“He was right. There is still some mystery left in this world.”
Art:Galloping Lizrog
by Lius Lasahido
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Galloping Lizrog is an absolute Simic powerhouse. That shouldn’t be surprising since a ton of the simic commanders in the format are absolute powerhouses, but this one is a little different than the typical Simic commander, we are focused entirely on commander damage and hitting our opponents super hard and one-shotting them. Galloping Lizrog is very good at this job; being able to take all of the counters we have on our creatures and turn them into double the amount on our commander is super busted, and being able to make our commander unblockable through a ton of different cards in our deck makes the one-shot nearly inevitable, oh and don’t forget we are in Simic so we have some counterspells in our arsenal to protect our commander. This deck is a pure Simic fun-fest and I hope you all love this one as much as I do. Without further adieu, let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Why Galloping Lizrog?
Galloping Lizrog is the deck; they are what we are entirely built around and the card we typically finish games with, while they are a huge part of our deck we almost never cast them on curve; we typically like to wait until we have a huge board built up so we can take full advantage of our commanders ETB and set up for a huge one-shot since there is an absolute ton of single-target removal within the format I also like to keep at least one or two protection spells in my hand so they can survive the turn before they attack. Snakeskin Veil
, Avoid Fate
, or Counterspell
are all cheap and great ways to protect us from the large amount of removal that typically comes our way when we play our commander.
Gameplan:
The gameplan for this deck is pretty simple; it mostly consists of establishing as many of our creatures as we can and putting a ton of counters on them through other cards or through proliferate effects like Thrummingbird
and Contentious Plan
. Once we have those established, we can cast our commander and make them absolutely huge, and then we transition to the final stage of the gameplan, which mostly consists of protecting our commander from all the removal floating around and setting up for a one-shot. One-shots are pretty easy to do, especially since we can make our commander unblockable extremely easily with cards like Artful Dodge
, Aqueous Form
, and Amphin Pathmage
.
For a starting hand, its quite simple, I typically look for at least a little bit of ramp as well as some early ways to get counters on our creatures so when we cast our commander they can be big and ready for the one-shot! A lot of hands in this deck are quite keepable; we don’t need anything that specific; this deck is full of redundant effects, which makes it quite easy to keep most hands.
Deck Matchups:
Since this is Pauper EDH, there are an absolute ton of things that can tip a game in your favor or out of it. While an archetype may seem favorable, there are absolutely good and bad commanders for our deck to go up against; I have included both these, which were all played among my testing groups using various decks, and I have included the sample size for clarity purposes. This is just meant to be a guide after testing a bunch of games with this deck!
The information below is notes about specific decks that were featured in our testing pods and how we fared against them. Naturally, Pauper EDH is a multiplayer game, so these are just a summary of my notes against different commanders and strategies. When we test these decks we try to test to its strengths and weaknesses to give a full spectrum of what the deck has to offer. Various commanders and archetypes/strategies are used to get the most accurate information.
Commanders, we have a good matchup against:
Cactusfolk Sureshot
Record against Cactusfolk Sureshot 3-0
This is a very good matchup for us. While they can get quite big in the late game, we are easily able to get the one-shot done before that. Add to that that we are able to counter some of their bigger and better creatures, and they can’t do that much to stop us. This is a very good matchup for us.
Armament Corps
Record against Armament Corps 4-1
Speed is certainly the name of the game against this deck, and we are considerably faster than they are. By the time they get set up fully and prepare for a big attack, we are typically ready for a huge, unblockable one-shot. This is a very good matchup for us, and if we have a halfway decent hand, we can usually pull off the win.
Éowyn, Lady of Rohan
Record against Éowyn, Lady of Rohan 5-0
This deck and most Voltron decks are quite good matchups for us; being able to counter their best pieces of equipment/auras while we hit them unblockable makes for a very strong matchup. They can have games where they go off and we aren’t ready, but in testing, I didn’t experience that. Overall, this deck and Voltron are a pretty good matchup for us.
Commanders, we have a tough matchup against:
Neva, Stalked by Nightmares
Record against Neva, Stalked by Nightmares 1-4
Neva can be a very rough matchup for us; if we have a great game and perform an early one-shot, this matchup isn’t too bad, but as they transition to the mid-late game, they can get really scary, especially with the litany of Pacifism
effects these decks usually run. This matchup is winnable but can be very tough.
Crypt Rats
Record against Crypt Rats 0-3
This is a tough one. It can be very hard to grind a long game out, and the rat is perfect for doing that; they typically wipe out all of our smaller creatures and +1/+1 counter fodder, which throws the whole game plan off of the rails. I had very little success in testing against this matchup.
Whisper, Blood Liturgist
Record against Whisper, Blood Liturgist 0-4
This is a tough one; this deck typically runs a ton of sacrifice effects while having a ton of removal as well as recursion; if they catch us with our commander out and no protection, a well-placed Fleshbag Marauder
is extremely rough and can absolutely end our day. Decks like this and Whisper themselves are a very tough matchup for us.
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 so many awesome creatures in our deck, with absolute powerhouses like Urban Daggertooth
, which can allow us to stack up counters very quickly, and when our commander comes out, it goes absolutely insane. Amphin Pathmage is another strong and consistent source of unblockable, which pairs beautifully with our commander and, more importantly, can be a great way to guarantee some damage if our commander is unavailable. Ambitious Dragonborn
is another very strong card for the deck and is a card I love to play when we already have our commander out as they can get huge and be a great alternate attacker/blocker for the deck. While we have a ton of powerhouses, we also have some very strong utility pieces like Vigean Hydropon
, which is a great way to spread a ton of counters across a bunch of our creatures. We have quite a few evolve creatures as well, which get triggered quite a bit in the deck and make our commander way better. Thrummingbird is another evasive and strong utility piece that can be a consistent source of additional counters for the deck. We have a ton of support for the deck, and even without our commander, we can end the game with just the creatures we have in the deck; while it’s not ideal or the primary game plan of the deck, we can certainly get it done.
Instants:
We are very defensive in our instant package which is perfect because there is an absolutely insane amount of removal floating around the format and without the assistance of cards like Arcane Denial
, Avoid Fate and Snakeskin Veil we wouldn’t be able to protect any of our cards as well as our commander which would disrupt the entire gameplan of the deck. While it is a little expensive I do like Fuel for the Cause
for the deck as it helps a ton with the overall gameplan for the deck.
Sorceries:
We are in Simic, so we absolutely need to draw some cards. So we had to include Preordain
and Ponder
, which are cheap and awesome ways to find cards we need, and who can say no to more card draw! We also have quite a bit of ramp which helps us speed up the gameplan, while these cards arent very interesting they are super important to have. Ravenform
is one of my favorite ways to take care of problematic creatures our opponents have; foretell or not, this card is great for the deck. Our sorcery package provides a lot of support and utility for the overall gameplan of the deck, and without it, we wouldn’t be able to set up unblockable one-shots or take care of threats our opponents have.
Artifacts:
We don’t have a ton of interesting artifacts as most of them are mana rocks; since we have a lot of mana dorks in our creature package and a decent amount of ramp overall we have a ton of mana rocks because early or late these can be great ways to get ahead, being able to play something like a Llanowar Elves
into a Simic Signet
in the next turn is very strong for the deck. We do have some very strong artifacts like Whispersilk Cloak
, which is just the millionth way we have to make our commander unblockable, and more importantly, they have shrouds so they can’t be killed very easily, allowing us to knock off our opponents as easy as 1,2,3. Implement of Ferocity
is another artifact I like a lot, it’s super cheap and can allow us to buff a creature and draw a card for only two mana total, which is perfect and cheap for our deck to do.
Enchantments:
Master Chef
is far and away the best card we have in our deck, it just provides everything the deck needs, since we have quite a few ways to proliferate within the deck being able to get a small leg up on every one of our creatures as well as our commander allows us to make our commander crazy huge and give us a leg up in combat. Predatory Hunger
and Forced Adaptation
are two other cheap and consistent ways to build up our board and prepare for when we drop our commander on the field, and you better watch out because we have some great ways to guarantee damage like Aqueous Form and Security Bypass
which are cheap and amazing ways to guarantee hits and end the game, being able to drop these right before combat and give our opponents no options is awesome. We are quite offensive in our enchantment package, but we do have a little defense like Lignify
and Witness Protection
, which are great ways to take out creatures who have a ton of abilities and are also perfect to put on commanders.
Strengths of the Deck:
- Opponents are essentially reduced to sixteen health in this deck since we can easily hit an unblockable commander damage one-shot.
- Since we are in Simic, we have access to removal, counterspells, as well as artifact and enchantment destruction while still having a fairly aggressive gameplan.
- We can be quite fast especially with our ramp and with the right set of cards can end the game within five or six turns.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- We are quite dependent on our commander, and they are often a removal magnet for our opponents; while we do have counterspells, we don’t have enough to counter absolutely everything.
- We can have very tough matchups against aggressive decks, especially ones that are quite explosive and very fast. We can have fast hands but often times these decks are faster.
- Our deck is very much a win-more strategy, when we have a strong board the deck does very well but when our board keeps getting wiped out we can struggle a lot.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Conclusion:
I hope you all enjoyed this one! Galloping Lizrog is such an interesting commander and is very fun to pilot; this card definitely emboides the overall spirit of simic and is just a blast to pilot. While this deck is strong, it’s certainly not overwhelming and can be a ton of fun against other creatures’ decks. I have been loving this deck a ton and have been playing it an absolute ton with my playgroup. Thank you so much for your support!