In the Deck Box #3: Build a Deck Challenge Winner!

After receiving a handful of entries and some pretty awesome decklists, a winner has finally been chosen. The decks were graded on a few subjective criteria including theme, originality, and overall flare. For those of you who are just tuning in, the Build a Deck Challenge was a mini contest intended to get members of Casual Net involved in EDH/Commander and build a deck that would show off their creativity. The winner of our first MTG Casual Net Challenge is..... drum roll*.... Michael Hood-Julien! Congratulations! You've won this entire spread on the MTG Casual Net Blog, an interview Q&A, and 10 packs of Dark Ascension. I'll be sending these out to you once the set is released. Again, a big thanks to Debbie Barbour Freeland for providing this prize package.

The general of this master piece is none other than Oros, the Avenger. Here's the decklist; check it out! The deck features a ton of huge creatures that have a huge impact on the board and has a ton of proactive spells that help keep up the beats and defeat opponents quickly. Enough hearing about the deck from me, let's see what our designer has to say about it.

'When I started this challenge, I knew automatically that I wanted to play White. It is one of the more versatile colors in the game, as it imposes strong late-game threats and efficient removal. I wanted to try the popular Voltron-build, using good equipment to attach to my commander to get in for general damage. Red and Black became easy accessories to this build. Red assists White to deal more general damage quickly and complementing the Voltron style of play. Red generates a very aggressive-style of play, and I thought it would be fun to play a combatant feeling deck. Black allowed not only to help control the board, but more so to develop a reanimation sub-theme.

Of the three commanders to build from, Kaalia of the Vast seemed to me the least formidable general and restricted the user to playing angels, dragons, and demons to be more useful. I didn't want to restrict myself creatively like that. Tariel, Reckoner of Souls is a good general, but when I compared Tariel  to Oros, it seemed obvious to me which would be better to build with. Not only did Oros have better power and toughness, but it had a triggered ability that could easily wipe my opponents' board, making it a great choice for an aggressive Voltron-Reanimation deck.'

The most notable interactions Michael includes are:
-Oros, the Avenger + Sword of Kaldra = Exile all Nonwhite creatures from the Battlefield
-Double-Strike (from True Conviction/Mirran Crusader/Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion) + any Combat Damage Trigger (Protection Swords/Oros's ability) = extra Triggers
-Karmic Guide/Reveillark Combo
-Sun Titan/Animate Dead synergy
-Vicious Shadows + Wrath effects = lots of dead players

Again, congratulations to Michael and we'll have a follow up article very soon. Until the next Casual Net Challenge!

First Casual Net Hall of Famer: Michael Hood-Julien

Interested in more Magic content? Check out every series on the MTG Casual Network Archive!

-David J.

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