We're onto day 3 of our Jumpstart 4 Quarters articles and today we're going to look at one of my favorite cards of the new set - Sethron, Hurloon General. Let's waste no time and get right into it!
As soon as Sethron, Hurloon General was spoiler, it immediately became the best card for a minotaur tribal Commander deck so that's exactly what we're going to focus on in the 4 quarters. Every minotaur we cast is going to make us a 2/3 red Minotaur token and we can pay 3 mana and pump our team of minotaurs and give them haste. This is going to be a race car type aggro deck. We're going to try and stick evasive minotaurs and attack without any regards for politcs or diplomacy. This is a fun one!
1st Quarter: Join the Club!
The first area we're going to focus on is making our creatures evasive. Sethron helps that immensely by giving our minotaurs menace so let's key in on that keyword. Ikoria gave us a lot of menace-tribal goodies so lucky for us, and our budget, we can add lots of cheap, powerful cards. Frillscare Mentor is going to let us pay 3 mana and tap it to put a +1/+1 counter on EACH of our creatures with menace. Angrath, Captain of Chaos is going to give all of our creatures menace. (Editor's Note: I know Goblin War Drums is probably a strictly better card for this, but there's no flavor in that. Angrath is a minotaur so he goes in our minotaur deck.) Sonorous Howlbonder basically gives all our menace creatures extra menace meaning they can only be blocked by 3 creatures and Labyrinth Raptor is going to force our opponents to sacrifice a creature anytime they block (now triple block!) one of our menacing minotaurs. It also helps buff our menace creatures for a black and red mana. This suite of menace matters cards really ups the power level of our deck right away. Total Cost of the 1st Quarter: $0.55
2nd Quarter: Lords of Chaos
Here's a hot take for you: I think minotaurs may have some of the best lords in all of Magic. Here's why...Kragma Warcaller is going to pump our attacking minotaurs by +2/+0 and give them all haste. Rageblood Shaman is going to pump our minotaurs +1/+1 and give them all trample. So many keywords! Fellhide Petrifier is going to give our team deathtouch....deathtouch. So now when our opponents are have to triple block each of our creatures, we get to kill three of their creatures and they may be able to kill one of ours. Magic is a game of resources and trading three for one is always going to get you so far ahead in a game. But what if we could do even better? Neheb, the Worthy is going to give all of our minotaurs first strike. So now our minotaurs are huge, have deathtouch, first strike, trample, haste and triple menace. Your opponents will not know what is coming at them. Total Cost of the 2nd Quarter: $1.00
3rd Quarter: "Let me play you the song of my people..."
An "anthem" in Magic is an enchantment or artifact that provides some type of power / toughness boost to your creatures. No tribal deck is complete without them and in Rakdos colors (red + black) we have access to a lot of good ones. We continue the keyword soup with Street Riot giving our creatures +1/+0 and trample and Raiders' Spoils doing the same but with added upside of potential card draw. Anthem of Rakdos is really going to pump our team giving each attacking creature +2/+0 at the cost of 1 life per creature with the potential upside of doubling damage if our hand is empty! Dictate of the Twin Gods is a boardwide anthem that is going to just double damage for everyone. But with flash, we can control when it comes in and hopefully make the best use out of it with our aggressive deck, Total Cost of the 3rd Quarter: $1.31
4th Quarter: Sound the Horn
When Deathbellow War Cry was spoiled as part of Theros Beyond Death, I was incredibly excited. It felt like such a uniquely awesome tribal card that I wanted to use it immediately. With Sethron, we now have the PERFECT spot to play Deathbellow War Cry. A card like that is so important because of it's flexibility. For 8 mana, we are going to be able to go get the exact right cards and hopefully win the game on the spot. Searching for our minotaur lords is going to be really powerful or we can get cards like Fanatic of Mogis which can deal a lot of damage to each of our opponents in a hurry. Lord of Shatterskull Pass is a bit slow, but after we level it up (spending 12 mana to do so) it will basically be a repetitive board wipe making it VERY tough on our opponents. Felhide Spiritbinder is going to allow us to make a token copy of one of our best creatures on the battlefield each time it becomes untapped. Copying Fanatic of Mogis each turn will end games very quickly. Total Cost of the 4th Quarter $1.84.
Total Cost of all 4 Quarters: $4.70
We did an amazing job on the budget this go around. So much so, I'm going to make a recommendation of a card you should immediately go pick up. Coat of Arms is one of the best tribal cards in all of Magic. If you like tribal decks, and who doesn't, it's a must own card because it will always go in any deck you make. It is currently prices, thanks to a Mystery Booster reprint, right around $8.00 but I don't expect it to remain under $10 for all that long.
I hope you enjoyed this aggro, Minotaur, tribal version of the 4 Quarters. We'll be back tomorrow with more awesome Commander action!
Stay Super,
Tim