Mr. House, President and CEO Deck Tech | Fallout | EDH
Mr. House, President and CEO | Illustrated by Joseph Meehan
Hello, everyone! For this week's deck tech, I wanted to build around one of my favorite commanders from the new Fallout set, Mr. House, President and CEO. In this deck tech, I'll explain Mr. House's ability, the core strategies for the deck, key cards, how to win, and finally budget swaps and upgrades.
House wants us to roll dice to make Treasures and 3/3 tokens, so let's fill the deck with cards that want us to roll dice, preferably d20s, dice synergies, Treasure generation, and Treasure synergies, so let's kick things off, or should I say let's get rolling, with all of the dice-rolling cards.
Rolling dice was first introduced to Magic in The Forgotten Realms, where it wasn't very powerful, to be honest, then once again in Commander Legends: Battle for Baulder's Gate, you know, that set tha's criminally underrated? Finally, Unfinity gave us black border dice-rolling cards along with Attractions that roll a d6 on each of our turns. But more on Attractions later. Mr. House doesn't care if we roll d6 or d20s, just that we roll higher than four.
Let's Roll!
Bigger is better
Let's start by getting the best chance to roll big numbers. The d20 creatures available are Hoarding Ogre, Nothic, Swarming Goblins, Earth-Cult Elemental, Chaos Dragon, and Delina, Wild Mage. They are fine role-players in the deck, but not the best. That title is saved for all of the Elder Dragons from Baulder's Gate: Ancient Copper Dragon, Ancient Brass Dragon, and Ancient Gold Dragon. As an aside, because their trigger is combat damage, not attack, Critical Hit is a cute way to generate double value.
The 11 noncreature d20 spells aren't as flashy but still fun to cast. Of these 11, Vexing Puzzlebox, Wand of Wonder, and The Deck of Many Things are my personal favorites. They provide incredible value while being fun cards to have at the table. Just be careful with The Deck, you don't want to discard your entire hand by mistake. Trust me, I've been there.
Quantity Over Quality
The remaining dice cards include eight d6, including the commander, one d8, and one d10. Some of these cards require us to roll multiple dice, such as Grave Endeavor, Valiant Endeavor, and Clown Car. If you roll two 4s or higher, House will trigger two times. It doesn't check the result of the rolls, just that you rolled four or more. This is because he doesn't have the word "result" in his rules text, unlike Vexing Puzzlebox which checks for the result, not each roll.
The last d6 card I want to talk about is the best space boy, Comet, Stellar Pup. I'll be honest, I love this card, and I tend to jam it into every RWx deck I can. He just happens to have great synergy with this deck, so it makes sense to add him.
Loaded Dice
We've covered plenty of dice rolling, so now let's talk about dice synergies. When I say synergies, I mean payoffs and cards that let us manipulate the outcome of our dice. For example, Brazen Dwarf and Priority Boarding are all dice payoffs, while Wyll, Blade of Frontiers, Barbarian Class, and Night Shift of the Living Dead are dice payoffs and dice manipulation. Wyll and Barbarian Class have us roll one additional die, and Night Shift either increases or decreases the result by one.
Jackpot!
Making Treasures
Next up, we have Treasure generation. Treasure tokens were introduced in Ixalan, seven years ago, and quickly became a staple in Commander decks, but unlike in the original Ixalan, the creatures that can generate Treasures now are powerful. Okay, technically Pitiless Plunderer is powerful, and I did include Captain Lannery Storm in the deck. Fun fact: did you know Lannery was the only rare creature that made Treasures in Ixalan and Rivals of Ixalan? Now we have creatures such as Professional Face-Breaker, Goldspan Dragon, Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff, Grim Hireling, Academy Manufactor, and the new Kellogg, Dangerous Mind. And those are just the creatures! What kind of Treasure deck wouldn't run Smothering Tithe, Monologue Tax, and Revel in Riches?
Spending Our Loot
But we want other outlets for our Treasure, aside from our commander. Rain of Riches is a great value engine with Treasures, especially if we cast spells on other players' turns. One of the most controversial creatures in recent memory is Mirkwood Bats. Turns out this card is not ban-worthy, just powerful in the right situation. Magda, Brazen Outlaw lets us cheat one of the ancient Dragons, most often the red one for Treasures, directly into play. Crime Novelist grows and gives us red mana whenever we sacrifice an artifact. Finally, Helm of the Host is incredible in this deck. This isn't a Treasure payoff, per se, but getting multiple copies of Mr. House can lead to some whacky turns.
Winner Winner Chicken Dinner
Before we get into the upgrades and budget changes, let's talk about winning with the deck. I've found there are three primary and one backup win cons. The first is Mirkwood Bats and Brazen Dwarf burning out the table. Generally, save Mirkwood Bats for when you have a critical mass of Treasures and can win that turn. If you wanted to be cheeky, you could cast Tainted Strike on Brazen Dwarf for the infect win. The second win con is combat damage. Turns out: giant Dragons are great at attacking. The final win con is Revel in Riches. This tends to be pretty telegraphed, so it won't happen too often, but I sure love it when it comes together! The backup win condition is Exsanguinate. This shouldn't be a surprise in a deck where we generate tons of mana.
Budget Swaps & Upgrades
Budget Updates
Finally, let's talk about budget swaps and upgrades. If you love this commander but want a more budget-friendly version, don't worry, I got you! By swapping out 12 cards from the main and five lands, we can bring the price of the deck down from over $300 to $76 at the time of writing. Originally I wanted to add Attractions to roll more dice, but I realized I needed to add win conditions and value back into the deck.
Dice Dice Baby - Budget Cuts
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Dice Dice Baby - Budget Adds
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Upgrades
Now if you want to upgrade the deck, we can do that too. I'd start by cutting the worst dice-rolling creatures and Treasure-producers and adding in token-doublers, better Treasure generation, better finishers, and protection. Notably, we get Roaming Throne to double up on our commander's or the Dragons' abilities. Also, Portal to Phyrexia as another target for Magda.
Dice Dice Baby - Upgrade Cuts
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Dice Dice Baby - Upgrade Adds
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Not-So-Legal Cards
And before we wrap up, there are two silver-bordered cards I'd like to mention: Krark's Other Thumb and Sword of Dungeons & Dragons. While these are Un-cards, they don't do anything that breaks the game and are great synergy pieces with the deck. Just make sure to ask if everyone is okay with these first. I can't imagine most people will have a problem with them.
Dice Dice Baby!
Dice Dice Baby!
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Dice Dice Baby! - Budget
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Dice Dice Baby! - Upgrades
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