Overview:

A targeted removal and creature control deck led by Shay Cormac, focusing on placing bounty counters on opponents' creatures and benefiting from their death through commander growth and various death triggers.

Primer:

The deck operates by using Shay's ability to strip protection from opponents' creatures and then targeting them with removal spells to generate bounty counters. The strategy revolves around controlling the board through targeted removal while growing the commander. Card draw from death triggers helps maintain hand advantage, while various equipment pieces help protect Shay and make him a legitimate combat threat. The deck can win through commander damage or by establishing board control through repeated removal and value generation.

Weaknesses:

The deck is heavily reliant on single-target removal, making it struggle against go-wide strategies or decks that can quickly rebuild their board. The mana base is somewhat basic and could use improvement, potentially leading to color-fixing issues. The deck can also struggle if Shay is repeatedly removed, as many of its synergies depend on him being present.

Top 10 Most Impactful Cards:

• Sol Ring
• Teysa Karlov
• Mari, the Killing Quill
• Path to Exile
• Horobi, Death's Wail
• Dark Ritual
• Lotus Bloom
• Sheoldred // The True Scriptures
• Morbid Opportunist
• Whispersilk Cloak

Attribute Ratings:

• Speed: 4/10
• Resilience: 5/10
• Consistency: 4/10
• Interaction: 7/10

Rating Justification:

This deck operates at a casual to focused casual level, with its strength lying primarily in its interaction suite rather than its ability to close out games quickly. While it has some powerful removal options and can generate value through death triggers, it lacks the explosive plays and consistent win conditions seen in higher-powered decks. The deck would struggle against optimized builds (6.0+) due to its slower speed and limited protection, but could hold its own against other casual decks through its strong removal package and commander-focused strategy.

Final power level rating: 4.5 - 5.0