“The moment it happened, I could hear it. A change in the wind.“
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
For the Glory of Atom! Cathedral Acolyte is a very cool commander who loves protection and counters, and if you are a lover of the Fallout games, there is no doubt you will recognize where this commander is from, whether you like the Children of Atom or hate them Cathedral Acolyte is a very fun commander who is a little unusual, there are not many green cards that grant ward and in this deck grant it on a mass scale. Being able to buff up a creature that entered is a great way to grant protection to our creatures and make removal just a little bit harder to kill with removal. I have been having a ton of fun with this one, and I am very excited to showcase this deck today. Without further advice, let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Why Cathedral Acolyte?
Cathedral Acolyte is a great commander for the deck; not only do they provide a permanent buff to a creature when they enter, but they also give all of our buffed-up creatures ward 1, which is quite the uncommon ability for green and even though it is just a minor inconvenience from our opponents it can hurt opponents low on mana or dissuade them from even targeting us in the first place. Cathedral Acolyte is extremely cheap, and we almost always cast them on turn two. There is almost no reason not to.
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:
To start off, we have some strong payoffs for the deck, like Longshot Squad
, which gives a majority of our creatures reach, which is a great and cheap way to address one of Green’s biggest weaknesses. We also have Tuskguard Captain
and Crowned Ceratok
, which provide redundant effects, but being able to have multiple different ways to give our creatures trample helps us play through removal and any shenanigans our opponents may be up to. We also have a ton of strong proliferation effects like Urban Daggertooth
, Adaptive Sporesinger
, and Pollenbright Druid
, which are all great ways to accelerate our board and begin to put a ton of pressure on our opponents. Undergrowth Scavenger
and Territorial Scythecat
are two of my favorite big damage dealers in the deck, and when these two get trampled, your opponents better watch out. Fairgrounds Trumpeter
is a very strong card because it constantly triggers nearly every turn, and after a few turns of being out, it can get out of hand extremely quickly. Yavimaya Elder
is another card I love in the deck because the supplemental card draw is very nice and this is one of the few sources in the deck.
Instants:
If we do fall behind or are against an opponent that has an absolutely huge board, we can get a ton of value out of Moment's Peace
, which is a great Fog
effect for the deck. Burst of Strength
and Stony Strength
are both great creatures that provide a small buff but, more importantly, untap the creature, which allows us to block as needed or, in the case of our commander, give another creature a counter. Speaking of combat, if we do end up having a bad combat, we can use Wrap in Vigor
as a great way to recover, whether in combat or in response to a board wipe. This is a great way for us to recover our board.
Sorceries:
We have some traditional ramp spells like Cultivate
and Kodama's Reach
, as well as non-traditional ramp like Broken Bond
and Scale the Heights
which are all very good cards and ramping more is awesome, being able to get a buff and destroy an artifact/enchantment on a ramp spell is perfect for the deck and helps us get ahead while dropping our opponents behind. Since we have a ton of buffs proliferating is pretty strong within the deck; because of that, we have quite a bit of proliferation within our sorcery package like Courage in Crisis
, which provides a nice buff for our creatures and Smell Fear
which is basically single-target removal for a creature with proliferate on top which is extremely strong for only two mana. Carnivorous Canopy
is a very strong removal spell that allows us to proliferate the condition. It can be a little hard to meet against some decks, but it is usually pretty easy to get the removal and the proliferate together.
Artifacts:
Armory of Iroas
is sweet in this deck and is great to go on pretty much any creature, and it just makes whatever it’s equipped to better and better every combat. We do have a little bit of ramp through our mana rocks but we typically use the spell and creature-based ramp more often, so that’s why we only have Moss Diamond
and Bonder's Ornament
as always I love to run bonders mostly for the supplemental card draw. Implement of Ferocity
is another wonderful card for the deck since it provides a buff for a creature and card draw; we also have Spare Supplies
, which is a straight-up supplemental card draw for the deck. As we have many times before, we have Wedding Invitation
, which is a card draw and gives one of our creatures unblockable for a turn, which in this deck can easily be a one-shot machine.
Enchantments:
New Horizons
is one of my favorite cards in the deck since we get a pretty strong piece of ramp for the deck and some extra counters, which are always nice. Forced Adaptation
and Predatory Hunger
are two of the biggest buff creatures in the deck and allow the enchanted creatures to get absolutely huge with very little effort from us; expect some removal to target the enchanted creatures but hey the ward can be helpful here. I like Tales of Master Seshiro // Seshiro's Living Legacy
in the deck; while a little expensive, the buff and a decent creature to buff up is quite worth it, in my opinion. Ferocity
is a great card, especially for one of our bigger creatures, since when we block, they get a permanent buff, and it just keeps getting better.
Land Base:
We are a mono-green, so a large majority of our deck is nothing but basics forest, but we do have some strong non-basics like Desert of the Indomitable
and The Hunter Maze
, which are strong pieces of supplemental card draw. Desert
is a great way to take out a creature that barely survived combat. Just as a way to cycle through the deck and get a shuffle, we have both Terramorphic Expanse
and Evolving Wilds
. Our landbase is quite simple, but I’ve found it to be quite effective and strong.
Strengths of the Deck:
- We are quite strong in combat; we have a ton of creatures and proliferation effects that make them bigger and better, and we are pretty good at attacking and blocking; we don’t block 100% of the time, but it’s nice that we can.
- We have quite a few ways to deal with artifacts and enchantments, which is great against a variety of strategies in the format.
- We have a ton of ramps, which allows us to fill our board quite quickly.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- We don’t have a ton of creature removal, and when opponents have big or buffed-up creatures that we can’t stop outside of combat, it can be a little tough for us.
- We are generally pretty weak to creature hate; beyond the ward from our commander, we don’t have much protection.
- We have almost no supplemental card draw in the deck, which can leave us empty-handed at the late game.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
There are no infinite combos or loops within the deck. We are a combat deck through and through; while many of our creatures don’t start out that strong, we are able to buff and proliferate them quite often, and when they are buffed up, they are quite formidable attackers and can put a ton of pressure on our opponents. We are quite good at attacking and blocking when we have our creatures buffed, but we typically lean more aggressively and try to swing and pressure our opponents as much as possible.
Conclusion:
Cathedral Acolyte is a very fun commander who is perfect for mono-green; one thing I love about Cathedral Acolyte is how different they are from many green commanders, while buffs and counters are expected from mono-green Ward 1 certainly is not, and having that and being a little less susceptible to removal is awesome and in my opinion is the reason you would play Cathedral Acolyte over other counters commanders within the format. Thanks for bearing with me and this fallout week, and I hope you have been enjoying the articles thus far. Thanks for reading to the end and for all of your support!