Silvar and Trynn, Nightmare of the Free
Build an army? Check! Eat that army? Check! Big adorable Cat Nightmare? Super
Check! In this deck here we want our rebel freedom fighter Trynn, Champion of Freedom to help gather up humans to run an all out battle against our enemies. Then our big cutie Silvar, Devourer of the Free enters the fray and MAY snack on a Human or two. Or 15. But who could stay mad a face like that?
Real Estate!
Trynn is a great motivational speaker but the Humans are really going to need some incentive to risk their lives for their Commander. And what do Humans love? Real Estate! Unfortunately we aren't playing Green so we can't gather a whole bunch of lands in this deck, but we can make a bunch of Mana to trick our Humans into thinking we've got the lands. Don't worry, they probably won't be around long enough to realize they got duped by Trynn. Knight of the White Orchid can find us any of our lands with Plains on them (including our Savai Triome) which is very useful color fixing for our Mardu deck. Smothering Tithe is a great card in general, but it really shows off our love of greed, and how little our opponents want to have their card draw taxed. Our magical artifacts Arcane Signet, Sol Ring, Boros and Orzhov Signets, and Savai Crystal are cheap Mana Rocks to throw down early game. Sword of the Animist is a great sword to equip our humans with. Plus they get that awesome land we promised them earlier! Finally, all great wars require sacrifice so Phyrexian Altar and Ashnod's Altar give us free sacrifice outlets and ways to make extra Mana in a Pinch.
Knowledge is Power!
A good Commander is an informed Commander. An even better Commander can use her people's smarts to her own advantage. Disciple of Bolas lets us gain a little life but most importantly we can draw a whole bunch of cards off it, especially if we have one of our beefed up tokens in play. Magus of the Wheel willingly sacrifices himself for the good of the army letting us refill our hand and keeping the army moving. Mentor of the Meek lets us just draw and draw as we create tokens turn after turn. As a side benefit to sacrificing our creatures, Species Specialist and Smothering Abomination will let us draw a boat load of cards. Faithless Looting and Painful Truths are our two Sorcery card draws, and Skullclamp is an absolute powerhouse. Finally, our Nahiri, the Harbinger will let us get an additional draw every turn.
The Exterminators
Humans are known for their awesome hunting abilities, so lets go hunt down some stuff from our opponents decks. Devout Chaplain, Banisher Priest, and Fiend Hunter are super flavorful removal. Plus if you sacrifice Fiend Hunter before his first ability resolves you get to permanently exile whatever creature you targeted. Dire Tactics, Swords to Plowshares, and Path to Exile are great instant speed removal spells for us, and Chaos Warp can hit any threat we need. Our girl Nihiri is back with her -2 ability to take down a variety of threats. Retribution of the Meek and City Wide Bust are fantastic removal that will often miss most of our creatures while killing what we can't deal with on the opponents field. Always try to find board wipes that leave your side of the board alone. Super spice, Captivating Crew steals creatures sure, but you can sacrifice your opponents creatures to cards like Phyrexian Altar, Disciple of Bolas, or Smothering Abomination so you get a bunch of benefit and kill an opponents creature. Sweet, Sweet treason.
Back from the Grave
Sometimes people die. Sometimes we want to bring them back. Good thing Trynn found a whole crew of reanimators to keep the army full of bodies! Alesha, Who Smiles at Death can bring back basically any of our other Humans in our deck time after time. Gerrard, Weatherlight Hero can bring back our entire team to help recover from a board wipe. Or we can sacrifice a bunch of our creatures for value, then use Gerrard to get them all back. Xathrid Necromancer doesn't quite bring stuff back, but turning them all into zombies isn't too bad of a proposition. Angel of Glory's Rise may end up killing those zombies, but we get our Humans so Trynn is thankful for the help.
Recruits, Assemble!
Now let's round out our army. Frontier Warmonger gives our opponents an incentive to attack any one but us plus it make our creatures harder to block to giving them Menace during combat. Frontline Medic gives all our little Humans Indestructible as long as we are attacking with three or more creatures, something we can easily do in this deck. General's Enforcer is great for protecting some of our more important creatures, as well as Trynn herself. Jirina Kudro has of course found her way into our ranks and her ability is working double time here. She makes a token for each time a Commander was cast from your Command Zone. So that means even if you only cast Silvar and Trynn once each, that's two tokens. Odric, Master Tactician basically says our opponents won't be blocking anything anytime soon. Unless we want to force a block so we can kill a problematic creature our opponents have. Thalia's Lieutenant can pump all our creatures when he enters and as the game goes long we can make him into a massive beater. Increasing Devotion, Outlaw's Merriment, Assemble the Legion, Thraben Doomsayer, and Call the Coppercoats are our big token makers than can help us fill our board with overwhelming numbers.
Oh the Value
Yeah, we're going to sacrifice a lot of tokens to do stuff like make extra Mana, draw extra cards, kill other creatures, but what if we could double that value? Teysa Karlov is an absolute monster in this deck and she just keeps that value train chugging along. Doubling all our death triggers is just so powerful in this deck. Something die to Skullclamp? Draw four cards instead of two. Xathrid Necromancer in play? Make two Zombies this time. Zulaport Cutthroat? Deal twice the damage every time something of yours dies. And why not just double all the tokens we make anyways with Anointed Procession. And how about that Molten Echoes giving us a second copy of many of our creatures as we cast them. Sure they die at the end of the turn but let's be honest we weren't planning on them sticking around long anyway.
Oh, the Humanity!
Ok so we have all these little guys out on the field, but how is our adorable little kitten Silvar going to win? Well, cards like Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite certainly can't hurt. A four power and toughness exchange spread over the power of our army can really make a huge, game ending change. And a card like Shared Animosity is easy to play early, but the later in the game it sticks to the field, the more of a power bump our Humans will get. Elspeth, Knight Errant can not only make use extra tokens with her +1 ability, but her other two minus abilities can help pump our team up to take out the other players. Of course any good Commander always keeps a trick or two up their sleeve. First combo: Angel of Glory's Rise and Fiend Hunter. Step 1.) sacrifice all Humans to Silvar the Hungry Kitty (Including Fiend Hunter). Step 2.) Cast Angel of Glory's Rise to get them all back. Step 3.) Target the Angel with Fiend Hunter. Step 4.) Repeat! This makes Silvar infinitely large with +1 counters. He's also infinitely indestructible..whatever that means. This combo can also kill instantly with Zulaport Cutthroat, Bastion of Remembrance, or Vigilante Justice in play. Combo number 2: Gerrard, Weatherlight Hero and Loyal Retainers. This ones pretty complicated but basically you sacrifice all Humans with Gerrard being last. Then you sacrifice Loyal Retainers to return Gerrard before you have to exile him. You still get your creatures back and you have infinite sacrifice/ enter the battlefield effects (HERE is a way better explanation of this combo). This one kills in much the same way as the Angel combo.
Deck-stras!
Honestly, this deck is a lot more fun and more consistent than I thought it would be. Silvar and Trynn are an awesome partner paring and as a whole the deck doesn't have too many big money cards in it so its relatively cheap to build. That being said we can always throw a little more at it if we want to make it more competitive to catch up to a higher power play group. First will be our tutors. I have Razaketh, the Foulblooded and Nahiri's ultimate planeswalker ability as my only two tutors in this deck, but Vampiric Tutor and Demonic Tutor are easy replacements here. You can even throw in the newly reprinted Grim Tutor for good measure. As for the lands, the optimum land base is going to consist of our colors for Shock Lands, Fetch Lands, and original Dual Lands. But, just adding these lands to the deck easily doubles the price. If you've got'em use them, but this deck works well as is. Cavern of Souls and Aether Vial are both fantastic cards for throwing more of your Humans at your playgroup. Also, try removing a Signet from the deck in exchange for a Black Market. With Silvar eating all your Humans you will make so much Mana after just one turn. Finally, if infinite combos aren't your style, switch out Gerrard or Angel of Glory's Rise for Door of Destiny and Coat of Arms. They will quickly boost your tiny Humans into an unstoppable force!
Creature (27)
Sorcery (5)
Land (36)
Enchantment (8)
Artifact (11)
Instant (9)
Planeswalker (2)
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