Monarch by ArtyMaus

Format: Commander

Commander: Garland, Royal Kidnapper

Bracket: 4

Deck overview

This is a Dimir theft-and-monarch deck built around Garland, Royal Kidnapper. Garland's enter-the-battlefield trigger crowns an opponent, and every time the crown changes hands he seizes a creature from the new monarch for as long as that player holds the title; meanwhile every stolen creature gets +2/+2 and can't be sacrificed. The deck amplifies that engine with a dense package of one-shot theft (Mind Flayer, Hostage Taker, Shield Broker, Subjugate the Hobbits, Volatile Stormdrake), goad effects (Ghoulish Impetus, Sly Instigator, The Master, Mesmerist) to keep opponents fighting each other, and graveyard theft/reanimation (Reanimate, Animate Dead, Sepulchral Primordial, Bringer of the Last Gift) to turn enemy graveyards into an army. It wins by overwhelming the table with buffed stolen creatures, backed by free countermagic and Toxic Deluge for board control. Consuming Aberration and Thief of Sanity provide backup value.

Decklist (100 cards)

  • 1 Animate Dead
  • 1 Arcane Signet
  • 1 Bloodthirsty Blade
  • 1 Bringer of the Last Gift
  • 1 Chameleon, Master of Disguise
  • 1 Changing Loyalty
  • 1 Charnel Serenade
  • 1 Chasm Skulker
  • 1 Coercive Impetus
  • 1 Come Back Wrong
  • 1 Command Tower
  • 1 Consuming Aberration
  • 1 Counterspell
  • 1 Darkwater Catacombs
  • 1 Demonic Tutor
  • 1 Desertion
  • 1 Didn't Say Please
  • 1 Drowned Catacomb
  • 1 Endless Obedience
  • 1 Evolving Wilds
  • 1 Extract from Darkness
  • 1 Fake Your Own Death
  • 1 Feed the Swarm
  • 1 Fellwar Stone
  • 1 Fetid Pools
  • 1 Fierce Guardianship
  • 1 Force of Will
  • 1 Fungal Fortitude
  • 1 Garland, Royal Kidnapper
  • 1 Ghoulish Impetus
  • 1 H.E.R.B.I.E. Scout Unit
  • 1 H.E.R.B.I.E., Lovable Robot
  • 1 Hostage Taker
  • 13 Island
  • 1 Keiga, the Tide Star
  • 1 Kitsune, Dragon's Daughter
  • 1 Mind Flayer
  • 1 Mind Stone
  • 1 Minion's Return
  • 1 Morphic Pool
  • 1 Myriad Landscape
  • 1 Mystic Remora
  • 1 Nephalia Smuggler
  • 1 Oft-Nabbed Goat
  • 1 Pact of Negation
  • 1 Parasitic Impetus
  • 1 Path of Ancestry
  • 1 Polluted Delta
  • 1 Reanimate
  • 1 S.H.I.E.L.D. Flying Car
  • 1 Sepulchral Primordial
  • 1 Shark Shredder, Killer Clone
  • 1 Shield Broker
  • 1 Shipwreck Marsh
  • 1 Siphon Insight
  • 1 Sly Instigator
  • 1 Sol Ring
  • 1 Solemn Simulacrum
  • 1 Spinal Embrace
  • 1 Subjugate the Hobbits
  • 1 Sunken Hollow
  • 14 Swamp
  • 1 Talisman of Dominance
  • 1 Taskmaster, Mercenary Mimic
  • 1 Terramorphic Expanse
  • 1 The Master, Mesmerist
  • 1 Thief of Sanity
  • 1 Toxic Deluge
  • 1 Treacherous Urge
  • 1 Underground River
  • 1 Vampiric Tutor
  • 1 Vislor Turlough
  • 1 Volatile Stormdrake
  • 1 Watery Grave
  • 1 Wayfarer's Bauble