Monday MtG: Mogis, God of Slaughter

Mogis, God of Slaughter (decklist)

Putting the laughter in slaughter 

This is my third iteration of Mogis.  The first version was something awesome, leaning into enchantments and neat gold spells and chaos.  I then over-tinkered with it, and it stopped working.  At that point, it became a Xantcha deck (which was good in theory, but not in play).

So I didn't feel too bad disassembling Xantcha and remaking Mogis, because, frankly, I like Mogis as a commander better and have a thing for the Theros gods as commanders in general.  This version of Mogis, while still heavy on enchantments, leans on mass land destruction.  

Yes, mass land destruction can be said to violate the 'social contract' of Magic, and yes, it can backfire, although canny artifact choices for support help mitigate this (notably Crucible of Worlds and lots of cheap rocks).  The biggest danger to running lots of mass land destruction is that I fail to recover faster than my opponents.  Plus, the best mass land destruction (in this deck, it is Jokulhaups, but overall, I feel it is Obliterate) tends towards high cmc.  Given that Commander decks tend towards too many nonbasic lands to maximize mana, Ruination and From the Ashes (as well as Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon) can be built around to help keep my edge.

While most of my land destruction are sorceries, I also run Burning Sands and Tainted Aether - which are why I also run comparatively few creatures. Of all the mass land destruction in this deck, these two are the most likely to grind the game to a halt.  While both play nice with the enchantment theme of this deck, they also serve to keep creatures off the board and lands low, out of fear of being locked entirely out of mana.  

Every deck has its own 'best play,' and Mogis is no different.  For me, that best play involves Ankh of Mishra on turn one or two, although From the Ashes while Ankh of Mishra is in play can be hysterical.  It once (and may again, in the future) may be a first turn Winds of Change, just to mess with people that may have mulliganed down to a 'playable hand.'

Despite the potential for such lovely plays as mentioned, my favorite card in the deck is Last Laugh.

Last Laugh embodies the law of unintended consequences and damage-based shenanigans. This is especially useful in the Commander format, where the idea of sacrificing one's own permanents for personal benefit is commonplace, not to mention the mass and targeted removal that better decks run and use.

This version of Mogis is also notable for the lack of tutors and easy one-sided draw.  This is entirely due to my only having single copies of such cards in the Commander Box, and they are in use.  Also notable is Exquisite Blood's missing partner-in-crime, Sanguine Bond (or Vito).  I own both cards, and am using the excuse of no tutors as to why I am not running them.  In retrospect, I need to remedy this.

It is likely that further tinkering will force an edit to this post, and I am okay with that.  All I know is that I won't be breaking apart Mogis again - it is too much of what I enjoy.