Zuko, Conflicted August by phipunkt

Format: Commander

Commander: Zuko, Conflicted

Bracket: 2

Deck overview

Zuko is a cheap, repeatable value engine: he draws, grows, or makes red mana in the early turns, and once his modes are spent he can be exiled to an opponent and later recast. The deck's real engine, however, is Phoenix recursion, with Syrix, Carrier of the Flame as the hidden commander. You fill the graveyard via self-mill, Faithless Looting, and Ripples of Undeath, then recur hasty phoenixes and sacrifice them to Zulaport Cutthroat, Judith, Mayhem Devil, and Marionette Apprentice. The deck wins through repeated drain from those aristocrat payoffs and finishes with a burst: Unstoppable Slasher, Orcus reanimation, Mercadia's Downfall, or Insult // Injury doubling damage.

Decklist (100 cards)

  • 1 Abrade
  • 1 Agate Instigator
  • 1 Archenemy's Charm
  • 1 Baleful Mastery
  • 1 Berserkers' Onslaught
  • 1 Blasphemous Act
  • 1 Blightstep Pathway // Searstep Pathway
  • 1 Blood Crypt
  • 1 Bloodstained Mire
  • 1 Braids, Arisen Nightmare
  • 1 Brass's Tunnel-Grinder // Tecutlan, the Searing Rift
  • 1 Broadside Bombardiers
  • 1 Burnt Offering
  • 1 Cemetery Tampering
  • 1 Command Tower
  • 1 Corrupted Conviction
  • 1 Cut // Ribbons
  • 1 Dark Confidant
  • 1 Dark Ritual
  • 1 Deadly Dispute
  • 1 Desperate Plea
  • 1 Detective's Phoenix
  • 1 Dragonskull Summit
  • 1 Elegy Acolyte
  • 1 Everflowing Chalice
  • 1 Everquill Phoenix
  • 1 Exotic Orchard
  • 1 Faithless Looting
  • 1 Fatal Push
  • 1 Firemind Vessel
  • 1 Flamewake Phoenix
  • 1 Foreboding Ruins
  • 1 Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor
  • 1 Graven Cairns
  • 1 Haunted Ridge
  • 1 Hedron Archive
  • 1 High Market
  • 1 Infernal Plunge
  • 1 Insult // Injury
  • 1 Judith, the Scourge Diva
  • 1 Kazuul's Fury // Kazuul's Cliffs
  • 1 Lazotep Quarry
  • 1 Lightning Phoenix
  • 1 Luxury Suite
  • 1 Malakir Rebirth // Malakir Mire
  • 1 Marionette Apprentice
  • 1 Mayhem Devil
  • 1 Mercadia's Downfall
  • 1 Midnight Reaper
  • 1 Morbid Opportunist
  • 5 Mountain
  • 1 Nemesis Phoenix
  • 1 Orcus, Prince of Undeath
  • 1 Overlord of the Balemurk
  • 1 Phoenix Chick
  • 1 Phoenix of Ash
  • 1 Priest of Forgotten Gods
  • 1 Professional Face-Breaker
  • 1 Rakdos Carnarium
  • 1 Rankle and Torbran
  • 1 Rankle, Master of Pranks
  • 1 Raucous Theater
  • 1 Rekindling Phoenix
  • 1 Ring of the Lucii
  • 1 Ripples of Undeath
  • 1 Seize the Spotlight
  • 1 Shatterskull Smashing // Shatterskull, the Hammer Pass
  • 1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
  • 1 Sidisi, Regent of the Mire
  • 1 Skyfire Phoenix
  • 1 Stonespeaker Crystal
  • 1 Sulfurous Springs
  • 1 Sunbird's Invocation
  • 1 Sundering Eruption // Volcanic Fissure
  • 10 Swamp
  • 1 Syrix, Carrier of the Flame
  • 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
  • 1 Terminate
  • 1 Thran Dynamo
  • 1 Twilight Diviner
  • 1 Unstoppable Slasher
  • 1 Victimize
  • 1 Village Rites
  • 1 Viscera Seer
  • 1 Yahenni, Undying Partisan
  • 1 Zuko, Conflicted
  • 1 Zulaport Cutthroat