Legends Legends - Tuknir Deathlock

Tuknir Deathlock by Liz Danforth

Hello, and welcome back to Legends Legends, the semi-weekly (when releases allow) deckbuilding column where we seek out the weirdest commanders from 1994's Legends in search of fun and unique Commander decks. This week, the mysterious Tuknir Deathlock takes the stage. Little to nothing is known of Tuknir, as he's got basically zero lore. With just 15 decks on EDHrec at the time of writing, where do we even begin with this guy? 

We know a few things for certain: Tuknir can fly, he's a red and green mage, and he wears a cool Dinosaur-skull helmet. His flavor text also mentions the Aether, as in that stuff that makes up the Blind Eternities and causes planeswalkers' sparks to ignite. He frequently finds himself in "unusual physical realms," whatever that means.

This Tuknir Deathlock Commander deck runs on Dinosaurs, combat tricks, and tried and true combat damage to win. Our plan is to channel the good ol' days of Gruul decks and play a bunch of creatures and trample over our foes. 

General Thoughts

Tuknir Deathlock is a 2/2 with flying for , and he has an activated ability to give a creature +2/+2 until the end of the turn. I'm sure that back in 1994, a 2/2 flier for four mana was great value, especially in red and green. These days, it's fairly lackluster, even for an uncommon. 

is a fairly prohibitive mana cost. Since we need to make exactly two red and two green mana, this might be one of the only decks where a turn-one Sol Ring doesn't win us the game (I kid, everyone knows the turn-one Sol Ring is undefeated).

To me, Tuknir Deathlock screams "combat tricks." A +2/+2 buff that we can activate at instant speed puts the pressure on our opponents to block smart, especially if we're attacking with a full hand and a ton of open mana. Granting vigilance or an untapping effect to Tuknir helps him attack alongside his creatures and still threaten to deploy the +2/+2. We'll bluff like Tuknir's effect is the only trick up our sleeve, then surprise someone with Colossal Might or Enrage to sneak a ton of damage in. 

Also, we're running a ton of Dinosaurs as some general threats. Tuknir got that sick helmet from somewhere; it might've been Ixalan, for all we know!

Tapping to Activate

It feels like, lately, Magic's been moving away from legendary creatures with tap-to-active abilities in favor of ETB or attack triggers, or both. I get it: this helps them stay relevant in a Commander game and incentivizes more interaction in the combat step. However, there have also been a number of cards printed since 1994 that make Tuknir Deathlock just as good as any modern-day commander.

Two of my favorites are Quirion Ranger and Scryb Ranger. These show up in Yisan, the Wanderer Bard decks almost religiously, and are often one-half of any number of combos. In our Tuknir Deathlock deck, they're just here to help keep Tuk relevant after we've used his ability once. Also, Scryb Ranger? Incredibly underrated two-drop. "Ahh, oh no, I'm being attacked by a 16/1 Charix, the Raging Isle, what will I do?" Sike! Get dunked on by a 1/1 flier with prot-blue, sucker.

Another classic you may know from Yisan decks is Instill Energy. This one's got some weird wording: it doesn't actually let Tuknir Deathlock use his ability as if he had haste, but he can attack that turn. This Aura is most useful for the free untap it gives once per turn, though.

Stony Strength and Burst of Strength are fun one-mana combat tricks to turn our tapped-and-attacking Tuknir Deathlock into an untapped, partially buffed, and ready to activate Tuknir Deathlock. They make great surprises for your opponents when they try to trade up into Tuknir with some measly Grizzly Bears. 

Saryth, the Viper's Fang and Sword of the Paruns both add some utility to our tapping and untapping. Having the option to quickly switch between a tapped or untapped Tuknir can drastically change the math on blockers. 

Combat Tricks

Our opponents will learn very quickly that just because we've attacked with an unmodified 2/2 flier doesn't mean they'll only be taking two damage.

Our two flashy permanents are Boon Satyr and Guardian Augmenter. Anyone familiar with the original Theros Standard remembers how useful Boon Satyr can be. Both it and Guardian Augmenter make for a nasty surprise for our opponents and make Tuknir decidedly harder to kill. 

Classics like Giant Growth and Colossal Might make up our instant-combat tricks. Of note are Inscription of Abundance and Trash the Town, both of which have modal options for the greatest flexibility without wasting card slots. Emerald Charm will mostly act as an extra untap for Tuknir, but in a pinch it can be used to ground the only flying blocker a player has.

Enrage is our pseudo-Fireball for when an opponent accidentally lets a creature through in the late game. Dumping all of our mana into this or Ghitu Firebreathing can spell doom for our opponents.

Finally, Vines of Vastwood has excellent utility as protection for Tuknir or a bonus +4/+4 when we need it. Tyvar's Stand works similarly, with the added bonus of being a great dump for our mana in the late game.

Turn 'em Sideways

We're Gruul. We're going to win with combat damage, okay? 

The creatures in this deck are our only actual threats, and we'll need to play aggressively to make the best use of our combat tricks.

Let's start with the simple ones. These creatures are just the straight-up beaters that're here to maximize our declare attacker steps. Both Etalis, Apex Altisaur, End-Raze Forerunners, and Xenagos, God of Revels are purely present to beat face. They hit the field, do something valuable, then attack with a big body. Simple as.

Some of our threats take the form of extra combats. Anzrag, the Quake-Mole is a nightmare all on its own, but Hellkite Charger synergizes well with Grand Warlord Radha and Savage Ventmaw to get us nearly infinite combats. On top of all that, we've got Aggravated Assault for good measure.

I want to call out a few of our other combos. Ashaya, Soul of the Wild's effect to turn our other creatures into Forests combos with Scryb Ranger and Karametra's Acolyte for infinite mana.

Remember that any of these two- to three-card combos can be set up easily with Shared Summons.

Finally, Tuknir Deathlock's mana cost makes him great fodder for devotion-based cards, meaning our two Nyleas, Purphoros, God of the Forge, and the aforementioned Xenagos are easily creaturified while he's on the field.

Mana Base

This Tuknir Deathlock deck is very mana-thirsty. While our average CMC is only about 3.06, we'll need extra mana each turn in order to cast a threat and a combat trick or two. Because of this, we're running no less than 36 lands and no less than 12 ramp sources.

I really wanted to cut Sol Ring in favor of a Gruul Signet since it doesn't help us run out our commander any quicker, but decided to leave it. One-mana ramp is just too good. 

Of note, our deck is 77% green pips, so our spread of Forests to Mountains looks like 16 to 10. We're favoring the Mountains a little more than usual, since we really need the colored mana on turn four if we want to cast Tuknir.

Strategy

This deck is all about ignoring our first main phase. We want to get into combat with Tuknir Deathlock and some other creatures with all of our mana up and a full hand. We'll worry about anything that can't attack this turn later; right now, we're only concerned with putting our opponents on the spot. Do we have a combat trick up our sleeve? Are we really just going to tap Tuknir to give something +2/+2? The answer to these questions is irrelevant; we just need our opponents to assume the worst.

Our number one priority in the early game is ramp, ramp, ramp. Keeping a hand that'll bring us to four mana by turn three is best, but we'll take one that looks like a turn four Tuknir. 

Our first few turns involve prepping for Tuknir to hit the field. Rhythm of the Wild, Saryth, the Viper's Fang, Haunted Cloak, and Grand Warlord Radha all make excellent plays before we drop Tuknir. 

Once Tuknir Deathlock's been successfully cast, our focus shifts to combat. If we can attack with a vigilant/untappable Tuknir, along with some larger creatures like Regal Behemoth or a Theros God, we'll put our opponent in an uncomfortable spot. Do they block the guaranteed big damage from our creatures, or try to remove Tuknir before we combat trick him into lethal commander damage? Smart use of Tyvar's Stand and Enrage can end games right there. 

If combat alone doesn't seem to end the game, we've got a handful of infinite combos that might. We can achieve infinite mana with our Ashaya, Soul of the Wild/Karametra's Acolyte combo, or reach for infinite combat steps with Hellkite Charger and Savage Ventmaw/Grand Warlord Radha.

Budget Options

This Tuknir Deathlock Commander deck clocks in at around $130 for the cheapest singles. That's actually not too bad, considering a solid $18 of that is Tuknir Deathlock, and another $30 or so in Purphoros, God of the Forge and Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. 

Cutting Purphoros, God of the Forge is easy. He doesn't do anything too specific to our gameplan, I just like the looks of him and he's undeniably valuable. That said, you can save a ton by just running another couple combat tricks instead of these two. I suggest Brute Force for a second Giant Growth and Hunter's Prowess for some extra draw.

Tuknir Deathlock Decklist

Wrap Up

Tuknir Deathlock has probably the least lore of any named legendary in Magic. Luckily, we can just project whatever personality and mechanical theme that we want onto him! My wonky combat tricks list is by no means the only deck you could build around Tuk. Maybe you lean into the Dinosaur headdress and run an entirely dinos deck? Restricting yourself to Gruul instead of the typical Naya builds could open up some innovative includes!

Let me know how you'd build Tuknir Deathlock! What do you think he's up to in-lore? When will we see him again? Let me know in the comments!

Thanks for reading!