MTG Salvation

For those of you who don't know me, I am a huge Marvel comic book nerd, and I love me some Thor Odinson. I confided in a friend that I was running low on EDH inspiration, and that I needed something new and fresh to reinvigorate my love of the format. In response to this, my friend gave me a list of deck building challenges, and I chose the one that sang to me the most: "Show me what Marvel's Thor would look like in EDH."

Before you read any further, I want you to know that this deck will be based on that theme, and while cards like DEN+Palinchron work great with other cards in this deck, namely Tooth and Nail, without being able to tie cards back to Thor in some way or another, I will not include them in my build. That's what makes this a challenge, and why its both fun to play, and build.

As of 2019, I am happy to announce a 2nd comic book theme deck has been built, and if you enjoy reading this build, please check out my Hela and the Enemies of Asgard deck when you get a chance!

You will enjoy this deck if:

• You will definitely appreciate this more if you enjoy Marvel's Thor
• You want to be the only person with your commander
• You like your deck to have style when you win
• You want to play a "75% deck" - you wanna win without playing all the best, overplayed cards
• You enjoy having multiple ways to win, this deck is a Voltron Combo build
• Old school Legends, no matter how bad they are, give you warm MTG nostalgia feelings.

You will NOT enjoy this deck if:

• You want to play heavy amounts countermagic in every blue deck - go pick a control commander
• You do not like playing cards in the redzone. Our ways of winning are almost exclusively redzone based.
• You want to play cutthroat, 100% effort all the time - simply put, for every playstyle, there is a superior Bant commander. Ragnar is relatively weak.
• You do not like combo. The deck will win that way roughly half the time.
• You want to play bant goodstuff.dec. We run great cards, but we also intentionally don't run some of the best cards, simply because there's no flavorful justification.

Every card in this deck I try to tie back to Marvel's Thor. Not every card is as perfect a fit as others, but I did my best. I still am missing a few additions I want, but I will pick those up over time, and update this list as I go. Here is the full list as it currently exists:

Thor (Commander)
Ragnar - A near spitting image of the thundergod himself, Thor! I was originally torn between Ragnar and Keranos, God of Storms, but Ragnar won out in the end due to being so perfect a visual representation, and having a better color suite for building the deck I had in mind.

Asgard (Lands)
Breeding Pool
Canopy Vista - The upper branches of Yggdrasil.
Command Tower - The Avenger's Tower.
Emeria, The Sky Ruin - The remains of Alfheim after Ragnarok.
Exotic Orchard - The Orchard of Adun v1, where the apples of immortality are grown. Without these apples, Thor would die of old age!
Fabled Passage - Yggdrasil, the World Tree!
Flooded Strand - A barren land, containing the remains of a beast slain by Thor! (referring to Kahns art)
Forbidden Orchard - The Orchard of Adun v2, where the apples of immortality are grown. Without these apples, Thor would die of old age!
Glacial Fortress - An Asgardian Fortress in Jotunheim
Hallowed Fountain - The blessed Well of Wisdom, Mimir
Homeward Path - Representing Thor's return to Asgard, after living the life of a mortal as Donald Blake.
Kor Haven - A hiding place within Asgard to shelter its inhabitants from pesky goddesses of death.
Misty Rainforest
Prairie Stream
Reflecting Pool - The pool of the Norns. Also, one of the most confusing scenes in Age of Ultron...just saying...
Reliquary Tower - Thor's hammer (img link). Heh.
Savannah - A great place for Asgard on Earth, be it Oklahoma like in the comics, or Sweden from the movies.
Scalding Tarn
Strip Mine - Post Ragnarok Asgard.
Temple Garden - A lovely Asgardian temple scene, well taken care of by the devotees to Asgard
Tropical Island
Tundra
Verdant Catacombs
Vesuva - An alternate Marvel Universe!
Wasteland - Post Ragnarok Asgard.
Windswept Heath
Yavimaya Hollow

Loki's Tricks (Instants)
Beast Within - Its a BILGESNIPE!! Basically, a beast native to Asgard.
Cyclonic Rift - If there's something Thor does a LOT, its swing his hammer in a circle and make tornadoes full of lightning.
Enlightened Tutor - Failing and seeking wisdom is a recurring theme in Thor comics. A weak justification, but I am sure I could find a Norn looking like the old lady as well..
Krosan Grip - Thor's grip is so powerful that he can easily crush Uru, the same material that his Hammer is made of!
Path to Exile - The perfect representation of Thor's time as Donald Blake, for being Unworthy, is the promo art.
Swords to Plowshares - Mjolnir a great weapon, it's power has no equal, as a weapon to destroy, or as a tool to build.

Warriors of Asgard (Creatures)
Adarkar Valkyrie - Too bad she isnt as lovely as Tessa Thompson. That said, this Valkyrie is a very powerful and welcome creature in our deck.
Arbor Elf - Elves lend themselves easily to Thor, as he frequently makes allies in Alfheim, the realm of the light elf tribes.
Birds of Paradise = Using the modern art for this card, I call it the Bird of the Rainbow Bridge.
Bloom Tender - Another helpful denizen of Alfheim, Queen Aelsa!
Consecrated Sphinx - Few people know about the time that Thor bested Hyperion, one of the strongest characters in marvel, in front of the Sphinx of Gisa, and I couldn't not include this overpowered homage to that moment.
Edric, Spymaster of Trest - A beautiful representation of Loki, in almost every way. A conniving, sneaky, and political card that looks just like the Trickster god himself.
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite - Her head...helmet?...face? reminds me greatly of the long time Thor villainess and daughter of Loki, Hela.
Elvish Mystic - Did I mention that elves are just easy includes?
Eternal Witness - A very powerful, and nigh perfect depiction of The Enchantress, the asgardian goddess of Sorcery.
Faeburrow Elder - Our new Groot! The MCU made his relationship even more thematic for our deck.
Faerie Artisans - Though not a true fairy, Thor allied himself with The Wasp, who made quite a habit of changing her appearance before each mission. The constant new tokens created by Artisans capture this quite well in my opinion.
Fiend Hunter - Donald Blake, the human alter ego of Thor, and bearer of the great hammer, Mjolnir.
Karmic Guide - An angel of Asgard
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth - Gorr, the god butcher. A foul villain from the Thor comics, this gray skinned alien seeks to destroy all divinity to show that one does not need to be a god to be all powerful.
Kruphix, God of Horizons - Marvel's own Eternity, the abstract embodiment of reality.
Llanowar Elves - More druids from Alfheim.
Noble Hierarch - Frigga, Mother of Thor!
Oracle of Mul Daya - A perfect Norn, the oracles of Asgard.
Prime Speaker Vannifar - Aleyah, Scholar of the Brightelves, and Alfheim's representative at the congress of worlds!
Rafiq of the Many - Heimdall, the gatekeeper of Asgard. Also, brilliant in any deck with a Voltron.
Reveillark - The elemental form of Zephyr, the wind goddess
Saffi Eriksdotter - As a man named Erik, I couldn't help but include Eriksdotter in this viking lore themed deck. She serves as our Jane Foster, a nurse who always seeks to save the lives of others and beloved of Donald Blake (Thor's human alter ego while banished to earth in the early comics).
Siona, Captain of the Pyleas - Say hello to Lady Sif!
Stoneforge Mystic - Mjolnir's mold was made using the heart of a dying star, and stoneforge shows this casting brilliantly.
Stonehewer Giant - Even though the creature typing lends this to being a Jotun...I like his ability theme with Peter Dinklage's representation of Eitri, who was a giant dwarf in the Marvel movies.
Stuffy Doll - if you haven't seen groot Thor, he's pretty great. Removed Stuffy doll for new Groot, Faeburrow Elder!
Sun Titan - This, is Surtur. Now you might say, Surtur doesnt bring things back to life. Ah, but he certainly strip mines and wastelands the Hel outta Asgard!

Magic (Sorceries)
Cultivate - As the protector of Midgard, Thor must cultivate its growth as much as he defends it.
Day of Judgment - A blast of godly might, though not so strong that it can kill our God of Thunder (regenerate)
Kodama's Reach - Seeking the spirit of Gaea, Thor can reach out to his mother in times of need. (fun filled fact, Thor is only half Asgardian, his other half is actually that of Elder Gods, as he is the blood son of Gaea!)
Nature's Lore - A simple elven trick to generate land.
Overrun - Rallying the 9 realms behind him, Thor is able to do feats of great power and trample his foes.
Recurring Insight - The all seeing eye of Odin grants us much wisdom, in the form of drawing cards.
Skyshroud Claim - The elves believe the realm is their's to claim (kinda stealing from the plotline of dark world)
Supreme Verdict - Odin's commands can not be ignored, his verdicts are supreme.
Tooth and Nail - Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr, or Teethbarer and Teethgrinder, the trusted goats of Thor!
Wargate - Heimdall! OPEN THE BIFROST! This lets us quickly access any of Asgards allies, warriors, or tools.
Wrath of God - When Thor lets out his Warrior's Madness, no one can survive the thunder gods wrath.

The Armory (Artifacts)
Altar of Dementia - Deep in the halls of Loki's lab, this mysterious altar is a final destination for many a poor soul.
Azorius Signet - A seal showing the aliances of asgard to other realms.
Blackblade Reforged - A nearly perfect representation of All Black, the Necrosword! If you havent read Thor: God of Thunder, you need to. The series is the most metal comic books you will ever read.
Blasting Station - The crux of the Bifrost, a station where Heimdall can use his sword to connect the 9 realms with great ease.
Chromatic Lantern - The casket of winters, an artifact in Odin's vault captured from Jotunheim.
Hammer of Nazahn - THE MIGHTY MJOLNIR!
Lightning Greaves - Even the gods need shoes. What better to strap on his feet when striding into battle?
Selesnya Signet - A seal showing the aliances of asgard to other realms.
Simic Signet - A seal showing the aliances of asgard to other realms.
Sol Ring - A crossing ring, a magical tool for communication and mobilization of Asgard.
Swiftfoot Boots - For when he isnt feeling formal, Thor also brings his work boots.
Sword of Body and Mind - Hofund, the sword of Heimdall
Sword of Feast and Famine - The Odinsword, a blade that when drawn signal's the coming of Ragnarok.
Sword of Fire and Ice - Gram, a sword that can pierce through any lie to find the truth - represented by the burning and card drawing of Fire and Ice!
Sword of Light and Shadow - Dragonfang, the sword of Valkyrie.
Sword of War and Peace - Twilight Sword, the sword of Surtur, its intent is to set the universe on fire.

Blessings of Odin (Enchantments)
Concordant Crossroads - The nexus of the 9 realms, a crossroad where all realms meet at Yggdrasil. The 9 realms united together against their enemies! War of the Realms reference, as well as useful for voltron and creature combos.
Druid's Call - Asgard has many great druids among its people, and this enchantment pairs brilliantly with our Groot. Weak theming, was removed 10-13-19
Earthcraft - As half Elder god, and blood son of Gaea, Thor is literally Earthcrafted.
Greater Good - Thor is always about the greater good.
Intruder Alarm - Loki, how many times will you betray me? A scene from Thor Ragnarok, as Loki pulls the alarm.
Journey to Nowhere - Journey Into Mystery #83 - the first comic book to feature Thor! God of Thunder!
Shielded by Faith - Gotta have faith in your gods (reference to my favorite thor series, god of thunder!) Infinite tokens with Sif (Siona).
Squirrel Nest - The nest of Ratatoskr, the immortal and super powered squirrel of Asgard.
Sylvan Library - A blessed library of the elves, Thor is able to draw much great knowledge from this place.

Gods among men (Planeswalkers)
Oko, Thief of Crowns - Our young Loki representation, Kid Loki is often treated as a separate character in the comics. Mr. Steal-Yo-Girl

Early Game:
In the early game, Thor has 3 main, and simple objectives. Firstly, you are looking to establish a mana base. This means casting ramp spells, playing mana dorks, and most importantly, keeping an opening hand with about 3 lands in it. We can function on 2 with the right hand, and 4 isnt too many, but outside of 2-4 lands, you should likely throw that hand away and mull for a new one. Thor's second objective is to enter the fray himself. Play your commander early and often. He can regen himself with all that mana you are establishing, and a board presence that can chump block and regenerate helps you dissuade opponents from pressuring you. Finally, Thor's third objective in the early game is to lay the foundations of our mid game strategy: Voltron. At this point in the game, if you can play some equipment, do so. They will be less valuable the longer the game goes, and they help make your board presence even more intimidating. Just make sure to be careful with Lightning Greaves. As much as Thor loves these boots, they can really stymie your ability to equip your creatures with equipment.

Mid Game:
Starting turn 4-5, you want to be going into the red zone with Thor. You will try to maintain this strategy for at least 3-5 more turns. Thor plus some equipment can do some serious damage, and all the swords of Asgard's armory can really give you a massive momentum boost, depending on which ones you get into play. Continue to play equipment and pressure your opponents with Thor. If they remove him, reestablish him as quickly as possible so that they are continuously dealing with a voltron in their face, forcing them to burn their reactive spells. At this phase of the game, Thor will often learn his lesson: you can't simply bludgeon every foe into submission. Instead, start to seek wisdom. Establish draw engines, or drop big draw spells like the all seeing eye of Odin. We want to start searching for an ultimate solution for the enemies of Asgard, some sort of ace up our sleeve where our enemies are overpowered by some sort of limitless power. For those who aren't with me, this is where the combo part of our build appears. We want to establish the set up for it, start gathering pieces in our hand, and then drop a game winning move all at once.

Late Game / End Game:
Thor has 2 ways to close out a game: Voltron from start to finish or, more likely, combo out. Entering the late game, our weaknesses will start to be apparent. Just like how Loki gives Thor trouble in the comics, trickster opponents with combat tricks, counter magic, and ways of shutting down our combos. Commanders with the ability to easily destroy our equipment will also be giving us trouble at this point, and cards like Wave of Vitriol can be back breaking. At this point in the game, its all about how well you played the first two phases. If you established mana early, pressured your opponents to force them to burn up their resources, and started to establish card draw and tutoring, you should be OK and set up for a win. As soon as you can go for the win, do it when the board state seems safe to do so. Thor doesn't gloat or monologue, he just wins, so don't waste time when you see your opening! A strong finish is Tooth and Nail, or as I like to refer to it, Toothgnasher and Toothgrinder, as these precious goats of Thor can chariot in a combo to close the game!


Weaknesses:
I still haven't played this deck enough to have a full list of weaknesses, BUUUUUUUUT:

• Commanders with decks or abilities that enable repeated, low cost artifact removal cripples our voltron efforts.
• Pillow Fort style decks are annoying. They limit our ability to voltron, as well as any infinite squirrel combos we use become valueless against their attack taxing effects.
• Large scale removal / bounce effects like cyclonic rift are always painful.
• Thor is not meant to be an arch enemy, and when everyone at the table is tired of your theme deck working too well, they come with pitch forks and torches...and you can expect to have a bad day.

In addition to Voltron Thor beatdown, here is a list of combos currently found in this build:

Earthcraft + Squirrel Nest = The infinite army of Ratatoskr! Can drop scarily early, almost always an instant keep if you have both cards in hand off the opener. (Currently removed from the build)

Siona, Captain of the Pyleas + Shielded by Faith = Infinite soldiers of Asgard!

Saffi Eriksdotter + Karmic Guide / Sun Titan / Reveillark + Sac outlet = Infinite creatures enter play, enter graveyard, and sac outlet effect.

Adarkar Valkyrie + Intruder Alarm + Sac Outlet = Infinite creatures enter play, enter graveyard, and sac outlet effect. (Currently removed from the build)

Stuffy Doll + Druid's Call + Intruder Alarm = Another way to unleash Ratatoskr upon our foes. Can also deal a fatal amount of damage to a single opponent. - Removed Druid's Call and Stuffy Doll from my build. Still a great combo, so not deleting it, but I am not going to feature it anymore.

There a great many other interactions with the above cards, such as adding a mana dork to the Stuffy Doll combo in order to generate infinite mana, etc, but I haven't listed all those interactions. Also, there are a few very powerful synergies in this deck, such as:

Sun Titan + Wasteland / Strip Mine = Land Destruction Surtur loop

I don't know if it counts as a frequently asked question or not, but my friend Jay, who originally challenged me to with the idea for building this deck, asked me what my process was for building this deck. Here was my reply to him:

I first saw Mishra, Artificer Prodigy several years ago, when Time Spiral brought back all the old names that I had almost forgotten about. My copy went into my trade binder and I hadn't thought about him for some time. Hardly usable at a competitive level for any format, and not worth much in trades, he sat in my binder for years. I started playing EDH in the spring of 2012, and since then, I have had an on and off desire to build a deck to make him work; every time halting because the idea of stax seemed un-fun to me. Another flaw with picking up Mishra as my commander was that a fantastic card for him, Nether Void, felt like it'd be forever out of my price range. I was fortunate in early 2015 to finally get my hands on a Nether Void, making my resolve to rock this commander even stronger.

My goal below is to put together a deck that is designed to generate chaotic game altering effects for our opponents, while generating card advantage for ourselves. Currently I like to play a variant that is more casually designed, aiming for a '75%' build, however, I will also go over some key cards below that will really amp up the competitiveness of this general. You will note that I pack some serious power cards in this build, so you may question why I call it 75%. The reason I believe this deck to be 75% is because while I run some fantastic cards, you'll note that there are a lot of ways to really refine what this deck is doing. I don't run a fistful of amazing tutors, I don't run a counter suite to protect my combo. I personally believe this deck could be made more competitive than it currently is; though I'd also probably change grixis generals if that was my intent.

You will enjoy this deck if:

• You want to be the only person with your commander
• You like shiney artifacts
• You enjoy a unique commander
• You want to play a 75% deck - you wanna win without playing all the best, overplayed cards
• You hate mirror matches
• You enjoy a dash of chaos
• Did I mention, no one else runs this dude!

You will NOT enjoy this deck if:

• You want to play heavy amounts countermagic in every blue deck - go pick a control commander
• You want to have an answer to everything all the time - people answer to Mishra, he doesnt answer to inferiors
• You want to tutor every turn - not my style, but feel free to add it in
• You want to play cutthroat, 100% effort all the time - simply put, for every deckstyle, there is a more competitive general than Mishra.
• You hate not drawing cards in mass - we will generate our card advantage in other ways
• You want to play grixis goodstuff - Mishra is unique, so we will build around him uniquely

I am not the first player to play with Mishra, and if you look at other people's builds, I am sure you will see the same symmetrical effects that Mishra makes asymmetrical. What do I mean by that? The goal of this deck is to play an effect that makes the game harder for our opponent to play and normally would hinder us as well, but Mishra lets us cheat around it or even benefit from it! The key to this deck is abusing the order of our triggered effects on the stack.

Example 1, One-way Chaos:
In play: Mishra, Artificer Prodigy and Possibility Storm.
In hand: ANY ARTIFACT, for this example, lets say everyone's favorite, Sol Ring

Step 1: Cast Sol Ring
Step 2: Two triggers occur; Possibility Storm, and Mishra, Artificer Prodigy's search effect for 'Sol Ring'. Place Mishra's trigger onto the stack first, then Possibility Storm's on top.
Step 3: Resolve Possibility Storm, ultimately putting the next artifact on top your library into play, and then all revealed cards, AND Sol Ring onto the bottom of your library
Step 4: Resolve Mishra's trigger, searching your library for a copy of Sol Ring to put directly into play. Pro-tip: its more than likely on the bottom. Put into play for free. PROFIT!

With this in play, your opponents never get the spell they want, where as you get 100% of your artifacts, AND a free artifact into play with it on EVERY cast. It's like cascade for us, while our opponents struggle with the loss of their hand. Do not underestimate the mind games that this will play on them.



Example 2, Counter me not:

In play: Mishra, Artificer Prodigy and any counter spell effect, lets say Nullstone Gargoyle or Planar Chaos
In hand: Sol Ring

Step 1: Cast Sol Ring
Step 2: Stack Mishra's trigger first, then the triggered counter spell effect on top.
Step 3: Resolve the counter spell, countering Sol Ring, placing it in grave.
Step 4: Resolve Mishra's trigger, search your grave for a copy of Sol Ring, put it into play for free.

Not only does this work well with your own symmetrical counter effects, but cards like blood funnel suddenly make all artifacts 2 less to play! Better still, this aids us against control decks, if the other blue players counter our stuff, it still goes into play! Assuming of course they are careless with the stack...






Example 3, Multiple copies can be found...in your opponents deck:

In play: Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
In hand: Praetor's Grasp

You know what is great about artifacts? Everyone runs them!

Step 1: Target some unfortunate soul with Praetor's Grasp or a similar deck or hand theft effect
Step 2: Exile any choice artifact that we share with them. Great targets include: Sol Ring, Lightning Greaves, Signets, Gilded Lotus, Sensei's, THE LIST GOES ON!
Step 3: Play their copy, Triggering Mishra to search for our own copy
Step 4: Two artifacts for the price of one!!

Mishra is the man with a plan, but that doesn't mean you can just waltz into every game cocky. Unless your opponent has some idea of whats to come, you are gonna catch people off guard with Mishra as your commander - but after that first victory, they will be wise to you. Your play and politics will have to be tight. Obviously, we cannot count on gimmicks like having a 'worthless commander' carry us to victory; so heres our game plan:

Phase one: Establish some trinkets
Mishra plays some big spells, and to put together our megazords we are going to need to start off strong. We want to open keep a hand with at least 3 lands. You might be wondering, why 3? Well, our opening position is based on getting out fast mana rocks and ramping up quickly. The sweet spot for most of our mana ramp is 3. If you have a sol ring in your opener and a land, keep it, but you need to be able to put down 3 mana fast. If you cannot establish 3 mana with your opener, throw it away, its likely a dud hand. There are of course some exceptions. I don't think I could every throw away a turn 1 Goblin Welder, especially if I've got something beefy I can pitch into the grave paired with a Great Furnace I can weld into it. Ultimately though, your early game goal, and by that I mean the first 5 turns, is to establish a strong mana base, and put Mishra himself down on the board. I know some players hesitate to play their commanders, but hes important to our overall strategy, and the deck cranks out mana, so we dont need to worry about commander tax. We can use him as an early game deterrent against attackers, as a 4/4 for 4cc isn't bad. The more mana rocks and card draw you can establish in the first 5 turns, the easier the rest of the game will be on you.

Phase two: Asymmetrical Ass-kicking
In an ideal world, turn 5 or 6 involves you having Mishra down, and then you can follow up with Possibility Storm; which will confound our opponents long enough for us to establish our game winning board state. Obviously you won't have this frequently, but this is the point of the game where we want to start dropping chaotic cards that Mishra mitigates for us. The soul purpose of our chaos effects is to start leveraging Mishra and hindering our opponents forward movement. The mid game to us doesn't have any goals other than to set ourselves up for our game winning plays. If you are setting up for a combo, start with your less vulnerable pieces. In my build, I try to lead with Darksteel Forge. Normally its the most durable combo piece; and combined with Nevinyrral's Disk its a 2 card game closer. Other key cards to establish during the mid game include Mycosynth Lattice, which can combo with dozens of effects, and Goblin Welder, who is a beast all on his own in a deck loaded with toys for him.

Something to keep in mind, is that this is the phase where the game is won or lost. You will very rarely make it to the end game and lose if you play this phase correctly; but people will also target you if you move too quickly. My build is not riddled with countermagic, so I try to play a controlled pace at this point, and try not to make enemies. I prefer to leverage my massive amount of artifact recursion to make it seem futile to come after me and Mishra. If our opponents buy into that, they will give us plenty of time to assemble our game winning moves. If they don't, I try to set up the red herring which is the chaos effects. Our opponents will spend so much time just trying to break free of our soft lock that they will lose focus as we assemble our game winning board state.

Phase three: End the game
Don't be afraid to make your move. Blow up the board, infect damage people to death, commander damage, March of the Machines, Bludgeon Brawl. There are lots of ways Mishra decks can win, but this part of the game is the same in all decks: play to win and close out the game. If your plan falls through, step back down to phase 2, or in the worst case scenario, treat the game as reset. You will win some, and you will lose more. This is not a deck who can take on 3 players by itself, Mishra simply isn't that strong of a general. Play to win and if you lose, learn from it.

Weaknesses:
Only a fool says that his deck is undefeated or unbeatable. Every deck has flaws and by recognizing them, we can anticipate our opponents moves - possibly even bait them with fake over extensions. This deck relies incredibly heavily on artifact mana sources and non basic lands; running only about a dozen basics. Cards to watch out for include effects similar to Ancient Runes, Vandalblast/Pulverize and blood moon/back to basics. Recently, my playgroup has really taken a shine to Wave of Vitriol, which can really hurt. Another thing to keep an eye out for is pacing yourself. We use unique advantage generators, and this can bite us since this build isn't loaded up on the best card draw options available; allowing you to play out your hand too quickly in a format riddled with board wipe effects. Pace yourself and don't dump your hand until you can refill it.
Game play style, this deck is weak in the early game. Avoid getting on the bad political side of voltron and aggro decks, as they can often critically injure you; often ruining your chances at reaching the late game, where Mishra reigns. Play conservatively early, keep back blockers, and don't be afraid to chump block scary threats like Ruric Thar. Once you get to the mid game you will have the tools to recur all our best cards from the grave, and set yourself up for a win.
Because of your weakness in the early game I would recommend avoiding lands that enter the battlefield tapped as a whole. Painlands work great, since you will rarely use them for color (robots for the win!), and enter the battlefield untapped. You will want to get outta the gates smoothly early, and being effectively a turn behind during the early game can really be crippling. The only tapped lands I would recommend are the vivid lands, since they tend to be very useful since they can provide any of 3 colors.

Ok, yes, all the above is all well and good, but how do we close out the game?

With my build, we have a few great options:

Be cruel: Mycosynth Lattice + Darksteel Forge + Nevinyrral's Disk/Vandalblast - Blow up all the things. Go home kids, you got beat by the emo king of edh artifact decks. Karn also can start popping lands like a mox monkey!

Be venomous: Blightsteel Colossus tends to work wonders, and we got the mana rocks to throw him down real fast, real early. Bonus points if you steel (see what I did there?) their's, and double down on the infect!


Be awesome: Mana rocks mean who cares about commander tax? start swinging with Mishra early and often, to pimp smack people to death with those purple glow fingers! Once you establish chaos and counter boards, they will have a hard time disrupting you!

In this section I will be trying to explain the bulk of my card choices, but trying to also include several cards that can really take this 75% build the next few steps to really make it an archenemy. You may notice I cut some of these from my build - more than likely that is because they are too powerful for my meta, and simply made games unfun for my friends.

I will be excluding a lot mana fixing, fetch lands, and dual lands - as they will depend entirely on your personal adjustments to the deck and what you budget can accommodate. I do note several mana rock artifacts that should help you with any mana problems.

A very strong way to build Mishra is a stax variant. My meta frowns on stax pretty hard, and those decks get hated out of games before they can do well or they create an 'unfun' play environment, so i didnt go stax with my build. I have since changed my ways, and posted a stax list that I will be playing from time to time, and have it listed above in the variant build section. I still beliece that if you are considering stax that I HIGHLY recommend visiting this page: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/204260-the-stax-primer .

Creatures

Artifacts (non creature)

Enchantments

Planeswalkers

Sorcery

Instants

Lands

For those of you who don't know me, I am a huge Marvel comic book nerd, and I love me some Thor Odinson. I confided in a friend that I was running low on EDH inspiration, and that I needed something new and fresh to reinvigorate my love of the format. In response to this, my friend gave me a list of deck building challenges, and I chose the one that sang to me the most: "Show me what Marvel's Thor would look like in EDH."

I have read EVERY Thor comic book (616 / prime universe) released to date, and I went HARD on my project to build my Thor, Ragnar Roks deck. The deck turned out great, and is loaded with numerous references and each card feels fun to me. Also, I got to stick with my pattern of playing less popular commanders, since you know, I am a special snowflake and have got to be different.

I loved the project. It was immensely fun to build a deck on a theme like that; and after I got the deck to a stable version, I figured, why stop there?! I want to build a Hela and enemies of Thor deck! Jay, bro, if you read this, thanks man, you really gave me a great idea to build off.

Now that said, with this theme deck, I wanted to have a few rules:

• Avoid repeated cards with Ragnar. I think I accomplished this almost perfectly. I even built a blue deck with NO CYCLONIC RIFT. Still ended up with a few minor staples.
• I can represent an evil version of a character with this deck to be a foil to the good version found in my Ragnar deck. An example of this is Loki, who often rides the line between hero and villain.
• No infinite combos. My Thor deck shows the good guy habit of working together (synergy / combo). Sometimes villains work together, but for the most part, they never actually get to a combo win because they betray / turn on each other in the end.
• Battle cruiser oriented strategy - each major villain in this deck should be a scary threat in their own regard, much like how they are in comics.

WARNING!
While this is a comic book themed deck, I also make references to the Marvel Movie franchise. Please be aware that there may be spoilers below, and if you haven't seen a movie, and hate spoilers, read further at your own risk!

You will enjoy this deck if:

• You will definitely appreciate this more if you enjoy Marvel's Thor and Avengers comics and their movies.
• You enjoy a powerful commander with lots of other players who can give you card suggestions
• You enjoy graveyard interaction
• You are a Timmy at heart, and love BIG SCARY CREATURES
• You like being the threat at the table

You will NOT enjoy this deck if:

• You want to play heavy amounts countermagic in every blue deck - go pick a control commander
• You want to play combo - there are tons of combo decks with Muldrotha, this isnt one
• You don't like to be scary / targetted. The instant you play Strip Mine, you won't have friends anymore.
• You like to play less seen commanders. Muldrotha is very popular right now, and this won't be the strongest version of her.
• You want to include better cards that don't fit theme, such as Cyclonic Rift or Tooth and Nail. I want to stress that this is a SUBPAR Muldrotha build, and there are many better competitive choices.

Every card in this deck I try to tie back to Marvel's Thor and his villains. I tried for the most part to stick to purely Thor villains, but I also included some Marvel Villains that are widely known, and have easier recognition. Not to mention - when a villain gets big enough, they cross paths with the Avengers and Thor!

Hela (Commander)
Muldrotha, the Gravetide - This card accomplishes 2 things: Firstly, she has the iconic head shape that Hela's crown of Hel provides her. Secondly, she has heavy interactions with the 'yard, which is thematically very much aligned with our thorned goddess. Love this card, and she fits the theme well.

The Nine Realms (Lands)
Bayou - A dark, dank swamp filled with nefarious creatures.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All - Yggdrasil, the world tree!
Command Tower - An unfortunate repeat between my two decks. Art is reminscent of her battle with the Valkyries in Thor Ragnarok
Darkwater Catacombs - Catacomb. Need I say more?
Drowned Catacomb - Oh yes, More catacombs
Forest
Grim Backwoods - Grim, dark, and deliciously evil.
High Market - Hela is happy to sacrifice her minions to execute her goals.
Island
Misty Rainforest
Overgrown Tomb - Tombs are too good for this theme.
Polluted Delta - Another great dark theme, with evil polluting the very waters.
Reliquary Tower - One of my few repeats. To be replaced actually - never seem to draw many cards with this deck.
Strip Mine - Oppressive with Hela
Sunken Hollow - Seriously, blue black lands are too beautiful in this deck.
Swamp
Tropical Island
Underground Sea
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - Keep them tombs a rolling.
Verdant Catacombs - More catacombs!
Wasteland - As with strip mine, simply incredibly powerful in this deck.
Watery Grave - Grave is literally in the name on this one. Cmon!

Loki's Tricks (Instants)
Ancient Excavation - A Hel-ish landscape that provides us much needed draw while filling our grave. The dark art feels great in this deck.
Crop Rotation - Using the art with the elf, this is the dark elves salting the very earth on their conquest to expand their territories.
Entomb - Hela using her magic to bring any of her dead minions to the top of the proverbial heap and throw them straight into the grave where she can reach them.
Grisly Salvage - More card advantage, through the salvaging of the dead and gone, which is Hela's specialty.
Harrow - In order to gain, there must be death. Hela must first see the very lands die before she can gain territory.
Putrefy - Hela's iconic green and black energy killing her foes outright.
Realms Uncharted - Even the goddess of death lets her hair down. Hela's uncharted realms tend to be offlimits, to most...
Sultai Charm - The Eternal Flame, kept in the vaults of Asgard. In the movie Thor Ragnarok, Hela uses the power of the flame to revive an evil undead army.

The Enemies of Asgard (Creatures)
Acidic Slime - Quicksand - A lesser known avengers villain, she is a nemesis to Thor Girl, and is made of shape shifting sand.
Azusa, Lost but Seeking - Angerboda, the mother of Hela. She is also the mother of the Midgard Serpent and Fenris, so she had to be included in our deck. Azusa synergizes well with our strategies, as well as looks pretty similar to the character.
Blood Artist - Dracula. Fun filled fact - Mjolnir is a holy relic, and does massive damage to Dracula in the comic books.
Bloodgift Demon - Kurse! I love that the belt and head shape match so much.
Coffin Queen - Karnilla, who is currently as of Thor 04 in 2018, is the WIFE OF HELA!!
Deathrite Shaman - ALL HAIL DOOM! The green cloak and face seal this 1 drop planeswalker as Doctor Doom.
Dragonlord Silumgar - Fafnir, the Dragon King. First appearing in Thor 134, he was an evil dragon lord that hails originally from a continent on Asgard itself!
Elves of Deep Shadow - Dark elves, plain and simple.
Frost Titan - Ymir, the Living Winter and most powerful of all the frost giants.
Golgari Grave-Troll - Ulik, the troll king. Nigh unkillable and immensely powerful, grave-troll was too perfect a fit with the strong synergy it provides to Muldrotha.
Grim Haruspex - The Disir, a sect of Bor's undying Valkyries. Merely speaking their name means certain death. They are the personal body guards to Hela.
Hell's Caretaker - Mephisto, Lord of Hell. Mephisto has had a relationship with Hela in the past, even providing her a slice of his own Hell in during the times of Ragnarok when she had no land of the dead for herself.
Keiga, the Tide Star - Cut from the deck, formally Foom.
Kokusho, the Evening Star - Fin Fang Foom. Another old comic villain to Thor, surprisingly, even though he appears to look like a Chinese dragon, he is actually an alien!
Llanowar Elves - Knife wielding, angry elves? Great new art for this deck.
Massacre Girl - Lady Wizaria during her time as Kurse. Female Kurse Here
Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest - Gorr, the God Butcher. Gained his power using All Black the Necrosword and killing gods, Mazirek likewise gets more powerful as things die.
Merciless Executioner - Skurge, the Executioner. Hilariously played by Karl Urban, this survivalist is an off again on again villain to Thor, and iconic due to the movie Thor Ragnarok.
Midnight Reaper - Avengers and Thor Villain - Grim Reaper! And c'mon, lets face it, too perfect to not include in a death deck.
Nath of the Gilt-Leaf - Evil Loki. While Loki in my Thor deck draws cards, Loki in my Hela deck makes others discard them. Love this mirror imagery.
Ohran Frostfang- The Midgard Serpent. The world serpent is said to be the death of Thor, who will be bitten and poisoned by the great beast, and die after striking the serpent down.
Overtaker - Lorelei, the sister of the Enchantress. She uses her seductive magics to get what she wants out of others.
Phantasmal Image - Carl Creel, the Absorbing man. He, and his ball and chain, have the ability to gain the powers of anything he or it touches. Phantasmal Image not only mimics enemies just like Creel, but also wields a mace in the image. What a great card for this theme!!!
Plaguecrafter - Parker Robbins, aka, The Hood! A magic wielding villain of the Avengers, Plaguecrafter is a great representation of this villain for us, and he synergizes so incredibly well with Hela.
Ramunap Excavator - Klaus Voorhees, hailing from Journey Into Mystery #98 (1963!) Thor vs The Human Cobra! Not a particularly powerful villain on his own, but when working with others, a real pain in the asp.
Rankle, Master of Pranks - Classic Thor Villain, the Grey Gargoyle. If he was to touch you, you'd turn to stone! Flavor and ability on point with pretty solid art.
Sailmonger - This is my new representation of Enchantress, and leads to wonderful political conversations at the table.
Sire of Stagnation - The First Firmament, a being who was once the first universe. It wishes to be all that exists once again, leading to the Avenger's battling him back with the help of other abstracts. I like the similarity between this card art and the First Firmament.
Solemn Simulacrum - Can you find me a more Ultron looking card? I'll wait.
Tasigur, the Golden Fang - The Serpent, Thor's uncle. Once banished, the god of Fear made a return in Marvel's Fear Itself, and has been a real handful for the God of Thunder ever since.
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger - Ceaseless hunger? Red Blue and Purple? Indestructible? Yeah, Galactus is a REAL big problem for people to deal with when he arrives and starts eating everything.
Underrealm Lich - Malekith, the King of the Dark Elves. Never dies, and kills without pause, he provides Hela with all sorts of advantages. Something I love about this representation is that half his face is lit, drawing a similarity to Malekith's iconic face.
Venser, Shaper Savant - Zarrko the Future Man. A villain from classic Thor comics, this time traveler actually showed some of Thors most ridiculous powers back in the good ol' days.
Vilis, Broker of Blood - The new Mephisto on the block. Literally is signing a blood pact in the art. Too good to not upgrade to!
Void Winnower - The Void, the dark half of The Sentry. Multi limbed, utterly insane, and vicious to his enemies, the Void is utterly oppressive as a villain. Void. Void Winnower. C'mon, its like Wizards did it for me.
Wolfir Silverheart - The Fenris wolf. Technically the child of Loki (shape shifting magic leads to some unsavory things I guess), the wolf is a vicious enemy to Thor, especially when at the side of Hela.
Zulaport Cutthroat - The Wrecker, a human who was given a magic crowbar by Loki to do battle with Thor. Old comics are weird.

Magic (Sorceries)
Command the Dreadhorde - Hela leading her army of the damned to wreck face!
Commune with the Gods - Card advantage, check. God reference? Check. Uses Graveyard? Check. Whats not to love?
Explosive Vegetation - Sticking with a violent theme, I like the idea of my ramp being explosive with green magic.
Fork in the Road - More ramp that leads to cards going into the graveyard rather than simply into play. Less efficient than say Cultivate, but more on theme.
Mulch - Sticking to the idea that my ramp leads to death keeps me in the Hela flavor zone.
Primal Growth - Maximum death on my ramp spell, this card also is someone reminiscent of Cate Blanchett in her role as Hela.
Skyshroud Claim - Elves conquering in the name of Hel!
Villainous Wealth - Gold buys death. Death buys gold. - The flavor text says it all. A great game winning card that fits our flavor of being villainous.
Whispering Madness - Stick around Loki long enough, and you will lose your mind. Ego learned this the hard way in Thor 05 and 06 of 2019's Thor Vol 5

The Armory (Artifacts)
Birthing Pod - A vicious machine that prospers of death.
Bloodforged Battle-Axe - The Blood Axe. The weapon of choice for Skurge the executioner, the Blood Axe is a vicious weapon from Marvel Comics that can drive its wielder to blood lust.
Chromatic Lantern - Casket Of Frozen Winters, and an unfortunate repeat in my theme decks. Might cut this due for something more versatile, since this deck tends to ramp well.
Crucible of Worlds - The Nine Realms in all their beauty, filled with lives to be reaped. Also synergizes incredibly well with our sacrificing / pitching of lands.
Darksteel Plate - Thor's Battle Armor, a trophy for Hela, from when she cursed him with brittle bones and immortality so that he might suffer indefinitely, wishing for death.
General's Kabuto - A Hel Crown representation. Not perfect, but very useful in our deck.
Helm of the Host - Visually, a better Hel Crown, and also, incredibly powerful, considering that Muldrotha's ability stacks with itself should you get multiple copies of her on the board.
Sol Ring - Staple. Boring. Bleh.

Curses of Hela (Enchantments)
Evolutionary Leap - A lovely gorgon outstretched, this card represents so much of our deck. Green art, death for gains.
Pernicious Deed - More lovely green art, and massive quantities of death. Synergizes incredibly well with Hela as well, being a permanent card type.
Secrets of the Dead - The more death that surrounds us, the stronger the forces of Hel become.
Sultai Ascendancy - Versatile, and assures something is going into the graveyard.

Deities of Evil (Planeswalkers)
Garruk Relentless - Ares, who often gives into the Bloodaxe, and succumbs to his bloodlust. A great fit for Garruk Relentless, who shows Garruk's surrender to madness.
Ob Nixilis Reignited - Surtur, lord of the fire giants and king of Muspelheim

Early Game:
In the early game, its all about the ramp. This deck plays a bit different than other green decks, but this part we have in common. Ramp, and ramp hard. Try to keep an opener with about 3 mana, and accelerate as fast as you can with mana dorks and our ramp spells. We don't pack a lot of rocks, but we won't really need them. Focus on keeping things simple early on, and try not to draw too much undue hate. Muldrotha is a well known powerhouse, and is a threat merely by being in the command zone. A great early game card for us is actually Pernicious Deed. Anything that lets you dissuade others from attacking or threaten their mana rocks will greatly improve your odds in the early game. Since we will be dropping bombs for the rest of the game, make sure to focus purely on getting mana out there, and not much else.

Mid Game:
You should get 6+ mana out pretty quick, and for this deck, thats the sign you have hit the mid game. You won't win the game with 6 mana, but boy, can you start to shape the flow of the game. At this point, start throwing down threats one after another. This deck is a battle cruiser strategy, and we want to really show our opponents that each creature we have is a bomb. There is one important piece to this phase of the game: Do not rush Muldrotha onto the battlefield. Yes, she great, and yes, she can really give you incremental advantage; but she is also easily removed, and a high priority target. She can easily be removed 2-3 times, and suddenly be out of reach. More often than not, Hela is our closer, and we don't want her costing 12 mana. Instead, save playing your commander until you have a strong synergy to pair with her. I will write a synergy section below, but some key cards to pair with her are Merciless Executioner or Strip Mine. Until you are ready to close a game, try not to play her, and instead, throw bomb creature after bomb creature every turn. Threaten the board, be the scary player, and really press for advantage.

Late Game / End Game:
Once you get your mana base upwards of 10 mana, its time to start pushing for the win. Our commander synergizes with a TON of cards in the deck, and they can really shift a game very quickly from being the biggest threat, to being the winner. Play Muldrotha at this point, and start playing cards that can be abused over and over again from the graveyard. Most of the time, we will win games by going into the red zone. I frequently win off Ulamog eating libraries, and also tend to win by grinding away my opponents with the above mentioned Merciless Executioner and Strip Mine loops. If you can, get the Helm of the Host onto Muldrotha, which will allow you to play numerous copies from your grave, as well as give you 6/6 beaters to overwhelm your opponents with. The one thing to keep in mind in this phase of the game is that you are not using an infinite combo deck, so you won't have the explosive, 1 turn win, but instead, will most likely crush your opponents with repeated attacks from big creatures.


Weaknesses:

• Any form of gravehate. Leyline of the Void. Rest in Peace. So many others
• Early aggression. We aren't a blazingly fast deck. Play smart early and don't get too much hate.
• We recover well from most board wipes, but tend not to do well if Muldrotha is removed repeated. Protect her.
• Hela is not meant to be an arch enemy. We run a popular commander in a theme style, with subpar cards for the sake of staying on theme. Keep this in mind, and play for fun. Until your group learns you are a little easier going, brace yourself for hate.

Here is a list of cards that tend to work well together:

Muldrotha, the Gravetide + Merciless Executioner = Every great ruler needs an executioner. For 4BB, all opponents sacrifice 2 creatures on the first go around, and then you can do it 1x every turn after, sacrificing the Executioner to himself for minimal losses while taking out 3 creatures a turn.

High Market / Birthing Pod + Kokusho, the Evening Star / Keiga, the Tide Star / Solemn Simulacrum = Incremental advantage through sacrificing our own creatures, only to later reuse them via Muldrotha. Evolutionary Leap also works as a great sac outlet. We gain both the benefit of our sac outlets, but also the on death triggers from our powerful dragons and Ultron.

Crucible of Worlds + Azusa, Lost but Seeking + Strip Mine / Wasteland = Destroy 3 lands a turn. Slow, but can feel SO oppressive / demoralizing to opponents.

A great many synergies in this deck revolve around abusing Muldrotha and her ability to replay cards, and then having them at our access to sacrifice. The beauty of most of our death effects is that the sacrifice is part of the cost, leaving our opponents little room to respond to us, and gives them little ability to rob us of our toys.

None yet?

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