#thantis

What is this deck?

The point of the deck, once again, is mass group fighting. You’re created a big board for EVERY player, and due to Thantis, and fog effects, or maybe even cards like Koskun Falls (Which will be covered later), you cannot be attacked. You’re forcing the other players to kill each other, and since you can buff them, and give everyone creatures, this happens fast. Watching a board of 5 survivor tokens, their commander, and a few other random things attack someone with a crown of doom is great- And that player getting whacked in revenge by that player, as your Thantis suddenly goes in for the kill. It works surprisingly well for what it does, but it can be risky- If you get River’s rebuked, you better pray you have one of the many outs in this deck, because everyone has creatures you gave them and are angry for being at 10 life. 

Thantis, the Warweaver

Thantis herself is... So shockingly powerful. When you look at youtubers such as the command zone, they didn’t understand the power this creature has. She’s essentially 2 things in 1; The first is a symmetrical board effect, one that’s INSANELY impactful. Forcing players to make bad attacks is one thing, but she ALSO has Vigilance, a way to prevent herself from tapping so you have a big blocker, but she ALSO has reach! She’s the best blocker ever. But then, there’s the second part. She’s a pillow fort card. By herself, if you have this card, out, people don’t want to attack you. Threatening to have a huge 10/10 spider suddenly come at you is SCARY. The threat of just buffing one creature on attack, while not as good as Ghostly Prison, is STILL very strong, and the sheer impact cannot be understated- You have to cast her to understand.

Token Donation

Creatures are not as powerful in commander as in standard, due to high life totals, and the sheer amount of players that you have to kill with it. But with this, you supply the tokens, and you force people to kill each other, and this happens every turn. You don’t need to deal any damage, as players claw at each other. But how do we give tokens? Well, there’s quite a few options. 

Here’s 3 examples. All of the hunted cards are great in this deck, but Horror is the best. It’s a giant turn 2 beatstick, easy enough. Things like Sylvan Offering also allow you to focus a player- Give everyone but one problem player tokens, and then they are big targets. Then, there’s cards like Tombstone Stairwell and Infernal Genesis (A similar card). While they can get out of hand, these are great effects. Other good cards for this: Tempt with Vengeance, Acorn Catapult, Death by Dragons, Varchild and her War-Riders

Make it Hurt

I’ve mentioned buffing boards, but how do I do this? Well, I’ve got a few ways. 

Crown of Doom is just a chaotic, fun card. Mightstone is a symmetrical effect that buffs every creature as long as they attack. Easy enough. Other cards: Curse of Predatation, anything with Bloodrush, Avatar of Slaughter :3c

Protect Yourself

Giving everyone tokens and buffing them is good, but how do we stop that? Well, there’s numerous ways. I’ll show you the main archetypes. 

Fogs and Prisons. I run 3 fogs, Arachnogenesis being the best one in the deck, but things like Spore Cloud and Winds of Qal Sama are amazing either way. But Elephant Grass and Koskun Falls? It’s Green and Black propaganda effects, this, AND Thantis are so powerful. It forces your opponent to not attack you! It also means you can save other players with fog, and basically dictate the game. Other options I run: Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs, Marchesa’s Decree, Crawlspace, 

Thantis-Like effects

Decks need more than one card to make it work. Thantis forcing attacks is good, but we need ways to make sure this ACTUALLY happens when she dies. 

Fumiko represents an archetype of creatures; Thantis, Fumiko, Goblin Spymaster, Warmonger Hellkite. These all force attacks. Disrupt Decorum, however, forces them to NOT attack you. It’s a great card in a pinch where opponents WANT to attack you. 

Curses

I’m sure we’ve all wanted to make a curse based commander deck, but here? Curses aren’t a deterrent from attacking, they ENCOURAGE attacking. 

Putting these on a player are others ways to control the game. Hey, I don’t like this guy; Attack him! Cards like curse of misfortune have a home here as an engine to essentially kill a player. Special shout out to Trespasser’s Curse, a common, being INSANE in this deck. It makes one player feed you life when they play creatures... Or when you give them some. 

Crop Rotation

The best card in the deck, however, is Crop Rotation.

This card is meant to search out 2 things, and only 2 things. Never, EVER use it to ramp. 

Swarmyard is instant speed regenerate your commander. Oh, kill spell for Thantis? Grab this in response and use the effect; Regenerate a Spider. Guess who’s a spider? However, there’s an even better target, and one card I’d consider in the running for second best card in the deck. 

This card has 2 uses. The first, and most obvious, is preventing you from taking any damage. You sac a land, sure, but getting this on the board is gamebreaking. But the second effect is just as good. *You can’t attack.* Thantis forces you to attack, so this card makes you just STAY BACK. You have a strong board that doesn’t participate in the fights, and you can’t take damage. It’s absurd. 

Wrapping up and Decklist

Now then, that’s the end of the profile, but let me list a few interesting cards I didn’t go over quick. 

Boardwipe/Panic Button, it gets rid of all tokens, it’s a killswitch for when you want to kill other players. 

Do I really need to explain?

LOW TARGET REMOVAL WE PLAY LIKE RAKDOS AND DIE LIKE RAKDOS

I PLAY BERSERK ON YOUR SERRA’S AVATAR AND KEEP NOTHING TO STOP YOU FROM ANNIHILATING ME IN ONE BLOW BUT YOUR OWN MASOCHISTIC DESIRE TO ENDURE THE PAIN

TWILIGHT’S CALL AND EXHUME FOR GROUP RETRIEVAL TO KEEP UP THE PAIN

OVERBLAZE, BERSERK, AND AVATAR OF SLAUGHTER FOR 8X DAMAGE

LIFE IS PAIN

DEATH, IS ALSO PAIN