(Stonebrow, Krosan Hero | Art by Ron Spears)

Commander by the Numbers

Welcome to Rally the Ancestors, a series on giving a modern coat of paint to classic or less-played commanders. This format has gotten a wealth of new cards in the past few years, which means it’s a great time to be a Commander player, and a great time to revisit some of the past’s hidden gems.

First off, I wanted to start this series off with my “why” and some interesting stats I uncovered while researching. After that, we’ll take one of Gruul stompy’s classic muscle cars for a spin.

Author's note: This article was written before March of the Machines was released, so, the numbers below and the deck itself won't reflect this latest set.

The volume of solid Commander content Wizards of the Coast has put out in the past few years gave me a good reason to revisit some unique commanders of yesteryear. I wanted to confirm exactly how much content volume had increased, and at the same time, set some parameters for writing my articles. So, I did some research using EDHREC and Scryfall on Commander products and the numbers are quite interesting! To better digest this information, I’ve broken the “lifespan” of the Commander format into three eras, based on the amount and type of content that has been released in them.

• There have been 14 Commander sets since Zendikar Rising (2020), the first set where a linked Commander product accompanied a main set. We’ll call this the New era.
• 2011 marked start of Commander as a supported format, and there were ten Commander products released between 2011 and 2020. This is the Classic era.
• 2011 (well, prior to Commander 2011) and earlier is the EDH era: before the format was officially supported and Elder Dragon Highlander (EDH) was community-driven.

As of March 2023 there are 1,655 cards that can be your commander, legal or otherwise, that have received paper printings, not counting the “Un” sets. Here’s the really surprising fact: half of the cards that can be your commander ever printed have been printed in the past four-ish years. At the moment, Commander 2019 is the halfway mark. Hard to believe, considering Magic’s 30-year history! So, just to confirm what we all knew, there's been a lot of Commander material lately. Breaking this down by the eras I defined above, we get:

New era: 2020 (Zendikar rising) to 2023 (Phyrexia: All Will be One) and onward.

• 698 commanders

Classic era: 2011 (Commander 2011) to 2020 (Jumpstart), 10 years

• 525 commanders

EDH era: 1993 (Alpha) to 2011 (New Phyrexia), 18 years

• 428 commanders (or "generals" as they were once known)

In this series, I’ll focus either on commanders from the EDH era, or less-played ones from the Classic era. I’ll be picking commanders to highlight based on new cards, and occasionally strategies, that have been made available in the New era.

I hope you found these numbers as interesting as I did. Onto the deck!

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Big Tramply Bois

A friend and I recently gave each other a deckbuilding challenge with a few restrictions. We like to do this as restrictions can make the deckbuilding process less overwhelming, but also can inspire creativity. Admittedly, I have an itch to find homes for bulk rares and brew non-linear decks. This is a 100-card singleton format, after all. If I wanted linear gameplay all the time, I’d play more 60-card Magic! Anyway, the restrictions we gave ourselves were:

• Use EDHREC’s data to choose a commander outside the top 250 of the past two years.
• No cards in the top 50 2021 Salt Score rankings
• No single card should cost more than $50 USD
• Focus on fun and the overall play experience rather than raw power
• Keep the budget reasonable; you're not going to see the Power 9 here
• Design with three-player or Two-Headed Giant commander in mind (which is generally how our small groups play, so, keep that in mind when looking at the deck).

With that in mind, after some digging I decided to return to an old favorite: Stonebrow, Krosan Hero.

I had a Stonebrow deck years ago, and while it was fun, it wasn’t always the most consistent. When I checked out Stonebrow’s EDHREC page, however, I was pleasantly surprised by how many strong, versatile creatures with trample had been printed lately. Time for the centaur to ride - or trample - again!

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Why Stonebrow?

At the time of this article’s conception, Stonebrow was the 48th-ranked Gruul commander over the past two years, with a mere 304 decks. There may be better Gruul commanders stat-wise these days, but Stonebrow still stacks up pretty well with the top 15. A 4/4 for 5 isn’t a great rate, but Stonebrow is at least a 6/6 trampler while attacking, which is just fine. When said creature pumps your whole, or most of your team, they’re worth a look. Here are a few more reasons to give Stonebrow another go:

• In the past, Stonebrow decks had to rely on effects that gave other creatures trample to take full advantage of the utility creatures in red and green. No more. You can play less underpowered trample enablers, like Primal Rage and Brawn, and just focus on the array of versatile tramplers now available. Overall, going with more creatures with trample makes the deck more consistent.
• If you like setting yourself up with creative restrictions, Stonebrow is the stompy commander for you. While needing to play a lot of tramplers gives you a parameter to work within, there are enough tramplers out there that the deck doesn't build itself. There is plenty of design space for you to put your own spin on it.
• Stonebrow rewards you for doing things you want to be doing anyway. Stompy decks want to attack. Stonebrow wants you to attack too. Go forth and smash.
• You can win without Stonebrow. You’ll be playing a lot of big creatures, so, if your gameplan goes sideways or Stonebrow keeps dying, you can still use the rest of your team to bring the pain.

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Tips for Building and Playing Stonebrow

Tip #1: Fit in as many tramplers as you can; I was aiming for 30 and got 28. Most of your big beaters should have trample. Wulfgar of Icewind Dale is the exception in my deck. Several other creatures with “attack” triggers are here as well, so, he could do some serious work.

Tip #2: Steer away from including too many cards that are just big bodies. Try to get some utility out of your top end (Ghalta, Primal Hunger being the exception because they’re just so huge). For example, EDHREC’s data shows that Thunderfoot Baloth is quite popular in Stonebrow builds. While it may seem like a must-play, it’s not strong enough without Stonebrow, and it puts an even bigger target on him.

Tip #3: Curving into Stonebrow is important since he doesn’t need to attack to give your tramplers the +2/+2 boost. Ensure you have enough three and four-mana tramplers that you can have at least one down consistently. There are a few good two-mana options, but these can be disappointing topdecks later, so don’t feel like you need a lot of them

Tip #4: One part of Stonebrow hasn’t changed: extra combat steps are great win conditions since his +2/+2 bonus will stack with each attack. While we don’t need trample enablers in this build, haste enablers can be very powerful with our large creatures.

Tip #5: You’ll generally be the aggressor. Don’t focus too much on reactive gameplay (removal, etc). Use proactive cards and put your opponents on their heels. You’ll be able to put out consistent damage and won’t be reliant on one big turn to win.

Tip #6: You’re weak to destroy or exile-based board sweepers. While “exile” ones are tough to contend with, it’s a good idea to have a few creatures that can survive these, or at least bring themselves back (like our old friend Vorapede).

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The Deck

Key components of our deck include…

Extra combat steps
Still strong: Aggravated Assault, Savage Beating, Relentless Assault
New hotness: Karlach, Fury of Avernus, Hexplate Wallbreaker

Four of these effects is likely good enough; it might just take one to win the game. I like Karlach over Moraug, Fury of Akoum as they’re cheaper and more consistent, though admittedly have less upside. Hexplate Wallbreaker is a bit slow, but it’s similar to Aggravated Assault (a perennial all-star when you want this effect in your Commander deck), which means it’s likely worth giving it a try. An entwined Savage Beating should probably win you the game.

Three and four-mana tramplers
Still strong: Spawnwrithe
New hotness: Atalan Jackal, Coastline Marauders, Crystalline Giant, Giant Cindermaw, Jewel Thief, Old-Growth Troll, Atsushi, the Blazing Sky, Dragonborn Champion, Proud Wildbonder

This is where the New era cards really shine. Ikoria, in particular, gave us some great tools at these mana values. There have been a ton of powerful, effective tramplers printed lately, enough that Spawnwrithe is the only older card I’m running. The latter is too good to cut. Unchecked, it can quickly take over a game.

Big tramplers
Still strong:Vorapede, Vigor, End-Raze Forerunners
New hotness: Froghemoth, Quartzwood Crasher, Elder Gargaroth, Screamer-Killer, Old One Eye,Ilharg, the Raze-Boar,Titan of Industry… too many others to name!

There are an embarrassment of riches for this deck’s top end. While there have been no shortage of big tramplers in Magic’s history, their power level has climbed significantly – just look at Old One Eye! What a time to be alive. I also very much like Screamer-Killer in this deck. Big trampling creature with repeatable removal or direct damage? Yes please. With all that in mind, a few older creatures have effects that haven’t been replicated in the same way since, most notably, Vigor. It can be a game-ender against many decks.

Ramp and cost reduction
Still strong: Birds of Paradise, Cultivate, Farseek
New hotness:Goblin Anarchomancer, Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, Shadow in the Warp

It’s hard to outclass green’s ramp staples, but playing Gruul provides access to some great cost reduction. Farseek is even better now, with more two-basic-type lands being printed recently. Shadow in the Warp in particular does everything this deck wants (spoiler: the Warhammer 40K decks are very good), and Selvala, Heart of the Wilds can be one of the most powerful cards in our deck. Since our curve is a bit high here, running at least 10 ramp or cost reduction cards is important.

Resiliency
Still strong: Mimic Vat, Honored Hydra, Heroic Intervention, Selvala's Stampede
New hotness: Turntimber Symbiosis, Old-Growth Troll, Feasting Troll King

Decks like this run the risk of over-committing to the board and getting blown out by a board wipe. Don’t let that happen to you! Green got a lot of resilient creatures and spells in the late 2010s, most of which are still very strong here. Cards like Heroic Intervention are perfect for protecting your assets, and ones like Selvala's Stampede can help you recover quickly. Turntimber Symbiosis joins this crew and gives you another solid way to recover. Feasting Troll King sits right in that grey area between New era and Classic era, but nevertheless, it’s another resilient option, as is newcomer Old-Growth Troll.

Other stuff

Take advantage of your strengths! Damage-based sweepers like Firespout and occasionally Chain Reaction can take out smaller blockers and leave your big bodies on the board. Card draw that considers a creature’s power can leave you with a replenished hand. I have to single out new planeswalker Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes for this, as it creates trampling creatures and kills things in addition to drawing cards. It doesn’t get a lot better than that for this deck.

Onto the deck itself (sorted by mana value)!

Note: we're playing four modal cards that function as lands more often than not, bringing our total to 37.

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You can also check the deck out on Moxfield. I find their tagging system helpful for determining if I have enough ramp, removal, etc.

Admittedly the mana curve is a little higher than I would like, but that’s a reality for big midrange decks. It’s something to work around, and something to be mindful of when evaluating your starting hands! That said, we have some really good ramp spells, as well as smaller creatures that can do some good work for us before Stonebrow hits. Go forth and smash, friends!

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How I Used EDHREC to Build This Deck

In addition to finding a commander, EDHREC’s tools were important in helping me fill out this build. My first step, of course, was to head over to Stonebrow’s page and see what was new. Theme wise, I knew I wasn’t interested in a Centaur deck, so, using the Theme dropdown to isolate cards in “extra combat steps” builds gave me some valuable information. However, since Stonebrow is played infrequently, this only gave me five decks worth of data to consider.

Thankfully, I was able to look up other commanders with similar themes to see what else might work. Looking at other “Gruul extra combat” decks, I was able to find powerhouses like Ilharg, the Raze-Boar and Dragonborn Champion, in addition to ramp creatures like Gwenna, Eyes of Gaea (I felt Gwenna was an upgrade over Somberwald Sage, which I had in an early draft of this build).

I also looked up similar commanders and then filtered to see which builds of theirs included Stonebrow to see if I could find any more strong tramplers. Doing so with Xenagos, God of Revels and Neyith of the Dire Hunt unearthed even more information. I opted to include Neyith in the final build after seeing how well it worked with the rest of the deck!

I’m looking forward to sharing more restoration projects with you as this series goes on. Let me know in the comments if you have any great ideas for this style of deck, what you think of this one, and if you have any old favorites you’d like to see featured in the future.