Isn't he a lovely fellow? Full hair, a taste in fashion like noone else,... so thrifty. Only 4 to play him, only 1 to regenerate. Oh, and nevermind about the drawback, it's hardly noticable. He simply seems like the kind of guy you'd want for a long-term relationship.
Jokes aside, I definitely can see him at the helm of a very potent Grixis deck regardless of the direction you take. Let's look through the options available:
Jokes aside, I definitely can see him at the helm of a very potent Grixis deck regardless of the direction you take. Let's look through the options available:
Choosing your Archetype
Going with an aggressive route will most probably mean going Voltron(y). It's just there, ready to get built if you take a look at him. Simply giving him double strike will mean he deals 20 commander damage in one swing and finding a way to up his power by one shouldn't be an issue. But that's not all. Not only does he bring a solid body but he's also pretty good at protecting himself with a very cheap regeneration ability.
Then again, opting for a more controlly build can work just as fine, as - without any enhancements - he'll provide a solid clock once you've ground out the game enough. Especially the ability to live through your own sweepers makes him pretty appealing as the general for a control deck.
And as always you can do something in between and even though each category will likely be weaker than when you would've focused on it, giving the deck the option to switch gears as you see fit during the game could make up for that.
Now of course, it's not all love and flowers. Casting Lord of Tresserhorn (LoT) will require some sort of setup, which shouldn't be a problem when you consider it in your deckbuilding process but it's still something not to overlook. So let's see what I can come up with:
So far, so uncreative. The most interessting interaction is probably Nether Traitor since if you decide to go for a voltrony approach he will be a very good "Plan B"-guy for carrying equipments etc. But don't be afraid here's the real value:
Again, the All-Star here is Baleful Strix, being a very good defensive creature, while having to ability to carry equipments aswell. And on top of that returning the Strix with e.g. a Driver of the Dead seems like good value, especially since to get to the graveyard it will either have traded for a creature or died to a removal of some sort.
Then again, opting for a more controlly build can work just as fine, as - without any enhancements - he'll provide a solid clock once you've ground out the game enough. Especially the ability to live through your own sweepers makes him pretty appealing as the general for a control deck.
And as always you can do something in between and even though each category will likely be weaker than when you would've focused on it, giving the deck the option to switch gears as you see fit during the game could make up for that.
Enabling your Commander
Now of course, it's not all love and flowers. Casting Lord of Tresserhorn (LoT) will require some sort of setup, which shouldn't be a problem when you consider it in your deckbuilding process but it's still something not to overlook. So let's see what I can come up with:
So far, so uncreative. The most interessting interaction is probably Nether Traitor since if you decide to go for a voltrony approach he will be a very good "Plan B"-guy for carrying equipments etc. But don't be afraid here's the real value:
Again, the All-Star here is Baleful Strix, being a very good defensive creature, while having to ability to carry equipments aswell. And on top of that returning the Strix with e.g. a Driver of the Dead seems like good value, especially since to get to the graveyard it will either have traded for a creature or died to a removal of some sort.
Essentially the only thing I don't like about good ol' crawley is that he requires you to have a zombie subtheme. And while LoT himself is a Zombie, you'll sometimes want to rebuy your Gravecrawler BEFORE you cast your commander meaning you'll need another Zombie.
Don't get me wrong here, a Zombie subtheme is very likely a good choice for Lord of Tresserhorn but I just don't like the idea of giving up all the sweet synergies between Baleful Strix, Mogg Warmarshall, Nether Traitor, etc. - all for one additional good sacrifice target.
Building around the Enablers
Casting 10/4s for 4 is a nice activity every once in a while but sometimes you'll want to do other things. So why not use our existing creature base - optimized towards getting sacrificed for a greater good - and incorporate somewhat of a sacrifice/"when ~ dies"/"enters the battlefield" theme. The best thing is that you'll be able to tune this part of the deck to fit your archetype.
So for example for an aggressive Voltron deck you'll play cards like these:
Just straight to the face, nothing new here.
The control oriented deck on the other hand will opt for something like this:
Skullclamp is a card I'd play in either version. But since the aggressive version of the deck usually will need the creatures to play Lord of Tresserhorn so you can't always clamp them up (most of the good sacrifices have only one toughness) I figured it would be more suited here.
And then we have obvious allstar-type cards (just to mention a few):
Effects like Dictate of Erebos are very much wanted in either version since they'll either clear the board to let Lord of Tresserhorn get through or... well clear the board so you can take control and finish the game... which will include LoT getting through. Card draw is always welcome aswell and the Thoctar is a card I've come to love very dearly due to the ability to either chain gun the board or just beat face with a few counters.
The rest of the deck in both archetypes needs to be filled with general EDH stuff like Primordials, some removal, tutors, etc. which I won't cover here.
So for example for an aggressive Voltron deck you'll play cards like these:
Just straight to the face, nothing new here.
The control oriented deck on the other hand will opt for something like this:
Skullclamp is a card I'd play in either version. But since the aggressive version of the deck usually will need the creatures to play Lord of Tresserhorn so you can't always clamp them up (most of the good sacrifices have only one toughness) I figured it would be more suited here.
And then we have obvious allstar-type cards (just to mention a few):
Effects like Dictate of Erebos are very much wanted in either version since they'll either clear the board to let Lord of Tresserhorn get through or... well clear the board so you can take control and finish the game... which will include LoT getting through. Card draw is always welcome aswell and the Thoctar is a card I've come to love very dearly due to the ability to either chain gun the board or just beat face with a few counters.
Assembling the Rest of the Gameplan
Volron
Now for the voltrony approach you'll need something to beef up your commander while also making sure he get's through...
Nothing out of the ordinary here I think, besides maybe the Lashwrithe. The reason I would play it is that there's no reason you shouldn't play the old Urbog-Coffers-Map-package and with that in the deck Lashwrithe on its own can easily pump LoT to 21 power.
As I already mentioned having some form of damage doubling mechanic is pretty key in all voltron strategies...
Aggravated Assault may look a little odd since it costs a bunch of mana until it does something but it has two important features: 1) If your LoT has Lighting Greaves (Shroud) attached, you can still grant him an additional combat phase and 2) its CMC is 3... which is relevant because...
Tutoring for your equipment seems like a good idea, aswell as getting some back when it gets destroyed by using your nice sacrifice creatures. Oh and did I mention CMC = 3? Appart from being able to tutor for Warhammer, Sword of X & Y, Fireshrieker and Aggravated Assault you can get Grim Haruspex and several other sweet cards you might want to run in your deck like Dismember, Dissolve, Crosis's Charm etc. etc. so playing the CMC 3 transmute cards is an all around good idea.
Control
Now if you're more of a grinding player things are a little opposite...
While Damnation is definitely very good, I like Blasphemous Act and any other sweeper that doesn't have "They can't be regenerated" on it even more since LoT can regenerate through it and swing the next turn the board might still be empty. And again Attrition is just too good to pass up with the sacrifice theme.
The deck will draw the game out pretty will I think so you might aswell plan for a long game:
A Black Market + Urbog-Coffers fueled Exsanguinate makes a really good way to finish games if you can't get through with creatures.
Essentially building control is all about balancing removal to different card types, card draw and ways to win the game and less about the synergies so I feel a few ideas are enough since the real work would be the actual tweaking of the deck when you're building it.
The rest of the deck in both archetypes needs to be filled with general EDH stuff like Primordials, some removal, tutors, etc. which I won't cover here.
To be honest I'm pretty interessted in how a deck like I imagined it above would turn out, so maybe I'll build it some time in the future. Especially the Voltron version seems to have a high potential for syngery and cohesion.
For now, I hope you enjoyed this little brainstorming session and that I'll...
See y'all 'round!
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