I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me.
Art: Frodo, Determined Hero
by Magali Villeneuve
Table of Contents
Todays Featured Commander is:
Frodo, Determined Hero is a very fun mono-white commander who really cares about and likes cheap equipment, and are deck is absolutely packed to the brim with them! We can use Frodo to easily grab equipment that has high equip cost but low mana cost to make him huge and evasive and make every game a twenty-one health game!
The Deck:
Frodo Voltron!
Why Frodo, Determined Hero?
The main reason we chose Frodo is that he cares about cheap equipment and there is a crazy amount of that we can play early and begin to put onto Frodo for free. Frodo on ETB / Attack is basically an activated Puresteel Paladin
and allows us to easily make Frodo absolutely Huge! Frodo also has the added benefit of having all damage to him prevented when it is your turn which makes combat very easy and allows us to not be afraid when attacking! Frodo being in Mono-White allows us to play some evasive / protection spells as additional ways to protect Frodo! Frodo reduces games to 21 health since we typically win through commander damage!
Deck Overview:
One of the biggest benefits of Frodo is how low all of our mana costs are so it is very easy for us to cast a bunch of spells and have a substantial creature in Frodo before turn 5!
Our creature package is very small compared to most decks, this is due to the fact that Frodo is the most important creature in our deck. All of our creatures are a great supporting cast to Frodo and help us further the equipment gameplan! Giver of Runes
and Mother of Runes
are great ways to protect Frodo from targeted removal! Archivist of Oghma
is a great way to draw cards which is something that is not easy to do in Mono-White and since it triggers on opponents searching their library it can trigger pretty often! Danitha Capashen, Paragon
and Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist
and Puresteel Paladin are both great ways for us to reduce costs / cheat equipment on to creatures. Both of these cards are great and can be used in Lieu of Frodo if he cannot be cast for some reason! Indomitable Archangel
is super easy for us to trigger metalcraft and giving our artifacts shroud is an invaluable effect, one you land Archangel the game swings heavily within your favor! For some of our artifact tutors we have equipment search staples in Stoneforge Mystic
and Stonehewer Giant
both of these help us cheat equipments into play as well. The last creature I want to highlight is Halvar, God of Battle // Sword of the Realms
who is great in every way whether you cast them as a creature for the double strike or as an equipment for the Vigilance and buff this card is great and impactful every time it is on the field!
Our spell package is very basic and includes a little bit of destruction some protection and a bunch of ways to tutor artifacts. Enlightened Tutor
and Open the Armory
are two low cost ways that we can tutor for equipment that we need! Reprieve
and Flawless Maneuver
are both great ways to protect our permanents. Reprieve is great when someone spends a ton of mana on a spell or is about to cast a problematic spell such as an overloaded Cyclonic Rift
drawing a card is an amazing effect as well since we do not draw a ton of cards in mono-white. Since we typically only care about Frodo, Promise of Loyalty
is great since we can save Frodo and wipe the board for our opponents! Generous Gift
is one of the best pieces of permanent removal we have in our deck and can be used in a pinch as needed!
Since we are an equipment deck our artifacts are the heart and soul of our deck and we have an absolute ton of them! We are playing basically every sword we can and when even 2 or 3 of these swords are equipped on Frodo the effects can get very out of hand! The best swords in the deck are Sword of Body and Mind
and Sword of Feast and Famine
. Since Frodo allows us to freely equip there are some large equipment costs that we don’t have to pay and we can get the benefits from like Ogre's Cleaver
and Colossus Hammer
we can pay the cost to equip these as needed but we are typically cheating them onto Frodo. The biggest benefit of our artifact package is that every single equipment we can cast is able to be cheated on by Frodo because of this we can really keep any hand that has two plains and any equipment and by turn 3 or 4 have 2 or 3 equipment on Frodo. Equipment like Thran Power Suit
and Nettlecyst
are two equipment that get out of hand very quickly since they count the number of artifacts, in testing I have been able to use these to get +7/+7 on the 6th turn of the game. We have many ways to make Frodo indestructible such as Darksteel Plate
and Mithril Coat
. Andúril, Flame of the West
is another amazing equipment that continuously adds value for every turn that it is on the field! There are too many great artifacts to highlight but our artifact package is very easy to put on to the battlefield and continuously cheat them onto Frodo!
Our enchantment package is small but all of the enchantments have a really big impact on the game! Sigarda's Aid
allows us to attach an incoming equipment to Frodo for free and is great on turn 1 or any stage of the game! All That Glitters
is the only Aura in the deck but is basically just another copy of nettlecyst! Mantle of the Ancients
is the main way that we can recover from artifact destruction and can help us rebuild almost instantly! Forge Anew
is an amazing card in this deck allowing us to recur equipment, lets us equip at instant speed and gives a 0 cost equip once per turn. All of our enchantments allow us to cheat more equipment and get Frodo bigger and bigger!
Our land base is pretty basic consisting mostly of plains, but we do have Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
is great in really any mono color deck and lets a produce an unfair amount of mana! The Mycosynth Gardens
allows us to copy any one of our equipments I found one of the best targets is Thran Power Suit or Nettlecyst. Inventors' Fair
is a great artifact tutor that is very easy to activate in this deck!
Strengths of the Deck:
- 21 Health Games
- Frodo can be cast very early and get in chip commander damage in the early turns
- Many ways to protect Frodo
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- Frodo is the main attacker / threat in our deck if killed a ton or targeted a ton can be bad if we cannot cast him
- Weak to Artifact Destruction
- Not a ton of interaction
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
We are not really packing any infinite combos in our deck we almost always win the game through attacking with Frodo / Commander damage! Our main backup creature is Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist since they can put a bunch of equipment onto our creatures on combat and is great in situations when Frodo isn’t available!
Conclusion:
In Conclusion Frodo is a ton of fun to play and pilot and is a little bit of a different take on a Voltron / Equipment style deck and allows us to play equipment’s that you don’t typically see in a lot of other decks! Frodo is also a very simple deck so would be great for a newer player who is just starting to get into the wild world of EDH! Frodo reduces games to 21 health since we typically win through commander damage!
Thanks for reading to the end!