Art from the front cover of Dungeon Crawler Carl

Hello, everyone! I’m Levi from the Thought Vessel, and today I’m bringing you a different kind of deck tech than I normally do. Today I have the honor of presenting my deck based on one of my favorite book series of all time, Dungeon Crawler Carl.

For those who haven't read this series before, Dungeon Crawler Carl follows an average guy, Carl, and his ex-girlfriend's cat, Princess Donut, as they battle through an sadistic, eighteen-level dungeon while the whole thing is broadcast through the universe for a show called Dungeon Crawler World: Earth. These dungeon levels are in a fantasy setting where crawlers have to fight and kill their way to stairwells to level up and get to the next floor before the one they are on collapses. 

Warning! Though I’ll be as vague as I can, some spoilers for the Dungeon Crawler Carl series are going to be inevitable. I built this deck referencing items and characters through the fifth book in the series, The Gate of the Feral Gods, since including book six and beyond stretches the roster way too far. If you are concerned about spoilers, I might suggest that you read through The Gate of the Feral Gods and come back to this article at a later date. Before we get into the specific game plan or the characters, let’s go over some ground rules.

Ground Rules

First and foremost, I wanted to use actual cards in Magic: The Gathering from across both Universes Within and Universes Beyond. There are a lot of options, but the choices for the characters aren’t going to be perfect since I’m pulling from cards that already exist to fit my theme. I’m also going to be walking a very fine line between flavor and function. I want this deck to feel like Dungeon Crawler Carl, but I also want this list to be something that can be played in a Commander pod without feeling out of place.

From a power perspective, I built with the intention of Bracket Two. There are no game changers in the list, but there’s plenty of synergy. It won’t be able to win fast, but it will get better and better as the turns pass. With all of that said, I’m pleased with how the list turned out. Let’s take a look at the commanders that have been cast to play as our protagonists, Carl and Princess Donut.

The Commanders

For the commander of this deck, I could’ve built around one specific legendary creature to fully lean into Carl, but ultimately, I wanted to brew for the dynamic duo of Carl and GC, BWR, NW Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk, or as I’ll be addressing her for the rest of this article, Princess Donut.

I wanted to build a deck that featured both of them together as the duo they’ve become, so my search began with partners. I wanted to find mechanics that fit their characters decently well while also opening up color options that match other popular characters in the series. Ultimately, I landed on the partner pairing of Atreus, Impulsive SonAtreus, Impulsive Son for Princess Donut and Kratos, Stoic FatherKratos, Stoic Father.

Kratos, Stoic FatherKratos, Stoic Father, reminds me a lot of Carl with his ability to enhance the people around him while also being a great brawler in close combat. Though this particular card doesn’t represent his trap-making or explosives-handling, we’ll be looking at cards in the rest of the deck to compensate.

Atreus, Impulsive SonAtreus, Impulsive Son will be playing the role of Princess Donut thanks to the ability to get us additional resources while also using noncombat damage like a magic missile. Atreus also takes full advantage of the experience counters that Kratos or Carl generates by being able to tap for three mana and draw a card for each experience counter we have, deal two damage to each opponent. 

The Game Plan

Dungeon Crawler Carl is a LitRPG, or a Literary Role-Playing Game. This means the characters level up and gain experience, so as far as the deck goes, we’ll be focusing on that experience and counters theme. The farther down the dungeon our team can go, the scarier we’ll be. The objective is to get +1/+1 counters on our creatures as quickly as possible to build a massive board. We’ll cut corners in true Carl fashion by using proliferate effects to bolster our experience counters, so when Princess Donut activates her ability, we’ll be refilling our hands completely. Carl can turn any small Soldier token into an absolute weapon.

While we’re on our game plan, let’s look at the rest of the cast and see how they’ll help our theme.

The Cast

Rampaging FerocidonRampaging Ferocidon as Mongo

Where would the Royal Court of Princess Donut be without their loyal dinosaur companion, Mongo? Mongo, the velociraptor, while loyal to Princess Donut, is a bit of a wild card and will occasionally ignore orders from Princess Donut. These minor acts of rebellion vary from running off and getting into trouble to even biting at Princess Donut. Naturally, we wanted to have a creature that can help us while throwing in little jabs of rebellion at the same time. 

Rampaging Ferocidon is here to prevent players from gaining their life totals back faster than we can deplete them, and it will severely punish any go wide or token decks by dealing one damage every time they have a creature enter the battlefield. Be careful, though: this dinosaur will also bite us in the nose for every creature that comes into play under our control.

Denry Klin, Editor in ChiefDenry Klin, Editor in Chief as Mordecai

As the manager for the team behind the scenes, Mordecai brings his experience and expertise from his time in the dungeon as both a crawler and a game guide. Denry Klin, Editor in ChiefDenry Klin, Editor in Chief fits this role perfectly by literally applying what he’s learned and providing it to our party. As creatures enter the battlefield, they’ll get the same number and kind of counters that Denry has, so if Kratos can get ten +1/+1 counters onto Denry, all of our creatures are suddenly going to be huge.

Sakashima the ImpostorSakashima the Impostor as Katia Grim

Katia is an interesting chess piece for our deck and a late addition in the books, joining the team on the third floor. Katia is a doppelgänger who can change her mass and appearance.
Throughout the series, she serves as a tank, an impostor of Carl, and even a cattle catcher on the front of a train. She really is a Swiss Army knife, so we’re using a card that can be whatever we need it to be.

Sakashima the ImpostorSakashima the Impostor enters as a copy of any creature on the battlefield, but keeps the name Sakashima. This can double up on Kratos, create another +1/+1-counter-producer, or simply copy whatever busted thing our opponents are doing. If what we need changes, we can pay 2UU and put Sakashima back into our hand to redeploy later.

Lavinia, Azorius RenegadeLavinia, Azorius Renegade as Prepotente

I know a Stax player when I see one. Our stubborn yet brilliant goat, Prepotente, doesn’t want to be part of the team because he’s too busy being an absolute menace in the most brilliant ways.
Lavinia, Azorius RenegadeLavinia, Azorius Renegade doesn’t necessarily synergize with the rest of the deck, since she has plans of her own and is here to slow our opponents down. When she’s in play, our opponents can’t cast noncreature spells with mana values greater than the number of lands they control, and they also can’t cast spells that don’t cost mana. While it doesn’t affect us at all, this type of card can completely shut certain decks down, leaving us in a great spot to pull ahead while our opponents have to waste removal on Lavinia.

Lulu, Stern GuardianLulu, Stern Guardian as Elle McGibbons

The Meadow Lark nursing-home-attendee-turned-Tundra-Princess is one of the most interesting character developments in the series. As an ice-based character, we want someone who can freeze opponents in their tracks.

Lulu, Stern GuardianLulu, Stern Guardian fits this role perfectly, since it can put a stun counter on a creature that attacks us. We also get the bonus of an activated ability that proliferates our counters, including experience counters, which can really push our game plan forward.

Traxos, Scourge of KroogTraxos, Scourge of Kroog, as Chris Andrews

An ingenious warrior, when Chris is fully present, he's an absolute tank, but similar to Traxos, there are some reliability issues. The brutal nature of the dungeon takes a toll on Chris more than most characters, and he has other battles with his mind that he must fight...

Traxos, Scourge of KroogTraxos, Scourge of Kroog, comes into play tapped and only untaps when we play a historic spell, but when we can support Traxos, we’re rewarded with a 7/7 trampling monster for four mana that we can further boost with Kratos. Before long, Traxos is attacking with Eldrazi-level power.

Brash TaunterBrash Taunter as Samantha

This is probably the easiest casting in the entire deck. As the indestructible doll head who can’t deal damage but believes she can, Samantha is all about the smoke, just like Brash TaunterBrash Taunter.

Brash Taunter is an indestructible 1/1 that says, “Whenever Brash Taunter is dealt damage, it deals that much damage to the target opponent.” We can also have it fight a creature for three mana. Later in the game, we can pile counters onto it and turn that fight ability into a removal engine.

Ojer Axonil, Deepest MightOjer Axonil, Deepest Might as Emberus

Finally, we have one of the most important deities in the series, Emberus. Emberus, the god of Sun and Ash, believes power, once held, must never sit idle. We’re putting this philosophy to work in two ways. First, as an attacking God with trample, this is a creature we can load up with +1/+1 counters to keep the experience counters and damage coming. Second, and more importantly, Ojer Axonil gives a huge damage boost to Atreus’s activated ability: instead of dealing two damage to each opponent, we deal damage equal to Ojer Axonil’s power. At baseline, that’s four damage, but after a round or two, it can easily be ten damage per activation. This ability, if left uncheck, is a streamlined win condition. 

Other Important Cards

Of course, the cast is deep, and other characters are represented in this deck. If you think you’ve figured out who they are, let us know in the comments below.

In the meantime, we also need to talk about some of the other cards that bring this deck together. Since Carl is known for traps, bombs, and catching enemies off guard, we’ve added Deflecting PalmDeflecting Palm, Legion LeadershipLegion Leadership, and Delayed Blast FireballDelayed Blast Fireball.

Deflecting PalmDeflecting Palm is our defensive spell, redirecting all the damage from one source back to the player who sent it. This is the type of card that players have to play their entire combat step differently if they know there is a chance that we have it in our hand.

Legion LeadershipLegion Leadership doubles the power of one of our creatures until the end of the turn and gives it first strike. With the size of some of our threats, this can make an attack lethal. We can also be extra sneaky and use it on a creature an opponent controls in a combat we’re not even involved in.

Delayed Blast FireballDelayed Blast Fireball is a great one-sided board wipe. For three mana, we can clear out small chump blockers. If we cast it from exile, we’re taking everything with five or less toughness off the board to really open up attacking lanes.

Noble HeritageNoble Heritage is here for Princess Donut’s absurdly high charisma. We actually get to double up on this ability because both of our commanders benefit.

On our upkeep, every player can put two +1/+1 counters on a creature they control, twice. If they do, we’ll be protected from that player until our next turn.

CuriosityCuriosity is a fantastic piece of tech for this deck. It fits Princess Donut’s impulsive nature and synergizes with Atreus’s noncombat damage ability, drawing us an additional three cards per activation if all three opponents are still alive.

Our Changeling village in the ninety-nine of our deck can act as additional Gods that either attack or die to give us extra experience counters. Beyond that, Unsettled MarinerUnsettled Mariner gives our creatures a bit of protection with ward 1.

Avian ChangelingAvian Changeling is a straightforward creature that counts as a God. We can use it as a flying blocker or send it into combat loaded up with counters to get damage through the air.

Mirror EntityMirror Entity is both a Changeling and a win condition. We can dump all of our mana into it to pump the base power and toughness of our creatures for the turn.

So… How do we win?

The win condition for this deck is very straightforward. We want to build up counters and value through Kratos and proliferate, then carry that advantage into the endgame, where we generate so much value that the rest of the table can’t keep up.

Drawing 10+ cards per turn and adding ten power to a creature is a tall order to deal with, even with three opponents working together. If combat is not an option due to Fog effects, we can fall back on the combo of Atreus, Impulsive SonAtreus, Impulsive Son, and Ojer Axonil, Deepest MightOjer Axonil, Deepest Might to dish out noncombat damage until our opponents are burnt to a crisp.

Wrapping Up

If you haven’t read Dungeon Crawler Carl and the rest of the series, I can’t recommend it enough. This deck captures the feel of leveling up in the dungeon and springing traps on our opponents. As always with my deck techs, feel free to copy the deck, use it as a blueprint for your own build, or simply scrap it for parts. At the end of the day, this deck is for you. Until next time, happy brewing.

NEW ACHIEVEMENT!
You read an entire article about Magic: The Gathering. You must be pretty smart, or bored at work, or just really desperate for Dungeon Crawler Carl content until the eighth book in the series comes out in May. Either way, the knucklehead who wrote this appreciates you stopping by. Reward? You have received a complete decklist below!