“Pupil, show me what you have learned.”
Art:Golden-Tail Trainer
by Nino Vecia
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Golden-Tail Trainer is by far the most powerful and most hyped commander coming out of MH3; this card just does so much for such a cheap cost, and it is in the perfect colors because we get access to insane auras like Armadillo Cloak
. Golden-Tail Trainer is not only super strong but can be built in quite a few different ways, I opted to go for a focused aura Voltron strategy utilizing Golden-Tail’s first ability way more than their second, this is Pauper EDH there is of course no wrong way to build anything. That being said, I love this list I have put together; we hit extremely hard and can get set up with relative ease, and quite early within the came, we have a lot of cards that can often be free from our commander like Candlelight Vigil
and Mammoth Umbra
these cards are already quite strong at their actual mana cost but only paying one white mana for either of these is busted and allows us to easily set up and perform a commander damage one-shot on our opponents. Combine that with some awesome creatures like Starnheim Courser
and Transcendent Envoy
, which reduce the cost of the good majority of our deck, allowing us to be even quicker. This deck is so sweet and I am super excited to showcase this one! Without further adieu lets get it!
The Deck:
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Golden-Tail Trainer Voltron!
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Why Golden-Tail Trainer?
Golden-Tail Trainer is just truthfully straight-up busted; this card is crazy; in such a sort of amount of time, we are able to reduce the cost of our equipment and auras by a ton, and for the most part, these cards are all super cheap, or free. Our commander is a gigantic removal magnet for the deck. I would definitely expect all eyes to be on us when we drop this guy, and honestly, I totally understand even in a couple of turns, we can come ridiculously out of hand, whether we have a decent board of creatures or just have our commander, we can easily overwhelm and one-shot our opponents. Golden-Trail Trainer is such a removal magnet that we are packing quite a few ways to protect them, like Snakeskin Veil
and Gaea's Gift
, as well as many others, which allows us to keep our amazing gameplan going.
Gameplan:
Our overall game plan is pretty simple: get our commander out and cast and keep on casting as many free auras and equipment as we can. We have so many extremely strong auras and enchantments, even cheap enchantments or equipment like Armory of Iroas
or All That Glitters
are enhanced greatly by our commander. We do have better auras and equipment that we can get a steep discount on, like Crystal Carapace
. Being able to cast that for only one green mana is absolutely crazy. Another huge element of our gameplan is protecting our commander, which we are quite good at doing. The overall gameplan for the deck focuses on buffing up any creatures we have as well as our commander and swinging hard while protecting our board from single target removal, our gameplan overall is quite simple and easy to get into quickly.
Deck Matchups:
Since this is Pauper EDH, there are an absolute ton of things that can tip a game in your favor or out of it. While an archetype may seem favorable, there are absolutely good and bad commanders for our deck to go up against; I have included both these, which were all played among my testing groups using various decks, and I have included the sample size for clarity purposes. This is just meant to be a guide after testing a bunch of games with this deck!
The information below is notes about specific decks that were featured in our testing pods and how we fared against them. Naturally, Pauper EDH is a multiplayer game, so these are just a summary of my notes against different commanders and strategies. When we test these decks we try to test to its strengths and weaknesses to give a full spectrum of what the deck has to offer. Various commanders and archetypes/strategies are used to get the most accurate information.
Commanders, we have a good matchup against:
Koll, the Forgemaster
Record against Koll, the Forgemaster 6-0
Koll is a very good matchup for us; while our removal is quite bad against them, we overall are very strong against them; we are just considerably faster. Once we commit our commander to the board, there isn’t much Koll can do to stop us since we can counter their removal and get out ahead of them with all of our discounts. This is a great matchup for us.
Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker
Record against Shirei, Shizos Caretaker 3-1
I enjoy this matchup a lot; while they do have a lot of drain and gain, as many of these lists focus on Aristocrats, this is overall a favorable matchup; we are often just a little faster, and with our huge damage output, we can outrace them and take them out with relative ease.
Cursed Wombat
Record against Cursed Wombat 7-2
I love this matchup, if we are able to give any of our creatures trample through our auras or equipment we are hard to stop and can easily out damage this deck, if we misstep and lose tempo this can be a hard matchup as once they are built up they are a force to be reckoned with, but luckily that takes quite a bit of time. I like this matchup a lot.
Commanders, we have a tough matchup against:
Ganax, Astral Hunter
with Feywild Visitor
Record against Ganax/Feywild 1-7
This is an extremely tough matchup for us; Ganax is just set up to beat us; being in Izzet also does not help. They have a ton of awesome flying creatures that we often can’t block, and they are heavy on counterspells, which we also can’t stop. If we have a great hand and get out ahead of them we can sneak a win but it is tough, they are experts at keeping our commander off the board, I always try to keep some creature protection in my opening hand for this matchup.
Zoyowa Lava-Tongue
Record against Zoyowa Lava-Tongue 0-4
Any deck that focuses on sacrifice or discard is just overall a very tough matchup for us, if we can keep their commander down we often can’t stop a lot of the sacrifice or discard their creatures provide, and a lot of our protection doesn’t work against their commander or a lot of their cards, this is a tough matchup, I like to try to make a deal with everyone else at the table to gang up on Zoyowa.
Mr. Orfeo, the Boulder
Record against Mr. Orfeo, the Boulder 1-3
This is a very interesting matchup, I’ve done it we absolutely can squeeze out a win, but speed is the true name of the game in this one; if they can get even just a couple of their creatures out and their commander, they can, be hard to stop, we don’t want to be defensive within our deck so overall this is a tough matchup. This deck just has a lot: the ramp from green and the awesome red and black removal. This is overall a tough matchup but if we are quicker a winnable one.
Deck Overview:
This section contains information about cards in the deck and how they function within the deck! I also highlighted some of my favorite cards in the deck!
Creatures:
We are not a super-heavy creature build, but we do have some very strong, impactful creatures and can easily take advantage of our commander’s ability. To start, we have cards that allow us to make our creatures modified like Trusty Retriever
, which can make itself modified, or more often, we can use it to recur an artifact or enchantment which can be very good, especially in the late-game. Harvestguard Alseids
is by far one of my favorite creatures in the deck and allows us to attack with no fear, which is a great feeling to have in this creature-focused format. We also have quite a few creatures that get better by being equipped, like Dwarfhold Champion
and Sunspear Shikari
, which make the deck a lot better overall and are great support creatures. We also have a shocking amount of tutors within the deck like Shrine Steward
and Totem-Guide Hartebeest
which are great cards that help us close out games when we grab insane enchantments like All That Glitters or Ethereal Armor
. We have so many awesome creatures in this deck and it allows us to take full advantage of our commander and be able to block and attack in the early game.
Instants:
Our instant package focuses heavily on protecting our commander and creatures from removal with cards like Loran's Escape
, Gaea's Gift, and Avoid Fate
the most important aspect of our deck is our commander and our creatures so being able to protect them from the litany of single-target removal in the format is the best way to continue on the path to victory. Snakeskin Veil is by far one of my favorite cards within the deck; it allows us to make one of our creatures modified and protect them, which is super sweet.
Sorceries:
We are quite low on sorceries, but luckily all of the ones we have are pretty awesome. Recommission
is one of my favorites, which is a great way to recur a good majority of our creatures or a piece of equipment that can fall victim to removal quite a bit in the course of a game. Travel Preparations
is another great card for the deck; whether we use it on our commander and another creature or just try to make our entire board modified, this is a quick and easy way to get that done, being able to cast it for flashback is extremely strong as well. Commune with the Gods
is an amazing and cheap piece of card filtering for the deck and allows us to grab the best of the best from the top of our deck. Even though we have a small sorcery package, all of these cards provide a lot of value and utility.
Artifacts:
Colossal Dreadmask
is by far the coolest artifact we have in the deck, being able to cast it for only two mana is pretty sweet as well, Colossal Dreadmask is most certainly a finisher for the deck and allows us to hit like an absolute truck, whether we put this on our commander or on one of our creatures this card is actually insane. Brass Knuckles
is a huge piece of value for the deck and is a nice two-for-one that feels amazing, especially when we cast it for completely free! Haunted Cloak
is another one of my favorite equipment within the deck and on any creature it turns them into keyword soup which makes them quite hard to stop!
Enchantments:
Let’s get the elephant out of the room. We have both Ethereal Armor and All That Glitters, which are by far the best of the best of our enchantments; these cards are true finishers for the deck and greatly increase our damage output, I highly value any hand that is pretty ok that has either of these cards in it. Mammoth Umbra is definitely one of my favorite cards in the deck. Its very often heavily discounted, and totem armor is extremely strong and allows us to protect our commander or creatures from spot removal even if we are tapped out. While we don’t get a big discount on cards like Setessan Training
, getting a buff, trample, and some card draw for only one or two mana is absolutely crazy and just an insane piece of value for the deck. Shield of the Oversoul
is by far one of my favorite enchantments to put on our commander, providing an amazing buff and discount, and the indestructible is super strong as well. We are in Selesnya, so you know we absolutely had to include Armadillo Cloak, another busted enchantment that is cheap and helps the overall gameplan an absolute ton. We aren’t entirely focused on offense here as we do have some defensive enchantments like Oblivion Ring
and Journey to Nowhere
, which are both awesome ways to take out threats from our opponents.
Land Base:
We have a decent amount of supplemental card drawing within our land base, like The Fair Basilica
and The Hunter Maze
, which can be a great way to draw extra cards in the late-game and help us avoid a dead draw. There isn’t a ton of interesting stuff going on in our landbase, but I find it to be very strong and work well for the deck, nothing too fancy going on but it just works.
Strengths of the Deck:
- We can easily one-shot opponents, whether it be commander damage or just combat damage. We have a pretty high damage output overall.
- Through our commander and a lot of cards in our deck are heavily discounted allowing us to operate at a pretty low cost.
- We can be quite quick and quickly overwhelm and just straight up eliminate our opponents.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- We don’t have a lot of supplemental card draw within the deck.
- Our commander is a gigantic removal magnet, and all eyes typically go on us when we cast our commander.
- We have very little removal within the deck.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Conclusion:
I love this deck so much; it is just so much fun, well, at least for us. The opponent’s reception to this deck has not been that popular, as to be expected with a deck as strong as this. While this deck is by no means CPDH it is quite strong and can easily dominate some of the more casual decks within the format. Golden-Tail Trainer is by far the commander I was most excited about from MH3, and it did not disappoint. If you have a Golden-Tail Trainer deck, I would love to check out your list. Thanks for reading to the end and for all of your support!!