Welcome back to part 2 of the Outlaws of Thunder Junction Commander upgrades, where we will cover the Quick Draw deck. You can read the other parts here: Desert Bloom, Grand Larceny and Most Wanted. Stella Lee, Wild Card is the face card for the deck, and she’s a rooting tooting fast shooter.
Spell slinger is a well known archetype in magic, which aptly fits into Thunder Junctions theme. As the name suggests, it's all about slinging spells and skewing a deck to have more instants and sorceries in it than creatures. I even have built EDH decks in the past where the only creature in the deck was the commander. This style of deck usually favors casting a lot of cheap spells. Most of these will be cantrips which are spells that draw you a card and are usually 1 or 2 converted mana cost (CMC), eg. Brainstorm or Opt. This then enables whatever payoff the deck is built around such as a storm payload like Grapeshot or something else like Aetherflux Reservoir. Alternatively you could also be trying to generate mana by using rituals, Seething Song, and cards that discount costs to generate a lot of mana to put into a big X spell like Fireball. You can even just have it as a value deck that is a bit more controlling. Stop your opponents' big spells with counterspells and accrue value with cards like Rhystic Study. Stella Lee can be built both ways.
Her first ability provides decent value. While not quite as good as full card draw it also isn't limited to your turn only. This means you can hold up interaction if necessary and then fire off a couple of spells to load up your next turn. Although it's her second ability that will let you go off with your big spells getting a second copy. You just have to remember to hold that priority when you cast your spell. I’m going to get a bit technical here and maybe teach you a little bit about how priority and the stack works. Feel free to skip this and go straight to the upgrades, I won't hold it against you.
Stella's second ability is worded in a way that you can copy the 3rd spell you have cast as long as you don't let it resolve. This is why you need to hold priority, if you choose not to, then in line with the rules it is assumed you are passing it. This means it moves to the next person to add any actions to the stack, i.e. cast a spell or activate an ability. If they do choose to do something then it restarts priority back to the active player (the person whose turn it is) to respond or not. And the loop restarts. But the problem comes when no player has a response when priority would come back around to you, the active player. This is because the game considers the spell resolving, not allowing you to respond, as players cannot activate abilities, put triggers on the stack, or cast spells while a spell is resolving. This stops you from activating Stella to copy it. Only once the spell has resolved may a player do the above, but at that point there is no spell on the stack for Stella to copy. Sorry for getting a bit bogged down there, I tried to keep it concise, but with how complex Magic can be the rules need to be written in a way to cover all these interactions. Hopefully, you learned something there but don't be afraid to call a judge if you have one around. That is what they are there for, even if they don't know how an interaction works they should have the skill to interpret the rules correctly to find the answer. Trust me, when you get to the technical side of Magic the rules can be a bit of a nightmare. Enough of that distraction. Speaking of, did you see that flying cow? It's time for the upgrades.
Table of Contents
Upgrade 1
The first card I am adding to the deck is Gale, Waterdeep Prodigy. Gale lets you cheat on mana when you cast an instant or sorcery from your hand by getting a free cast of a card of the other type from your hand. So you can cast an Opt and get to cast a Treasure Cruise for free. Also note that Gale says cast so it will trigger Stella's first ability and count towards her second. I am cutting Kaza, Roil Chaser. While this is a nice way to discount your spells, it only works on the next spell rather than always applying. As much as this discount can stack, due to it counting wizards, there is a distinct lack of wizards in this, with only 8 being in the base deck and 9 after I have swapped the upgrades. This means that you are only looking at a 2 mana discount on average. I would rather use some of the other static discounters over this one. Kaza really needs a more dedicated typal deck for wizards, something like Inalla, Archmage Ritualist.
Upgrade 2
I am cutting Leyline Dowser next as this is a bit of a weird one. There is less than a 3rd of the deck as instant or sorceries so you are only going to hit 1 in 3 on average, and there are minimal legendaries in the deck to untap it. To its credit, it is a new card and fits best into Quick Draw, but that isn't going to stop it from being cut. Instead I am adding Diluvian Primordial. This was part of the primordial cycle from Gatecrash. These were a call back to the Titan cycle from M11. In both of these cycles, the green one ended up the best for Commander and both have been banned. It is debatable which one is the next best, but I would have Diluvian Primordial as tied second with Sepulchral Primordial depending on your deck and your opponent’s deck, as they both rely on your opponent's graveyard. The key with Diluvian Primordial is casting your opponent's cards so you will be able trigger both Stella’s first and second abilities. There is a neat interaction with this though. As it is, Diluvian Primordial ability lets you cast your opponent’s cards onto the stack at the same time, so you get to pick the order. This means Stella's last ability can copy any of these spells as she will have seen 4 spells being cast (including Primordial). This could be relevant if you need the spells to resolve in a specific order but want to copy the first spell to revolve. Keep in mind that if you choose an (x) spell x will be zero so you probably don't want to pick that. Cards with additional cast costs can be paid, such as kicker, but those with an alternative, such as overload, cannot.
Upgrade 3
This one is a pretty straight forward swap. Both Electrostatic Field & Ral, Storm Conduit have similar effects of dealing damage when you cast spells. While Electrostatic Field deals damage to all opponents, Ral deals damage to a single target opponent or planeswalker. The benefit of Ral is his -2 loyalty ability which copies a spell and triggers his ping damage triggered ability again. I will concede that having it on a planeswalker isn't great as they become a target for everyone to attack into but I still think it's an upgrade as it gives you flexibility.
Upgrade 4
Bloodthirsty Adversary is more of an aggressive card either being a hasty 2/2 for 2 mana or a late game finisher buying back your burn cards. While it technically works in this deck, in this case, it's not the best kind of correct. The cards you can get back in this deck are mostly cantrips (cheap cards that draw a card). Tomb of Horrors Adventurer is on the other end of the spectrum being a high converted mana cost (CMC) card but giving you a very good payoff in terms of copying a card for casting 2 spells in a turn. It also brings the initiative into the game. This can also help keep the heat off you if someone else takes the initiative. Other players are more likely to attack the player with the initiative.
Upgrades 5 and 6
I am doing the next two together as they have similar effects, but let’s start with the cuts first. Winged Boots is a bit of a weird inclusion. Normally they put Swiftfoot Boots into the Commander decks. This deck doesn't care about connecting, and Ward 4 is worse than Hexproof. Also, the lack of haste hurts as Stella does have a tap ability that could benefit from the haste. The other card I am cutting is Propaganda. As much as I like the tax effect to help prevent damage, this only works against token strategies, as people will ‘pay the 2’ to hit with a large body. For these types of effects to work, you need to stack them to really tax people’s mana.
The two cards I'm adding are Wizards of Thay and Case of the Ransack Lab. Both of these work at the very least as a static discount. Wizards of Thay is an interesting new card, having a bonus ability that lets you cast your sorceries at instant speed. This can lead to some fun tricks! It also has Myriad meaning that you can stack the discount effect if you can keep some of the tokens around. Do note that the tokens leave at the end of combat, not like the normal end of turn. Case of the Ransack Lab is another new card coming from Murders at Karlov Manor. This fits nicely into this deck as solving this case requires 4 instants or sorceries in a turn, and this deck is trying to get to 3 already. If you manage to solve this case then you get a fairly good payoff of drawing a card whenever you cast an instant or sorcery. This will keep you in cards and let you hopefully repeatedly cast multiple cards on a turn.
Upgrade 7
Pyretic Charge can be used for card draw and the ability to delay the casting of it with the plot ability. It can also be used as a large anthem for all the token makers in the deck. But it just doesn't seem powerful enough. Flawless Forgery has a better chance to be powerful. Granted it relies on your opponent's decks, but it can be combined with Stella and its own Casualty effect to double a copying effect.
Upgrade 8
Tezzeret's Gambit is a great card draw but Quick Draw doesn’t have many counters to Proliferate. I am swapping in a bigger card draw effect with Expansion//Explosion. This does come with the downside of being more mana, but it also deals damage. This can be used as a finisher when combined with Stella and fills your next turn with all the cards. As a split card it also gives you the flexibility with the Expansion half of the card. Do note that this also doesn’t state that it can only copy your spells. So this can copy your opponent's instant and sorceries if they come under the 4 CMC caveat. A creative use for this is copying a counterspell as most used are 4 CMC or less.
Upgrade 9
In a similar vein to Tezzeret's Gambit, Big Score is kind of worse as it gives no card draw but instead card selection. The main bonus is it gives you treasures, letting you have an earlier big turn. Although, this can be a trap. An inherent problem with spellslinger decks is they usually lack in the creature department. The deck runs a lot less to keep slots open for non-creature spells. This can be negated to a point with politics and avoiding being attacked, but if you start to fire off lots of big flashy spells, you are likely to become a target. Without creatures or some other way to protect yourself, you will find yourself becoming a punching bag for everyone else's creatures. This is why I'm swapping into Display of Power. This is another late game card but will amplify the end game. I am trying to make the deck as a whole have 1 or 2 big turns at the end of the game to finish. That way you don’t look like a threat until you pull the trigger and go off. Unfortunately, Display of Power can't be copied, which would allow for infinite loops. By being copied it will still allow you to get 4 times your big finisher if you manage to copy it with Stella's ability first. Even still this should let you finish the game in short order.
Upgrade 10
I don't like cutting Windfall as this can be a great card to restock your hand when you run low. The main downside to this is it relies on an opponent to have cards in hand and it also restocks anyone else that is low. Without any way to punish this card draw like Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, this can be a liability. But something that isn't a liability is Storm of Saruman. This has built-in protection in the form of ward 3 and gives you benefits for doing what you are already trying to do in this deck. The only downside is it's ‘copy’ not ‘cast’, so you won't be able to copy it with Stella's ability. However, there is a trick to let you do this if you can cast an instant in response. This will give you the 3rd cast allowing you to activate Stella.
Conclusion
I have had a soft spot for spell slinger decks as it is the opposite of my pet deck of Xenagod. As I have pointed out earlier in the blog, there is a downside to playing this style as it can leave you open to attacks. But this can also be part of the fun. A puzzle, if you will, to try and solve each time you play. This also crossovers into the deck building as you have to factor in how to stop this. One of my favourite ways to do this is with Reins of Power. Being an instant, you can use it as a pseudo Fog by just swapping your creature with whoever is attacking you. Alternatively, you can grab some blockers off another player and wreck both board states. Or finally, as a win condition, stealing another player's creatures and swinging out. This is my secret 11 card to add in. The only reason I didn't is I’ve been trying to keep all my suggestions on theme to the deck rather than value cards. But I will leave you with some more suggestions here and hopefully see you in the next one. Good luck and have fun.
Non-Budget Upgrades
PS. All the card prices were accurate at the time of writing.
Fancy slinging some spells with Stella? Shop Outlaws of Thunder Junction and Magic: The Gathering right here at Gathering Games.
Magic The Gathering: Outlaws of Thunder Junction Quick Draw Commander Deck
£34.99
£39.99
Description The thrill-seeking, knife-throwing Atiin nomad Stella is an undisputed champ of dueling. Join her to outduel your friends with a deck that’s ready to play right out of the box and experience Magic: The Gathering’s most popular multiplayer format.… read more
