Oh Captain, My Captain!!!

We’ve Got Spirits!

Welcome one and all!  This is Captain Red Zone coming to you with the second part of my Tri-Colors Deck Series for your viewing delight. This week we go into “Teneb” colors. For those of you who don’t know, when it comes to the color combinations all of the dual colors have a name due to Ravnica. If you played for awhile you should know of Boros, Gruul, and the other guilds of that set. As for the Tri-Color combinations only half have a name due to Alara. For some reason Wizards hasn’t done a set where the Wedge colors have a name, to the best of my knowledge. So until then, I’ll refer to the Wedge colors by the name of the Legendary Dragon from Planar Chaos.

Now that I’ve got that out the way, let’s get to why you’re really here with this week’s deck!

Yes We Do!

While I was going looking at the potential Commanders for this color combination I realized there was only a hand full to chose from. If fact the only options were Teneb, Doran, Karador, and Ghave. You’ll find that a lot of the Wedge (that’s when two ally colors and their common enemy color combine) Commanders haven’t been really used a lot in Magic. The best explanation I’ve read at DailyMTG is that they didn’t want to put them into sets just for the sake of making them. If they were in a set they were there for a reason.  Take Doran, the Siege Tower, in the Lorwyn set there were Treefolk creatures in Green, Black, and White so they were able to put him in that set but they wouldn’t put him in a set like say Mirrodin just to have a legend in these colors.

So while I was looking at the few legends in this group I decided to skip Doran and Teneb. Not that they’re not great cards. I just wanted to try one of the new Commanders from this past summer’s set. So I chose…

I have wanted to do something with this guy from the moment I saw him. His ability to bring creatures back from the grave while also lowering his mana cost just for having guys in the grave is enormous. I also wanted to make it a theme when I realized his back story is that he was a high warchief who was killed in battle. But, his soul would not rest. He’s spirit gathers other souls to use as his army so that he may depose of the rival that kill him. With a story like that, there’s only one tribe I could think of….

What the… no… I was thinking Spirits…

We’ve Got Spirits!

So before I get too far into the theme I figured I’d knock out a few of the other creatures that will be helping our ghostly leader.

Teneb, the Harvester, Sheoldred, Whispering One, and Sun Titan: With these three on board we’ll have more ways to bring our creatures back from the grave. Teneb is great for attacking people with a board full of ground creature and can get you creature from any graveyard, leaving your guys in the grave to lower the cost of Karador. Sheoldred will bring one of your creatures back while slowly killing of opposing creatures with her effect and Sun Titan is… well it’s Sun Titan what more can I say?

Terastodon, Primeval Titan, Phantasmagorian, and Avatar of Woe: Terastodon is here because you can use it to destroy non-creature things you don’t like while Avatar of Woe kills the creatures for you. Phantasmagorian is here for its second effect. Discard three creatures to lower the cost of Karador and cast him to bring them back one by one.  If one of them was say Teneb, Sheoldred, or Sun Titan you could be gaining a lot of value with this. Phantasmagorian is also a pretty good target as a 6/6 but the discard effect is the real reason to play it. Primeval Titan… well…it’s Primeval Titan!

Now with that out the way let’s move onto why we came here shall we?

Verdant Eidolon, Morkrut Banshee, Nikko-Onna, Carven Caryatid, and Haru-Onna: Verdant Eidolon can really drop the cost of Karador by basically paying for four of the mana (Three of a color plus the minus one for being a creature in the grave).  Morkrut Banshee likes this because it activates it morbid trigger. Nikko-Onna brings the enchantment hate while Carven Caryatid and Haru-Onna draws you cards.

Now remember this, Karador’s effect counts as casting a creature so you could use him to activate the creatures with effects like….

Loam Dweller, Waxmane Baku, Forked-Branch Garami, Thief of Hope, Kami of the Honored Dead, Pus Kami, Rootrunner, and Elder Pine of Jukai: Now we’re getting into the cards that care about Spirits. Loam Dweller will be like a baby Primeval Titan with all the spirits that will be flying around here. Waxmane Baku will rack up some ki counters and start tapping creatures left and right. Forked-Branch Garami replaces itself with two cards in hand. A little life draining with Thief of Hope is always welcomed. Kami of the Honored Dead will deter attacks due to fear of you gaining life and replacing it with another creature if you opponents attack into it. Pus Kami will kill creatures while also sending a spirit back to your hand. Rootrunner can deal with annoying lands for you while also Soulshifting. Elder Pine of Jukai will help by digging thru your deck for every Spirit you cast.

Shinen of Life's Roar, Kami of False Hope, Martyred Rusalka, Starved Rusalka, Twilight Drover, Wall of Reverence, Oversoul of Dusk, Divinity of Pride, Seedborn Muse, Windborn Muse, Celestial Crusader, Kami of Ancient Law, Primordial Sage, and Petalmane Baku: Here we have some of the better spirits I could find. These don’t do much more for this deck than they would for any other deck, but at least here they’ll get a chance to be appreciated for their creature type as well.  

Lifespinner: Now Lifespinner gets its own section as the Secret Tech card this week. One of the worst things that can ever happen to a Commander is a tuck effect. Having you Commander shuffled into your library is hard to deal with for most decks. But here, if you have Lifespinner and two other Spirits you can not only get you Commander back but you also get him straight to the battlefield! Then you can use Karador to get Liefspinner back just in case it happens again. But your Commander isn’t the only one you can get with it…

Iname, Death Aspect, Kataki, War's Wage, and Oyobi, Who Split the Heavens: Iname, Death Aspect is great here for filling your graveyard thereby lowering the cost for Karador and giving him all the targets he needs. This deck has a low artifact count, in fact it only had one, so Kataki, War's Wage’s effect can help keep those other artifacts in check while doing the same for others mana usage. Oyobi, Who Split the Heavens will flood the board with 3/3 flyers every time you cast a Spirit or use Karador’s effect.

Field of Souls, Spirit Cairn, and Promise of Bunrei: Only three enchantment here but they all pump out 1/1 Spirit tokens. Just remember that Promise of Bunrei doesn’t make flying tokens. But it does give you four guys and can be retrieved with the Sun Titan so I’m not ashamed to give it a spot.

Midnight Haunting, Beckon Apparition, Seize the Soul, and Afterlife: Instant Spirit tokens spells to go BOO and pop out at any moment. With a deck like this you want these for the fun factor alone. What’s better than having someone act you and then see a fist full of cards turn into the Field of Sreams?

If you attack him, they will come.

Rend Flesh, Spiritual Visit, Unchecked Growth, and Devouring Greed: And here we have a small Arcane package to active a few of our creature’s effects without needing a creature. Also these are all spell worth playing even if you don’t have one of these creatures out and ready to use.

March of Souls, Kirtar's Wrath, Spectral Procession, Luminous Angel, and AEther Shockwave: March of Souls and Kirtar's Wrath give us wrath effects that also give us a chance to pump out a few more tokens. Spectral Procession is here for the army in a can effect. I love getting more creatures just for playing a card and this works just find. AEther Shockwave provides a way to help make sure you can get your guys into the red zone without fear. Luminous Angel is here to provide us with yet another way to make tokens while having a 4/4 flying body to use as we chose.

Angel of Flight Alabaster, Gallows Warden, Geist-Honored Monk, Mausoleum Guard, and Doomed Traveler: And here is the newest addition from the Innistrad gang. Angel of Flight Alabaster is not a may ability, so make sure that if there’s a spirit in the grave you want to keep there you better find away to get something else in there. Gallows Warden gives the team a little more defense. Geist-Honored Monk, Mausoleum Guard, and Doomed Traveler are here as our other “spirit bringers”. Geist-Honored Monk and Mausoleum Guard also fall into my army in a can so you know I’m on board.

Sol Ring: I think I finally found a deck where this isn’t just there as a staple. I’m proud of myself.

How ‘Bout You!?!

With 13 Forests, 13 Plains, and 13 Swamps we should be ready to have a very spirited game of Magic… I’m going to shot myself for that last pun…. As always, my mana base here is just a starting point. At the bottom, you can check out the deck list. Next week we’re going to the darker side of Magic with our next Tri-Color Deck using Blue/Black/Red. Feel free to leave any comments you have and you can always hit me up at CaptainRedZone@gmail.com. As always thanks for the read and I will see you next week for another article!

Hope you had fun and please leave any comments or suggestions.  Until next time,

This is your Captain speaking… We’re heading into the Red Zone!!!

1 Karador, Ghost Chieftain

1 Teneb, the Harvester

13 Swamp

13 Forest

13 Plains

1 Terastodon

1 Primeval Titan

1 Sheoldred, Whispering One

1 Sun Titan

1 Phantasmagorian

1 Avatar of Woe

1 Primordial Sage

1 Forked-Branch Garami

1 Morkrut Banshee

1 Kami of the Honored Dead

1 Gallows Warden

1 Lifespinner

1 Pus Kami

1 Rootrunner

1 Carven Caryatid

1 Seedborn Muse

1 Windborn Muse

1 Celestial Crusader

1 Kami of Ancient Law

1 Loam Dweller

1 Nikko-Onna

1 Thief of Hope

1 Verdant Eidolon

1 Waxmane Baku

1 Elder Pine of Jukai

1 Haru-Onna

1 Petalmane Baku

1 Shinen of Life's Roar

1 Kami of False Hope

1 Martyred Rusalka

1 Starved Rusalka

1 Twilight Drover

1 Oversoul of Dusk

1 Divinity of Pride

1 Wall of Reverence

1 Iname, Death Aspect

1 Kataki, War's Wage

1 Oyobi, Who Split the Heavens

1 Field of Souls

1 Spirit Cairn

1 Promise of Bunrei

1 Midnight Haunting

1 Beckon Apparition

1 AEther Shockwave

1 Seize the Soul

1 Afterlife

1 Rend Flesh

1 Spiritual Visit

1 Unchecked Growth

1 March of Souls

1 Kirtar's Wrath

1 Spectral Procession

1 Devouring Greed

1 Sol Ring

1 Angel of Flight Alabaster

1 Luminous Angel

1 Geist-Honored Monk

1 Mausoleum Guard

1 Doomed Traveler