“I heard that there were dragons out here. You ever see one?“
Art:Butch DeLoria, Tunnel Snake
by Zuzanna Wużyk
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Butch is an aggressive powerhouse, and there are a ton of strong rogues in the format; when I was brewing this deck, I wasn’t sure what direction I wanted to take it. Since Butch has menace and has the ability to give out menace, as well as the pretty substantial buff that Butch gets made me trend towards a Voltron deck focusing on the additional buff and evasiveness that Butch has. We are all in on rogues, and there are many great ones with whom we love to buff up and attack. One of the best parts of this deck is how we can spread our equipment around, and since our deck is full of rogues, we can still hit like a truck with Butch. This is a Voltron-style deck that many of us have seen time and time again, but the extra element from Butch adds many layers to this deck and makes it feel quite different. This deck is a blast and fun to pilot; I am so excited for Fallout week, and without further adieu, let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Butch DeLoria, Tunnel Snake Rogue Voltron !
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Why Butch Deloria, Tunnel Snake?
Butch is a huge part of our deck and arguably the most important card. Being able to hand out menace is very strong and makes our deck a nightmare to deal with in combat. On top of that, Butch gets a huge buff even if he is the sole attacker; combining that with all of the Voltron equipment allows us to hit hard, and blocking is not a great option for our opponents. Forcing our opponents into terrible combat situations allows us to put a ton of pressure on our opponents and be a huge threat.
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 all in on the rogues, and pretty much every creature in our deck is a rogue, and a ton of them have awesome abilities like Audacious Thief
which, is a great source of supplemental card draw for the deck. Duskmantle Operative
and Temple Thief
are two amazing sources for all of our Voltron equipment if we can’t keep Butch on the board for any reason. Frogtosser Banneret
is arguably the best creature in our deck since it reduces the cost of nearly every creature in the deck. Hagra Constrictor
is an additional menace creature for the deck and some of our equipment provides +1/+1 counters so we can get the menace everywhere. Hoard Robber
and Undercity Scrounger
are both strong cards that provide mana production for the deck and can be great to help us get ahead on mana and keep on casting. If we have a ton of extra mana one of our best mana sinks is Myrkul's Invoker
which is quite a big buff for the turn and can make us pretty hard to beat in combat. Shadow Alley Denizen
is an amazing card for the deck that makes Butch or whatever creature we have buffed up and against the right decks can give us unblockable.
Instants:
Some of the most important cards in our instant package are the protections we have for Butch and any other of our strong rogues. Not Dead After All
, Feign Death
, and Supernatural Stamina
are extremely strong ways to fight through removal and allow us to bring Butch or any creature that is dying back. I have used Feign Death and Supernatural Stamina as pure buffs before to get a commander damage kill with Butch, so that is a strong option as well. We have some single-target removal ourselves to remove pesky creatures/commanders our opponents control, like Grasp of Darkness
, Cast Down
, and Murder
as well as a few more that allow us to slow down our opponents.
Sorceries:
Feed the Swarm
is one of the only ways we have to destroy enchantments throughout the deck, so use it wisely; I like to save it for those pesky All That Glitters
or Armadillo Cloak
s that are rampant throughout the format. At sorcery speed, we also have Night's Whisper
and Read the Bones
, which are strong pieces of supplemental card draw for the deck. Unearth
is a great way to recur some of our best rogues since most of them are quite cheap.
Artifacts:
We have a ton of sweet equipment, so let’s start with two of my favorites, Brass Knuckles
is an amazing piece of equipment that gives us a second copy of it, allowing us to double strike Butch and another creature. Golem-Skin Gauntlets
almost always go on Butch and, depending on how much equipment we have, allows us to hit for a ton of damage. Leather Armor
is a defensive enchantment, and the health buff is nice; the ward is perfect for Butch, who absolutely is a removal magnet within the deck. Haunted Cloak
and Vorrac Battlehorns
give Butch keyword soup and allow us to be extremely evasive and truthfully an absolute menace in combat. Cloak of the Bat
is a great piece of equipment that gives Butch evasion and makes combat even easier, which, as I am sure you already have figured out, is the main theme of the deck. Since Butch has menace, we are pretty terrible to block against already but let’s make it worse for our opponents. Trailblazer's Torch
makes blocking an absolute nightmare for an opponent and can be a great way to kill opponent’s creatures. Since Butch is a human, we actually have a couple of strong buffs for that in True-Faith Censer
and Bladed Bracers
, which both give vigilance, but the additional buffs are welcome, and we will never say no to more buffs.
Enchantments:
Phyresis
is a great way to lose all of your friends and is a premier way to one-shot your opponents; since a ton of decks in PDH are quite explosive, I thought including this would give us that same explosive edge. Oubliette
is an amazing removal spell that I love to use to take our opponent’s best blockers or, if they rely on their commander, take them out. Skeletal Grimace
provides a minor buff for Butch but, most importantly, allows us to regenerate Butch, which can be very strong as Butch is a removal magnet. Kaya's Ghostform
doesn’t provide any buff, but the protection for Butch for only one mana is very nice. Endless Scream
can provide a huge buff and makes the commander damage kill quite inevitable. Fear
is just a two-mana source of unblockable for the deck depending on the decks we are playing against; even in matchups where there are a few opponents playing colorless or black, we typically have at least one opponent, this is quite effective against.
Land Base:
Not too much to say about our landbase beyond our supplemental card draw; we are running pretty much every source we can in Polluted Mire
, Barren Moor
and Desert of the Glorified
which are all amazing sources of card draw. Escape Tunnel
is a great way to get a shuffle in and, more importantly, allows us to hit with Butch unblocked since he doesn’t get his trigger until he attacks; this doesn’t work if we have Butch buffed up, and in that case, we can certainly use it on one of our other creatures. I have found this landbase to be quite strong and effective and have not had any issues while testing this deck.
Strengths of the Deck:
- Butch can be a huge damage dealer and can help us one-shot opponents with commander damage.
- Many of our rogues are quite cheap, and we can easily fill the board and get a huge trigger on Butch when we attack.
- With Butch’s menace and quite a few creatures with deathtouch in the deck, even if our creatures are small, we are pretty good in combat.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- We are generally pretty weak to creature hate, we do have a lot of creatures, but many of them are quite small and don’t attack until we buff them up or use Butch to give them menace.
- We do have some ways to protect him, but Butch is a huge part of our deck, and not having them on the field certainly does make our deck a little bit weaker.
- We don’t have a ton of ways to deal with enchantments, and if we are up against an enchantment or aura-heavy deck, we can struggle.
Main Win Conditions:
There are no infinite combos or loops within the deck. We are a combat deck through and through and typically win through commander damage. Butch is a huge damage dealer for the deck, and when combined with all of the buffs from the equipment in the deck, one-shotting an opponent is very easy. If Butch isn’t out, we can buff up pretty much any rogue in our deck, but the best of the best is Duskmantle Operative or Temple Thief. These are great options, but really, any rogue in the deck can benefit from getting buffed up and swinging out.
Conclusion:
Butch is a fantastic way to kick off Fallout week, and it has been a ton of fun. I will say that my playgroup hasn’t been having a ton of fun as he can kinda be like a bully at a table, honestly, just like his character in the game! The flavor is on point with this one, and the Tunnel Snakes gang is full of some pretty wild rogues. I think Voltron and Rogues together is a great way to build the deck and is a ton of fun, at least for us. I hope you all enjoyed this one. Stay tuned all week for even more fallout commander deck techs. Thanks for reading to the end and for all of your support!