Jeskai Controlling Friends - Commodore Guff Deck Tech

Commodore Guff | Art by Matt Stewart

Hey nerds! In this week's deck tech, I wanted to showcase my favorite Jeskai commander, Commodore Guff. Unlike my usual deck techs, this is not a budget list. It's meant to showcase the power of tap-out control and soft stax. Despite being Bracket 4, a creature-based deck, like those often found in Brackets 2 and 3, can punch up against this easily. This list is tuned for creature light or combo-oriented pods.

What Does Commodore Guff Do?

Commodore Guff is a simple commander. His +1 makes tokens that are great chump blockers and can ramp you into more 'walkers. There is a small token theme that helps protect your planeswalkers. His -3 works as a backup finisher by drawing a bunch of cards and burning people out.

Much like the War of the Spark 'walkers, Guff doesn't have an ultimate, but a static ability, putting a loyalty counter on another planeswalker you control at your end step.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, I built this deck as a tap-out control deck. For those unfamiliar, tap-out control uses board wipes to control the board rather than the traditional suite of counters. This, along with the early stax creatures and tons of mana rocks, helps control the pace of the early game, but it doesn't run hard stax pieces such as Stasis, Winter Orb, or Static Orb.

Key Cards for Commodore Guff

The Creatures

I'll break the creatures up into three categories. First are the disruption creatures, Drannith Magistrate and Hushbringer. Both are asymmetric hate pieces that are easy to remove, but demand an answer.

Next are the protection creatures:

• Gold-Forged Thopteryx
• Grand Abolisher
• Onakke Oathkeeper
• Silent Arbiter
• Voice of Victory

Thopteryx gives all legendary permanents you control ward . Grand Abolisher and Voice of Victory prevent interaction on your turn. Onakke Oathkeeper and Silent Arbiter make it harder to swing in on your 'walkers.

Finally, the token makers, Monastery Mentor and Third Path Iconoclast. They create tokens when you cast most spells in the deck. However, the best creature in the deck is Spark Double. It enters as a copy of any creature or planeswalker you control.

The Planeswalkers

Unlike the ten creatures, I won't be covering all 21 planeswalkers. Instead, I want to focus on key 'walkers.

For example, Chandra, Awakened Inferno is easily one of, if not the best, planeswalkers in the deck. She adds inevitability to games with her burn emblem. It's trivial to stack multiple of these a turn by blinking her, or using The Chain Veil, but more on that later.

Since there is a small token theme, Elspeth, Storm Slayer has been an absolute house thanks to her ability to double our tokens. And Teyo, Geometric Tactician manipulates combat, only allowing one player to attack you.

The Fun Cards

Despite being a tuned deck, I still like adding fun cards that might be suboptimal.

The first is Cultural Exchange. This is an incredibly fun political tool that works great with the tokens. You can exchange your dorky 1/1s for someone's commander, or swap creatures between two players. Daze is a card that gets better the higher the power of a pod. But sometimes, you get to Daze a turn-one Sol Ring, or when someone taps out to combo off.

And finally, let's go gambling with Gamble. Do you sometimes discard the card you tutored for? Sure. But I'll take the risk for a one-mana unconditional tutor.

How Does Commodore Guff Win?

With the power of Ichormoon Gauntlet, The Chain Veil, and enough planeswalkers, you can proliferate enough to take infinite turns.

Teferi, Master of Time makes this process even easier, giving you two extra turns for less loyalty. But if you can't get infinite turns, you can grind out the game with Chandra, Awakened Inferno, Commodore Guff, and Chandra, Legacy of Fire.

Commodore Guff Commander Deck List

Conclusion

I'm sure I'll get some comments about the deck's price, but I think you could easily do a budget version of this list. Just a few swaps and cheaper versions of cards drastically reduce the price. If you're looking for a powerful deck that can hang with the strongest decks, but won't overwhelm lower Brackets, give this a shot.

To take the deck down a Bracket, I'd cut Cyclonic Rift, Gamble, and Fierce Guardianship.

Also, if you want to see even more Magic content from me, you can find plenty of that on my YouTube channel BathroomBrewsMTG. Alrighty nerds, I'll see you in the next one!