Magic The Gathering Commander Deck Brew: Send In The Samurai With Isshin, Two Heavens As One
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Double all your combat triggers with the first Commander brew of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty.
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Even though Magic The Gathering’s Japan-inspired world of Kamigawa has become a much more technologically advanced place since we were last here in the mid ’00s, it still holds onto its traditions. Whether it’s a shrine to the Kami or reverence for spirits, the old ways are still alive and well. One thing in particular to survive from the old days are Kamigawa’s Samurai – warriors who choose to take a sword to a mech fight… and often come out on top.
While you’d expect Samurai to serve their lords and emperors, the Asari Uprisers are different. Tucked away in Sokenzan City, they fight against the Imperial forces, who they see as being too slow, bureaucratic and restrictive to adequately serve Kamigawa’s technological boom. In the Asari Uprisers, we find our first Commander of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, Isshin, Two Heavens As One.
Isshin, Two Heavens As One is 3/4 Human Samurai that costs one red, one white, and one black. While he doesn’t have any evasion or activated abilities to speak of, he does have one replacement effect that makes him very, very powerful: if a creature attacking triggers a permanent you control, the trigger is doubled. He’s kind of similar to Wulfgar of Icewind Dale from the Adventures in the Forgotten Realms Commander decks, except Isshin triggers when any creature attacks, not just your own.
Like the two swords he wields, we’re going to build Isshin in two different approaches. First, we will play into his Samurai creature type and use cards that trigger when only one creature attacks – a theme of Neon Dynasty. We can do huge damage by building him up big and throwing him alone at the enemy in just one piercing blow.
The second strategy is to go a bit wider. On top of having our own creatures attack for profit, we’re going to punish our opponents for doing the same. There’s a lot we can do with Isshin to gain life, deal damage, and even get entire extra combat phases.
Ramp
I’ve intentionally tried to keep Sol Ring and Arcane Signet out for the last few decks. While there’s nothing wrong with playing them, they’ve become automatic inclusions – a way to lop off a few cards you have to think about. However, we’re going to bury that feeling deep down for Isshin and include Arcane Signet just because juggling three colours can be tricky and we need every bit of help we can get with ramp.
All three signets are important here, so Boros, Orzhov, and Rakdos Signets all see an inclusion. We’re only going to include Talisman of Conviction, though; the deck only splashes into black, so taking up two card slots to put in the red/black and black/white talismans feels greedy.
By far the best bit of ramp with Isshin is Sword of the Animist. Whenever a creature attacks while equipped with Sword of the Animist, we can search for a basic land and put it onto the battlefield tapped. It’s a permanent being triggered by a creature attacking, so with Isshin we get two lands instead.
As we’ve got three colours to play with, the lands we pick are also a lot more important. This deck only runs 18 basic lands out of the 36 total, giving us plenty of chances to give us as much access to the colours we need as possible. That means stocking up on cards like Savai Triome, all three red, black, or white Pathways, Rakdos Carnarium, Orzhov Basilica, Boros Garrison, Godless Shrine, Sacred Foundry, Blood Crypt, and even the fetch lands Marsh Flats and Bloodstained Mire.
Draw
Card draw is where most of the black in this Mardu deck comes in, with cards like Phyrexian Arena, Night’s Whisper, Read the Bones, and Sign in Blood all giving us a few cards here and there.
We can also use Isshin for this, thanks to the cards Akki Ronin. Akki Ronin lets us loot (discard a card to draw a card) whenever a Warrior or Samurai attacks on its own… which is an attack trigger, so Isshin doubles in to give us two discards and two draws. It also helps that Isshin himself is a Warrior Samurai, so going for a Command damage win will still net us a few extra cards.
Search the Premises is an enchantment that gives us a clue token whenever a creature attacks us – again, doubled by Isshin – which, while cracking a clue token costs us mana, is a very appreciated bit of extra draw when we need it.
Finally, a fantastic card to go with Isshin is Emberwilde Captain. It gives us Monarch, and then punishes anyone who attacks you by dealing damage equal to the number of cards in their hand. Again, that damage is doubled by Isshin, so nobody will want to attack you.
Extra Combat
This is a combat deck, so of course we’re going to find as many ways as possible to give ourself extra combat phases. We’ve even got a fair few ways to give ourselves infinite combat to keep those triggers coming.
First, the one-off ways of getting an extra combat step. These are cards like Response//Resurgence, Relentless Assault, World at War, and Waves of Aggression. This deck has little to no instant and sorcery graveyard recursion, so be careful about when you play these to ensure maximum value.
There are plenty of repeatable ways to get extra combat, as well. The most well-known one is Aggravated Assault, an enchantment that allows you to pay three generic and two red to untap all creatures you control and get an extra combat and main phase. Moraug, Fury of Akoum, Combat Celebrant, Godo, Bandit Warlord, Raiyuu, Storm’s Edge, and Port Razer are also available.
For the infinite combat combos, we have two options. The first is using Godo, Bandit Warlord and Helm of the Host; Godo enters the battlefield and gives us an extra combat phase. Then when we go to combat, Helm of the Host triggers and makes a copy of Godo, who gives us another combat phase. At the start of that combat, Helm of the Host triggers again and makes another Godo, which gives us another combat step, and on and on and on until you can swamp the board and win with infinite Godos.
The second way is with that Aggravated Assault. Although the go-to Wulfgar of Icewind Dale combo of Savage Ventmaw and Aggravated Assault are out of reach in our colour identity, we have Sword of Feast and Famine that can almost do the same thing. Whenever the equipped creature attacks, Sword of Feast and Famine untaps all the lands you control, giving you mana open to pay for the Aggravated Assault and get another combat, which untaps the lands again, and so on. If you order the stack correctly, you can even get more than one extra combat on each loop, as Isshin doubles the land untapping effect in time for you to pay for Aggravated Assault again.
Strategy #1 – Attacking Alone
In Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, Samurais are mostly built around a pseudo-Exalted effect that triggers whenever a Warrior or Samurai attacks alone. As this is an attack trigger, and Isshin is a Warrior Samurai himself, it makes sense to base at least some of the deck around swinging in with just him or another Samurai for huge damage.
For this, we’re Voltron-ing up with lots of equipment cards. Whispersilk Cloak, Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots make our point man more difficult for your opponents to knock out. If all else fails, there’s also Selfless Samurai, who can either give your attacking creature lifelink or sacrifice itself to give them indestructible instead.
While Isshin doubles combat triggers, which happen when the creature is declared an attacker regardless of whether it is blocked, we still want to get that damage through to actually win. For that, we’ve got Rogue’s Passage, Manifold Key, and Whispersilk Cloak, which both make them completely unblockable.
Now for the big damage. While we’re only attacking with one creature, this deck does have the capability to go wide, which makes Sigil of Valor incredible. Say you have five creatures and Isshin out, and Isshin goes to attack – Isshin suddenly becomes a 13/14 attacker. Also equip him with a Lizard Blades to give him double strike, or have an Angelic Exaltation to give him another huge buff for each creature you control, and that’s lethal Commander damage right then and there.
To help with this strategy, we’ve also got Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar. Kediss makes it so your Commander deals damage to each other player as well when it deals combat damage to an opponent. Keep in mind that the damage to the other players isn’t combat damage, so it won’t count towards Commander damage, but it does help keep everyone at an even life total to make taking them out easier.
One incredible new card in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty worth including here is Heiko Yamazaki, the General. Being able to cast artifacts out of your graveyard is a fantastic bit of redundancy – either you pull out the equipment your opponents have destroyed, or you can keep bringing back something like an Commander’s Sphere for a nice dollop of extra card draw.
Strategy #2 – Attacking With Everything
Putting all your eggs into one basket can be dangerous, so we wants to be able to swing wide as well. For this, we can use plenty of the just-plain-good attack trigger cards, like Etali, Primal Storm, Goldspan Dragon, Combat Celebrant, Alesha, Who Smiles at Death, and Bane of Bala Ged. It also helps to have an Anger in your graveyard to give each creature you control haste at the same time.
Thanks to cards like Calculating Lich and Revenge of Ravens, this strategy also works well at holding off opponents’ attacks. You may be tempted to think a card like Ghostly Prison or Norn’s Annex would work here, but they’re not combat triggers (they like the “when” or “whenever” that defines something as a triggered ability), so just don’t work all that well with Ishin.
Once you’ve amassed your goblins with Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin, or have a big old Bane of Bala Ged, we can win with the tried and tested method of “casting Akroma’s Will and then swinging in”. There’s nothing smart or tricky about this strategy, it’s just combining Isshin with all the useful combat triggers for a lot of value.
Power The Deck Down
For our first foray into Kamigawa, this deck is pretty reasonable. There aren’t any tutors to remove (though you could put in Demonic, Vampiric, and Grim Tutor if you need to power it up a bit), and the only infinite combos we have are infinite combat steps, which can backfire.
Still, there are always ways to power down a deck for a slower table. First, you can remove those infinite combos. Helm of the Host is the obvious cut, as it only exists to combo off of Godo, but you can also take out either Aggravated Assault or Sword of Feast Famine as well if you really need to.
Next, the lands can be downgraded. Swapping shock lands with a fast land or snow tapped land can help without eating too much into your mana, as can swapping those fetch lands with generic fetches like Evolving Wilds or Fabled Passage.
Finally, you can remove some of the redundancy in the deck. Taking out cards like Alesha, Who Smiles At Death, Heiko Yamazaki, The General shuts off your graveyard recursion, while removing Rogue’s Passage takes out the hardest to interact with source of unblockability.
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For the full decklist, check out the Moxfield page.
Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/magic-the-gathering-isshin-two-heavens-as-one-commander-deck-guide/