With Spider-Man (pre)releasing this past weekend, we're now firmly in a world where you'll be hard pressed to build a Spider EDH deck without dipping your toes into comic book themed Magic cards. While I'm personally thinking of skipping the set, it is still genuinely fun to brew up new decks around these new commanders. This week I've got a decklist that's built around stealing your friends' best creatures, sacrificing them, and drawing cards. It won't win you many friends, but I think it'll be fun to play and hopefully won't be too oppressive to play against.

Eddie Brock is a 3/3 Human Hero Villain and the front side of an MDFC. That's short for modal double-faced card. When Eddie Brock enters, you'll return target creature card with a mana value of 1 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield. As an MDFC, it has a casting cost on both sides so you can cast it for either side, but if this commander is face up it can be transformed at sorcery speed for 3BRG.

Venom, Lethal Protector is a 5/5 Symbiote Hero Villain with menace, trample, and haste. Whenever Venom attacks I may sacrifice another creature. If I do, I'll draw X cards and may put a permanent card with mana value X or less from my hand into the battlefield where X is the sacrificed creature's mana value.

Eddie Brock's enter the battlefield trigger incentivizes me to play a lot of 1 mana creatures, particularly ones that I can sacrifice for value in the early game. Venom's attack trigger incentivizes me to play or steal creatures with a high mana value.

The decks I share here are generally lower powered with a mix of strategies and room to be upgraded. If nothing else, you could pick your three favorite game changers, a few of your favorite pet cards, and lean into your preferred strategy to make this deck your own.

A Mere Mana

One of the most entertaining things about building this deck turned out to be looking at all of the amazing 1-drop creatures that I could get back on turn three just by playing Eddie Brock. Are you gonna bolt my bird? Well, Birds of Paradise is joined by Delighted Halfling and Ignoble Hierarch as mana dorks I can bring back out of the graveyard.

Utility creatures that have to be sacrificed might be the best targets as I'll get to play them, sacrifice them, bring them back and sacrifice them again.

Caustic Caterpillar is one of my favorite "rattlesnake" cards, sometimes keeping tablemates from playing out valuable combo pieces just by being in play. This one-mana Green insect can be sacrificed for one and a Green to destroy target artifact or enchantment. Neverwinter Dryad and Oashra Cultivator are in the list as one mana creatures that can tutor out a basic land and put it into play tapped. The former is inarguably better, but repeatable ramp is always good in EDH. Spore Frog is the kind of creature that can save your own butt, or save the table if you're in a generous mood and an opponent has managed to put together an early alpha strike.

Also in the mix are Viscera Seer, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, Deathrite Shaman, and Dragonmaster Outcast. Viscera Seer gives me a sacrifice outlet that lets me scry. Ragavan might be the most powerful 1-drop creature in Red. Deathrite Shaman provides pinpoint graveyard removal with a range of upsides. Dragonmaster Outcast just provides a 5/5 Red Dragon creature token with flying on my upkeep if I control 6 or more lands.

I could run more 1-drop creatures, but I didn't end up running the usual suite of one-drop elf mana dorks that commonly show up in Green EDH decks. Llanowar Elves, Elvish Mystic, Fyndhorn Elves, Arbor Elf, and Elves of Deep Shadow could push this deck's 1-drop creature count from 11 up to 16 if you didn't mind having a bit of an elf subtheme.

Big Beaters

Drawing a bunch of cards and dropping a bomb will always feel good, even if you're losing one of your creatures. While some of these guys may be a challenge to cast, I am running Entomb, Dread Return, Pattern of Rebirth, and Reanimate as ways to maybe get one of them into the graveyard or cheat one of them into play.

Worldspine Wurm, Phyrexian Triniform, and Wurmcoil Engine are the kinds of creatures I don't mind sacrificing. When they die they'll leave behind a few smaller creatures in their wake. I might want that big body, but the ability to dig deep into my library and put another creature into play will feel good. I won't be able to get anything out of sacrificing the creature tokens they left behind, but that's OK.

Creatures that have useful death triggers are also good in an Eddie Brock deck. Four of the legendary Kamigawa dragons fill that role in my list, along with Draconic Muralists, a Dragon Bard that can tutor a legendary Dragon from my library to my hand when it dies. Kokusho, the Evening Star's death trigger will have each opponent lose 5 life and I'll gain life equal to the life lost that way. Jugan, the Rising Star's death trigger will have me distribute five +1/+1 counters among any number of target creatures. Junji, the Midnight Sky, and Kura, the Boundless Sky both have modal death triggers, each with two tasty options for me to choose from.

The most eyebrow-raising creature in today's list might be Protean Hulk. You can design a deck to be able to threaten a win off of a Protean Hulk death trigger, but this list is more likely to go get a number of other creatures - possibly including Eternal Witness so I can get it back and do it again. The creatures Protean Hulk tutors up have to have a total mana value of 6. That means my wide range of interesting one-drop creatures could come in very handy if I'm not just getting a single six-drop like Massacre Wurm or Conquering Manticore.

Something Borrowed

Speaking of Conquering Manticore, the third major theme in this list is stealing creatures. If I'm using Venom's attack trigger to sacrifice my own creatures all the time, I'll have a hard time building much of a boardstate. Big creatures often require a lot of mana. If I can occasionally pay less mana to grab someone else's big creature and then sacrifice it when Venom attacks, I'll be killing two birds with one symbiotic stone.

There are only 12 Manticores in Magic, and only 11 in Jund (BRG) colors, but the Manticore worth running in this deck is Conquering Manticore. This flying 5/5 will enter play and let me gain control of target creature an opponent controls until end of turn. I'll grab the highest mana value creature I can find, sacrifice it when I go to combat, and on my next turn I can sacrifice my Manticore if I don't have better options available to me.

Repeatable theft is always better than enter the battlefield triggers, so Captivating Crew should be worth running. My commitment to a Pirate subtheme doesn't go past Captivating Crew, Coercive Recruiter, and Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, but all three of them can help me get an opponents' creature so I can sacrifice it to Venom.

I'm also running a few spells to steal creatures until end of turn. Kari Zev's Expertise might be the best of the lot, allowing me to cast a card with mana value 2 or less for free. Act of Treason, Besmirch, Take for a Ride, and the instant speed Word of Seizing round out this group. Footsteps of the Goryo will get me a creature from my graveyard, and Rise of the Dark Realms is an outright wincon if there are enough creatures in graveyards.

The only issue with my plan of stealing my opponents' creatures is that I can't attack with them and deal damage, as I'll be sacrificing them when Venom attacks. I could have run Mage Slayer, an old Equipment that has attacking creature deal damage equal to its power when it attacks, but I don't want to be paying its equip cost for each new victim I manage to steal.

Lethal Protector

To help keep this deck's game plan on track, I'm running Swiftfoot Boots and Lightning Greaves to protect my commander, and Conqueror's Flail to lock other players out of my turn. I fully expect my tablemates will murder my commander before combat to keep me from sacrificing their biggest, baddest beater. I'm running Morbid Curiosity and Momentous Fall to allow me to still sacrifice a stolen creature to draw cards even if Venom has been removed.

If my deck works I should be able to reliably see creatures dying, so I'm running Tragic Slip as a 1 mana answer to problem creatures that are indestructible. It gives target creature -1/-1 or -13/-13 if a creature died this turn. Grim Haruspex and Morbid Opportunist are in the list as a way to draw cards when creatures die. The former triggers when another nontoken creature I control dies. The latter will draw me a card when anyone's creature dies, but will only trigger once each turn.

Eddie Brock | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Eddie Brock

• Creatures (30)
• 1 Beast Whisperer
• 1 Birds of Paradise
• 1 Captivating Crew
• 1 Caustic Caterpillar
• 1 Coercive Recruiter
• 1 Conquering Manticore
• 1 Deathrite Shaman
• 1 Delighted Halfling
• 1 Draconic Muralists
• 1 Dragonmaster Outcast
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Grim Haruspex
• 1 Ignoble Hierarch
• 1 Jugan, the Rising Star
• 1 Junji, the Midnight Sky
• 1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1 Kura, the Boundless Sky
• 1 Massacre Wurm
• 1 Morbid Opportunist
• 1 Neverwinter Dryad
• 1 Oashra Cultivator
• 1 Phyrexian Triniform
• 1 Protean Hulk
• 1 Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
• 1 Ravenous Chupacabra
• 1 Spore Frog
• 1 The Beast, Deathless Prince
• 1 Viscera Seer
• 1 Worldspine Wurm
• 1 Wurmcoil Engine

• Spells (23)
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Entomb
• 1 Heroic Intervention
• 1 Momentous Fall
• 1 Tragic Slip
• 1 Word of Seizing
• 1 Act of Treason
• 1 Besmirch
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Dread Return
• 1 Ezuri's Predation
• 1 Farseek
• 1 Footsteps of the Goryo
• 1 Kari Zev's Expertise
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Morbid Curiosity
• 1 Nature's Lore
• 1 Rampant Growth
• 1 Reanimate
• 1 Rise of the Dark Realms
• 1 Take for a Ride
• 1 Three Visits

• Enchantments (3)
• 1 Animate Dead
• 1 Guardian Project
• 1 Pattern of Rebirth

• Artifacts (6)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Conqueror's Flail
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 The Great Henge

• Lands (37)
• 7 Forest
• 7 Mountain
• 7 Swamp
• 1 Arcane Lighthouse
• 1 Bloodstained Mire
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Deathcap Glade
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Forbidden Orchard
• 1 Haunted Ridge
• 1 Luxury Suite
• 1 Rockfall Vale
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Spire Garden
• 1 Undergrowth Stadium
• 1 Verdant Catacombs
• 1 Warped Landscape
• 1 Wooded Foothills

Buy This Deck Export text

To lower the power level of this deck there are a few cards you might drop out. Protean Hulk is one I might remove, along with higher priced cards like Ragavan, Kokusho, and The Great Henge. Any commander with a strategy that benefits from stealing your opponents' creatures is always going to be oppressive. You might consider a game plan of sacrificing your own guys if you're truly trying to put on the kid gloves.

A higher powered Eddie Brock deck is quite possible, though given its casting cost I don't see this commander breaking into cEDH. To aim for a higher bracket and power level you'd look at game changers and you would probably want to run more tutors so you can get exactly what you need for the situation you're in. Beyond that, you would want to look at your meta and figure out what will or won't work for the tables you're playing at. You could build in some combo wincons and try to rely on Venom's card draw to pull into the combo pieces you need to threaten a win.

Final Thoughts

While this isn't the kind of deck I generally like to play, I think it could be a fun and effective mid-to-high powered commander. Venom incentivizes you to play removal in the form of theft. When you can parlay stolen creatures into card draw and possibly a free permanent, there's every reason to think Eddie Brock can win games.

An underappreciated aspect of Eddie Brock is that he can be transformed for 3BRG, which is also the casting cost of Venom, Lethal Protector. That means that without ramp and hitting a land every turn, you can cast Eddie for 3 mana on turn 3, get back a 1 drop, and if he gets removed you can cast him again on turn 5. The extra 2 mana of commander tax won't delay the appearance of Venom, as both of those earlier Eddie Brock castings cost less than casting Venom for 6 mana. The tax will apply to whichever side you cast, so losing Eddie early does impact your ability to just cast him face down as Venom.

This does feel like the kind of card that will result in a ton of rules misunderstandings in more casual EDH play, but I don't think there's any hope for getting Wizards of the Coast to slow down on adding more and more complicated keywords and mechanics.

You might insist it's easy stuff, but in my first glance at Eddie Brock I missed that it was a MDFC (modal double-faced card) and I'm far from a new player. Misunderstandings about how the commander tax is applied, and how MDFCs work will abound. It doesn't help one bit that we recently saw a set with double face commanders like Heliod, the Radiant Dawn, that are TDFCs (transforming double faced cards) and cannot be cast on their back side.

That's all I've got for today. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!