Shriek, Treblemaker Commander Deck Tech

Shriek, Treblemaker | Illustrated by Borja Pindado

Some commanders are open to interpretation, offering puzzles to be solved from multiple deckbuilding avenues. Shriek, Treblemaker, from the new Spider-Man set, practically shouted their intentions at me... though it was more of a death rattle.

Still, what I thought would be a relatively straightforward commander has presented an enjoyable, if sadistic, play pattern: I offer creatures to my opponents only to promptly kill them, for pain and profit. Read on to learn how you, too, can administer the same whiplash-inducing form of torture…

What Does Shriek, Treblemaker Do?

Shriek is a straightforward card with two seemingly unrelated abilities. First, if you choose to discard a card at the beginning of your first main phase, you can choose a creature to bar from blocking this turn. The second ability, Sonic Blast, is in the vein of Aristocrats: when an opponent's creature dies, Shriek deals one damage to them. It may seem like Shriek would want those creature to have perished during combat, but in this case, it doesn't matter. Still, Shriek operates best along the shared axes of "combat" and "opponents' creatures dying" by forcing opponents to attack each other and either declare no blocks or receive pings to the face when their blockers die.

While plenty of other commanders care about your own creatures dying, only a few focus on your opponents' creatures—though there are also some who don't discriminate. Gimli, Counter of Kills shares half of Shriek's text but doesn't include black in its color identity, rendering it far less versatile. Vincent Valentine reads like a version of Shriek that replaces direct damage with +1/+1 counters on itself that promotes a Voltron strategy. Same goes for Kresh the Bloodbraided and Elenda, the Dusk Rose, though those commanders likely find it far easier to kill their own creatures than focus on the others.

As for Shriek's first ability, it seems like the closest analogy is Gornog, the Red Reaper, who designates one new Coward a turn and pumps its damage for each Coward.

In Shriek, however, no one's a coward because everyone must participate in combat! No cowards!

Key Cards for Shriek, Treblemaker

Shriek wants our opponents' creatures to die, so this deck starts by distributing creatures among our opponents, in the off chance they're running short on bodies. Don't tell the tokens of their fate:

• Genesis Chamber overperforms every time it's cast. It will effortlessly produce at least a dozen tokens, if not many more, throughout the course of the game. It feels great to play early and start amassing some chump blockers of your own while padding out opponents' boards when they play every single mana dork.
• Forbidden Orchard has quickly become one of my favorite cards. It's an untapped multi-colored land that allows you to curry favor with your weakest opponent, keeping them alive a bit longer.
• Varchild's War-Riders is pretty slow, but the card is on the Reserved List, it's not expensive, and it carries major nostalgia. If there was ever a deck for it, this is it.
• Hunted Horror, Slaughter Specialist, Tribute to Horobi, Hunted Bonebrute, Life of the Party, Akroan Horse, and Hunted Dragon round out the selection of generous token-gifters.
• Slicer, Hired Muscle, Xantcha, Sleeper Agent, Vislor Turlough, and Alexios, Deimos of Kosmos (try saying that 10 times, fast) are passed to your opponents directly, where they serve as lightning rods for removal and chump blocks.

Once the board is flooded, the slaughtering can begin. Shriek has concocted a few agonizing ways for this to occur, though this deck primarily wants creatures to meet an honorable death in combat:

• A fair amount of goading ensures creatures will routinely enter the fray. Komainu Battle Armor, Vengeful Ancestor, Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant, Maximum Carnage, Bloodthirsty Blade, and Grenzo, Havoc Raiser do an excellent job of pulling creatures into the heat of battle against their will.
• As usual, Kardur, Doomscourge stands above the rest. It represents an enhanced version of goad that affects haste-y creatures, and rewards bloodshed with additional damage triggers.
• Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor, Custodi Lich, Curse of Opulence, and Karazikar offer incentive for attacking opponents without flat-out mandating it to happen.

Shriek isn't picky about how creatures die, so the deck runs a few other methods that require some sacrifices lest your opponents want to find themselves at a significant disadvantage:

• Braids, Arisen Nightmare
• Rakdos, Patron of Chaos
• Zoyowa Lava-Tongue

Of course, nothing says "creature removal" like creature removal. Aside from staples like Blasphemous Act and Blasphemous Edict, this Shriek deck runs some cards that take a precision-based approach towards killing sprees while still casting a wide-enough net:

• Toxic Deluge
• Fiery Confluence
• Massacre Wurm
• Shadowgrange Archfiend

Shriek allows you to discard after you draw for turn in exchange for barring a specific creature from blocking for the turn. This can be useful to remove an opponent's beefy threat or nimble deathtoucher from the combat calculus, though I chose to keep this particular deck pretty light on discard payoffs. Only the strongest, most efficient, and most synergistic options were included:

• Containment Construct
• Inti, Seneschal of the Sun
• Currency Converter
• Anger

How Does This Shriek, Treblemaker Commander Deck Win?

Rather than dishing out the hurt in one fell swoop, this Shriek deck wants to dole out a bit of pain each go-round, chipping away until your opponents find themselves at precariously low life totals, often with meager board states, too. City on Fire, Syr Konrad, the Grim, and Funeral Room // Awakening Hall can assist with closing the rest out.

Before the game, your opponents are going to read Shriek and shriek a little to themselves at the horror they see coming. Therefore, it's best to slow-roll your plan lest you attract too much attention. Start by playing a few token-generators to allow for some early attacks, then start digging for a card advantage engine, like Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin or Braids. There's no rush to play Shriek right away; instead, focus on the fact that you're merely showering the board with tokens. So what if there's a spare Blood Seeker lying around? Nothing suspicious going on here…

Once Shriek comes down, it's time to start goading. Grenzo, Havoc Raiser and Komainu Battle Armor can lead to big swings early on, and as the life loss starts accumulating via Shriek, throw down a bonus pinger if you have one; Blood Artist, Hissing Iguanar, and Syr Konrad, the Grim work well, as does The Masamune. I'd also argue that a lifegain card is also sufficient, like Deathgreeter or Dross Harvester. I'm a huge proponent of lifegain in just about every Commander deck for how it negates early attacks and often unlocks an extra turn or two. In the case of Shriek, this easy lifegain can insulate you from a few crack backs if the goad effects are wearing thin.

Things may start getting out of hand, which is when it's time to deploy one of our board wipes. Shriek sports three toughness and will survive a Massacre Wurm trigger, and Daring Fiendbonder, either discarded or having expired in combat, offers additional protection. Even if it means sacrificing Shriek, though, it's often the right call to wipe and guarantee yourself some Shriek triggers even if it means rebuilding. This deck runs a lot of cheap spells and can recover pretty quickly.

Shriek, Treblemaker Commander Decklist

Here Comes Treble

The sheer amount of removal in this deck places it in Bracket 3 territory, even if it's running a convoluted creature-gifting strategy powered by jank like Varchild's War-Riders. For an added boost, feel free to include Revel in Riches, a card that may seem like a perfect inclusion until you learn this horrifying secret: this card is no fun. I've won a few games using it, and each time, I've shrugged and felt absolutely nothing, like I'd entered a cheat code. Meanwhile, my opponents were either equally unenthused or livid with salt. I suppose you could run one for the Treasure-production alone, though five mana is a pretty steep cost to pay.

I'd love to hear your thoughts. What sorts of treble—er, trouble do you think this commander could get into? Would you have leaned more into discard? Let's shriek.