It's December! In December in many parts of the world, people turn to gift-giving as a way to show their affection for family, friends, and other people in their lives. I thought it'd be fun to take a look at some ways to give things away in Commander. Today, we'll give the gift... of cards!

For our 4 mana in Boros () colors, we get a 2/4 Creature with Vigilance. That's... okay - a form of evasion would make it a bit more palatable, but it's okay. At least she can block even after attacking.

More importantly, she creates absolute chaos on the Battlefield. Some sort of special token will surely be necessary in complicated games to confirm what's Suspected, what's Goaded... it'll be a lot. Suspected Creatures, most importantly, can't block, so Nelly can attack more easily, and the Goaded Creatures won't be a threat to us until we're one of the last two players in the game, so she does a nice job of keeping heat off us.

But it's even better, because when people make the very intelligent decision to not attack us, they get to draw a card! (And so do we...) So we're going to give away cards like crazy, encourage people to attack someone else, and set up a showdown between us and one other player.

Nelly Borka, Impulsive Accuser | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser

• Creatures (20)
• 1 Agitator Ant
• 1 Agrus Kos, Spirit of Justice
• 1 Alexios, Deimos of Kosmos
• 1 Aurelia, the Law Above
• 1 Brash Taunter
• 1 Bothersome Quasit
• 1 Fiendish Duo
• 1 Frontier Warmonger
• 1 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
• 1 Grenzo, Havoc Raiser
• 1 Iroas, God of Victory
• 1 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
• 1 Keeper of the Accord
• 1 Komainu Battle Armor
• 1 Loran of the Third Path
• 1 Orzhov Advokist
• 1 Selfless Squire
• 1 Vengeful Ancestor
• 1 Windborn Muse
• 1 Witch Enchanter // Witch-Blessed Meadow

• Instants (10)
• 1 Comeuppance
• 1 Deflecting Palm
• 1 Generous Gift
• 1 Gideon's Sacrifice
• 1 Immortal Obligation
• 1 Legion Leadership
• 1 Ride Down
• 1 Stroke of Midnight
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Take the Bait

• Sorceries (6)
• 1 Disrupt Decorum
• 1 Mob Verdict
• 1 Promise of Loyalty
• 1 Sevinne's Reclamation
• 1 Spectacular Showdown
• 1 Taunt from the Rampart

• Enchantments (13)
• 1 Curse of Opulence
• 1 Duelist's Heritage
• 1 Ghostly Prison
• 1 Hot Pursuit
• 1 Martial Impetus
• 1 Reconnaissance
• 1 Redemption Arc
• 1 Rite of the Raging Storm
• 1 Shiny Impetus
• 1 Smuggler's Share
• 1 The Sound of Drums
• 1 Trouble in Pairs
• 1 Vow of Lightning

• Artifacts (10)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Bloodthirsty Blade
• 1 Boros Signet
• 1 Fellwar Stone
• 1 Laser Screwdriver
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Talisman of Conviction
• 1 Thought Vessel
• 1 Tome of Legends

• Lands (40)
• 5 Mountain
• 4 Plains
• 1 Access Tunnel
• 1 Arcane Lighthouse
• 1 Ash Barrens
• 1 Castle Ardenvale
• 1 Clifftop Retreat
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Daily Bugle Building
• 1 Escape Tunnel
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Furycalm Snarl
• 1 Glittering Massif
• 1 Inspiring Vantage
• 1 Kher Keep
• 1 Labyrinth of Skophos
• 1 Needle Spires
• 1 Radiant Summit
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Restless Bivouac
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Rugged Prairie
• 1 Sacred Peaks
• 1 Scavenger Grounds
• 1 Slayers' Stronghold
• 1 Sunbaked Canyon
• 1 Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
• 1 Sunscorched Divide
• 1 Temple of Triumph
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 War Room
• 1 Wind-Scarred Crag

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We're going to want Nelly Borka out pretty quickly, so we're running 40 Lands to make sure we hit our first few Land drops, and we've got several mana rocks for (plus Sol Ring) so we can hopefully drop her a turn early. One of the keys will be attacking before the board gets too cluttered, so that early start will be key. Many of our Lands help us fix our colors, though we've also got some fun ones to use excess mana. Labyrinth of Skophos can help us if we wind up getting attacked by a Creature with a Suspect counter. Rogue's Passage and Access Tunnel both help sneak Nelly through should we need it, and Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion is a great example of a thing we can do with that mana. Daily Bugle Building can even help Nelly slip through defenses!

War Room hurts a bit more here than in a mono-colored deck, but it's worth it for the card draw. Mostly, though, we're going to count on Nelly providing us with extra cards; people will want to draw the card themselves, so they'll be inspired to attack our opponents - we just share the benefits. Aurelia, the Law Above should help us as well, since we'll Goad a bunch of Creatures and will regularly meet that condition. Smuggler's Share and Trouble in Pairs both drop extra cards on us for people doing what they normally do, Tome of Legends supports our gameplan, and Grenzo, Havoc Raiser's two options are both great for us.

One fun thing about a deck like this is, if it works, it doesn't really need a win condition. Well, sort of. Here's how this works:

1. We encourage our opponents to beat the snot out of each other, both with carrots (extra cards!), pillows (Windborn Muse!) and sticks (Goad!). They oblige, lowering their life totals.
2. Eventually, we're left with a single opponent and ourselves.
3. Our remaining opponent smiles, their life total low but the likely win on board. They swing out.
4. We cast something like Comeuppance, wrecking their board state and surviving. We crack back and kill them.

That's the ideal. Sometimes it won't be that smooth - but you'll be surprised at how often you find yourself at the end of the game with a substantially higher life total than the other final player. We have enough Angels and other Creatures kicking around to be able to figure it out, and even when everything they have can attack us, they'll still have to get through Ghostly Prison and Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs.

Which, by the way, is one of the ways we keep ourselves alive. All those pillows do a nice job of really keeping people off us - even a Goaded Creature can't attack if our opponent can't pay the mana to get through the Ghostly Prison. While we're at it, we also have some solid removal like Swords to Plowshares and Stroke of Midnight. Generous Gift is always great. Promise of Loyalty is our one reset button, but it works wonders for us.

This is a particularly fun deck to play because of how differently it functions from most normal Boros decks. While we have a number of aggressive aspects like Gisela, Blade of Goldnight - things which encourage attacking and doing lots of damage - we're really in a political role here. We're trying to get the rest of the table to behave just how we want them to, when we want them to. We make it impossible to resist attacking someone else - not only do they get an extra card, but they get to do double damage or something, just for attacking them and not us? They'll probably attack the other person.

And if they don't behave, we can still mess with them with spells like Taunt from the Rampart and Disrupt Decorum. In the right situation, something like that can send us hurtling towards the final showdown.

The other fun thing is you can kind of sell the deck as Group-Hug lite. No one is going to be convinced you're pure Group Hug, but start talking about how you're going to give cards away the whole game before you've even started shuffling and you'll get into peoples' heads. Should be a good time.

Thanks for reading.