“Im not smiling, I am threatening to smile. It is still a threat”
Art:Cormela, Glamour Thief
by Bram Sels
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Cormela, Glamour Thief, is a very powerful commander who is often built combo style and more tuned to CPDH; I took this build in a different direction, focusing on spell-slinging and payoffs for all of the instants and sorceries we cast. While my build is no doubt a glass cannon, it’s very fun to pilot and passively bleed out opponents while drawing a crazy amount of cards. If you like cantripping and spell-slinging your way to victory, I think this is the deck for you! Without further adieu, let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Cormela, Glamour Thief Cantrips!
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Why Cormela, Glamour Thief?
Cormela is a great card for the deck, turning one colorless into UBR, which can only be spent on instants and sorceries, but for the purposes and gameplan of our deck, that is not a problem at all. Cormela tends to draw a lot of removal, so being able to recur an instant and sorcery is perfect for us. Cormela is a huge part of our deck as they allow us to keep on cantripping and spell-slinging.
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 have some strong cost reducers like Goblin Electromancer
and Mocking Sprite
as well as Nightscape Familiar
, which help make most things in the deck cheaper, which we will never say no to. We have some strong instant and sorcery payoffs like Murmuring Mystic
and Pyre Hound
. We also have our two strongest attackers in Bloodwater Entity
and Haunting Figment
, which are great ways to deal some combat damage. Beyond that, our primary source of damage is non-combat damage with sweet cards like Kessig Flamebreather
, Guttersnipe
, Firebrand Archer
and Unruly Catapult
.
Instants:
We have some controlling elements in the deck, like Counterspell
and Cast Down
. We also have some strong instant-speed cantrips like Shadow Rift
, Consider
, and Expedite
. The primary goal of the deck is to keep drawing and cantrip an absolute ton in conjunction with all of our instant and sorcery payoffs. We also have some strong instant speed buffs like Titan's Strength
, Sugar Rush
, and Antagonize
, which can be great ways to hit hard and deal some decent damage to an opponent. A lot of our creatures are susceptible to removal, so cards like Feign Death
and Demonic Gifts
are great ways to bring back key creatures or Cormela.
Sorceries:
We have some strong sorcery speed card draws like Ponder
, Preordain
, and Read the Bones
, which are all great ways to refill the hand and trigger our instant and sorcery payoffs. We also have some cards that make it very hard for our opponents to block, like Coronation of Chaos
and Renegade Tactics
, Slip Through Space
.
Artifacts:
Our artifact package is in full-on support mode and only has mana rocks that can give us card draw like Izzet Locket
and Dimir Locket
as well as some more traditional mana rocks like Arcane Signet
, Dimir Signet
and Izzet Signet
which are all great ways to get ahead on mana and keep on casting.
Enchantments:
As I always say, if you are playing black, you absolutely have to include Oubliette
, which is one of the best pieces of enchantment-based removal in the format. We have a ton of very cool enchantments my personal favorite being Sigil of Sleep
because when it is equipped on a Kessig Flamebreather or Firebrand Archer we can decimate our opponents boards. The same is true for Ophidian Eye
, which lets us draw a ton of cards using the same idea. Dragon Mantle
is another great card that cantrips and gives our creature Firebreathing
, which can be great to chip in some big damage, especially in the late-game when we have some extra mana hanging around.
Land Base:
We have a ton of dual lands that help us get all of our colors established, like Geothermal Bog
, Molten Tributary
, and Waterfront District
which are all strong dual lands. Since the deck draws so many cards, we don’t have a ton of supplemental cards drawn through our landbase. We have a lot of non-basics that produce black, and throughout the deck, we don’t have a ton of black cards, so we are much lighter on it than blue and red. I have been having success with this landbase and found it to be strong and efficient.
Strengths of the Deck:
- An ungodly amount of card draw allows us to cycle through our deck an absolute ton throughout the game.
- We have a large number of one-mana buffs, which can allow us to cantrip and deal huge damage in one swing.
- Our commander is a great mana producer for the deck and can even be a strong piece of recursion for instants and sorceries in the deck.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- This deck certainly is glass cannon-y and we need to keep a hand with at least one of our damage payoffs for cantripping, we should be very aggressively mulliganing.
- We often spend the early game playing mana and committing key creatures to the board so we can be weak to aggressive strategies and pretty much any creature deck.
- Since we are light on creatures and all of them are decently important, we can be quite weak to creature hate.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
There are no infinite combos or loops within the deck. We have a few prowess creatures like Bloodwater Entity and Haunting Figment, which can allow us to hit in for decent damage and whittle down our opponents. Typically, we bleed out opponents with cards like Guttersnipe and Kessig Flamebreather, which are great ways to passively damage opponents.
Conclusion:
Cormela is a very strong commander in Pauper EDH. While I believe my build is a little unconventional because it is not to the power level of a CEDH deck, I still have been having a ton of fun with this one, and it’s perfect for any player old and new who likes spell-slinging and cantripping their way to victory. Grixis is a very powerful color combination for this kind of strategy. I hope you enjoyed this one as much as I did. Thanks for reading to the end and for all of your support!