The Strongest Commander You've Never Heard Of | Stangg Auras | $50, $100
Lately I've been covering some of the most popular commanders to come out in 2022. However, for the last Budget Commander of the year, I'm throwing you a curveball with one of the most powerful budget brews featuring a commander you probably never heard of: it's Stangg, Echo Warrior! This deck was heavily inspired by Goldfish community member and stream guest Megablin, so thank you for this sweet brew!
Double Auras, Double Fun!
Stangg, Echo Warrior is a big wall of text, but it boils down to just this: whenever you attack with Stangg, create a token copy of him that's wearing a token copy of every aura and equipment attached to him tapped and attacking. All tokens created this way are sacrificed beginning of next end step. So you're getting double the punchies, but making copies of all your auras opens the floodgates for absurd value!
Making a copy of every aura means you get double the value of combat damage triggers like Sixth Sense to draw 2 cards instead of 1 each combat and you get to re-use ETB triggers each combat like fighting something with Cartouche of Strength. We can even capitalize on the sacrifice of our tokens on end step by ramping with Ordeal of Nylea or tutoring up a creature with Pattern of Rebirth!
Once we start leaning heavily on Auras the rest of the deck builds itself with powerful Enchantress support cards: strong ramp with Sanctum Weaver, fantastic draw with Setessan Champion, and lethal damage with Ancestral Mask! The Mask (and Helm of the Gods) are especially nutty here because they'll also count the enchantment tokens created by the Stangg copy, bothing both Stanggs even more!
$50 List
Even at just $50 this deck is sure to terrorize your local playgroup: there's plenty of ramp here to get Stangg out and start suiting him up. The huge amount of cantrip auras like Setessan Training turn into sweet draw engines with Stangg so you'll never be lacking for draw, and the deck is packed with removal, especially creature ones, due to numerous fight spells and even some burn like Ordeal of Purphoros.
Stangg is the most important card in the deck so we run tons of ways to protect him, from hexproof like Alpha Authority to totem armor like Snake Umbra. However, the deck is particularly vulnerable to sacrifice and -X/-X spells, so focus down the Black decks at the table first!
$100 List
Outside of lands, not much has changed between the $50 to $100 brew. We picked up some cute tech like Pattern of Rebirth which can tutor up a Nylea's Colossus when our Stangg Twin dies, but basically if you liked the $50 version then this is a more consistent version of that.
Further Upgrades?
Honestly, there's not much I can think of to spend money on? The deck is so perfect in the $50-$100 range I'd probably keep it there personally, but if you do want to juice it up a bit or have the cards laying around, I'd recommend adding:
- Deflecting Swat (the biggest add imo)
- Stomping Ground, Wooded Foothills, Ancient Tomb, and Cavern of Souls for better lands
- Destiny Spinner if your meta has lots of countermagic
- Homeward Path if your meta has lots of theft
- Valakut Awakening
That's basically it.
Happy New Year!
We'll be back next week with another brew! I don't know what it will be yet so feel free to suggest a commander in the comments section below!
