Legends Legends - Kasimir the Lone Wolf
Kasimir the Lone Wolf by Richard Kane Ferguson
Hello! Welcome back to Legends Legends, the most exciting Commander series this side of the 90s. Today, we're building around another plain-Jane vanilla legendary creature in an attempt to bring some pizazz to an otherwise underwhelming card. How do we make Kasimir the Lone Wolf into a viable commander? Let's find out!
General Thoughts
Kasimir's history paints him as a capital-H Holy Man who took up the sword, first becoming a general in the kentsu army and then attempting to defeat Tetsuo Umezawa for the title of imperial champion. He fails, and he exiles himself in disgrace, but not before shedding his original name (Shasido Mayasi) and becoming Kasimir the Lone Wolf.
With just 19 decks logged on EDHrec, Kasimir has to be one of the least-popular Commanders of all time. As a former general in the kentsu, Kasimir knows a thing or two about leading an army of warriors into battle. Here, Kasimir sits at the helm of an entirely Warriors deck. What can an Azorius-aligned battalion of Warriors do on the battlefield?
Foot Soldiers
Azorius isn't known for its access to powerful creatures, but there are more than a few useful Warriors in white and blue that Kasimir the Lone Wolf loves to lead. A not-insignificant number of our band of brothers are Space Marines from the Warhammer 40,000 Commander decks. The Adeptus Astartes are all Warrior-class creatures, as are the Astartes Warrior tokens that many of them create.
Of these, the best are the squad cards. The squad ability helps us shore up those holes in our creature-heavy deck by getting us additional copies of the slim pickings of Warriors available to our colors. Ultramarines Honour Guard is one of my favorites, acting as an anthem for our otherwise underpowered Warriors (and for Kasimir himself).
Herald of Anafenza, Oketra the True, and God-Eternal Oketra also provide extra Warrior creatures to fill our ranks, while Arashin Foremost, Archetype of Imagination, and Herald of Dromoka each pass some useful keywords around our board, further buffing either Kasimir or our army, or both!
Selfless Samurai and Vexilus Praetor act as bodyguards for our expensive Commander, helping to keep him on the field long enough to get some damage in.
Space Marine Devastator and Mardu Woe-Reaper replace some of the typical interaction pieces we'd see, like Disenchant and Beckon Apparition (or whatever the mon-white version of that is) with bona-fide Warrior creatures. The Woe-Reaper makes a great early game play versus any deck that heavily utilizes its graveyard, and the Devastators can scale up to hit just the right number of permanents.
Thunderwolf Cavalry isn't really a game-ender all on its own, but the gradual buffing it does whenever it connects is enough to floor most opponents if he goes unanswered.
Norika Yamazaki, the Poet is our only source of recursion and will most often be used to return our Defenders of Humanity or The War Games.
Jazal Goldmane is one of the best game-enders in a creature-heavy deck, becoming a Craterhoof Behemoth (minus the trample) that we can activate multiple times if we have the mana for it.
Finally, I just want to shout out a truly classic creature in Aysen Crusader, who's only physical printing refers to the number of "Heroes" you control; this has since been updated to mean "Warriors" and "soldiers," but that shouldn't stop you from idolizing your Warriors as the heroic beings they are.
Regalia of Command
While blue might lack any particularly Warrior-themed kindred synergies, it's got no shortage of generic kindred effects. Cards like Kindred Boon and Kindred Discovery work just as well here as they do in a Merfolk deck, as do spells like And They Shall Know No Fear.
In addition, there are officially enough colorless artifact kindred cards to build around just about any creature type you'd like, so of course we're hoisting our Vanquisher's Banner high and outfitting Kasimir with an Heirloom Blade.
A whole host of 40k artifacts create Warriors as well, including Inquisitorial Rosette and Thunderhawk Gunship.
Obsidian Battle-Axe, Ancestral Katana, and Relic Axe are both Warrior-centric Equipment that can attach to our fighters easily, giving them just that much more hitting power when we go on offense.
Reflections of Littjara is an auto-include in any kindred deck that can afford it, in my opinion. We're effectively doubling the number of Warrior creatures we could possibly cast, greatly increasing the number of bodies we can actually put down each turn.
Finally, I really can't recommend Icon of Ancestry and Door of Destinies enough when building around an odd creature type (or a regular creature type in odd colors). These two pull their weight in terms of value, with the Icon refilling our hand and filtering the top of our library and the Door becoming its own win condition if left unanswered. Rally the Ranks fills in as the cheapest anthem we can get for our Warriors.
A Master Strategist
If there's one thing blue decks can do, however, it's draw cards. Besides the aforementioned Kindred Discovery, Titan of Littjara will also fill our hand with cards with just a few other Warriors on the field. Bident of Thassa and Vanguard Suppressors keep the cards coming at the same time as combat damage, and most Pauper players will be familiar with Distant Melody.
Also falling into this pseudo-category is Stonehewer Giant, who we'll use to fetch our Lightning Greaves or Swiftfoot Boots for Kasimir the Lone Wolf, or Blackblade Reforged if we've already found a way to protect him (perhaps via Counterspell or Arcane Denial?).
Ghostly Prison and Propaganda can slow down our opponents and make us an unappealing target for their attacks in the early game while we set up our mana base and rush to cast Kasimir, and give him a neat buff later on if we can hit him with our All That Glitters.
Mana Base
Like many of our Legends Legends, Kasimir the Lone Wolf is an expensive creature that we do not want to cast from our command zone more than once. To keep pace with those much cheaper commanders out there, we're running a critical mass of eight total ramp/cost reduction effects. Many of the standards are here, but I just want to call out the Pearl Medallion and Sapphire Medallion. These used to be expensive as all hell, but their MH3 reprints have dropped their price to below $3! It's hard to say no to this cycle these days.
This is all in addition to our 36 lands, hopefully enough to hit a land drop every turn, or at least get us far enough to attach Sword of the Animist to something.
Decklist
Strategy
We're really only doing one thing in this Kasimir the Lone Wolf deck, and that's running out Warrior creatures. I don't need to go turn-by-turn for you; suffice to say you'll want to fill the board with cheap Warriors early and drop your anthems later to get the most power on the board all at once. Kasimir the Lone Wolf usually doesn't make an appearance until well past turn five, when we can be assured we have a method to protect him.
Our best game-enders include a surprise attack from a flying force when we drop an Archetype of Imagination onto the field, or a big attack from a double-striking Kasimir with a few buffs on him.
Budget
This deck has an estimated cost of about $103, which is surprising given its relatively weak power level. Most of that is tied up in a handful of $5 cards, but two stand out as over $10. Thunderhawk Gunship is one of the most consistent ways for this deck to create Warrior tokens each turn, and Door of Destinies is an indisputably essential kindred support card. If we want to bring this deck under $100, we can easily swap these two out for any of the cheaper Warriors in our colors, like Kor Blademaster, or a cheaper support card like Herald's Horn.
Wrapping Up
My gut reaction to Kasimir the Lone Wolf was to build an entirely Wolf creature deck - what fun that would be in the ostensibly wrong colors for the creature type! Unfortunately, there are only two wolf creatures that could fit into an Azorius deck, Tundra Wolves and Lupine Prototype. Instead, I've resigned myself to this Warrior kindred deck. Sorry I couldn't subvert everyone's expectations this time around, I'll do better next time.
Thanks again for reading! If you have any wacky ideas for a Kasimir the Lone Wolf deck, I'd love to hear all about it in the comments, or you can always come harass me on Twitter.
Until next time!
