How do you read a Magic article? If it has a decklist or two in that intrigues you, do you read the decklist first? Do you read the article in the order it was written, and check out the decklist last? How do you balance one against the other?

I don’t know if my way of reading Magic articles is common. For example, after Pro Tour Magic Origins had the U/R breakout deck with cards like Ensoul Artifact and Hangarback Walker, I began to look up articles that delved into the latest deck. I was looking for deck tech, but I read the article from top to bottom, I checked out the decklist where it was placed into the article, and then I continued.

Is that normal? I don’t know!

I sometimes have an idea for a deck. And while I can slap that decklist down all day long (even Commander), I get stumped by actually writing about it into an article form. It’s easier for me to churn out a decklist than it is for me to write up its description. That’s my personal challenge.

I can take a decklist and add in a bunch of great ideas and unusual cards. I usually don’t even research other decks, like other Commander decks around the same leader. The Johnny in me wants to be freed from any fetters that could bring.

So I figured that I could simply create three separate Commander decks for you today, with just a little bit of commentary, and then call this an article. You get three times the normal decks but a lot less processing and detailed documentation that delves into the deck. Let’s get started!

Here’s our first deck of today’s triad.

Sun Quan?s Discount Trade Barn ? Commander | Abe Sargent

• Commander (0)

• Creatures (27)
• 1 Breaching Leviathan
• 1 Cephalid Constable
• 1 Colossal Whale
• 1 Dakra Mystic
• 1 Dominating Licid
• 1 Jhessian Thief
• 1 Kukemssa Pirates
• 1 Master of Predicaments
• 1 Mistblade Shinobi
• 1 Ninja of the Deep Hours
• 1 Prognostic Sphinx
• 1 Sage-Eye Avengers
• 1 Sakashima's Student
• 1 Scalpelexis
• 1 Scourge of Fleets
• 1 Slith Strider
• 1 Somnophore
• 1 Soul Seizer
• 1 Tandem Lookout
• 1 Thalakos Dreamsower
• 1 Thassa's Emissary
• 1 Sharding Sphinx
• 1 Silver Myr
• 1 Walking Atlas
• 1 Lorthos, the Tidemaker
• 1 Lu Xun, Scholar General
• 1 Thada Adel, Acquisitor

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage

• Spells (31)
• 1 Confound
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Cryptic Command
• 1 Dismiss
• 1 Forbid
• 1 Spell Contortion
• 1 Supplant Form
• 1 Arm with Aether
• 1 Displacement Wave
• 1 Hands of Binding
• 1 Inundate
• 1 Coastal Piracy
• 1 Curse of Inertia
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Flooded Shoreline
• 1 Future Sight
• 1 Military Intelligence
• 1 Mirror Mockery
• 1 Psychic Allergy
• 1 Sigil of Sleep
• 1 Teferi's Veil
• 1 Everflowing Chalice
• 1 Fireshrieker
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Quietus Spike
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1 Sword of Light and Shadow
• 1 Sword of the Animist
• 1 Whispersilk Cloak
• 1 Bident of Thassa

• Lands (40)
• 34 Island
• 1 Maze of Ith
• 1 Moonring Island
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Terrain Generator

Buy This Deck

This deck was inspired by the fact that I have an extra Sun Quan, Lord of Wu in his From the Vaults incarnation just staring at me without a home right now. Isn’t that sad? So I built our good Lord of Wu a place to rest his head.

But then I decided to add a nice pro-Islands element to the deck as well, with cards like Sword of the Animist and friends. We are drawing so many cards off the saboteur theme (with stuff like Coastal Piracy, Bident of Thassa, and Military Intelligence) that we have way too many cards. So drop extra lands with stuff like Walking Atlas or Terrain Generator, and then we give this deck a different feel.

Finally, I really pushed tempo hard. With the ramp elements here, I felt okay running something like Flooded Shoreline. We can bounce and keep things bounced with everything from Mistblade Shinobi and Cephalid Constable to Inundate and Cyclonic Rift. In addition to testing out the awesome Displacement Wave from Magic Origins, we also have a chance to rock the underappreciated Arm with Aether. Sure, it may be underused, but I think this deck gives it a great push.

Result? We have this odd, aggro-tempo-ramp-ish thing. And I like it.

What’s next on today’s triad of terrible torment?

Not So Beautiful ? Commander | Abe Sargent

• Commander (0)

• Creatures (29)
• 1 Anger
• 1 Akki Lavarunner
• 1 Ashcloud Phoenix
• 1 Beetleback Chief
• 1 Chartooth Cougar
• 1 Corrupt Eunuchs
• 1 Dualcaster Mage
• 1 Embermaw Hellion
• 1 Firewing Phoenix
• 1 Flametongue Kavu
• 1 Generator Servant
• 1 Goblin Sharpshooter
• 1 Humble Defector
• 1 Magus of the Moon
• 1 Mindclaw Shaman
• 1 Ogre Arsonist
• 1 Prophetic Flamespeaker
• 1 Shivan Phoenix
• 1 Skarrgan Firebird
• 1 Spawn of Thraxes
• 1 Subterranean Spirit
• 1 Zealous Conscripts
• 1 Iron Myr
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Ben-Ben, Akki Hermit
• 1 Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh
• 1 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
• 1 Kumano, Master Yamabushi
• 1 Starke of Rath

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 1 Chandra, Pyromaster
• 1 Koth of the Hammer
• 1 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker

• Spells (27)
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Comet Storm
• 1 Commune with Lava
• 1 Grab the Reins
• 1 Into the Core
• 1 Urza's Rage
• 1 Volcanic Offering
• 1 Wild Ricochet
• 1 From the Ashes
• 1 Jaws of Stone
• 1 Mizzium Mortars
• 1 Reversal of Fortune
• 1 Wheel of Fortune
• 1 Blood Moon
• 1 Claws of Valakut
• 1 Genju of the Spires
• 1 Darksteel Plate
• 1 Everflowing Chalice
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Mimic Vat
• 1 Pyromancer's Goggles
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Strata Scythe
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1 Thran Dynamo
• 1 Whispersilk Cloak

• Lands (40)
• 37 Mountain
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Terrain Generator
• 1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

Buy This Deck

In addition to Sun Quan, I also have a copy of Diaochan, Artful Beauty from Commander’s Arsenal just lingering, ready to be used if I could ever find a home for her. Could this be that shell?

Because of this, our creature base has this natural resiliency built into it. That helps against mass removal. Sure, the Phoenix horde really isn’t that powerful with a high power-to-casting-cost ratio, but long game, after your cheaper beater is gone, my Firewing Phoenix was recurred twice and is now swinging on a naked sky. That sort of long-game reliably gives the deck an odd control-based feel, yet not with normal cards you expect to see in control decks. We have a control deck that features Starke of Rath and Diaochan, Artful Beauty. That’s just fun!

Let’s keep up this theme for the third deck!!!

Cao Cao, Lord of Foils That Disappointed ? Commander | Abe Sargent

• Commander (0)

• Creatures (24)
• 1 Black Cat
• 1 Cackling Fiend
• 1 Disciple of Phenax
• 1 Dread
• 1 Fate Unraveler
• 1 Gilt-Leaf Winnower
• 1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1 Guul Draz Assassin
• 1 Guul Draz Specter
• 1 Liliana's Reaver
• 1 Liliana's Specter
• 1 Mortivore
• 1 Nighthowler
• 1 Nightmare
• 1 Sangromancer
• 1 Scythe Specter
• 1 Shriekmaw
• 1 Skinrender
• 1 Hex Parasite
• 1 Leaden Myr
• 1 Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
• 1 Erebos, God of the Dead
• 1 Geth, Lord of the Vault
• 1 Maga, Traitor to Mortals

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 1 Liliana of the Dark Realms
• 1 Liliana Vess
• 1 Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
• 1 Sorin Markov

• Spells (31)
• 1 Crypt Incursion
• 1 Dark Dabbling
• 1 Hero's Downfall
• 1 Sudden Spoiling
• 1 Beacon of Unrest
• 1 Corrupt
• 1 Damnation
• 1 Diabolic Tutor
• 1 Life's Finale
• 1 Necromantic Summons
• 1 Profane Command
• 1 Promise of Power
• 1 Dark Suspicions
• 1 Genju of the Fens
• 1 Larceny
• 1 Liliana's Caress
• 1 Megrim
• 1 Palace Siege
• 1 Underworld Dreams
• 1 Waste Not
• 1 Bonehoard
• 1 Font of Mythos
• 1 Geth's Grimoire
• 1 Howling Mine
• 1 Lashwrithe
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Nihil Spellbomb
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Temple Bell
• 1 Thousand-Year Elixir

• Lands (40)
• 38 Swamp
• 1 Cabal Coffers
• 1 Myriad Landscape

Buy This Deck

And there’s our final deck! The Cao Cao deck began as a simple discard-ish deck, with a variety of cards that give you discard triggers. You can run stuff like Waste Not alongside Geth's Grimoire or Sangromancer. The result is a bunch of cards that will trigger as you tap your commander to force some discards and have some fun.

I expect a lot of cards to be knocked into opponents’ graveyards. Fearing potential graveyard tricks, I added in stuff like Nihil Spellbomb and Crypt Incursion, but those are the worst tools. My preference is just to reanimate the goodies! There’s nothing here to keep a good card like Beacon of Unrest from bringing a great creature into play on your side. After that, I mainly used the graveyard as a resource for amping up creatures like Bonehoard, Nighthowler, and Mortivore.

And once again, I want to remind the Magic community that Dark Suspicions is a card. It exists. Enjoy.

Last week’s Coercion deck inspired this a bit. I like it!

Three decks? Done! Three legendries from a Portal set that have all been reprinted in prestige foil formats? Done!

So what did you think? What did you like, and what could I improve?