Apparently the real quote is “The only constant in life is change,” and I’m already running asides in the first sentence. One of the greatest aspects of Commander that’s happened since I last posted here was the creation of such sites like Archidekt.com and Moxfield.com. I mean, previously I was keeping track of my deck lists in Google Docs and posting them on here. I once wrote (somewhere) that you don’t need to follow deck lists and you should follow deck skeletons instead, but that was over a decade ago and life has changed. Constantly.

People change too. Luckily, I still believe in deck skeletons but I ironically need deck lists to rip apart so I can see what are its bones to I make my own skeleton. By examining what others have done it gives you the opportunity to see how people think and to open up ideas that you never thought of. Imagine, diversity can be really useful.

There are two dogmatic truths about building a deck in Commander I hold: A) Deck construction at its truest form in this casual format is an expression of it’s creator and pilot and 2) Sometimes a single card change can flip a whole deck construction its head and you’re going in a new direction (this is especially true when new cards are released). Being a tinkerer, I know that decks are never finished. My one quirk is I have always been fascinated by deck evolution; I tried keep track of it for years in Google Sheets (see that post above) and it’s something you can do with the two sites mentioned above. To be honest, I haven’t taken full advantage of it like I ought to and it’s something I should do.

Just add it to my to do list.

This time however, I can examine a deck’s evolution. Change is constant.

Here’s the first decklist for Brion Stoutarm in that Google Docs link (I’m sure no one clicked):

(Ignore the basic land arts in all of these, but the rest of the cards should all be the version I had in the deck)

In case you don’t know or forgot what Brion Stoutarm does, here’s a simple reminder (and it’s ok if you don’t know all the cards or Commanders ever printed, it’s gotten so much I can’t keep them all in my head):

For most of this piece we’re going to focus on his two abilities: the Lifelink and the “Fling” effect (which actually comes from Stone Giant but better). You sacrifice a creature at a player, deal damage equal to its power and then you gain that much life. Please remember it doesn’t count as Commander Damage since it’s not from combat.

The one thing that has consistently gotten better over the years with Commander has been the mana base options. The barometer for the quality is easily seen in the Red White combination that Stoutarm is apart of. Sure, sometimes White gets a little ramp if it’s Plains related (as you’ll see in future decks), but it’s the color combination that has benefitted the most since this color combination is the worst (If you’re budget or don’t want to spend the money on rare dual lands, there’s so many to choose from now).

What you see here is how much a Stoutarm deck has grown in 16 years. I’ve never wanted to run the “steal your opponent’s creatures and fling them” aspect of this build since I felt that would make me a large target. No one would want to play their big creatures out and you’d have to do it on your own anyway. Then Vicious Shadows hit the board and everyone wanted to kill me anyway. What you can see here is some attempt at a RW control shell but it’s still Stoutarm flinging Serra Avatar as the kill.

What this does have is a bunch of stuff I was trying to do that kinda makes sense but not really. There’s a small lifegain package here with Bubbling Cauldron and Angelic Accord where you hoped to gain enough life in one turn to throw an Angel to then make another 4/4 angel (something I think is a fine enough play if you can get it going). Then there’s the Firemane Angel/Searing Meditation combo from Ravnica block that’s fun and if you were playing longer game of Commander and it might work out. They aren’t really control elements just fun cute combos that might be better suited for Jumpstart decks.

And when you look at a deck like this, and why decks keep changing: my game play was “I hope this works out.” I set up a half-baked toolbox of creatures to fling, if Stoutarm was on the table, that I hoped it would work out. I cast a Firemane Angel for 6, Fling it for another 1, bring it back to play on my upkeep with another 10 mana (after you gain one life), and Fling it again for 1. Yes, that’s 18 mana for dealing 8 damage and gaining 9.

By Grabthar’s Hammer, what a savings.

There were so many death triggers and ways to get stuff back that’s just way too slow it didn’t do enough. If you’re going for that type of deck, then that’s okay; there is nothing wrong with wanting a slower durdly deck. Your decks don’t have to be all powerful Bracket 4 or 5. None of these lists are really optimized (though I trick myself into thinking they are); I’m running dual lands in here because I have Plains matter cards but they wouldn’t be necessary for most decks.

It’s funny because when you get somewhere you feel like you cracked a deck construction and you believe it’s going to work out so beautifully; then when you look at it later you’re like “of course it didn’t work because of this. I know how to fix it.” It always happens, it will always happen. Constant.

Getting back to Brion, let’s take a look at the list I had before I tore it all down recently.

You can see there’s so much going on here. Most likely the biggest improvement to the deck is the addition of more creatures that care about your life total that didn’t exist all those years ago. It’s not just Serra Avatar but Evra, Loxodon Lifechanter and Soul of Eternity. Redundancy is important. Important, redundancy is. Because of the new additions I can focus a little more on the discard package since I don’t need to wait for a big creature to be sacrificed to hit the graveyard to be used with reanimation or Feldon. Serra Avatar has that clause to (rightfully) prevent it from being reanimated and now I can use the alternates as an option opening up more pathways of winning. It’s always fun to run a RW reanimation deck since no one’s really expecting it.

We come up with some of the same issues as before: if Stoutarm isn’t on the battlefield, does the deck work? I’ve had games where all I could do was get him played, only to watch him be destroyed and the deck doesn’t do anything. Obviously that can happen so often, but the format is faster now. I’m not going for a turn 3 kill, that’s not my style with this deck. And powerful cards are powerful if you can get them to do something. There are ideas here and concepts that are touched upon it just doesn’t gel. Mimic Vat‘s great… if I can get a creature to die and not discarded. If I already have a big creature I’m flinging, wouldn’t I want it to be able to get it back with Feldon or Reya Dawnbringer? Sure it’s another just of redundancy but it’s one that’s not compatible here. Hofri Ghostforge has the same issue too, not allowing for reanimation and it has to die to be useful. The exile clause is also why I’m not running Jeska’s Will here, I don’t want the cards exiled, I want them in my graveyard.

The deck still had some of the “durdly” cards that are fun to sacrifice and recur when not on a loop: Wurmcoil Engine and Yosei. Heart-Piercer Manticore is fun, can fling stuff and has Embalm so I can keep using it! If I get Ajani to his ultimate I can get to another Serra Avatar I can fling it my opponent. Are those enough it this day and age of Commander?

Are these good enough when I’m running Game Changer cards?

That might be harsh self criticism, but it’s valid. Screwing around with a casual fling deck hits different if I’m running powerful enough cards that get this deck raised a few tiers. This isn’t the time to talk about play etiquette and the Commander tiers but it’s something to keep in mind while deckbuilding.

So I broke it down. The deck, not me. Nothing was a sacred cow in the deck. If I want to push this a little bit, running Sneak Attack is a good play and not just hoping that maybe someone would play more creatures to load up my Hamletback Goliath. I needed to examine everything. I could run a deck that was slower paced, not as efficient, and something along the older style Battlecruiser Magic Commander used to be, or decide that let’s make this a little more competitive and intriguing. The old decklist didn’t work of course, I know how to fix it this time.

As I was tearing this down and my hair out I keep debating on what I could do to be more RW control, how was I going to delay to get to my fling targets? There’s running pillow fort cards like Ghostly Prison and Magus of the Moat. I’ve got a Peacekeeper lying around I could throw in here. Winter Orb? None of them seemed fun. I was digging through EDHRec, trying to find ideas from other decks that I could ransack their bones and use it to make my skeleton. Red White Commanders are filled with attack triggers or Auras and Equipment and attacking, and attacking and artifacts…

Everything changed when I came across Phlage.

Like, I knew of this card, but I wasn’t really captivated with it. Yeah, a Lightning Helix is cool and all, I have Helix in my deck, but Phlage didn’t seem exciting. Then I saw what decks were doing with it. White has dug this corner in the color pie where it can reanimate creatures but only if they cost 3 or less. There are plenty of spells and abilities that bring back a creature with mana value 3 or less. And thanks to timing rules a player can put the escape sacrifice trigger on the stack, fling it with Stoutarm, and it will work.

Oh.

Brion Stoutarm almost pivoted to a Phlage deck.

What this did though is change the deck to be in a completely different direction. I knew what I had in the mid part of the game. Yes, I know that Phlage isn’t my Commander, it isn’t going to be guaranteed during my game and yes I know I’m not running any full combos with it. It made me revaluate what I could do with the mid game where I was “stalling” to put out my bigger threats.

Here’s the updated list I’m going to take to CommanderFest SeattleTacoma.

If you click the link above you’ll see may “maybeboard” where it includes everything I threw my deck in there and other cards I was considering.

Reya out; Celestine, the Living Saint in. I don’t get the guaranteed of any creature during my upkeep, but I get a combo with Peace of Mind and Phlage/Loran/Claim Jumper/Magus of the Wheel/Haliya etc. at the end of every turn. I do have the one infinite combo of Kiki-Jiki and Zealous Conscripts but they can both be used for other parts of the deck and be a “pulled in case of emergency” lever. Gone is a bunch of the over-costed reanimate in White but more effects that help when Stoutarm triggers.

And to the keen eye in there, you’ll notice a whole Sunforger package. That’s the toolbox I should have been running in the first place instead of waiting for my creatures on board to hopefully be tossed. It’s the RW control I’ve been looking for. Is this the solution that I’m looking for? It doesn’t hurt to try. Trying to find cards in that package wasn’t hard though I do want to point out that Worthy Cause is a nice fit this deck. It doesn’t see enough play according to EDHRec. Another small change is Chandra’s Ignition instead of an Akroma’s Vengeance: if I kill the other players then it will kill the artifacts and enchantments as well. Again, a change of the philosophy of how the deck works by killing multiple opponents at once.

It’s not only new cards that can shape a deck it’s a new perspective on how to pilot the darn thing. Learning what another deck does and deconstructing it allowed me to decide what was important here. Seeing that Phlage had a bunch of midgame tricks made me think differently about my midgame. How this deck looks now is less reliant on Stoutarm and, most importantly, I can keep him in the Command Zone until it’s ready to do something. It will take some games to figure out what I should do in certain situations and I know there will be cards that I thought were absolute hits until they don’t do anything.

But as of now, surely I’ve fixed it.

This deck has changed quite a bit over the years. These aren’t all the changes in the deck, we’re only visiting three points in time. Even now it has much of the same bones, the heart, the intent, but the way it looks and feels is completely different than it used to. And that’s good. That’s change.

And it will change again.