Readers!

We have a few merciful days of respite between Crimson Vow and the long-awaited return to Kamigawa with Kamigawa Neon Dynasty, so, I thought I'd go back for a commander I missed. Anyone who has been reading this column for any amount of time is well aware that I have certain... I want to say "tendencies" rather than "biases" but I guess if the shoe fits, accuse yourself of it. I tend to build a certain way and I also like to call all of my decks 75% because how could they not be? I invented the thing, I decide what I think a 75% deck looks like. Am I suddenly going to accuse myself of not building 75%? The thing is, as much as I'm worried about using certain deck-building techniques or tendencies as crutches, I am first and foremost someone who still likes playing EDH. I want my decks to do the things I like my decks to do, even if it barely fits how the commander is begging to be built. Once in a while, though, a deck will come along that begs me to reconcile 2 of my 75% crutches (I'm going to start saying "approaches" because it sounds less like I don't know what I'm doing despite writing this column since 2014) and even if it makes no sense to write about that deck in the waning few twilight hours of 2021, I'm going to do it. Because, you see, this is my column.

So which commander do I have in mind? Knowing that could help us figure out which building approaches (wink) I can try to reconcile and help me make sure to include everything I need for both approaches. Will there be synergy between them? I hope so - but ultimately, I am aiming to build a deck that lets me do all of the things I like doing and I deserve it, don't I? In fact, I'm so excited to be melding two of my favorite ways to build into one deck, I've decided one commander isn't enough. I mean, that's obviously not true, I picked the deck out then wrote the article, but can you just play along? As I was saying, I've decided that ONE COMMANDER IS NOT ENOUGH! BEHOLD! I GIVE YOU... two commanders. That's the only other number we're allowed. It's two. You may have figure it out already, plus you can see the pic right below this paragraph. Did you think I missed this teamup? I sure did, but I'm about to make it right with a twofer twofer - two decks in one deck with two commanders. Let's double double their toil and trouble and stop trying to write so many taglines for the deck already.

Flavor-wise, I am really not sure what is going on in this card, but I can dig it because we have a Blue commander who lets us play their cards (very 75%) and a Gruul doggy who requires us to have lots of mana. Does either commander necessarily lend itself to landfall? Well, no, but there are two very good reasons to play this as a hybrid landfall deck.

What could be more Haldan than stealing a creature with every fall of the land? What could be more Pako than getting even more triggers when you attack a second time? What could be more fun than playing another Temur landfall deck? I'm planning to build this in paper this week because I'm so jazzed about it and because I didn't buy any collector boosters which means I had to order Umbris from CoolStuff and it won't get here in time. Is there any higher compliment I might pay a deck than "I will actually build this despite having 25 decks already built and having no need for a 26th"? I maintain no, let's see what you think once I hash out how I plan to build this monstrosity.

Landfall is a great way to reward yourself for playing enough lands and for drawing them, but it has the intended consequence of giving you lots of mana. Lots of mana lets you give yourself extra attack steps and be able to play a lot of their cards with Haldan's ability. It also allows you to play Pako often because he's liable to be quite a tempting target for removal. We don't have to reinvent the wheel here - we have made quite a few Temur landfall decks before, and we plan to start with one of those as a base and then make some changes to optimize for Pako shenanigans. Herald of Secret Streams and Rogue's Passage aren't typical landfall fare, but the deck can so easily incorporate those cards that maybe they should be. I mean, no, they shouldn't, but they're great here and we're grateful to have them.

What does a Pako/Haldan landfetch deck look like? The answer may not surprise you very much, but I think I came up with some nice tech anyway.

Pako/Haldan Landfetch | Commander | Jason Alt

• Commanders (2)
• 1 Haldan, Avid Arcanist
• 1 Pako, Arcane Retriever

• Creatures (21)
• 1 Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait
• 1 Augur of Autumn
• 1 Avenger of Zendikar
• 1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
• 1 Cosima, God of the Voyage // The Omenkeel
• 1 Dryad of the Ilysian Grove
• 1 Etali, Primal Storm
• 1 Herald of Secret Streams
• 1 Klauth, Unrivaled Ancient
• 1 Kodama of the East Tree
• 1 Lotus Cobra
• 1 Mina and Denn, Wildborn
• 1 Moraug, Fury of Akoum
• 1 Roil Elemental
• 1 Sakura-Tribe Scout
• 1 Scourge of the Throne
• 1 Skyshroud Ranger
• 1 Tireless Provisioner
• 1 Walking Atlas
• 1 Wayward Swordtooth
• 1 Zimone, Quandrix Prodigy

• Instants (15)
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Brainstorm
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Eureka Moment
• 1 Expel from Orazca
• 1 Growth Spiral
• 1 Harrow
• 1 Hinder
• 1 Impulse
• 1 Krosan Grip
• 1 Memory Lapse
• 1 Savage Beating
• 1 Sweep Away
• 1 Vanishment
• 1 Whisk Away

• Sorceries (8)
• 1 Animist's Awakening
• 1 Genesis Ultimatum
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Relentless Assault
• 1 Rishkar's Expertise
• 1 Seize the Day
• 1 Urban Evolution
• 1 World at War

• Enchantments (9)
• 1 Aggravated Assault
• 1 Aqueous Form
• 1 Burgeoning
• 1 Concordant Crossroads
• 1 Mind's Dilation
• 1 Retreat to Coralhelm
• 1 Retreat to Kazandu
• 1 Temur Ascendancy
• 1 Trade Routes

• Artifacts (6)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Scroll Rack
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Whispersilk Cloak

• Lands (39)
• 10 Forest
• 6 Island
• 2 Mountain
• 1 Blighted Woodland
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Cinder Glade
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Coral Atoll
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Fabled Passage
• 1 Frontier Bivouac
• 1 Gruul Turf
• 1 Izzet Boilerworks
• 1 Jungle Basin
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Prismatic Vista
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Shivan Reef
• 1 Simic Growth Chamber
• 1 Stomping Ground
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Training Center
• 1 Windswept Heath
• 1 Yavimaya Coast

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This looks like a blast to play, honestly. It's somewhat similar to a typical landfall deck, but instead of a ton of redundancy on the landfall cards, I added a package that gives me additional combat phases and uses those phases to steal their cards. Sounds like a blast, honestly. The deck has the infinite combo potential that you get with Retreat to Coralhelm so if you really want, you can steal every creature in play, only now you have cards to untap those creatures and attack with them twice. Sounds like a winner to me! Playing their spells is great, even on webcam, and you have quite a few of your own spells that will be safer in exile with a fetch counter than they would be in play.

I have a lot fewer creatures and a lot more Instants and Sorceries than I typically would with a deck like this, so I had to trim fat in the Artifacts department. That's honestly fine - I have four Omnath decks and none of them run Signets for various reasons. I also really don't like cards like Farseek in a deck like this, personally, but I'm not inclined to argue with Magic Twitter in its entirety on this one, so let's pretend I cut them for space and move on.

There is a bit of a "Vanishment" subtheme. I wanted to include a lot of Instant-Speed options but since those are usually more expensive, I opted for the cheap mana ones. Putting their best creature on top before you swing with Pako is dirty and you should do it early and often. There's no guarantee you would have hit a good spell with Pako, so using Pako's attack to permanently exile something sweet of theirs is a strategy they might not see coming, assuming you'll be all-in on trying to hit a good spell. I didn't include Scroll Rack or Sensei's Divining Top or anything like that in my list because I hate watching people use those cards and ordering your own deck matters way less than ordering theirs. Sure, there are some creatures in the deck you don't necessarily want to end up in exile, but if you improve the quality of their cards you get, you'll be too busy slinging their spells and banishing their creatures to exile to worry about it.

I'm excited to sleeve this up, and I get the feeling that once I get a few games in, I can start taking off the "landfall" training wheels and explore the cards that are uniquely good in this deck. I don't love playing this many Instants and Sorceries, but considering I might get to finally cast a big Animist's Awakening, I can make the trade just this once.

What do we think, readers? Is this too many creatures? (It is, but I'm not ready to cut any). Does this look fun? Unique? Exactly like your build? Let me know in the comments section. I'll be back next week with some new hotness - until next time!