Head on over to GatheringMagic.com to check out Carlos Gutierrez's article featuring his deck, "Apostles of Athreos." He has the full deck list posted there along with the reasoning that went into the build.
This deck is pretty damned cool. It pushes all of my buttons. There are lots of things to love here. Not the least of which, it breaks the rules.
Lots of Magic cards break the rules. I mean, look at Azusa, Lost but Seeking. It says right on the card that I get to play more than the usual one land per turn. See? Rule-breaking. But Shadowborn Apostle really gets me going.
In a format like Commander where you only get one card with a certain name, Shadowborn Apostle says "nu-uh" to that. Carlos' deck has 35 cards named Shadowborn Apostle.
And what can we do with all of these Shadowborn Apostles?
Summon demons.
Ohmanohmanohman.
And I don't just mean in the "Magic" rules sense of "summoning" from our hands. I mean summon demons, directly out of the library and into play. More than that, it's flavorful summoning, too. We sacrifice not one, not three, but exactly six of our guys to do it. Hex, baby.
How cool is that?
And what demon can with get for our trouble?
Sure, we can get Shadowborn Demon. But the Apostles are a little more flexible than that. (I'm guessing it's all the yoga.) We can get any demon we want.
Carlos stacked his deck with some sweet demons, but the possibilities don't stop there. With so many creatures showing up to our party, I'd be tempted to drop in...
Scoophands! Er, no. Not him. Just checked. He's still banned. :(
Well, well. Look who gets bigger when creatures die.
Most of these guys require the "old school" demon upkeep of sacrificing a creature. Stabby-stabby. Sure, the new demons are a little easier to work with, but for that O.G. flavor, creatures gotta die. But it doesn't mean that we have to be entirely fair, you know.
As long as we are summoning and sacrificing guys left and right, we might as well get some extra mileage out of the deal. How about adding a few cards like this to sweeten the deal? Dictate of Erebos is particularly brutal since it will likely clear the board when you activate your Shadowborn Apostles.
The main problem with this deck - and this is the one that keeps me from building what would otherwise be an awesome deck - is that the deck can feel stale almost immediately. There are some things we can do to give it variety, but getting everything working means that game after game will end up feeling pretty much the same. Well, that, and with Shadowborn Apostle at about a buck each, you're looking at $35 - $40 just to start this madness.
God help you if you want to foil it out.
Which brings me to the choice of Commander for this monster of a deck. Carlos went with Athreos, God of Passage.
I like Athreos in this deck. At three mana, he shows up early enough to get into the first round of Apostle summoning and presents an interesting choice to all involved when the first stabby-stabby-slashy-slashy happens.
Out pops a demon! By the way, do you want to pay 6X3=18 life to keep me from doing this again real soon?
Another Commander choice that works here is Teysa, Orzhov Scion. True, you lose the indestructible nature of the Theros gods by going with her, but you get spirits-a-plenty and a machine gun creature killer on the table.
I'd say that running both in the deck to be able to swap is the way to go. I wouldn't be sorry to draw either Athreos or Teysa during a game.
If the backbone of the deck is Shadowborn Apostle, we are opening ourselves up to a wee bit of trouble. If someone is playing Meddling Mage, we could be in for a lot of boring turns unless we plan ahead.
I expect to see a lot more cards like Nevermore with tuck no longer an option to deal with problematic Commanders. Nevermore just so happens to accidentally be great against a deck that is more than 1/3 the same card.
If we are going to play a deck that depends on summoning Shadowborn Apostle with reckless abandon, we had better devote a chunk of the deck to making sure we can do that, no matter what they throw at us.
The good news is that when black and white get together, there is nothing that they can't handle. White nicely covers black's weaknesses when it comes to getting rid of troublesome enchantments, like Nevermore, Night of Soul's Betrayal, or Leyline of the Void. Incidentally, these are cards that accidentally cripple lots of deck, including this one.
Vindicate, Utter End, Oblation, Return to Dust, and others are just what the doctor ordered. I'd be shooting for 6 - 8 cards that handle problems like this. The Shadowborn Apostles and the demons they summon should be able to take care of just about anything else.
Except combo decks.
But if we were building a deck to handle combo, it wouldn't be some wacky Shadowborn Apostle build that tries to Timmy Summon Demon turn after turn, would it?
In a deck where you have 35 creatures with the same name and low casting cost, cards like Thrumming Stone and Immortal Servitude are explosive. So explosive. Again, it's kind of a one-trick-pony sort of deal once your friends see it happen, but it should make for a memorable game.
And isn't that what we're after? Memorable games.
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