Well it’s time! ¹ Commander 2017 spoilers have arrived, and I have decided to finish one of my Commander Challenges. I saw a pair of cards previewed a week ago on Monday that perfectly suited one of my two routes for this Challenge, and I had to add them in, and talk about them!

So let’s begin our challenge!

How would you build a Commander deck out of Hope of Ghirapur?

There are two major routes that strike me immediately.

The first is to use it in a Voltron-esque build. We could use the fact that this is a guaranteed 1-drop on the first turn, and then build in a number of equipment, and try to win with Commander damage as quickly as you can.

Which, it turns out, could be pretty quick.

Consider one of the best-case scenarios early:

That’s right, Ghostfire Blade. Nothing can stop you from playing Hope of Ghirapur on the first turn, and then on the second spending one mana to cast this, and another to equip as you swing in the air for three Commander damage on turn two. That’s pretty fast and effective. It’s faster than most defenses can be summoned, and the aerial addition is pretty cool. Without any mana accelerants or lucky draws, Ghostfire Blade alone is awesome. And cards like Bonesplitter and others can really push the cheap Commander concept.

But this was really blown away by this addition to our equipment arsenal:

Wow is that fast! Your Hope of Ghirapur is sped up considerably by this as well. Take the best-case scenario of Ghostfire Blade, and then make this your turn three play. Drop a land. Cast this, equip. Swing for 5 in the air on turn three, and one person has already taken 8 Commander damage collectively and make another Bloodforged Battle-Axe immediately thereafter.

On turn four you could equip the copy, swing for 7, make two more clones, and then equip another that was made and on turn five, without adding any more cards, you have done 11+7+5+3 Commander damage which sounds lethal to me!

Yikes!

And don’t forget that Bloodforged Battle-Axe is not the only good addition to this deck!

You have the Hammer as well. It does two things very, very well. First, the value of that free equip of itself or any other equipment that arrives cannot be overstated. You are going to equip Hope of Ghirapur, right? Duh! Then you get indestructible and bigger in the front too. Smash away my friends, smash away. Don’t forget that this will auto equip your Battle-Axe copies as well!

So that sort of a quick out of the gate Voltron is one option that inspires me as a Hope of Ghirapur. That’s my first answer to solve the Hope of Ghirapur Challenge.

Now, the second path I see is to use the other ability of Hope of Ghirapur as inspiration instead. Could I run a colorless tempo-based deck that keeps people from doing what they want, and seeks to hit folks, and then sacrifice to keep them from doing something good?

Could something like, say, Winter Orb make an appearance here? What about Lodestone Golem? Slow those folks down!

Note that the Hope of Ghirapur does force someone to skip playing anything but lands and creatures until your next turn, and that includes things with flash, instants, and everything else for a full round. Now, what if your next turn didn’t come around for a while? You could skip your next turn.

Blue (either as a color or the color identity of a card) has a lot of those effects, like Chronatog, Chronatog Totem or Magosi, the Waterveil. But those aren’t playable in colorless, and Time Vault is obviously banned.

Now, Eater of Days is not bad, as you can skip two turns to drop it. Since it’s just four mana, you can play it early off a mana rock, Sol Ring drops it on turn two, and you have a 9/8 flying and trample beatstick that will be attacking on turn five. Hit someone with Hope, sacrifice it, and they won’t be able to cast anything to kill your Eater of Days for three turns! Then you swing and smash away.

So let’s build both for you. Ready?

The Hope of Voltron Found ? Commander| Abe Sargent

• Commander (1)
• 1 Hope of Ghirapur

• Creatures (24)
• 1 Arcbound Reclaimer
• 1 Armory Automaton
• 1 Brass Squire
• 1 Copper Gnomes
• 1 Etched Champion
• 1 Filigree Familiar
• 1 Foundry Inspector
• 1 Hangarback Walker
• 1 Hewed Stone Retainers
• 1 Junk Diver
• 1 Lodestone Myr
• 1 Metalwork Colossus
• 1 Metalworker
• 1 Myr Enforcer
• 1 Myr Retriever
• 1 Palladium Myr
• 1 Phyrexian Revoker
• 1 Scrap Trawler
• 1 Shimmer Myr
• 1 Su-Chi
• 1 Treasure Keeper
• 1 Viseling
• 1 Walking Ballista
• 1 Workshop Assistant

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Karn Liberated
• 1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

• Instants (3)
• 1 Scour from Existence
• 1 Warping Wail
• 1 Not of this World

• Sorceries (1)
• 1 All is Dust

• Artifacts (30)
• 1 Batterskull
• 1 Bloodforged Battle-Axe
• 1 Bonesplitter
• 1 Dreamstone Hedron
• 1 Everflowing Chalice
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Fireshrieker
• 1 Ghostfire Blade
• 1 Hammer of Nazahn
• 1 Hero's Blade
• 1 Key to the City
• 1 Loxodon Warhammer
• 1 Mana Crypt
• 1 Mana Vault
• 1 Masterwork of Ingenuity
• 1 Mirage Mirror
• 1 Prototype Portal
• 1 Sculpting Steel
• 1 Semblance Anvil
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Staff of Domination
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Sword of Body and Mind
• 1 Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1 Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1 Sword of Light and Shadow
• 1 Sword of War and Peace
• 1 Thran Dynamo
• 1 Umezawa's Jitte

• Lands (39)
• 1 Ancient Tomb
• 1 Arcane Lighthouse
• 1 Blasted Landscape
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Cathedral of War
• 1 Command Beacon
• 1 Darksteel Citadel
• 1 Desert
• 1 Deserted Temple
• 1 Encroaching Wastes
• 1 Endless Sands
• 1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1 Ghost Quarter
• 1 Grasping Dunes
• 1 Homeward Path
• 1 Inventors' Fair
• 1 Mage-Ring Network
• 1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
• 1 Mirrorpool
• 1 Mishra's Factory
• 1 Phyrexia's Core
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Ruins of Oran-Rief
• 1 Scavenger Grounds
• 1 Sea Gate Wreckage
• 1 Sequestered Stash
• 1 Strip Mine
• 1 Sunscorched Desert
• 1 Tectonic Edge
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Thespian's Stage
• 1 Tomb of the Spirit Dragon
• 1 Urza's Mine
• 1 Urza's Power Plant
• 1 Urza's Tower
• 1 Vesuva
• 1 Wasteland
• 1 Zoetic Cavern

Buy This Deck

Smash away my friends, smash away. This deck is simple. Get Hope down, then get it equipped up as fast as possible, and then get that win! Because we are running colorless, I don’t need to bother with any basic lands, not even Wastes. So you can safely run stuff like Ancient Tomb, Temple of the False God, Inventors' Fair and more. Shoot, just consider Sunscorched Desert. You drop it, shoot an enemy for 1 damage, and then drop Hope of Ghirapur! Every little advantage matters.

Because a faster equipment can kill more quickly, I wanted to emphasize the first turn, so Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, and Ancient Tomb were deemed perfectly fine here. Be glad we don’t have Mishra's Workshop!

You can see the deck here. My favorite “clever” cards for it that I added are Masterwork of Ingenuity, Viseling, and don’t forget we have some other cards to use a Voltron target in case something bad happens to your Hope of Ghirapur like Etched Champion and Lodestone Myr.

So that’s the first deck done. Smash fast and smash hard!

Next up?

The Hope of Tempo Lost ? Commander | Abe Sargent

• Commander (1)
• 1 Hope of Ghirapur

• Creatures (17)
• 1 Blightsteel Colossus
• 1 Copper Gnomes
• 1 Darksteel Colossus
• 1 Eater of Days
• 1 Etched Champion
• 1 Kuldotha Forgemaster
• 1 Lodestone Golem
• 1 Lodestone Myr
• 1 Metalwork Colossus
• 1 Metalworker
• 1 Mycosynth Golem
• 1 Palladium Myr
• 1 Phyrexian Revoker
• 1 Shimmer Myr
• 1 Shimmer Myr
• 1 Sundering Titan
• 1 Wurmcoil Engine

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Karn Liberated
• 1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

• Instants (2)
• 1 Scour from Existence
• 1 Warping Wail

• Sorceries (1)
• 1 All is Dust

• Artifacts (38)
• 1 Ankh of Mishra
• 1 Blinkmoth Urn
• 1 Clock of Omens
• 1 Crucible of Worlds
• 1 Defense Grid
• 1 Everflowing Chalice
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Grafdigger's Cage
• 1 Howling Mine
• 1 Icy Manipulator
• 1 Krark-Clan Ironworks
• 1 Mana Crypt
• 1 Mana Web
• 1 Mind's Eye
• 1 Mirage Mirror
• 1 Mirrorworks
• 1 Mishra's Helix
• 1 Mox Opal
• 1 Orbs of Warding
• 1 Paradox Engine
• 1 Planar Bridge
• 1 Relic Barrier
• 1 Sculpting Steel
• 1 Seer's Sundial
• 1 Semblance Anvil
• 1 Sensei's Divining Top
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Sphere of Resistance
• 1 Static Orb
• 1 Storage Matrix
• 1 Thorn of Amethyst
• 1 Thran Dynamo
• 1 Trading Post
• 1 Ugin's Nexus
• 1 Unwinding Clock
• 1 Vedalken Orrery
• 1 Voltaic Key
• 1 Winter Orb

• Lands (40)
• 1 Ancient Tomb
• 1 Arcane Lighthouse
• 1 Blasted Landscape
• 1 Blinkmoth Well
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Command Beacon
• 1 Darksteel Citadel
• 1 Desert
• 1 Deserted Temple
• 1 Encroaching Wastes
• 1 Endless Sands
• 1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1 Ghost Quarter
• 1 Homeward Path
• 1 Inventors' Fair
• 1 Mage-Ring Network
• 1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
• 1 Mirrorpool
• 1 Mishra's Factory
• 1 Mystifying Maze
• 1 Nephalia Academy
• 1 Phyrexia's Core
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Rishadan Port
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Ruins of Oran-Rief
• 1 Sea Gate Wreckage
• 1 Sequestered Stash
• 1 Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
• 1 Strip Mine
• 1 Sunscorched Desert
• 1 Tectonic Edge
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Thespian's Stage
• 1 Tomb of the Spirit Dragon
• 1 Urza's Mine
• 1 Urza's Power Plant
• 1 Urza's Tower
• 1 Vesuva
• 1 Wasteland

Buy This Deck

Can you see how those are very different decks? Sure, both have Sol Ring and Copper Gnomes due to the limited options available. But they even use them differently. The first uses Copper Gnomes for another quick way to ramp out a pieces of equipment like Batterskull. But this can use it for Darksteel Colossus!

Now, the goal of this deck is to keep people from playing their stuff and slowing them down tempo-matically. Then you can win with the bigger beats presented like Blightsteel Colossus and Metalwork Colossus or, again, Lodestone Myr. In go tempo-matic cards like Thorn of Amethyst and Static Orb. (Note that I want you tap it with Icy Manipulator, the Myr, Clock of Omens, Relic Barrier, or even something like Blinkmoth Well. Ditto Winter Orb and/or Howling Mine.)

Then we have disruption city. The first deck uses cards like Wasteland and Phyrexian Revoker to slow the game long enough to win. This deck has them to blow out lands. Now yes, it’s mean. I am not normally this sort of player, you all know that. But this is a fair way to build the deck; and, considering many players are embracing a more Spike-tastic form of Commander play, this deck runs Strip Mine and Crucible of Worlds to destroy lands and rampto Sundering Titan is perfectly acceptable. I don’t like playing that way, but I have to admit that I am not every Commander player either. Not even close! So I wanted to embrace the pure Spike-ness of a tempo-based Hope of Ghirapur deck. I would run the first, but many others would run the second, and that’s fine.

Other major tempo and disruptive cards running in here are Rishadan Port, Ugin's Nexus, Grafdigger's Cage, Defense Grid, Ankh of Mishra, Grafdigger's Cage, and even Mana Web . . . 

(Note that Mana Web is Oracle’d to work on all Opponents)

So you have a couple of options that stood out as ways to build around Hope of Ghirapur. Which would you prefer? Is there an obvious option I missed that works with the card? Maybe a Thopter themed tribal deck? Anything else?

I hope you found something to like in here as well!

¹ This is not uncommon. I have about ten articles in various stages of completion right now. I had created most of the decklists for this article, but had not finished and hadn’t written it up. I have two next units for the Magic: RPG written and ready to go, including the rules for Commander: RPG, and then I have everything from the next Random Top Ten written fully to a just-begun Commander deck built around a Graveyard theme (not like you are likely thinking but with a different flavor), I have built the deck Budget Commander deck, I have just started a Commander deck built around Apes, and, inspired by Ixalan, I have begun a long-term project to change my Pulp Cube from an artistic concept to a realistic drafting opportunity by adding in a lot of newer cards to flesh it out. Lots of stuff!