Magic: The Gathering - Odric, Lunarch Marshal Commander Deck Guide

Innistrad is home to vampires, werewolves, demons, and countless other creatures of the night. Humans have held out in Magic: The Gathering's gothic horror plane, thanks to the efforts of Cathars like Sir Odric, the church commander with blood as sacred as holy water.

Magic: The Gathering - Templar Knights Commander Deck Guide

Assassin's Creed's Templar Order has made a frightfully powerful deck for Magic: The Gathering's Commander format.

Like any great leader, Odric, Lunarch Marshal doesn't try to win the battle all by himself. Instead, he empowers all of his subordinates, giving them the tools that they need to win the day. This isn't a Voltron commander, he's a General who finds the most success leading a diverse army.

Sample Decklist

Commander

Odric, Lunarch Marshal

Creatures (24)

Aerial Responder

Akroma, Angel of Wrath

Akroma, Vision of Ixidor

Angelic Overseer

Bastion Protector

Battlefield Raptor

Brightblade Stoat

Crystalline Giant

Danitha Capashen, Paragon

Fencing Ace

Healer's Hawk

Knight of the White Orchid

Lone Rider

Loyal Warhound

Odric, Master Tactician

Oketra the True

Ruin-Lurker Bat

Segovian Angel

Shrike Force

Sire of Seven Deaths

Speaker of the Heavens

Sun Titan

Wojek Investigator

Zetalpa, Primal Dawn

Sorceries (7)

Austere Command

Emeria's Call // Emeria, Shattered Skyclave

Gather the Townsfolk

Mass Calcify

Ondu Inversion // Ondu Skyruins

Ravnica at War

Wrath of God

Instants (10)

Dawn's Truce

Disenchant

Flawless Maneuver

Generous Gift

Graceful Reprieve

Path to Exile

Raise the Alarm

Reprieve

Sejiri Shelter // Sejiri Glacier

Swords to Plowshares

Artifacts (19)

Arcane Signet

Basilisk Collar

Chariot of Victory

Endless Atlas

Extraplanar Lens

Haunted Cloak

Kaldra Compleat

Lightning Greaves

Loxodon Warhammer

Marble Diamond

Mind Stone

Mithril Coat

Oketra's Monument

Pearl Medallion

Sol Ring

Swiftfoot Boots

Sword of the Animist

Sword of Vengeance

Throne of Eldraine

Enchantments (5)

Cathar's Crusade

Chivalric Alliance

Land Tax

Smothering Tithe

Twinblade Blessing

Lands (34)

Castle Ardenvale

Demolition Field

Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire

Emeria, the Sky Ruin

Idyllic Grange

Minas Tirith

Myriad Landscape

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

Plains (23)

Secluded Steppe

War Room

Windbrisk Heights

The Commander

Odric, Lunarch Marshal is the second version of Odric printed, after Odric, Master Tactician, which is included in the 99. While the previous version allowed you to control the battlefield (like a true master tactician), Lunarch Marshal trains your rag-tag army into a lethal fighting force.

Odric, Lunarch Marshal is a 3/3 legendary Human Soldier that costs three generic and one white mana. He isn't very tough on his own, but whenever you control a creature with one of the keywords he lists, he passes that keyword on to every other creature you control. He doesn't pass on all keyword abilities, but he does care about many of the most important ones, like trample, deathtouch, flying, lifelink, and indestructible. The full list he can share is:

• deathtouch
• double strike
• first strike
• flying
• haste
• hexproof
• indestructible
• lifelink
• menace
• reach
• skulk
• trample
• vigilance

Odric's ability to spread keyword abilities around means that he works best at the head of a diverse stack of creatures with a bunch of different abilities, so that they can all benefit. A 1/1 Angel with flying and first strike for one white mana is okay, but giving all of your creatures both abilities for one mana is amazing, and only gets better as you play more creatures.

How To Build The Deck

Odric, Lunarch Marshal does a great job of illustrating the importance of diversity: if all of your creatures have the same one or two abilities, he doesn't do anything, and there's no synergy. But when they all bring something different to the table, they can all shine!

So, while it can be tempting to pick one or two abilities to focus on, you'll get the most bang for your buck by collecting a bunch of useful keyword abilities. This can come from a handful of big creatures with many keyword abilities, like Akroma, Angel of Wrath, or from lots of small, inexpensive creatures with a couple of them, like Battlefield Raptor.

With the commander in play, the deck runs almost like a Sliver deck, where every creature makes every other creature a bigger threat. But where Slivers are hated by many players, mono-white might fly under the radar, giving you a chance to set up. While you have the potential to stack up a lot of keyword abilities, some are superior. A creature can have both double strike and first strike, but doesn't gain any benefit from that, so double strike is superior. When in doubt, focus on the more valuable abilities.

Finally, it's important to note that Odric only spreads abilities around at the beginning of combat. If an opponent uses Wrath of God during their first main phase, all of your creatures are gone. So you'll want a handful of ways to protect your creatures, and to deal with your opponents safely.

Magic: The Gathering - Edgar Markov Commander Deck Guide

Here's how to play the Edgar Markov Commander Deck In Magic: The Gathering!

Ramp

White doesn't have many ways to get ahead of its opponents in mana, but it has several ways to keep up, even when the green players start to ramp. Land Tax allows you to dig for three basic lands to add to your hand each upkeep that an opponent has more lands than you. This all but guarantees that you won't miss a land drop, thins your deck and gives you fuel for Chivalric Alliance's discard effect.

Knight of the White Orchid and Loyal Warhound both allow you to search for a basic Plains when they enter and put it directly into play tapped. This only happens if an opponent controls more lands than you, so make sure you play them before you play your land for the turn, or wait until an opponent gets ahead.

If you attach the Sword of the Animist to any creature and then attack, you get to search for a basic land and put it into play. This will put you ahead of other players who aren't ramping but may require you to attack into an unsafe field in order to get a basic Plains.

Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus has the same effect, but higher casting and equip costs. On the bright side, it does create a 0/0 Germ token to attach itself to. We chose Sword of the Animist to keep the mana curve tight, but you can use either or both.

Extraplanar Lens will initially set you back one land, which isn't a problem with the amount of land catchup options in the deck. You'll need to exile a Plains when you cast it, but afterward, all of your Plains will produce double mana. This benefit is shared with everyone else playing Plains at your table, so it's a good card to drop if your friends frequently play mono-white.

Extraplanar Lens checks for the exiled card's name, so you can use Snow-Covered Plains instead of normal ones to prevent your opponents from getting any benefit out of it.

Since most of these options don't get you ahead on the mana race, why not reduce your mana curve instead? Almost every spell in the deck is white, so Pearl Medallion will do a lot of work, reducing the cost of all those white spells by one colorless mana. And since it doesn't tap, in many ways it's more effective than mana rocks like Mind Stone.

Oketra's Monument has a similar effect but only applies to white creatures. Still, that makes up nearly a quarter of the deck. It also generates extra creature tokens, giving you a 1/1 Warrior token with vigilance every time you cast a creature spell.

Draw

Much like ramp, white doesn't have a lot of great ways to draw cards. But it does have a few ways to keep up with other decks, and a couple of payoffs for balancing out your lands. Wojek Investigator is a perfect fit for Odric, Lunarch Marshal because it has two of the keyword abilities that Odric cares about, as well as a draw engine. During each of your upkeeps Wojek Investigator generates Clue tokens, which you can sacrifice afterward to draw a card.

To keep getting more clues, it's important to keep an eye on your opponents. You can crack clues before your turn starts until you have one less card than your next lowest opponent, and then get three more Clues. If you draw too many cards, you won't get any fresh Clue tokens.

You can pay two mana and tap Endless Atlas, but only if you have at least three lands with the same name. This works really well in a single-color deck, where you can stack up a handful of matching basic lands pretty easily. Use your balance ramp to get a few Plains into play, then start drawing.

This deck doesn't have any combos or weird win conditions. Instead, it relies on good old-fashioned combat damage. Since you'll want to attack regularly with your vigilant creatures, Chivalric Alliance keeps adding cards to your hand and gives you a discard outlet if you get more lands from Land Tax than you can use.

Minas Tirith has a similar payoff, but you need to pay for it: in addition to making white mana, this legendary land can be tapped to draw a card, but only if you pay two mana and attack with at least two creatures that turn.

War Room and Throne of Eldraine are easy additions to most mono-colored decks. For three generic mana and one life, you can tap War Room to draw a card. The life cost goes up the more colors your commander has in their identity, but since this version of Odric is mono-white, you've only got to pay one life.

Throne of Eldraine does double duty as a mana rock to cast white spells and as a draw enabler. For three white mana, you get two cards, which is the best deal you'll find in mono-white.

Words Of Power

Odric, Lunarch Marshal shares the love whenever a creature has any of his listed keyword abilities. While many creatures have one or two, there are also a handful that have a bunch of them and can power up your whole battlefield immediately. Akroma, Angel of Wrath was an early "keyword soup" creature. With flying, first strike, trample, haste, and vigilance, she has almost half of the keyword abilities that Odric, Lunarch Marshal can share, plus protection from red and black.

Akroma, Vision of Ixidor loses haste but gains an additional ability to give creatures +1/+1 for each keyword they have on her own list. Ten of those keywords overlap with Odric's list, and she'll provide four herself, giving all of your creatures at least +4/+4 each combat phase.

Sire of Seven Deaths has an even bigger list of words to distribute, with six of its keywords matching Odric's list, it empowers your army like only an Eldrazi can. It doesn't have protection, but your opponents need to pay seven life to target it with pretty much anything, which gives it some built-in protection.

Crystalline Giant starts off with nothing, but for each combat that you have it in play, it gains a new counter from a list of ten, nine of which are keyword ability counters and eight of which are on Odric's list. At three mana, you'll be able to play this creature before your commander and have up to two random abilities for your creatures by the time Odric comes into play.

Look for smaller creatures with multiple keyword abilities, like Rune-Lurker Bat. You can have several in play before you cast Odric, Lunarch Marshal.

Clean Slate

One of the keyword abilities that Odric cares about is indestructible, and there are several options in the deck to provide that ability to one creature. Once one creature has it, they'll all get it in each combat. And that means that you can use a variety of boardwipes safely!

Ondu Inversion destroys all nonland permanents, so it's a good way to deal with artifact and enchantress decks. While it also destroys all of your stuff, if you wait until your second main phase and can give all of your creatures indestructible with Odric and Mithril Coat or something, you'll have a full field to play with next turn.

Mass Calcify doesn't destroy most of your creatures, it can still wipe out a lot of your opponent's creatures. This spell destroys all nonwhite creatures, so it can affect your Sire of Seven Deaths and Crystalline Giant, and won't hurt your opponents' white creatures, including those that are multicolored.

Ravnica at War, on the other hand, hits all multicolored permanents. This is considerably less useful than any of the other boardwipes, but it won't destroy any of your creatures, and it will hit the most popular commanders.

Magic: The Gathering - Voja, Jaws Of The Conclave Commander Deck Guide

With Magic: The Gathering's Voja, Jaws of the Conclave, you can guide your Elves with one very angry Wolf as your commander.