time after Khans of Tarkir came out, mostly because with it came a new cycle of Charms. I asked my playgroup, “What if I made an EDH deck that played all the Charms in Magic history, even the bad ones?” They laughed at me, but I still went ahead and ordered all the ones I did not have yet from TCGPlayer.com. A quick check on TappedOut.net revealed to me that I was not the first person to come up with this idea, jamming all the Charms into an EDH deck, but since I was playing on a budget, I figured I would still share this list to all of you who love the Commander format for its gimmicks and crazy shenanigans.

Cromat was obviously the best five-colored Legend to take on the charming role of leader of this deck, especially since he himself has so many options to choose from. He often tends to be the main win-condition for the deck, and he is surprisingly good at it, especially when supported with all the Charms in the deck. A few rules I laid down for myself when building this deck:

Every single Charm had to be in it (yes, even Misery Charm). There are 45 Charms in total.

No other Instants or targetting “answers” in the deck. It would have to rely on the Charms to figure it out of sticky situations.

Because the Charms are part of cycles, I wanted the lands to also be part of cycles. This isn’t really been a disadvantage, since it hasn’t really constricted my mana base, with having all the Charms spread out among all the colors. I just like being symmetrical in my Johnny-ness.

Ivory Charm | Sapphire Charm | Ebony Charm | Chaos Charm | Seedling Charm

I’m not going to go through each cycle of Charms, let alone each Charm, but I will share with you some of the laugh-out-loud situations my deck has been in. Cromat’s Lucky Charms is by no means suited for two-player games, but it has actually surprised me just how well it stands up for itself in those 1v1 games. It’s at the multiplayer table where the deck has truly shined. Here are just two of my most fondest moments:

My friend had just built a Sidisi, Brood Tyrant deck following the release of KTK and Commander 2014, and he had on board a Thunderfoot Baloth, which he planned to use to win the game. Noting everyone else’s panic, I decided to use Abzan Charm to get ride of the problem creature. My friend didn’t want his win-con to be sent to exile, since it meant he had no way of getting in back, so he decided to use his own Sultai Charm to kill his Baloth, sending it to the graveyard where it could be reanimated at a later time. I leaned over to take a closer look at the Baloth, and sheepishly ask, “Is it a Beast?” “Yeah? Wait, why?” “I cast Vitality Charm to regenerate target Beast.” We all laughed as my friend disappointedly placed his Baloth in the ‘yard, vowing revenge upon me for the rest of the game.

Having both come home from college for the summer, my brother asked to play Cromat since he hadn’t ever before. He had been skeptical about the deck since its conception, but now that he’s played with it, he can no longer doubt the hilarity that ensues with doing so. I was running a tweaked version of CommanderTheory‘s Budget Jazal Goldmane (now scrapped), when my brother asked me, “What’s a global enchantment?” I explained to him that it’s since been errata’d to mean non-Aura enchantment. “Okay, I cast Emerald Charm to destroy your Dictate of Heliod.” We laughed for a moment and continued playing, when my brother asked another question: “What’s a local enchantment?” I looked at him warily before explaining to him it now meant Aura. “Okay, I cast Hope Charm to destroy your Eidolon of Countless Battles.” He broke into uncontrollable laughter and I, being his brother, followed suit.

Whether it’s using a Fever Charm to kill a Prophet of Kruphix (because she’s a Wizard!), giving Cromat double strike with Boros Charm to win with Commander damage out of nowhere, or combining Ivory Charm and Dimir Charm to take down a Consecrated Sphinx, this deck arguably has all the tools it needs to bring laughter to the Commander table.

Boros Charm | Art by Zoltan Boros

I am currently running 39 lands in the deck: the ten tri-lands from Shards of Alara and Khans of Tarkir, the ten Guildgates from Dragon’s Maze with Maze’s End ftw, the ten gainlands from Fate Reforged, one of each basic land, and three other any-color-producing lands I had laying around. I am currently collecting the Temples from Theros block to replace the gainlands, since “Scry 1″ is slightly more relevant in EDH than “Gain 1 life”.

With 39 lands and 45 Charms in the deck, that leaves 15 slots for basically whatever I wanted to play. I decided to go with some cards that help smooth out the deck as well as some just for the heck of it. If you choose to build a deck like mine, with all the Charms in it, I would strongly encourage you to mix and match your favorite cards in these last 15 slots. Here are my choices, which were cards I already had laying around:

Birds of Paradise, Chromatic Lantern: Mana-fixing to smooth out the deck. Prismatic Omen would be good too, but I don’t have one. At six dollars a pop, these cards aren’t very budget: cheaper cards that can take their place include Joiner Adept, Commander Sphere, and Darksteel Ingot.

Expedition Map, Tempt with Discovery: More mana-fixing, but mostly to fetch Maze’s End. Sylvan Scrying could also work, but how flavorful is using an Expedition Map to find the Maze’s End!

Howling Mine, Into the Wilds: This deck wants to hit its land drops every turn, and drawing an additional card each turn and occasionally getting a free land off the top helps a lot.

Divine Reckoning, Supreme Verdict, Terminus, Merciless Eviction: In a deck with very few creatures, board wipes are very important to keep board states under control. Divine Reckoning does extra work with keeping Cromat, usually our only creature on board, alive. Devastation Tide was also in the deck, but I took it out for my eventual Noyan Dar, Roilmage deck.

Coercive Portal: After picking up this mythic rare in a Conspiracy draft, I wanted to play with it in EDH as soon as I could, but no real deck wanted it. Since Lucky Charms is more gimmicky than competitive, Coercive Portal found its home here! Most of the time, it gives me an extra card, but it’s still fun when the votes come in and it’s time to wipe the board (side note: if you think your opponents will wipe the board, be sure to regenerate Cromat before voting begins, otherwise you won’t have time to respond).

Charmbreaker Devils: Having “Charm” in its name may have qualified it as a shoo-in for the deck, but who can’t resist being able to return a Charm (or sometimes a board wipe) back to the hand? The randomness adds to the luck of the deck, and the pump ability is not as irrelevant as one might think.

Door to Nothingness: Ah, the classic five-color alternate win-con. The first time I resolved the Door was against my college roommate’s Keranos, God of Storms deck, and I was ultimately confused as to why he did not scoop immediately. What could he possibly have in his deck that could stop me? I decided to pass the turn back to him with all my mana open, figuring I’d just shut the Door on him when he would try to go for the win. He threw his creatures into combat, and I activated the Door’s ability, to which he revealed the one card I quickly remembered that he owned in his small collection of Magic cards: Stifle. Remember that Conspiracy draft I mentioned earlier? That’s right--it was from that same one I got my Coercive Portal that he got his Stifle. Dang.

Villainous Wealth: Arguably another win-con, this card is in here mostly because someone passed me a foil copy during a KTK draft. Twice was I able to hit my roommate’s Clever Impersonator, and twice was I able to make myself a copy of his Keranos, God of Storms. It felt great both times.

Dismiss into Dream: Last but certainly not least is this spicy little enchantment. For a hefty price of seven mana, Dismiss into Dream turns almost every Charm I have at my disposal into a kill spell. It even gets around Sigarda, Host of Herons anti-sacrifice clause, since the creatures get the typical Illusion fragility (though with hexproof, she still can’t be targeted by my Charms). This bad boy isn’t the highest ranked blue card in the Multiplayer Hall of Fame for nothing!

Dismiss into Dream | Art by Sam Wolfe Connelly

Other cards I would love to add to the deck are Legacy Weapon and Obelisk of Alara for obvious reasons, so I’d probably look into getting them soon. Some five-colored cards I would not add include Maelstrom Nexus (cascading into Charms is a bit too chaotic for my taste) and Conflux (takes way too long to correctly tutor the five Charms you need at that point in the game). Because the deck itself is gimmicky, don’t expect too many wins; in fact, if you know you can’t win, play kingmaker and help a friend win the game with the support of your Charms! I would very much consider this deck budget, so if you’re looking to build a wacky deck, Cromat’s Lucky Charms will make your games magically delicious!

“It seems to do just about everything except die.”

Cromat, requested by drawlneedler

Writing flavor text for Magic cards that don’t have them.

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By decree of Stately Lord Phelddagrif, there will be a match whereupon the first competitor to eliminate an opponent shall claim victory over all others!

Ladies and gentlemen, the stipulation handed down by Phelddagrif for this match is just dynamite: it rewards explosive speed and relentless offense. When you eliminate an opponent, you win. Full-stop. That means you can snipe off an opponent who someone else has already reduced to 3 life and claim the win for yourself!

Kaalia of the Vast gets things started quickly by throwing elbows at her biggest threat, Uril the Miststalker. These two superstars of the format have deadly speed and tremendous offensive potential at their disposal, and they waste no time in going at one another. The Party Party is well-represented in this match, both Cromat and Wort well known for their explosive damage output, but Uril and Kaalia seem to be content to duke it out.

Five Color Pillowfort Superfirends! The main win-con of the deck is to Ult some Planeswalkers and see what happens. Most Walkers are chosen because they produce Tokens, untap lands, or otherwise protect me in some way. If the strategy with the Planeswalkers fails, a good secondary win-con is with the Commander. Cromat can easily be pumped to a 7/7 each turn, making him a 3 hit kill. Not only that, but he's nearly unkillable with the right mana open (or at lease a very big nuisance). I'm aware that I should probably have Doubling Season in here, by the way, and have left it out on a matter of principle.