Commodore Guff | Art by Matt Stewart

Party Rock Anthem

Welcome back! This is Lenny from the Scrap Trawlers channel, where we do EDH on a budget. It seems like everyday I'm shuffling up a new Commander product. This time it's the Planeswalker Party deck from Commander Masters, and we're going to party harder with an upgrade. Before we get started, let's take a look at the original decklist:

There's a Party Going on Right Here

Commodore Guff is the host of this precon party, and we'll be keeping it that way for the upgrade. While he may not be able to add loyalty counters like Atraxa, Praetors' Voice or keep attackers from beating down your door like Pramikon, Sky Rampart, he has the power to keep the party going. He puts one loyalty counter on another planeswalker as a passive effect, he can add to his loyalty and make a token that gives you mana to cast planeswalkers, and he can lose three loyalty to draw cards and damage opponents equal to the number of planeswalkers you have. 

The original precon plays much better than it looks on paper, but it could still use some improvement. First of all, I think it could use a few more ways to close out a game. I also want to upgrade some of the planeswalkers and add a few more to the deck. Finally, I've got some cards I want to add because I think they're neat. All these cuts and additions are going to leave the pillowfort strategy of the deck intact, because it's a sound choice for the deck and a good signpost for how to build similar decks from scratch.

It's My Party

First of all, I want to add more ways to inflict damage in this deck. We're not trying to win any land speed records here, but we don't want our opponents to sit there for too long while we fiddle with our planeswalkers; it can take just a bit too long to eliminate players.

I usually try to keep the cost of my upgrades to a minimum, but All Will Be One is very much worth its price tag here. Every time you land a planeswalker, tick them up, or proliferate their counters, you'll be dealing damage to an opponent or something they control. I wanted some more damage to throw around and I can't think of a better way to get it.

Everybody loves the Monarch mechanic, but I was recently turned on to how it can function in a planeswalker deck. Suddenly your opponents have to choose between hitting you to get that card or dealing with your stuff. To that end, we're running Court of Ire. Your opponents will squirm at choosing between dealing with your planeswalkers or letting you throw around seven damage. Elspeth's Talent gives us a way to make additional tokens and it provides a buff to all our creatures when we activate a loyalty ability on the enchanted planeswalker. That buff includes vigilance so those creatures can still be blockers. 

I want to add just a few more planeswalkers to this deck, especially since I plan to cut a few later. 19 might seem low, but you don't need as many of this card type as you would in a deck focused on creatures or artifacts. Will Kenrith is great for nullifying problem creatures, and he's got an ability that not only draws cards, but reduces the cost of our planeswalkers. Furthermore, he searches out his sister Rowan Kenrith. Rowan gives us a damage board wipe, and if we trust our pillow fort, we can have her force our least dangerous opponent to attack. What we're really after is her emblem. Doubling up on each activated ability will get out of hand fast in this deck. Dovin Baan can weaken the most problematic creatures out there or draw cards in a pinch. His emblem will likely set off some alarm bells, but if we get there, we have a good chance to just take the game.

Finally, I'm adding some protection pieces that I like and want to highlight for this deck. With such a high density of noncreature spells, Bothersome Quasit is going to Goad a ton of creatures, meaning they'll be after our opponents instead of anywhere else. Even if we're down to one opponent, the Quasit helps out by making Goaded creatures unable to block, hopefully giving us the the space to swing in for the win. I've been singing the praises of Flumph for a while now and I think it's sneaky good in a deck like this. As a 0/4 flier it's already a great blocker, but its card draw ability gives you leverage in bargaining with how your opponents attack. You'd be surprised how often people are down to send a creature into it turn after turn at the prospect of sharing a card draw with you. I can't count the number of games I've played it early only for people to realize a few turns later that it's drawn me nine cards.

Dead Man's Party

While planeswalkers can be pretty expensive in the mana department, this deck largely has it covered with 12 mana rocks, three planeswalkers that can produce mana, and a commander that makes tokens that produce mana. With all that mana production, the conditional ramp or lands to hand from Cartographer's Hawk, and Oreskos Explorer seem pretty superfluous. Sure we lose out on blockers, but the cards we're adding will make up for that. Myriad Landscape isn't my favorite land to have in a three color deck, and let's be honest, cutting lands feels GOOD, so it's out.

Some of the planeswalkers in the deck aren't quite up to snuff. Jace, Mirror Mage is pretty cool in conjunction with Commodore Guff's second loyalty ability, but I'm not thrilled with just scrying and maybe getting a card. Gideon Jura is alright for directing attacks elsewhere, but this deck is doing well enough in that department, so it's out. While it looks like a good deal, I think the math on Deploy the Gatewatch doesn't add up. How likely are you to get two walkers out of the top seven even with the ones we've added? Most likely you're looking at getting one off the top seven which isn't great for six mana.

Narset, Enlightened Master is a great card, but even in the 99, I'm concerned about her reputation, and I'm okay with just drawing cards. Norn's Annex is my last cut. When given the option, your opponents will absolutely pay that life to undo you and I'm just not into paying five for a card that's going to fail me when I need it most.

With our cuts and our adds done, we've really got this party going.

Fight for Your Right

If you hate money and having friends, there are some very expensive cards you can add to take this deck to the next level. Humility will make all those scary creatures your opponents play pretty much worthless. This is especially backbreaking with with token production from Elspeth, Sun's Champion and Commodore Guff. Suddenly those 1/1 tokens are trading with your opponents' actual cards. You can ignore attacks from non flyers altogether with Moat. You could also get that effect on the cheap with Magus of the Moat. If you're looking for a high-end Planeswalker, you could always jam in Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. 

Party's Over

As it turns out, this deck needed fewer upgrades than I thought. It plays well enough on its own, but there's plenty of room to season to taste. I left a staggering number of potential additions on the cutting room floor for this one, and while I'm happy with my end result, you might want to consider cards like Teferi, Temporal Archmage for that infinite combo with The Chain Veil, or Pramikon, Sky Rampart or Ensnaring Bridge for planeswalker protection. Even Displacer Kitten would be exceptional here to reset planeswalkers or get more use out of your mana rocks. I opted to go for a deck that I hope won't make my opponents so nervous, which is what I think the deck designer was going for, but the possibilities are as endless as the multiverse for this one. Let me know in the comments what you would put into this deck; be sure to check back for the rest of our upgrade guides, and as always, remember to budget before you buy it.

Scrap Trawlers

Scrap Trawlers is a Magic: The Gathering budget EDH streaming and video group, with gameplay, deck techs, chats, and more. Catch our videos at youtube.com/scraptrawlers. Andy, Lenny, and Bert.