Monarch by user7084414

Format: Commander

Commander: Garland, Royal Kidnapper

Bracket: 2

Deck overview

Garland, Royal Kidnapper is a Dimir theft deck built around the monarch mechanic. Garland's ETB makes an opponent the monarch, and each time the crown changes hands he steals a creature from the new monarch for as long as that player holds the title - turning the table's own threats into your board. The 99 is a dense package of roughly fifteen steal effects (Control Magic, Agent of Treachery, Bribery, Gonti, Lord of Luxury, Mind Flayer) plus monarch enablers (Court of Ambition, Court of Vantress, Custodi Lich, Coveted Jewel). Flicker engines like Thassa, Deep-Dwelling - effectively a hidden commander here - and Conjurer's Closet re-trigger theft ETBs and dodge removal, while Garland's +2/+2 anthem and "can't be sacrificed" clause turn stolen boards into a real clock. Victory comes from evasive combat with stolen creatures, or from late-game mass haymakers Breach the Multiverse and Rise of the Dark Realms. This is a value-control deck whose power scales with the strength of the creatures across the table.

Decklist (100 cards)

  • 1 Agent of Treachery
  • 1 An Offer You Can't Refuse
  • 1 Animate Dead
  • 1 Arcane Denial
  • 1 Arcane Lighthouse
  • 1 Baleful Strix
  • 1 Black Cat, Cunning Thief
  • 1 Blasphemous Edict
  • 1 Bloodthirsty Blade
  • 1 Blue Sun's Twilight
  • 1 Blur
  • 1 Bojuka Bog
  • 1 Brainstealer Dragon
  • 1 Breach the Multiverse
  • 1 Bribery
  • 1 Cabal Coffers
  • 1 Changing Loyalty
  • 1 Chaos Shrine's Black Crystal
  • 1 Come Back Wrong
  • 1 Command Tower
  • 1 Conjurer's Closet
  • 1 Control Magic
  • 1 Counterspell
  • 1 Court of Ambition
  • 1 Court of Vantress
  • 1 Coveted Jewel
  • 1 Cunning Rhetoric
  • 1 Custodi Lich
  • 1 Dark Ritual
  • 1 Dauthi Voidwalker
  • 1 Dimir Signet
  • 1 Domineering Will
  • 1 Dragonlord Silumgar
  • 1 Dream Harvest
  • 1 Drowned Catacomb
  • 1 Essence Flux
  • 1 Eye of Nidhogg
  • 1 Faerie Mastermind
  • 1 Fallen Shinobi
  • 1 Fealty to the Realm
  • 1 Feed the Swarm
  • 1 Fellwar Stone
  • 1 Fishing Gear
  • 1 Garland, Royal Kidnapper
  • 1 Ghostly Flicker
  • 1 Ghoulish Impetus
  • 1 Gloomlake Verge
  • 1 Gonti, Lord of Luxury
  • 1 Gonti, Night Minister
  • 1 Hostage Taker
  • 11 Island
  • 1 Jet Medallion
  • 1 Kaya's Ghostform
  • 1 Mind Flayer
  • 1 Minion's Return
  • 1 Propaganda
  • 1 Reanimate
  • 1 Reins of Power
  • 1 Reliquary Tower
  • 1 Rise of the Dark Realms
  • 1 Rogue's Passage
  • 1 Sapphire Medallion
  • 1 Saw in Half
  • 1 Shipwreck Marsh
  • 1 Silent Hallcreeper
  • 1 Siphon Insight
  • 1 Sol Ring
  • 1 Staff of Eden, Vault's Key
  • 1 Starscream, Power Hungry // Starscream, Seeker Leader
  • 11 Swamp
  • 1 Talisman of Dominance
  • 1 Thassa, Deep-Dwelling
  • 1 The Darkness Crystal
  • 1 The Soul Stone
  • 1 Thief of Sanity
  • 1 Thieving Amalgam
  • 1 Tinybones, the Pickpocket
  • 1 Treacherous Urge
  • 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
  • 1 Volatile Stormdrake