Conditions Allow - Dash in EDH with Goro-Goro and Satoru

(Goro-Goro and Satoru

| Art by Johannes Voss)

Dashing Forward... Again

Hello, and welcome back to Conditions Allow, where I take a legendary creature with a drawback and build a Commander deck to turn it into a strength. Except, for this episode I'm re-visiting an entire mechanic from Magic's past: Dash. I've tacked Dash once before, but March of the Machine has finally given me the perfect commander to support this mechanic in Goro-Goro and Satoru

As a mechanic, Dash suffers from a few problems that are only exacerbated in multiplayer Magic. First and foremost, you can't really develop your board when your creatures are continually returning to your hand. Not only is the tempo loss hard to offset, those creatures take up space in your hand. Casting those creatures also eats up mana you could use on removal and draw spells. Most importantly, however, you're left vulnerable to counterattacks from each of your opponents. In a single-player draft environment this is offset by the resilience to sorcery-speed removal, but against three opponents and plenty of instants, it's a devastating setback. Goro-Goro and Satoru

Are Dash Creatures Any Good?

Before we talk about the commander, let's quickly recap the real centerpiece of this deck, the available Dash creatures. I'm focusing on the creatures with the highest impact, so Mardu Shadowspear

The original centerpiece for the deck makes a return as well. You don't usually want to actually Dash Warbringer

Finally, we have a few big hitters. Pitiless Horde

Unblocked, Unbothered

Of course, all that depends on your creatures actually getting through to your opponents' life totals. Apart from the few fliers, most of your creatures are relatively fragile, with much lower toughness than power, and because you have to cast those creatures every turn, traditional sources of evasion, like Whispersilk Cloak

Instead, I searched for as many ways as possible to make creatures hard to block without spending mana. Luckily, this deck doesn't care about Alora, Merry Thief

I've also been experimenting with Wingcrafter

Finally, I have a few new enchantments to join Onslaught

Winning the Race

The real game-changer for Dash, however, is Goro-Goro and Satoru

The earlier iteration of this deck had a strict limit on the amount of damage it could do in a turn, which was tied to the number of Dash creatures you could cast in a turn. Now, however, you can deal increasing amounts of damage, even with just Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury

Even with the help from Goro-Goro and Satoru

This Dash deck is one I've been working on personally for quite some time now. Goro-Goro and Satoru

Are you interested in any niche mechanics from Magic's past? What commanders have given you surprise support for your pet cards? Tell me about them in the comments, and thanks for reading!