Conditions Allow - The Capitoline Triad EDH
(The Capitoline Triad | Art by Syd Mills)
Hello, and welcome to Conditions Allow, the series where I take a legendary creature with a drawback and build a commander deck to turn it into a strength. To kick off the new year, I'm picking a commander from a set I mostly overlooked last year, Assassin's Creed, and building The Capitoline Triad.
The Capitoline Triad is a legendary colorless 7/7 that costs . However, they cost less for every historic card in your graveyard, and you'll want historic cards in your graveyard because they have an activated ability that requires you to exile historic cards with combined mana value of thirty or more.
In return, you get an emblem that makes all your creatures' base power and toughness nine. That's a huge boost for all the Myr and Thopter tokens we'll be making. First, though, we'll need to fill the graveyard quickly, to make it easier to cast The Capitoline Triad and be able to activate their ability.
To The Junkyard
Colorless decks struggle to draw cards, but this one has plenty of tools for milling. There are plenty of cards that mill one or two cards at a time, and I'm including all of them. Codex Shredder is especially useful because it lets you grab any key cards you mill later on. Millikin also pulls double duty in this deck as mill and ramp, especially with the cost reduction effect of The Capitoline Triad.
In order to get to 30 mana value of historic cards in grave quickly, however, we'll need some bigger mill effects, too. Mesmeric Orb is a powerful mill engine, but it can attract some negative attention by milling your opponents, too.
Sands of Delirium takes advantage of the big ramp spells I'm including, which also help pay for Keening Stone. These will usually target yourself, but you can also turn them upon your opponents if they start to get low on cards. Altar of Dementia also contributes to a backup mill plan by sacrificing all your 9/9 creatures to quickly deplete everyone's libraries.
Another Triad's Trash
Too offset the limited draw available to colorless decks, I'm including as many ways to take advantage of the graveyard in this deck as possible. Scrap Trawler is a great way to keep Grinding Station loops going, but will struggle to retrieve the bigger artifacts this deck relies on. Junk Diver works a little better, but Wondrous Crucible and Yggdrasil, Rebirth Engine are even better.
Free spells are always powerful, and exiling a bunch of cards you don't need anymore with The Capitoline Triad is a great way to ensure you hit what you want with Wondrous Crucible.
Trading Post is the perfect card for this deck. It lets you grab artifacts you need from the graveyard, discard big artifacts from your hand as exile fodder, and make tokens once you have The Capitoline Triad's emblem in play. Crucible of Worlds is expensive, but also well worth it for this deck. Colorless decks get to play a lot of powerful utility lands that we'll mill straight into the graveyard. Crucible lets you get the one you need right when you need it.
I'm also including a few cards that can be used from the graveyard. Cityscape Leveler is a flexible removal option, if a bit mana-intensive. Soul of New Phyrexia is one of your only ways to protect yourself from board wipes, very important for a deck trying to go wide with big creatures. Lastly, Metalwork Colossus is a full third of the cost for The Capitoline Triad, and it acts as a sacrifice outlet for Scrap Trawler in a pinch.
Iron Giants
With a plan to mill cards and utilize the graveyard in place, we can consider what cards we're milling. Big artifacts are the priority to make hitting a total mana value of 30 in the graveyard as easy as possible. Myr Battlesphere, Threefold Thunderhulk, and Rolling Hamsphere all sport hefty mana costs and flood the board with tokens, exactly what this deck is looking for. Canoptek Scarab Swarm and Horn of Gondor are slightly cheaper, but still create plenty of tokens to overrun your opponents.
To try and keep up at least some card advantage, I'm including both Kozilek, the Broken Reality, who also makes tokens, and Kozilek, the Great Distortion. Sandstone Oracle also helps refill your hand in the mid and late game. Chimil, the Inner Sun doesn't draw cards, but it lets you cast a free spell every turn. Stopping your big Artifacts and Eldrazi from being countered is also a huge upside.
Finally, a few cards that aren't historic, but make a lot of tokens. Skittering Invasion only makes tokens, but Kozilek's Command and Eldrazi Confluence can both also function as removal. More often, however, you'll want to use Kozilek's Command to scry through the top of your deck to find the exact cards you need. Of course, creating an army of 9/9s isn't bad either.
I haven't leaned as heavily on mana rocks as you might expect a deck with a ten-mana commander. Whenever possible, I've chosen ramp that also serves another purpose. Hedron Archive and Stonespeaker Crystal can both be sacrificed to draw cards, while Ornithopter of Paradise is a flier to turn into a 9/9. Of course, that doesn't mean I'm ignoring powerful ramp, like Basalt Monolith and Worn Powerstone. This deck does still need to cast seven- and nine-mana spells in order to win.
When I think of graveyard decks I don't often think of colorless commanders. Even artifact decks are usually blue, at least, but The Capitoline Triad is a surprisingly effective graveyard commander. Self mill helps to offset the limited draw available, and ensures you find the cards you need throughout the game. If you've been considering building a colorless deck, The Capitoline Triad is a great place to start.
