{"ops":[{"insert":{"card-link":"Thomil, the Destroyer"}},{"insert":" is interesting, at first glance they look creature based (zombies or demons), a second look they could do aristocrats. The longer I looked though, the more Thomil reminds me of the card "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Trading Post"}},{"insert":" , so I built the deck around the idea of trading the creatures in and out of the graveyard. I want this deck to live in a space between aristocrats and reanimator. \n\nSo, why is this NOT just another "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Syr Konrad, the Grim"}},{"insert":" deck. Two reasons; the simple one of both cards have mana value 5. I want to limit mana values that match Thomil (I want to plan my commander as my turn 5 play). Second, Syr Konrad is a well known and highly targeted payoff for playing the game. Thomil is more of an engine enabling that payoff. There is a plethora of aristocrat strategy payoffs I can add which will reanimate much easier then Syr Konrad. I wanted to make a deck that I did not automatically put Syr Konrad in or was previously commanded by him.\nSecond, why is it NOT playing "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Gray Merchant of Asphodel"}},{"insert":" . Again, 5 mana value. Also, I'd like to bluff that it is and let my opponents hold onto graveyard hate waiting for it. There is easily space to add this by dropping one of the pet cards if desired.\n\nI want this to be a fun deck to play with and against, so it is intentionally not optimal. Main win con will be through relentless attacking, but the creatures as they die trade spaces with the already dead ones. Also, with the amount of trading possibilities, I can always have something to do or able to get something I need every turn.\n\nPet cards. I always start a deck with a few pet cards. Both these have fun stories on how they earned pet card status. (Stories for the end of this write up.)\n\nCategories:\nTrading Post: All of these have some payment/cost/hoop to gain some reward. Several of these can retrieve each other, or something bigger.\nTrading Value: Some of the common aristocrat creatures. It should be easy to get these back if they die so don't need too many, just enough to be annoying.\nTrading Rewards: Big creatures with big effects to reach end game state. In early game these can be discard options to return some of the smaller creatures to keep the trading post engine running.\n\nOpp Control: Doing my part in the game to handle some other threats. A few emergency board wipes and spot removal.\nChurning: It's almost like trading. This is anything that's general drawing, digging, recurring, shuffling.\n\nBattlecruiser and Pet Cards: I've purposely designed this deck as lower powered so I have room for some less optimal cards and pet cards. Instead of sacrifice engines, this deck plans for creatures to die in good old fashioned combat to get the dies triggers. Most all creatures in this game should be attacking. If they deal damage, great, if they die, also great. In a powered up version of the deck, this is space for tutors, more consistency pieces, and mana ramp.\n\n======== PET CARD STORIES TIME ========\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Durable Coilbug"}},{"insert":" - There was this one time (2020?) that I was playing this jank deck on Arena. It was built around Durable Coilbug and turning it into a 5/5 flying demon. The deck actually won a few games because my opponents had no idea what the threats actually were to respond correctly. I have a screenshot somewhere of the Durable Coilbug in it's ultimate form. Since some the deck Trading Rewards are demons, I think the Coilbug is an honorary include.\n\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Rank Officer"}},{"insert":" - My playgroup was doing a commander league at the office. (I had something black/red, might have been "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Anje Falkenrath"}},{"insert":" deck (2019)). Every week we added any pack we wanted to our deck. My first pack had Rank Officer. This became the most abused card in the deck. The precon already had some zombie synergy so I bounced this in and out of my graveyard as much as I could. This was the first card I put in the deck and what got me thinking about the lines of play that lead into the whole concept for this deck.\n"}]}