Spell-based decks have always been a difficult place for me. I liked the concept, but couldn't make it work. Jori En, Ruin Diver was way too cute and tame, while Veyran, Voice of Duality felt more like a glass cannon. It probably didn't help that Blue isn't my happy colour.

Then UB Warhammer 40K hit the shelves and I ... shrugged. It's neither a franchise I'm in any way interested nor an aestethic I find appealing. Grimdark with military, facism, religious fanatism, and so on is just not my vibe. So I skipped the set, but read a few reviews about the most important legends.

That's how I came across Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph. I liked the flavour of a gunslinging spellslinger, so I brewed a list and did a few goldfish tests. And he clicked, that's the UW legend I want to play! To avoid 40K, I gave Ghyrson the Godzilla frame treatment. One of the most interesting gunslingers sounded like a more fitting commander than some three-armed dude I never heard of. If you haven't read Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" epic, give it a try! It's quite a ride through so many genres, ideas, characters, full of great quotes, and one of my favourite book series!

So what does the deck try to achieve? I really like that he offers quite a few directions: Pingers, Spellslinger, Tokens, Storm and so on. But I want to focus on cards like Firebrand Archer. Earlier iterations of my spellslinging attempts suffered, because my opponents just killed my sole pinger and robbed me of my wincon. Luckily Wizards printed quite a few functional reprints over the last few years, so that we can play a high densitiy of these effects. Even Guttersnipe gets a slot, despite dealing 2 damage and this not profiting off our commander. They are accompanied by some solid token producers like Young Pyromancer and The Locust God. Fueled is this deck by a fine selection of cantrips and efficient draw spells. Some spellslinger stables like Veyran, Voice of Duality, Archmage Emeritus, Runaway Steam-Kin, and Past in Flames complement the selection. Even some weirder choices like Sigil of Sleep found their way into the deck. But the cherry on top is without question Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might // Temple of Power. How cool is that dragon arm?!

As always with the first iterations of my decks the manabase is a hot mess and needs an overhaul. I'm not to sure about the artifact mana. With all that draw and filtering I should hit my land drops reliably. Do I still need more than a tiny bit of artifact ramp? Any suggestions regarding my cantrip/draw suite are welcome, too!

Without further ado here's my decklist.

I feel like you should be running at least a few Curiosity effects. Slap one on any of the pingers and you could be drawing 3 cards/spell.

Ojer Axonil ramps up your value by replacing the 1-2 punch with a 4-punch, but also turns off your commander. Probably worth it, but also worth making note of, I think.

What are all the token producers for? Defense? If you're leaning into tokens, you might want to consider a couple effects like Lightning Volley.

Also, Repercussion might be worth considering, as it turns all of the pings you send at creatures into player pings as well, which can then trigger your commander. I probably wouldn't run this alongside the token production, as it leaves you vulnerable to death by Blasphemous Act.

Thanks for your suggestions!

Curiosity is a great call, I should find a slot for one or more of those.

My commander ramps up the damage of my tokens, too! In the few games I played my opponents underestimated them severly. They are a nice addition to my pingers.

Regarding the pingers, the one I play just target my opponents. Unfortunately, Repercussion does next to nothing for me.

cheonice wrote: ↑

4 months ago

Thanks for your suggestions!

Curiosity is a great call, I should find a slot for one or more of those.

My commander ramps up the damage of my tokens, too! In the few games I played my opponents underestimated them severly. They are a nice addition to my pingers.

Regarding the pingers, the one I play just target my opponents. Unfortunately, Repercussion does next to nothing for me.

I had overlooked that Ghyrson looks at any source. Wow.

Urabrask // The Great Work and Defiler of Instinct could also put in some work.

Yeah, Ghyrson really does some work with a lot of things.

Urabrask is on my shortlist. Not so sure about the defiler though, as it specifically asks for permanent spells.

Some changes: