How to Build a Delightful Commander Deck Inspired by Media and Pop-Culture

How to Build a Delightful Commander Deck Inspired by Media and Pop-Culture

How to Build a Delightful Commander Deck Inspired by Media and Pop-Culture

By: Shawn Wasserman

Recently, I outlined ten of the most popular ways to choose an EDH commander. Within that article, one of the most challenging options is to produce a deck that is centered around your favourite stories, pop culture, and media. 

You have to walk a tight-rope to make the deck viable and true to the narrative. Perhaps the best way to teach this skill is to walk you through it. So in this article, let's walk through the decision-making process I had when designing a story inspired deck.

 

I chose to center my deck around Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." The show has had positive effects throughout my life adding to my love of music, folklore, and family traditions.

As an added bonus to you, the reader, the musical is based on the biblical story of Joseph. So, it is hopefully more ubiquitous, and thus a better teaching tool, than my Star Trek: Deep Space 9 or Farscape decks.

I decided early in the design of this deck to aim for a power level of six to seven. I want to have a good time with my playgroup. So the deck should be better than a Precon and have some chance of winning. 


Your first step should be to decide what range your deck should be in, as it will help you walk the aforementioned line between narrative and viability.

How to Choose a Commander to Represent a Story

When choosing your commander, I recommend picking a card to represent the main character, or a character in a leadership role. The card should remind you of that character in some way. For stories with a leading duo, look to the list of partner commanders and see if a combination fits. 

To give yourself the most freedom of finding representative cards for other characters, try to aim for as much of the color pie as you can. 

An exception to this would be choosing a mono-color commander if that part of the color pie represents the story, or commander, really well. Good examples would be a mono-blue Smurf deck (remember I’m going for ubiquitous pop culture examples here), or a mono-black Batman deck.

I thought that  “Kenrith, the Returned King”  would be a great stand-in for Joseph. Why…? The character is known for wearing a multi-colour coat (very WUBRG). He is eventually returned to his family and he becomes the noble right-hand-man to the Pharaoh. 

Joseph also has a super power. The ability to have, or interpret, prophetic dreams;clearly a blue card draw ability. Additionally, throughout the story the dreams he has, or interprets, fit the MTG spectrum pretty well. For instance:

  • He dreams about his rise to political power, causing a rift with his brothers (represented by the white lifegain ability)
  • He interprets a dream of seven years of crops large enough for endless feasts (represented by the green +1/+1 counter ability) followed by seven years of famine devastating enough to cripple the region (represented by the black graveyard ability)
  • He interprets a dream that predicts an execution ordered by an enraged Pharaoh (represented by the red trample/haste ability)


Those dreams also gave me a good excuse to include the “Sword of Feast and Famine”. Which, When coupled with Kenrith’s abilities, represents the first game-ending card in the deck.

How to Represent a Story’s Cast in EDH

In the first act of the story, Joseph is the favourite son of a dozen brothers and at least one sister. His father, Jacob, is quite “busy” and polyamorous for a biblical hero. He has two wives, Leah and Rachel. He also has two concubines; Leah’s Handmaid Zipah, and Rachel’s Handmaid Bihah. 

As we’re here for an MTG lesson, not a biblical lesson, I won’t go too much further into the family tree.

 


I moved on to the most obvious choice, a card to represent Joseph’s sister and 11 brothers. Throughout the story, Joseph’s siblings are complaining about one thing or another. First it’s Joseph’s popularity and prophesizing. Then it’s that they miss Joseph (after faking his death and selling him into slavery). and Finally they beg for food and the life of their youngest brother, Benjamin. 

With all this whining, and flip-flopping motives, there is only one card that comes to mind, Persistent Petitioners. Just look at that card’s artwork to see the reasons why. As an added bonus, I can have any number of this card in the deck, so I went with a dozen to represent all of Joseph’s siblings. Additionally, getting four of them on the battlefield represents a way to close out the game during a stalemate.


Originally, Jacob’s nomadic ways pointed me towards choosing “Golos, Tireless Pilgrim” to represent him. However, the rules committee had other plans with it’s recent banning. If your playgroup is comfortable with you using the pilgrim, do it. That’s what rule 0 is for.

If not, since Jacob is wise, and sired so many human advisors, Azor’s Elocutors should do the trick. Additionally, The card’s triggered ability can create a deus-ex-machina like win condition, which is fitting for a man that once fought an angel and won (but that's another story).

Rounding out the family is the four mothers. Of course,the most iconic mother card in MTG is the Commander staple “Mother of Runes”. Her activated ability enables you to protect your creatures, which is quite useful in this build. The challenge is, Commander rules state that you can only have one of her in the deck. 

As a result, I scoured the card-list looking for similar options. The best I could find were “Giver of Runes”, “Benevolent Bodyguard” and “Alseid of Life's Bounty”.

Representing Antagonists, Side-Characters and Story Beats in Your Deck

When it comes to representing the antagonists of the story, I find it’s best to find cards that will “antagonize“ your playgroup. These don’t have to be win conditions, but they should be spicy.

Now a slave, Joseph is eventually sold to Potiphar, captain of the Pharaoh's guard. A job like that screamed human warrior from Amonkhet, a plane dripping with Egyptian lore. The best option was “Harsh Mentor”. This is because Potiphar eventually takes a liking to Joseph, promoting him to head of his household. Also, the card does a great job antagonizing our opponents by hating on artifact, creature, and land abilities; which are all staples in Commander.

*Start of Content Warning*

As head of Potiphar’s household, Joseph’s beauty catches the eye of the lady of the house, Zuleikha. When Joseph refuses her advances, she saves face by framing him for being the perpetrator. As punishment, Potiphar sends Joseph to prison. 

*End of Content Warning*

This act of seduction, spite, and cruelty says vampire to me. And I believe the activated ability of “Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief”, which empowers herself while hurting others, does a really good job of representing this part of the story.

While in prison Joseph meets two side-characters, the Pharaoh's Baker and Butler. Both of whom are serving time for angering the Pharaoh. Both also have odd dreams that need Joseph's interpretation.

When I think of side characters, I think of utility creatures. In this case, the Baker is best represented in the deck by “Gyome, Master Chef”. This card offers protection to both your creatures and your life total. Meanwhile the Butler, represented by “Servant of the Scale”, offers additional +1/+1 synergy. 

The baker’s dream predicts his execution, while the butler's dream predicts his return to service with the Pharaoh. This is ironic as the Baker’s card will serve you through the game, and the Butler’s card wants to go to the graveyard. Nonetheless, I stand by the decisions. 

The Pharaoh is represented by the antagonistic card “Vengeful Pharaoh”. This is based solely on how he treated the poor Baker. But his place in the story doesn't end there. 

After the Butler returns to duty, the Pharaoh has some nightmares. It is then that the Butler tells his king of Joseph's abilities. In desperation, the Pharaoh calls Joseph up from prison to interpret his dreams.

The dreams predict the aforementioned years of feasts followed by the years of famine. The Pharaoh puts Joseph, and his prophecies, to work by promoting the slave-turned-prisoner into a nobleman that is in charge of preparing Egypt for the coming disaster. 

 

While in this role, Joseph saves Egypt from famine. The surrounding area isn't so lucky. Soon after, his brothers travel to Egypt in search of food. They end up begging Joseph, who they don't yet recognize, to feed them. It's then that Joseph realizes that the dreams he had, that predicted his rise to power over his brothers, had come to pass.

Joseph sees this as an opportunity to have closure with his brothers and a “Cathartic Reunion” with his father. As I just hinted to with this example, when finding cards to represent story beats, look for the instant and sorcery cards that represent the story beats of the MTG multiverse. There are usually a handful in each set. 

 

 

During this climax of the story, Joseph plays a prank to see if his brothers have changed their ways. Will they put jealousy aside to protect members of the family?

Before they recognize who he is, Joseph accuses Benjamin (his only full brother and therefore his father’s presumed second favourite) of theft. As he threatens to put Benjamin to death, the brothers beg for his safety and offer to go in his stead. As a result, Joseph realizes that the brothers will accept him back into the fold and reveals his identity.

When looking to represent a story's climax, it’s only fitting to choose cards that can make big changes to the status quo of the battlefield. Some of the ones I selected include:

How to Round Out a Commander Deck That Tells a Story

At this point, you’ve covered characters and major story beats. You have a ton of powerful cards. However, to optimize story telling, they lack synergies and utility. To address this, look to the themes, mood, music, quotes and other elements associated with the story.

For instance, one of my favourite songs of the musical is sung by Joseph while he is in prison. It's called “Close Every Door to Me”. I decided to represent this plea for help with the game-ending card “Door to Nothingness”.

Magic the Gathering also has no shortage of cards that mention dreams. As dreams are a major theme of the story, I had a lot of options. Some of the best utility ones I selected include:

However, I drew the line at including the card “Dream Coat”. Ironic, I know, since the title of the story mentions a dreamcoat. This card is quite expensive, has very situational effects and has no synergies with this deck. To hit my target power level, I chose to exclude this, even though it connects directly to the story.

Though there are no gods directly within this story, it isn't free from deus-ex-machina and divine-like coincidences. So I added a few god theme cards to spice up the deck. These included:

As a final addition, I couldn’t resist the card “Glory”. It is the first, and only, MTG card to be printed in Hebrew, the language of Jacob’s descendants and the Jewish people. It also fits the Creature protection theme seen in other cards in the deck. 

I also included this card to represent my heritage, and how I pass that heritage onto my newborn son. His name, of course, is Joseph.

 

A picture of myself (right), my wife Tina (middle) and our son Joseph (left) in our best technicolor tie dye.

What stories will you turn into EDH decks? Comment below.