Commander decklist: Death and Traxos

Welcome to the Commander decklist series, where I build Commander decks for each of Magic’s colour combinations. For my version of the challenge, I will restrict myself to cards already in my collection, and commanders which are outside the 5 most popular commanders for that colour combination on the website EDHrec.

Today’s deck is colorless and our commander is Traxos, Scourge of Kroog.

The deck

click the image above to go to the full decklist at Scryfall.

The plan

This deck plans to kill all opponents with it’s cheap commander. Traxos comes with 7 points of power, making it a three-turn clock when dealing combat damage to opponents. The decks is rich with artifacts that allow Traxos to be untapped, making him an immediate threat when played. If Traxos is thwarted and the game goes long, the deck contains a number of top-end threats that can give you an alternate path to victory.

The core

The core of this deck is our Commander, and items which untap him. Sol Ring gets an obvious loo-in here, as this can help deal with his increasing re-cast cost. Rogue’s Passage makes your opponent’s creatures irrelevant on defence.

Options

This deck currently comes in a $347 USD at the time of publication. Reducing the cost is straightforward. Replace the expensive top-end cards I have used such as Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, Ulamog the Infinite Gyre, and Darksteel Forge with $1-$2 cards to take a third of this deck’s cost away without affecting its plan or efficacy.

Summary and links

This deck comes in around 5 on the Commander power scale. The deck’s plan if good, but hardly immune to interaction from our opponents. Sometimes it all comes together, and when it does, Traxos is still a 9-turn clock without some intervention in raising his power.

But like death, Traxos is inevitable.

Happy scourging!