Ares by tntking124

Format: Commander

Commander: Ares, God of War

Bracket: 3

DeckCheck Threat Index: 47

Deck overview

This deck utilizes Ares, God of War to turn self-sacrificing and high-power aggressive creatures into an engine of relentless pressure and recursive card advantage. By returning attacking creatures to hand when they die, Ares breaks the inherent downside of temporary blitz attackers like Lightning Skelemental, Ball Lightning, and Rot-Curse Rakshasa. The deck accelerates with fast mana and cost reducers, establishing Ares by Turn 2 or 3 and deploying recurring attackers by Turn 4. From there, it layers asymmetric attrition via Grave Pact, hand destruction, and aristocrat drain effects like Blood Artist and Garna, Bloodfist of Keld. Game-ending pressure culminates through extra combat steps granted by Karlach, Fury of Avernus, Combat Celebrant, and Full Throttle, closing games around Turn 7. Free and low-cost interaction spells such as Deflecting Swat and Deadly Rollick safeguard Ares during critical combat steps, while Sneak Attack provides a resilient secondary vector.

Decklist (100 cards)

  • 1 Altar's Reap
  • 1 Arcane Signet
  • 1 Arena of Glory
  • 1 Ares, God of War
  • 1 Badlands
  • 1 Ball Lightning
  • 1 Bedevil
  • 1 Black Market Connections
  • 1 Blackcleave Cliffs
  • 1 Blazemire Verge
  • 1 Blightstep Pathway // Searstep Pathway
  • 1 Blood Artist
  • 1 Blood Crypt
  • 1 Bloodstained Mire
  • 1 Bojuka Bog
  • 1 Bolt Bend
  • 1 Chaos Warp
  • 1 Chrome Mox
  • 1 City of Brass
  • 1 Combat Celebrant
  • 1 Command Tower
  • 1 Corrupted Conviction
  • 1 Curse of Opulence
  • 1 Cursed Mirror
  • 1 Dark Ritual
  • 1 Deadly Dispute
  • 1 Deadly Rollick
  • 1 Deflecting Swat
  • 1 Demonic Tutor
  • 1 Dragonskull Summit
  • 1 Dreadhorde Butcher
  • 1 Enduring Courage
  • 1 Etali, Primal Storm
  • 1 Exotic Orchard
  • 1 Feed the Swarm
  • 1 Fling
  • 1 Full Throttle
  • 1 Garna, Bloodfist of Keld
  • 1 Gemstone Caverns
  • 1 Grave Pact
  • 1 Graven Cairns
  • 1 Great Train Heist
  • 1 Greedy Freebooter
  • 1 Grim Wanderer
  • 1 Gut, True Soul Zealot
  • 1 Infernal Grasp
  • 1 Ingris Stingerquill
  • 1 Jeska's Will
  • 1 Jet Medallion
  • 1 Judith, the Scourge Diva
  • 1 Kardur, Doomscourge
  • 1 Karlach, Fury of Avernus
  • 1 Kratos, God of War
  • 1 Lightning Greaves
  • 1 Lightning Skelemental
  • 1 Lotus Petal
  • 1 Luxury Suite
  • 1 Mana Confluence
  • 1 Mass Hysteria
  • 1 Mithril Coat
  • 1 Morbid Opportunist
  • 3 Mountain
  • 1 Nasty End
  • 1 Night's Whisper
  • 1 Pawn of Ulamog
  • 1 Perforating Artist
  • 1 Phyrexian Altar
  • 1 Phyrexian Arena
  • 1 Pitiless Plunderer
  • 1 Priest of Forgotten Gods
  • 1 Prismatic Vista
  • 1 Professional Face-Breaker
  • 1 RMS Titanic
  • 1 Rabid Attack
  • 1 Reflecting Pool
  • 1 Rot-Curse Rakshasa
  • 1 Ruby Medallion
  • 1 Samut, Hazoret's Champion
  • 1 Seething Song
  • 1 Seize the Spotlight
  • 1 Shadow, Mysterious Assassin
  • 1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
  • 1 Skullclamp
  • 1 Sneak Attack
  • 1 Sol Ring
  • 1 Sulfurous Springs
  • 4 Swamp
  • 1 Talisman of Indulgence
  • 1 Talon Gates of Madara
  • 1 Terminate
  • 1 Untimely Malfunction
  • 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
  • 1 Urza's Saga
  • 1 Vandalblast
  • 1 Village Rites