I had a lot of fun building the last deck for this column. Don't get me wrong - I pretty much always enjoy building decks, and Wizards keeps enough new cards flowing our direction we always have new options to consider. Building stays fresh.

But the kind of restriction like this 50/50 thing is interesting. It requires thinking outside of the normal ways of doing things. As an example: go back through over 10 years of articles from me, and basically every one which is more than a single color (and some which are mono-color!) and 99% of them have Terramorphic Expanse in them. In a 50/50 deck, I can't run that card, an absolute go-to, because it isn't immediately clear which deck it goes in when we divide them.

Same for Sol Ring and, even worse today, Skullclamp.

Because today, we're going to go wide and draw all the cards.

For our 100 card deck, we're going to buff up Tana so she can Trample in and make a bunch of little dudes. Then we'll go wide with those little dudes, hitting all of our opponents every turn so Tymna can keep us churning through our deck. This should be fun.

50/50 | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commanders (2)
• 1 Tana, the Bloodsower
• 1 Tymna the Weaver

• Creatures (21)
• 1 Cruel Celebrant
• 1 Halana and Alena, Partners
• 1 Iridescent Vinelasher
• 1 Keeper of Fables
• 1 Lizard Blades
• 1 Mycoloth
• 1 Ohran Frostfang
• 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1 Tendershoot Dryad
• 1 Thelonite Hermit
• 1 Thunderfoot Baloth
• 1 Witty Roastmaster
• 1 Dauthi Voidwalker
• 1 Drana and Linvala
• 1 Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim
• 1 Intrepid Rabbit
• 1 Liesa, Forgotten Archangel
• 1 Selfless Spirit
• 1 Starscape Cleric
• 1 Thornplate Intimidator
• 1 Warren Warleader

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

• Instants (13)
• 1 Abrade
• 1 Artifact Mutation
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Giant Growth
• 1 Invigorate
• 1 Might of the Masses
• 1 Return of the Wildspeaker
• 1 Temur Battle Rage
• 1 Anguished Unmaking
• 1 Inkshield
• 1 Mortify
• 1 Secure the Wastes

• Sorceries (7)
• 1 Rampant Growth
• 1 Shamanic Revelation
• 1 Aerith Rescue Mission
• 1 Blot Out the Sky
• 1 Lingering Souls
• 1 Night's Whisper
• 1 Sign in Blood

• Enchantments (6)
• 1 Bravado
• 1 Impact Tremors
• 1 Snake Umbra
• 1 Bastion of Remembrance
• 1 Blind Obedience
• 1 Phyrexian Arena

• Artifacts (10)
• 1 Belt of Giant Strength
• 1 Embercleave
• 1 Gruul Signet
• 1 Talisman of Impulse
• 1 The Reaver Cleaver
• 1 Orzhov Locket
• 1 Orzhov Signet
• 1 Talisman of Hierarchy
• 1 The Wind Crystal
• 1 White Auracite

• Lands (40)
• 7 Forest
• 3 Mountain
• 1 Cinder Glade
• 1 Copperline Gorge
• 1 Fire-Lit Thicket
• 1 Game Trail
• 1 Kessig Wolf Run
• 1 Mossfire Valley
• 1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
• 1 Rockfall Vale
• 1 Rootbound Crag
• 1 Temple of Abandon
• 4 Plains
• 3 Swamp
• 1 Caves of Koilos
• 1 Concealed Courtyard
• 1 Fetid Heath
• 1 Isolated Chapel
• 1 Midgar, City of Mako
• 1 Restless Fortress
• 1 Shadowy Backstreet
• 1 Shambling Vent
• 1 Shattered Sanctum
• 1 Shineshadow Snarl
• 1 Silent Clearing
• 1 Temple of Silence
• 1 Vault of the Archangel

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Here's a great example of how doing things 50/50 changes my process. When I have access to Green, I pretty much always use Land-fetch-based ramp because I think Lands are less likely to get blown up and thinning my deck so I draw more action is better. However, if we did that, we would limit all the ramp to Tana's 50-card deck, and Tymna would suffer. So, with this pile we end up with more ramp on Tana's side (she'll need it) but not by a ton - there are mana rocks for both Partners here, along with a suite of Lands for each color pairing. (Rogue's Passage not being allowed hurt too!)

Tymna does a good job of keeping cards flowing, but it's not always that simple, so we have plenty of other ways. On the Tana side, we have a few things like Ohran Frostfang, which make our little Saprolings more deadly and draws us extra. I also like Shamanic Revelation here. Return of the Wildspeaker is normally included for its draw mode, but in this case there are times when the Overrun can be quite useful as well. On the Tymna side, Night's Whisper and Sign in Blood help us out.

The goal is to get both Commanders out and make some tokens, then ultimately win with all those tokens. We have a few ways to buff up Tana - normally just one good hit will get us rolling decently, so Giant Growth and Invigorate can both do some serious damage. Belt of Giant Strength is more permanent, of course, and pretty much insures we'll be making little dudes every turn. Once they're out there, we can pump them up with Thunderfoot Baloth or Return of the Wildspeaker, or just swing and draw cards looking for more answers and ways to make more little dudes.

Most of our answers live on Tymna's side with things like Anguished Unmaking. Blind Obedience also makes it harder for our opponents to block our assault of tokens. However, it didn't seem right to leave Tana defenseless, so there are a few on her side as well, like Beast Within.

Just because we can, we have a few abilities kicking around like Impact Tremors and Cruel Celebrant, which can turn the Saprolings and other tokens into win conditions without even attacking. That seems like a fun way to ruin someone's day. Tymna can't make the tokens Tana can when split, but we still can make some tokens on the side, mostly with evasion of some kind, so we can keep Tymna's engine running. There are a few ways to give Tana Double Strike so she hits twice and makes twice the tokens. And I really like Mycoloth here, even if it's a bit of a win-more.

The decks play decently when split as well. I'd give the edge to Tana - the Tymna player will have to play tight and get a little lucky, but I think we make up for it with a more solid 100-card deck. If you're teaching someone with these 50 card decks, give them Tana so they get to make big splashy plays and have a decent shot at winning against you. That said, I don't think any matchup with the two 50-card decks is a guaranteed win.

Additionally, these decks will play well as a mini-Commander deck (where Tana and Tymna are in the Command zone at the beginning of the match) or just two casual 50-card decks playing against each other. Both can draw cards, make mana, and deploy threats even without their respective leaders, so there are multiple ways to play.

Whether or not this idea is compelling or useful to you, I hope you see how putting constraints on your creativity - narrowing the scope of cards, requiring certain aspects of the cards to be a certain way, a price limit, whatever - can make you work harder and achieve more in your deck-building. Try it out!

Thanks for reading.