Casting Big Stuff with Glarb, Calamity's Augur in Commander | Article by Abe Sargent (2024)

Hello awesome MTG/Commander fans of kitchen table play! I hope your day is going super amazingly well, and if not yet, it will be! Today is my second deck around a card from Bloomburrow. Last week I tried a new take on my real life Vhati il-Dal Golgari deck in mono-black killing one toughness dorks in Maha, Its Feathers Night. (Check it out here - Removing One Toughness Dorks with Maha in Commander | Article by Abe Sargent (coolstuffinc.com)). This next one is one of my favorite gold Commanders from the set, and it made last week's Top Ten by me called Glarb, Calamity's Augur!

This three mana, three color, Sultai colored 2/4 with a blockable size and deathtouch to force folks to attack elsewhere. Then you can tap it for no mana to surveil 2. Then you can look at and drop lands and cast spells with a cost of four or more from your library's top, and thus the surveil here when that happens is great. I want to drop him turn 3, and then start four cost stuff the next turn. Ready?

Mana, Land, Ramp

Since Glarb costs three, I am running the 1 drop mana dorks that tap for other colors, and then a bunch of two cost stuff like Farseek and Sakura-Tribe Elder as well as dorks like Sylvan Caryatid to ensure droppage turn three or earlier. Enter the flying one-drop above or the Halfling. The three-drop rare legendary dork rocks a 1/2 body and then the ability to drop two extra lands, ideally from your library. I am also running Courser of Kruphix and Oracle of Mul Daya to drop extra lands from your library as well as reveling those too as backup Commanders.

The Temple cycle taps for two colors and ETBs with a scry 1, like Temple of Deceit. The dual land cycle of Hedge Maze et al taps for both colors and ETBs with surveil 1 this time. That's great since they are free ways to push your library forward.

Now let's finish with this win-con land and artifact! The land taps for colorless and with four mana to make a dork at instant speed unblockable. Love it loads here in a deck going big. The artifact costs four, you can play your lands from the graveyard and then also tap and cast a nonland permanent from your graveyard if you haven't played anything else, so it's a bit of a nicer sorcery speed recursion. It's great here!

Pricy Stuff

Now let's turn to what our deck is built around! Classic Avenger of Zendikar ETBS with a horde of 0/1 Green Plants equal to your land count and then landfall pumps them into perma boosts of the +1/+1 counter kind. Rampaging Baloths (another classic) has trample and an on-curve 6/6 body. Then it's landfall makes a fun 4/4 beater, landfall fun times here!

Check out this Golgari colored legendary pair that each cost six! The former is a vanilla 18/6 to kill in a few hits but needs evasion to get past chump blockers. The latter one just printed in this set too has a vigilance, and reach body to swing and keep back for blocking. It's got size equal to your land count for swinging. Then an ETB trigger to mill four and return all lands tapped like a free Splendid Reclamation.

Now let's finish with two Multanis. Multani, Maro-Sorcerer costs six and has power and toughness equal to the hand count among all players, so that's a fast win con and then shroud to keep it safe. It used to be a multiplayer classic when printed and was heavily played, but no more, run it! The next printed version of the character Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar costs the same, has size equal to the land count with reach and trample instead of vigilance. You can self recur him with two mana in your graveyard with self-bouncing two lands.

Synergies and Winning Conditions

Now let's turn to synergies and backup winning conditions outside of the red zone. The nine mana Liliana ultimate is first, a sorcery, nets you all dead stuff from everyone to your battlefield to swing and win fast. The two mana fewer seven cost but you'll pay nine will search for two dorks, drop them to the battlefield, and hopefully you can win fast.

Now let's turn to fast win cons in the red zone your foe may have missed. This two set of Overruns on sticks. The eight-drop has a smaller 5/5 haste body, with an ETB trigger to grow your team in size to the team's size, and then give it trample too. The six-drop has a smaller 3/3 size and gives the team trample and boost in size equal to your biggest powered dork. Love this win con fast here loads.

Let's finish this section with recursion! The three-drop 2/4 Six has an attack trigger to mill three and then return a land to your hand. Then you can discard a land to cast a dead permanent from your graveyard for its mana cost. Muldrotha, the Gravetide can drop one land and cast one permanent of each type from my graveyard each turn. Most of my nonlands are dorks, but we do have some key artifact and enchantment to recur when killed too. I am also running Timeless Witness to trigger my stuff.

Answers

Now let's turn to answers, ideally in my casting cost of four+. Only Beast Within and Heroic Intervention aren't. The first counter spell on a dork costs exactly four mana in my Simic colors is here. It's a 2/2 body. My favorite counter on a stick Draining Whelk is also here to make a big flying beater! The five cost counter anything and steal it if it's an artifact or dork is next. It's pretty spicy from where I am sitting, check out Dismiss and Cryptic Command here too to draw while castable with Gharb.

Now let's turn to pinpoint removal, like the uncommon black duo of Shriekmaw and Ravenous Chupacabra. The evoke costs two, five naturally with a 3/2 evasive feared body to Terror something on arrival. You can cast it for either on the top of your library. Then the four-drop is next with a 2/2 body Murdering anything, without restrictions like non-Black or non-artifact. I also tossed in Dalek Drone.

Living Death will force everyone to swap their graveyards with their battlefields. This is mass removal and mass recursion in one spell package. This is where the surveil stuff from your leader can turn a losing situation into a winning one. I wanted a Beast Within on a stick, so enter the seven cost uncommon artifact Meteor Golem to destroy anything save for lands. This will answer everything you care too, from planeswalkers to artifacts. Love it as an emergency release valve.

Card Draw

Now let's turn to card draw! This is boring but important because we need to draw those cards. I tossed in the evoking three cost two card draw Blues that cost at least four mana for casting from your library. The colorless take on Mulldrifter costs two more, and then has +2/+2 size and annihilator 1. We have so many lands getting played here I wanted a landfall off of any card I draw. There is a machine that costs five Simic colored mana on a smaller 3/3 body. You'll also gain a life with card draw too.

Now let's turn to creature casts. Beast Whisperer will turn creature casts into cards drawn, and there is no break on there. Lifecrafter's Bestiary also turns critter casts into cards but requires a Green mana for each one. Love the upkeep scry one for free to make sure we are casting those goods.

Let's finish with this Green pair! The uncommon six-drop modal dork/land is first. She costs six, on a 3/3 body and then on arrival to the battlefield sacs another dork and draws equal to its power and then you'll also gain some life as well! The enchantment costs just two, you draw two more in your draw step, and then put two back, unless you spend four life for each card drawn. It's here to organize your draws and draw what cannot be cast for free or set up your first two cards cast with Glarb each turn. I also tossed in Sensei's Divining Top!

Here's my deck:

There we are! Since I have loads of pricey things, I have loads of ramp there, almost 20 cards, from Cultivate to Explosive Vegetation, plus 38 lands and three modal spells. It's pretty fun in the sun from where I am running to. I think you'll like this loads! Check it out and let me know!

TAGS articles, magic, casual, edh, commander, mtg, abe sargent, top ten, decklist, bloomburrow, 08132024, glarb calamity's augur