My Shang-Chi Tapper Brew

When Marvel Super Heroes was spoiled, I knew this would be my first Commander from this set.

I was a diehard Marvel comics fan growing up. I remember standing in the grocery stores and convenience stores in my West Virginia town flipping through the pages. My favorite title was The Avengers, which I eventually subscribed to via mail.

My second-favorite as a kid was The Savage Sword of Conan, but of course, I also dipped into X-Men and Spider-Man at times. Avengers, though, has always held a special place and I eventually filled out my collection with a great score on eBay.

My favorite classic Avengers writer was Roger Stern in the 1980s. He gave us titles like "Under Siege," brought more women to the series, and gave The Wasp a nice leadership role.

He also created and added the first major black woman to the series, as the second Captain Marvel, (Monica Rambeau). She also spent some time as Chair. She was my favorite.

Stern was fired by his boss for not changing Monica's story. They wanted Monica to be incompetent, leading to dropping sales but he stood his ground, arguing that changing her story would be racist and sexist.

In the 70s, he spent time as the editor for several issues of The Hands of Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu (issues #71-87), too.

Meet Our Commander

Our leader today is Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu. He's a 2/2 for two in Green.

His effects are really cool. We can tap him to make to spend on activated abilities on our Creatures. It'll also let us use activated abilities as if all of our Creatures had Haste, which won't be the flashiest effect in Green, but it's still cool.

Let's get into it.

Mana-Matters

I'll kick things off with these two three-drop mana dorks, which are super abundant in Green.

Topiary Lecturer is a 1/2 Elf Druid with Increment, which lets us rack up counters on them as we cast more expensive spells.

Then, a little harder to pay for at is Circle of Dreams Druid. Another Elf Druid, this one is a 2/1 that we can tap and get one for every Creature we have on the board.

You'll want to play these after you have Shang-Chi on the board.

Next are these two tappers that care about our devotion to Green, which is easy in this deck.

Karametra's Acolyte is a four-drop 1/4 Human Druid. By the time we play her, it'll be easy to tap her right away and reap the benefits.

Another one for , I have Nyx Lotus. This enters tapped but lets us add Green mana equal to our devotion as well. I also added in Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx here.

Finally, these two fun Planeswalkers to finish out our mana fixing.

Nissa, Who Shakes the World comes in with five loyalty counters for . She'll make it so all our Forests tap for double. We can also +1 Nissa to put three +1/+1 counters on one of our Lands to make it into an Elemental with Vigilance and Haste.

They also stick around after our turn ends.

Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury is last here. She costs , too, but comes in with just three loyalty counters. What we'll use her for is her +2 ability to let us keep making 1/1 Green mana dorks. If we need, we can use her -2 ability, destroy an Artifact or Enchantment, for some removal.

Synergies and Win-Cons

Of course, we need some synergy and a way to win.

Leyline of Abundance can be free if it's in our opening hand but otherwise we'll pay . Any time we tap a dork, it'll make one extra with this on our board. It also lets us sink eight over and over again to add +1/+1 to our whole team.

Cryptolith Rite is great support for the Leyline, making it so all our Creatures can tap for of any color we choose. It'll only cost us to cast.

Next up, a six-drop Planeswalker. Garruk, Caller of Beasts comes in with four loyalty counters on him. He can +1 to dig five and draw all the Creatures we find this way. Then we can -3 him to drop a Green Creature for free.

Yeva, Nature's Herald is a 4/4 Legendary Elf Shaman with Flash. As long as we have her out, all of our Green Creatures get to have Flash.

I've got two more Elves here.

Fauna Shaman is a two-drop Bear. We can pay and tap if we want to trade one of our Creatures for another. Being able to do this right when we put it down could be really powerful.

Then the four-drop 1/1 Elf Shaman, Elvish Piper taps with to play a Creature without having to pay its cost.

Yisan, the Wanderer Bard is a 2/3 for three. This Human Rogue Bard can also tap for three to get a verse counter. These let us search our library for a Creature with a mana value equal to however many counters we have. It goes onto the battlefield without paying the cost, too.

Then the 2/3, Doorman, taps for free to make it so our foes can't block us unless they have some stronger dorks. I also tossed in Rogue's Passage.

Next are these two critters.

Emil, Vastlands Roamer Is a Legendary Elf Druid. We get a 3/3 body on curve for . He makes it so any of our Creatures with counters on them have Trample. We can also tap him for five and create a 0/0 Fractal.

Its power and toughness are equal to the number of names among our Lands on the board.

The other Legendary 3/3 here is Baru, Wurkspeaker for four. He'll give all our Wurms +2/+2 and Trample. Baru taps for eight (at most) to put a 4/4 Wurm token out. We'll a discount of for every Wurm we've got.

I've got some more Creatures we can tap here.

Magus of the Order is a 3/3 Human Wizard for . She taps and sacs with Green, along with a another Creature, to let us tutor a specific Green Creature. We'll be able to use her ability as soon as she gets on the board.

The three-drop, Hua Tao, Honored Physician, is a 1/2 Human that we can tap to put a Creature from our graveyard to the top of our library. We can do this over and over again, but only once per main phase.

Kazandu Tuskcaller serves as a great mana sink. We can pay in to level it up and then tap for free abilities. At levels two through five, we can get a 3/3 Elephant token and at level six, we'll get two.

Loot, Exuberant Explorer isn't popular, but he's useful here. For 2G, we get a 1/4 body, so an okay blocker. He lets us play an extra Land every turn or pay six and tap to dig six and play a Creature for free.

Nakia, Wakandan Operative is here for 2G. This Legendary lady has Reach and has us become the monarch when our Commander comes out. Nakia also taps for and gives us two +1/+1 counters on a dork or Vehicle.

A pricy Insect Druid Legend, Thriss, Nantuko Primus, comes in at seven. He's a 5/5 and can tap with just one to give one critter +5/+5 for a turn. I also added Nantuko Mentor to tap and double their size.

Patron of the Orochi brings a 7/7 body but we'll be relying on him to untap all our Forests and Green Creatures. Then, there's Tyvar, the Pummeler.

Tyvar's a 3/3 for three, and we can tap another Creature to make him Indestructible for a turn if someone tries to take him out. His ability is great here, too, allowing us to tap him for five and pump all our Creatures by the power of our strongest dork. We can do it repeatedly and we won't lose it at EOT.

Now I've got these two X-cost Creatures.

Big Bertha gets counters equal to whatever we're willing to pay for her, and then we can pay two to add more. We could bring her out super strong easily, or grow her fast depending on when we draw her.

That Hydra has a 1/1 body to start too, but gets counters equal to what we're willing to pay. Then, any time other critters would get counters, they go to Benevolent Hydra instead. We can tap it to put those counters onto other Creatures, too.

Now let's turn here.

Ferrafor, Young Yew is pricy at 6G but mana really is never an issue in Green. We can get a 1/1 Sapling token for every counter our team has when he comes out, and he taps to double all our counters.

Another 2/2 for two, Raucous Entertainer is a Plant Bard. We'll use him for his ability to tap with to give +1/+1 to everything that entered this turn. Imagine these two coming down on the same turn.

I finished up synergy by throwing in these two.

Powerful Broker is a 3/3 Human Villain with a great ability that we can use as a Sorcery. We can tap him to add another counter of every type for everyone. Staff of Domination gets on the table for and gives us tons of modes.

I also tossed in other untappers like Seeker of Skybreak.

Answers

I'll need some answer for the table if I want this plan to play out.

Arashi, the Sky Asunder is a 5/5 for 3GG. We can use it to knock out a Flyer if we need to, and we can Channel and pay a little extra to ping everything with Flying.

Then the six-drop Endbringer Eldrazi untaps on every turn. It's a 5/5 that taps to deal one damage to any target, paralyze a dork, or draw us a card.

I've got these tappers for removal to finish up.

Glissa Sunseeker is a four-drop with First Strike. She comes out at 3/2 and will tap to let us blow up an Artifact. I also included Nullmage Advocate, a 2/3 for three.

We can use Nullmage to destroy an Artifact or Enchantment, too, but we'll have to give two cards back to a foe from their graveyard. I love both of these in different ways.

Card Draw

I'll finish the deck with card draw.

For flavor, I gave Shang-Chi The Ten Rings to give us a large hand and keep it full. Then, Shamanic Revelation lets us draw a card for each Creature we have and gives us four life for everything with power four or more.

To keep things Creature-focused, I am relying on these two for some card draw.

Soul of the Harvest is super strong at 6/6 with Trample. We're relying on him to let us draw cards anytime we play a nontoken.

Similarly, Beast Whisperer lets us draw any time we cast a Creature spell.

Let's finish here.

The seven-drop Elemental comes in at 5/5 and brings a great enters ability. When we put Regal Force into play, we get to draw a card for every Green Creature we've got, including tokens.

Then, a 3/2 with Vigilance, we've got Deepwood Denizen. He comes out for three, and then he can tap for six to draw us a card. We get a discount of for every +1/+1 counter anywhere, so we will usually only pay .

I also tossed in the Artifact looter Deal Broker to help us get cards, too.

How did the deck turn out?

Now let's take a look at the deck and how it came together.

My Shang-Chi Tapper Brew | Commander | Abe Sargent

• Commander (1)
• 1 Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu

• Creatures (52)
• 1 Arbor Elf
• 1 Arashi, the Sky Asunder
• 1 Baru, Wurmcaller
• 1 Beast Whisperer
• 1 Benevolent Hydra
• 1 Big Bertha
• 1 Canopy Tactician
• 1 Circle of Dreams Druid
• 1 Craterhoof Behemoth
• 1 Deal Broker
• 1 Deepwood Denizen
• 1 Doorman
• 1 Elvish Mystic
• 1 Elvish Piper
• 1 Elvish Reclaimer
• 1 Emil, Vastlands Roamer
• 1 Endbringer
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Fauna Shaman
• 1 Ferrafor, Young Yew
• 1 Formidable Speaker
• 1 Frontier Guide
• 1 Fyndhorn Elves
• 1 Gilded Goose
• 1 Glissa Sunseeker
• 1 Hua Tuo, Honored Physician
• 1 Llanowar Elves
• 1 Llanowar Mentor
• 1 Llanowar Tribe
• 1 Loot, Exuberant Explorer
• 1 Karametra's Acolyte
• 1 Kazandu Tuskcaller
• 1 Magus of the Candelabra
• 1 Magus of the Order
• 1 Nakia, Wakandan Operative
• 1 Nantuko Mentor
• 1 Nullmage Advocate
• 1 Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter
• 1 Patron of the Orochi
• 1 Powerful Broker
• 1 Quirion Ranger
• 1 Raucous Entertainer
• 1 Regal Force
• 1 Reclamation Sage
• 1 Seeker of Skybreak
• 1 Soul of the Harvest
• 1 Tangled Florahedron // Tangled Vale
• 1 Thriss, Nantuko Primus
• 1 Topiary Lecturer
• 1 Tyvar, the Pummeler
• 1 Yeva, Nature's Herald
• 1 Yisan, the Wanderer Bard

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 1 Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury
• 1 Garruk, Caller of Beasts
• 1 Nissa, Who Shakes the World

• Instants (3)
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Heroic Intervention
• 1 Shamanic Revelation

• Enchantments (2)
• 1 Cryptolith Rite
• 1 Leyline of Abundance

• Artifacts (8)
• 1 Emerald Medallion
• 1 Jandor's Saddlebags
• 1 Magewright's Stone
• 1 Nyx Lotus
• 1 Puppet Strings
• 1 Staff of Domination
• 1 The Ten Rings
• 1 Thousand-Year Elixir

• Lands (31)
• 14 Forest
• 5 Wastes
• 1 Baxter Building
• 1 Bonders' Enclave
• 1 Deserted Temple
• 1 Dryad Arbor
• 1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1 Karn's Bastion
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Tyrite Sanctum
• 1 War Room

Buy This Deck Export text

I have War Room, Bonders' Enclave, and Baxter Building as extra ways to help me draw cards. I adore the flavor of Heroic Intervention saving my team, plus Karn's Bastion proliferating and several Lands that hand out counters too.

This was a fun one, so I hope you enjoy.