Welcome back, and welcome to the first deck of the semester! Horobi, Death’s Wail was the first Commander deck I ever made, and is debatably still the most powerful. It was a card that I found in my binder and read the rules text of one day while I was looking around for ideas, and I honestly couldn’t believe my eyes. In many respects, the only reason it hasn’t been banned yet is because it can affect your own creatures too (if you aren’t careful).

Horobi is a great card to start on because of his simplicity. His CMC is relatively low, meaning he can be cast repeatedly with relative ease (in case your opponent destroys him right away). His ability, Flying, is something we haven’t touched on, but it’s super easy to understand: unless the opponent has a creature with Flying or Reach, Horobi’s attacks can’t be blocked and they go straight to the player.

But the most broken thing about this card is the ability just above its flavor text. “Whenever a creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, destroy that creature.” I haven’t given a ton of context to the absolutely  vast array of ways to destroy creatures, but the majority can cost anywhere from 3 to 7 mana. However, what makes Horobi so incredible is that ANY CARD that says “target creature” in the rules text will destroy the creature it’s targeting. Horobi, in essence, can make a card like Disfigure, which would be practically useless in any other context, into an incredibly-cheap instant-kill.

Magic: the Gathering has an incredibly long list of black-colored spells that have the same or similar effects as this one. They’re all very cheap, very useless, and are practically 90% of all cards in all packs, since they’re mostly of the Common rarity. But Horobi turns these blunt knives into poison daggers in an instant (pun intended).

Another beautiful part of Horobi’s ability is that, not only are these cards cheap in terms of mana, but this is also one of the cheapest decks to make in terms of monetary value. Once you’ve bought your roughly $2 Horobi, you can literally throw in anything that says “target creature” on it. All of the instants in my deck are bottom-of-the-barrel Commons, and in the past players have actually laughed at me for casting them before realizing what Horobi’s ability is.

There are a lot of other options for killing creatures besides instants. Artifacts, a normally harmless tool for boosting your own creatures, can instead be turned against your opponent with the greatest of ease. Take Liquimetal Coating for example.

This card can be used once per turn to kill whatever stands in your way, simply by way of the rules text saying “target permanent”. Like the instants, there is an unfathomable amount of common, cheap artifacts out there that can cut through your opponent’s defenses like tissue paper.

But the most gimmicky, complicated, and diabolical thing I’ve ever done with this deck is yet to come. In the past, when I’ve first unloaded this on my friends, they’ve actually outright quit the game. Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce to you: the infinite one-mana killer. Tetzimoc, Primal Death.

Absolutely nothing about this card is important except for the second line of rules text. What makes Tetzimoc hilariously evil is that ability: pay one mana, show your opponent the card, and put a counter on target creature. Key words “target creature”. When coupled with Horobi, this card goes from an overexpensive and drawn-out killing method to an automatic win, since you can get rid of as many creatures as you want to let Horobi hit the opponent in the face (as long as you have the mana!) You never even need to cast Tetzimoc: as long as he stays in your hand, there is almost nothing your opponent can do to stop it.

But sometimes Horobi alone isn’t enough to take out your opponent. Sometimes they have ways of clearing him off of the board quickly, or you don’t have enough mana to take care of all of their creatures with Tetzimoc. Not to worry: this deck comes prepared for that scenario too. As long as Horobi has taken out a fair number of creatures, you can play something like Mortivore and make another unstoppable wall of a creature.

In other words, if you’ve killed (for example) fifteen of your opponent’s creatures, this little guy enters as a 15/15 for only 4 mana. He can take away almost half of your opponent’s life in a single hit. And there are plenty more cards that work almost the same way, bulking up your creatures based on how many of your opponent’s you’ve killed.

The last card I want to mention before wrapping this up is an enchantment called Grave Betrayal.

Granted, it’s a little costly, but that only means it works best late in the game. This little gem allows you to bring to your side of the battlefield any opponent’s creature that dies (It’s a bit hard to read, but unfortunately this was the best shot of it I could get). If your opponent casts a super-powerful 15/15 monster like your Mortivore, you can target that creature with Horobi and take it for yourself with Grave Betrayal.

 

Well, that’s all for this week. Horobi, Death’s Wail has been one of my most reliable Commanders when I’m on a losing streak, and probably one of the best I’ve ever made. But next week I’ll be turning up the heat a little with my favorite red-colored deck: Krenko, Mob Boss. He’s got an army of goblins to sweep in and overwhelm whoever you’re facing – almost as soon as the game starts.

See you next week!