Feeling the Stangg

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).

While reading the prose of one Eric Levine last week, I was intrigued by his Stangg Commander deck. As he describes it, the deck is heavily themed, and based around the wild combination of Apes and Centaurs. I know Marshall Sutcliffe is building the deck already, and I thought it was an awesome enough idea to monkey with it for the column today.

This deck is both more and less focused than some of the other Commander decks I've written about. It's more focused because the theme informs every card choice, from the creatures to the spells. They all are either Apes, Centaurs, or thematic to what Apes and Centaurs do (Guerilla Tactics being a great example).

On the other (monstrous, ape-like) hand, how the deck plays is not as focused as say, the Kiki-Jiki deck I posted that contained zero infinite combos besides the incredibly obvious Zealous Conscripts loop. Apes and Centaurs have some synergy, as they tend to be aggressive and are somewhat hard to kill, but overall the deck has fewer combos than most Commander decks. That doesn't mean it's less fun to play, but it's definitely a different experience than a fully-synergized Commander deck. Try it out, and join the centaurmy.

I have to admit, I did make one change from the deck Eric posted. As it's his name, I thought it would be bananas to not include a Raging Ravine in the deck, so I rectified that mistake before I sent in the list.

Stangg

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (39)

1 Ancient Silverback 1 Apes of Rath 1 Barbary Apes 1 Battlefield Scrounger 1 Burning-Tree Shaman 1 Centaur Archer 1 Centaur Chieftain 1 Centaur Omenreader 1 Centaur Rootcaster 1 Centaur Veteran 1 Centaur's Herald 1 Citanul Centaurs 1 Crashing Centaur 1 Dowsing Shaman 1 Forcemage Advocate 1 Ghor-Clan Savage 1 Gorilla Berserkers 1 Gorilla Chieftain 1 Gorilla Shaman 1 Gorilla Titan 1 Gorilla Warrior 1 Jolrael's Centaur 1 Kird Ape 1 Krosan Archer 1 Loaming Shaman 1 Phantom Centaur 1 Ravenous Baboons 1 Scab-Clan Charger 1 Seton's Scout 1 Simian Grunts 1 Simian Spirit Guide 1 Skyshooter 1 Sophic Centaur 1 Spellbane Centaur 1 Stonebrow, Krosan Hero 1 Summit Apes 1 Uktabi Orangutan 1 Windseeker Centaur 1 Zodiac Monkey