Obosh, the Preypiercer // Vial // Kraum - [Companion // Commanders Parings]
Posted: Mon May 18, 2020 2:28 am
Carrying on my quest of building around all the companions that can be played in commander, so far there has been;
Jegantha, the Wellspring // Sisay, Weatherlight Captain
Zirda, the Dawnwaker // Kenrith, the Returned King (also Golos, Tireless Pilgrim)
Kaheera, the Orphanguard // Morophon, the Boundless
Keruga, the Macrosage // Animar, Soul of Elements
When I was looking at legendary creatures to companion with Obosh, the Preypiercer, I wanted one that had "damage" somewhere in the text, and Vial Smasher the Fierce stood out as a candidate.
Nekusar, the Mindrazer was another option, but man that build has been done to death, so didn't interest me in the slightest.
I then looked at odd converted mana cost partners, and although there are a number of options, I really wanted Blue specifically for Curiosity, Ophidian Eye and Tandem Lookout to get card draw with Vial.
Kraum, Ludevic's Opus seemed like a great option as you can swing in for 8 damage each attack with Obosh, the Preypiercer in play, plus the card advantage.
With Grixis colors I wanted to avoid a storm build that often you gravitate towards, and if I was going to do that then Nekusar, the Mindrazer would have been the better option.
So this is a control deck, which also has the ability to apply quite a bit of pressure with damage from the commanders and companion.
Avoiding storm meant that I didn't want to play cards like Timetwister, Windfall and Wheel of Fortune.
With Obosh restricting you to odd converted cards, playing the Moxes like Chrome Mox, Mox Diamond, Mana Crypt, along with a few others, does make this draw 7 plan far less appealing as well.
So in the end we are a control deck that looks to spoil the fun of opponents basically winning and putting them on a reasonable clock.
Saucy cards in the deck are things like Guttersnipe dealing 4 damage to opponents with Obosh in play.
In competitive metas a renowned Scab-Clan Berserker can make it very hard for your opponents to combo off, as it'll be doing 4 damage each non-creature spell they cast. It adds up very quickly.
With Vial ability to deal damage each opponents turn as well as yours, I wanted a high number of instants, and even those that have higher mana costs but are cost reduced in some manner.
Force of Will, Misdirection, Commandeer, Nexus of Fate are prefect for this and with Obosh double damage, they can be taking around a 1/4 off opponents life totals.
Frantic Search and Force of Negation are other freebie type spells and of note I will be playing other "free" spells from Commander 2020 when they are available in Fierce Guardianship and Deflecting Swat as these are perfect with Vial/Obosh dealing damage in opponents turns, while giving you protection and the ability to tap out.
With the plan of doing damage with Vial and Obosh, there are other cost reduced type cards in Mulldrifter, Shriekmaw, Treachery, Temporal Mastery. They can deal 10 or 14 damage to an opponent (Vial+Obosh), and this all accumulates quite quickly.
With Curiosity, Ophidian Eye, Tandem Lookout and Wavebreak Hippocamp I also wanted a number of cheap instants to trigger Vial, and 1 cmc counterspells can pull double duty in this regard.
Izzet Staticaster and Vendilion Clique have flash, so help with triggering abilities in opponents turns, and Staticaster can shoot for 2 damage with Obosh which actually nails a lot of creatures.
If you think in terms of Vendilion Clique also hits for 6 damage with Obosh, you can see how cost efficient your ability to gain card advantages while putting pressure on opponents adds up.
Killing creatures is easy with double damage as you can use spells like Fire Covenant, Flame Sweep to mop up more creatures than normal.
With only 4 artifacts in the deck, Subterranean Tremors is a nice option to use for both the creature kill and destroy artifacts.
Blasphemous Act of course destroys everything, and if you've been forced to use it with Obosh and Vial in play that's 18 damage to one opponents face as well, all for probable .
There are more card draw cards that lose you life like Necropotence and Phyrexian Arena, but these are not damage, so Obosh will not cause double up effects.
You do tend to take a lot of damage from the deck in general with fetchlands and shocklands, Fire Covenant, Toxic Deluge and with the nature of being both aggressive and control, you do tend to end up being a bit of the arch-enemy a lot of games, so expect focused targeting of attacks.
Vampiric Link can help with this by hopefully targeting Vial for continuous life gain each turn. Although if you need you can still put it on Kraum or Obosh if needed.
There are a couple of ways to get Obosh back from your graveyard with Kolaghan's Command and Volrath's Stronghold if need be, although Obosh is not essential to the deck functioning, its just that 10th card "in hand" at the start of the game that helps to make the aggression plan more efficient. So you can run it out without fear of removal.
Obosh, the Preypiercer // Vial Smasher the Fierce // Kraum, Ludevic's Opus
Approximate Total Cost: