The Year of Brew

Week 3: Curse Politics with Ardenn and Vial Smasher

24 Jan 2021 - 5 min read

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It’s week three of the Year of Brew! This week we’re trading out green for white for a gimmicky Mardu brew. Who needs to play quality ramp and undercosted beaters when you can play your opponents instead?

Deck 3: Mardu

When Commander Legends was being previewed, I was immediately intrigued by Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist . His ability to move around auras and equipments is exactly the off-the-wall tricky thing I’m looking for. When I recently recalled that there are auras that enchant players, this monstrosity was born.

This deck is all-in on Ardenn’s ability. We have numerous curses, my personal favorite being Overwhelming Splendor , the ultimate “no more fun for you” card. But things like Splendor or Cruel Reality are bound to piss off our opponents, so we have a bunch of Auramancer effects to recur our favorite auras. The rest of the deck only continues to support our enchanting with plenty of Enlightened Tutor effects and cards like Starfield Mystic so we can play as many of them as possible.

We also have other auras such as the Impetus cycle, a la Shiny Impetus , and the Vow cycle, of which my favorite is Vow of Lightning because g@dam$% that art is sick! The inclusion of these solidifies the deck as an inherently political deck. Buffing your opponents’ creatures in exchange for directing their violence elsewhere is classic EDH game theory. And since we can shuffle around our blessings (and curses) every turn, we can always stay on the right side of either the king or the mob (whichever is posing more of a threat).

Given the nature of the deck and how much I wanted to stick on theme, this is not a competitive deck by any means. But that’s the fun of it, using your ability to curse different players who are becoming to powerful and politic around your auras is the right kind of underpowered fun to break up the monotony of standardized deck construction and power!

If you’re wondering why I didn’t mention Vial Smasher the Fierce this whole time, it’s cause he’s really only here for extra chaos and color identity. Not that he cares! As long as he can help cause maximum pain, he’s happy.

Find this decklist as well as the rest of the Year of Brew decklists at the Hexdrinker’s Moxfield page!

More Entries in The Year Of Brew:

• 14 Oct 2021: The Arc of the Return
• 30 May 2021: Week 20: What's a Boardstate?
• 23 May 2021: Week 19: All Permanents, All the Time
• 09 May 2021: Week 17 and 18: New Arc, New Extremes
• 26 Apr 2021: Week 16: Oak Didn't Ask, But I Obliged Anyway

See All...

Commander