Miriam, Herd Whisperer - Commander Deck Tech

Hey friends, Beth, Queen of Cardboard, here with another deck tech for you. Today I'm covering a commander that will make every inner horse girl squeal: Miriam, Herd Whisperer

Miriam herself is surprisingly good, seeing play in Limited as one of the stronger mechanics seen in limited during Early Access and Prerelease events. The only downside of Miriam in Commander is that her color identity only allows for 11 of the 17 Mounts available in the set. Read on to find out how I overcame this issue to build an entire 100-card Commander deck themed around the concept of harsh travel as one would in the Wild West.

Mount Up

Mounts are a creature new type introduced in this set that are similar to Vehicles, with saddle instead of crew, and they're still creatures whether or not they're saddled. Whether you'd like to focus on Vehicles or Mounts, Miriam buffs them both, giving Mounts and Vehicles hexproof on your turn and a +1/+1 counter when they attack. Saddle isn't required to use your Mounts; it just improves them, giving them a little more oomph when they're attacking while saddled.

While I would have loved to include Calamity, Galloping Inferno

Going on a Journey

Since the support in Selesnya for our Mounts was great for a Limited deck but a little thin for an entire Commander deck, I decided to theme the entire deck about traveling across the metaphorical Wild West plains. I picked cards specifically that talked about travel. Even the lands included had to remind me in some way of something that you might see if you were traveling via animal-based travel, with one exception: Luxurious Locomotive

After all, the railroad coming to the West is what changed the face of the country forever. While this deck is still a little short on creatures, coming in at only 15, I felt that both Kellan, Daring Traveler

Attempting to stay on theme here, my ramp package also needed to be journey-themed. This allowed me to use cards I wouldn't normally consider, like Map the Frontier

Danger on the Trail

Anyone who's played Oregon Trail knows that something bad is going to happen on the way. Traveling with your entire house in a wooden box on wheels, poor health care, and wild animals can lead to some troublesome encounters. For the response and removal package in this deck, I leaned into cards that spoke to the danger of the trip. Overrun

I also included direct removal, like Thornado

The deck ends up being a pretty fun battle cruiser, so this isn't one I'd play at a high-powered table, but it is incredibly fun, especially when you get to play cards that are outside of the normal wheelhouse. I hope you enjoyed this deck and that it shows you a way to build a deck that does the thing despite limited creature options in whatever theme or mechanic you're attempting to build around without using the dreaded Shapeshifter to fill in the gaps.

While it took everything in my power not to build this around Selesnya Horses, Unicorns, and Pegasuses, I'm extremely happy with this and now I have all my cards set aside for Lathiel.

What commanders were you planning on building from Outlaws of Thunder Junction? Let me know in the comments below.