Is This The Most Challenging Commander To Build Around?
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- Опубліковано 21 січ 2025
- Trying to make a playable deck with Sharkey, Tyrant of the Shire ain't easy.
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Sharkey is the fake name Saruman uses after his defeat. In the book he invaded the Shire after Sauron is destroyed and temporarily builds a sort of criminal organisation there. I assume that the flavour behind his ability comes from him “ruining” the lands of the Shire for the hobbits.
Thought it was odd he was an avatar lmao
@@Axelovskji after gandalf destroys his staff and removes his powers, he mercifully lets him go. The fellowship then sees him later on the road, and pippen offers some pipe weed, which sauroman basically takes and insults pippen for good measure. But this gives him the idea to take over the shire bc they have a lucrative business that isnt being capitalized on, so grima wormtongue and sauroman travel to the land of the hobbits, bringing with them industrialization and humans to enforce his rules. When the fellowship returns, they find a pseudo-communist society in place of the wonderful sleepy realm they remember. Frodo then rallies the shirefolk to him, and with the help of some characters from the first book and also the Took family (who resisted the regime the whole time) takes back the shire. In the end, frodo still wanted to show him mercy and was ready to let him go, when he began to take his anger out on grima, who promptly stabs him to death. Its a really undervalued portion of the story, and a part Tolkien said was very important to the entire narritive
This is a great part of the story of the Lord of the Rings, the hobbits return from their grand adventure and quest destroying the Ring. And then have to save their people and homeland! Glad to see some of that story in the cards, as they decided to completely cut it out of the films... much like they did with Tom Bombadil.
You can enchant your opponents lands with auras that give them benifits when they use that ability. Like Underworld Connections, Chamber of Manipulation, Sunken Field, Noxious Field, Skygames, and Caustic Tar. Then you could add things that untap your commander over and over. That's all the ideas i have on it for now tho
And again, the question arises: if you're going to do that, why not just put them on your own lands?
@@MeZimmbecause you can untap your commander easier than you lands. At least, in Dimir.
@@MeZimm it's WAY easier to untap a creature then a land
Man, you're Incredible. I can't imagine how much effort you put in it. It is very unique build. Keep on doing such content.
On the note of sacrificing Sharkey a bunch, Candlekeep Sage would be a great include letting you draw 2 and fetch a land whenever you do
This is the type of content I subbed for, super creative and challenging - kudos Demo for this really tough deck challenge!
Sac effects, being common among lands, opens some interesting options... Like Helm of the Host, or Nim Deathmantle. Combined with payoffs for death triggers, ETB effects, and cards exiting the graveyard, and suddenly, you're building a rather interesting value engine that most people are perfectly happy leaving alone, before you go crazy with it.
You can't respond to a land ETBing unless they trigger an effect, and by that point the land would have already left the battlefield. Unless you can get your opponent to willingly give you lands/sac outlets it won't work
Hence, the clone effect combined with the reanimation effect. it leaves a few windows, and gets kinda mana hungry, I'll grant that, but it leaves a Sharkey in play, allowing you to get everything running without allowing your opponent to take it away from you, without having an outlet to sac their own lands. Brass squire almost becomes a must-have to keep this from needing eldrazi-level amounts of mana, or something like Black Market to be able to keep it fed, but once the engine is running, it seems like it could do some clever stuff.
It's bad, and clunky. don't get me wrong, but it would be one of the few not-boring ways to setup Torment of Hailfire as a wincon, at least...
What a neat idea. Your deck brewing skills never cease to amaze, Demo
Why are you fixated on donating the lands instead of trading them? Gauntlets of Chaos would be a great build-around here.
You could donate a Griffin canyon and a mutavault or a faceless haven so you can make Sharkey all creature types and then use the griffin canyon to target itself and get infinitely big.
This is the way. Then you can essence harvest to kill an opponent and have infinite life. Or maybe extra turns spells for extra combat steps
that's genius man. i love it.
You could run cards like Genju of the Falls and Corrupted Zendikon, and then use creature exchanging cards instead, giving them the lands you want them to control and giving you their best creature. You could also run Auras that enchant lands to give them activated abilities, like Chamber of Manipulation to avoid the exchange theme entirely but still get use out of your commanders ability stealing.
If you donate the lands, then you can copy Sharkey using Helm of the Host or such to get multiple uses of those lands
Black now has the best hate bears in the format; BowMasters, Oppo agent, and Dauthi voidwalker. You also get Notion thief. There are some great stax in dimir also; Chains of Mephistopheles, Neither Void, the discard effects, dystopia, Narset, back to basics, Pendril mists, parallax wave. And you have all the colorless hate pieces (and there are infinite actual Brutal ones.).
Your commander is a stax piece that might occasionally give you some proactive value. Then get the best interaction in blue and pretty decent interaction in black.
This is a control deck. It’s the only way to make the commander make any sense at all.
You also have the best win conditions in the game. Hoarding Broodlord tutoring saw in half making two more tutors; one for sacrifice the other for Peer into the abyss, Doomsday, Thassa’s Oracle, consult and tainted pact. 🤷♂️
It’s a bad cedh deck or an awful casual deck. I guess if you wanna be a pub stomper maybe this guy is for you 🤷♂️
Just put together a deck built around Swindlers Scheme with effects like lavinia to stop my opponents from getting a free spell and other cards to play with my top deck to counter their spells. Using zur as the commander to get it out each game. Also using cool cards like suspend, release to the wind, and soul partition. I think its the coolest most unique deck idea ive had in awhile. Looking forward to play testing it this weekend!
Thats a sick idea, neat stuff!
Building around him will be tough and i love this video concept. I grabbed two of them, one for my anowon deck as a fun rogue to add, and second is going into kenrith which is a mazes end deck.
In my regular commander group, Sharkey is basically a vanilla creature, we're all into basic lands here
I built a Sharkey deck, but I'm not sure it's very playable yet. One thing I put in you didn't mention was Griffin Canyon; it has a non-mana ability that untaps a griffin and gives +1/+1 to that griffin. So if you're able to change Sharkey's creature type and give Griffin Canyon to any opponent, you can give Sharkey infinite power and toughness.
I would probably use recursion effects like Endless Whisper and do a UB Group Slug effect with him utilizing sacs.
Question... if you turn a creature into a land with imprisoned in the moon, can you use the activated abilities of said creature?
Here's what I came up with while watching your video to see if we have the same conclusion or not. Land auras that give lands abilities. Caustic tar gives the land the ability to tap to make a player lose 3 life. Chamber of manipulation allows you to discard to gain control of somebody until end of turn. Mystic might allows it to tap to give +2+2 but it is cumulative upkeep. Noxious fields does a tap pestilence effect. Skygames let's him tap to give flying sunken field let's him tap to counter a spell unless they pay 1. Underworld connection let's it tap and pay a life to draw a card. Then have a bunch of untapped stuff. Idk if it's good, but its an option
interesting but why not just cast that on your own lands? most untappers in blue are for all permanents.
@edhdeckbuilding for the politics of giving other players useful enchantments? I dont know, this commander is rough lol
@@toewoei thought of that first too but then his cancelling effect nullifies the politics angle too since your opponent doesn't actually get to use the enchantment's ability anyways. Enchanting their lands instead of your own just gives your opponents more incentive to kill off your commander so they get the benefit which leaves you in a worse position than if you'd just enchanted your own land and there's no real upside for you at any point.
The slow fetches could work as a donatable land that they can’t respond to immediately
Dimir stax with sharkey sounds really nasty tho, just slow everyone down and grind value with counterspells and discard spells, so that they have only lands, and if they happen to have a good land with an activated ability, well now that ability is yours. You don't donate lands, you just have your opponents only be able to use their lands.
with thespians stage could you turn your commander into a dark depths to get in some mean commander damage?
no your commander would be sacrificed.
Whenever I get disillusioned with Commander, I'm going to reignite my fire by just thinking of that sweet sorrows path interaction.
There is always a way to build around a bad/clunky/do nothing commander.
Points towards the voltron theme
Edit: also you could use your so called slingshot effects when you sac him to fetch for dimir ramp.
Are there any other cards besides Song of Dryads that let you turn an opponent’s card into a land without losing abilities?
Nice build for a very unique commander, Demo
Hmm. Since the third of Sharkey’s abilities doesn’t only apply to land abilities that Sharkey copies, could you give Sharkey other abilities via enchantments or something?
This gave me an idea to build Sharkey with a bunch of man lands and use exchange control effects to trade my land with their best creatures
Sharkey: "By the power of Mycosynth Gardens, I AM BLIGHTSTEEL!!!
Maze of Ith would be awesome to copy. Playing this Commander would only be useful if you know an opponent uses a lot of non basic lands.
I love the commitment to the jank
Have sharkey, maskwood nexus, pitiless plunderer, ashnods alter, faces of the past and sphinx of magosi out. Enchant enemy land with chamber of manipulation. Tap sharkey and discard a card to steal enemy creature (its an avatar now through nexus) sac it to the altar which untaps sharkey through faces and adds 3 mana through plunderer and alter. Pump that 3 mana into the sphinx to draw another card. Repeat as much as you like, kill all enemy creatures with an easy 7 card combo and only paying 28 mana!
One thing you didn't go into is the option to enchant your opponent's lands that say that the enchanted land gains an ability, as Sharkey would then get that ability. With this in mind, Chamber of Manipulation becomes an great choice for Sharkey, as it allows Sharkey to tap and discard a card to gain control of another creature for a turn.
again though, why not just use it on your own land?
@@edhdeckbuilding The difference is that it prevents you from using your own land if you attach it to your land, should you want to use this ability. While it's attached to the opponent's, they don't get the benefit, you don't have to dedicate one of your lands to that ability, and your commander now gains an additional ability. It's not a gigantic strategy, but it is a notable interaction for Sharkey. Btw, Sharkey is actually Saruman. In the books, the hobbits return to the shire after destroying the ring only to find their homeland in shambles and under the rule of a weak and spiteful Saruman, whom his underlings have nicknamed "Sharkey."
How about a way to make non legendary copies of Sharkey (or cards that bypass legend rule)? With clones you can constantly use those sac lands without the need to give up your commander, which is important since the moment sharkey is off the board your opponents can use their land abilities again. Clones would prevent that downside.
Adding to this, if you can find a way to recur Sharkey (with the clone on board) you can keep using your opps Sac lands over and over. Assuming of course you have Thousand Year Elixir on board.
However, this is very contingent on the opps lands. Maybe donating the sac land once your board is established is better.
Also noxious field and deathtouch combos well.
Maze of Ith doesn't have a mana ability at all, so, with Political Trickery and Vedalkan Plotter specifically, you can take one of your opponent's best color fixing lands, and give them the Maze that will do nothing for them, while incidentally giving your commander the ability to blank a creature in combat.
If you donate maze of ith, the opponent gains a land that doesn't tap for mana, and you gain a land that does tap for mana. Seems pretty decent to me. Even if Sharkey is removed, they still can't generate mana from that Maze of Ith.
I would build Sharky as a clone/ theft deck; you’re playing lands with synergies for your creatures? Now I have the synergistic ability for all of my creatures… which I stole and/or copied from you. Thanks!
If just you could make all enemy creatures lands. Turn off all activated abilities and gain all them.
Also you can enchant enemy lands as well for abilities.
Would a deck that punishes your opponents for having more lands than you be viable in these colors?
Auras that grant lands abilities would also work, but beyond Underworld Connections, there are no good ones. Something to watch?
I saw Political Trickery in the thumbnail and had to check it out. Literally only Zedru used that card until now
My approach would be: play Life and limb saporlings are forests and forests are saporlings . Play a Fractured Identity on your own maskwood Nexus so all of your enemies creatures are forests.
Polymorph for sharky now.
So you can Go 4 colour thrasios(cheap poly target)+ ravos. Or Cody and have spells that Tutor your pieces( fracture,artifact Tutor, enchantment Tutor,polymorph)
Throw in a yavimaya and Timber protector and an aoe boardwipe for advanced tec. Because If none of your opponents creatures have activated abilities its all for nothing haha
Thats the Kind of janky Combo i wanna see
I would just lean on the top ability and roll stax or heavy ability shutoff
Why is Evolving Wilds more popular than Terramorphic Expanse? Is it just because it has more altermate arts?
To donate a land is basically to Stone Rain yourself ! You obviously want to exchange control. Giving your opponents a Maze of Ith while stealing their land means you actually Stone Rain them instead.
My most difficult commander deck I want to built is mono green burn with cards like goblin cannon and hurricane
better use Cyclone
You can make that commander work but you probably will not get to play it more than once! lol.
Since the commander shuts off land abilities you just need to compliment it with things that either shut off or alter your opponent’s mana abilities and/or simply destroy lands…….bunch of mana rocks, contamination, cyclopean tomb, infernal darkness, zombie trailblazer etc…..tap into blue for mana change enchantments etc….
Ps use glamerdye just in case your opponent can use swamps.
Basically you’d be locking out your opponents from playing entirely.
You’d only be able to do it once bc afterwards you’d probably be kicked from the table.
this is in my opinion a stax/tax commander. It shuts down many non basic lands of the opponents, specialy the fetchlands. Opponents got screwed up with their colored mana base and maybe (depending on the deck build) draw maaaaany dead cards. Many landfall decks with double or tripple trigger doesn't work anymore. In other words it slows down the opponents. With additional stax/tax cards this is forced even more.
Even more, THIS is a stax card by himself that isn't thaaaaat bad, so other players doesn't get mad of you too much and focusing you down.
Using the abilities of the lands is only a bonus.
He is more like Teysa Karlov, a Commander that shows the general direction of the deck, but isn't that important as win strategy.
Btw. I don't like stax/tax but acknowledge it as a way to slow down the game, so you have a higher chance to play your win combo.
Need to look at clone mirror box,mirror gallery,and sakashima, and control like back to basics , then dark depths and untap abilities
How about a Commander with no abilities like Barktooth warbeard?
i typically don't include vanilla commanders in these discussions since there really isn't a build-around.
I like the card. It's something new.
Yeah, he's at least as challenging as Etratra or the planeswalkers from Dominaria United.
Why not enchant their lands with abilities that your commander then gets to use
you could just enchant your own lands right?
@edhdeckbuilding I thought about that aswell there was only two or three where it would really be worth it. It's hard finding an upside for this guy.
Also I thought about cards like kelpie guide like creature to get these abilities triggering more then once a turn
I think it would be better to NOT build around your commander too much with this guy. Instead just build a Dimir deck of some kind, throw in some untap stuff for Sharkey to go off and do some things mainly to slow your opponents down or counter some of their nonbasic lands.
But I think even better than that is to have him in the 99 of a Saruman of Many Colors deck.
If you’re donating lands maybe play ward of bones to stop them from playing their actual lands. Also hate on decks without utility lands that have activated abilities (high color decks) with back to basics.
The reason you are "donating" lands is to take away lands from your opponents, notice how they are all *exchange* cards and not donate cards. Maze of Ith can't do anything for them and you just gained a land for instance.
I think you are miscounting the Opposition Agent effect this commander has. No one will want to play any lands that he can copy. It’s basically a stax piece. This deck won’t work in the command zone. Why wouldn’t your opponents crack their fetches in response to your cast?
they would. i also think they will continue to make land drops. no one is going to hold an evolving wilds in their hand the whole game waiting for your commander to leave.
So first we cast Sharkey, then we play an evolving wilds, then we have to donate it to an opponent in some ways, then we can sacrifice Sharkey with the effect of evolving wilds but in response we cast Undying Malice or Supernatural Stamina to have Sharkey come back....
Sharkey costs 4, Donate (in this case) costs 3, Malice or Stamina cost 1, so we used 8 total mana to ramp of 1 basic land.....
Yeah this commander is awful.
Sharkey doesn’t stop the channel abilities of Boseiju et al; a land card in your opponent’s hand is not a land your opponent controls 😋
Also, not every Magic card is for Commander. This concept was a full fail. Still entertaining though 🤪
as i stated in the video. doesn't work.
This card is actually fairly obvious to build around for cEDH as he is basically a Blood Sun in the command zone and in Demonic Consultation + Thoracle Colors. Play him turn 2 or turn 1 and then you get to play stax while also having a combo win unlike regular stax decks.
I wish you would do Tom Bombadil. I know you don't like the card, but he's one of my favorite LOTR characters. I'm guessing most people do a good stuff saga build, but surely there is something more interesting that could be done. I've started a deck but I'm trying to figure out the win cons. Maybe a voltron, since he get's hexproof and indestructible, but that doesn't fit Tom's character in the book.
Honestly, if you can get him down T2 reliably, he is a great hate bear vs a lot of top decks. Nobody is going to waste removal on him for awhile.
Sharkey Donate seems like a political deck in dimir. Imagine if he was sultai and you could donate ashaya😂😂😂
Think this guy is good in a stacks deck strat but part of the 99
sacrificing your commander for a land that you might not be able to find is such a bad build around. Sharkey is a nice hate piece in a stax/hate bare strategy or if you have a lot of rogues.
why would you not be able to find a basic land? also there are way better stax commanders.
@@edhdeckbuilding fetch lands that do not find either a swamp or island are completely dead to you because you do not have mountains, plains or forests in your deck. You would fail to find. If someone plays a fetchland that you can hit before you cast your commander, the gameplan doesn't work. If you cast your commander, in response I sac my land and go search. If you tap down my fetchland, in response I sac my land and go search. If you play against decks that use 5 colours, this will probably slow the opponent down because they likely have more fetches so they can manafix. Against opponents with fewer colours or if fetches are out of budget, this commander is a vanilla 2/4, unless they play the odd utility land. I think this guy is a much better fit in the 99 of another deck that wants somekind of land hatepiece, or maybe even as a secret commander with more colours so you can hit more lands from other fetches and ramp into something big. There are better stax commanders so if you wanted to slow your opponents down you would play one of them. And in dimir colours if you want to hit land drops, you could just run a dimir commander that draws cards instead? It seems like so many hoops to jump through to play some lands and prevent opponents from using their lands.
If you play this deck as a secret commander with green, you could play the ashaya that makes all creatures that a player controls be lands in addition to their types and then gift this to an opponent. All of the activated abilities of their creatures would be shutdown.
Some cards just aren’t meant to be commanders lol
My Ashaya deck does not approve of this commander :P
This is sooooooooooooooo janky lol
Roil elemental landfall trigger