Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper / Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder "What a Wild Pair!" - Plot Twist #17
Welcome back to Plot Twist, the series where we build a Commander deck that looks like it'll tell one kind of story only to throw out a twist for our opponents mid-game. If you're joining us for the first time, welcome! I'd encourage you to check out the previous articles in the series to get a sense of the types of stories we're looking to tell.
Last time, we continued burrowing deeper into the commanders of Bloomburrow with a Mr. Foxglove deck that cared about discarding cards for advantage with effects like madness and flashback. Since we have a moment before the full suite of Duskmourn spoilers are revealed (whew!), I thought I'd take a moment this week to dive into what I consider to be my signature deck, my Secret Commander: Wild Pair deck, and talk about how I use it to play games of Commander that are filled with twists and interesting stories. I was inspired to build this deck by a Saskia Wild Pair Deck that the Spike Feeders have played on their channel before that similarly uses Wild Pair as a value engine for a toolbox deck, but my particular brew focusing on creatures with total power and toughness of 6 or 10. If you're curious about more Secret Commander decks, I'd encourage you to check out our previous Plot Twist Secret Commander deck built around Baru, Fist of Krosa and Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth.
I know that partner commanders, like Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder and Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper, can send out vibes that a deck is very powerful before the game even starts, especially when you're running multiple tutors like I do in this deck. That's why I like to start my Rule Zero conversations by explaining what Wild Pair does and how the deck is build around it; I also like to tell my opponents that when I cast tutors like Demonic Tutor or Vampiric Tutor that I'm almost always going to search up Wild Pair unless I already have it. I've absolutely had to tutor up a land before, and sometimes I have to find a way to save myself or win the game if Wild Pair won't be enough, but generally my opponents walk away from our Rule Zero conversation with a sense of what I'm trying to do. It certainly helps when they see that I'm running creatures like Lupine Prototype and Sheltering Ancient to help the deck do its thing.
Looking at the Typical Bruse Tarl / Ikra Shidiqi Deck
If we quickly pop over to EDHREC to look at the stats for decks running Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder and Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper at the helm, we can see that lots of brewers are leaning heavily into the lifegain theme. This makes a lot of sense as, with both Bruse and Ikra in play, you can quickly gain 20+ life a turn by connecting with your commanders alone. We've experimented with a lifegain deck before on Plot Twist helmed by Sorin of House Markov that utilized mass lifegain to win with Sorin and Aetherflux Reservoir, so we're well-versed on how powerful a lifegain deck can be when left alone to do its thing.
Diving into the cards appearing in most Bruse / Ikra builds, we see Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose and Sanguine Bond are showing up in more than 40% of decks, so it appears many brewers are relying on these classic combo cards to close out games. Cards like Lathiel, the Bounteous Dawn and Celestine, the Living Saint give these decks extra reach that synergizes well with lifegain, while Bolas's Citadel and Well of Lost Dreams make sure that players don't run out of cards while they play. Overall, it seems like Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder and Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper are a powerful and resilient (if not necessarily cEDH-viable) partner pair.
Doing the Twist
As I alluded above, this deck is doing something quite different: it's trying to win by getting Wild Pair in play and then casting cheap creatures with high stats, like Ingot Chewer, Lupine Prototype, and Sheltering Ancient, to search up any other creature with the same total power and toughness from our deck directly into play. That gives this deck a 'toolboxy' feel to it where just about any creature in our deck can help us find the right answer at any given moment, so while Lupine Prototype is unlikely to be able to attack or block, if we cast it from our hand, we can find Ashen Rider, to remove a problematic permanent, Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, to halve the damage we take and double the amount our opponents take, or Kamahl, Heart of Krosa, to give us a free Overrun effect at the start of combat on our turn.
Every creature in the deck has either 6 or 10 total power and toughness, as do Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder and Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper respectively, so the deck threads a delicate line with having a toolbox full of answers without playing out the same way game after game. I stayed away from any sort of combos in the deck for that exact reason, preferring instead to win with combat damage.
Getting Our Secret Commander, Wild Pair
As you can probably expect, we're running Vampiric Tutor and Demonic Tutor because they'll let us go and get any card in our deck for very little mana. They're also a big reason why I think it's important to have a good Rule Zero conversation with the other players in your pod, especially if you've never played against them before. Enlightened Tutor doesn't normally get the same response when you cast it (probably because we have to show our opponents what we got), but it's still a powerful, one-mana, instant-speed tutor that can find a lot of powerful cards in our deck, so I just generally stick to getting Wild Pair with it unless I already have Wild Pair in hand. Those are all the tutors I typically like to name during my Rule Zero conversation, but there are a couple more niche ones the deck runs to help us reliably get Wild Pair most games.
That being said, there are a few more interesting ways for us to find Wild Pair that are worth discussing. Idyllic Tutor is a 'fixed' version of Enlightened Tutor because it costs , is a sorcery, and can only find an enchantment. Idyllic Tutor does put whatever we find directly into our hand, and it can even grab an enchantment creature, like Courser of Kruphix, in a pinch. Sterling Grove can find Wild Pair when we need it or can act as a protection spell to stop spot removal from destroying our enchantments. Sidisi, Undead Vizier is both a great way to turn any of the 'bad' creatures in our deck, like Sheltering Ancient, into any other card in the deck and a creature we can tutor up with Wild Pair because it has 10 total power and toughness. Netherborn Phalanx is probably my favorite of the 'tutors' in our deck, though, because it's kind of like Grim Tutor at home with its transmute ability that can find Wild Pair or any other six-drop in the deck, and it can help us burn our opponents out if the board is choked with creatures. Netherborn Phalanx is exactly the sort of weird card that we love on Plot Twist and is sneakily one of the best cards in the deck for how flexible it is.
Creatures with 10 Total Power and Toughness
As we've talked about above, Lupine Prototype and Sheltering Ancient are fantastic with Wild Pair because they can help us find any other creature in the deck with 10 total power and toughness. I would also add Shakedown Heavy to this list because a 6/4 with menace for only is a fantastic rate. It usually helps us draw extra cards as well because I've found most opponents will let you draw an extra card in the early game rather than take six damage from Shakedown Heavy on turn four. Generally, I don't mulligan to find these cards in my opening hand, but I'm always happy to draw them once I've got Wild Pair in play because they'll let us cast multiple spells in one turn to quickly fill our board with the best creatures from our deck.
On the other end of things are the creatures with 10 total power and toughness that we'll want to cheat into play to help us close out the game. Gisela, Blade of Goldnight is an amazing way to quickly turn the tables because it doubles damage done to all of our opponents and their permanents while halving the damage done to us and our permanents, rounded up. This includes damage our opponents do to each other and can make combat really tricky when it's in play. Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus similarly messes with combat because it doubles the power and toughness of our creatures at the beginning of EACH combat, so it's a great way to discourage our opponents from attacking us as well. Ashen Rider helps us answer any problematic permanent we can target both when it enters the battlefield and when it dies, so it'll often deter people from attacking us after answering a serious threat. Molten Primordial is a sneakily great card because it acts as a triple Threaten, quickly turning potential blockers against our opponents. Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper also technically has 10 total power and toughness, but keep in mind Wild Pair only triggers when you cast creatures from your hand, not the command zone.
Creatures with Six Total Power and Toughness
The other half of our 'toolbox' is creatures with six total power and toughness like our other commander, Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder. We similarly have a couple of creatures we can use to cheaply and reliably trigger Wild Pair. We can cast Ingot Chewer for thanks to how its evoke ability is worded, allowing us to cast multiple creature spells in a single turn. Viashino Sandstalker serves a very interesting role in our deck because it returns itself to our hand at the end of turn, allowing us to recast it and retrigger Wild Pair the next turn. If you don't have a reliable source of card draw, just casting Viashino Sandstalker for a three-mana Wild Pair trigger is a fantastic way to claw out some extra card advantage.
The suite of creatures with six total power and toughness that we can fetch up with Wild Pair really highlights the flexibility of the deck. If we need to hit our land drops, we can get Claim Jumper, Courser of Kruphix, or Radha, Heart of Keld. Emberwilde Captain, Selvala, Explorer Returned, Werewolf Pack Leader, and White Plume Adventurer are all great in the early game and help us get some extra card advantage. When it comes to interaction, Blinding Angel can make an opponent skip their next combat step when it connects, Boromir, Warden of the Tower will help protect our board from a wrath and stop free counterspells, Duplicant will exile an opposing creature and copy its stats, Meteor Golem will destroy any nonland permanent an opponent controls, and Tranquil Frillback can do a variety of things provided we have some spare to put into its enters ability.
But What About Winning the Game, Jeff?
Okay, okay, enough playing with our food. Sometimes we're going to need to win the game. I'm going to go ahead and assume you know how to win the game with regular old combat damage, which this deck does have to do if we're unable to find Wild Pair or it gets exiled, so I'm going to spend this section talking to you about ways to win the game assuming you have Wild Pair in play.
One of my favorite creatures to pair with Wild Pair is Ogre Battledriver because it'll give every creature that enters the battlefield after Ogre Battledriver haste and +2/+0, so we'll be able to swing for massive amounts of damage, especially if I grab a Pathbreaker Ibex or Deathleaper, Terror Weapon next. Odric, Lunarch Marshal is another excellent creature to get because it'll give each creature you control a bunch of keyword abilities. Notably, Viashino Sandstalker and Deathleaper, Terror Weapon both have haste, Blinding Angel has flying, Radha, Heart of Keld has first strike as long as its your turn, and Boromir, Warden of the Tower and Claim Jumper both have vigilance. Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper even has menace! Unfortunately, the way the triggers work, Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder won't grant a creature lifelink and double strike until after Odric's ability triggers. Odric, Lunarch Marshal also triggers on EACH combat step, so your blockers will also have way too many keywords, too. One of the things I absolutely love about playing this deck is that each game will call for different combinations of creatures, so we're almost never ending the game with the same board state.
If we manage to start a Wild Pair chain with a creature that has 10 total power and toughness, like Molten Primordial, I often find myself getting Kamahl, Heart of Krosa or Gisela, Blade of Goldnight first because both tend to make our board quite lethal for at least one other player. If I have a way to give my creatures haste, Scourge of the Throne is another solid choice because we can get another combat phase. Scourge of the Throne also has a fun interaction with Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus because Zopandrel triggers at the beginning of each combat, so your creatures would get to double their power and toughness again at the start of your bonus combat phase. Sire of Insanity is a rather controversial card in the deck that I've often considered cutting because it can make 'feel bad' moments for my opponents, but it's a great way to put my opponents in topdeck mode if I don't quite have enough to finish off the table on my turn. It has absolutely created memorable moments where I've been forced to discard my entire hand to Sire of Insanity only to have an opponent topdeck a way to kill me on their turn.
A Few Additional Twists for Good Measure
Rather than focusing on quirky old cards (though there are plenty of them in this deck) for this week's article, I want to take a moment to highlight a few cards that make interesting stories. Settle the Wreckage is a board wipe that will absolutely blow out one player if they attack with too many creatures, but if they're running a healthy number of basics, you'll end up ramping them a bunch in the process, which has totally come back to bite me before. Similarly, Winds of Abandon can be a one-sided board wipe, but I have had to hesitate before casting it too early against token decks, like Lathril, Blade of the Elves, because I know that ramping them for 10 on turn 5 is unlikely to work out in my favor. I once managed to blow out my friend John's The First Sliver deck with Winds of Abandon because he wasn't running any basic lands in the entire deck, which was an epic memory in and of itself, the second time it happened to him with a Settle the Wreckage, he went back and rebuilt his manabase. Those are exactly the sorts of moments I live for in a game of Commander.
Seht's Tiger is another card that feels tailor-made for this deck because it has six total power and toughness, flash and will give us protection from the color of our choice until end of turn. If you've never stopped a lethal attack from a mono-green player with Seht's Tiger and then untapped and won on your next turn then I would encourage you to try tinkering around with it. If I could reasonably run Dolmen Gate in every deck I own, I totally would because it lets me attack recklessly and occasionally get blown out for doing so. Selvala, Explorer Returned looks like a group hug card until you draw a card and get four green mana, then it'll help you get way ahead of your opponents. Lastly, I want to call out Hall of Heliod's Generosity because it's Academy Ruins for enchantments, which is crucial for a deck built entirely around one six-mana green enchantment.
Here's the full decklist for you to peruse:
Secret Commander: Wild Pair with Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper / Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder
View on ArchidektBuy this decklist from TCGplayer
View this decklist on Archidekt
Roll the Credits
I hope you enjoyed reading the latest edition of Plot Twist featuring Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder and Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper. Next time you sit down for a game of Commander, see what sort of plot twists you can add to take the game's narrative in a new direction.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on today's deck and what cards could find a home in it in the comments below or on Archidekt. The Maybeboards of my decklists are always filled with cards I thought could work but didn't make the final decklist.
You can check out my other articles here or see what decks I'm currently playing here. I recently took apart two decks (my Isshin, Two Heavens as One Deck and my Killian, Ink Duelist Reanimator Deck) because they no longer sparked joy, and I built a Karador, Ghost Chieftan Cycling-Reanimator Deck that has been a complete blast to play. I'm constantly toying with new ideas like this Colorless Combo deck and would love to hear your thoughts on them there.
Stay tuned to see what other twists and turns are headed your way in the next edition of Plot Twist.
