There are a lot of ways to play Commander, lots of ways to build decks, and one of the best parts about the game is how we get to explore our different interests. I like building many... different kinds of decks, which is one reason I enjoy writing this column so much - I get to explore and share all the different avenues I enjoy. Today is one such example.

New sets bring new opportunities for deck-building, and while the focus of Tarkir is certainly on the Dragons, there are a number of other Creatures out there, lurking, waiting to be built around. One such example caught my eye.

This feels like a puzzle to me. We get the Doran, the Siege Tower ability but only on our turn. Plus we lose two colors. Then we get to buff up our attacking power, but it's tied to how many cards we have in our Hand, which is unusual for White. We also get a 0/7 for 6 mana, which isn't a terrible deal when we know it really functions as a 7/7, at least when we're attacking. Here's what I came up with.

Baldin, Century Herdmaster | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Baldin, Century Herdmaster

• Creatures (29)
• 1 Alms Collector
• 1 Angel of Destiny
• 1 Armored Armadillo
• 1 Bounding Felidar
• 1 Crashing Drawbridge
• 1 Dalkovan Packbeasts
• 1 Daxos, Blessed by the Sun
• 1 Enduring Innocence
• 1 Essence of Antiquity
• 1 Flumph
• 1 Giant Ox
• 1 Indomitable Ancients
• 1 Interface Ace
• 1 Luminate Primordial
• 1 Mangara, the Diplomat
• 1 Mentor of the Meek
• 1 Nyx-Fleece Ram
• 1 Oathsworn Giant
• 1 Oketra the True
• 1 Platoon Dispenser
• 1 Prava of the Steel Legion
• 1 Rasaad yn Bashir
• 1 Rumor Gatherer
• 1 Sandstone Oracle
• 1 Springjack Shepherd
• 1 Starry-Eyed Skyrider
• 1 Voice of Victory
• 1 Welcoming Vampire
• 1 Zetalpa, Primal Dawn

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Teyo, Geometric Tactician

• Instants (6)
• 1 Bar the Door
• 1 Generous Gift
• 1 Refuse to Yield
• 1 Solidarity
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Your Temple Is Under Attack

• Sorceries (7)
• 1 Cut a Deal
• 1 Dusk // Dawn
• 1 Fell the Mighty
• 1 Secret Rendezvous
• 1 Slaughter the Strong
• 1 The Battle of Bywater
• 1 The Wedding of River Song

• Enchantments (3)
• 1 Love Song of Night and Day
• 1 Stoneskin
• 1 Tocasia's Welcome

• Artifacts (13)
• 1 Alacrian Armory
• 1 Bonder's Ornament
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Halo Fountain
• 1 Hedron Archive
• 1 Magnifying Glass
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Oketra's Monument
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Slagwurm Armor
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Thought Vessel
• 1 Throne of Eldraine

• Lands (40)
• 24 Plains
• 1 Access Tunnel
• 1 Arch of Orazca
• 1 Castle Ardenvale
• 1 Dalkovan Encampment
• 1 Demolition Field
• 1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
• 1 Escape Tunnel
• 1 Forbidding Watchtower
• 1 Idyllic Grange
• 1 Minas Tirith
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Plaza of Heroes
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Springjack Pasture
• 1 War Room

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The theory here is to lay out Creatures with high Toughness on curve, eventually ramping to Baldin and swinging out to do a ton of damage in the red zone. It's not surprising, but it should be fun, and it lets us play with a number of silly Creatures which often don't get the time of day.

Additionally, it leans into what is a much-improved card draw slate for White since I first started playing Commander. Back then it was all Mind's Eyes and Jayemdae Tomes, plus Land Tax and a lot of hoping. Now, though, we get a lot of options.

We do have a number of spells which cost a good bit of mana, and I found in testing we want to be able to cast multiple spells per turn, so 40 Lands as a baseline makes sense. Additionally, we have a number of mana rocks, and this is a space I'm loving because of how much we can do with them. I read a lot of articles talking about three-mana rocks and how they're terrible, and if your only perspective is cutthroat win-at-all-costs cEDH, of course you're going to say that. This is a Bracket 2 deck, and the 3 mana rocks give us access to long-term abilities we can use. Thought Vessel acting as a second Reliquary Tower is a great example, but so are Hedron Archive and Bonder's Ornament, both of which can draw us extra cards later in the game to increase our bonus from Baldin. Throne of Eldraine is pricey but boy does it pack a wallop when it hits the field.

We have a number of ways to draw cards, and they do work. Halo Fountain, Alms Collector, Skullclamp, Secret Rendezvous, Teyo, Geometric Tactician - the list goes on and on. It is almost always worth it to cast Cut a Deal into overdrawing and having to discard; do it right and you can still give your Creatures the full bonus, and the discard will be minimal even though we won't get those cards back. Our best players are probably Tocasia's Welcome, Welcoming Vampire, and Mentor of the Meek; with a single one of those out, you'll be drawing plenty of cards per turn to keep your Hand size up.

We're really a midrange deck, not White Weenie. Our Creatures tend not to be Tokens (though we can end up with a number of those - more on that later) but rather individual Creatures. The good part is, we're paying less because we don't care about Power, just Toughness, so we get stuff like Essence of Antiquity and Indomitable Ancients, which wind up being really undercosted 10/10s for us. Oketra the True is great because it swings for 12. Daxos, Blessed by the Sun can be another massive one for just .

All this means we're going to win by playing on curve, building a board, and attacking with it in advantageous ways. We have to leverage our benefits with things like Crashing Drawbridge, Oathsworn Giant, and Starry-Eyed Skyrider, who can become very important as our board develops. Prava of the Steel Legion can similarly benefit our stuff. Play carefully and work through the puzzle, attacking intentionally where you can gain the most benefit.

Generous Gift and Swords to Plowshares are sort of givens here, and Luminate Primordial does some work even if we never attack and just cast it. But my favorite part of this deck is how we get to run sweepers like Dusk // Dawn or Fell the Mighty. We can turn these cards into very cheap In Garruk's Wakes for us with some careful consideration. At the very least, we can make it very difficult for people to block advantageously.

Finally, we need to consider that something strange may happen. We might cast a Springjack Shepherd and make, say, eight Goat tokens. That's fine. But if we follow it up the next turn with that Starry-Eyed Skyrider and, I don't know, Bar the Door, we can swing for 40 in the air. That's not bad, and that doesn't count the bonus we get from our Hand size if Baldin is attacking as well. If we have five cards in hand, now we're swinging for 80. With Goat tokens. Watch for the interactions and lean into the Power (Toughness?) of the deck.

Finally, there are two cards which are kind of vanity for me, because I like them. The first is Platoon Dispenser. It's a little awkward and is expensive, but it should draw us cards close to every turn it's in play, and it gives us stuff to do with extra mana. Second, Angel of Destiny is a goofy little alternate win-con which should make games very interesting. People will likely panic about it, but with some decent timing you might be able to pick someone off or even win the game off it. It may or may not work, but it was too much fun to pass up.

The last cuts I made were tough ones. Gauntlets of Light just didn't give enough bang for their buck, though the untap ability is really strong. God-Eternal Oketra is really good too, and it's possible it should be in place of Bounding Felidar, but I liked the bonus the Felidar gives in the event we have a bunch of little Tokens out. Finally, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite (the OG Elesh) is very, very strong here. She's also really mean. Play her at your own risk.

Thanks for reading.