MTGNexus

I would have posted this in the main decklist forum, but this is clearly not a deck that's legal in commander. My playgroup usually lets me play this if I random into it out of my case, but I always ask for permission every game to be certain. I might also laugh like the sesame street count when I count down towards 1. I may also frequently play a censored version of a song sung by said count while cackling like an idiot.

I've kept this deck built as my Rakdos colors because I think that it best embodies the mentality of the colors. It just sort of jokes around then suddenly has a gun to your head, and may pull the trigger to stop you or may have been bluffing that the gun was loaded. The entire deck does basically nothing unless the Baron sees it happen, and any actually useful permanents or spells are mostly accidental.

The Baron tries to count down to 1 or 2 as soon as possible. From there, the villain has you hanging by your ankles over a vat of viscous liquid. He's going to tell you that it's acid, but it might just be gelatin. The deck runs 18 instants that have a 1 (and more) on them, but doesn't have a lot of card draw/tutor. The game is now whether I can bluff that I will kill you in response to your transgression, and then if I follow through on it.

If the Baron does fire his laser, It then has to spend at least a turn re-setting up before I can threaten another player. I've also been both Mindslavered into shooting myself and had the target redirected to my own face multiple times.


To track the current number distribution:

quantity of number	1	2	3	4	5
instants	20	15	9	9	5
non-instants	37	34	28	28	23

If I've missed any low cost/recur-able spells with numbers on them or you want to argue about what counts as a number please feel free to comment. I do know that some non-english printings of cards use numbers instead of spelling out some words, such as vindictive lich. I loan out my decks frequently, so I've abstained from this technique to reduce confusion.

Goblin Tutor can get any number for all plausible rolls. Enchantments are covered by Arguel's Blood Fast and Skin Invasion. Artifacts have plenty of options, but Mana Vault and Elixir of Immortality are good examples. Creature can just get Zulaport Enforcer or something like Rimrock Knight // Boulder Rush for an instant. Instant/sorcery can get Dismember or Thunderbolt.

Honorable mentions to a couple friends of mine for making card suggestions that I wouldn't have thought of otherwise. Thanks to Greg and Mab for making this more effective than it has any right to be.

Shatterskull Charger is a low CMC, self bouncing source of 1, 2, 3, and 4. I'm probably dropping The Triumph of Anax for it, despite the more strict color costs.

Roil Eruption is also a card to consider, in an effort to further lower mana costs. It's a sorcery, but there aren't that many 2 CMC or less cards that have a 5.

Spikefield Hazard // Spikefield Cave will probably replace a mountain for an extra 1 CMC with 1.

Lithoform Engine is another way to copy Baron's trigger, and has a pile of numbers as a plus.

I may have missed some, sets with alternative casting costs or kicker-type effects frequently have a wide array of numbers.

Toralf, God of Fury, specifically his hammer will likely replace Pharika's Spawn or Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury, to include more numbers at the same or lower CMC. The hammer bouncing back is a great upside for a second charge.

Tibalt's Trickery is another great instant which can also multi-trigger Baron by Possibility Storming my own cards.

Dragonkin Beserker and Valki, God of Lies offer lower CMC than current options, though paying 5rb for a 3 is painful.

Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire should probably be tested, tutoring is good.

A fairly large number of swaps. Transforming and other dual faced cards always have more opportunity to have a lot of numbers. The most questionable swap was witch's oven for skin invasion; a change made to improve Goblin Tutor.

According to the rule on The Gatherer, Mana Vault wouldn't include "3" because it doesn't add 3, it adds CCC. Similarly, Sol Ring adds CC, and so-on. If you're going with what's printed on the card instead of the Oracle text, I get it. But from an outsider perspective, were we playing together, I'd assume and expect us to be playing according to Oracle text.

That is a fair point, I'll add a mental note for the pregame talk about this deck in addition to the silver-boarded commander and cards in deck. I wouldn't have thought of that discussion/clarification, and will make an effort to include it. I updated the post to reflect those not counting.

I've been going by printed text because of items like the Japanese printings using a number instead of a spelled out world. It's similar to counting the 1 in the reminder text of Ember Swallower.

According to Maro, Silver bordered cards look at a card as printed, though I'm not sure about oracle text:

Therefore, if you're using an older printing of solring and thran dynamo, it does work the way you want with baron.

chetoos wrote: ↑

2 years ago

According to Maro, Silver bordered cards look at a card as printed, though I'm not sure about oracle text:

Therefore, if you're using an older printing of solring and thran dynamo, it does work the way you want with baron.

Cool! They should note this on The Gatherer.

It's probably still a good idea to explain these things before a game begins.

Cards of interest from Neon Dynasty for their numbers

• 1,2,3,5 Blade of the Oni and Goro-Goro, Disciple of Ryusei
• 1,2,3,4 Reckoner Bankbuster and Mukotai Soulripper
• 1,2,3 Kami's Flare

A fairly common question is how much importance the deck should put on reuse and the actual card effects with the same numbers
Looking at only MV, bankbuster and soulripper are more efficient than Transmogrifying Wand and Shatterskull Charger. Similarly, Blade of the Oni and Goro-Goro are more efficient than Xantcha, Sleeper Agent and Foreboding Statue. Most of these swaps are unlikely because repeated use, removal, draw, and ramp are rather valuable.

Instead, Blade of the Oni and Goro-Goro, Disciple of Ryusei will replace Batterbone and Mystic Skull. The increased color requirements add more count flexibility. I'll probably also drop Transmogrifying Wand for Reckoner Bankbuster.

I wish You Are Already Dead had a 1 on the card, which might have been funny enough to include for the intersection of meme and stack resolution order.

It's been several updates since I updated this post. I don't recall the specific swaps.