$0.36 Warlock Precon Commander Wins by Cheating Haymakers into Play

While the bar that Commanders need to clear to see competitive play is quite high, every now and again, an unexpected legend will showcase its power. For example, just this week, Winter, Cynical OpportunistWinter, Cynical OpportunistDeathtouch
Whenever Winter attacks, mill three cards.
Delirium — At the beginning of your end step, you may exile any number of cards from your graveyard with four or more card types among them. If you do, put a permanent card from among them onto the battlefield with a finality counter on it. boasted a 5-0 finish in a Duel Commander League out of nowhere. It’s not often that precon Commanders make a splash in this format, but Winter provides some incredible utility that’s hard to replicate.

Cheating Out Bombs with Winter

The main goal behind this deck piloted by ZacharyHaleComstock is to enable Delirium as quickly as possible, maximizing Winter’s final ability. While Winter does technically fuel the graveyard via attacking, it’s often better not to expose the Warlock until you can get value the same turn.

Fortunately, this deck features a bunch of other ways to Mill cards, including Satyr Wayfinder and Town Greeter. Efficient trinkets like Mishra’s Bauble and Urza’s Bauble or multi-type cards like Haywire Mite or Summon: Titan help hit Delirium even more consistently.

Once you have Delirium assembled, your next step is to make sure you have a game-altering haymaker in the yard for Winter to bring back. Graveyard tutors like Unmarked Grave and Dina’s Guidance do a great job setting up Archon of Cruelty, Summon: Bahamut, or whatever other bomb you want to resurrect. Notably, you can also choose to put a noncreature bomb like Ugin, Eye of the Storms, or Portal to PhyrexiaPortal to PhyrexiaWhen this artifact enters, each opponent sacrifices three creatures of their choice.
At the beginning of your upkeep, put target creature card from a graveyard onto the battlefield under your control. It's a Phyrexian in addition to its other types. into play with Winter’s ability, increasing its utility.

To create a window to pull this off, cards like GriefGriefMenace
When this creature enters, target opponent reveals their hand. You choose a nonland card from it. That player discards that card.
Evoke—Exile a black card from your hand. and ThoughtseizeThoughtseizeTarget player reveals their hand. You choose a nonland card from it. That player discards that card. You lose 2 life. can help clear the way. If you need to buy time to pull this off, Toxic Deluge and Vicious Rivalry can stave off tons of pressure, riding your haymakers to victory.

Powerful… If You Dodge Hate

As a whole, this deck’s game plan is both explosive and consistent, helping it beat a wide variety of different archetypes. Against aggro decks like Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd, your healthy mix of early removal spells like Fatal PushFatal PushDestroy target creature if it has mana value 2 or less.
Revolt — Destroy that creature if it has mana value 4 or less instead if a permanent left the battlefield under your control this turn. and Bone Shards allows you to assume a control role. So long as you can stay alive long enough, your reanimation targets should completely take over the game.

Yet, against control decks that don’t apply lots of early pressure, you have more time to craft a hand to fight through disruption. Besides just discard spells, this deck features a bunch of redundancy in its reanimation effects, with cards like Animate Dead and Necromancy in the mix.

Unfortunately, despite this deck’s versatility, you still need to avoid hate cards to have success. Most Duel Commander strategies have some forms of graveyard hate, such as Ghost VacuumGhost Vacuum{T}: Exile target card from a graveyard.
{6}, {T}, Sacrifice this artifact: Put each creature card exiled with this artifact onto the battlefield under your control with a flying counter on it. Each of them is a 1/1 Spirit in addition to its other types. Activate only as a sorcery. or Unlicensed Hearse, that make enabling Delirium or sticking a reanimate effect a nightmare. On top of that, pesky hatebears like Containment Priest and Drannith MagistrateDrannith MagistrateYour opponents can't cast spells from anywhere other than their hands. also demand interaction in most games before you can go off.

With so much to worry about, and little in the way of answering noncreature problems, Winter unfortunately still falls outside the top echelon of Duel Commander decks. Nonetheless, the deck is definitely capable of running hot, so don’t be surprised if it pops up every now and again.

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