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Main » Articles » Riders of Ruhan

Riders of Ruhan

Robby Rothe
Posted on March 21, 2012
 Reddit

Before we start, as I was finishing up this piece, judge Sheldon Menery reported there were no changes in the Commander banned list this quarter.

I hope you know the story by now; if not, here’s the quick recap.

I received an e-mail from fellow GatheringMagic alum Bruce Richard about looking at a Ruhan of the Fomori deck that he built. He wanted to show off how one Commander can have several decks constructed different way besides just a “definite” decklist that you see some people write up.

There’s a difference between definite and what’s commonly accepted as “good to go together.” I’ve stated that I do hate staples (cards that are considered in all decklists), but sometimes, there are cards that fit perfectly in certain styles of decks. An example is Grim Backwoods: great in Savra, Queen of the Golgari decks since it fits so well with her. Grim Backwoods might be great in Karador, Ghost Chieftain decks, but depending on the style of your play, it might not fit.

When Bruce put out a call for Commander writers to help out with this deck, I offered him my axe, which is not only an online cliché of Lord of the Rings and Gimli; it’s also a clever play on something I was going to include in the decklist:

Obsidian Battle-Axe

We’ll get to that in a moment.

Bruce started out with a Voltron-style list and said we could build on it or do whatever we wanted to do. I haven’t seen any of the other decklists that any of the other authors put out (I’ll read them when I’m finished with this article, and I hope you will as well). It was very intentional that I didn’t receive any other input because of two main reasons:

  1. I didn’t want to be influenced by what others had chosen for their ninety-nine. This was an experiment to see what directions we would take this.

  2. I was building this deck as if I were playing it.

The second part might be different than what others have done (again, I don’t know). This isn’t an Ask-Whatever type of piece; I honestly wanted to see where I would go with this. I haven’t built a Ruhan deck, so this was going to be a fun experiment to do. And since Bruce had mentioned Voltron, I’ll be looking to tackle that version today.

But now I’m going to break one of the rules I don’t like to do in articles all in the name of this experiment: print a decklist.

Hey, editor, hit me up with Bruce’s original decklist for Ruhan:

"Bruce’s Ruhan of the Fomori"

  • Commander (0)
  • Mana Pumping (0)
  • Card Drawing (0)
  • Empty Graveyards (0)
  • Ruhan Pumping (0)
  • Utility (0)
  • Pathclearers (0)
  • Creatures (0)
  • Spells (0)

This clearly is a Voltron deck. If you don’t remember what a Voltron-style deck is, it’s basically finding all of the pieces to make your commander bash in for the 21 commander damage to win the game (remember: It’s 21 damage from a commander cumulative done only through combat damage). He has plenty of tools to help with evasion and to prevent players from blocking. Some of the choices do seem a little weird since Bruce said only to use cards he had to build this deck (here’s a Caller of Gales being casted by a Tundra). I don’t judge a player by the cards he owns as long as there is a passion for the game. Bruce clearly has this here.

We have a mixture of Equipment and Auras in the decklist, and that makes sense. When you want to make sure you can beat down with Ruhan, you want to have as much redundancy as possible. There’s nothing wrong with that, and as you’ll come to find out, it’s encouraged and highly abused in this format.

It’s a really good list as a first pass through to find out what he really wants to do. Some decks build themselves; others need to be played and tuned so you can see what’s up and what’s completely not working. Maybe Bruce discovers that Levitation is a better flying-granter than Caller of Gales is, but it could be that he wants more tap effects to abuse a Wake Thrasher he’s shoved in there. To be fair, this decklist I present is a first draft as well, but it’s something I would play against a friend’s for fun.

The real question is: What did I decide to do? I took a couple sticks of dynamite and blew up Bruce’s deck to create something of my own. I kept a few cards that I liked seeing from the original deck—like the cute Stinkdrinker Daredevil—and added my own touch. I decided that this was an experiment, and I went all out and decided I wanted to include the original dual lands even though I don’t own them all online.

I gritted my teeth and built this deck on Magic Online. I don’t like the deckbuilding client (I hope it changes in the new update (coming Fall Quarter 3162 . . . I’ll see you when you get there (if you ever get there)), and it was a little bit of a struggle sometimes when you’re trying to search for cards; I prefer magiccards.info because it’s a nice, easy database that even has prices if you’ve curious about that sort of thing. With the Magic Online client, I can separate the cards into piles, which I didn’t know before and discovered by happy accident, but when I saved it, I lost all the piles I was making. I usually break down my decks into piles, as I previously demonstrated here with a Kemba deck I built.

After some frustration, such as double-clicking on a card in my sideboard to have it disappear into my card pool, I broke my card categories into what I wanted to do with the deck. There was some internal debate if this should be an all-random deck since Ruhan is randomization personified—with Scrambleverse and Confusion in the Ranks—but I decided that I wasn’t going to go that route (though I hope someone did). I decided to go into the Voltron mold and have it be an aggro-control-style deck in which I needed to protect myself after my Commander attacked each turn. I also wanted to have a Giant subtheme in there, so any place I could sneak in a Giant (which is a funny image), I was going to do it. There were going to be some fun cards, but also cards that were “good,” which is a typical build that I tend to go after. If you’re not having fun playing Commander, why are you playing?

Equipment

These are some of the hallmarks of a Voltron commander. They stay in play even after a creature is destroyed, and they can do so many things. I could’ve included plenty of the same cards that Bruce did, but after going through them, I settled on only a few:

Argentum Armor, Champion's Helm, Obsidian Battle-Axe, Trepanation Blade, Umezawa's Jitte

The obvious card missing is Sunforger, which Bruce had. I looked at my red and white instants and decided I didn’t have enough to warrant it (though some might argue that having seven and being able to have access to them at any time is key, and I’ll buy that argument). I like for as many of my cards have synergy with each other as possible if they’re performing a specialized function. Then, why is Obsidian Battle-Axe in the decklist if I only have five Warriors? Because the most important Warrior is my Commander, and a 9/8 haste creature is pretty scary. It has the added bonus of attaching when I cast Ruhan for a miniature Fires of Yavimaya.

And, of course, no Equipment package would be complete without ways to find them.

Enlightened Tutor, Godo, Bandit Warlord, Stonehewer Giant

No Stoneforge Mystic? Nope—I wanted to try something different. Stonehewer Giant (the “Sto” in MojoSto) is a Giant that is also a Warrior, so let’s try that out. Again, some fun cards without it being too powerful. Enlightened Tutor also works with the next category.

Auras

This is the other hallmark of a Voltron commander. You play as many enchantments on your commander as you can, and you swing. You hope the Auras do something, and you reap the benefits. The obvious goal is to find some sort of evasion so your commander can push through for the commander damage. And what did I end up picking?

Angelic Destiny, Eldrazi Conscription, Pemmin's Aura, Scourge of the Nobilis, Steel of the Godhead

I should just get my Eldrazi Conscription altered to have Zoidberg because whenever I need an enchantment that just wrecks stuff, I always ask, “Why not the Eldrazi?” As pet card of mine, it seriously changes the table when you play it. The Eventide enchantments are also an inclusion for any multicolored commander you want to swing with—Steel of the Godhead gives unblockability and lifelink, which I’ve heard can be a good combination. Pemmin's Aura is Superman (of the I-am variety), and for anyone who’s played with Morphling knows, it can be really powerful—especially when you have 7 toughness to toy around with.

And just like the Equipment, you need ways to bring these Auras out. What are they, you might ask?

Academy Rector, Enlightened Tutor, Sovereigns of Lost Alara, Wild Research

Putting on my hipster glasses for a moment, I was playing Sovereigns of Lost Alara with Eldrazi Conscription before it was a Standard deck (to be fair, though, I’m sure many of you were as well). It works nicely with Ruhan because he attacks every turn. Remember that if you fetch a Conscription after a creature is attacking, the annihilator trigger doesn’t happen. Academy Rector is a great wall and rattlesnake (stopping people from going after you) and helps find either an Aura or any of the other enchantments in the deck. Wild Research is a repeatable Gamble.

Giants

Since Ruhan is a Giant, I figured it would be fun to throw in more Giants here. They’re big, they do exciting things, and they help clear the way for Ruhan, which leads to the deck name: The Riders of Ruhan (Two LotR references in one article? Yes, I am a geek).

Boldwyr Intimidator, Desolation Giant, Frost Titan, Giant Harbinger, Inferno Titan, Magma Giant, Stinkdrinker Daredevil, Stonehewer Giant, Sun Titan

Most of these you’ve seen in decks before. Boldwyr Intimidator I thought would be cute in a deck like this—again, because Ruhan is a Warrior, you can force it through if you really needed to. It was the Stinkdrinker Daredevil in Bruce’s original decklist that wanted me to pursue the Giant subtheme. Desolation Giant acts like a great Wrath of God for 6 that also creates a 3/3 creature (that you can attach a Battle-Axe to—not automatically, mind you).

Of course, there are a ton missing, but that’s what’s great about a Commander deck: You can customize it to fit how you want it to.

Combos

Let me go though a few other combos in here before I get to the list.

Magnetic Web and Powerstone Minefield

Most of the time, you’re going to be attacking with a 7/7 or larger creature. If your opponent is just going to keep throwing out chump-blockers to prevent the damage, you’re never going to push through. Put a magnetic counter on Ruhan and start putting them on your opponent’s creatures. Now, when he attacks, they have to block, and they will be dealt 2 damage, which we hope will kill them. It’s also a fun political card—you can put the counter on as an instant to any creature, making more things attack or block than their controllers want to.

Cradle of Vitality with Swords to Plowshares, Umezawa's Jitte, Absorb, Scourge of the Nobilis, Steel of the Godhead, and Righteous Cause

Yeah, Loxodon Warhammer could go into this deck as well, but Cradle of Vitality is one of my favorite hidden gems in Commander. Gain life doing something ordinary, then throw the counters onto one of your guys (such as Ruhan). Most of the life-gain effects in this deck are repeatable, which mean obvious abuse with the system. Sadly, there’re no creature in here that you can throw the +1/+1 counters on to do something cool—like Triskelion or Forgotten Ancient. Except Forgotten Ancient can’t go in this deck.

Final Synergies

Anyway, you’ll see some more synergy combos here in this deck. There’re plenty of enters-the-battlefield triggers, so Crystal Shard makes an appearance, which can also be brought back with Sun Titan.

Cataclysm should be used sparingly and only as a reset button, but it will protect your Ruhan and whatever he’s carrying. Divine Reckoning also fits into that hole.

Sure, the deck could be reworked to be a full aggression deck and punish the player (i.e. bring Ruhan out and play Armageddon or Cataclysm). But that’s not the way I play. I want to have fun, and I want my opponents to have fun. I think there’s enough opportunity there with Ruhan being random that it will create enough tension in the game to make the game fun. No one wants to be staring down a 9/9 unblockable, lifelink Commander on turn five.

Better make my opponent play rock-paper-scissors to see whom he attacks. That’s random, right?

The “final” decklist:

"Riders of Ruhan"

TAGS articles, casual, deck lists, edh, commander, robby rothe, ruhan, theme

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