Lands (34)
- 1x Arid Mesa
- 1x Battlefield Forge
- 1x Caves of Koilos
- 1x Clifftop Retreat
- 1x Command Tower
- 1x Concealed Courtyard
- 1x Dragonskull Summit
- 1x Evolving Wilds
- 1x Godless Shrine
- 1x Hanweir Battlements Meld
- 1x Isolated Chapel
- 4x Mountain
- 1x Nomad Outpost
- 6x Plains
- 1x Shadowblood Ridge
- 1x Smoldering Marsh
- 6x Swamp
- 1x Tainted Peak
- 1x Temple of Silence
- 1x Temple of Triumph
- 1x Terramorphic Expanse
Buff (8)
- 1x Blackblade Reforged
- 1x Breath of Fury
- 1x Commander's Insignia
- 1x Gratuitous Violence
- 1x Hand of Vecna
- 1x Pride of Conquerors
- 1x Seasoned Dungeoneer
Tokens (8)
Ramp (14)
- 1x Arcane Signet
- 1x Boros Signet
- 1x Burakos, Party Leader
- 1x Fellwar Stone
- 1x Land Tax
- 1x Orzhov Signet
- 1x Professional Face-Breaker
- 1x Rakdos Signet
- 1x Sol Ring
- 1x Springleaf Drum
- 1x Sword of the Animist
- 1x Talisman of Conviction
- 1x Talisman of Hierarchy
- 1x Talisman of Indulgence
Removal (9)
- 1x Anguished Unmaking
- 1x Austere Command
- 1x Damn
- 1x Delayed Blast Fireball
- 1x Path to Exile
- 1x Ruinous Ultimatum
- 1x Tibalt's Trickery
- 1x Wear / Tear
Protection (8)
- 1x Bastion Protector
- 1x Boros Charm
- 1x Conqueror's Flail
- 1x Eerie Interlude
- 1x Lightning Greaves
- 1x Mother of Runes
- 1x Selfless Spirit
- 1x Swiftfoot Boots
Utility (4)
Commanders (2)
Backgrounds (8)
- 1x Agent of the Iron Throne
- 1x Agent of the Shadow Thieves
- 1x Cultist of the Absolute
- 1x Guild Artisan
- 1x Haunted One
- 1x Inspiring Leader
- 1x Tavern Brawler
- 1x Veteran Soldier
Card Advantage (5)
Introduction
Welcome to my personal take on Rograkh and Tymna - Background Tribal! For a while now I have wanted to build a Rograkh and Tymna deck, but I never knew what direction to take it. I wanted something that played cheap spells and felt efficient to me, while also making something that was unique and not just another run of the mill deck. On top of that, I didn't want to break the bank. I thought about abusing Rograkh for combos with Cloudstone Curio, but I already have a combo commander deck in the form of The Gitrog Monster and wanted something else. (Plus, Cloudstone is pricey). With the printing of the new backgrounds, I finally had something that caught my attention. Many of the new backgrounds work very well with the pair, especially when you consider that you can reliably cast Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh to get their effects early in the game. Many of them are fairly decent on their own, but doubling up on their effects by having two commanders can be extremely powerful. And to top it off, most of them are fairly cheap. The effects and abilities of the backgrounds lend the deck towards a token route to take advantage of cards like Inspiring Leader and Haunted One. Below is a description of the cards and their usefulness in the deck, and I hope you enjoy!
Backgrounds
Per the title, this deck is focused on taking advantage of the backgrounds early by having two cheap commanders that can be reliably cast. The backgrounds I decided to keep in the deck are:
Agent of the Shadow Thieves works well because it allows us to attack recklessly to get triggers with Tymna. It makes it difficult to block Rograkh, as the deathtouch coupled with menace means they will likely lose two or more creatures, and the trample means he only has to assign one damage to each creature blocking and the leftover damage can hit the opponent.
Tavern Brawler is great because it can easily trigger twice a turn from having Rograkh and Tymna on the field but also because it buffs them, which is especially nice for our 0/1 Rograkh so he can deal damage to draw cards from Tymna.
Guild Artisan coupled with Rograkh means we can easily generate two treasures a turn, made easier with his menace so the opponent has to have at least two to block, which is less common in the first couple of turns. Add Tymna to the mix, and we generate four treasure.
Agent of the Iron Throne is useful here to get more value out of our tokens. With both commanders out means our opponents can lose a lot of life from a board wipe (or sacrificing treasures).
Veteran Soldier is useful with Tymna for hitting multiple opponents, and if you attack the opponent with the most life with both commanders you are generating 6 tokens every turn - nice!
Inspiring Leader and Haunted One work well to buff our token armies. With both commanders out, Inspiring Leader gives them all +4/+4 for only three mana, and Haunted One can protect our commanders during combat while buffing our human tokens.
Cultist of the Absolute is a fun one that can easily backfire, and requires a bit of setup. It is useful by giving our commanders flying so they can both connect and draw us some cards, but if we run out of tokens then it can really hurt!
Token Generators
Because of the token subtheme, we need to find some ways to generate them. Thankfully, our colors (Mardu) give us great options that fit our theme.
Notably, we get some great goblin token generation through the infamous Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin, which is able to quickly get out of hand and generate lots of value.
Adeline, Resplendent Cathar, and Hanweir Garrison generate us some good ol' human tokens. Adeline generates tokens that attack all opponents (giving us a chance to trigger Tymna multiple times), Hanweir Garrison is cheap and creates several tokens on attack, which can also be directed towards other players. The fact that the tokens are human helps when having Haunted One and Tymna out.
Leonin Warleader acts as a back-up Hanweir Garrison , but pulls its weight by having beefier stats and creating lifelinking tokens.
Skyknight Vanguard is useful for triggering Tymna early due to its low cost and evasion through flying, and is efficient at pumping out tokens.
Priest of the Blessed Graf is a useful token generator, and is fairly reliable as we are not playing green (which is arguably the most played color in commander) and therefore lack land-based ramp. Generally, this card will generate us one or two flying spirits a turn.
Secure the Wastes can generate us an army at instant-speed, which can help us surprise the enemy. Bonus points for being warriors, so they get buffed by Haunted One!
Last but not least, Loyal Apprentice is useful for triggering Tymna early through its own flying attackers, but can also result in limitless combat steps with Breath of Fury (the only combo we have in this deck, because sometimes a game's just gotta end).
Combat Oriented Cards
These cards are for buffing our creatures to increase their lethality, whether they increase the strength of our tokens or our commanders.
Blackblade Reforged is here mainly to buff Rograkh so he can get some damage in and trigger Tymna, and can provide us some reach for ending games that go too long.
Commander's Insignia easily buffs our creatures by +2/+2, as it counts every time we have cast each commander, and should our commanders die it becomes more and more powerful as we recast them.
Breath of Fury can win us games on the spot, especially when we have evasive tokens such as Priest of the Blessed Graf's fliers. Should none of our opponents have any creatures with flying or reach, it can be an instant-win with Loyal Apprentice.
Gratuitous Violence helps us close out games by doubling the damage we deal, which also make a commander-damage kill much more likely.
Hand of Vecna allows us to cheaply buff our commanders or other creatures to get in for damage, and since we are often the aggressor paying the life is hardly a cost for the tempo it brings in our favor.
Pride of Conquerors is more of a pet card of mine, as very few people expect a +2/+2 swing in the middle of combat when you only have two mana open. It can easily close games when an opponent chooses not to block some of your seemingly weak tokens.
Seasoned Dungeoneer does several things for this deck. It gives us the initiative, and seeing as we are very aggressive it is easy for us to claim it every turn. It also gives either Rograkh or Tymna protection from creatures, guaranteeing a hit, while also providing us some potential card draw or selection through the explore ability.
Seeing as we are playing a token deck, it would be a shame not to play Shared Animosity, which can easily provide us just the damage we need to finish our opponents off.
Card Draw
Along with Tymna the Weaver, our card draw includes:
Breena, the Demagogue, who works well here since she buffs Rograkh and can easily draw us 2 cards a turn in a 4-player game. Not having to connect with our opponents but only attack them is also a plus, and her evasion through flying also allows her to strike and draw cards from Tymna.
Her Royal Majesty, Queen Marchesa, fits perfectly here, as she gives us card draw through Monarch and produces tokens for us should anyone be so vile as to usurp the throne from under us.
As previously mentioned, Tavern Brawler also provides us card advantage while our commanders are on the field.
I include Wandering Archaic here because it generates us card advantage of a sort through copying opponents' spells, but also because it's other side (Explore the Vastlands) can be used if necessary to help us dig for answers.
Lastly, I happen to own a Necropotence that I got from a pack, so of course it goes in here. Cheap and powerful card draw, the life loss is minimal - if we are loosing games, most likely it is because we ran out of gas first, not life.
Removal Suite
Mardu colors have access to some great removal, and I have chosen mine to match the meta I am in.
Despite being three mana, Anguished Unmaking is a great catchall removal spell, and exiling prevents any graveyard shenanigans.
Tibalt's Trickery acts as an excellent surprise, as most people don't expect us to have a counterspell in our colors. Let me tell you, there's nothing like countering a blue player's Cyclonic Rift as you swing for the win.
Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile are great cheap removal spells to deal with threats, and Path to Exile can even be used on Rograkh in a pinch to get us a land should we need it. Being one mana only helps us keep the pressure on while dealing with our opponents' board states.
Because artifacts and enchantments are a thing, Wear / Tear is useful at answering those threats, and has the bonus of being a 2-for-1 card when both options are cast.
Because our commanders are so cheap and we mostly rely on enchantments for our board state, it is relatively easy for us to recover from board wipes. Hence, Austere Command and Damn. Austere Command is useful because we can easily save Rograkh and Tymna by simply destroying creatures of CMC 4 or greater, while Damn doubles as single-target removal when needed.
Should we absolutely need to keep our board, we pack Delayed Blast Fireball and Ruinous Ultimatum. Fireball is useful because we can use it early to clear the way for attacks, or foretell it to cast at a later date to answer stronger board states. Meanwhile, Ruinous Ultimatum is a huge tempo swing in our favor, easily setting our opponents back a few turns while leaving them open to attack.
Protection
Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots keep our creatures safe from single-target removal while allowing us to swing in early for a hit.
Boros Charm and Eerie Interlude help protect our creatures from removal, and Eerie Interlude helps us keep some of our board state in response to an untimely Cyclonic Rift while Boros Charm can sneak in some commander damage by giving double-strike.
Bastion Protector works well for us here by buffing Rograk so he can deal damage and trigger Tymna while also protecting our commanders.
Mother of Runes is useful because it can help our commanders get through blockers so we can draw cards, or just work as a deterrent to any thought of removing our creatures.
Selfless Spirit is useful with its evasion, and often convinces our opponents to direct their removal elsewhere.
Conqueror's Flail provides a reasonable buff to our creatures, but most importantly it protects us during our turn, giving us the freedom to play some of our finishers without fear.
Ramp Package
The ramp package is pretty standard - all the signets and talismans in Mardu colors along with Sol Ring and Fellwar Stone. This gives us good turn 1 and 2 plays that help set us up for powerful plays later.
Because we are playing Rograkh, Springleaf Drum is useful for early mana, since we can tap him the turn we play him.
Burakos, Party Leader can easily generate us three treasures a turn, while also picking away at our opponents' life totals.
Professional Face-Breaker fits in perfectly with our aggressive strategy, and lets us sacrifice our treasures for cards should we need to.
Sword of the Animist is a great ramp card, as we can attach it to Rograkh early to grab some lands or to a token later. It is often worth attacking with an equipped Rograkh who will die, just to get the extra land.
Land Tax is a card I opened in a pack, and is excellent in non-green decks for making sure you keep up in lands, especially since we are still ramping (just with artifacts instead).
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| Date added | 1 year |
| Last updated | 1 year |
| Legality | This deck is Commander / EDH legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 6 - 0 Mythic Rares 46 - 0 Rares 25 - 0 Uncommons 7 - 0 Commons |
| Cards | 100 |
| Avg. CMC | 2.64 |
| Tokens | Angel 4/4 W, Assassin 1/1 B w/ Haste, Cat 1/1 W w/ Lifelink, City's Blessing, Dungeon: Undercity, Goblin 1/1 R, Human 1/1 R, Human 1/1 W, Skeleton 4/1 B, Soldier 1/1 W, Spirit 1/1 W, The Initiative, The Monarch, Thopter 1/1 C, Treasure, Warrior 1/1 W |
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