Welcome to the first in a series on cracking Commander in half.

Why Break Commander?

Competitive multiplayer Commander, especially in a tournament format for prizes, is a mistake. There are numerous other competitive formats for that. Therefore, if you as a fun-loving Commander player who runs into a competitive event where there are prizes for wins, rather than flavor, why not bring the quickest, most degenerate deck you can? Prove the point that cutthroat Commander is a bad idea, and gain some packs for your trouble. After all, every Timmy has a Spike within him or her.

Most agree that if you're going to do this, the quickest, degeneratest deck you can possibly build in three- to four-player Commander is Hermit Druid.

The idea behind this deck is to tutor for Hermit Druid, mill your deck, and then play a bunch of free creatures and go infinite with Reveillark, killing everyone as early as turn three.

The Hermit Druid Combo Deck

Hermit Druid Combo ? Commander | derbestemann

• Commander (0)

• Creatures (24)
• 1 Academy Rector
• 1 Apprentice Necromancer
• 1 Bloodghast
• 1 Dimir House Guard
• 1 Elvish Spirit Guide
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Fauna Shaman
• 1 Grand Abolisher
• 1 Hermit Druid
• 1 Karmic Guide
• 1 Knight of the Reliquary
• 1 Krovikan Horror
• 1 Loaming Shaman
• 1 Loyal Retainers
• 1 Oracle of Mul Daya
• 1 Qasali Pridemage
• 1 Reveillark
• 1 Rotting Rats
• 1 Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1 Vampire Hexmage
• 1 Wall of Roots
• 1 Duplicant
• 1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
• 1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

• Spells (27)
• 1 Chord of Calling
• 1 Eladamri's Call
• 1 Enlightened Tutor
• 1 Krosan Reclamation
• 1 Vampiric Tutor
• 1 Cabal Therapy
• 1 Death Cloud
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Dread Return
• 1 Explore
• 1 Green Sun's Zenith
• 1 Imperial Seal
• 1 Life from the Loam
• 1 Natural Order
• 1 Sylvan Tutor
• 1 Worldly Tutor
• 1 Defense of the Heart
• 1 Exploration
• 1 Necropotence
• 1 Pattern of Rebirth
• 1 Pernicious Deed
• 1 Stony Silence
• 1 Survival of the Fittest
• 1 Sylvan Library
• 1 Crucible of Worlds
• 1 Horn of Greed
• 1 Null Rod

• Lands (48)
• 1 Ancient Tomb
• 1 Arid Mesa
• 1 Bayou
• 1 Bazaar of Baghdad
• 1 Bloodstained Mire
• 1 Brushland
• 1 Cabal Coffers
• 1 Cabal Pit
• 1 Caves of Koilos
• 1 City of Brass
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Diamond Valley
• 1 Dryad Arbor
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Flooded Strand
• 1 Forbidden Orchard
• 1 Glacial Chasm
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Golgari Rot Farm
• 1 High Market
• 1 Horizon Canopy
• 1 Khalni Garden
• 1 Krosan Verge
• 1 Llanowar Wastes
• 1 Marsh Flats
• 1 Misty Rainforest
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Polluted Delta
• 1 Razorverge Thicket
• 1 Reflecting Pool
• 1 Savannah
• 1 Scrubland
• 1 Strip Mine
• 1 Sunpetal Grove
• 1 Tarnished Citadel
• 1 Temple Garden
• 1 Tranquil Thicket
• 1 Twilight Mire
• 1 Verdant Catacombs
• 1 Windswept Heath
• 1 Wooded Foothills
• 1 Woodland Cemetery
• 1 Flagstones of Trokair
• 1 Gaea's Cradle
• 1 Phyrexian Tower
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1 Dark Depths
• 1 Living Plane

Buy This Deck

How the Combo Works

Here's how the combo kill works, but the deck is also resilient enough to win in other ways if the combo is disrupted.

Turn 2: Cast Hermit Druid.

Turn 3: Activate Hermit Druid and mill your entire deck. Play an untapped land, returning Bloodghast to the battlefield. Unearth a Rotting Rats. Flash back Dread Return targeting Reveillark. Flash back Cabal Therapy, sacrificing Reveillark. Return Karmic Guide and Dimir House Guard to the battlefield. Karmic Guide targets Reveillark, which returns to the battlefield.

From then on, use the Guard to sacrifice Reveillark and then Karmic Guide to return any small combo creatures in your graveyard that ping your opponents to death, such as Krovikan Horror and Wall of Roots.

If your combo is broken up, this deck also works as a Lands strategy, including things like Dark Depths with Thespian's Stage. Since Primeval Titan and Sylvan Primordial were banned, putting two-card land combos into play is more difficult, but it can still be done. You can also combo with Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and Living Plane to murder opponents’ land bases and most of their creatures. There are a bunch of other fun interactions with this deck as well.

The Pluses and Minuses of Playing This on Magic Online

Also note that this deck is much, much cheaper on Magic Online because of the many times that dual lands have been reprinted. However, since there are no competitive Commander events online, you'll just garner a lot of salt unless specifically playing with friends who are equally cutthroat.

Finally . . . don't play this deck heads up—Hermit Druid has been banned for a long time under the French ban list, specifically to prevent the above from ever happening.

Next time, we'll explore how to make Storm work in Commander! You thought Hermit Druid was bad?