“Just saw a naturally spawned cactus.”
Art:Cactusfolk Sureshot
by Artur Nakhodkin
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Welcome to Outlaws of Thunder Junction Week! All of next week, we will be bringing you deck techs for a bunch of the sweet commanders from the new set. I can’t think of a better way to start off this week than with Cactusfolk Sureshot; they are a Gruul powerhouse! Not only is Cactusfolk have reach and is quite hard to kill with ward two, they also give make a good majority of our deck better, all of that for four mana is honestly crazy. This deck is awesome, and as far as creature decks go, it’s quite strong and pretty quick as well. I have been having so much fun with this one and am very excited to share this one with you all! Without further adieu, let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Cactusfolk Sureshot Stompy!
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Why Cactusfolk Sureshot?
Cactusfolk Sureshot is a huge part of our deck, and they just do an absolute ton, not only do they give trample and haste to our other creatures with power four or greater they also are quite hard to kill with removal, and most importantly for Gruul they have reach and can block flyers which helps to reduce one of our colors combos biggest weaknesses. Cactusfolk Sureshot is a very strong commander, and honestly, this card feels crazy pushed; cast this one as soon as possible.
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:
What would a stompy deck be without key cards like Llanowar Elves
and Elvish Mystic
? Well, honestly, it wouldn’t work too well, so we, of course, had to include both of these cheap mana dorks. We also have Zhur-Taa Druid
, which is a little bit more expensive of a mana dork, but damaging our opponents little by little is always nice, and extra damage is great. I am sure it comes as no surprise that we have a ton of huge creatures that are nothing more than a pile of stats, but we actually have some creatures that have strong abilities that can help push us over the top, like Flourishing Hunter
who provides a great way for us to recover some of the damage we took in the early-game before we had our board fully established. Ivy Lane Denizen
provides a ton of extra power and helps a ton of our smaller creatures become affected by our commander’s ability, and we will never say no to more haste and trample. Oliphaunt
is a huge creature themselves and a great attacker being able to buff up our creatures further puts pressure on our opponents and can threaten their life total with just a few turns. Thresher Beast
gets the trample and haste buff from our commander, and our opponents almost never block because if we can ramp them out early, sacrificing a land sets back our opponents and absolute ton. Since we ramp so often we have quite a few Eldrazi who hit like an absolute truck like Eldrazi Devastator
and Ulamog's Crusher
which in testing I have cast as early as turn five and after just a couple swings we can deal a ton of damage to our opponents.
Instants:
Two of the best card draw spells in our deck are at instant speed in Unexpected Windfall
and Big Score
if we ramp out early casting these to not only draw cards but get the treasure tokens is great and at the cost of four mana and only one card we have to discard these cards are both amazing. Since we are a stompy deck and are in Gruul, we don’t have a ton of traditional removal, but we can take advantage of our huge creatures with fighting effects like Bite Down
and Ram Through
with a huge amount of large creatures in the deck there are few things that we can’t kill with these cards and having access to these is strong, there is an inherent drawback in that we need a decent board to take full advantage of these cards but if we don’t have an established board the game probably isn’t going well for us anyways. While we don’t have much targeted removal we certainly fall victim to it a lot and I really like Blinding Fog
to not only fog opponents but protect our creatures as needed.
Sorceries:
Sorcery speed is where we ramp with classics like Kodama's Reach
and Cultivate
; combined with some of our one-mana creature ramp we can speed these out early and those games tend to be quite good for us as speeding out mana to cast the bigger stuff before our opponents can get anything going is quite strong. Broken Bond
is certainly an unusual piece of ramp, but if our opponents commit artifacts or enchantments to the board early, being able to remove them and play an additional land is quite strong for only two mana, there is no real wrong target for this as ramping and weakening opponent is great enough at only two mana. Atraxa's Fall
is an important removal spell within our deck because it can target creatures with flying, blue decks or really any deck that has creatures with flying can be a thorn because besides a few creatures and our commander we cant really block those creatures, while Atraxa’s Fall is situational and we don’t always target a flying creature we often tend to.
Artifacts:
Since we are a stompy deck, we only have mana rocks within our artifact package; there is not too much to say about any of these beyond that they are great additional ways to get ahead, and any ways to help us speed out our board is quite strong.
Enchantments:
Since we are a stompy deck, we absolutely have to ramp, and our enchantment package allows us to ramp nice and early in Utopia Sprawl
and Wild Growth
, which are both great ways to help us rush out our commander and subsequently some of our bigger creatures. Forced Adaptation
and Predatory Hunger
are two amazing and cheap enchantments that help our creatures get bigger and better as the turns go on and can allow us to put at on of pressure on our opponents. We are mostly green in terms of percentage, but we do have a few multi-color creatures, and putting Runes of the Deus
really puts them over the top and can allow us to do huge damage. This is not the only aura we have, as we also run Sticky Fingers
, which makes our board harder to block and can be a great source of additional mana production, we are also running Snake Umbra
which is one of the few sources of supplemental card draw for the deck even one extra card a turn can make a huge difference in how the game goes for us so this card is quite important and a decent hand with it in it is quite strong.
Land Base:
We are running above the average on lands at thirty-seven because we have a pretty high overall cost throughout the deck, further thinning our deck through ramp spells like Cultivate and Kodama's Reach. One of my favorite non-basics is Gruul Turf
because that extra land can be quite a big buff, especially in the early game, if you’ve read some of my deck techs before, you know how much I love supplemental card draw within the landbase like The Autonomous Furnace
and The Hunter Maze
which are both great sources of supplemental card draw. I find our landbase to be pretty simple but overall to be quite strong and effective.
Strengths of the Deck:
- Our commander provides a ton of utility and is quite hard to kill.
- Once we get a board established we can be quite hard to stop and just run through our opponents.
- We have quite a bit of artifact/enchantment removal.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- We don’t have a ton of supplemental card draw within the deck.
- We are pretty weak to creature hate; we don’t have a ton of ways to protect them.
- Generally weak to control decks as we have no way to fight back against counterspells.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
There are no infinite combos or loops within the deck; we are a stompy deck through and through and mostly focus on using our commander’s ability to be aggressive and hit hard; the trample and haste from our commander for a good majority of our deck allows us to hit hard and put a ton of pressure on our opponents. We have some pretty big creatures that hit hard, like Ulamog's Crusher and Maelstrom Colossus
. I like this deck a lot, and we can hit hard and quite fast.
Conclusion:
Cactusfolk Sureshot does so much. I am honestly surprised they aren’t legendary; what a great commander to start off Outlaws Week with. I have been having fun with this one and have been testing since prerelease and had an absolute ton of fun, and even when I was dominating games, my testing group thought it was a fun deck that reminded them of regular EDH stompy decks. I hope you all enjoyed this one as much as I did! Thanks for reading to the end and for all of your support!