Oh the Horror!
Art:Captain N'ghathrod
by Andrew Kuzinskiy
Table of Contents
I was not able to get this deck to 50 dollars exactly but I was pretty close!
Pricing from the decklist on: Mtggoldfish
Todays Featured Commander is:
Captain N’ghathrod is a super sweet commander that focuses on horror and mill, in its most powerful form it can be an ultra powerful and fast mill / combo deck. Since we are playing a budget version we are a hybrid of the horror package and the mill package. Even though we are a budget deck this does not mean the deck isnt powerful and cannot win. Whether it be through combat or mill we can steal their creatures and whittle our opponents down and get the win!
The Deck:
50$ Captain N'ghathrod!
Why Captain N’ghathrod?
Captain is a really sweet budget commander for a ton of reasons. One of the best reasons is that we can use our opponents creatures to our advantage and take control of them! Even though we are budget we can still trigger captain and mill and recur creatures very easily! Captain is a great budget commander that allows us to play a hybrid horror and mill deck, combining these strategies we can make a really fun deck that does not cost a lot and is a ton of fun to play. While this deck probably wont win the nearest CEDH tournament it is a great investment for newer players to magic or anyone who wants to play some budget decks! Another great ability of the captain is that he gives all of your horrors menace which can help a ton with triggering his ability!
Deck Overview:
Since we are a horror deck mixed with a mill strategy we of course have a bunch of horrors! We have some smaller horrors that can come down early and prevent us from getting aggro-ed out like Dauthi Horror
and Hunted Horror
are both great early game creatures, Dauthi Horror is already very evasive and hunted horror is a huge body and a great blocker even if it gives one of our opponents two 3/3’s with protection from black. Ruin Crab
may not be a horror but helps with our mill strategy and can be especially great with the captains ability or some of our other creatures like Nighthowler
. We do have great midcost creatures like Ravenous Chupacabra
not only is a horror but is a great piece of targeted removal which is super important especially for only 2BB. Overcharged Amalgam
is a sweet Counterspell
or Stifle
on a stick that also is a pretty evasive flyer and is just overall an awesome card for our deck. For our top end creatures we have the awesome Nemesis of Reason
which is not only a big-toughness horror also makes our opponents mill ten on attack! Wrexial, the Risen Deep
is kind of like another captain but we get to steal an instant or sorcery from an opponents graveyard. In the mid-late game Consuming Aberration
can be an absolutely huge creature and a real game-ender if it connects with someone.
Our spell package is full of mill effects removal and counterspells, so many awesome cards are super budget like Black Sun's Twilight
which is not only a great way to kill indestructible creatures but also can be a great piece of graveyard recursion! Drown in the Loch
is another sweet card with the only downside being that our opponents graveyards need to at least have a few cards in there to get this cards full potential but a counterspell / destruction spell for only UB is a great card! Thought Collapse
is another great card that not only counters any spell but helps further our gameplan by making that spells controller mill 3! Since we are for the most part a horror deck Crippling Fear
is a pretty sweet spell and is very effective against smaller creatures like humans or elves! Grisly Spectacle
may have a pretty high mana cost but since it can mill cards equal to that creatures power and is a single target removal is absolutely perfect for our deck! Since we are milling our opponents quite frequently Memory Plunder
can be a great card to cast a really powerful spell from one of our opponents graveyard.
Our artifact package mostly focuses on mana since we don’t have the fastest mana base in the world. Our mana is full of format staples like Sol Ring
and Arcane Signet
as well as some Dimir specific ones like Dimir Signet
and Dimir Keyrune
. For our nonmana artifacts we have the mill staple Mindcrank
which not only helps us but with the overall mill gameplan as well. Trepanation Blade
is super sweet card that not only makes our creatures bigger but the mill allows for more captain targets! Keening Stone
may be a pretty expensive artifact but in the late game when our opponents graveyard is filled up can mill a crazy amount of their deck!
We only have one enchantment but it is an important one Reconnaissance Mission
is a great card that if we dont have a need to play it or need to emergency draw a card we can cycle it but being able to draw a card whenever a creature deals combat damage to a player is great when we have creatures that are evasive courtesy of the captain.
5 Helpful Upgrades:
This deck can absolutely be played as-is but due to the lack of staples for mill and horror decks may struggle at higher power tables. These upgrades can help make the deck quicker and function a bit better! These 5 cards for each section are by no means the only upgrades that this deck can use, but if you are looking for upgrades piece-by-piece this list may be a good place to start depending on what strategy you are going for!
Upgrades if you are going for more of a mill plan:
Sheoldred // The True Scriptures
Upgrades if you are going for more of a creature plan:
Strengths of the Deck:
- Can win through either combat damage or mill
- A bunch of our horrors are quite evasive naturally
- With captain our opponents cards can become ours
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- Not heavy on removal / interaction
- Weak to creature hate
- Deck is noticeably weaker without Captain
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
Our main win conditions are through either combat or through milling our opponents out. Captain N’ghathrod helps with both of these gameplans. We have some bigger creatures like Wrexial, the Risen Deep or Sepulchral Primordial
who is a great card that can end the game on its own. We don’t have any infinite combos and we are by all means a fair deck! Even though we are fair this deck can absolutely hold on its own!
Conclusion:
Captain N’ghathrod is a super sweet deck even its budget form and is a great deck for any budget lover or new player. This deck is by no means complicated not featuring any types of infinite combos and for a new player can be a great way to teach them the basics of the game! This deck is powerful even without any of the upgrades and is also a ton of fun to pilot. Captain is such an awesome deck and I would recommend it to anyone!
Thanks for reading to the end!