Ginger, Queen of SweetsGinger, Queen of Sweets | Art by Arif Wijaya

Hello, everyone, my name's Jonathan and today I'll be telling you about my first build of Ginger, Queen of SweetsGinger, Queen of Sweets. Of course, this is an opportunity to showcase one of the newest commanders from Reality Fractured, a set I'm more than excited to get my hands on.

But it isn't only that.

It's a story of redemption.

Let me explain.

Some months ago I wrote an article about generic commanders, describing my failed attempt at building a Krang, Utrom WarlordKrang, Utrom Warlord deck. Now, that piece wasn't about said deck per se, but this doesn't mean I've stopped thinking about this scrapped deck list.

So, when I saw Ginger, Queen of Sweets had been spoiled, I knew it was my time to get my revenge and build a proper colorless deck.

The Deck List

A General Overview of the List

This a Brack 2 - Core deck, without any game changer, infinite combo, mass land destruction, or extra turn cards. That said, it can easily be powered up thanks to cards such as Ancient TombAncient Tomb, Mishra's WorkshopMishra's Workshop, or Mana VaultMana Vault, all of which provide bursts of mana that would significantly speed up the deck.

Personally, I would advise against such changes. In fact, the whole deck is structured and built to be an aggressive, low-powered deck. Including some generically good pieces won't make that much of a difference, considering the overall quality of the other cards. Still, if you were to tune the whole deck to optimize it, then you'd make very good use of these game changers.

The main strategy is to go wide with a lot of artifact creatures and take advantage of this board state in two different ways. On one hand, using cards like Patchwork AutomatonPatchwork Automaton and NettlecystNettlecyst, which benefit from an increasing number of permanents. On the other hand, Graaz, Unstoppable JuggernautGraaz, Unstoppable Juggernaut and The Capitoline TriadThe Capitoline Triad can both transform our small creatures into real threats out of the blue.

GingerGinger's role is to glue it all together. In fact, she fixes our main issue as an aggro deck through card draw, making sure we never run out of gas. Additionally, she also expands our board, granting us additional bodies which can be both buffed to swing at our opponents or sacrificed as blockers to defend the monarchy.

Artifact Synergies

We're clearly going to take advantage of the numerous artifact synergies that this (non)color combination offers.

Adaptive OmnitoolAdaptive Omnitool can transform any creature into a dangerous hard-hitting, card-drawing menace, but we also want to make our smaller creatures threatening, so we happily run Cyberman PatrolCyberman Patrol, so that even deciding to block a small GingerbruteGingerbrute can become a true dilemma. Obviously, how could we do without Steel OverseerSteel Overseer? It's the (awful-tasting) butter of every peanut butter artifact deck sandwich!

Just like Jane Austen said, "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that an aggro deck in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a good late game" Or something along these lines. So, what do we do if we can't finish our game fast?

First of all we cast our commander, to start grinding, drawing cards and creating bodies, but not even GingerGinger can do everything on her own. For this reason, we rely on multiple additional payoffs.

First, Ugin, Eye of the StormsUgin, Eye of the Storms. Just read the static abilities on this card. I don't think many more explanations are needed. Then, Cybermen SquadronCybermen Squadron can truly make combat steps difficult for our opponents, given that our board will triplicate during this phase.

But the card I care about the most in this list is Krang, Utrom WarlordKrang, Utrom Warlord. This is the commander that ignited my will to build this deck in the first place and, finally, I've found home for it. While I couldn't make it work as a general leading its own deck, here it can truly shine. Once we've established our board presence (also thanks to Ginger, Queen of SweetsGinger, Queen of Sweets), it'll immediately have a devastating impact.

Token Synergies

The second (sub-)theme of the deck is Tokens. Our commander will be creating a bunch of them on her own, but we want to help her out in this feat. For this reason, one of the most important cards in the whole list is MirrorworksMirrorworks. This card comes with a silly effect, doubling our artifacts for as little as . When evaluating this card, keep in mind that we don't have to worry about color-fixing in this deck, since all the spells are colorless. In other words, Sol RingSol Ring and such are always giving us the perfect color of mana, making mana rocks extremely good and piling up on resources almost trivial.

But we also want to keep our pedal to the metal (quite literally), so we need more aggressive token-producers, like Threefold ThunderhulkThreefold Thunderhulk, which is a self-supporting machine that can go either tall or wide depending on the board state and the mana at our disposal.

To top it all off, Eldrazi MonumentEldrazi Monument is always a sweet inclusion in Token decks. We'll always have some fodder available to keep it around and this will reward us with an untouchable and evasive board.

Final Thoughts

I loved revisiting (and finally finishing) a deck that had eluded me in the past. It was a personal goal of mine, and I'm positive Ginger, Queen of SweetsGinger, Queen of Sweets is suited to become a good commander for colorless aggro decks. It might not seem so at first sight, since she's a bit expensive and her abilities seem more midrange-oriented, but they also patch some crucial weaknesses of the archetype, maintaining a constant flow of cards and creatures on the board.

Its most glaring weakness is the lack of interactive spells. We run All Is DustAll Is Dust, for a one-sided board wipe, and Voyager StaffVoyager Staff, to easily reset the monarchy, but nothing else. I know there are more options, but they aren't all that good either, so I decided to exclude them to make more room for our main themes.

All in all, I think this deck highlights a niche that is getting more and more attention lately: go-wide colorless strategies. The Capitoline TriadThe Capitoline Triad and Krang, Utrom WarlordKrang, Utrom Warlord opened this path, but I've always considered them too clunky to be actually viable.

Now it's on to you! Will you try this deck out? What changes would you make? Do you like this new style of colorless commanders that is emerging right now? Let me know in the comments below!