Them's Fighting Words by RubricOwl

Format: Commander

Commander: Strax, Sontaran Nurse

Bracket: 3

Deck overview

This is a Gruul "fight club" midrange deck built around Strax, Sontaran Nurse. The plan is to use the commander and a dense package of fight spells to repeatedly damage enemy creatures, triggering enrage and "whenever this creature is dealt damage" effects while stacking +1/+1 counters through Rite of Passage, Vigor, and Hardened Scales. Artifact tokens from Tireless Provisioner, Heaped Harvest, and Tireless Tracker feed Strax's activated ability for repeatable fights. The primary finishers are a massive Chandra's Ignition, the damage-mirror package of Stuffy Doll/Brash Taunter with Pain for All, and trample combat backed by Kessig Wolf Run. The deck is a resilient value engine rather than a combo deck, and it wins by making one fight or one burn spell absurdly large.

Decklist (100 cards)

  • 1 Ancient Animus
  • 1 Arcane Signet
  • 1 Arni Slays the Troll
  • 1 Basilisk Collar
  • 1 Beast Within
  • 1 Bionic Blow
  • 1 Blasphemous Act
  • 1 Bonders' Enclave
  • 1 Boxing Ring
  • 1 Brash Taunter
  • 1 Bushwhack
  • 1 Chandra's Ignition
  • 1 Cinder Glade
  • 1 Colossal Majesty
  • 1 Command Tower
  • 1 Contest of Claws
  • 1 Cultivate
  • 1 Darksteel Plate
  • 1 Donna Noble
  • 1 Elmar, Ulvenwald Informant
  • 1 Foe-Razer Regent
  • 20 Forest
  • 1 Gaea's Gift
  • 1 Gimli's Reckless Might
  • 1 Goblin Anarchomancer
  • 1 Hardened Scales
  • 1 Heaped Harvest
  • 1 Heroic Intervention
  • 1 Hornet Nest
  • 1 Hunter's Bow
  • 1 Ichor Wellspring
  • 1 Inscription of Abundance
  • 1 Kessig Wolf Run
  • 1 Kodama's Reach
  • 1 Llanowar Elves
  • 1 Mithril Coat
  • 1 Mossfire Valley
  • 5 Mountain
  • 1 Neyith of the Dire Hunt
  • 1 Pain for All
  • 1 Pit Fight
  • 1 Prey Upon
  • 1 Primal Might
  • 1 Prizefight
  • 1 Quirion Elves
  • 1 Rabid Gnaw
  • 1 Ram Through
  • 1 Rampant Growth
  • 1 Red Hulk
  • 1 Return of the Wildspeaker
  • 1 Rhythm of the Wild
  • 1 Rishkar's Expertise
  • 1 Rite of Passage
  • 1 Rockfall Vale
  • 1 Rootbound Crag
  • 1 Ruby, Daring Tracker
  • 1 Seedborn Muse
  • 1 Sol Ring
  • 1 Solemn Simulacrum
  • 1 Stomping Ground
  • 1 Strax, Sontaran Nurse
  • 1 Strength of Will
  • 1 Stuffy Doll
  • 1 Swiftfoot Boots
  • 1 Tamiyo's Safekeeping
  • 1 The Last Agni Kai
  • 1 The Shire
  • 1 The Walls of Ba Sing Se
  • 1 Thornspire Verge
  • 1 Three Visits
  • 1 Tireless Provisioner
  • 1 Tireless Tracker
  • 1 Titanic Brawl
  • 1 Tyrite Sanctum
  • 1 Tyvar's Stand
  • 1 Ulvenwald Tracker
  • 1 Vigor