Early on in my EDH journey, I had built a Vampires-matter deck around Anowan, the Ruin Sage. It was a fun deck, and it was easier to get your hand on some of the staples back then, so it ran some strong cards. I was showing the deck to a friend and another person at the LGS came by and asked "why are you running Vampires? Zombies are stronger." I started to stutter an answer, and he walked away.

It was a strange interaction, but it highlights a fundamental problem many Magic players have when they first step into casual formats: the answer is not always "stronger is better." I know I talk about this a lot, and so often many of my fellow Commander content creators do as well, but when you think about it, we tend to perpetuate the problem. Deck techs, making precons stronger, suggestions for "better" cards - they're all commonplace in Commander articles (including mine!). But the thing is, we really, really, really don't have to just make everything better. We can play "worse" cards. We can play bad cards. We can play cards that make people wonder why they've ever been printed. And we can do so without shame. Sometimes we can even win with them.

Today's Commander has 43 decks on EDHREC.com. That's... not many. This is a Commander very, very few people want to play. Why? Because, in the realm of Commanders who lead the sort of deck he wants to lead in these colors, there are several more which are, simply, better. But the thing is, I looked at this guy and went "well that's why no one plays him. There are way better options. Let's make them eat their words." Someone wants to tell us there's a better option? LET'S CRUSH THEM.

We've got an Aristocrats Commander here: stuff will die, and our opponents will die along the way. He also makes the occasional token. He does have a built-in sacrifice effect, which is good, and it doesn't require a tap, which is better, but it does cost mana, which is a big part of why he's overlooked for other options. Fortunately, there are ways around that.

Let's get it out of the way up front, though: this is an all-in combo deck. We are going to aim for the combo every single game. We can't really win any other way. The whole deck is designed to assemble the combo and pull it off, ending the game in the process. It's not designed to do it as efficiently as possible - we'll leave that to the cEDH players - but for a casual game it should be reasonably quick and reliable. It's also disruptable, but we have some ways around that. If one of our key pieces gets Exiled, though, we're toast. Anyway, this is a bit of a one-trick pony, so keep that in mind as you read on.

The combo is as follows:

Ashnod's Altar + Nim Deathmantle + Denethor + any Creature which makes two or more Token Creatures when it enters the Battlefield (going forward, I will use Sling-Gang Lieutenant for my "makes two" guy and Cloudgoat Ranger for my "makes three" guy, because they are capable of working slightly differently. Just keep in mind any Creature which makes two or more Tokens will work in that slot of the combo).

With our Commander, the Altar, and the Deathmantle on the 'field, we cast our Lieutenant, sacrifice it and the two tokens to the Altar making , then use to activate the Deathmantle and return the Lieutenant to the 'field. We repeat that till we have as much mana as we want, then we can start using that mana to activate Denethor's ability 40 times till everyone is dead (if you want to know, we need 236 mana to kill everyone, because we don't need to activate the Deathmantle the final time). If we have the Ranger, we can sacrifice two Tokens plus the Ranger and we end up with extra mana and an extra Token, which means we can start activating Denethor right away. It just removes the interim step of making infinite mana.

There are a couple of ways to do this, and it depends on how you draw. One way is to get to around 11 mana on the 'field (with Lands and rocks) and cast the Altar, the Deathmantle, and the Creature all on the same turn. However, if you're in an answer-heavy meta (where you suspect someone will have a removal spell or counter for one of your spells), you're probably better off playing out the pieces one by one over turns, and having ways to get them back in the event something gets destroyed (keeping up mana to sacrifice one of our two key Artifacts is really important if you think someone might Exile one of them).

We have 40 Lands, most of which are going to help us fix our colors but some of which are a bit of a red herring, because Vault of the Archangel might make someone think we're a Token deck (besides, there might be some corner case where that ability matters a lot). We have a couple of sacrifice effects, too, in case we want to respond to someone or just need something in the 'yard, which could happen. There are some rocks, too, to get our mana rolling upward; I found in play-testing I never minded seeing a rock or two. Some of them can draw some cards later in the game, which can matter too.

Instead of drawing cards, we're going to tutor. I know, I know, it's a thing. If your group doesn't like tutors, don't play this deck, because we have to have Ashnod's Altar and Nim Deathmantle for this to work. We're not running any of the expensive ones like Grim Tutor or the really efficient ones like Vampiric Tutor or Demonic Tutor. Instead, we're running the ones which cost about five mana. Why? It's a casual game. Let's let people get set up, then crush their dreams. It's the sporting way. One nice thing is we can use Beseech the Mirror to cast the Artifact we get for free if we sac a Token, or if we have a big enough Creature we can part with we can get both Artifacts with Illicit Shipment.

We have a few removal spells, mostly mass removal like In Garruk's Wake and Farewell but also Utter End and Vanishing Verse. In most casual games, we should be quick enough: we won't need a ton of answers, but just in case it's good to have them.

Most of our Creatures are there to make extra Tokens; we shouldn't have to search for one of those, because there are a bunch. We have a few Creatures which will return an Artifact from our Graveyard to our Hand, which is key if someone destroys our Altar before we can go off. And we have a few ways to Sacrifice an Artifact like Dockside Chef and Costly Plunder, which look like they're there to draw us cards but are actually there to keep our Nim Deathmantle from getting Exiled! At least in the Graveyard we can get it back.

Denethor, Ruling Steward | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Denethor, Ruling Steward

• Creatures (27)
• 1 Basilica Shepherd
• 1 Blight Herder
• 1 Captain of the Watch
• 1 Cloudgoat Ranger
• 1 Daring Archaeologist
• 1 Diregraf Horde
• 1 Dockside Chef
• 1 Dread Drone
• 1 Dreg Recycler
• 1 Eyeblight Cullers
• 1 Fain, the Broker
• 1 Knight-Captain of Eos
• 1 Marsh Flitter
• 1 Mausoleum Guard
• 1 Regal Caracal
• 1 Restoration Gearsmith
• 1 Royal Warden
• 1 Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1 Salvage Scout
• 1 Sanctum Gargoyle
• 1 Sengir Autocrat
• 1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1 Sling-Gang Lieutenant
• 1 Syndicate Trafficker
• 1 Treasure Hunter
• 1 Trusty Packbeast
• 1 Trusty Retriever

• Instants (6)
• 1 Anguished Unmaking
• 1 Costly Plunder
• 1 Deadly Dispute
• 1 Reckoner's Bargain
• 1 Utter End
• 1 Vanishing Verse

• Sorceries (16)
• 1 Beseech the Mirror
• 1 Beseech the Queen
• 1 Coveted Prize
• 1 Dark Petition
• 1 Demonic Collusion
• 1 Diabolic Tutor
• 1 Exterminatus
• 1 Farewell
• 1 Illicit Shipment
• 1 In Garruk's Wake
• 1 Increasing Ambition
• 1 Kaya's Wrath
• 1 Mastermind's Acquisition
• 1 Merciless Eviction
• 1 Razaketh's Rite
• 1 The Cruelty of Gix

• Artifacts (10)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Ashnod's Altar
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Crowded Crypt
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Nim Deathmantle
• 1 Orzhov Signet
• 1 Skyclave Relic
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Wand of the Worldsoul

• Lands (40)
• 14 Swamp
• 9 Plains
• 1 Castle Ardenvale
• 1 Castle Locthwain
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Concealed Courtyard
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Fetid Heath
• 1 High Market
• 1 Isolated Chapel
• 1 Scoured Barrens
• 1 Shambling Vent
• 1 Shineshadow Snarl
• 1 Silverquill Campus
• 1 Tainted Field
• 1 Temple of Silence
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Vault of the Archangel
• 1 Westvale Abbey

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We don't need to be stingy playing out Creatures early in the game. By creating a bit of a board of Tokens, we might actually wave some attention away from our tutors (especially if we only tutor once because we were lucky enough to draw another combo piece) and make people not panic at what we're up to. We can also block and trade aggressively when possible, since we'll always have plenty of Creatures which do our thing. We ramp a little, we play out some dudes and make some dudes, we assemble our pieces, we play them out and we win the game. Take that, anyone who wants to tell us "so-and-so is better than Denethor".

Let me know what you think of combo decks in casual, playing cards that are "worse" than others, and anything else this made you think about! I'd love to hear what you have to say.

Thanks for reading.