Legends Legends - Stangg

Welcome back to Legends Legends! In this column, we explore 1994's Legends set and the first ever legendary creatures created for Magic: The Gathering. These creatures are almost entirely considered unplayable, or at least generally outclassed by most modern legendaries. Our mission, handed down to us from the divine Elder Dragon Highlander gods, is to build a functioning Commander deck for each and every one of them.

Today's Legend is Stangg

General Thoughts

Stangg

Stangg

Exactly how many copies of Stangg

A Splinter Twin Situation is Developing

Other decks that look to manipulate the legends rule are often trying to exploit Clone

We're playing with creature types just a little bit in this deck: Kindred Charge

Choosing Warrior lets us double up on Ogre Battledriver

Flameshadow Conjuring

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

Jaxis, the Troublemaker's ability to create blitzed tokens means we'll always have the option to dig a little further into our library and she'll be safe from combat.

Delina, Wild Mage and Felhide Spiritbinder have to attack (or tap and then untap) to trigger their Twin effects, making them a little risky but still easy value and a no-brainer choice for this theme.

Besides these permanent-based spells, we're also running Electroduplicate, Heat Shimmer, and Twinflame to eke out that extra copy or two when we really need it.

Finally, Blade of Selves and Helm of the Host are two more basically free copies of Stangg each turn, and they let us threaten the entire table at once. Once we've filled our field with copies of Stangg's Twin, we can use Second Harvest to double the number of tokens we control. This should be more than enough to end the game, but just in case, we've also got Parallel Lives for good measure.

Remember, Stangg isn't the only great target for our Twinning effects. Wood Elves, Reclamation Sage, Solemn Simulacrum and Craterhoof Behemoth are all excellent choices to Twinflame for an extra trigger of their ETBs.

The Impact Effect

We can't rely on attacking with the Stangg Twin tokens, since Splinter Twin effects won't grant haste to the token created by our original Stangg's effect. However, we can increase our chances with Enduring Courage and Ogre Battledriver.

Even so, the tokens created as part of Stangg copies entering the battlefield from our Blade of Selves's myriad effect still won't be able to attack. To ensure we're not wasting precious copy effects without any upside, we'll guarantee some damage from those tokens using Impact Tremors effects.

Purphoros, God of the Forge and Warstorm Surge are my favorites, but I like the utility of including Witty Roastmaster and Agate Instigator as well. Plus, any of these creatures can be copied with one of our Twinning effects in a pinch!

Tribute to the World Tree becomes a huge draw engine in this deck designed to create as many copies of our three-power commander as possible. Each of those Splinter Twinned Stanggs will draw us a card on the way into play, and its Twin will too!

We'll use Crown of Gondor to become the monarch and stay that way with our army of legendary creatures hitting the field multiple times per turn.

Legends Never Die

This deck basically can't run without one of our legend-rule-nullifying effects. Without Sakashima of a Thousand Faces, we're left with two: Mirror Box and Mirror Gallery. Sticking one of these to the board is essential to our strategy.

One or the other will no doubt be the target of our Reckless Handling, and often our Gamble, as well.

Sundial of the Infinite is another key card we'll often find ourselves tutoring up. With the Sundial, we can end the turn before/while the "exile/sacrifice this token" effects from our various Splinter Twin effects are on the stack, removing those triggers and saving our duplicate tokens until the next turn.

Asceticism makes Stangg and his Twin immune to targeted removal, and lets us regenerate them both should an opponent drop a Wrath of God on our board.

If we can't find our hexproof-ing enchantment in time, I like to keep an Avoid Fate up my sleeve to deal with targeted Infernal Grasps and Darksteel Mutations. In a pinch, we can sacrifice Plaza of Heroes to save our battlefield from a board wipe, as well.

Mana Base

Our mana base for this Stangg Commander deck is pretty typical of most Gruul builds. Where it differs is we're favoring ramp effects that come on an enters-the-battlefield effect rather than boring ol' mana dorks. Rather than a Llanowar Elves, we're using Wood Elves, Prosperous Innkeeper, Springbloom Druid, and Yavimaya Granger to tutor lands to the battlefield.

These creatures can each be copied for an additional trigger of their effect when we don't have Stangg or his tokens out to copy, so they make for effective repeatable ramp in a pinch. Note that Yavimaya Granger can fetch up our Plaza of Heroes for defending our commander(s) and Inventors' Fair for tutoring up our Mirror Box effects.

Budget

All told, this Stangg Commander deck rounds out to about $300. Its most important cards are, unfortunately, some of its most expensive. 

Craterhoof Behemoth is hands down one of the best top-end Overrun effects green can get. That said, it's still $25 or so for the cheapest printings. It can easily be cut and replaced with an End-Raze Forerunners, but you won't see that full +10/+10 from having so many extra Stanggs lying around.

Parallel Lives also turns up the heat on our Splinter Twin situation by making two hasted tokens per splinter, but at $30 it's quite expensive these days. We could save $5 by opting for Doubling Season instead, but I'm certain we'll miss that extra mana we need to cast it, and its +1/+1 counters effect won't see as much synergy as we'd hope. Or, if you're looking to drop another $25 on this deck, consider adding the Doubling Season in addition to the Parallel Lives and watch the tokens roll in.

Stangg Deck List

Wrap Up

This deck takes a lot of skill to pilot. Knowing exactly when it's safe to activate all of our Splinter Twin effects requires you to learn your opponents' decks and analyze the best moment to strike, like a true warrior. 

Other Stangg token builds could make use of the scant few red cards that can populate, like Ghired's Belligerence, but would still require a Mirror Box to function properly. Let me know how you would build Stangg in the comments!

Like always, thanks for reading!