The adventure of a boy and his loyal friend
Premise
Note: this is a theme/ludonarrative-focused deck. To some it might give insane snowflake/cringe-vibes, as it deviates from a lot of what commander has become over the last decade (card-choice is based on completely different axes). I hope you can step past that and see the design intent behind the deck.
Themes
Companions
These cards focus on strengthening both Rograkh and Yoshimaru, either by making them stronger (which most do for Yoshimaru by virtue of being Legendary too) or by sheltering them from harm. Think small helpers/pokemon/critters/animals.
Bond between the two
Although harder to find, these pieces focus on flavourfully conveying the relationship between Rograkh and Yoshimaru: they're a team with the goal of becoming the best/strongest out there! Although some additional fight cards would be nice here, red really lacks the flavour-wise fitting fight cards. I'd hoped Baldur's gate would've given us a red Minsc & Boo flavoured one, but alas.
Getting stronger/mentoring
A big chunk of the deck is about the journey of becoming stronger and finding the people to train with: think mangas/anime like Pokemon, but also Avatar: the Last Airbender. The mentor-mechanic is awesome and super flavourful, with Tajic being an amazing stand-in for the 'old 'n wise mentor' trope. An important criterium for these cards is that they don't take away the spotlight of Rograkh and Yoshimaru too much: it's their story after all!
Going on adventures!
Although still somewhat lacking, these cards represent challenges for our two young heroes. The D&D "You come across something" cards also give a nice sense of adventurism, but are not so much quests. At the moment, attacking represents going on adventures, although I could see other activities (tapping for something, i.e. representing Daily Regimen-esque vibes). Suggestions are welcome!
Benevolent entities
An area that could use some more cards, but these represent beings/gods that bestow blessings upon our daring duo. Ideally, this goes beyond the realm of mere mortals and represent things higher than companions (if you've played any Zelda game, think of something like the three goddesses of Ocarina of Time, or the three dragons in Breath of the Wild). Perhaps other Kamigawa dragons could be interesting here (as death represents a dramatic moment in their adventures!).
Heroism
A more-or-less bucket of less defined 'heroic' cards depicting heroic moments/deeds. Rograkh is a Gerrard-fanboy, and thus glorifies heroic purity and the ideals Gerrard represents (imagine heroic defiance's art hanging in his bedroom as a poster for example). This section isn't as clear cut in terms of what fits, but it has to feel adjacent/fitting with all the other themes.
Decklist
Decklist
Companions
Bond between the two
Getting Stronger/Mentoring
Going on Adventures!
Heroism
Trinkets
Approximate Total Cost:
Further additions/thoughts
- Banding! If there's ever a place for this mechanic, this deck is it. I'd love to have Cathedral of Serra and Mountain Stronghold in here as actual flavourful and mechanically useful cards!
- Legendary lands from OG kamigawa. The idea of having all of the lands represent places they've visited (and subsequently had adventures) would be awesome.
- Would love it if there were cards that give 'mentor' or 'training' to a creature, but alas.
- The deck is very light on removal, which often happens with theme decks, but it would be nice to have some more flavourful fight/bite cards in here. Flavourful enchantment/artifact removal is also still very sparse. Suggestions are welcome
- Legendary lands from OG kamigawa. The idea of having all of the lands represent places they've visited (and subsequently had adventures) would be awesome.
- Would love it if there were cards that give 'mentor' or 'training' to a creature, but alas.
- The deck is very light on removal, which often happens with theme decks, but it would be nice to have some more flavourful fight/bite cards in here. Flavourful enchantment/artifact removal is also still very sparse. Suggestions are welcome