- Commander Overview
- Jaws, Relentless Predator
- How to Play the Deck
- Synergy’s in the deck
- Phases of the Game
- Card Breakdowns
- Ramp
- Card Draw/Card Advantage
- Removal
- Protection
- Utility / Support
- Mana Base
- Combos Explained
- The Reaver Cleaver + Aggravated Assault
- Ancient Copper Dragon + Aggravated Assault
- Neheb, the Eternal + Aggravated Assault
- Solphim, Mayhem Dominus + Heartless Hidetsugu
- Nuka-Cola Vending Machine + Academy Manufactor + Krark-Clan Ironworks
- Win Conditions
- Strengths of the Deck
- Weaknesses of the Deck
- Deck Testing/Matchups
- Conclusion
Commander Overview
I’ve waited a long time to do Jaws. While I loved this commander when it came out, the price was a huge barrier for me; I couldn’t afford the Secret Lair when it dropped, and seeing the price of Jaws truly made my heart drop. A friend of mine did get the secret lair, and we built this deck for him! Jaws is a very thematic commander and one that truly interacts well with their character. They also lend themselves to being a very fun mono-red deck, who doesn’t love some good old artifact fun! While our opponents certainly won’t. I originally tried to build this deck as a bracket two deck but found it just bullied a the bracket two tables, so we added some combos and game-changers, and we were off. Jaws is in a support role in this deck, while we always want them on the field, our game plan won’t fail if we can’t get them to resolve. This deck is as mono-red as they come, and if you love having far too many tokens on the board, I’m sure you will love it.
Creature 30
Instant 10
Sorcery 10
Artifact 11
Enchantment 3
Land 35
EDH BRACKET
Beyond the strength of an average precon deck.
- Late Game 2-Card Infinite Combos
- No Mass Land Denial
- Up to 3 Game Changers
- No Chaining Extra Turns
How to Play the Deck
We are a lot like most mono-red decks, even though our overall focus isn’t on being aggressive, we are pretty aggressive overall. This is certainly made easier when our commander is a token/damage machine who also comes with Trample and Haste. But we do spend a lot of the time being aggressive towards our opponents, especially with damage with cards like Reckless Fireweaver. This deck is for someone who has played for quite a while. There are lines for infinite combos, although not a ton, and there are some complicated interactions in the deck and a lot of stuff to remember and keep track of. Because of this, I would never recommend this deck for a new player.
Synergy’s in the deck
Our primary synergy in the deck is around our artifacts, not only is Jaws a huge part of our deck but they are the biggest synergy in our deck, Jaws second ability allows us to deal a ton of damage to our opponents and synergizes extremely well with cards like Reckless Fireweaver and Weftstalker Ardent which can allow us to output even more damage. We also have a lot of synergies with artifacts in our deck, like RMS Titanic, which is a great way to create a ton of treasure tokens and turn this into damage. Our whole deck is synergized around artifacts.
Phases of the Game
Early-Game: Even though we are a mono-red deck we are not as aggressive as a typical mono-red deck, we spend a lot of our early-game establishing our stuff for the late-game, we do sometimes create some treasure tokens in the beginning of the game, i always use these to ramp out Jaws as getting them out and creating more blood tokens and having the ability to ping down our opponents is key.
Mid-Game: The mid-game is where we start to execute the true game plan. We can often play a lot of things across many turns since we have a good amount of treasure production. If we have Jaws out, being able to turn this mana ramp into damage is great for the deck and the overall game plan. Try to trigger Jaws as much as you can at this stage of the game.
Late-Game: By the late-game our opponents should be a lot lower so killing them with Jaw’s ability is pretty easy to do, but if they aren’t in the death range for us we can combo off, late-game combos are great in this deck and pretty easy to pull off, if we cant rely on the core gameplan, using our combos to end the game can be great.
Card Breakdowns
Ramp
While we don’t ramp as much as a lot of decks do, we have some early ways to make treasures that act as ramp and can get us to Jaw’s quicker, which is all we really want. Cards like Pirate's Pillage allow us to get some early card draw and treasure tokens, just perfect for our deck. Cheap creatures like Charming Scoundrel can be a great way to get us closer to Jaws, which, if we can drop in the early game, we can create a ton of blood tokens and hurt our opponents quite a bit when we sacrifice them. While we aren’t the fastest deck, we can at least accelerate getting Jaws out.
Card Draw/Card Advantage
Card draw can be a little tough in mono-red, but we have some cards that synergize extremely well within the game plan with Pirate's Pillage, Big Score, and Unexpected Windfall. The drawback of drawing a card doesn’t matter to us at all since we get decently costed card draw and treasure tokens, a true best of both worlds for this deck, especially if we have Jaws out. While not always an option, the Blood tokens that Jaws creates allow us to get a steady stream of draw and discard, which can be great if we are trying to cycle out our hand while triggering Jaws at the same time. While we don’t have a ton of card draw in the deck, we have more than enough to get by.
Removal
Removal is a weak aspect of our deck; we aren’t a deck that can pack a ton of removal in it. We are very selfish in that way. Hell to Pay can be a great source of removal if we need it, but I do tend to use it on the smallest creature, so I can maximize my treasure and trigger Jaws a lot. In a pinch, we can use it to deal with a problematic creature/commander. We of course have Chaos Warp, but it can be inconsistent if we get it, and random if the opponent we targeted whiffs on the reveal, a lot of unpredictability with it. We also have some board wipes in Blasphemous Act and Reckless Endeavor. Reckless Endeavor is a weird card for the deck; we care a lot less about the damage and care much more about the treasures, but when we cast this card, we are ok with any result.
Protection
Outside of a couple of cards, this is by far the weakest aspect of our deck. Deflecting Swat is the best option we have in the deck, and being able to redirect removal is awesome for the deck and can help us keep our momentum, especially if that removal spell is targeting Jaws. Beyond that, we don’t have a lot of protection in the deck; stuff sometimes dies, and since we are in mono-red, we have to deal with that.
Utility / Support
Let’s go over some of my favorite cards in the deck! Academy Manufactor is not only a combo piece in this deck, but since we create so many treasures, we can trigger this a ton, and every time we sacrifice one, we ping our opponents. Some insane turns can happen with this card. Another card that works great with Manufactor is Depthshaker Titan. While it is a late-game card, if we have enough noncreature artifacts hanging around, this beatdown game plan can end games if opponents are unprepared for our attack. Xorn is another card that is truly an auto-include for this deck, being able to increase our treasure protection by double is truly insane and allows us to have a ton of mana and damage our opponents a lot.
Mana Base
Dealing damage with Jaws is very important to us, so cards like Daily Bugle Building, which make Jaws harder to block for very little cost, are perfect for our deck, especially against strategies like Voltron, which often only have one creature on the field. The same is true for Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep, just another easy-to-use land that makes Jaws a lot less blockable, while they can still block a first strike creature, it does disincentivize them quite a bit. While we don’t have a ton of interesting non-basics, I’m a big fan of this landbase.
Combos Explained
The Reaver Cleaver + Aggravated Assault
Combo Sequence-An opponent is unable to block the creature with The Reaver Cleaver attached.
Steps
Results
- Infinite colored mana.
- Infinite combat damage.
- Infinite combat phases.
- Infinite mana creatures you control can produce.
- Infinite Treasure tokens.
- Infinite untap of creatures you control.
Ancient Copper Dragon + Aggravated Assault
Combo SequenceResults
- Nearinfinite colored mana.
- Nearinfinite combat damage.
- Nearinfinite Treasure tokens.
- Nearinfinite combat phases.
- Nearinfinite untap of creatures you control.
- Nearinfinite mana creatures you control can produce.
Neheb, the Eternal + Aggravated Assault
Combo SequenceSteps
Results
- Infinite combat phases.
- Infinite red mana.
- Infinite mana creatures you control can produce.
- Infinite untap of creatures you control.
Solphim, Mayhem Dominus + Heartless Hidetsugu
Combo SequenceResults
- Each opponent loses the game.
- Nearinfinite damage to all players.
Nuka-Cola Vending Machine + Academy Manufactor + Krark-Clan Ironworks
Combo SequenceResults
- Infinite colorless mana.
- Infinite tapped Treasure tokens.
- Infinite tapped Food tokens.
- Infinite tapped Clue tokens.
- Infinite card draw.
- Infinite draw triggers.
Win Conditions
We have two main win conditions in the deck. If the game goes long enough, we can finish off our opponents through combat, but overall, this method of victory is pretty rare. Jaws damage is the primary way that we close out games and by far the easier method.
Strengths of the Deck
When Jaws is on the field, we are great at passively doing damage and whittling down our opponents.
Since we have a heavy emphasis on treasure tokens, we never really run out of mana, even if we have a limited number of lands on the field.
Weaknesses of the Deck
Without Jaws on the field, we can’t do a lot of damage. Sadly, we don’t have a lot of protection either. Striking early is key in this case.
Removal heavy decks beat us up, especially when we can never resolve or keep Jaws.
Deck Testing/Matchups
I tested this deck against three different decks
Game 1: Vs Magda, Brazen Outlaw. Matchup Record: 3-0
Both Jaws and Magda have a similar gameplan and a lot of similar cards, this matchup is a lot about speed but luckily for us we have a lot more passive damage than Magda does, we don’t really care about what they are doing, the only card that scares us in this matchup is Hellkite Tyrant, that can be very bad for us. Overall just stick to the gameplan and damage them out.
Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Two-Handed Axe, Neheb, the Eternal and Chaos Warp.
Game 2: Vs Katara, Waterbending Master. Matchup Record: 1-3
A truly terrible matchup for our deck, Katara loves messing with us on our turn and countering a ton of our stuff. This is the exact opposite of what we want, and because of that, we struggle tremendously in this matchup. The only game I did manage to win was in a game where they stumbled and didn’t have a lot of countermagic. If they stumble, we can run them over, but they are pretty consistent overall.
Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Krark-Clan Shaman, Solphim, Mayhem Dominus and Seize the Spotlight.
Game 3: Vs Avalanche of Sector 7. Matchup Record: 3-2
I picked this matchup purposefully, they are truly the exact opposite of what we are trying to do, luckily we do have a bit of an edge since we can lower our artifact count easily since most of the ones we create are treasures and are not around forever, but if we do have a lot of artifacts hanging around it can be rough. Avalanche plays a strictly “hate” style deck, which can be quite tough for us.
Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Reckless Fireweaver, Temur Battle Rage and Aggravated Assault.
Conclusion
Thanks so much for reading to the end! I hope you all enjoyed. Jaws is a very fun commander. Do I think it’s worth the current price tag? Absolutely not, but hopefully an in-universe reprint comes soon, and we can make this card considerably more accessible for everyone. Until then, this is a fun mono-red deck that focuses on treasures and other token artifacts, which is unique and fun to play with.
