Today I'm going to share what for me is a rare thing - a double feature.

Usually I put together one decklist and dive into the choices I made and how you might upgrade or downgrade it to fit into your meta. When I decided to brew up a deck around today's legendary creature, I quickly realized there were a lot of interesting directions you could take it. I made up a list, checked it twice, and then realized I wanted to take that extra step and build it in paper.

The funny thing is, I ended up brewing a completely different deck in paper than I initially made for this column.

I'm firmly of the belief that unless you are playing cEDH and are trying to completely optimize a brew, there is no "perfect" decklist. One of the wonderful things about Commander is that you can do a million different things with a deck and so long as you and your friends are having fun, there is no "wrong" way to do it.

Before I dive into my decklists, let's take a look at today's commander.

Smellerbee, Rebel Fighter, is a four mana 3/3 Human Rebel Ally in red with first strike. She gives other creatures I control haste, and she's got a really neat party trick. Whenever she attacks, I may discard my hand and if I do, I'll draw cards equal to the number of attacking creatures.

I want to build a deck that plays out a lot of creatures, and that attacks a lot. That's not a big problem in red, and I've got lots of options. I've got a pair of decklists today, but I've actually got three ideas for Smellerbee, Rebel Fighter. The first is just too silly to actually build. I think they conveniently drop into three brackets, though you may disagree with how I assess each deck's power level.

Bracket 1 Smellerbee

You might think that I'd build a bracket 1 Smellerbee, Rebel Fighter deck with nothing but red cards that look or seem like they would be smelly. That's not that bad an idea, but I don't think I'd be able to find enough creatures that fit the bill.

If I were to build a B1 Smellerbee list, I might run 26 creatures in red, one for each letter in the alphabet, and call it Smellerbee's Spelling Bee. That's also not a bad idea, and I could probably keep the mana curve down and make it vaguely playable. I really want more than 26 creatures, but Smellerbee's Spelling Bee isn't the worst Bracket 1 concept ever.

What I would probably build is a deck with only cards that begin with the letter B. The trick is to not tell anyone what the theme is and see how long it takes them to figure it out. It's not insanely clever, but if I had to build a B1 list, it would probably be fun to find thirty or so red creatures that start with the letter B. I'm almost curious enough to start looking through Scryfall, but I've got a column to write.

I've built a few bracket 1 decks in paper, and they were actually quite fun when played against similarly janky decks. Most of us don't really do that. We're up against real decks that are really trying to win. Even my bracket 1 decks are trying to win, but they aren't trying very hard.

Bracket Two Smellerbee

Bracket two might be considered the domain of preconstructed decks, but now that there are so many precons that can hang in bracket three, I no longer like to use precon as a way to describe a deck's power level.

For my bracket two Smellerbee, Rebel Fighter deck, I want to run a few cards that synergize with what my commander is bringing to the party. That would be attacking with creatures and a discard/draw engine that just begs to be broken wide open. I don't generally break things wide open in bracket two, but I'll let you judge whether or not I've gone overboard for bracket two.

My first challenge was to include cards that would give me extra attackers. I control my own triggers, so if I've got a trigger that will give me an extra attacker, I'll make sure that resolves first. When Smellerbee counts my attacking creatures, I want her to see as many attacking creatures as possible.

Red has lots of Thopter token generators, and you can usually find someone to send those 1/1 flyers at without having to worry about losing them in combat. Loyal Apprentice might be one of the best, giving me a Thopter token at the beginning of combat on my turn so I can declare it as an attacker. I decided to run a bunch of them along with Ornithopter of Paradise. I left out the zero-mana Ornithopter, but that might have been a mistake. Zero mana is hard to beat.

I'm also running every creature in red I could get my hands on that has the myriad keyword. Creatures with myriad have an attack trigger where you get to create a token copy of them for attacking each player not being attacked by the nontoken creature. I'll stack my triggers so that at a four player table Smellerbee will see those extra attackers. It's not a big difference, but card draw is important and this seemed like a fun way to get a little more.

Tilonalli's Summoner looks like the perfect card to give me more card draw with Smellerbee. This Human Shaman is a 1/1 with Ascend. When I have ten or more permanents I'll get the "city's blessing" for the rest of the game. Tilonalli's Summoner has a fantastic attack trigger. When it attacks I can pay one red and X additional mana to create X 1/1 Elemental creature tokens that are tapped and attacking. At the beginning of the next end step, I'll exile those tokens unless I have the city's blessing. In the late game this Human Shaman could easily help to draw me a full grip, if not a lot more.

Lots of my creatures are not going to survive combat, but I'm running a few ways to make them unblockable. The equipment Trailblazer's Boots and Whispersilk Cloak, will probably be used on my commander, but an enchantment like War Cadence can help all of my creatures. It will let me pay one red and then any amount of mana for X, and creatures won't be able to block unless their controller pays X for each blocking creature he or she controls. There will be times where I can pay two mana, attack someone and have all of my attackers get through.

I don't often build around discarding cards, but I do know enough to throw in a few cards with Madness. This keyword will let me cast a card I'm discarding for a reduced cost. Alchemist's Greeting might give me my biggest cost reduction, having a mana value of 5, but a madness cost of one and a Red. I'm also running a few creatures and a few direct damage spells to give me some options when I'm going to be discarding my hand.

The most powerful thing this deck can probably do is turn discard into direct damage. Glint-Horn Buccaneer, Brallin, Skyshark Rider, and Magmakin Artillerist will push out damage to each opponent equal to the number of cards I discard. I'm also running Surly Badgersaur and Monument to Endurance as ways to squeeze a little extra value out of discarding cards.

This deck is set up to be able to build up a decent little army and use Smellerbee's attack trigger to draw cards. I might not have enough ways to make her unblockable, but I've got a few. I firmly believe that every new list needs to be played a little and tweaked a bit before it really starts to run smoothly. The exact amount of evasion to include in this list might need a little tweaking.

Bracket 2 Smellerbee | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Smellerbee, Rebel Fighter

• Creatures (38)
• 1 Blazing Rootwalla
• 1 Bloodmad Vampire
• 1 Brallin, Skyshark Rider
• 1 Breya's Apprentice
• 1 Elturel Survivors
• 1 Etali, Primal Storm
• 1 Firbolg Flutist
• 1 Flamerush Rider
• 1 Genasi Enforcers
• 1 Ghirapur Gearcrafter
• 1 Glint-Horn Buccaneer
• 1 Goldlust Triad
• 1 Grenzo, Havoc Raiser
• 1 Harried Dronesmith
• 1 Hellrider
• 1 Hobgoblin, Mantled Marauder
• 1 Incorrigible Youths
• 1 Inti, Seneschal of the Sun
• 1 Iron Myrfoil
• 1 Loyal Apprentice
• 1 Magmakin Artillerist
• 1 Ornithopter of Paradise
• 1 Pia Nalaar
• 1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
• 1 Pilgrim's Eye
• 1 Reckless Wurm
• 1 Skittering Surveyor
• 1 Skophos Reaver
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Stromkirk Occultist
• 1 Surly Badgersaur
• 1 Tectonic Giant
• 1 Thopter Engineer
• 1 Tiamat's Fanatics
• 1 Tilonalli's Summoner
• 1 Urabrask, Heretic Praetor
• 1 Walking Atlas
• 1 Warchief Giant

• Spells (9)
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Fiery Temper
• 1 Massive Raid
• 1 Violent Eruption
• 1 Wild Magic Surge
• 1 Alchemist's Greeting
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Disrupt Decorum
• 1 Reforge the Soul

• Enchantments (4)
• 1 Bedlam
• 1 Brazen Cannonade
• 1 Onslaught
• 1 War Cadence

• Artifacts (11)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Embercleave
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Monument to Endurance
• 1 Nyx Lotus
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Thought Vessel
• 1 Trailblazer's Boots
• 1 Whispersilk Cloak

• Lands (37)
• 33 Mountain
• 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

Buy This Deck Export text

Old school precon decks would be set up with several themes that you could focus on when taking the deck and tuning it up with your own cards. With this lists you could lean into artifact creatures and thopters, focus on the madness theme, or even try to make those myriad creatures the main focus of your eventual build. You could also enjoy the variety that a deck with a few disparate themes will give you.

I really like that this list should give you a few different ways things could play out. Drawing into and playing a bunch of creatures with myriad will give you a very different feel from a game where you're hitting your thopter generators. What I didn't want to do was lean into a single creature type too heavily. That felt a little lazy, but when I decided to build Smellerbee in paper, I remembered three important things that helped to drive my bracket 3 brew.

Bracket 3 Smellerbee, Rebel Fighter

The three things that drove me to pivot to a totally different brew for my paper Smellerbee deck are pretty simple.

First, Smellerbee gives other creatures haste.

Second, there are some amazing red creatures that have powerful tap abilities.

Third... Goblins are smelly.

I took apart a Muxus, Goblin Grandee list around a year ago, and while goblins can be a little boring, I got it in my head that a "Smelly Goblins" list would be amusing and a lot more fun. The chance to have a deck named Smelly Goblins wasn't the only thing that pushed me to take Dragonheart apart to build this list. Smellerbee also gives me the chance to get instant value out of these bad boys.

I love that this deck will give me a way to play Krenko and immediately tap him to make a bunch of Goblin tokens without even having to equip Swiftfoot Boots or Lightning Greaves. I'm not running ways to untap Krenko, though I could see myself swapping in Staff of Domination, Sword of the Paruns, Umbral Mantle, and other combo pieces. This deck runs 26 creatures that have the Goblin creature type, so I should be able to make a few tokens when Krenko hits the battlefield.

Some of the most interesting cards in the list aren't goblins. Heartless Hidetsugu is a 4/3 Ogre Shaman that can tap to deal damage to each player equal to half of that player's life total, rounded down. I'm not running the damage doublers that would amount to combo pieces in a Heartless Hidetsugu deck, but again that's something that could be swapped in.

Moraug, Fury of Akoum might not seem like an obvious card to include in this deck. It's not uncommon when playing a red deck to find yourself in the mid or late game without any lands in hand. If Smellerbee draws me as many cards as I expect it to, I should be able to reliably drop a land in my second main phase. That plays perfectly with Moraug, as you want to trigger his landfall ability to get an extra combat phase after you've already gone to combat.

One of the things I like about the bracket 2 list I shared above is that you should get a decent variety of games when you play it. This list should reliably give you Goblins to play, and I'm running Goblin Matron to tutor up Krenko and Imperial Recruiter to go get Goblin Matron, so it's definitely aiming for a target, and that target is Krenko.

Bracket 3 Smellerbee | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Smellerbee, Rebel Fighter

• Creatures (35)
• 1 Beetleback Chief
• 1 Bonehoard Dracosaur
• 1 Brash Taunter
• 1 Glint-Horn Buccaneer
• 1 Goblin Battle Jester
• 1 Goblin Chainwhirler
• 1 Goblin Guide
• 1 Goblin Instigator
• 1 Goblin Matron
• 1 Goblin Ringleader
• 1 Goblin Traprunner
• 1 Goblin Warchief
• 1 Greasewrench Goblin
• 1 Grenzo, Havoc Raiser
• 1 Heartless Hidetsugu
• 1 Howlsquad Heavy
• 1 Imperial Recruiter
• 1 Krenko, Mob Boss
• 1 Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin
• 1 Legion Warboss
• 1 Mogg War Marshal
• 1 Moraug, Fury of Akoum
• 1 Muxus, Goblin Grandee
• 1 Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
• 1 Siege-Gang Commander
• 1 Siege-Gang Lieutenant
• 1 Skirk Prospector
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
• 1 Stadium Headliner
• 1 Swarming Goblins
• 1 Tilonalli's Summoner
• 1 Treasure Nabber
• 1 Underfoot Underdogs
• 1 Urabrask, Heretic Praetor

• Spells (8)
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Street Spasm
• 1 Wild Magic Surge
• 1 Barrage of Boulders
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Coronation of Chaos
• 1 Magmatic Chasm
• 1 Seismic Stomp

• Enchantments (3)
• 1 Impact Tremors
• 1 Mana Echoes
• 1 Shared Animosity

• Artifacts (16)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Blade of Selves
• 1 Conqueror's Flail
• 1 Fellwar Stone
• 1 Gilded Lotus
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Nyx Lotus
• 1 Prowler's Helm
• 1 Ruby Medallion
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Sword of Hearth and Home
• 1 Sword of the Animist
• 1 Thought Vessel
• 1 Trailblazer's Boots
• 1 Whispersilk Cloak

• Lands (37)
• 26 Mountain
• 1 Arena of Glory
• 1 Bonders' Enclave
• 1 Castle Embereth
• 1 Command Beacon
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
• 1 Spinerock Knoll
• 1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

Buy This Deck Export text

If you wanted to power this list up even further, but keep Smellerbee as the commander, I think you would probably lean into combo lines. Krenko combo is easy enough to include, as I'm already running Krenko, Mob Boss, a haste enabler in the command zone, and a couple of tutors. A combo enabler I didn't include in this list is Kiki-Jiki, Mirror breaker. You could load in that broken little red troublemaker along with all of its combo pieces and have a very potent Smellerbee combo deck.

Optimizing a deck is always a consideration, so it's worth asking why you wouldn't just run Krenko, Mob Boss, or Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, as your commander. If you are trying to push up into bracket 4, I think switching to another commander makes a lot of sense. Smellerbee's draw power can let you load combos into your 99 and then see what you draw into, and I could see loading other combo lines into the deck as well.

I've found myself playing at less powerful tables over the last few years. Smellerbee should make this list less consistent and less powerful than a dedicated Krenko or Kiki-Jiki deck, but far more entertaining. At least, that's my hope. We'll see how the games play out.

Final Thoughts

I was able to get this list into a couple of games, but without a ton of success. In the first game I was land-screwed (four lands out of my first 20 cards) and also possibly underpowered for the table I was at. I was able to cast my commander before the game was over, but that was about it.

In the second game I was able to see a glimmer of what the deck is capable of. I got Mana Echoes, Skirk Prospector, and a bunch of goblins out and had three turns in a row where I was drawing 7, 7, and then 9 cards. Unfortunately I was up against two Blue decks, and saw my Krenko, Mob Boss get countered. I was also getting pummeled by a Dragons deck because I had the most artifacts in play (3-4) and they had a Cavern-Hoard Dragon. They were incentivized to attack me for those treasures, and I had no way to stop them short of player removal. I was able to kill the Dragons player, but got killed with commander damage by a Lyla, Holographic Assistant deck, who claimed to be spooked goblins.

It's not a fun feeling being on mono-Red Goblins up against two decks in Blue and a deck devoted so heavily to flyers. I got my Krenko countered when I only had a handful of Goblins in play. I had an attack Aetherized. I took a ton of damage in the air that I couldn't do anything about. Sometimes things don't go quite right, but the deck did its thing, and it did draw me a lot of cards. I have to say that I am excited to play it again and see how many "bites at the apple" it will take before it eventually gets a win.

I'm very comfortable saying that Smellerbee, Rebel Fighter isn't the next mono-red powerhouse, but I'm happy with the Goblins list I was able to put together, and I also think the bracket 2 list I shared might also be a pretty good time at the right tables.

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