MTG Salvation

There's a store nearby that hosts 1v1 commander tourneys every other week.

"Ok," I said, "time to put together something totally degenerate I copied off the internet and win some prizes."

But it turns out, the prizes structure is completely flat and people basically just play regular multiplayer lists, except that they're following the 1v1 banlist. Power level is mostly 75% by the looks of things.

No, I don't know what the point of all this is, but I figure I should at least put something together to try it once.

BUT I have a fragile ego and I want to assert some dominance, without LOOKING like I'm trying to assert dominance. So whatever the top-tier of 1v1 is out, since I'll look like a tryhard. And silly bad nonsense is also out, because I still gotta WIN, dammit. Even when there's nothing on the line.

So I'm thinking - something kind of silly, but still powerful. Probably not linear combo, and probably not all-in aggro, since those tend to draw sighs.

Current best idea I've had is zur rebels with arcane adaptation, which someone on here had a list for a while ago (would need to be adapted to 1v1 banlist ofc and I'll make some of my own tweaks). Not sure if it's competitive enough, though. Anyone got something better?

I'd probably try Geist of Saint Traft tempo or maybe Zacama, Primal Calamity dinosaurs?

Zur Rebels is very fun and VERY strong with timestream navigator. Know from experience. Fast/good, if you can swing with Zur twice and have a rebel in hand you basically win.

EDIT: there are also some cards that destroy as silver bullets with Zur that makes it a bit better: stony silence, contamination, and with rebels searching for hushwing gryff or Mistcaller can be powerful. It's a deck that supports knowing it really well and will have very rewarding wins, IMO.

I did the Zur Rebels deck. It is fun, but it will challenge you to really remember all the cards in the deck and when and what you can use at any given time, so it is challenging, which could be perfect to keep your interest.

Zur and Rebels (Lin Sivvi's Crew) for Toolbox Control

[EDIT]
To adapt for 1vs1 you could take out things like Ghostly Prison, Propaganda, and even the Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and Godhead of Awe as those are really for stopping multiplayer big boards.
In 1vs1 you can afford to control the board more with the regular stuff.

Just play some defense cards to protect Zur when first cast, so Spell Pierce, Flusterstorm, Misdirection, Mizzium Skin.

Now that I've thought about it a bit, I'd also replace some of the more defensive cards, as in multiplayer it's often about being the archenemy needing to defend against 3 people rather than one.
So remove Grasp of Fate, Bound in Silence, Solemnity, Phyrexian Unlife.

Maybe play some more hate-bears in Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Thalia, Heretic Cathar, Lavinia, Azorius Renegade.
Play Delay as the other spell.


....
Otherwise, I do have a competitive Zur reanimation deck, that is spikey, but at least it's not the typical Zur Stax, Zur Doomsday, Zur Shimmer Myr, that you typically see, so maybe won't get slammed for being a net deck...

So I made it about 75% of the way through building zur rebels...and then realized zur is banned as a commander in 1v1.

So, y'know. It's 3 AM and the tournament starts in 8 hours. balls.

Anafenza exile tribal. Inadvertly hoses a lot of decks. Plus fun to play.

Brian Weissman has been playing a 1v1 Yuriko list on his YouTube channel lately and it does obscene things. It's not a particularly close game, but this video shows what it can do.