Dueling Deck Techs: Aristocrats

Anax, Hardened in the Forge

by Jason A. Engle

Welcome to another Dueling Deck Tech!

Magic has had 30 years to not only come up with a whole host of different and interesting themes to build a deck around but also develop them into something you can play with in all five colors. The problem is that too many five-color decks make them all feel less special. In this series, I want to break apart the five-color decks.

I'll discuss the theme, what value each color adds to it, the core colors of the theme, and then suggest a pair of commanders which each use at least one of the core colors but bring other spices to the table.

Core colors, for the record, will be determined by total number of decks in a given color with that theme under EDHrec. There will be some consideration given to the mono-color, two-color, and three-color categories.

This entry? Aristocrats

Why Play Aristocrats?

First off, I want to try to pin down "aristocrats" as a strategy before I argue for it. It originated with the card Falkenrath Aristocrat

Ahem.

Aristocrat decks are one of those archetypes that take a part of Magic which is usually a negative (creatures dying shrinks your board state... boo!) and turns it into a positive (my creature dying somehow turned into three tokens and eight damage!). By laying down an intricate grid of unusual effects, you could come out of a Wrath of God

They have elements of token decks, but the tokens are used as sac fodder, not beat sticks. They may use reanimation spells, but they're less about discarding/milling and more about re-using cheap creatures to good effect. 

Alright. Let's talk about it.

Core Colors of Aristocrats?

Aristocrat decks are almost exclusively in the realm of black decks. Black has more sacrifice outlets and creatures with dying triggers than any other color. It has occasionally sneaky ways to generate tokens for recurring use, prevalent as needed. Mono-black aristocrats is not only viable but the second most common color "combination" for the strategy.

Okay, this brings us to nailing down a second color. White has a high number of death triggers and self-sacrificing creatures. It doesn't have a lot of sacrifice outlets itself, but it really goes to town in the tokens department. It essentially generates the meat for the grinder, and it occasionally has its own ways to make those deaths hurt harder. Also of note is that aristocrat decks like to make repeated use of small creatures, and white enables that strategy incredibly well.

The most popular color combination for aristocrat decks is Teysa Karlov

Orzhov

1. Cruel Celebrant
2. Elenda, the Dusk Rose
3. Athreos, God of Passage

Black

1. Midnight Reaper
2. Blood Artist
3. Sifter of Skulls
4. Carrion Feeder
5. Village Rites

White

1. Doomed Traveler
2. Ministrant of Obligation
3. Rally the Ancestors
4. Luminous Broodmoth
5. Hallowed Spiritkeeper

Okay, so we have an idea of what these colors can do on their own, but what happens when they get separated?

What Does Each Color Offer?

Red is a major contender in the aristocrat game. Like black, it has a plethora of ways to dish out a lot of tokens, usually Goblins. Also like black, it has its fair share of sacrifice outlets and death triggers. Red lacks ways to interact with creature cards already in the graveyard, which hinders it from working as an aristocrat deck on its own.

Green's role in an aristocrat deck is as a bit of a hole-filler. Green doesn't have many sacrifice outlets, but what it does are potent. It has incredibly valuable creatures with either enters or dies triggers to take advantage of. And of course, it's very good at getting things back from the graveyard, although this broader effect isn't as good as black's cheaper Disentomb

Blue has very little to do with aristocrats; it's an instant and sorcery color, one which rarely cares about creatures. Tokens, however, are a necessary part of the game, and so blue does get them in specific ways that can interact with an aristocrat deck. A lot of blue's sacrifice is meant to interact with Zombies or artifacts, but it does have one interesting use case: sacrificial counterspells.

Alright, that being said, here are our options:

Azorius and Jund: Genku, Future Shaper

Dimir and Naya: Kels, Fight Fixer

Rakdos and Bant: Garna, Bloodfist of Keld

Selesnya and Grixis: Saffi Eriksdotter

Golgari and Jeskai: Savra, Queen of the Golgari

Boros and Sultai: Hofri Ghostforge

I really struggled with this set of viable options. I knew that black would have to be one of the two-color options. I waffled a bit from there. White would need some help with getting sacrifice outlets, ways to get cards back from the graveyard, and impactful effects. I also looked at the actual commanders available and where they could go. Ultimately, I chose...

Overview of Garna, Bloodfist of Keld

Garna has a unique take on the death trigger, making it almost modal. She checks to see if your creatures that die were attacking. If so, you get a card. If not, you still get to deal one damage to each opponent. Throughout the game, we can leverage either side of it. Creatures dying in combat naturally enables the card draw, though our instant-speed sacrifice outlets also let us draw those cards. Remember, they just have to be attacking as they die! This does encourage us towards aggression, especially with a four-drop commander. 

Garna decks are perfectly capable of going all in on aggression and use any trades or blocks for card advantage. We may occasionally do that, but this is an aristocrat deck. We want to control when our creatures die, and we can do that to great effect with the tools offered by red and black. A lot of these sacrifice outlets are prioritized for being free. If they generate a decent effect, so much the better.

Okay, so we have ways to sacrifice creatures, but that's difficult to keep up. We'll be drawing a decent amount of cards, but if it's a 1:1 replacement, we're still going to run out of steam. We need more creatures per card to make this pop off. Enter: token-makers. Single use tokens, like Goblin Instigator

The recursion option for our creatures is genuinely an important part of the plan. Like with the token-makers, we want to focus on repeatable but efficient. We have control over when our creatures die and can therefore strategically deploy or use these effects as needed. Special shout-out to Chthonian Nightmare

Even with all these sacrifice outlets and ways to re-use our creatures or get more meat for the grinder, all our deck will do is spin its wheels without a good output. Garna, Bloodfist of Keld

I'd like to give a special shout out to Rankle and Torbran

Here's the full beefcake, in all her glory:

Enjoy going smash!

Overview of Brenard, Ginger Sculptor

Brenard, Ginger Sculptor

These sacrifice outlets do generate more value than the black and red ones, being more intentionally picked for usefulness, because we're somewhat lacking in the death trigger department outside of our commander. That's not to say none! We have a few permanents that can see deaths happen and generate value for us.

Our commander has a niche but fun application: reusing self-sacrificers. Sakura-Tribe Elder

Now I'd be remiss if I didn't take advantage of every part of our commander's text box. It's not just a useful death trigger: Brenard doesn't make an identical copy of the card or bring it back with a finality counter or something like that. He turns them into Golem tokens with three power. Each of those (Golem, token, power 3) are solid subthemes to leverage for additional, unique advantages.

The final piece of the puzzle is that these Golems are artifacts and Food. We have some engines in place that can rev up to keep us in the game or bring it to a close. Some of these even play into our aristocrat gameplan. Organic Extinction

Brenard is a spicy commander to brew around. He has a lot of unique directions and possibilities to build around. I enjoy him as a Golem theme deck, weird tokens (ala Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer

Conclusion

I always think I'm going to stay close to 2000 words this time...

Alright, who's interested in more non-black aristocrat options? How do you feel about these two decks as presented? Let me know in the comments below, which if any of these you would want to build!