Cardssssssssss…
Art: Chishiro, the Shattered Blade
by Lius Lashado
Table of Contents
Todays Featured Commander is:
Chishiro is a really cool Gruul commander who is a great producer of tokens as well as a great way to buff all of our creatures. Chishiro cares about modified creatures for this deck we mostly focused on +1/+1 counters and buffing are creatures and getting as many modified creatures as can! Chishiro is definitely a Gruul commander and has a lot of the same elements as typical Gruul commanders but is a ton of fun to pilot and is a great deck for new and old players!
The Deck:
Chishiro Gruul Modifications!
Why Chishiro, the Shattered Blade?
The main reason we chose Chishiro is his ability to be a token and a counters matters deck all in once which allows us to play two strategies at once which adds a ton of replay value and depth to the deck. Besides all that he is a well-stated creature with some great abilities, not only does Chishiro make 2/2’s with menace he buffs any modified creature at our end step and since we can cast Chishiro on turn 4 it is very easy for us to get that buff for a bunch of turns in a row. Chishiro is a really fun commander to pilot and is one of my personal favorite commanders from the Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Commander decks.
Deck Overview:
Our creature package is largely highlighted by X creatures and anything to do with +1/+1 counters so that they can all be buffed by Chishiro. Shivan Devastator
is one of our best creatures since it is an early modified creature we can start getting the buffs from Chishiro as soon as we cast him. Gyre Sage
is one of our best ramp spells since when he gets buffed we can use the sage to produce an absolute ton of mana. Grumgully, the Generous
is another great creature since they give +1/+1’s to all non-human creatures entering the battlefield making them candidates for Chishiro buffs. One of our best creatures is Halana and Alena, Partners
since once we buff Halana and Alena they get bigger every turn and can make our creatures bigger every turn as well. Kodama of the West Tree
is one of our creatures that makes combat considerably easier since it gives all modified creatures trample which in this deck is pretty much all of them. With our ramp package one of the best creatures for us to stick early is Defiler of Vigor
since it buffs each one of our creatures everytime we cast a green permanent. Kalonian Hydra
is a great way for us to buff our creatures in combat since attacking doubles the +1/+1 counters on each of our creatures this card also only costs 3GG so it is very easy to stick early and just one or two combat steps with Kalonian Hydra can make us pretty much unstoppable. The last creature I want to highlight is Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider
is another doubling season for us and since it only costs 4GG it is very easy for us to stick early and reap the rewards every turn!
Our planeswalker package is very small and only consists of Vivien, Arkbow Ranger
but Vivien does have a great ability we typically only use her +1 to put two +1/+1’s on up to two target creatures although her minus is great for killing creatures outside of combat and serves as a nice piece of interaction. In my testing I have not used her -5 ability at all, I don’t have a sideboard set up for her ultimate ability.
Our Spell package is full of ramp, interaction and more ways to buff creatures!! Our ramp spells are format staples Cultivate
and Kodama's Reach
. We are quite light on interaction/protection so are only two pieces are Blasphemous Act
and Heroic Intervention
we are primarily a buff / creature deck so we are almost never trying to hurt wipe the board we are very much a deck that focuses on our gameplan. For buffs we have Triumph of the Hordes
which is one of the best ways for us to end the game. Silkguard
is a great way to not only buff our creatures and make them eligible for Choshiro’s end step trigger and give them hexproof if needed. In testing Silkguard is one of the best spells in our deck! Overwhelming Stampede
is essentially another copy of Craterhoof Behemoth
in our deck and combined with all of the other buffs we’ve applied throughout the game can be a really effective way to end the game!
Since Chishiro makes 2/2’s with menace whenever we cast an equipment spell we are of course packing some equipment. One of our best pieces of equipment is Commander's Plate
I almost always put that on Chishiro since it gives him protection from non R/G targeted removal and buffs him a ton! Grafted Exoskeleton
is a game-ender on pretty much any creature combining this with our other buffs from a bunch of cards in our deck and this equipment is devastating, expect all eyes to be on you once this comes down! The Ozolith
is one of the most important pieces in our deck since it allows creatures leaving the battlefield to put all of their counters on The Ozolith and we can transfer them to another creature at the beginning of combat, combine this with a Doubling Season
and things get out of hand really quickly! Sword of Hearth and Home
is typically used as a combo piece but since it is a sword it is powerful on really any creature. Sword of Forge and Frontier
is a great way for us to cycle through our deck since we don’t have a ton of card draw in our deck. Embercleave
is one of the best equipment’s in our deck since we can flash it in and do an absolute ton of damage, in testing I had a game where I flashed in my embercleave on to a creature with Grafted Exoskeleton attached to it and went absolutely crazy and was pretty much unstoppable. The Reaver Cleaver
can be really strong in the early and late game since once our modified creatures become big we can generate an absolute ton of mana and can be great in conjunction with some of our X spells like Silkguard or Shivan Devastator.
Our enchantment package is where a large majority of our buffs and payoffs for +1/+1 counters exist, one of the best cards in our deck is All Will Be One
since we put so many counters on creatures being able to translate that into damage is one of the best ways to deal damage to our opponents and end the game quickly! Tribute to the World Tree
is an amazing enchantment that buffs our small creatures and draws cards when we have 3 power or greater creatures enter. Tribute is a great way for us to draw cards since we don’t have a ton of draw effects and the buff on small creatures helps as well! These cards are arguably the best +1/+1 counter enablers in our entire deck, Hardened Scales
, Doubling Season and Branching Evolution
all of these cards allow us to put more and more counters on our permanents and can get out of hand very quickly. Doubling Season interacts with pretty much any of the buffs in our deck and makes it double, this card will draw you some attention when you play it but typically you can outpace them quick enough. Hardened Scales is a great enchantment since it can come down early and affect nearly every creature that we play and buff. Branching Evolution is essentially another copy of doubling season and is just another great enchantment for all of the buffs that we apply.
Our land base is a very typical Gruul landbase focusing mainly on dual lands, we do have a few lands that are noteworthy. Karn's Bastion
is a great land since it allows us to proliferate and more counters is never a bad thing. Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
is not the best land since it can only buff green creatures that entered this turn but more counters are never bad and this card can be situationally used to do that!
Strengths of the Deck:
- Able to amass a large board presence very quickly
- Extra Combats allow us to eliminate opponents very quickly
- Able to buff our board a ton
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- Weak to creature hate
- Weak to artifact hate
- Not a ton of interaction can be hard to deal with opponents problematic permanents / spells
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
We typically win through our combat phases and powering up our creatures but we also have a few combos! These combos are really easy to assemble but are not typically the path we choose, this deck is by no means a competitive deck, all of these cards are great on their own but just happen to combo off together!
Akki Battle Squad
+ Helm of the Host
Result: Infinite combat phases. Infinite creature tokens with haste. Infinite ETB. Infinite untap of modified creatures you control.
Requires: All permanents on the battlefield. You control another modified creature that can attack this turn, and that cannot be blocked and killed by an opponent. Helm of the Host attached to Akki Battle Squad.
Steps: At the beginning of your combat phase, Helm of the Host triggers, creating a token copy of Akki Battle Squad with haste. Declare another modified creature you control as an attacker. Akki Battle Squad triggers, untapping all modified creatures you control and causing you to get an additional combat phase after this one. Repeat each combat phase.
Akki Battle Squad + Sword of Hearth and Home
Result: Infinite combat phases. Infinite combat damage. Infinite ETB. Infinite LTB. Infinite untap of modified creatures you control. Put all basic lands from your library onto the battlefield.
Requires: All permanents on the battlefield. Sword of Hearth and Home attached to another creature without summoning sickness. An opponent cannot block the creature with Sword of Hearth and Home attached.
Steps: Declare the creature with Sword of Hearth and Home attached as an attacker. Akki Battle Squad triggers, untapping all modified creatures you control, and causing you to get an additional combat phase after this one. Deal combat damage to an opponent using the creature with Sword of Hearth and Home attached. Sword of Hearth and Home triggers, exiling Akki Battle Squad, then searching your library for a basic land card and exiling it, then putting the land and Akki Battle Squad onto the battlefield. Repeat each combat phase.
Conclusion:
In conclusion I think that Chishiro is a really fun and powerful deck, it is great for new and old players alike and in testing I just had an absolute ton of fun playing it. Its power level is fair and you can definitely have some games where you dominate but there is a lot of games where it feels very fun! Chishiro is an awesome commander that is not really played that often, but I think deserves more of a chance from EDH players
Thanks for reading to the end!