Last week's Guild Summit demonstrates just how different each of us is. We have our own metas, our own ideas of how the game should be played, and our own concepts of what makes a card good in Commander. Simic Ascendancy is a good example: some of us love that card, others of us hate it. I, personally, regularly play with a guy who has a nasty Vorel of the Hull Clade deck. The Ascendancy will slot right in and make the deck even worse to play against, because it's a difficult-to-manage alternate win-con that he'll naturally work toward, and quickly. On the other hand, some people see the opportunity to put more counters on things and have a new way to win as a great thing. Both are correct. We are just different. It's a strength of the game, not a weakness.

Which leads me to this week's commander. Nikya of the Old Ways is not particularly startling. She's got a reasonable Power/Toughness to CMC ratio, but that's not unusual for Gruul () or , land of the six-mana 8/8. She doubles mana, and nicely only does it for us, but there are plenty of ways to do that in Commander; does it all over the place, but and both have a history of Mana Flare and other effects, some global, some individual. She also drastically limits our ability to play Magic, seeing as how she limits us to precisely one type of card. We either have to get tricky with things like Roaring Primadox and keep casting her in order to get around it, or we just have dead cards in our hand. Or we can just build a deck with nothing but creatures.

It's fairly linear. It's pretty obvious. But to someone like me, it's great fun.

Nikya of the Old Ways | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Nikya of the Old Ways

• Creatures (59)
• 1 Acidic Slime
• 1 Aggressive Mammoth
• 1 Amplifire
• 1 Archetype of Aggression
• 1 Archetype of Endurance
• 1 Bane of Progress
• 1 Beast Whisperer
• 1 Bellowing Tanglewurm
• 1 Boartusk Liege
• 1 Brawn
• 1 Champion of Lambholt
• 1 Conclave Naturalists
• 1 Crater Hellion
• 1 Craterhoof Behemoth
• 1 Cyclops of Eternal Fury
• 1 Decimator of the Provinces
• 1 Dragonlord Atarka
• 1 Drumhunter
• 1 End-Raze Forerunners
• 1 Flametongue Kavu
• 1 Garruk's Horde
• 1 Garruk's Packleader
• 1 Goblin Settler
• 1 Golden Guardian
• 1 Gruul Ragebeast
• 1 Hammerheim Deadeye
• 1 Huntmaster of the Fells
• 1 Indrik Stomphowler
• 1 Inferno Titan
• 1 Khenra Charioteer
• 1 Legion Loyalist
• 1 Manglehorn
• 1 Masked Admirers
• 1 Master of the Wild Hunt
• 1 Mold Shambler
• 1 Nylea, God of the Hunt
• 1 Pathbreaker Ibex
• 1 Primordial Sage
• 1 Qasali Slingers
• 1 Ravager Wurm
• 1 Reclamation Sage
• 1 Rubblehulk
• 1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
• 1 Scorchwalker
• 1 Shaman of Forgotten Ways
• 1 Skarrg Goliath
• 1 Skarrg Guildmage
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Soul of the Harvest
• 1 Terastodon
• 1 Territorial Allosaurus
• 1 Thunderfoot Baloth
• 1 Tornado Elemental
• 1 Ulvenwald Observer
• 1 Ulvenwald Tracker
• 1 Viashino Shanktail
• 1 Vithian Renegades
• 1 Wrecking Ogre
• 1 Xenagos, God of Revels

• Lands (40)
• 6 Mountain
• 9 Forest
• 1 Cinder Glade
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Fire-Lit Thicket
• 1 Game Trail
• 1 Grasslands
• 1 Gruul Guildgate
• 1 Gruul Turf
• 1 Homeward Path
• 1 Jund Panorama
• 1 Kazandu Refuge
• 1 Kessig Wolf Run
• 1 Mountain Valley
• 1 Mystifying Maze
• 1 Naya Panorama
• 1 Rocky Tar Pit
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Rootbound Crag
• 1 Rugged Highlands
• 1 Shivan Oasis
• 1 Skarrg, the Rage Pits
• 1 Spire Garden
• 1 Stomping Ground
• 1 Temple of Abandon
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Timber Gorge

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The first guy to go in here was Ruric Thar, the Unbowed. Rather than force us to play creatures, he just punishes everyone who doesn't, so having him around seemed to make a lot of sense. Cards like Khenra Charioteer and Aggressive Mammoth give our big dudes Trample. Bellowing Tanglewurm gives them all Intimidate. Archetype of Endurance grants Hexproof. We're going to play out things which matter to our board state and make everyone else tap the top of their decks, hoping for a Wrath of God.

We've also got a bunch of ways to draw cards. Beast Whisperer, Garruk's Packleader, Soul of the Harvest, the list goes on. Garruk's Horde even extends our hand, and there's a 60% chance we'll have a creature on top. This will be important because we are going to want to overextend; making sure we keep cards flowing will be key to getting anywhere.

We've got a few answers, even. Flametongue Kavu is a wonderful guy. Ulvenwald Tracker lets us send two creatures into an arena to Fight it out, while several of our creatures have Fight right on them. loves to destroy artifacts, so cards like Vithian Renegades make an appearance, but we've also got our Acidic Slimes and Conclave Naturalists for even more options. Mold Shambler's pricy but the chance to hit pretty much whatever is worth it. Even Huntmaster of the Fells, Standard devil he was at one time, can get in on the removal action. Tornado Elemental wipes the skies clean and threatens quite a bit of damage. Bane of Progress will often shut an entire table down for a turn or two while everyone regroups.

We also run 40 lands. Fixing color plus some utility. Since this deck doesn't run anything like Wood Elves it's pretty important to run that 40, mostly because we want to get to Nikya on time.

The other fun thing is that most of these pieces are interchangeable. Want to run with some Dragons (in addition to Dragonlord Atarka, that is)? Go for it. Want to go for a Beast tribal theme? That will definitely work. Heck, there might be something to mana dorks to help speed the process along. It may be "the deck that everyone will make," but it doesn't have to be. Make it your own, and even being linear it'll still be unique.

That said, we can probably use an optionboard to toughen up a bit.

• Fauna Shaman
• Purphoros, God of the Forge
• Urabrask the Hidden
• Lurking Predators
• Primal Surge

These five cards will make the deck significantly stronger, because drawing just one will create a very powerful effect. Fauna Shaman's ability to pull anything out of the deck gives a ton of very powerful options. Purphoros will just sit out there and do damage while we do what we do, and not die while he's at it. Urabrask will make our threats that much more absurd while supressing blockers.

Lurking Predators and Primal Surge have to be cast without Nikya on the field, though. Hopefully we get the Enchantment before we play our commander; then we just play it on turn six and play Nikya the following turn, then start to do stupid things.

It's okay to build the obvious thing if that's what you like. It's also completely okay to build something no one has ever seen before. The most important things are to have fun and try to make sure everyone else is too. I love Gruul and I love smashing with giant creatures, just like I did when I first started playing this game in Unlimited. This is a great way to do it. To put it another way: You do you.

Now get out there and smash.

Thanks for reading.