Haldan + Pako by gavin.hess

Format: Commander

Commander: Pako, Arcane Retriever and Haldan, Avid Arcanist

Bracket: 4

DeckCheck Threat Index: 53

Deck overview

This Temur deck pairs Pako, Arcane Retriever and Haldan, Avid Arcanist in a dedicated Voltron tempo strategy. The primary game plan uses dense 1-mana and 2-mana ramp to cast Pako on turn 3. Pako attacks immediately due to haste, exiling the top card of each player's library and growing substantially from noncreature cards. On subsequent turns, Haldan, Avid Arcanist unlocks this exiled card pool, providing immense virtual card advantage and mana expansion by casting stolen spells and playing extra lands. The deck protects its lethal dog with a dense suite of 1-mana hexproof and countermagic spells, such as Snakeskin Veil, Autumn's Veil, and Dispel. Evasion enablers and combat multipliers, including Temur Battle Rage, Bulk Up, and Moraug, Fury of Akoum, allow Pako to eliminate opponents sequentially via 21 commander damage. While inherently weak to commander lockouts and stax, the deck exerts rapid single-target pressure backed by strong reactive shielding.

Decklist (100 cards)

  • 1 Aqueous Form
  • 1 Autumn's Veil
  • 1 Beast Within
  • 1 Broken Bond
  • 1 Bulk Up
  • 1 Carpet of Flowers
  • 1 Cinder Glade
  • 1 Collective Resistance
  • 1 Command Tower
  • 1 Counterspell
  • 1 Cultivate
  • 1 Dispel
  • 1 Distortion Strike
  • 1 Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius
  • 1 Dragonclaw Strike
  • 1 Elvish Mystic
  • 1 Elvish Spirit Guide
  • 1 Enter the Enigma
  • 1 Enter the Unknown
  • 1 Exotic Orchard
  • 1 Explore
  • 1 Fae Flight
  • 1 Farseek
  • 1 Fertile Ground
  • 1 Font of Fertility
  • 15 Forest
  • 1 Frostboil Snarl
  • 1 Fyndhorn Elves
  • 1 Gaea's Gift
  • 1 Gemstone Mine
  • 1 Growth Spiral
  • 1 Haldan, Avid Arcanist
  • 1 Hinterland Harbor
  • 1 Hunter's Insight
  • 11 Island
  • 1 Keen Sense
  • 1 Lightning Bolt
  • 1 Llanowar Elves
  • 1 Memory Lapse
  • 1 Moraug, Fury of Akoum
  • 7 Mountain
  • 1 Nature's Claim
  • 1 Negate
  • 1 Octopus Form
  • 1 Origin of Metalbending
  • 1 Overgrowth
  • 1 Overpowering Attack
  • 1 Pako, Arcane Retriever
  • 1 Pym Particles
  • 1 Rampant Growth
  • 1 Rogue's Passage
  • 1 Rootbound Crag
  • 1 Royal Treatment
  • 1 Shared Roots
  • 1 Shivan Reef
  • 1 Shore Up
  • 1 Simian Spirit Guide
  • 1 Snakeskin Veil
  • 1 Sol Ring
  • 1 Spell Pierce
  • 1 Spell Rupture
  • 1 Sulfur Falls
  • 1 Summer Bloom
  • 1 Temur Battle Rage
  • 1 Tinder Wall
  • 1 Utopia Sprawl
  • 1 Veil of Secrecy
  • 1 Vines of Vastwood
  • 1 Wild Growth
  • 1 Yavimaya Coast