Ghost-Spider, Gwen Stacy Tokens Aggro

Commander Overview

Ghost-Spider, Gwen Stacy is a very cool commander and one that is quite underappreciated in my opinion, while they certainly aren’t as strong as something like Krenko, Mob Boss they are a blast to play and offer similar playstyles to a lot of mono-red decks, I love being able to deal a ton of damage to opponents before we even attack and with all of the token production and how wide we go we can dish out a ton of combat damage and non-combat damage. I understand that many players don’t love the Spider-Man set, but this deck is perfect for Aggro players and is a great aggressive option, and Ghost-Spider, Gwen Stacy is a hidden gem.

How to Play the Deck

Playing the deck is straightforward, as most mono-red Aggro decks tend to be; it’s all about making our board as big as possible from our creatures and our tokens and using our commander to dish out a ton of damage before we even hit or any blockers are declared. There isn’t a lot of complicated lines or interactions, just swinging and hitting our opponents with both combat and non-combat damage as much as you can. This deck is perfect for a player of any skill level, whether they are brand new or a seasoned veteran; they can pilot this deck.

Synergy’s in the deck

Our whole deck is built around and synergized around Ghost-Spider, Gwen Stacy, and we are very good at making their trigger truly insane. We have a ton of amazing ways to produce a lot of tokens like Siege-Gang Commander and Beetleback Chief, and since we have a minor goblin theme in the deck, we also have Krenko, Mob Boss, even in its limited form, which can be truly insane. We also have cards that interact really well with our commander, like Solphim, Mayhem Dominus, which can easily allow us to one-shot an opponent and is just an insane card; it also interacts great with Purphoros, God of the Forge. Our deck has synergies that focus on the overall game plan and allow us to deal out a ton of damage.

Phases of the Game

Early-Game: We want to start making our board big as much as we possibly can because of this we have quite a few early-game ways to start the action, while we don’t do a lot in the early-game we can commit some good token producers like Legion Warboss and Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin as well as some spell token production like Dragon Fodder or Hordeling Outburst, we can also be pretty aggressive in the early-game if our opponents our open. We typically take what our opponents give us, and if they give us an opportunity to attack, we will.

Mid-Game: By this point we have a pretty big board and we begin to attack with Ghost-Spider, Gwen Stacy and start dishing out some serious damage, we don’t need to one-shot opponents when we attack, if an opponent has limited creatures and we can deal a lot of damage we will take it, something you will learn with this deck is we always take what our opponents give us.

Late-Game: As an aggressive deck we hope we don’t reach the late-game but sometimes it does happen and we are ready for it, in the late-game cards like Solphim, Mayhem Dominus and Ghost-Spider, Gwen Stacy, being able to do damage when our opponents have huge built up boards is one of the main ways that we end the game. We don’t want to go to the late-game, but are prepared if we have to.

Card Breakdowns

Ramp

We have next to no ramp in this deck, just the facts of being in mono-red, we do have both Sol Ring and Arcane Signet, but they certainly are not consistent to have in your opening hand. Luckily, we have a cheap cost overall with not too many expensive cards, so we don’t have much need to ramp a lot.

Card Draw/Card Advantage

We are quite good at drawing cards and have some great options in the deck with cards like Laughing Mad, Big Score and Unexpected Windfall all being great options, while these do have the downside of discarding a card they are absolutely worth it and discarding a card that isn’t very useful for two new cards is much better. While we don’t have a ton of card draw, we have more than enough to get by and keep our hands full. We are a very aggressive deck; we don’t want the game to last that long anyway.

Removal

Removal is quite tough to come by in mono-red, but we make do with what we can. Cards like Chaos Warp are a great option to get rid of an immediate threat. While it can go bad, we have to hope it doesn’t; it’s one of the few options we have. If we begin to fall behind and our opponents have huge boards and are getting out of hand, we do have Blasphemous Act, which is a great way to reset the game and live to fight another day. While we’d rather use Massive Raid to deal damage to a player if we need to kill a big creature of our opponents that is an immediate threat, it is a great option if we have a full board, which we often do. While we aren’t super strong on removal, we can address some of the biggest threats our opponents bring out.

Protection

Ghost-Spider, Gwen Stacy is a huge target for our opponents removal, them being a huge target does not comes as a huge surprise they are an insane creature that can easily take over the game if left unchecked, but because of that we have to protect them, while there are not a ton of ways to do this we do have some. Untimely Malfunction is a great, cheap option that allows us to redirect a spell and is extremely effective against single-target removal. While they aren’t super helpful in all situations, we do have Bubble Matrix and Dolmen Gate, which allow our creatures to survive combat and damage-based effects can’t kill them. Being in mono-red isn’t amazing for protection, but we take what we can get.

Utility / Support

We have so many awesome creatures in the deck, let’s focus on some of the best. A token-focused deck is not complete without Purphoros, God of the Forge, a creature that is hard to kill and is often not even a creature, and has the added bonus of dishing out damage when we create tokens or have creatures enter, which is extremely often. I’m also a huge fan of Witty Roastmaster and Weftstalker Ardent, just cheap and easy ways to deal out extra damage and make the game even easier when we do drop our commander. Ogre Battledriver is an extremely aggressive card that works well with token producers like Song of Totentanz and Tempt with Vengeance, but allows us to be aggressive every time we create creatures. Ogre Battledriver is amazing even without Ghost-Spider, Gwen Stacy. Many opponents don’t love what we are doing, and the ones playing control decks love countering our stuff. Hexing Squelcher from Lorwyn Eclipsed is an amazing addition for our deck and makes us a lot stronger against control decks. While we almost never attack with it, it is an insane creature for only two mana. We also have General Kreat, the Boltbringer, which can be an insanely consistent source of token production for the deck, and their Impact Tremors effect is a great addition to a card that does way too much relative to its mana cost.

Mana Base

Not too much going on in our mana base, it is a mono-color deck after all, but we have some nice support lands that can be helpful, like Castle Embereth, which can be a nice source of extra damage if we have mana left over. Arena of Glory is a good land for the deck, and if we get to the late-game and Ghost-Spider, Gwen Stacy has been killed a few times using that mana to reduce what you really have to pay is great. A large portion of our deck is Mountains, so you won’t have a ton of games where you interact with your non-basics, but they can be additional sources of utility for the deck.

Win Conditions

We have two main win conditions, primarily IIS combat. We also have Ghost-Spider, Gwen Stacy’s ability, which can absolutely kill opponents if they are low. While we mostly win through combat, both of our win conditions intertwine quite a bit since they go hand in hand. Combining our aggressive deck with Ghost-Spider, Gwen Stacy allows us to end games quite quickly.

Strengths of the Deck

Even if we don’t hit our opponents with our commander, we can still hit for a lot.

We are very hard to go wide against since we are an extremely wide deck.

Weaknesses of the Deck

We are reliant on our commander, and they get targeted a lot. We have very few ways to protect them since we are in mono-red.

It can be slow for us to rebuild if we are board-wiped, like a lot of aggressive decks. If we get full stopped by our opponents, it can be tough for us to rebuild.

Deck Testing/Matchups

I tested this deck against three different decks

Game 1: Vs Meren of Clan Nel Toth. Matchup Record: 4-0

This was a great matchup for our deck, we are just a lot faster than them, they can really struggle with how aggressive we are and by the time they get fully going Ghost-Spider, Gwen Stacys ability can usually finish them off, I just stuck to the gameplan in these games and hit hard and quick.

Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Ogre Battledriver, Tempt with Vengeance and Battle Hymn.

Game 2: Vs Y’shtola, Night’s Blessed. Matchup Record: 1-3

This was not a great matchup for our deck. We have almost no ways to get rid of their commander, and they can whittle us down pretty easily. It can also be very hard to resolve a lot of our best stuff and our commander in this game. This was a tough but winnable one. The one game I did win, I had an extremely aggressive hand and just ran them over.

Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Krenko, Mob Boss, Rampaging Classmate and Untimely Malfunction.

Game 3: Vs Krenko, Mob Boss. Matchup Record: 3-2

After jamming five games, I came to the conclusion that I expected: this matchup is truly a race; whoever can get their quicker will win. We do have the added benefit of not having to deal damage to still hit hard because of Ghost-Spider, Gwen Stacy, but overall this is truly a race.

Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Chaos Warp, Tempt with Vengeance and Pashilik Mons.

Conclusion

Thanks so much for reading to the end! Ghost-Spider, Gwen Stacy is a very underrated commander in my opinion. At the same time, it’s certainly not a commander that’s going to change the world; it’s fun to play, and a bit of a different take on the typical mono-red strategy. Going into combat with forty creatures and dealing with that to an opponent’s face gives you an indescribable feeling.