Welcome to the Pit by Jooosh

Format: Commander

Commander: Maarika, Brutal Gladiator

Bracket: 3

Deck overview

This is a Jund combat-aggression deck helmed by Maarika, Brutal Gladiator that wins through layered extra-combat turns, oversized attackers, and equipment-driven value. Maarika's forced-block clause and on-your-turn indestructible body turn every swing into a permanent-saccing attrition engine while she connects for huge chunks of damage. The 99 backs her with seven extra-combat effects (Aggravated Assault, Combat Celebrant, Genji Glove, Hellkite Charger, Relentless Assault, Savage Beating, Seize the Day), treasure and untap engines (The Reaver Cleaver, Sword of Feast and Famine), and finishers such as Knuckles the Echidna or Brash Taunter + Blazing Sunsteel. Secondary lines include Helm of the Host copy loops and raw trampling beatdown from Ghalta, Primal Hunger and Etali, Primal Storm. The deck is light on tutors but dense in redundant combat payoffs, playing as a midrange Voltron/go-wide hybrid that grinds value through forced blocks then explodes with chained combat phases.

Decklist (100 cards)

  • 1 Aggravated Assault
  • 1 Arcane Signet
  • 1 Assassin's Trophy
  • 1 Barrow-Blade
  • 1 Blasphemous Act
  • 1 Blazemire Verge
  • 1 Blazing Sunsteel
  • 1 Brash Taunter
  • 1 Buster Sword
  • 1 Cinder Glade
  • 1 Combat Celebrant
  • 1 Command Tower
  • 1 Corrupted Conviction
  • 1 Cultivate
  • 1 Dark Fortress
  • 1 Dark Ritual
  • 1 Deadly Dispute
  • 1 Deflecting Swat
  • 1 Demonic Tutor
  • 1 Etali, Primal Storm
  • 1 Evolving Wilds
  • 1 Fear of Being Hunted
  • 1 Fire-Lit Thicket
  • 5 Forest
  • 1 Garruk's Uprising
  • 1 Genji Glove
  • 1 Ghalta, Primal Hunger
  • 1 Go for the Throat
  • 1 Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma
  • 1 Gruul Turf
  • 1 Hazel's Nocturne
  • 1 Hellkite Charger
  • 1 Helm of the Host
  • 1 Hero's Heirloom
  • 1 Jeska's Will
  • 1 Knuckles the Echidna
  • 1 Lightning Bolt
  • 1 Lightning Greaves
  • 1 Maarika, Brutal Gladiator
  • 1 Michelangelo, the Heart
  • 1 Mjölnir, Hammer of Thor
  • 11 Mountain
  • 1 Nasty End
  • 1 Nazgûl Battle-Mace
  • 1 Phyrexian Arena
  • 1 Quicksilver, Brash Blur
  • 1 Raphael, the Muscle
  • 1 Reanimate
  • 1 Red XIII, Proud Warrior
  • 1 Redirect Lightning
  • 1 Relentless Assault
  • 1 Riveteers Overlook
  • 1 Sam's Desperate Rescue
  • 1 Savage Beating
  • 1 Saw in Half
  • 1 Scarlet Spider, Ben Reilly
  • 1 Seize the Day
  • 1 Shelob's Ambush
  • 1 Slash, Reptile Rampager
  • 1 Smoldering Marsh
  • 1 Sol Ring
  • 8 Swamp
  • 1 Swiftfoot Boots
  • 1 Sword of Feast and Famine
  • 1 Tainted Peak
  • 1 Terminate
  • 1 The Eternity Elevator
  • 1 The Reaver Cleaver
  • 1 Thrill of Possibility
  • 1 Training Compound
  • 1 Untimely Malfunction
  • 1 Urabrask the Hidden
  • 1 Vampiric Tutor
  • 1 Venom, Deadly Devourer
  • 1 Vernal Fen
  • 1 Victimize
  • 1 Wooded Ridgeline
  • 1 Woodland Cemetery
  • 1 World War Hulk