Commander Spotlight: Slinza, the Spiked Stampede
(Slinza, the Spiked Stampede || art by Ishikawa Kenta)
You Ready To Fight With Beasts? I Got You Covered!
Hello my friends, and welcome to another Commander Spotlight! This regular column will feature one legendary creature, usually from the most recent Commander precons or other related product, and provide you with a deep dive into ideas that should help get you started brewing your own Commander deck around it.
I'll be tapping into my vast deckbuilding experience in Magic and Commander, with an eye towards maximizing fun for the whole table. Did everyone have a good time playing against me and my deck, and will I be welcome back to play again? That's my definition of success!
The new Magic set Foundations is on the shelves, and the first card that caught my eye from the new legends among the Jumpstart cards is Slinza, the Spiked Stampede.
Now, we've had a few legends over the years that could lead a Beast kindred deck: there's Kaheera, the Orphanguard, Radagast, Wizard of Wilds, and Tawnos, the Toymaker, to start. But, strangely enough, none of these were completely dedicated to Beasts alone, so I for one am glad to see a legend who's a Beast itself and is dedicated exclusively to Beasts and beastly things... and in Gruul nonetheless!
Can I get a roar of excitement everyone?
Slinza makes any Beast you control enter with a +1/+1 counter, making Beasts even bigger and adding in some +1/+1 synergy potential if you want to layer that into your deck. But the other two abilities that bookend that ability are what get me growling.
Discounting other Beast spells by two mana is awesome if you want to cast a higher cost Beast, but you can also use that mana discount to instead pay for that triggered ability to have Slinza fight something. Who doesn't like a good Beast fight? Add in ways to boost Slinza's size over time and that fight ability could take down most creatures that need taking down.
Let's crash through the foliage and see what a Slinza deck might be up to!
Beasts with Trample
While it's nice that any Beast will be a bit bigger thanks to the +1/+1 counter from Slinza, being bigger hits harder when the creature has trample. Quartzwood Crasher is a Beast that actually cares about trampling, and when you trample through it'll make a token that's also a Beast!
Elder Gargaroth is one of the greatest Beasts of all time, and casting it for three mana makes it even more amazing. Ulvenwald Oddity can transform and give all your creatures trample and haste. Rampaging Baloths has trample and makes more Beasts for each Landfall trigger you get. Ghor-Clan Rampager has trample, but you could just hang onto it to use as a combat trick with its Bloodrush ability.
There are actually some Beasts that involve lifegain, and if you're running them you might consider Sproutback Trudge, which is quite large, has trample, and can be brought back from the graveyard if you've gained life this turn.
Higher Cost Beasts
Of course the most fun you can have with Slinza is casting more expensive Beasts for two mana less! Thunderfoot Baloth's Lieutenant ability makes your already large Beasts even bigger and scarier, giving them trample if they don't already have it.
Caller of the Pack is a little too expensive for the effect, but shaving two mana from its cost makes it well worth it. If it attacks with Slinza on the battlefield, the myriad copies will get the +1/+1 counter and you can get a fight trigger for each copy if you want, and, of course, Craterhoof Behemoth is the ultimate finisher in Beast form, and costing two less mana makes it much easier to cast.
Grave Sifter is a great way to recover your dead Beasts after a battlefield sweeper or two. Cultivator Colossus is a powerful engine card, but you need to have a couple lands in hand to really get it started, which can be tough to do if you want to get up to seven mana, but at five mana, which you already should have with Slinza on the battlefield? Now we're talking!
Protean Hulk is often used to create creature-based combos, but in this deck it could just be a 6/6 with a +1/+1 counter for just five mana that will replace itself with some number of creatures when it dies through the normal course of a game, or maybe sacrificed to something like Greater Good.
Altanak, the Thrice-Called can be discarded early to get back a land you've sacrificed earlier, or you can just wait and cast it after Slinza is on the battlefield to make a gigantic beatdown monster. For a few mana more you can have an even bigger beatdown monster with Titanoth Rex, or if you want to cycle it early for a fresh card you can.
Curator Beastie is a fresh new Beast of decent size that manifests dread when it enters or attacks, but importantly has reach for some much needed protection from fliers.
Other Good Beasts
The more Beasts the merrier! There are a lot of Beasts that are just awesome Magic cards, so we're happy to run them here. Any deck that wants to win with combat damage is happy to run Questing Beast, which, in addition to all its other abilities, means your opponents can't save themselves with various Fog effects. Garruk's Packleader is a Beast with built-in card draw.
There's a surprising number of utility Beasts as well! Manglehorn has been making its way into a lot of my decks these days anyway due to all the Treasure cards, but we can also run Indrik Stomphowler, Gemrazer, Sawtusk Demolisher and even Mold Shambler, all much easier to cast with kicker with Slinza's discount.
Surprisingly, Armored Scrapgorger is a Beast that gives you mana and can pick away at player's graveyards. Spurred Wolverine was overpriced way back when it was printed in Onslaught, but shave two mana off its cost?
Being able to tap two untapped Beasts you control to give a creature first strike can really make combat tricky for your opponents; even if they're attacking someone other than yourself, since you can give an opponent's creature first strike.
And let's not forget good ol' Thragtusk! It's time to dust off the old "swagtusk" nickname from its time in Standard.
Beasts Matter
We do have some "Beasts Matter" cards available, many of which date all the way back to Onslaught block. Woodland Liege is a new, civilized version of Wirewood Savage, and while neither are actual Beasts (outside of Maskwood Nexus-type shenanigans), I think having a few token Elf cards to draw cards could be worth a few slots. Beast Whisperer is another one I might consider too.
Some other gems from the Onslaught era include Krosan Warchief, which can discount your Beasts even more, Ravenous Baloth, which can gain large chunks of life, Feral Throwback,which has a weird old mechanic provoke that could mess up blocking your attacks, and Aether Charge, which domes an opponent for four each time a Beast you control enters, which can really add up!
Since Realmwalker has changeling, it's an honorary Beast and can help you "draw" cards by casting Beast cards from the top of your library.
Fight Synergy
Slinza likes to fight, so we can lean into that synergy a little bit. Neyith of the Dire Hunt draws you a card each time one or more creatures you control fight or are blocked, and seems like another worthy non-Beast we may want to include. Contested Cliffs is a gem from Onslaught that lets a Beast of yours fight a creature your opponent controls.
Ezuri's Predation creates a 4/4 Beast for each creature your opponents control, and then they fight each other; hopefully you've got that Aether Charge on the battlefield when that happens!
Gruul Ragebeast is a Beast that arranges more fights for you, what more could you want?
Boosting Slinza
If we're going to have Slinza fight at times during the game, we might as well get it well prepared for the task! Anara, Wolvid Familiar is a Beast that makes Slinza indestructible on your turn so it can fight down deathtouch creatures with impunity.
Basilisk Collar, Blackblade Reforged, and Mithril Coat are three excellent pieces of Equipment for any creature that's going to do a lot of fighting and combat.
Rhonas's Monument seems perfect for the deck, discounting your green creature spells by another generic mana, and when you cast it target creature gets +2/+2 until the end of the turn and gains trample if it doesn't already have it.
+1/+1 Counter Synergy
We could lean a little bit into +1/+1 counter synergies since Slinza will be handing them out like red meat to hungry monsters. The first card I thought of is Cauldron of Souls, which is an excellent way to preserve your creatures from a sweeper: each other Beast that comes back from the persist ability will have their -1/-1 counter knocked off by the +1/+1 counter from Slinza, and if Ridgescale Tusker is one of those dying Beasts, it can put a +1/+1 counter on Slinza to knock off its -1/-1 counter.
Herald of Ilharg is a neat card from Ravnica: Clue Edition I've been trying to find a decent home for, and this seems perfect: Slinza will let it enter with a +1/+1 counter, and then each time you cast a creature spell it gets two more counters, and if that spell has mana value five or greater, you'll get to dome each of your opponents equal to the counters on Herald.
Rhythm of the Wild's riot ability is great for piling on even more +1/+1 counters, or you if you want to attack right away get that haste. Herd Baloth generates a 4/4 Beast token whenever you put a +1/+1 counter on it.
Bloated Contaminator is a good size Beast with trample, and when it deals combat damage to an opponent you get to proliferate all those +1/+1 counters. Plaguemaw Beast is another Beast that can proliferate. Did you know that Swarm Shambler is also a Beast? Renegade Krasis's evolve ability does nice work growing all your other creatures.
Inspiring Call provides a nice combo of protection for your creatures with counters and card draw, all at instant speed. I think I missed Uncivil Unrest when March of the Machines Commander came out, but it seems like a sweet enchantment for this deck, giving riot to your nontoken creatures, and making any of them with +1/+1 counters on them very dangerous.
Power Four or Greater
Since we're going to want to play with Beasts that have high enough power to satisfy Slinza's fight trigger, we could add in a few cards that care about power four or greater.
Garruk's Uprising, Fight Rigging, Sarkhan's Unsealing, and Monstrous Vortex are all very powerful enchantments when the bulk of your creatures are bulky enough to satisfy their triggers.
Spearbreaker Behemoth and Paleoloth are decent-sized Beasts from the Shards of Alara block that care about creatures with power five or more with really nifty abilities.
Smuggler's Surprise can function like a Heroic Intervention for your creatures with power four or greater, and if you have enough extra mana you can add in the other spree choices.
Untap Lands
Casting a big enough Beast and paying for Slinza's trigger is going to use up a lot of mana on your turn, so we may want to include some ways to untap our lands so we can cast something else in the same turn, or have mana available to respond to things during our opponents' turns. Bear Umbra, Nature's Will and Sword of Feast and Famine are solid choices for this.
What sort of cards are you going to play in your Slinza, the Spiked Stampede deck? What new legends from Foundations Jump Start are you most excited to build decks around?
