Commander Deck Tech: Runo Stromkirk
It's time to delve into a new Commander from a new set. Innistrad Crimson Vow has brought a lot to the table for pretty much every format. We have a few new Legendary creatures that look interesting to build Commander decks around.
Who doesn't like playing big ole creatures?
Who doesn't like making big splashes in the pool?
If you are a mage that likes playing Krakens, Leviathans, Octopuses, and Serpents, I've got a deck for you!
Runo Stromkirk is pretty interesting mainly because of his abilities. A 1/4 Flyer for 3 mana is not that bad on its own, but in Commander he is just a little guy. Runo can bounce a Creature from your Graveyard to the top of your library, and hopefully it has a converted mana cost of 6 or higher. Once you get this done and actually are able to trigger his other ability, during your upkeep he will turn into a 3/5 Flyer. Note assuming Runo flips into the 3/5 he can attack that turn and will also be able to make a token copy of another attacking Creature. The goal is to have that other creature attacking be a Kraken, Leviathan, Octopus, or Serpent so you'll double the amount of token copies he makes.
I was excited to play with several big Blue Creatures that fit the tribal theme of the deck. Many of these creatures I've rarely played in Commander, or used sparingly here or there. I recall several of these Blue Creatures being drafted in limited play which were awesome, but never really made it into too many of my Commander decks. The average converted mana cost of any card in the deck is a whopping 4.03, and most decks I run average between 2.8 and 3.5. Because of the high average converted mana cost I decided to play several mana rocks / accelerators which consists of: Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Dimir Signet, Grim Monolith, Sapphire Medallion, Talisman of Dominance, and Commander's Sphere.
The deck runs a plethora of different types of cards. We have 2 counterspells, 2 card drawing Enchantments, and 2 cards that search your library for a creature and put it directly into your graveyard. The deck also runs 4 reanimator spells, and 7 draw / dig spells. We also have a few bounce your board spells in: Whelming Wave, Cyclonic Rift, and Crush of Tentacles. I tried my best to keep to the ocean creature theme as I hope it gives plenty of flavor and fun to the Commander matches.
Last but certainly not least this deck would not be complete without all the big ocean monsters. The deck runs 12 Krakens, 6 Leviathans, 4 Octopuses, and 3 Serpents. Of these ocean monsters the most powerful are Slinn Voda, the Rising Deep, Lorthos, the Tidemaker, Kederekt Leviathan, Scourge of Fleets, Nezahal, Primal Tide, Fleet Swallower, and Wrexial, the Risen Deep.
The card that I thought was the most interesting during the deck building process was Port of Karfell. It fits nicely into this deck as it's a conditional reanimate ability, plus it definitely fits the mold of the ocean monsters theme. I also feel that all of these Kaldheim uncommon multi-color ability lands are very underrated and we should see more in Commander decks.
The biggest concern I have with this deck is the high average converted mana cost, which I did my best to upgrade with mana rocks to help this. However, I also see it as a downfall as the financial cost of all these cards is very high. Feel free to substitute the Mana Vault, Mana Crypt, and Grim Monolith for stuff like Thran Dynamo, Worn Powerstone, and Gilded Lotus if you are on a tighter budget. You can also cut cards like Mana Drain for a less expensive Common or Uncommon counterspell. The deck is not as worried about removal as you have several bounce spells, and reanimate spells to get your stuff back if it dies. The biggest problem would be exile, a creature spot removal, or a deck that ran a heavy amount of counterspells. Overall the deck is pretty versatile with a little bit of everything. I'm anxious to see what interactions come about during an actual 4 player game. The deck will require some testing and tuning and I believe that will help it become an even more consistent deck. I did about 10 random hand generators just to see what some hands could potentially look like. The results completely blew me away as none of the 10 hands I would have needed to mulligan, and half of them looked very spicy.
Hopefully this leaves you with a starting point and some ideas to build your own Runo Stromkirk Ocean Monsters deck. I hope that we see several Runo decks in the coming weeks/months!
I hope everyone has the ability to enjoy some time with friends and family this holiday week. Be safe out there, and don't eat as much as me.
Until Next Time,
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