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Zurgo Stormrender is the face commander ofMagic: The Gathering’sMardu Surge preconstructed Commander deck. While that precon is solid, Zurgo Stormrender is much better off leading a Commander deck built with Zurgo Stormrender in mind.
A Zurgo Stormrender Commander deck is very aggressive, generating a ton of tokens and letting them die to either draw cards or deal burn damage. Many combat-focused decks often do not want their creatures dying, the opposite of what Zurgo Stormrender wants. If you’re after a token Commander deck with an untraditional game plan, look no further than a Zurgo Stormrender deck to play.
Avenger of the Fallen
Will of the Mardu
x3 Mountain
x4 Plains
x4 Swamp
Vault of the Archangel
Windbrisk Heights
The decklistcontains 32 creatures, three sorceries, ten instants, 11 artifacts, nine enchantments,and34 lands. Most permanents either make tokens or benefit from tokens entering or leaving the battlefield.
Key Cards
Zurgo Stormrender
Zurgo Stormrender does a whole lotfor the deck. Ifany creature leaves the battlefield while attacking, you get to draw a card. Mardu (red/white/black) doesn’t have a lot of good options for card draw, so this ability is very helpful in keeping your hand full.
Creatures are considered attacking throughout the entire combat phase once they’re declared as attackers. Even after damage is dealt, there is a window before the second main phase starts where you can sacrifice them, and they are still considered attacking.
Alternatively, Zurgo Stormrendercan deal a ton of burn damage. The deck makes a ton of tokens, so if you sacrifice them (either when created or after they’re done attacking), you can deal large outbursts of damage to close out games quickly.
Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim
Over the course of a game, a ton of creatures will be dying and entering the battlefield. Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim, is the perfect way to take advantage of that.Creatures entering gain you life, and dying will have your opponent lose life, all for doing what your deck already wants to be doing.
Elas il-Kor helps torecover from early game attacksandmakes it easier to close out games with its burn damage. The effecttriggers for every creature entering or dying, so even if multiple creatures enter or die at once, each one of them will trigger Elas il-Kor individually.
Dualcaster Mage
Ifyou’re looking for an easy path to victory, Dualcaster Mage is the best way to achieve that. The cardenables combos that will leave you with an infinite number of tokens. These can be combined with other permanents to win the same turn you start the combo.
Theonly required pieces of Dualcaster Mage and either Saw in Half or Molten Duplication. This combo is very easy to accomplish, and in the case of Saw in half, it can be done at instant speed. Here is how the combo works.
Prerequisites: Dualcaster Mage and Saw in Half/Molten Duplication in hand.
Step 1: Cast Saw in Half/Molten Duplication on a creature.
Step 2: Holding priority, cast Dualcaster Mage, targeting Saw in Half/Molten Duplication with its enter trigger.
Step 3: With the copy, target Dualcaster Mage.
Step 4: New copies of Dualcaster Mage enter. Copy Saw In Half/Molten Duplication
Step 5: Repeat steps 3-4.
Results: Infinite token copies of Dualcaster Mage, infinite enter the battlefield triggers, infinite death triggers (Saw in Half loop only).
Mirkwood Bats
Mirkwood Batsspeed up your ability to take everyone out of the game. All tokens being created or sacrificed will doone damage to all opponents. While this doesn’t seem like much, when you’re creating tokens in the double digits every turn, thisstacks up fast.
If a token is going to be removed without being sacrificed (such as those created through myriad), it’s better to sacrifice them to a sac outlet to ensure Mirkwood Bats' burn effect will trigger as it dies.
Mirkwood Batswill only burn if the creature is sacrificed, not if it dies. Luckily,creature tokens created from mobilize(and a few other permanents) are sacrificed at the end step, ensuring they trigger Mirkwood Bats for maximum burn damage.
How To Play The Deck
A Zurgo Stormrender Commander deckgenerates a ton of tokens and gets in for damage before sacrificing them for value or burn. The deck is very explosive, capable of dealing a ton of damage to all your opponents in just one turn.
Ithas a relatively low mana curve, allowing you to get your important permanents on the battlefield early.
Creatures enter and leave the battlefield constantly. Permanents that deal burn damage when creatures enter, like Agate Instigator, Impact Tremors, and Warleader’s Call. They are all vital cards for the strategy’s burn game plan.
Many of the tokenscreated in the deckcome with haste. This lets you attack with them right away, and dwindle down your opponent’s life totals even quicker.Many of the token generators create an increasing number of them, so you’ll become more of a threat as the game goes on.
Thetwo primary win conditions are winning through combat and burn. You make a tonof attacking creature tokens, so you have a high chance of taking your opponents out through traditional combat. With Zurgo Stormender and other cards that burn like Mirkwood Bats and Warleader’s Call, you’re able to deal a ton of damage if your opponents have too many creatures to get through.
Thebiggest weakness of the deck is its reliance on creatures. You’re in Mardu, so your ability to protect your permanents is limited. Aboard wipe can throw a wrench in your plan and stall you out, as the deck can’t recover from them easily.
Permanents that create tokens every turn, like Assemble the Legion and Urabrask’s Forge, help, but these are more temporary solutions. Thedeck struggles with ramp as well, so you may be stuck only being able to cast one spell a turn. Luckily, the mana curve is rather low, so this may not wind up coming up.
