“You’re out of your league, pal!“
Art:Gunner Conscript
by Miguel Mercado
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
The Gunners have stopped terrorizing the wasteland for now and are here to terrorize a Pauper EDH table near you. Gunner Conscript is a very strong commander; coming down on turn two and with just a few turns on the field is able to present a ton of damage to our opponents and also allows us to easily one-shot commander damage kill an opponent. The beauty of Gunner Conscript is that we are able to get buffs from both equipment and auras, which allows us to snowball very quickly. This deck is a blast to pilot and truly feels like a Mono-green deck, complete with the big stompy action and a ton of ways to fight opponents’ creatures. Without further adieu, let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Gunner Conscript Voltron!
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Why Gunner Conscript?
Gunner Conscript is a huge part of our deck and is arguably the most important card in our deck; we typically cast Gunner Conscript as soon as we can on turn two and begin to buff them up as soon as we possibly can. Gunner Conscript certainly draws a lot of removal from our opponents because they are such a big part of our deck, but we have some ways to protect them, like Tamiyo's Safekeeping
, which is a great way to fight through removal. Gunner Conscript is a huge part of our deck and one of the most important cards in the deck. The Junk tokens typically don’t matter an absolute ton because we would rather have
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:
To start off, we have some additional Voltron creatures like Aura Gnarlid
, Gladecover Scout
, and Myr Adapter
, which are all great additional Voltron options if Gunner Conscript keeps getting killed. Bramble Elemental
is a little slow because it costs five mana, but if we get it out, we can always use extra auras to make additional blockers and buff up the elemental. Leafcrown Dryad
or Nyxborn Wolf
are two pretty strong Bestow creatures that we can use as Aura’s or creatures depending on the situation, while these are a little more expensive than most auras if they fall off we do get them back as creatures which can be quite nice. Entourage of Trest
is a pretty strong blocker for the deck and gives us the Monarch which is a great source of supplemental card draw. I love Taunting Elf
within the deck, which allows us to decoy our attack and hit hard with Gunner Conscript, All the while, all of their creatures have to block our elf.
Instants:
Moment's Peace
and Tangle
are two great ways to prevent combat damage, we are able to protect ourselves against heavy creature-based strategies as well as aggressive strategies which can deal a ton of damage to us since we don’t have a ton of blockers within the deck. Bite Down
and Prizefight
are the closest things we have to single-target removal in the deck and are great ways to take out opponents threatening creatures/commanders. Reclaim
is a great way to recur any of our permanents or anything that gets sent to the graveyard.
Sorceries:
Ruthless Predation
and Prey Upon
are two strong additional ways to fight creatures and act as removal within the deck. Atraxa's Fall
is a strong piece of removal for the deck and can take out a variety of things, most importantly, a creature with flying, which green historically has trouble stopping. Thrive
is a great mid-late game mana sink and can also be a great way to get one of our other Voltron creatures “up-to-speed,” if you will.
Artifacts:
We have quite a few pieces of equipment that help an absolute ton with buffing up Gunner Conscript; I especially like True-Faith Censer
and Bladed Bracers
, which are pretty cheap and give us additional benefits since our commander is a human. We also have some other pretty strong equipment like Bramble Armor
, Rosethorn Halberd
, and Utility Knife
, which are all pretty cheap and provide decent buffs, the big benefit comes from them auto-equipping when they ETB, worth noting that they do have the downside of having high equip costs if the creature they are equipped to is killed. Spare Supplies
is one of the best sources of supplemental card draw within the deck and is extremely strong. Vorrac Battlehorns
and Haunted Cloak
are some pretty handy pieces of equipment because these two turn Gunner Conscripts into a strong piece of keyword soup and make them quite evasive and even stronger.
Enchantments:
Ancestral Mask
is arguably one of the best cards in our deck, and against other enchantment-based decks, it can get out of hand very quickly, and this is one of the best ways to one-shot an opponent with a commander damage kill. I also love Carapace
, which provides a defensive buff for our commander and has a free way to regenerate them, which is a great way to fight through single-target removal. The same is true for Savage Silhouette
, which actually provides a power and toughness buff and has regeneration at a little bit higher of a cost, but this effect is still extremely strong because of how much removal our commander draws. Snake Umbra
is one of my favorite auras in the deck because it is also a strong source of supplemental card draw and has totem armor, which is a great additional piece of protection for our enchantments. Equestrian Skill
is a little expensive, but we do get the buff for our commander being a human, so plus three is quite nice for our commander. Airtight Alibi
is one of the new MKM cards, which is awesome; it has flash and gives us hexproof for a turn, which allows us to play through removal and gives a buff as well, a true win-win situation for the deck.
Land Base:
Two of the most important lands in our deck are Cave of Temptation
and Captivating Cave
, which are great lands, and when we don’t need their mana anymore, we can pay the cost and buff up our commander which is a great way to increase our damage output overall. We also have Slippery Karst
, Tranquil Thicket
, and The Hunter Maze
, which are all strong sources of supplemental card draw for the deck, which is sorely needed without the deck. I like this landbase a lot and find that thirty-five is the perfect number for the deck, we typically don’t get too much or too little, and I have found this landbase to be quite strong.
Strengths of the Deck:
- We can easily one-shot an opponent through commander damage; this can happen as early as the fourth or fifth turn.
- We have a couple of enchantments with Totem Armor, which can help protect us against enchantment removal.
- We have a couple of ways to prevent combat damage, which can be great because we have a low overall creature count, and being able to stop aggressive strategies even once or twice can be a great way to stop opponents.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- General weaknesses of being in Mono-Green: we have very little single-target removal or ways to deal with opponents’ creatures outside of fighting.
- Weak to commander hate, we have a couple ways to protect them and some alternate creatures but we do rely heavily on our commander.
- We don’t have a lot of supplemental card draw, often leaving our hand empty.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
There are no infinite combos or loops in the deck. We win the game through combat; this is, of course, made a lot easier through our commander, who gets buffed for every piece of equipment and aura attached to them, and in this deck, there is an absolute ton for them. We also have some alternate voltron creatures like Aura Gnarlid, Gladecover Scout, and Myr Adapter, who are all great options if Gunner conscript keeps dying to removal. Being able to Voltron up with a ton of different creatures gives us a ton of flexibility within the deck.
Conclusion:
Gunner Conscript is a very good Voltron commander, and I think that this card will take over the format within the Voltron archetype. Getting buffed up from equipment/auras on Gunner Conscript is just extremely strong. I have been having a blast with this one, and this deck is as mono-green as it comes. I hope you all enjoyed this one as much as I did. Thanks for reading to the end and for all of your support!