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Jolene, Plundering Pugilist

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Jolene, Plundering Pugilist

At a glance

  • Commander: Jolene, Plundering Pugilist
  • Colors: Gruul
  • Archetype: Gruul Treasure aristocrats / burn
  • Power tier: mid-high

Cards

Commander

Jolene, Plundering Pugilist — , Legendary Creature — Human Mercenary (2/2)

Whenever you attack with one or more creatures with power 4 or greater, create a Treasure token. , Sacrifice a Treasure: Jolene deals 1 damage to any target.

Confirmed against printed oracle text (commander_oracle_ok=true). The scout’s paraphrase was accurate. One important nuance the description glossed: the ping costs in addition to sacrificing a Treasure. It is NOT a free Treasure-sink. Sacking a Treasure for its own mana nets you back one of those pips, so each ping effectively costs ~ plus the Treasure. That means Treasures are the fuel and the throttle — we want a wide Treasure engine and enough lands/ramp to actually float the per shot when we want to chain pings.

Gameplan

Grindy Gruul midrange that turns a fast, beefy board into both ramp and repeatable reach. The loop:

  1. Deploy a power-4+ body (we run many at 3-4 MV plus pump/fight spells that push small creatures to 4).
  2. Attack → Jolene coins a Treasure every combat.
  3. Sink Treasures into Jolene to snipe blockers, kill X/1-X/3 utility creatures, and chip faces.
  4. The same Treasures ramp into bigger threats and, ultimately, into an X-burn finisher (Fireball / Disintegrate / Kaervek’s Torch / Rolling Thunder) for the kill.

Inevitability comes from the recurring ping + a deep burn suite, not from one alpha strike. Even through a board stall, Jolene plus Treasures plus a fistful of impulse-drawn burn grinds opponents out.

Key synergy lines

  • Power-4 payoffs as ramp: Ilysian Caryatid, Raucous Audience, and Whisperer of the Wilds all double their mana when you control a power-4+ creature — which is exactly the board state Jolene wants anyway. Free upside, no extra deckbuilding cost.
  • Treasures are artifacts → Welding Sparks deals 3 + artifacts you control damage. A few floating Treasures turn it into a 5-7 damage removal spell.
  • Fight spells make power-4 attackers: Prizefight, Pit Fight, Hunt the Weak, Epic Confrontation, etc. pump-and-fight, doubling as removal AND as a way to push a 3-power body to 4 for the Jolene trigger. Prizefight even makes its own Treasure.
  • Sacrifice-burn that loves Treasure tokens / spare bodies: Mudbutton Torchrunner and Martyr of Ashes give a pseudo-wipe and reach. Reckless Barbarian / Jaded Sell-Sword feed the aristocrats angle.
  • Impulse draw keeps gas flowing: Reckless Impulse, Wrenn’s Resolve, Seize Opportunity, etc. — Treasure mana lets you actually cast the exiled cards before they expire.

Role breakdown (with counts)

  • Lands — 37. 10 Forest, 10 Mountain, Heap Gate (taps for any + makes Treasures), Command Tower, Path of Ancestry, Painted Bluffs, Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse, and a stack of RG duals (Rugged Highlands, Timber Gorge, Gruul Guildgate, Bleeding Woods, Highland Forest, Wooded Ridgeline, Gongaga, Los Diablos Missile Base, Savage Mansion, Racers’ Ring).
  • Ramp — 9. Llanowar Elves, Elvish Mystic, Ilysian Caryatid, Raucous Audience, Whisperer of the Wilds, Rampant Growth, Cultivate, Kodama’s Reach, Glittermonger. (Deliberately held at 9 — the Treasure-on-ETB creatures below add de facto acceleration so over-ramping would dilute payoffs.)
  • Card advantage — 10. Seize the Spoils, Big Score, Unexpected Windfall, Pirate’s Pillage, Reckless Impulse, Wrenn’s Resolve, Burning Curiosity, Seize Opportunity, Experimental Synthesizer, plus the impulse-draw bodies (Irascible Wolverine, Alania’s Pathmaker, Tuskeri Firewalker count as creature-side value).
  • Spot removal / interaction — 11. Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Incinerate, Lightning Strike, Searing Spear, Volcanic Hammer, Skewer the Critics, Open Fire, Brimstone Volley, Carbonize, Welding Sparks (all “any target” so they double as reach). Plus the fight package (Prizefight, Go for Blood, Pit Fight, Prey Upon, Epic Confrontation, Hunt the Weak) for creature-only answers and trigger-enabling.
  • Mass / pseudo-wipe — 2. Martyr of Ashes (X to each non-flyer) and Mudbutton Torchrunner (death → 3 to any target). Red gives access; kept lean because Jolene pings + abundant spot burn already control the board.
  • Win condition — X-burn finishers + Treasure-fueled Jolene. Fireball, Rolling Thunder, Disintegrate, Kaervek’s Torch. Treasure ramp makes these lethal in the mid-late game; Jolene’s repeatable ping closes out the last few points.
  • Payoffs / Treasure engine — the rest. Patron of the Arts, Plundering Pirate, Brazen Freebooter, Jewel Thief, Flamekin Gildweaver, Professional Wrestler, Rapacious Dragon, Contract Hero, Hoarding Ogre, Redcap Thief, Reckless Barbarian, Jaded Sell-Sword, Plundering Barbarian, Goldvein Pick, Prying Blade, Young Red Dragon // Bathe in Gold, Grabby Giant // That’s Mine, Crack Open, Smashing Success.

Pilot notes

  • Don’t fire Jolene at nothing. Each ping is -equivalent + a Treasure; bank Treasures until you can convert them into removal value or lethal. The exception: ping a blocker pre-combat to push damage through.
  • Sequence the power-4 trigger first. Attack to bank a Treasure before you start spending — every combat is a free token.
  • Hold one fight spell for problem blockers, and remember most of your burn is “any target,” so a removal-light hand can still pivot to face damage for the win.
  • Welding Sparks and the X-burn want a Treasure pile — don’t crack every Treasure for mana the turn before you’d cast them.

Weaknesses

  • No true board wipe beyond two pseudo-wipes; a flyer-heavy or go-wide token deck can race us. Mitigation: Treasure ramp into early X-burn and prioritizing tempo via Jolene pings on key creatures.
  • Treasure mana is “use it or lose it” pressure — sacrificing Treasures for Jolene depletes your ramp, so you’re constantly choosing between board control and acceleration.
  • Artifact/enchantment hate, and Treasure removal (rare in commons), can sputter the engine. We pack Crack Open / Smashing Success / Plundering Barbarian for our own artifact answers.
  • Spot-removal on Jolene turns off the recurring ping; the deck still has a real beatdown plan and X-burn, but loses inevitability. Recast her when feasible.

Decklist

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

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