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Hey Magic players! I used to spend a lot more time devising decklists for Commander, so let’s get back to that today. I had some post-Film-Race relaxation time, and built a couple of fun new concepts to take to the Commander Challenge at my LGS.
I tend to focus on cheaper cards, usually under a dollar, and finding a cool, underappreciated legendary creature in that range is great! I actually found a bunch in Fallout, and might build a few decks from those. But for now, it’s Lobelia, Defender of Bag End!
This is one of 2 Lobelias. This is the one from LOTR Commander The one in Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle Earth set is Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, also cool, but not really as a Commander. If I had one, it might be in the deck listed below.
The Lobelia I’m using reminds me a lot of another card: Gonti, Lord of Luxury.
I’ve seen a fair amount of Gonti decks over the years. They looked like a lot of fun. Very techy, great mana base, and never the same twice. Taking your opponents’ stuff can be great fun, and Gonti did it well.
Lobelia has a lot in common with Gonti, but has the ability to play the stolen cards for free if you sacrifice an artifact. Plus she can sacrifice artifacts to slowly burn out opposing life totals too. She might be a huge threat, but I think I’m okay with it.
Unlike Gonti, the wording on Lobelia, Defender of Bag End makes it so she doesn’t stash away exiled cards like a hoard of knick-knacks. Each time she enters, the cards she exiles are specific to that version of Lobelia. If she dies and you bring her back, or just blink her, the previous set of exiled cards are exiled for good. Unlike Gonti, Lobelia can also play lands.
Food tokens for thought. Here’s the list:
Tchotchkes
FYI: a tchotchke is a knick-knack, or trinket.
This deck is playing 49 artifacts, 6 non-artifact cards that make artifacts, 1 artifact land, 3 lands that can become artifacts, 3 lands that make artifacts, and 2 lands, Vesuva and Buried Ruin, that will do artifact stuff in the deck. 66 cards out of 100. Awesome.
The Strategy
There are a number of cards that will get Lobelia out on turns 1-3, possibly also with an artifact to sacrifice. The ideal play is also having a way of giving Lobelia haste, so she can get something right away.
After the first Lobelia activation, I expect her to be a huge target. Unless we have Lightning Greaves or Swiftfoot Boots available, she’s likely to die at least once.
As a result, we’ve got a fair amount of cheap recursion options, like Undying Malice, that will turn a kill spell or a board-wipe into a fresh set of cards for Lobelia to… inherit.
The artifacts we’re playing offer a lot of utility, but also a lot of… artifacts. Many make tokens in addition to themselves, and a fair amount have a bonus that triggers when the artifact is destroyed. This gives us value when we sacrifice them, and keeps us from being blown out by a card like Vandalblast or Cleansing Nova that can destroy all of our artifacts,
We’ve also got a lot of sacrifice outlets, just in case we need a new set of cards to take and nobody’s interested in killing Lobelia. We can then recast or reanimate her. This also covers nasty surprises, like opposing theft spells, Darksteel Mutation or Oubliette, etc. which can paralyze the deck completely.
As a mono-black deck, we struggle with enchantments. Feed the Swarm is an essential, and there’s a few ways among the artifacts and lands to get rid of enchantments as well. Stuff like Unstable Obelisk and the new HELIOS One. This is one to add to the collection if you don’t have it already. It’s clunky, but it kills tokens right away, and can ratchet up to get better stuff. In energy builds, it’s a must.
Rounding it all out is some card draw, a few ways to untap Lobelia or double-up her entry trigger, and a fair amount of board control – lots of classics that end up in most of my builds, like Maze of Ith and Crawlspace.
What’s Missing
I don’t have a Magewright’s Stone or Patriar’s Seal, both of which would make the deck if I had them. Both are additional ways to untap Lobelia. There simply aren’t enough of those available to the deck.
If you want to make it much more powerful, adding tutors, Jeweled Lotus, Cabal Coffers, Necropotence, and other stuff like that will buff it up a bit, but I’m not sure the deck is consistent or strong enough to survive being a huge target because it’s throwing powerful cards around. If Lobelia’s ability to take opposing cards doesn’t pay off big, it likely won’t be able to deal with the attention. This is probably a casual-only deck.
Playtesting
It’s likely I won’t get to test the deck before the next Commander Challenge, which is fine. It should do okay, though I’m a little worried about a lack of mana acceleration. The curve is quite low, and I think stealing opposing mana rocks is probably my main focus, but it might need more rocks of its own.
The next Challenge is March 30th, and is a ‘No Search’ challenge, where all library searching, from Demonic Tutor to Evolving Wilds and Scalding Tarn is banned. My kind of Challenge.
You can find tickets for the event here.
Conclusion
Sometimes it’s easy to feel like crabby Hobbits having to fight off interlopers for our stuff. Maybe it’s just a crow trying to get away with our breakfast burrito, but it’s a small victory when you do get most of the burrito back.
This Lobelia, Defender of Bag End deck taps into that crabby Hobbit energy, and turns the tables, taking all the burritos, tchotchkes, and whatever else she can. You can never have enough.
Thanks for reading!
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