I am an Eagle Scout. Being an Eagle has meant a number of different things to me throughout my life, but I would be foolish to say it hasn't changed how I navigate the world. One of the major ways it has affected me is through the Scout Motto: "Be Prepared."

We learn this on day one of Scouting. It's easy to teach and remember, and it's immediately helpful. Being prepared helps you remember to pack your homework in your backpack as soon as you've finished it, rather than assuming you'll remember later. It means you put a flashlight in the glovebox of your car or (like me) always carry a pocketknife (and, in my case, this cool little screwdriver I use all the time). You pack your kid's favorite stuffed animal for sleepaway camp even when they don't.

You're probably wondering what on earth I'm talking about. I like to play Magic. I enjoy playing with people I know, people I don't know, formats I love and build, and formats I've never played. I simply like to interact with the game.

However, that isn't always easy. Sometimes we go places where we don't know we'd have time to play. Maybe you're going on an orientation overnight for college. A family trip to a cabin in the mountains. Work. Pretty much anywhere Magic isn't normally played.

I have messed around with ways to be prepared for these kinds of situations and still be able to play should the opportunity arise. My solution has been a small canvas bag, just big enough to hold two spindowns and four packs of Jumpstart. I keep these in my backpack, so I'm always ready to play with someone should the opportunity show itself.

But what happens if you're studying at a coffee shop and a group of people start playing Commander next to you? Or you're at that family get together and your younger cousin wants to learn to play? You and a friend need to kill some time waiting for a plane or train or Uber? Jumpstart covers some of that, but not all of it. I want a flexible answer that solves a lot of these problems. That led me to where we land today: a new deck-build I'm calling the 50/50.

This is a 100-card Commander deck with two Partners as the Commanders. However, the deck is easily divided into two 50-card decks, which can be played as illegal Brawl decks (using the Partner as the Commander - they're not Standard-legal, though, so they won't be actual Brawl decks), or you can play them as 50-card casual decks with the Commanders shuffled in, head-to-head. Heck, you could easily enough build a 60-card casual deck out of the pieces as well, should that come up!

The requirements I gave myself were strict. I want a deck that will divide easily once it's been combined. That means no having to remember that a specific card goes with a specific half. Every card must obviously and only go with one of the Commanders. In today's example, one Commander is Red, the other is Blue, which means we can't run a spell. We also can't run a colorless spell that doesn't obviously belong to one color - yes Sapphire Medallion, no Arcane Signet. And no Wandering Fumarole or Command Tower - each Land will obviously sort one side or the other. This means - in this deck - every card with Blue somewhere is one half, and with Red somewhere is the other.

There is no situation in which these decks will be super-competitive. Limiting the mana fixing and avoiding all colorless forms of acceleration are huge limitations, not to mention we don't get multicolored (and often powerful) spells. And we don't get Rogue's Passage or other utility Lands which can often turn the tide of a game.

However, we do wind up with a fun deck that can fill a lot of situations, giving you the opportunity to play the game when it wasn't otherwise possible. One box, kept in your bag all the time, that fits several situations. Is it the deck you want to take when you go to Commander night at your LGS or meet up with your friend for Emperor? Probably not. But it's perfect for a lunchbreak game, or a lucky stumble into a Commander game at a store you didn't know you'd be visiting.

Let's start with the Commander deck.

50/50 Breeches and Malcolm | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commanders (2)
• 1 Breeches, Brazen Plunderer
• 1 Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator

• Creatures (33)
• 1 Amphin Mutineer
• 1 Corsair Captain
• 1 Crafty Cutpurse
• 1 Daring Saboteur
• 1 Departed Deckhand
• 1 Dreamcaller Siren
• 1 Merchant Raiders
• 1 Pirated Copy
• 1 Prosperous Pirates
• 1 Sailor of Means
• 1 Siren Stormtamer
• 1 Slippery Scoundrel
• 1 Spectral Sailor
• 1 Tandem Lookout
• 1 Warkite Marauder
• 1 Angrath's Marauders
• 1 Boarding Party
• 1 Brazen Freebooter
• 1 Breeches, Eager Pillager
• 1 Broadside Bombardiers
• 1 Captain Lannery Storm
• 1 Captain Ripley Vance
• 1 Captivating Crew
• 1 Coastline Marauders
• 1 Coercive Recruiter
• 1 Dire Fleet Daredevil
• 1 Enterprising Scallywag
• 1 Impulsive Pilferer
• 1 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
• 1 Lizard Blades
• 1 Plundering Pirate
• 1 Reckless Fireweaver
• 1 Storm Fleet Arsonist

• Instants (11)
• 1 Brainstorm
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Hornswoggle
• 1 Lookout's Dispersal
• 1 Pongify
• 1 Rapid Hybridization
• 1 Abrade
• 1 Buccaneer's Bravado
• 1 Dead Before Sunrise
• 1 Return the Favor
• 1 Untimely Malfunction

• Sorceries (4)
• 1 Chart a Course
• 1 Preordain
• 1 Seize the Spotlight
• 1 Stolen by the Fae

• Enchantments (4)
• 1 Call to the Kindred
• 1 Ophidian Eye
• 1 Brazen Cannonade
• 1 Daring Piracy

• Artifacts (6)
• 1 Pirate Hat
• 1 Sapphire Medallion
• 1 Sky Diamond
• 1 Cursed Mirror
• 1 Fire Diamond
• 1 Ruby Medallion

• Lands (40)
• 17 Island
• 1 Castle Vantress
• 1 Mystic Sanctuary
• 1 The Surgical Bay
• 17 Mountain
• 1 Arena of Glory
• 1 Castle Embereth
• 1 The Autonomous Furnace

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We have, here, a straight-up Pirate Typal deck, though there is a fairly substantial Treasure theme - and both halves of the deck make Treasure tokens when we split them.

Our 40 Lands come from 20 of each color, and we have some Artifact ramp in the form of the on-color Medallions and Diamonds. We're also running Cursed Mirror, which works great in most situations. The curve on this guy isn't terribly high, so we should be fine with five pieces of acceleration.

In a traditional Izzet () deck, Blue does the heavy lifting of card draw. That remains true, with cards like Brainstorm and Chart a Course providing extra cards. Call to the Kindred does a nice job of keeping cards moving, too. This helps to balance the heads-up nature of the two 50 card decks too; the Red team plays more like a Red aggro deck, trying to do as much damage as possible, while the Blue half plays a longer game, assembling resources to win the game later.

Our Commanders make sure we attack with our Pirates, since doing so will both get us Treasures and access to our friends' cards. That's the most likely way we win, though Reckless Fireweaver, as one of only two non-Pirate Creatures in the deck, can be its own win condition for sure, depending on how many Treasures you can make. With Angrath's Mauraders out and a few evasive Pirates, the Treasure damage from the Fireweaver can really get up there. Copy something with Cursed Mirror for extra oomph. Brazen Cannonade encourages us to keep pressure on even when we might lose Creatures, because we'll do some extra damage to everyone and we get to play off the top of our Library.

Many of our Instants form the backbone of our answer suite. Hornswoggle and Lookout's Dispersal join the classic Counterspell as counters; Abrade, Pongify, and Untimely Malfunction all remove things we need removed.

I'm also a big fan of Stolen by the Fae here. It's a tempo play for sure, bouncing something expensive back to Hand and forcing a recast, but it also gives us a flying army great at pushing through those final points of damage.

Daring Piracy is a fun little Bitterblossom for Pirates; Menace makes it a lot more likely they'll get through. Tandem Lookout is our other non-Pirate Creature, but it's worth it as another way to draw cards. Lizard Blades is really here as Equipment, but I suppose it's another non-Pirate Creature.

The two decks play nicely against each other. My editor is worried the Red deck will rout the Blue deck every time, but play-testing suggests otherwise; the decks are nicely balanced, with Malcolm playing a slower, more controlling game with tapping down and the occasional counter, and Red doing its thing trying to attack before it gets outclassed. I would recommend playing with the Partners in the Command Zone if able, but if you're teaching someone how to play with these decks, I'd just shuffle the Commanders in to each 50 - it won't matter that much (though I do think Malcolm's access to Malcolm himself - a flying Creature difficult for the Red deck to deal with - gives it a better shot. So if you're teaching someone and playing with the Commanders shuffled in, maybe play the Blue deck since it'll be more complicated). They make for fun, interactive games of Magic, though.

We're going to spend another few weeks looking at decks built this way. I hope you find some value from it. Once I'm done, I'll certainly build at least one of them in real life so I can keep it in my bag all the time. It's okay it's not the world's strongest thing. A big part of Commander is acknowledging not everything has to be the best - it's more about fun than anything else. Playing more Magic = more fun than not playing Magic.

Thanks for reading.