Instant Speed Glenn; This deck is probably a bad idea.

[Gamazson]

A few months ago I was listening to the an EDHRECast about commanders that the creator couldn't make work. One discussed was Glenn, the Voice of Calm. Specifically discussion of using him as a spell slinger commander intrigued me. This idea has lived rent free in my head for a while and I decided to actually put together a deck.

What I think will make it work, is using cards that care about power and toughness. The card that got me thinking this way was Twisted Image. After Glenn is unblocked you can play it to deal 3 damage and draw 4 new cards for a single blue. That seemed a pretty good deal. Looking on scryfall for other cards that mentioned toughness is what brought me around to including Rasaad yn Bashir & High Alert. These two cards turn minor damage buffs like Wings of the Cosmos & Refuse to Yield into major beats. That makes lethal commander damage a plausible way to win. Unfortunately Glenn will only draw cards based on his power, so even buff spells like Flare of Faith are still best.

I also threw in other common staples from toughness matters commanders such as Slaughter the Strong, Retribution of the Meek & Fell the Mighty for some one sided board control.

The all star win condition here is E. Honda, Sumo Champion. Based on some gold fishing, it is not uncommon to have more than 7 cards in hands when he attacks thanks to Glenn's draw triggers. A small team of creatures can be lethal with that kind of buff. I assume this to be turn 7 or 8 at earliest since I want to keep something in hand to protect E. Honda after I cast him.

Which brings up something else I like about this deck. In azorius the buff spells don't provide as much damage as Gruul would, but a large number of the spells offer some form of protection built in such as indestructible or hexproof. Others can untap a creature giving me an unexpected blocker. I'm bad when it comes to overcommitting, so this deck will force me to think differently.

The deck overall is still probably a bad idea, but I look forward to playing it soon.

Decklist

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Commander

1 Glenn, the Voice of Calm

Instant

1 Adamant Will

1 Akroma's Will

1 Alley Evasion

1 Arrester's Zeal

1 Astral Steel

1 Beaming Defiance

1 Crypsis

1 Defiant Strike

1 Fight as One

1 Flare of Faith

1 Gods Willing

1 Kaya's Onslaught

1 Moment of Heroism

1 Moment of Triumph

1 Mordenkainen's Polymorph

1 Mortal's Ardor

1 Qilin's Blessing

1 Refuse to Yield

1 Seize the Initiative

1 Shadow Rift

1 Shore Up

1 Show of Confidence

1 Swift Justice

1 Take Heart

1 Twisted Image

1 View from Above

1 Wings of the Cosmos

1 You're Ambushed on the Road

Enchantment

1 Monk Class

1 Steel of the Godhead

1 Vesuvan Duplimancy

Artifact

1 Scroll of the Masters

1 Sentinel Tower

1 Swiftfoot Boots

1 Sword of the Chosen

1 Umezawa's Jitte

1 Winged Boots

Interaction

1 An Offer You Can't Refuse

1 Echoing Truth

1 Negate

1 Path to Exile

1 Swan Song

1 Swords to Plowshares

Creature

1 Artisan of Forms

1 Clever Lumimancer

1 Crashing Drawbridge

1 E. Honda, Sumo Champion

1 Leonin Lightscribe

1 Mavinda, Students' Advocate

1 Monastery Mentor

1 Mother of Runes

1 Rasaad yn Bashir

1 Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive

Other

1 Cyclonic Rift

1 Retribution of the Meek

1 Sculpted Sunburst

1 Sevinne's Reclamation

1 Slaughter the Strong

Ramp

1 Arcane Signet

1 Azorius Signet

1 Decanter of Endless Water

1 Sol Ring

1 Thought Vessel

1 Wayfarer's Bauble

Land

1 Access Tunnel

1 Command Beacon

1 Command Tower

1 Deserted Beach

1 Exotic Orchard

1 Glacial Floodplain

1 Glacial Fortress

1 Hallowed Fountain

5 Island

1 Nimbus Maze

1 Ondu Inversion // Ondu Skyruins

12 Plains

1 Port Town

1 Prairie Stream

1 Reliquary Tower

1 Rogue's Passage

1 Sea of Clouds

1 Sejiri Shelter // Sejiri Glacier

1 Skycloud Expanse

1 Temple of Enlightenment

Maybeboard

1 Duelist's Heritage

1 March of Swirling Mist

1 Stoneskin

Approximate Total Cost:

[Gamazson]

I was able to get several games in tonight. First time I have been to my LGS in months!

I am very pleased with how the deck preformed even if I never got close to winning. I was up against Tergrid, God of Fright // Tergrid's Lantern, Kaalia of the Vast &, Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy. Those decks were rather well tuned, yet I still always had something to do.

I did learn a few lessons though:

• Serpentine Ambush is a nonbo with Steel of the Godhead because it changes Glenn's color identity. There was one game that I was counting on the life game.
• I need more turn 1-2 plays. Out of 4 games, I never saw a ramp spell until late game. The draw on Glenn kept my land drops up, but I feel like I need to be doing more.
• I took the Kaalia player out in game 3 with Clever Lumimancer & Astral Steel. Magecraft is kind of awesome. I think I'd like to do more of that. I'll be adding Show of Confidence. I had omitted it because it will nonbo with my low power on attack strategy, but it is a powerful enough finisher that I think I should test it out. I also have plenty of alternative evasion options.

27.08.2022 Change

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Out:

1 Serpentine Ambush

1 Plains

1 Fell the Mighty

1 Tandem Tactics

1 Angel of Destiny

In:

1 Mordenkainen's Polymorph

1 Brainstorm

1 Ponder

1 Show of Confidence

1 Artisan of Forms

Approximate Total Cost:

[Gamazson]

Over the last month the deck list here, the one I keep on archidekt and the actual deck have drifted away from each other. I have got everything all sorted again but I won't be able to break down every change, but I do have a few things to note:

• Fell the Mighty has returned, Winds of Abandon is out. I found that Fell does better job of tipping the game in my direction. Winds will often tip things in my opponents direction thanks to the extra ramp they get. I think a go wide deck is better equipped to utilize the card than a spellslinger is.
• Willbreaker has been dropped for being to slow. By the time I can cast a 5 mana creature, I tend to have beater plays. With the nature of this deck, anything 4 cmc or greater has to be game ending.
• With that said, Vesuvan Duplimancy is being given a shot in the deck. I have avoided most of the 4 cmc token generators like Murmuring Mystic and Talrand, Sky Summoner but Duplimancy stands out for it's ability to copy Glenn himself, which alleviates my concerns about loosing gas as the game progresses. Any spell not being spent on buffing Glenn, is a spell that won't replace itself. Making multiple copies of Clever Lumimancer or Leonin Lightscribe also has the potential to be lethal.
• High Alert has been dropped. Dealing damage based on toughness is still a solid strategy, but not worth hyper focusing on. Rasaad yn Bashir, E. Honda, Sumo Champion and Twisted Image are enough.
• Sheltering Light & Stand Firm are out. They are holdovers from very early drafts of the deck list that contained Elminster. You draw enough cards that the scry is barely worth the time. Replaced by Alley Evasion and Fight as One.
• Shore Up is a strict upgrade to Dive Down. The toughness buff is inferior to the power buff, even when Rasaad yn Bashir is out. The untap is always relevant. Grants the option block a creature your opponent values but was only attacking because they saw an open board.

[Gamazson]

It's been a while since not much has released that affects this build.

I did get my hands on a copy of Umezawa's Jitte. It replaces Meekstone which had been underperforming.

The most interesting change is swapping out Fell the Mighty for Sculpted Sunburst. I completely missed this card when it came out. It is better in many ways. First, it exiles. Second although there is a higher chance each opponent will be left with one creature, it won't whiff on a large field of small tokens, an issue I once ran into against a Phylath deck.