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Graaz, Unstoppable Juggernaut

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Graaz, Unstoppable Juggernaut

At a glance

  • Commander: Graaz, Unstoppable Juggernaut
  • Archetype: Colorless equipment voltron / artifact aggro
  • Power tier: mid-high

Cards

The commander (real printed text)

Juggernauts you control attack each combat if able. Juggernauts you control can’t be blocked by Walls. Other creatures you control have base power and toughness 5/3 and are Juggernauts in addition to their other creature types.

Graaz is itself an 8/8. Every other creature you control is set to base 5/3 and becomes a Juggernaut — meaning your army of cheap 1/1 and 2/2 artifact dorks all become 5/3 must-attackers that ignore Walls.

Scout discrepancy (resolved): the assignment paraphrase said the anthem makes creatures “base 4/4.” The real card sets them to 5/3 (and they must attack, can’t be blocked by Walls). Printed text wins — the deck is built around hard-hitting, glass-cannon 5/3 bodies that want to swing every turn, not durable 4/4s. commander_oracle_ok = true.

Gameplan

  1. Flood the board with the cheapest possible artifact creatures (often free: Ornithopter, Phyrexian Walker, Memnite-tier 0–2 drops).
  2. Resolve Graaz. Every one of those chumps is now a 5/3 Juggernaut.
  3. Bolt on cheap equipment for evasion (flying / can’t-be-blocked) so the 5/3s connect, and Graaz himself tramples in as an 8/8.
  4. Close fast before the slow colorless removal suite matters. Ulamog’s Crusher (Annihilator 2) is the colossal top-end that ends games on its own.

The base-5/3 line is the engine: a horde of 5/3s that must attack is a lot of damage, and equipment survives board interaction, so even after a sweep you re-suit a fresh dork and keep swinging.

Key synergies

  • Anthem + go-wide: zero- and one-mana bodies (Ornithopter, Phyrexian Walker, Iron Apprentice, Sparring Construct) are awful alone but become 5/3 Juggernauts under Graaz. Quantity is the point.
  • Affinity fatties: Frogmite () and Myr Enforcer () cost a fraction of their printed price in this artifact-dense shell, adding bodies that are already big before the anthem floor.
  • Evasion equipment: Neurok Hoversail, Cliffhaven Kitesail, Cobbled-tier wings, Fleetfeather Sandals (flying+haste), Skyblinder Staff (+unblockable-by-fliers), Bladed Pinions (flying+first strike). A 5/3 in the air is real damage.
  • Equipment-counts payoff: Golem-Skin Gauntlets gets +1/+0 per Equipment on the creature — stacks with the deep equip chain. Armory of Iroas grows the carrier each attack.
  • Haste: Crashing Drawbridge and Fleetfeather Sandals / Strider-tier let freshly-anthem’d dorks attack the turn they (or Graaz) land.
  • Can’t-be-blocked-by-Walls is a built-in answer to defensive metas.

Role breakdown (counts)

  • Lands — 36: 27 Wastes + 9 colorless utility lands (Darksteel Citadel, Sunscorched Desert, Radiant Fountain, Quicksand, Desert, Ash Barrens, Warped Landscape, Terminal Moraine, Evolving Wilds).
  • Ramp — 10: Sol Ring, Mind Stone, Guardian Idol, Prismatic Lens, Thought Vessel, Fractured Powerstone, Pristine Talisman, Ur-Golem’s Eye, Hierophant’s Chalice, Wayfarer’s Bauble. (Several double as fixing/value; Wayfarer’s Bauble is ramp-as-land.)
  • Card advantage — 9: Skyscanner, Guild Globe, Prophetic Prism, Spare Supplies, Ichor Wellspring, Filigree Familiar, Chromatic Star, Jalum Tome, Magnifying Glass. (Mind Stone also cashes for a card late.)
  • Spot removal / interaction — 9: Scour from Existence (exile any permanent), Unstable Obelisk, Universal Solvent (destroy any permanent), Scrap Compactor, Goblin Firebomb, Perilous Myr (ping/deterrent), Tumble Magnet, Tyrant’s Machine (repeatable tappers), Pierce Strider (reach burn).
  • Mass / pseudo-wipe — 0 dedicated. The colorless common pool has no true board wipe. Compensation: redundant spot removal (above), repeatable tappers (Tumble Magnet, Tyrant’s Machine) to neutralize blockers/threats, evasion to go over boards instead of through them, and inevitability via Ulamog’s Crusher + a recurring 5/3 swarm.
  • Bodies / equipment / wincon — the rest: ~25 artifact creatures (cheap dorks + affinity fat + fliers + value ETBs) and 11 equipment.

Manabase / fixing note

Identity is empty, so the mana is pure . Wastes are the colorless basics (run as many as needed — singleton rules don’t cap basics). The nine utility lands all tap for while adding a relevant rider (Quicksand and Desert kill/deter attackers, Radiant Fountain/Sunscorched Desert nudge life totals, Ash Barrens/Warped Landscape/Terminal Moraine/Evolving Wilds thin/fix). No color fixing is needed because nothing in the deck costs colored mana. Avoided traps: Command Tower / Path of Ancestry / Opal Palace / Commander’s Sphere all produce mana of the commander’s identity — which is nothing here — so they were deliberately excluded as mana sources.

Pilot notes

  • Mulligan for a turn-1 rock (Sol Ring ideal) and at least one cheap body; you want Graaz online turns 4–6 with a board already deployed.
  • Don’t over-commit equipment to one creature into open removal — spread evasion so a single answer doesn’t strand your damage.
  • Remember the downside: under Graaz your creatures must attack and are only 5/3, so they trade down or die to small blockers. Lead attacks with evasive/equipped threats; use Tumble Magnet / Tyrant’s Machine to tap down the blocker that would eat your best carrier.
  • Ulamog’s Crusher is your “I’m not losing the long game” button — Annihilator 2 strips an opponent’s board/lands every swing.
  • Perilous Myr and Pierce Strider give a little reach/deterrence when you can’t profitably attack.

Weaknesses

  • No board wipe and only mid-rate spot removal — a faster combo deck or a go-wider board can outrace or out-stall you.
  • Fragile bodies: base 5/3 dies to any 1-toughness ping that… no, but it chump-trades into 3/3s and dies to red sweepers / -X effects wholesale. A single opposing wrath sets you back hard (mitigated only by cheap rebuild + sticky equipment).
  • Forced attacks can be punished by deathtouch/first-strike blockers and pillow-fort/fog effects.
  • Slow interaction: most colorless-common “destroy” lives on 7-mana sac-artifacts; Scour from Existence (7 mana) is the only instant-speed catch-all.

Decklist

⬇ Download as .txt — paste into Moxfield, Archidekt, or MTG Arena.

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