Jin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima Voltron

Commander Overview

Jin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima is a very cool commander, I wish they didn’t come out in a secret lair so they weren’t so expensive but they are an amazing Voltron commander, they synergize extremely well with Voltron because we can give a lone attacking creature either double strike or unblockable which removes one of the biggest problems with a lot of Voltron strategies since we have a source of double strike and unblockable in the command zone. Jin Sakai has a very interesting role in this deck. They can be the primary Voltron creature and be a support piece, whether we buff them up huge and hit our opponents with commander damage, or we use them in a support role. They are an amazing asset for our deck. Jin-Sakai is a great commander for this deck; no matter what way we use them, they are a true powerhouse.

How to Play the Deck

Playing this deck is just as easy as playing any Voltron deck, as long as you are good with equipping and buffing up our commander / Voltron creatures and turning them sideways, then you know how to play it! This deck does require some more advanced decision-making, so I wouldn’t recommend it for a super novice, but overall, it’s not a hard deck to play.

Synergy’s in the deck

Our whole deck is synergized around Voltron attributes and Jin Sakai; both of them are what we build the entire deck around. Cards like Sigarda’s Aid or Forge Anew allow us to get some easy and cheap equips and synergize with the whole game plan easily, as they accelerate us quite quickly. Since our commander wants us to attack alone, we have cards like Idolized, which can allow us to output a ton of damage. Our whole deck is synergized around Voltron and Jin Sakai.

Phases of the Game

Early-Game: Early-game is all about establishing our cheap equipment on the field and maybe some good support creatures. We have quite a few cheap pieces of equipment like Adaptive Omnitool or Conqueror’s Flail. Some good support creatures for the early game are Baleful Strix and Codsworth, Handy Helper. There isn’t a ton we have to do in the early game, but getting some setup stuff out for when we get out Jin-Sakai is extremely helpful.

Mid-Game: Once we spend a few turns establishing our Voltron package, as well as support creatures, we can cast Jin-Sakai. They are an extremely powerful asset for our deck. If we have a creature, we can make it unblockable, and we can do that as soon as Jin-Sakai comes out. Beyond that, in the mid-game, we stick to our core game plan and swing as hard as we can. I always like to leave a little mana up so we can protect Jin-Sakai and our Voltron creatures, but other than that, we don’t do a ton besides attack.

Late-Game: We can be quite big quite quickly, so we don’t always arrive at the late-game, but the core gameplan doesn’t change at all. We swing as much as we can, and with Jin-Sakai’s ability, we ensure we can hit, keep on protecting our stuff, and hitting our opponents hard, and you should be just fine!

Card Breakdowns

Ramp

Being in Esper does not allow us to be a very ramp heavy deck, we have a couple sources of ramp that help with the overall gameplan but we certainly wont be casting huge things in the early-game. Cards like Codsworth, Handy Helper give us mana towards our equipment and help to protect Jin-Sakai which is truly the best of both worlds on a card that only costs three mana. We do have both Arcane Signet and Sol Ring which are cheap and easy ramp pieces to help us speed out our equipment but these certainly aren’t consistent or reliable, great if we have them but the overall gameplan doesn’t change if we don’t. While we aren’t a ramp deck we can still be quite quick.

Card Draw/Card Advantage

We aren’t super heavy on card draw, but we do have some cards that interact with our game plan very well and allow us to draw a ton of cards. One of the best sources of this is Enduring Curiosity, which interacts perfectly with Jin-Sakai and provides an extremely consistent source of card draw. Enduring Curiosity is also quite hard to kill, since when it dies, it gets returned as an enchantment, making it even more consistent. Puresteel Paladin is another extremely consistent source of card draw for the deck, and more importantly, its metalcraft can very easily give us free equips, which is extremely strong and allows us to end the game quickly. Lastly, I want to highlight Black Market Connections, which is not only a great support piece but also a card draw mode that can be great for us too. While we aren’t super heavy on individual sources of card draw, we have many sources of consistent card draw.

Removal

Since we are in Esper, removal is one of our strong suits, while we certainly aren’t a control deck, we don’t want our opponents to do crazy things, especially because we are trying to do crazy things! Because of that, we have quite a few ways to stop opponents who are getting out of hand with cards like Anguished Unmaking, Path to Exile, and Pongify, which are all cheap sources of removal and can stop our opponents from playing out huge problematic creatures or commanders. Cards like Void Rend are also really strong because they can’t be countered, and against other removal-heavy or protection-heavy decks, they can come in handy. While we certainly aren’t a control deck, we can protect the table from the biggest threats that get dropped.

Protection

Voltron is an archetype where it is extremely clear what the problem is on our board; because of this, we need to be ready for all the removal our opponents throw at us.

In my experience, it’s quite a lot. Because of that we have extremely cheap ways to protect our creatures and Jin-Sakai with cards like Dispel,Turn Aside and Swan Song having one mana ways to protect our commander or voltron creatures allows us to have a good turn still and not have to hold back a ton of mana to stop our opponents from killing our board. We are good at protection with spells, and our protection package is aided by cards like Robe of Stars, which I typically put on Jin-Sakai to protect them for cheap. We have a great protection package in this deck and can fight through our opponents’ removal easily.

Utility / Support

Let’s focus on our alternate Voltron creatures. If we don’t have any of our protection and can’t get Jin-Sakai to stick on the board, we still have many ways to end the game, and so many awesome options. One of my favorites is Helitrooper. Not only can it make another of our Voltron creatures fly temporarily, but it also has a discount on all of the stuff we equip to Helitrooper. Because of this, we can buff them up a ton and hit quite hard. Squall, SeeD Mercenary is another great option; it has some of the same abilities as Jin-Sakai and can be a nice source of recursion for our deck, especially good if some of our artifacts get targeted. Cloud, Midgar Mercenary is another great option, being able to get some of our on-hit equipment triggers twice is extremely strong and can be game-changing.

Now let’s switch gears and discuss our Voltron equipment/auras. We have some amazing options in the deck. If all of our stuff gets destroyed and we are left with next to nothing, we can recover very easily with Mantle of the Ancients, which is a reset button for only five mana. I’m also a huge fan of Adaptive Omnitool and Golem-Skin Gauntlets, which are both great ways to buff up our Voltron creatures and do a ton of damage. The same is true for All that Glitters, another great, cheap option to buff up our Voltron creature. One of the best auras we have in the deck is Idolized. It synergizes extremely well with our commander, and the buff can be insane. I have one-shot many opponents with this card. Another great way to one-shot our opponents is Inquisitor’s Flail since we are so aggressive, the downside of this equipment never really happens, and we get to deal double damage, which, when we combine it with some of our other buffs, can allow us to one-shot opponents easily.

Mana Base

We have a strong and effective mana base, with all of the fetches, shocks, bond lands, and triomes. We can always get our colors established, and I have never had trouble getting out Jin-Sakai on curve. Beyond that, we have all of the on-color artifact lands in Vault of Whispers, Ancient Den, and Seat of the Synod while these are just lands for a lot of the game they can help a lot with cards like Puresteel Paladin and All that Glitters. Our manabase is effective for the deck and includes some great support elements.

Win Conditions

Our only win condition is combat; whether we use Jin-Sakai or one of our Voltron creatures, we end the game through combat.

Strengths of the Deck

Jin-Sakai is one of the best cards in the deck, and we have constant access to them, giving our solo creature either double strike or unblockable is insanely strong.

We are very good at one-shotting our opponents. There are many situations when we can end an opponent quickly.

Weaknesses of the Deck

Weak to artifact hate, we do have Mantle of the Ancients as a piece of recursion, but we don’t have consistent recursion.

Aggressive decks can beat us up a lot in the early game because we don’t have a ton of creatures.

Deck Testing/Matchups

I tested this deck against three different decks

Game 1: Vs Rafiq of the Many. Matchup Record: 3-0

I had no trouble with this matchup. Jin-Sakai’s abilities are just straight-up better than Rafiq’s. This matchup is a bit of a race because it’s all about who is quicker, but with our commander and the fact that they are almost never able to block, it allows us to be very strong in this matchup and have no trouble.

Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Mantle of the Ancients, Turn Aside and Buster Sword.

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

This is another matchup that is just a race for the deck. Killing Krenko is extremely important, and if we are able to do it, we can easily win, but if they get the upper hand and are able to keep their commander, it can be rough for us. Overall, this is a matchup where I would ensure I have some removal ready for Krenko.

Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Void Rend, Anguished Unmaking and Baleful Strix.

Game 3: Vs Hashaton, Scarab’s Fist Matchup Record: 3-1

This was a good matchup for our deck. They are able to get pretty scary if we let Hashaton stick around, but other than that, there isn’t a ton that they can do against us. Just follow the core gameplan and hit them hard.

Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
All that Glitters, Idolized and Puresteel Paladin.

Conclusion

Thanks so much for reading to the end! I hope you all enjoyed. This is an extremely expensive deck, which is not helped by the fact that our commander is from a secret lair. Overall, Voltron is a bit pricey. Price aside, this is an amazingly strong deck and can dominate games easily. Jin-Sakai is the real deal, and I really hope we can get an in-universe version soon so the price can come down and everyone can access it.