<h6 style="text-align: right;"><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Niv-Mizzet, Visionary" href="#" target="_blank">Niv-Mizzet, Visionary</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>| art by <a href="https://danscottart.com/">Dan Murayama Scott</a></h6>
<h2><b>Which </b><a href="https://scryfall.com/search?q=Niv-Mizzet"><b>Niv-Mizzet</b></a><b> is it?</b></h2>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hello! Welcome to </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Archetypes of Imagination</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">, a brand new series where I'll be building decks based on popular Commander archetypes. I'll be using</span><a href="https://tagger.scryfall.com/"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Scryfall's tagging system</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and</span><a href="https://edhrec.com/tags"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">EDHREC's Tag pages</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to build around a new theme each week.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Scryfall has a really cool way of categorizing cards, where each card has specific labels attached to it for later reference. For example, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Wrath of God" href="#" target="_blank">Wrath of God</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> has the sweeper tag and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mirari&#039;s Wake" href="#" target="_blank">Mirari&#039;s Wake</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> has the mana increaser tag. EDHREC's tag system is really cool too, letting users see popular cards associated with a given strategy. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Equipment tag shows users that <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Puresteel Paladin" href="#" target="_blank">Puresteel Paladin</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> works well with the strategy and the Landfall tag does the same for <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rampaging Baloths" href="#" target="_blank">Rampaging Baloths</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This week, we'll use those two systems to build a Commander deck centered around everybody's favorite 60-card archetype: burn! Burn can sometimes struggle to keep up in a format with three players who each start with 40 life, but I've got some plans that should power this strategy up well. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">To that end, I've chosen a super cool commander: <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Niv-Mizzet, Visionary" href="#" target="_blank">Niv-Mizzet, Visionary</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>!</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Niv-Mizzet, Visionary"></div></div></span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This is Niv's seventh appearance on a </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Magic: The Gathering</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> card, which is quite something. I do think that this version is my favorite so far, and that's coming from someone who played <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Niv-Mizzet, Parun" href="#" target="_blank">Niv-Mizzet, Parun</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> in cEDH for years.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"> And, hilariously, this version of <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Niv-Mizzet, Visionary" href="#" target="_blank">Niv</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> goes infinite with two of his previous iterations. Check out these combos from Commander Spellbook, a database with information on over 40,000 EDH combos:</span></p>
<div id="2353-6092" style="width: 100%; position: relative; overflow: visible; display: flex; justify-content: center;"><img decoding="async" id="csbLoad" src="https://commanderspellbook.com/images/gear.svg" alt="csb logo" width="300" /><br />
<script id="2353-6092" src="https://commanderspellbook.com/embed.js?v=1&uses=%5B%22Niv-Mizzet%2C%20Visionary%22%2C%22Niv-Mizzet%2C%20Parun%22%5D&requires=%5B%5D&produces=%5B%22Near-infinite%20damage%22%2C%22Infinite%20card%20draw%22%2C%22Infinite%20draw%20triggers%22%5D&id=2353-6092&color=UR&extraRequirementCount=1"></script></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div id="4971-6092" style="width: 100%; position: relative; overflow: visible; display: flex; justify-content: center;"><img decoding="async" id="csbLoad" src="https://commanderspellbook.com/images/gear.svg" alt="csb logo" width="300" /><br />
<script id="4971-6092" src="https://commanderspellbook.com/embed.js?v=1&uses=%5B%22Niv-Mizzet%2C%20Visionary%22%2C%22Niv-Mizzet%2C%20the%20Firemind%22%5D&requires=%5B%5D&produces=%5B%22Near-infinite%20damage%22%2C%22Infinite%20card%20draw%22%2C%22Infinite%20draw%20triggers%22%5D&id=4971-6092&color=UR&extraRequirementCount=1"></script></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That aside, let's talk about <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Niv-Mizzet, Visionary" href="#" target="_blank">Niv-Mizzet, Visionary</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. This card wants us to do non-combat damage to our opponents, rewarding us with tons of card draw when we do so. So, I've packed this deck with lots of ways to ping our opponents for little bits of damage, lots of ways to hit them hard with big amounts of damage, and leaned hard into an Izzet spellslinger theme this week. I'm excited to show you what I've come up with, so let's go!</span></p>
<p><b>Burn, baby! Burn!</b></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This deck is focused heavily on instants and sorceries, having a total of 32 cards that fall into those categories. And, out of those cards, 11 of them can deal damage directly to our opponents. My favorite from this sub-group is <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Fiery Confluence" href="#" target="_blank">Fiery Confluence</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, which can act as a board wipe, a way to hit our opponents in the face, and even some targeted artifact removal. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Cave-In" href="#" target="_blank">Cave-In</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is from all the way back in 1999's </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mercadian Masques</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">, and can draw us a total of 6 cards for free if we cast it with our commander on the field. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Wheel of Misfortune" href="#" target="_blank">Wheel of Misfortune</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is extremely interesting too, adding even more complexity to its already-difficult mini-game by punishing our opponents who pick a high number. If one of our opponents wants to outbid us so that they can draw a full seven-card hand, then we'll be be drawing a ton of extra cards.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Fiery Confluence"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Cave-In"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Wheel of Misfortune"></div></div></span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And, with all the instants and sorceries we'll be casting, there's some sweet payoffs to let us draw even more cards. My favorite pinger in the deck is <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Coruscation Mage" href="#" target="_blank">Coruscation Mage</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, acting as a typical two-mana one-damage pinger with the option to become a four-mana two-damage pinger if we cast it later in the game. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I think <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch" href="#" target="_blank">Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is another fantastic card, both pinging our opponents whenever we cast a spell and rebuying a card at random on each of our turns. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And, as a pretty cool storm enabler, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Urabrask" href="#" target="_blank">Urabrask</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is here too. This Praetor will ping our opponents, as most of the creatures in this deck do, while also providing us some extra mana to keep slinging spells. And, should we choose to, he can flip into a saga that synergizes perfectly with our deck.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Coruscation Mage"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Urabrask"></div></div></span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But, I hear you asking, what if we run out of instants and sorceries to cast? Well, I hope that never happens. But, in case it does, there's a few other ways to deal noncombat damage to our opponents.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"> One of my favorite cards from last year, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Razorkin Needlehead" href="#" target="_blank">Razorkin Needlehead</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> will ensure at least one point of noncombat damage on each of our opponents' turns, and will usually provide even more pings as they inevitably take game actions. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I also love <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Scalding Viper" href="#" target="_blank">Scalding Viper</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, a creature that can hit our opponents pretty easily combined with a (somewhat lackluster) removal spell. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While neither half of this card is absolutely stunning, the two halves combine to make a pretty good whole. Lastly, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Descent into Avernus" href="#" target="_blank">Descent into Avernus</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> has a slot here too.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"> This card can speed up the game drastically, lowering life totals and raising the amount of mana available to players. We break parity on this card easily, drawing a boatload of cards once we have our commander and this card on the board together</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Razorkin Needlehead"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Scalding Viper"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Descent into Avernus"></div></div></span></p>
<p><b>Now that's a <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Gut Shot" href="#" target="_blank">Gut Shot</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>!</b></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">So, we'll be dealing a lot of noncombat damage to everyone at the table. But, most of that damage is coming in small increments (usually in ones). Let's see what we can do to bump those numbers up. </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Foundations</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">' <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Twinflame Tyrant" href="#" target="_blank">Twinflame Tyrant</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is an awesome card, doubling damage dealt to our opponents and providing a combat-relevant 3/5 flying creature all for just five mana! </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Not to sound like a broken record, but this is yet another of my favorite cards from the past year. There's another damage doubler here too: <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Solphim, Mayhem Dominus" href="#" target="_blank">Solphim, Mayhem Dominus</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Again, this creature can double damage while also acting as a pretty big 5/4 creature. Plus, this one can defend itself from removal at the low cost of discarding two cards, paying four life, and paying one mana. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Lastly, there's <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might" href="#" target="_blank">Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. This card is fantastic, usually quadrupling the damage that we'll be dealing to our opponents. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And, much like <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Solphim, Mayhem Dominus" href="#" target="_blank">Solphim</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, this card is quite hard for our opponents to get rid of permanently.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Twinflame Tyrant"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Solphim, Mayhem Dominus"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might"></div></div></span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Here's the full decklist:</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="edhrecp__deck mtgh"><span class="edhrecp__deck-s" name="Archetypes of Imagination - Burn" site="edhrec" archidekt_link="" cards="&nbsp;
[Commander]
*1 Niv-Mizzet, Visionary
[/Commander]
&nbsp;
[Creatures]
*1 Archmage Emeritus
*1 Archmage of Runes
*1 Ashling, Flame Dancer
*1 Chandra&#039;s Incinerator
*1 Coruscation Mage
*1 Electrostatic Field
*1 Erebor Flamesmith
*1 Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch
*1 Firebrand Archer
*1 Goblin Electromancer
*1 Guttersnipe
*1 Harmonic Prodigy
*1 Kessig Flamebreather
*1 Laboratory Maniac
*1 Niv-Mizzet, Parun
*1 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
*1 Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might // Temple of Power
*1 Pink Horror
*1 Psychosis Crawler
*1 Razorkin Needlehead
*1 Scalding Viper // Steam Clean
*1 Solphim, Mayhem Dominus
*1 Stormcatch Mentor
*1 The Locust God
*1 Thermo-Alchemist
*1 Twinflame Tyrant
*1 Unruly Catapult
*1 Urabrask // The Great Work
*1 Veyran, Voice of Duality
[/Creatures]
&nbsp;
[Instants]
*1 Arcane Denial
*1 Brainstorm
*1 Desperate Ritual
*1 Fierce Guardianship
*1 Flame of Anor
*1 Frantic Search
*1 Ghostfire Slice
*1 Gut Shot
*1 Into the Flood Maw
*1 Lightning Bolt
*1 Opt
*1 Pongify
*1 Pyretic Ritual
*1 Rush of Inspiration // Crackling Falls
*1 Seething Song
*1 Untimely Malfunction
[/Instants]
&nbsp;
[Sorceries]
*1 Boltwave
*1 Cave-In
*1 End the Festivities
*1 Fiery Confluence
*1 Flame Rift
*1 Gitaxian Probe
*1 Inner Fire
*1 Jeska&#039;s Will
*1 Mana Geyser
*1 Ponder
*1 Rite of Flame
*1 Season of Weaving
*1 Slagstorm
*1 Tectonic Hazard
*1 Wheel of Misfortune
[/Sorceries]
&nbsp;
[Enchantments]
*1 Descent into Avernus
*1 Ominous Seas
[/Enchantments]
&nbsp;
[Lands]
*1 Cascade Bluffs
*1 Command Tower
*1 Ferrous Lake
*1 Fiery Islet
*12 Island
*11 Mountain
*1 Reliquary Tower
*1 Riverglide Pathway // Lavaglide Pathway
*1 Riverpyre Verge
*1 Shivan Reef
*1 Stormcarved Coast
*1 Sulfur Falls
*1 Training Center
[/Lands]
&nbsp;
[Artifacts]
*1 Arcane Signet
*1 Sol Ring
*1 Thought Vessel
[/Artifacts]
&nbsp;"></span></div></span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Some of you may notice upon looking at this list that there's very few mana rocks. This is on purpose, I promise! For a spellslinger deck, I much prefer to run rituals. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mana Geyser" href="#" target="_blank">Mana Geyser</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> has much more synergy with the rest of this deck than something like <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Izzet Signet" href="#" target="_blank">Izzet Signet</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Plus, I get to run some super cool, powerful rituals like <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Inner Fire" href="#" target="_blank">Inner Fire</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> that can provide enough mana to end the game outright.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Mana Geyser"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Izzet Signet"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Inner Fire"></div></div></span></p>
<h2><b><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Fiery Finish" href="#" target="_blank">Fiery Finish</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span></b></h2>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Thanks for reading this week's edition of </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Archetypes of Imagination</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">! Before you go, I wanted to talk about a few of my favorite cards in the deck. I like <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Archmage Emeritus" href="#" target="_blank">Archmage Emeritus</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, but I love <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Archmage of Runes" href="#" target="_blank">Archmage of Runes</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. It's exactly the kind of big, dumb five-mana creature that I think commander is all about. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I think that <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Chandra&#039;s Incinerator" href="#" target="_blank">Chandra&#039;s Incinerator</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is great in this deck too, both as an easy-to-cast big creature and as a payoff for all the noncombat damage we'll be dishing out. Finally, I also wanted to shoutout <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Ashling, Flame Dancer" href="#" target="_blank">Ashling, Flame Dancer</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"> This card does everything that this deck wants out of a creature: it adds mana, burns our opponents, and even provides card selection.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Archmage of Runes"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Chandra&#039;s Incinerator"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Ashling, Flame Dancer"></div></div></span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I'll see you all next week, when I build another EDH deck centered around cantrips!</span></p>


Archetypes of Imagination - Making a Burn Deck

Top 10 Stun Counter Cards for Sensational Spider-Man

Aetherdrift: Start Me Up! Part 3

Technically Playable - Xenagos, God of Revels

March Magic Madness - Top 64 Challenge

From the Brim to the Trim - Budget Multiplicities for Opponents' Fatalities

Wombo Combo - Best Planeswalker Combos in EDH

<h6 style="text-align: right;">(<span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Urza&#039;s Fun House" href="#" target="_blank">Urza&#039;s Fun House</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> | by <a href="https://www.artstation.com/burmak">Dmitry Burmak</a>)</h6>
<h1>Here For a Good Time, Not a Sensical One</h1>
<p>Greetings all you builders of strange and interesting decks, I come bearing gifts on this week's edition of <em>The Monolith</em> - the series in which I convince you to build more monocolored decks.</p>
<p>This week, I'm providing a new challenge for those of us who like to do things a little differently. For the deck builders that crave confusion from their opponents and savor the moments of baffled players staring at your board state with questions of, "what does this deck even do?".</p>
<p>In the <a href="https://edhrec.com/articles/the-monolith-where-did-all-the-monocolored-edh-decks-go">first article</a> I ever posted here on EDHREC, I lamented the modern design principle of hiding hybrid mana symbols in monocolored commanders to turn their identity from one to two or more colors.</p>
<p>Some commanders though are born with their hybrid mana symbols baked into their casting cost. This makes them a lot easier to cast from the command zone with less color fixing required to meet their costs.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Jinnie Fay, Jetmir&#039;s Second"></div></div>
<h2>You're Doing WHAT in Mono-Green?</h2>
<p>I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this. No props to you honestly, the clue's in the title of the article. The question I'm here to answer is, what's stopping us from playing these commanders as though they were monocolored?</p>
<p>Why, nothing! Will it make the decks any better? No, almost certainly not. But we're not here to make the decks as powerful as physically possible. We're here to do something interesting and unexpected.</p>
<p>And nothing could be quite as unexpected as the decks that come about when you build this way. There's not a huge amount of commanders that fit the bill for this treatment.</p>
<p>The ones that do however, usually provide a strangely unique benefit to mono deck builders. As the card in your command zone is technically sitting outside of its usual color pie, all of a sudden mono decks get better access to some peculiar archetypes.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Strange Inversion"></div></div>
<p>In this week's edition of <em>The Monolith</em> we're going to build a hybrid mana commander whilst only using one of its colors. And to make it extra strange, I'm specifically choosing to use the color that least fits the archetype of the deck we'll be building. An archetype and deck combo that only has around <a href="https://edhrec.com/tags/aristocrats/mono-green">115 decks</a> registered on EDHREC.</p>
<p>A special shout out to one of my favorite Commander tech channels on YouTube for bringing this idea to my attention, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@edhdeckbuilding">EDH Deckbuilding</a>. Demo has one of the most impressive abilities to just pull random old cards out of the aether that I've ever seen and uses that power for extreme good. i.e. building a million Commander decks in the most unique way possible.</p>
<h2>Mono-Green Aristocrats</h2>
<p>Their enemy positions on the color pie might convince you otherwise, but did you know that black and green aren't all that dissimilar from one another?</p>
<p>Both care about the graveyard, both are equally capable of returning cards from said graveyard and also making copious amounts of mana.</p>
<p>When you combine both colors into Golgari(<span class="mana-container-container"><span class="mana-container"><i class="ms ms-cost ms-bg" style="margin-left: inherit !important;"></i></span></span>) there's a heck of a lot of self-mill, reanimating, life gain themes.</p>
<p>Notice however, that those themes are pretty heavy on the black part of the color pie. You can do pretty much any of those in mono-black, but in mono-green there isn't quite as much support.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis"></div></div>
<p>So let's take a look at the legend that struck fear into the hearts of Modern players everywhere, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis" href="#" target="_blank">Hogaak</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>.</p>
<p>Now the 'Gaak is a strange card, it basically can ONLY be cast by either convoking or delving (either tapping a creature you control or exile a card from your graveyard will pay for one of its seven mana). Most importantly however, it can also be cast from your graveyard.</p>
<p>Any commander that can basically reanimate itself can serve as a perfect figurehead for an Aristocrats deck. A deck that wants to continuously sacrifice their own creatures to trigger common black 'whenever a creature dies' effects like <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Blood Artist" href="#" target="_blank">Blood Artist</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> or <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Morbid Opportunist" href="#" target="_blank">Morbid Opportunist</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. But it turns out, green has access to a fair few good versions of these effects as well.</p>
<h2>For the Greater Good</h2>
<p>That's right, green mages love to sacrifice their own creatures just as much as the next guy. They just like to put a nice spin on it like calling it, "for the greater good" or chalking the death up to evolution or natural selection. But the effect is the same, I kill something I control and get something in return:</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Greater Good"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Death&#039;s Presence"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="The Skullspore Nexus"></div></div>
<p>And those are not unattractive outcomes for your self sacrifice! Especially when you're sacrificing the big boy himself. How does drawing eight cards and discarding three, then putting eight +1/+1 counters on another creature you control sound?</p>
<p>Seems like a pretty good trade off to me. Alternatively, just use The Skullspore Nexus to double Gaak's power then create a 16/16 fungus token and shove 16 more +1/+1 counters on it from your Death's Presence. Good lord, that's a big mushroom.</p>
<p>Remember as well that most of the best sacrifice outlets in the game are colorless artifacts anyways:</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Ashnod&#039;s Altar"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Phyrexian Altar"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Altar of Dementia"></div></div>
<p>If you find a way to cast creature spells at instant speed by putting out a card like Vivienne or Yeva then you can even reanimate Hogaak with your Death's Presence effect on stack and target him with his own +1/+1 counters.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Vivien, Champion of the Wilds"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Yeva, Nature&#039;s Herald"></div></div>
<h2>Casting Hogaak</h2>
<p>Speaking of casting your commander with Flash. You'll likely want to be able to cast Hogaak on other people's turns. Because you can't easily use regular reanimation effects that are normally reserved for black decks, the 'Gaak will serve as your only repeatable sacrifice target.</p>
<p>For that reason, we want to be able to cast him over and over again and with his mana cost only available to cast via delving and convoke, there's only so many times we'll be able to do that in a single turn.</p>
<p>But don't worry, we're playing Commander! There's a whole three other players whose turn cycles we can interrupt and perform annoying sequences on. With our flash enabling effects on board we can recast our commander on every other players turn and repeat our engine of sacrifice effects.</p>
<p>This way we can maximize the efficiency of our board and also remain reactive to other players turn by doing things like flashing in Hogaak as a surprise blocker.</p>
<h3>Mill or Tap?</h3>
<p>Now this is all a great plan but we don't exactly have access to unlimited mana. Being able to delve for Gaak's mana cost is nice but we will run out of cards in our graveyard eventually. That's why we want to use the powers of convoke to reliably cast Hogaak on every turn.</p>
<p>And whilst green isn't the go to color for sacrifice outlets, it's incredibly good at convoking with easy access to token generation and, most importantly for this build, the ability to untap its creatures on every player's turn.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Seedborn Muse"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Awakening"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Patron of the Orochi"></div></div>
<p>By having seven creatures on board, predominantly ones with aristocrat style effects on them, we can effectively cast Hogaak every single turn for free and then sac him again for a huge amount of value. Getting a free effect on every one of your turns is pretty great.</p>
<p>Getting it four times per turn cycle is incredible. And because we'll be convoking each time we cast Hogaak, we won't actually be spending any mana, allowing us to hold up our lands for protections spells and interaction.</p>
<p>One hurdle we will need to jump however is getting around Gaak's high cost on early turns of the game. For that reason you'll likely want to have some token generators in the deck or at least a little self mill to eat up some of the early cost.</p>
<p>Waiting until you've cast seven different creature spells and hoping they don't die until the seventh hits the board is asking for a bad time.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Awaken the Woods"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Esika&#039;s Chariot"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Horn of Gondor"></div></div>
<p>Having some creatures in your deck that also come with a token themselves is a good way to get bodies on board too. The same is true for any repeatable activated or triggered abilities that generate those tokens.</p>
<p>These cards will help us to generate bodies for convoking but also provide us with alternative sacrifice fodder for our triggered death effects, which is especially useful when we start running into anti-'Gaak graveyard hate.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Arasta of the Endless Web"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Avenger of Zendikar"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Brightcap Badger"></div></div>
<h2>Free Real Estate</h2>
<p>One of the truly funniest things we could do in a build like this is employ yet another banned Modern card to get up to some very specific shenanigans. It's probably one of the coolest sacrifice outlets in the game and it can do some absolutely heinous things. You know it, you love it. It's the <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Birthing Pod" href="#" target="_blank">Birthing Pod</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Birthing Pod"></div></div>
<p>With Gaak's big cost of seven mana which we'll largely be spending absolutely nothing to cast, we can tutor some insanely gross creatures directly onto the battlefield by putting Gaak into the pod. The only catch is they have to cost exactly eight mana to meet the pod's effects.</p>
<p>Do you know how many horrendous things in <em>Magic: The Gathering</em> cost exactly eight mana? Did you know that <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Craterhoof Behemoth" href="#" target="_blank">Craterhoof Behemoth</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> costs exactly eight mana?</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Craterhoof Behemoth"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Breaker of Creation"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant"></div></div>
<p>Using this effect we can even tutor out our <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Patron of the Orochi" href="#" target="_blank">Patron of the Orochi</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> to untap our green creatures on every subsequent turn cycle as mentioned above, ensuring our plan hits the ground the running once we untap on our next turn.</p>
<p>And there's plenty more horrid eight mana creatures you can pop in this deck if you have the budget or inclination:</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Platinum Emperion"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Cityscape Leveler"></div></div>
<h2>Go Forth and Reanimate in Green</h2>
<p>In truth there's a lot of funny ways you can build this deck, and I think it provides a very fun deck building challenge for those of us who love a restriction. I'm sure there's plenty other hybrid commanders that could do the same.</p>
<p>Let me know in the comments if you're tempted to build this monstrosity. And let me know what cards you would add or alternate commanders you want to build out of color identity.</p>
<p>For now though, thanks for reading and I'll see you on the next edition of <em>The Monolith</em>. The home of the weird and wonderful in just one color. Keep sleeving those basic lands and I'll see you next week!</p>


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