Apostle Hustle

By Luis Scott-Vargas

Luis Scott-Vargas plays, writes, and makes videos about Magic. He has played on the Pro Tour for almost a decade, and between that and producing content for ChannelFireball, often has his hands full (of cards).

This week's Commander deck (courtesy of Scottingley, who posted it to TCGplayer.com) takes advantage of a new engine card from Magic 2014, a card which even gets around the one-of rule. That card is Shadowborn Apostle, and as you can see by the twenty-eight copies below, we are well beyond even the normal four-of rule. Once you assemble six copies of Shadowborn Apostle, you have a long list of Demons to choose from, depending on what the situation demands. Kuro, Pitlord; Pestilence Demon; and Reaper from the Abyss all answer creatures in different ways; Bloodgift Demon and Seizan, Perverter of Truth both let you exchange life for cards; and Rune-Scarred Demon lets you find anything you please. I also like the Spirit of the Night, who has been updated to be both a Demon and a Spirit, although the Shadowborn Apostle engine has sadly made Urborg Panther, Breathstealer, and Feral Shadow unnecessary (although they are very cool still).

You can tell the focus of this deck is different than most Commander decks because I haven't even mentioned the Commander yet! Here we have Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker, which combines very well with the Apostle plan. If have you Shirei on the battlefield and are able to assemble the full six Apostles, you just get to go off. You sacrifice all the Apostles, find some sick Demon, and Shirei brings them all back at the end of the turn, giving you a free Demon during each player's end step. You do have to sacrifice them main phase, so don't wait until your opponent's end of turn to do so or the combo gets broken.

Besides that combo, the deck features many ways to find Apostles, reanimate Apostles, and get value from losing Apostles (both Rotlung Reanimator and Xathrid Necromancer look at Apostle and give you a Zombie in exchange). The deck also does just fine even when it can't cobble together six Apostles, as cards like Crypt Ghast and Cabal Coffers let you cast Demons without much trouble. Lastly, Shirei saves a number of other powerful creatures, mostly creatures that start out big and end up shrinking themselves, like Mindless Automaton and Triskelion.

If you've ever wanted to play twenty-eight copies of a card in Commander and don't like the idea of a relentless army of Relentless Rats, I know some powerful Demons that have quite the bargain for you.

Scottlingley's Apostle Hustle

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Planeswalker (1)

1 Liliana of the Dark Realms

Creature (53)

1 Apprentice Necromancer 1 Blood Speaker 1 Bloodgift Demon 1 Bone Shredder 1 Crypt Ghast 1 Demon of Death's Gate 1 Harvester of Souls 1 Hell's Caretaker 1 Kuro, Pitlord 1 Lord of the Void 1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed 1 Mindless Automaton 1 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen 1 Pestilence Demon 1 Reaper from the Abyss 1 Rotlung Reanimator 1 Rune-Scarred Demon 1 Seizan, Perverter of Truth 28 Shadowborn Apostle 1 Shadowborn Demon 1 Skirsdag High Priest 1 Sorceress Queen 1 Spirit of the Night 1 Triskelion 1 Viscera Seer 1 Xathrid Necromancer

Sorcery (3)

1 Demonic Tutor 1 Diabolic Revelation 1 Rise of the Dark Realms

Artifact (4)

1 Ashnod's Altar 1 Darksteel Plate 1 Lightning Greaves 1 Skullclamp

Enchantment (2)

1 Attrition 1 Phyrexian Arena

Land (36)

1 Ancient Tomb 1 Bojuka Bog 1 Cabal Coffers 1 Crypt of Agadeem 1 Deserted Temple 1 Dust Bowl 1 Lake of the Dead 1 Petrified Field 1 Phyrexian Tower 1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse 1 Springjack Pasture 19 Swamp 1 Temple of the False God 1 Thespian's Stage 1 Tomb of Urami 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 1 Vesuva 1 Volrath's Stronghold

99 Cards