We some warboys peeling down the interstate!
Art:Bloodpyre Elemental
by Trevor Claxton
Table of Contents
Todays Featured Commander is:
Anax is a super sweet mono-red commander that not only can be a very big creature himself but gives us a bunch of tokens when our bigger creatures die. This is a red deck in every way with an out of control runaway train style gameplan that allows us to go all out and aggro-out our opponents. This deck is great for any red mage who loves the aggressive style that red brings. This deck is quite powerful and is super fun to play!
The Deck:
Anax Aggro!
Why Anax, Hardened in the Forge?
The main reason we chose Anax is that he is all around the perfect demigod to lead our deck. Not only can we be very aggressive with Anax alone since he can get out of control and big with relative ease we also have the benefit of getting 1-2 tokens out of any of our nontoken creatures dying. Anax is overall just a simple mono-red commander who is an absolute perfect leader for our deck!
Deck Overview:
We are an aggressive deck, so our creatures are quite aggressive as well, Since we always want to get two tokens out of Anax’s trigger we have an absolute ton of cards in our deck that are power 4 or greater and will trigger Anax. Some of our best 4 power creatures are Goblin Racketeer
and Turret Ogre
both of these creatures are great on their own and trigger Anax. Turret Ogre can be a great source of targeted removal for small creatures and Racketeer is great card to Goad one of our opponents creatures! Keldon Overseer
is another sweet card that can be a creature + a Act of Treason
which can be great whether we are using that to end the game or to make combat easier for us. Batterhorn
is a great piece of targeted artifact removal and triggers Anax. Bloodpyre Elemental not only is a trigger that creatures Anax on demand we can also take out one of our opponents bigger permanents a real 2 for 1. Coalhauler Swine
is a great card as a blocker or an attacker being a blocker it can be a great way to whittle down our opponents and it also triggers Anax! Since we are a red deck and drawing cards is one of the weakest parts of our deck Crown-Hunter Hireling
is a great card because it gives us the monarch. We typically dont ever attack with Crown Hunter and try to keep the monarch for as long as possible to keep drawing cards!
Our spell package is full of ways to buff our creatures, interact and do some direct damage! For creature buffs we have 3 cards that essentially all do the same thing in Trumpet Blast
, Volatile Claws
and Volcanic Rush
when we combine these cards we can easily have a one-shot combat and even on their own can do a ton of damage. While we don’t have any X spells Battle Hymn
is great because we almost always have a ton of creatures and can use that mana to cast a bunch of permanents on a turn! Mark of Mutiny
and Act of Treason are both great ways for us to steal our opponents creatures and get an attack with them or clear the way for our other creatures! Since we are Mono-Red drawing cards is not our strong suit but we do have Faithless Looting
and Cathartic Reunion
which both have drawbacks but are great ways for us to draw cards!
Our artifact package is full of mana as well as ways to further our gameplan, for mana we have Fire Diamond
and Ur-Golem's Eye
. Altar of the Pantheon
is one of the most interesting cards in our deck since it boosts Anax and we will never say no to free devotion! It also lets us gain one life when we control Anax overall an absolute win of a card in our deck! Whispersilk Cloak
is a great card since we can make Anax unblockable and with enough devotion very easily kill an opponent with commander damage!
Bravado
is a super sweet aura that in testing we typically equip on Anax and get closer to a commander damage kill. Claws of Valakut
is another card that we almost always equip on Anax to further a commander damage kill. Impact Tremors
and Raid Bombardment
are both great ways for us to whittle down our opponents on top of the 33 creatures in our deck we also make a ton of tokens with Anax. Goblin War Drums
is a great way for us to make the huge army of creatures pretty hard to block! Orcish Oriflamme
is a great card at any stage of the game but is pretty sweet when combined with Goblin War Drums!
Our land package is pretty simple but we run a bunch of cycling lands which can act as card draw in the late game such as Desert of the Fervent
and Forgotten Cave
. We also have lands that ETB and buff a creature like Teetering Peaks
and Looming Spires
both of these cards are great ways to buff creatures for a turn! Overall our land base is quite simple but we are a mono-red deck and dont need it to be too complicated!
Strengths of the Deck:
- Can close out games very quickly
- Large amount of token production
- Many cards to buff our creatures and make them more evasive
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- Very weak to creature hate
- Not a ton of interaction
- Deck is noticeably weaker without our commander
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
Our main win condition is combat damage, there is no infinite combos in our deck so we are a true mono-red deck! We can assist a win with cards like Impact Tremors and Raid Bombardment. We typically win by playing our creatures out and letting them die to get Anax triggers and just keep swinging!
Conclusion:
In conclusion we are a straight up mono-red deck and just like mono-red decks we want to swing early and often and win through straight aggressiveness. Anax is a super awesome commander for Pauper EDH and is just a ton of to pilot and play. Anax is a real deal commander in Pauper EDH and dont expect some removal / hate to come your way when you sit down with this one!
Thanks for reading to the end!