Commander Overview
Baxter Stockman is a very interesting commander for Pauper EDH, they are a little pricey and at first their ability may seem a little bit unimpressive but in a deck where nearly everything’s an artifacts and we have vehicles like Aradara Express and Thundersteel Colossus that extra +3/+0 and first strike/vigilance can be extremely helpful for us and allow us to be a crazy threat in combat, Baxter is also a great way to crew some of our cheaper vehicles. Baxter Stockman is in a firm support role in this deck, we most certainly don’t need them to succeed but they are great if we are able to keep them on the field, I did find in my testing games that opponents figure out pretty quickly how dangerous Baxter’s trigger can be but typically I don’t waste time protecting them, as the deck can certainly function without them.
How to Play the Deck
Playing the deck is extremely straightforward. We are basically an Izzet Gruul deck. All we really do is turn our big creatures/vehicles sideways and swing hard. There are not a lot of complicated interactions within this deck. Any player can easily pilot this deck. It does feel interesting to play an Izzet deck that is so good at attacking, but artifacts as a strategy have a ton of support within the format.
Synergy’s in the deck
Our whole deck is synergized around artifacts, and we have a lot of great support pieces like Foundry Inspector, Etherium Sculptor, and a couple of other creatures that have affinity like Sojourner's Companion and Gearseeker Serpent. Reducing the cost of our deck allows us to play out our whole hand on the board quite quickly and outpace our opponents in combat. A lot of our vehicles are great at outpacing our opponents in combat, and when Baxter is on the field, adding first strike and vigilance to a creature like Aradara Express can allow us to truly hit like a truck.
Phases of the Game
Early-Game: We don’t do a ton in the early-game cards like Seat of the Synod and Great Furnace are both great ways to get our artifact count up early and establish our colors. Playing out our stuff is the key to the early game, dropping some mana rocks like Mind Stone or Arcane Signet, and then some vehicles like Sky Skiff or Renegade Freighter can help us prepare for the later stages of the game.
Mid-Game: While we spent all of our early-game establishing the mid-game is where we start to take action in the game, crewing our vehicles, hopefully using Baxter Stockman’s trigger if they are on the field and hitting hard, in my experience being aggressive at this stage of the game where we still have a size advantage over our opponents creatures is very important for us to attack a lot at this stage of the game. Don’t change the core ideas here, just hit hard and protect ourselves.
Late-Game: The late-game is ok for us, we have to be a lot more selective with our attacks at this stage of the game since our opponents typically have caught up to a lot of our creatures in terms of size but the first strike and vigilance we can get off of Baxter Stockman still make us quite hard to deal with in combat. Just take the good attacks your opponents give you, and if you do control Baxter, realize that the first strike can give us a big advantage in combat.
Card Breakdowns
Ramp
While we don’t ramp a lot in the traditional sense we have quite a bit of artifact ramp that allows us to get ahead, combining cards like Mind Stone and Arcane Signet with cards like Foundry Inspector allow us to ramp out all of our creatures and commander and just further along the gameplan very quickly. While we don’t ramp a lot in the traditional sense, we are great at dumping our hand on the board, our affinity creatures, and overall artifact synergies help a lot with this.
Card Draw/Card Advantage
We are firmly alright at drawing cards, being in Red does help a lot, being able to have access to spells like Big Score and Unexpected Windfall can not only increase our artifact count but more importantly give us some supplemental card draw and allow us to keep our hand full. While it is sorcery speed, Lorien Revealed is a great source of draw as well. One of the best aspects of our decks is the artifacts that help us draw cards like Commander's Sphere and Mind Stone after we have a lot of big stuff out these rocks have outlived their usefulness, and we can easily turn them into extra cards, the same is true for Izzet Locket as well. I thought our card draw package was sufficient for our deck and worked well.
Removal
This is a weak aspect of our deck. While we are in Izzet, we are not a control deck and never try to play like them, and because of that, we don’t have a ton of removal. The best removal we have is Abrade, and we mostly use it to destroy artifacts. We aren’t super concerned about our opponents’ stuff, since we are often bigger and better in combat. We do have counterspells, which we can use offensively, but I typically use them to protect our stuff from removal. Even though we aren’t a big removal deck, we have a very good creature base and game plan that allows us to work through that.
Protection
Counterspells are the best source of protection in our deck, and I do use them to protect our big artifacts and creatures as much as we can. Cards like Turn Aside are great options that allow us to keep our commander or our best creature on the board. We also have Cancel, Dissolve, and Counterspell as great options to protect ourselves and our board. This is another weak point of the deck, but we have a lot of great creatures and vehicles in the deck we can easily recover from one of our creatures or even Baxter dying.
Utility / Support
Let’s highlight some of my favorite cards in the deck, Myr Enforcer, Gearseeker Serpent and Sojourner's Companion are all great creatures that we can bring out for next to nothing and are amazing attackers for the deck when combined with all of the artifacts in the deck we are easily able to amass a big board with these creatures quickly. Filigree Attendant is another great evasive creature that can be massive in this deck. I’ve used Attendant to dish out fifteen damage in a turn, just a great attacker, especially for the late-game. Golem Foundry is also an underrated card in this deck. It’s extremely easy to amass a bunch of counters and make a ton of golems; they are great attackers but pretty good chump blockers as well. Gilded Scuttler is an aetherdrift card that works perfectly with the deck and with Baxter, since they are unblockable, we can hit for four damage pretty consistently.
We also have a ton of awesome vehicles in the deck, which not only work with Baxter but can be great attackers that aren’t always killable. Renegade Freighter and Aradara Express are both awesome options for the deck, and with or without Baxter, can be huge attackers for the deck. Thundersteel Colossus is one of the best vehicles as they are quite hard to stop, especially if we add First Strike and Vigilance]] on top. Our vehicles are great attackers for the deck and synergize perfectly with Baxter.
Mana Base
As always, I love to include the cycling lands and draw lands in The Surgical Bay and The Autonomous Furnace as well as Great Furnace and Seat of the Synod, which are not only untapped lands but more importantly help with our artifact count. Beyond that, it’s just pure efficiency, with the help of cards like Command Tower, I’ve never had any trouble with this mana base.
Win Conditions
Our only win condition is combat; we are greatly assisted by Baxter Stockman as they make our creatures bigger and better. Combining our artifact creation with our vehicles allows us to be great at combat.
Strengths of the Deck
Since a lot of our best attackers are vehicles, we can be semi-resistant to a lot of single-target removal.
Because of cost reducers and affinity effects we can have a full board quickly.
Weaknesses of the Deck
Quite weak to artifact hate.
Removal of heavy control decks can be tough for us to deal with. While we have some protection, we don’t have a ton.
Deck Testing/Matchups
I tested this deck against three different decks
Game 1: Vs Juri, Master of the Revue. Matchup Record: 1-3
This was a tough matchup for our deck, and I struggled quite a bit. While Juri only cares about the controller sacrificing stuff, there are so many sacrifice effects that target anyone, and it can be hard to keep a board. It’s even worse when you realize how much removal they have since they are in Rakdos. Counterspells and a quick start are the best way to win here.
Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Turn Aside, Fall From Favor and Spider-Man No More.
Game 2: Vs Extricator of Sin. Matchup Record: 3-1
While this matchup can get very scary if we give them enough time, we have to be quicker, and luckily, we often are a lot quicker. Just stick to the core gameplan here and go quick and hit hard. Stopping their commander is pretty great as well.
Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Starlight Snare, Oaken Siren and Zookeeper Mechan.
Game 3: Vs Zidane, Tantalus Thief. Matchup Record: 3-2
Countering their commander is amazing, and our vehicles help us a ton here since they aren’t always creatures. Overall, this is a good matchup, getting Baxter out and protecting them in this matchup is important as their trigger at combat can make us hit harder and a lot better at combat.
Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Passenger Ferry, Cryogen Relic and Blitz Automaton.
Conclusion
Thanks so much for reading to the end! I hope you all enjoyed TMNT week. There have been so many amazing commanders for PDH in TMNT, and we have been so excited to showcase them all and finish up with Baxter Stockman, a very fun commander who is an artifact powerhouse. I really enjoyed having an artifact-focused game plan that has a focus on combat.