If you've been reading my articles for any amount of time, you've probably picked up on the fact I like to do things outside of the box a little bit. (I also like doing things inside the box sometimes!) So after doing a series of more technical aspects of Commander, I thought it'd be fun to do something really out there and fun. And I thought I'd start here:

This guy is... fine. It's clearly a Humans Typal Commander, with the idea you play Humans (probably on turns 1 - 4), then play out your Commander with a few +1/+1 counters on him, become the Monarch, kill something, and swing for a dozen or so Commander damage on the next turn. Seems good.

But what I want to do for the next few articles is take Commanders which are clearly pointing us in a specific direction... and do something completely different with them. Not have a goal that isn't winning - though that's fun too - but rather to confound expectations at a table with the way the deck wins. Someone sitting down across from Eomer is going to assume you're playing Typal Humans, so imagine their surprise when you play this!

Eomer's Boros Stompy | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Eomer, King of Rohan

• Creatures (24)
• 1 Ancient Gold Dragon
• 1 Angel of Deliverance
• 1 Angel of the Dire Hour
• 1 Archivist of Oghma
• 1 Atraxi Warden
• 1 Baneslayer Angel
• 1 Battle Angels of Tyr
• 1 Bronzeplate Boar
• 1 Bruna, the Fading Light
• 1 Cavern-Hoard Dragon
• 1 Dinosaurs on a Spaceship
• 1 Drakuseth, Maw of Flames
• 1 Gisela, the Broken Blade
• 1 Inferno of the Star Mounts
• 1 Inferno Titan
• 1 Knollspine Dragon
• 1 Luminate Primordial
• 1 Mangara, the Diplomat
• 1 Molten Primordial
• 1 Purity
• 1 Sandstone Oracle
• 1 Scourge of Kher Ridges
• 1 Sun Titan
• 1 Triplicate Titan

• Instants (2)
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Swords to Plowshares

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 Descend upon the Sinful
• 1 Farewell
• 1 Imposing Grandeur
• 1 Revoke Existence
• 1 Sunfall

• Enchantments (3)
• 1 Banishing Light
• 1 Chained to the Rocks
• 1 Oblivion Ring

• Artifacts (25)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Bonder's Ornament
• 1 Boros Signet
• 1 Brawler's Plate
• 1 Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind
• 1 Chariot of Victory
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Cultivator's Caravan
• 1 Diviner's Wand
• 1 Ebony Fly
• 1 Forebear's Blade
• 1 Haunted Cloak
• 1 Hexgold Halberd
• 1 Key to the City
• 1 Loxodon Warhammer
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Mind's Eye
• 1 O-Naginata
• 1 Rogue's Gloves
• 1 Seer's Sundial
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Sword of the Animist
• 1 Sword of Vengeance
• 1 The Reaver Cleaver
• 1 Vorrac Battlehorns

• Lands (40)
• 8 Mountain
• 12 Plains
• 1 Alpine Meadow
• 1 Boros Guildgate
• 1 Clifftop Retreat
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Furycalm Snarl
• 1 Kor Haven
• 1 Lorehold Campus
• 1 Needle Spires
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Rugged Prairie
• 1 Rustvale Bridge
• 1 Slayers' Stronghold
• 1 Spectator Seating
• 1 Stone Quarry
• 1 Sundown Pass
• 1 Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
• 1 Temple of Triumph
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Wind-Scarred Crag

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There's one other Human in the deck. It's Mangara, the Diplomat, and he's there because he draws us cards. Otherwise, we have a completely different game plan. We are playing stompy!

If you don't know, "stompy" is a midrange, normally Green-based style where you ramp to a big Creature, often with evasion of some kind, and wallop your opponent. It's actually pretty normal in Commander, just not in Boros (); that color pairing tends to be tokens, Equipment-based, or some combination of the two.

We're avoiding all of those things. We are running some Equipment, but we're not searching for it, nor do we require it to win. Nope, we're going to do what Green stompy decks do: ramp, play a big dude, and swing for the fences.

If we're going to cast expensive Creatures, we'll need mana, so we're playing the normal 40 Lands. Our color requirements are about 2/3 White and 1/3 Red, so we're running a decent amount of dual Lands and more Plains than Mountains. We have a couple of colorless utility Lands, but we also have a lot of color requirements in the deck, so we don't want to overdo it! Rogue's Passage and Slayers' Stronghold both seemed worth the risk, though, and Kor Haven can get you out of a lot of jams.

Additionally, we're going to ramp fairly hard here; this is a deck which basically always wants more mana. Because we can't run Rampant Growth-style effects, instead we're running a suite of mana rocks; specifically, we're running nine of them. Many of them make colors, though a few don't. I'm a fan of Ebony Fly in decks like this, because it helps us after a Wrath effect. I also like Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind, because while most of the time it's just a bad Fire Diamond, we're running enough Dragons it can occasionally be worthwhile. Bonder's Ornament is a great use of excess mana, and Sol Ring provides explosive starts but also jumps us to that big dude later on. Sword of the Animist will keep Lands flowing. We also have a few ways to generate Treasures, but that's not really ramp, more storage for if we need it after someone blows up our board.

We are in the two weakest colors for card draw, so we had to get a little creative on this one. We do have access to Red's impulse drawing, but that's less good in a deck like this where individual card quality is pretty high, but also individual cards are expensive. I like Rogue's Gloves in decks which throw giant evasive Creatures at opponents. I also remember the days when Mind's Eye was really expensive because everyone ran it in every deck they had. Seer's Sundial is an old-school favorite of mine from when I used to make a lot of budget decks, and it's particularly good when you run enough Lands that you'll play them a lot. Diviner's Wand is similar, because it looks like it only belongs in Wizard Kindred decks, but anyone can use that ability! Key to the City plays double duty in this deck, but the looting isn't bad as a way to cycle away less-useful cards to dig for an answer or a threat. Archivist of Oghma joins Mangara as a small dude that sits out there and draws us extra cards, Knollspine Dragon and Sandstone Oracle both fit the bill as large evasive Creatures which happen to draw us cards, and Battle Angels of Tyr gets us cards, mana, and life.

What's really fun, though, is what happens for us on around turn five, if things have gone well with our ramp and Land drops. We get to start playing really big threats, and because we're not Dragon- or Angel-Typal, we get to play the best of both! Baneslayer Angel can ride into battle alongside Drakuseth, Maw of Flames. Dinosaurs on a Spaceship seem like a great teammate for Triplicate Titan. We've even got Gisela, the Broken Blade and Bruna, the Fading Light so they can meld into Brisela, Voice of Nightmares. Most of our big Creatures have flying, so we should be able to send them at someone.

We have a selection of removal spells, mostly designed to get rid of opposing Creature walls so we can break through with our stompies. Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares are great here, as is Chained to the Rocks (I love that card!), and Banishing Light and Oblivion Ring serve as catch-alls. We've also got a couple of mass-removal spells, including the controversial Farewell. Scourge of Kher Ridges is kind of a Wrath that also happens to be a 6/6 flier, and Atraxi Warden is hilarious but also darn useful if someone else is relying on attacking with a single big Creature.

Then we have some Equipment designed to help our Creatures kill our opponents. Cards like Brawler's Plate, O-Naginata, and Loxodon Warhammer give Trample and a power boost, which is great when someone thinks they can block with a Thopter token or whatever. Haunted Cloak and Chariot of Victory are both way underplayed and should often be chosen over Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots. It's rare you'll need more than one of these at a time, so I recommend playing them out just that way: stick the Forebear's Blade, and use it till it gets blown up. That avoids a blowout by a Vandalblast, and makes our own Farewell less painful.

In fact, as a rule you probably don't want to play out more than about two of your big Creatures at a time. They should be big enough to be relevant, especially with an Equipment on the 'field, and there's rarely a reason to not hold some of the action back so we can recover more quickly in the event of a wrath. People get really annoyed when they spend their Damnation on your Angel of Deliverance only to have it followed up next turn by Inferno of the Star Mounts carrying a Sword of Vengeance.

It's a style we've seen a million times before: play Lands, ramp like crazy, play a giant Creature, beat face. But give Eomer a go and see if anyone expects it. I bet they won't!

What's your favorite deck that confounded expectations? Let me know on socials! I'd love to hear your ideas and experiences.

Thanks for reading.