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Outlaws of Thunder Junction bringsMagic: The Gatheringto the Wild West. You’ll need quick wits and quick reflexes to survive this set as it beckons Combining six shooters and repeating rifles with magic spells and summoned creatures is one surefire way to create a party, and the Quick Draw Commander deck aims to win your next game night.
With Quick Draw, you’ll be casting multiple spells on a single turn for truly explosive rounds. You’ll need both cunning and patience as you wait for the right moment to unleash your instants and sorceries in a climactic showdown. If you’re ready to saddle up, Quick Draw is waitin’.
Curse of the Swine
Lock and Load
Mountain (13)
Quick Draw Commander Deck Themes
The two key themes for Quick Draw are represented right on the boxtopper commander,Stella Lee, Wild Card(who we’ll talk more about later). The first andbiggest theme of Quick Draw is instants and sorceries. The deck is mostly composed of instants and sorceries, and most of the cards that aren’t either an instant or sorcery have abilities which look for those two card types (Guttersnipe,Storm-Kiln Artist, andArcane Bombardmentare but a few examples).
But simply casting a lot of instants and sorceries won’t necessarily give you the win. That’s where the secondary theme comes in, which is toplay more than a single spell on a single turn—sometimes quite a few more. Stella, for example, wants three or more spells cast on a single turn before she’ll start copying them for free, while Eris only starts making 4/4 Dragon Elementals after you’ve cast at least one spell.
With all these spells being flung around, cards likeElemental EruptionandMizzix’s Masterycan make for some truly explosive turns. Juststack up a few cantrips like Portent and Opt, thencast Elemental Eruptionandcopy it with Stella. Now you’ve got an army of Dragon Elementals at your beck and call.
And while you’re waiting for those cards to turn up,Talrand,Young Pyromancer,Murmuring Mystic, andThird Path Iconoclastwill keep pumping out creature tokens every time your cast an instant or sorcery, slowly growing a token army.
Your token armycan be a real boon in Quick Draw, offeringboth a defensive and offensive threatjust for playing a bunch of low-cost instants and sorceries.
Quick Draw has three potential commanders for you to choose from.Stella Lee, Wild Cardis the boxtopper andfits best with Quick Draw’s themes. She’ll help you find extra cards and copy instants and sorceries for some truly explosive turns.
Second isEris, Roar of the Storm. Although significantly harder to cast,Eris offers more consistent power than Stellaby turning spells into 4/4 Dragon Elementals as soon as you cast more than one on a single turn. And since so many of your cards either draw more cards or have plot, it’s not hard to start stacking spells.
Copying spells isn’t the same as casting them. Copies of spells go directly on the stack and don’t trigger abilities that look for cast spells.
Finally, there’sKaza, Roil Chaser. A good card in her own right, Kazawants to be in a deck with lots of wizardsto get the most out of her activated ability. Quick Draw only has seven wizards, which aren’t enough to justify Kaza’s presence.
For this deck,stick with Stella Lee as the commander, but feel free to swap her for Eris if you feel Stella doesn’t offer enough power.
Quick Draw Commander Deck Analysis
Out of the box, Quick Draw is a pretty good Commander deck. There are a lot of cards that care about instants and sorceries, and30 combined instants and sorceriesis a decent number to satisfy them. That said, it could use a few more, preferably of the instant-speed variety.
For a deck that still needs to attack to win, Quick Draw hasfar too few board sweepersto shake up a stale board state. Blue and red don’t offer the best sweepers in Magic, but they have enough to get the job done. Quick Drawcould do with another counterspell or two(even though nobody likes them), and38 mana might be one or two too manyfor a deck with a relatively cheap mana curve.
There are a few underperforming cards in Quick Draw that we could cut to make room for some budget upgrades.Here are the recommended exclusions.
Island
Mountain
PteramanderandElectrostatic Fieldare both decent enough creatures, but they’ll often become useless in the late game. Cut them for some more helpful critters that remain useful no matter what stage of the game they’re drawn.
Windfallis a great card in duels, but in a larger multiplayer environment, it often will help your opponents more than it helps you.Midnight Clockoffers a similar reset to Windfall, but it takes too long for that reset to happen.
Winged Bootsare simply worse than Lightning Greaves or Swiftfoot Boots for keeping your commander alive, and Quick Draw isn’t too concerned with its commander being the killer.
Kaza, Roil Chaseris better suited to a wizard deck, so she gets axed. TheIslandandMountainare both perfectly fine lands, but Quick Draw can probably get away with 36 lands given its mana curve and how many cards will help churn through the deck by drawing.
Quick Draw Commander Deck Budget Upgrades.
As mentioned, Quick Draw is pretty good out of the box, but a few key cards will help kick it up to the next level without breaking the bank. These upgrades aim to deliver a few moreinstant-speed answers, atutor, someon-brand creatures, aboard sweeper, anda late-game kill card.
Reason
Curious Homunculus / Voracious Reader
This one-eyed creature is a far better choice than Kaza. Once you’ve got enough instants and sorceries in your graveyard, Curious Homunculus turns into a Voracious Reader thatmakes all your instants and sorceries cheaper and is a decent threat.
Blasphemous Act
Perhaps red’s best and board sweeper, Blasphemous Act is a great way to clear the board of unwanted pests. It’s not always going to eliminate the worst threat on the table, but you’ll have other spells for those.
Candlekeep Inspiration
Quick Draw needed another kill card, and Candlekeep Inspiration is that card. Once your token generators have created an army, turn them into 11/11 behemoths ready to stomp all over the competition.
Counterspell
The blue answer card. Sure, nobody likes playing against it, but Counterspell is the best way to keep an Eldrazi from ruining your day (well, most Eldrazi at least).
Rapid Hybridization
Pongify’s somewhat more lizard-like twin. It does essentially the same thing, which is great since Pongify is one of blue’s best removal spells. It’s cheap, and it works. Use it.
Slickshot Lockpicker
A new addition from Outlaws of Thunder Junction, Slickshot here isa great way to set up a multiple spell countwhile re-using what you’ve already got in your graveyard. The perfect addition to Quick Draw’s posse.
Solve the Equation
A tutor is just what Quick Draw needed. This can guarantee your ability to cast more than a single spell on one turn, and it triggers everything that looks for cast sorceries. An absolute must-add.
Wizards of Thay
These wizards mean business. Not only do theymake your spells cheaper, but they also let youcast your sorceries at instant speed. This will let you whipcrack your spells in response to your opponents rather than forcing you to build a stack on your own turn.
