Commanding Odric with Crimson Vow

Posted on November 23, 2021

Hello happy people! I hope that you are having an amazing day today! Happy Days are here again! (I really hope for you that's true!)

Today I want to do a deep dive around a new leader from Crimson Vow!

Before that, though, I already have done two decks for you from that set. What are they? Great question!

#1. I created a deck around Runo Stromkirk. When I built it, it hadn't been added to EDHREC.com, but in the first week there are already 120 decks built around it! People love him as much as I do! I built around the flavor of copying the Deep Sea tribe and have natural good entries there like Deep-Sea Kraken, flipping him reliably with expensive cycling creatures like Scion of Darkness, adding in creatures that have triggers you'd love to get twice such as Aethersnipe, and then some tribe washing like Conspiracy. You can find this awesome deck here.

#2. Then I took the really interesting Golgari leader Old Rutstein and his Peasant self out for a spin! Since all three of his abilities make tokens, I dug deep in token doubling effects like Doubling Season, Blood-matters cards in black from the same set like Falkenrath Forebear, Treasure cards like Academy Manufactor and Grim Hireling, and loads of Food, Treasure, Blood and Clue making cards for the win! It's really a fun deck...enjoy it here! This may wind up being my favorite build from the set.

Who am I building around this week?

It's our latest Odric! Odric, Master Tactician came first back in Magic 2013 as a rare that cared about attacking with a swarm. The next edition of him hit in Shadows over Innistrad and was Odric, Lunarch Marshal. This mono-White version shared a variety of abilities like double strike and vigilance over your entire team at the beginning of combat if one had it. This version still wants a big fat kitchen soup of abilities like the Lunarch Marshal version, but instead of getting loaned around, they'll make a big fat amount of Blood tokens when he arrives to the party. Otherwise, he is a vanilla 3/3 for three mana, which is a bit underwhelming for Boros. In this case you might not be dropping him on turn 3 where there is little value to do so.

You can follow along with Odric's fall with Hero's Downfall. Read the flavor text at the bottom.

As of right now there are 70 decks over at EDHREC.com for Odric, Take Three, which is a lot more than I'd expect since Old Rutstein, a much more interesting combo in a much more popular color combo is sitting at just 15 decks. Weird right? I am writing this the Monday and Tuesday before the set is released when hype is high.

Ready to take a deep dive into our friend and leader, Odric? Let's do it to it!

Consider the partner pair of Akroma and Rograkh. Akroma has four keywords that are all pretty spicy. At the beginning of any combat (including your foes), your entire team (other than her) gets pumped by +1/+1 for each keyword it has. That means that she'll give Rograkh a nice +3/+3 bonus for combat so it's a 3/4 for 0 with first strike, menace and trample when it attacks or blocks and you control the third Akroma. They are a great partner team! And that team pilots 246 decks over at EDHREC.com, which is a pretty solid group of stuff! That is the second most popular partner tag team in Boros colors! (Rograkh is also in the most partners with 1430 decks with Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist). That means that Rograkh is in three of the four most common Boros partner pairs! If you control Akroma when you drop Odric that's four Blood tokens from one dork. Good stuff!

Let's follow down the Akroma trail and unpack some more power here. I'll toss in the other Akromas. Each is an 8-drop 6/6 with a ton of abilities. Akroma the First brings six keyworded abilities for your Odric to Blood up. Pretty nasty right? I think so as well. Akroma the Second can morph down early and then get unmorphed as soon as you have 6 mana. She's uncounterable and pumpable. She has three keywords to Blood token. Each of these are very strong at winning games!

Speaking of keywords, Have you forgotten Crystalline Giant from Ikoria? I'd understand if you had! It comes down naked without any abilities, but not long needs to pass before we have a fun slate of ability counters that can make Blood with Odric or get pumped with Akroma, Vision of Ixidor. It's pretty sweet in this brew.

This flip card from Ixalan block was the first card I thought of when I read Odric. I was brainstormig deck ideas while waiting to waken on Monday morning and this came to my mind! On the front side you get an enchantment that will ting all non-first strike, double strike, haste or vigilance stuff for a damage each, that means your 0-drop Kobold will be alright, and then when you swing with at least two of those you'll be able to flip it to the powerful Metzali, Tower of Triumph which wil let you tap for any color of mana and two useful abilities for the team! I really love that Guttersnipe trigger of 2 damage to each opponent for just two mana to tap.

Check out this nasty card from the Commander set that debuted with Crimson Vow. Have you seen it! It's perfect here! As you can see, this powerful nasty enchantment will turn all of your Bloods into an Equipment that equips for two mana and gives the equipped foe +2/+0. That could win with Commander damage in a few hits so I tossed in Rogue's Passage and Access Tunnel for mad Commander beats.

Let's add in some ways to sacrifice a Blood token for other effects. Laurine is also from the same set as Arterial Alchemy. As you can see, this 3-drop 3/3 first strike fits the theme of the build. You can spend two mana to sacrifice a dork or artifact (Might I suggest a Blood token?) and then goad a creature and then that dork will swing elsewhere. You can use it to open up a defense for you to swing through or to encourage a Commander kill. I love it a lot here. Check out the Scion from the same set as well! As you can see, when it or other non-token Vampires bite the bullet, you will create a Treasure token. You can sacrifice two artifacts like Bloods to exile the top card of your library and then play it this turn. If it's a land you can drop it, otherwise tap that mana and play the spell! It's good card flow and that ability will work lovely with sacrificing Bloods or the occasional Treasure made by this ability (or elsewhere)

Here's another fun way to sacrifice artifacts - with Osgir! You can sacrifice an artifact to +2/+0 a dork for a turn, which could be quite useful for a Commander kill with Odric. It's a 4/4 for four mana which is on curve with the Odric-caring about ability of vigilance. You can also tap Osgir and X mana to exile an artifact and copy it twice, which is pretty useful with artifacts like Solemn Simulacrum, although you might not want to lean on it too much as we do have artifact recursion elsewhere. Osgir is already the second most popular Boros Commander of all time, at 2,887 decks over at EDHREC.com, and I was lucky to be the one on our staff to write a deck around him - which you can check out here. Does Osgir have the legs to move past uber-hit Feather, the Redeemed at 3,588?

Alright let's turn from the Commander deck that came with Crimson Vow to the set proper. Check out this Blood duo. The former Vampire is a 5-drop 4/4 with menace for Odric's Blood making, which is a different ability that many we've seen so you might get another Blood. As you can see, this arrives to the battlefield with two Blood tokens for the win, and that's two goads for Laurine, two pumps with Osgir, and loads of synergy for the team. The latter Vampire is a beefy 6/6 for six mana and also sports menace. As it deals combat damage to a foe (or a creature!) you'll make that many Blood tokens! A suicidal attack is 6 Blood tokens from something. Also note that you can spend three mana and shoot a dork, planeswalker, or player for a damage, thus making a Blood token. It's a great mana sink, and a big friend of Rogue's Passage. I love them a lot here!

Alright, now let's slide from Blood love to artifact love. Check out this duo! Akiri is a powerful 0/3 with both first strike and vigilance for the Odric Blood token making or getting +2/+2 from a certain Akroma. As you can see, Akiri will also get +1 power for each artifact you control. Even if you just count Bloods, that cold easily be 5 or 7 Blood tokens, and if Olivia's Attendants smashes for 6 Blood then that's a huge Akiri! The Reckless one is your Guttersnipe or Zulaport Cutthroat in this build. Anytime an artifact arrives at the battlefield you'll ting all of your foes for a damage each time! It scales up as you have more foes. Odric making 5 Bloods is now a Lava Axe of damage at each foe. Love it a lot here!

Check out this artifact duo! Each are artifacts themselves so that they can count themselves and have all the artifact synergies as the rest of the deck has. The Guardian is a nice double strike for Odric (which is rare to find) at 5 mana with ward 2 to protect it. Then it also gives your whole artifact team ward 2 from Bloods to Treasures to artifact lands like Treasure Vault to mana rocks to key artifact creatures! As you can see, the Guardian is also an X/5 where X is your artifact count, and it counts itself! Nasty! And with double strike it's double nasty! And then don't forget the Living Weapon equipment. It pumps the equipped dork by the number of artifacts and enchantments that you control! Put it on Odric for a big nasty game ending Commander Kill. It begins as a nasty dork and then can be moved after the Germ dies and keep on keeping on. Great duo!

This pair is why you might not always want to self-exile your artifacts from your graveyard, and they do has some admitted tensions. Each can sacrifice an in-play artifact for an artifact from your graveyard to the battlefield. Bloods or Treasures? Nasty! You can get back that Nettlecyst for another go. I tossed in sacrifice rocks like Commander's Sphere and Hedron Archive for cards and then keep on the pressure by bringing it back from a soon to be sacrificed Treasure or Blood token.

Daretti is the only planeswalker in this brew, and he's pretty tasty. He's good for card flow, loyalty creation, and getting a fat artifact to the graveyard for recursion. Then the Welder is a powerful 1-drop that can tap to use its powerful ability, but you'll want to wait to drop it later as it's a big fat target before it can do its job! Good stuff!

Since we are making a bunch of artifacts from Treasures and Tokens, why not win with them with Hellkite Tyrant? At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control 20 or more artifacts, then you win the game! Pretty nice right? And as a flying trampler you'll get two Bloods with Odric. It's a 6-mana 6/5 so it's on curve. As it deals combat damage to a player, you steal all of their artifacts, which is genius here as you get a ton of stuff. Note that this will stay yours even if the Tyrant dies later. Also note that the good Tyrant is pretty likely to deal that combat damage with its two keywords. Nasty!

Want to talk about nasty...I've got you covered with this powerhouse. This is basically a Tinker for our Boros deck. Tap this 3/5 Construct and sacrifice three artifacts that are (likely) named Treasure and Blood. Fetch out the best artifact from your deck for the situation! It's not a massive engine of game winning power, we aren't running massive powerhouses here, just one card, the Titan. This 9-drop features three keywords for Odric, and it's a 9/9 powerhouse to fetch out with the Forgemaster. As you can see, it also has a death trigger so when it dies you get three 3/3 Golems that split up its abilities. It's nice to sacrifice to an effect or to bring back from death with a Goblin Welder or Daretti. Love this pair here!

Now since we clearly want a ton of artifacts out for some of our friends, let's add some powerful ways to do it! Each of these two are arguably the best Treasure cards running around! The creature is without keywords, which is sad, but on arrival he'll make you a bunch of Treasures equal to the enchantment and artifact count of your friends, which could be pretty powerful stuff! And then the enchantment will force foes to spend two mana each time they draw a card to prevent you from getting a Treasure, which they almost never do. Both can really amp up your Treasure making game, and that will help you cast bigger things like the Titan or an Akroma as well as pumping your artifact count!

Now let's add in another quick Element(al) to the build with a bit of flickering. Since Odric triggers when he arrives to the battlefield, you can easily get another slate of Blood tokens by flickering him. Check out the first card above! When it arrives to the battlefield, you can self-exile another permanent and then it comes back at the end of the turn. I love it here to flicker Odric! (Note that it has flying itself Akroma and Odric). I also tossed in the flashing Restoration Angel to play into this theme. The second card is a key enchantment that can self-flicker a dork or artifact you control at the end of each of your turns, so that is a mana-free, ongoing way to flicker Odric over and over again! Awesome duo, right? I also tossed in Ephemerate to get two flickers for one mana.

Alright, now let's turn to some lands!

I think this might be the first Commander deck I've tossed the Saga into. It's powerful here. You can, twice, tap it to make a Construct that could easily be a 4/4 or 7/7 with the right number of fellow artifacts out. You can search up an artifact land like Treasure Vault or a 1-drop like Sol Ring. It's great power here! The Fair is also great power here as well, as you can sacrifice it to search your library for the perfect artifact for the situation. Note that you cannot use it unless you control at least three artifacts, which seems likely from where I am sitting.

I added in a pair of haste granting lands. They'll help out Odric and help you get in a smash with a big fat dork a turn early. Attack with any Akroma or the Titan early! My favorite haste option here is Hellkite Tyrant as you could attack with it out of nowhere when a foe left their defenses open and you steal all of their stuff. Awesome!

The Stronghold can also give haste, vigilance, and a double power boost for just two mana and a tap. It's my third haste land, and it's two Blood tokens with Odric. As you can see, it can really push a battlefield around! I love Sunhome here as it can push things around with double strike! Imagine that on a game winner like Triplicate Titan. Great duo here!

Let's leave behind lands and explore a different part of this deck!

Check out this pair! The Genius is a solid 3/2 for three mana. As you drop artifacts you can discard and draw a card, if you want. Basically, that's a Blood token sacrifice effect done prior to controlling the artifact, so you get all of the card flow of the card but also keep the artifact around for things like Nettlecyst. It's great here! It also works for any artifact. And then the Theorist is a 2/2 for two mana that, when it swings, it can discard to draw a card for a mana. As you discard one or more non-lands from it or Blood tokens, you can exile them and then cast them this turn, which is great card advantage!

As you discard cards, you'll also net these two triggers. The Human is a 3/3 for four mana, a bit behind the curve. As you discard stuff to Quicksmith Genius or sacrificing Blood tokens, you toss a +1/+1 counter on him as well as ting each opponent for a damage, which is pretty good for the power. Win with discard triggers! We also have the Minotaur in here. Also, as you discard cards you'll deal a damage to each opponent. This 3-drop 2/4 has haste for Odric's Blood making, and you can spend two mana to discard a card and draw a card only when it is attacking. The card flow and discarding triggers will mount up nicely here!

One more mono-Red discard card, okay? The Dinosaur awaits. This is a bit small as a Hill Giant without any abilities. As you discard cards, you'll check this. Did you discard a dork? Toss a +1/+1 counter on this. Did you discard a land? Make a Treasure token which will help your deck out. Did you discard something else? This fights up to one (it's a may effect) opposing dork. Nice powerhouse with all of the Quicksmith Genius and Bloods and activations of Glint-Horn Buccaneer.

Can you see why I am playing this Manalith? If you kick it, you get two copies, so that's three artifacts in one card! For things like Nettlecyst and sacrificing effects such as Osgir, that's pretty good. It does have indestructible, so it'll survive most basic mass removal spells like Vandalblast or Akroma's Vengeance that get played a lot at the kitchen table, which is good for a mana rock.

Check out this fun 3-drop! All of your non artifacts have improvise, and that means you can tap your artifacts to drop their cost by 1 generic each! If you have, say, 5 Blood and/or Treasure tokens that means you could easily drop a fat Akroma by tapping them and only spending the colored mana. Pretty good right? Right!

Let's have another discard matters card. As you discard cards when you control this uncommon Standard-legal 1-drop, you exile them. You can tap this and two mana to draw and then discard a card, which will be exiled. You can tap this and sacrifice it to recur all of the cards it exiled to your hand, which is pretty good from where I am sitting in a deck with this much Blood!

Here's my decklist for your review!