Welcome back to the final part. If you missed the first 3 parts, you can find them here. Family Matters is the last deck. With Zinnia, Valley’s Voice, as the head of the family.
This is another token army deck, although in the opposite colours to Squirreled Away. This is a Jeskai (Red, White and Blue) deck that uses its commander to quickly end games, or amass a large board presence also to do the same. It's nice that you get to attack on both fronts, potentially allowing you to eliminate 2 players at once. You can also use this as an ‘enters the battlefield’ deck as Zinnia gives all your creatures offspring. Allowing you to pay an extra (2) to get a 1/1 copy when the creature enters the battlefield. So a non budget deck might want to be add in Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines and Panharmonicon or the token doubling cards like Anointed Procession. However, as I am limited to £10 for 10 cards, these are way out of my price range for this blog. So let's find all those creepy uncles and long lost cousins to add to this already weird mix of a family that we call a deck.
Table of Contents
Budget Upgrades
Upgrade 1
The first card is Cayth, Famed Mechanist. This gives all your cards fabricate. This allows you to get either a +1/+1 counter or a 1/1 Servo. I'm this deck you want the servo to power up Zinnia, Valley’s Voice. Cayth will allow you to assemble an army quickly. Giving free extra value to every creature you cast.
This is my free land removal in a Plains. If you haven't read my other blogs, the decks always come with too many lands for me. So I usually shave 1 or 2 per deck, depending on the other cards.
Upgrade 2
To double up with Zinnia's ability, we have Sublime Archangel. This gives all your creatures exalted, which, if you attack with a single creature it will get +1/+1 for each creature with exalted. So, this allows you to get extra power on Zinnia. Or if you don't have it out but have a large army, you can turn a random 1/1 into a serious threat. This works great as a backup plan and I do try not to fully rely on the commander if possible.
This is another deck I'm having a hard time finding cuts for. I’m not wanting to neuter such a good boy, but sacrifices have to be made. So Spirited Companion is out. If this was just 2 mana for a 1/1 and draw a card I would be fine cutting it. Instead of 'cycling' this card hoping to get a better card, I would just run the better card instead. Although, with Zinnia giving offspring, it now is a 4 mana draw 2 and making two 1/1s, turning it into card advantage alongside some 1/1 bodies. I think Sublime Archangel will have more impact in more games.
Upgrade 3
Nesting Dovehawk is too much of a perfect fit for this deck. If you get off the offspring ability from Zinnia, Valley’s Voice, this becomes a self contained exponential army. Normally, this would only copy other tokens, but as offspring makes a token, you can now copy it. So when you first play it you will get 2 copies, and both trigger and get bigger. Then, you get two populate triggers at the start of combat, which allows you to have four copies. Then, on the next turn, you will have eight, and so on, exponentially.
This is similar to how Scute Swarm can get out of hand, although not as fast. But you can use multiple land drops on a turn to get the army faster. Although, Nesting Dovehawk becomes bigger. Even in the first turn you end up with a 5/5, 4/4, 3/3 and a 2/2 copies of Nesting Dovehawk. That's a lot of power for 6 mana. This is also resilient to single target removal. Only before you can populate is it vulnerable. But even the one Nesting Dovehawk, the amount of tokens you can generate for this card can get out of hand.
I'm cutting Echoing Assault. While giving menace to tokens is nice, most of these are going to be 1/1. This makes the extra token requiring you to attack with a non-token creature, putting it at risk. This would fit very nicely into a The Master, Multiplied deck though.
Upgrade 4
I am adding in Angelic Aberration. This will provide a big finisher, being able to upgrade all your tokens into 4/4 flying angels. Combine this with a haste enabler, as we are in red, there are plenty, and you can surprise kill everyone. Even without this, everyone has 1 turn to answer it. This is a nice little backup for the Commander.
I'm cutting Circuit Mender. This is for the same reasons as Spirited Companion. While it’s a solid card and can gain you card advantage, I prefer the more impactful Angelic Aberration. But again, these are difficult cuts as Circuit Mender does work, and these upgrades are more fine tuning these decks.
Upgrade 5/6
But for creating armies of 1/1 we have my next two cards. Horn of Gondor and Krenko, Mob Boss. Some cards are similar to Krenko, such as Legion Warboss and Goblin Rabblemaster, but these only generate single tokens, whereas Horn and Krenko are exponential. Horn of Gondor is harder to remove as it is an artifact and can also be used the turn it comes into play. But Krenko, Mob Boss has a free activation. Both of these must be answered for after a few turns or things will get out of control.
I am cutting 2 token makers - Blade Splicer and Jacked Rabbit. Blade Splicer is the easy one. A 3/3 first strike and a 1/1 main body aren't cutting in commander, even if you get two with the Offspring ability to make copies. You really need a ‘think in a blink shell’ where you can repeatedly have this re-enter the battlefield to generate an army of Golems.
I'm unsure which is better: Jacked Rabbit or Krenko, Mob Boss. Both have to wait a turn before starting to make tokens, and neither have protection by default. Jacked Rabbit can start making more tokens sooner, but it's always at a fixed rate, depending on how much initial mana you sunk into it. Also, the ability to draw a card and replace itself is a nice bonus. The reason for Krenko over it is because it is exponential. While it is slower to start, after a few turns, it's likely to have overtaken how many tokens Jacked Rabbit can make. This one is a user's choice as it isn't clear which is right.
Upgrade 7
I am cutting Cut a Deal. If you have read any of my other blogs, I am very much against giving your opponents cards. This card might have gotten lost and should have been in the Peace Offering deck. It fits much better in that. This is likely to be a 3 mana draw 3 which is a great rate if you didn't have to give your opponents a draw. I would much rather play Divination instead. But we are in blue so we do get access to way better draw spells.
While The Locust God doesn’t give card draw, it does get you 1/1 insects with haste for every card you draw. It’s also hard to remove due to its last ability being the one that returns it. The only way to eliminate it is to force a discard, counter or exile it. Simple destroy effects will just let you recast it later.
This leads me to another Izzet (Red/Blue) legend that generates tokens. Ovika, Enigma Goliath is my honourable mention.
This one generates X 1/1 goblins whenever you cast a non creature spell. I went with The Locust God instead as it's cheaper to cast, harder to remove, and the tokens have flying.
Although Ovika segways nicely into my next card...
Upgrade 8
Kykar, Wind's Fury. While this won't make as many tokens compared to Ovika, Enigma Goliath. it's only 4 mana to cast, and the second ability on Kykar is why I added it over Ovika. It’s able to sacrifice the tokens for mana to fuel more spells.
Thopter Engineer is being removed. Unlike Kykar, this only produces 1 token. While giving haste to your artifacts is a nice bonus, it's quite limited in this deck...
Upgrade 9
I'm also cutting Siege-Gang Commander for similar reasons. This is hard capped at 3 goblin tokens. The direct damage from the ability can be used to remove some creatures. But the rate you have to pay hampers it. My next card isn't capped in terms of how many tokens it can make.
Wildfire Awakener has convoke, which allows you to tap all your tokens to help pay for it’s cost, letting you get even more tokens out. Unfortunately, offspring is worded such that your token copy of Wildfire Awakener won’t make more tokens. This is because offspring makes the copy as an enter the battlefield trigger. So, the token copy will be 0 for the (X) value. This would be different if offspring made a copy on the stack, as it would also copy the value for (X).
Even still, it's a worthy inclusion to the deck, especially as these tokens have extra utility in pinging players if they are tapped, either through attacking or another way, like crewing a vehicle.
This also leads me to my first honourable mention of Evangel of Heliod:
This produces 1/1 soldiers equal to your devotion to white. So at minimum you get 2. Reverent Hoplite is a sister card to this, although both require a significant change to the deck to get reliable tokens.
Upgrade 10
The final card I am adding is Impact Tremors. It’s a powerhouse in token decks, being able to ping down your opponents for just doing your game plan. This pairs nicely with Agate Instigator and leads me to my final honourable mention of Molten Gatekeeper.
I chose this one over Witty Roastmaster as it has the recursion through the unearth mechanic. While only getting it back for a turn, this could lead to a win if you combine it with a large token maker like the suggested Wildfire Awakener.
I'm cutting Devilish Valet. This fills a similar role to Impact Tremors as a finisher. While being more explosive than Tremors. It is also more vulnerable. It's a creature so far easier to remove and also requires you to attack. While it’s able to get more damage off from a set of tokens being made, you are likely to only get 1 attack off with it as Valet only gets additional power. I will give the point to getting a second copy with the offspring. Impact Tremors is a slower burn card, but it will put on more work throughout a game.
Final Thoughts
I think Family Matters is one of the stronger decks in terms of both its versatility and the number of directions you can take it. This is exactly what I want to see in these preconstructed Commander decks. It has a solid foundation for either entry level players looking to start Commander or more experienced players looking for a starting point to build a new deck. It also has reasonable, but not overpowered, cards or commanders. I'm looking at you, Ulalek.
Overall I am very happy with how all of these Commander decks have been constructed. They have had more thought put into them and are streamlined, giving them more focus. While there aren't as many big reprints out into these decks, I still think they have value and have a number of lower £5-10 reprints out into them. This not only gives the player a solid deck, but it also helps keep these pieces lower. I hope this trend continues with the Duskmourn Commander decks.
PS. All the card prices were accurate at the time of writing.
Non Budget Upgrades
If you still have some cash left over after the budget upgrades, you can consider including the following 10 non-budget cards:
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