My recent selling spree has netted me store credit that I used towards a bunch of cards that I’ve wanted that always felt too expensive to purchase outright. Essentially trading in some valuable cards that I didn’t have much use for to get cards I need to build decks was a worthy endeavor, and I’m glad that I finally got around to doing it. This is the last deck build that I wanted to share that was heavily influenced by the release of Dominaria. I had a Sram, Senior Edificer deck that worked pretty well, but I felt like a single card from Dominaria would give it a boost. The card in question is Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain. Sram is a card draw engine in and of himself, and so is Jhoira though they work a little bit differently. I wanted to keep the same Voltron strategy for the deck as well. Also, being completely different colors mean that I would need to choose a new commander to be able to use them both in a deck. White, Blue and Red is Jeskai, and it didn’t take me long to find the perfect commander in those colors that could still front a Voltron deck:

Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest has a CMC of 3 (2U) so he’s square in the middle of Sram (1W) and Jhoira (2UR) when it comes to mana cost. So he comes out a turn later than Sram, but should still be easy to cast by turn two in most cases. He’s a 3/2 as opposed to a 2/2 with Sram, so that’s a mild improvement. He has prowess, which gives him a little bit of a buff (+1/+1) for a turn if you cast any noncreature spells. Lastly, if you can pay an extra 2 mana after casting a noncreature spell, you can also give him or another creature double strike. This means that he’s able to be beefed up not only with equipment, but by casting spells and paying a little extra for double-strike. This actually makes him a better Voltron commander than Sram, though he doesn’t have the card draw benefit. That’s why I’ve included the other two Legends to help with that.

 

Sram will draw you a card whenever casting an Aura, Equipment or Vehicle spell. Jhoira on the other hand will draw you a card whenever casting an Artifact, Legendary or Saga. In this deck I have included only a couple of auras, a couple of vehicles, and a ton of equipment. There are no sagas, but I’ll now get to draw cards off of any artifact and other legendary creatures of which there are a few. The goal here is to get at least one of these creatures onto the battlefield as early as possible, and then start drawing cards left and right and hopefully get the other out as well. With the amount of equipment in the deck, we’ll get double the draws. There are some other draw enablers as well, but first let’s look at the equipment, as that’s the cornerstone of any good Voltron deck.

I feel like I’ve covered the bases pretty well here, giving a lot of avoidance, plenty of pump, and some other options that are great in games of EDH. Notable inclusions are 3 of the 5 swords that are probably the most desirable equipment in the game. The only reason I didn’t include the other two is because Body & Mind is pretty crappy, and Fire & Ice is like $60. Feast and Famine is my personal favorite, as it makes an opponent discard a card, and you untap all of your lands, so your second main phase can be explosive. There’s ways to ramp, non-basic landwalk (unblockable), and most of the avoidance keywords you’d want. Hammer of Nazahn allows you to equip for free, Conqueror’s Flail keeps your enemies from casting on your turn, and there’s a handful of 0 CMC equipment to keep the card draw flowing though you’ll need to get Sram or Jhoira out for that. Unfortunately there are few tutors for creatures in this color pairing, but I’m thinking either card draw will get them out or you might have to mulligan until one or the other is in your hand. Let’s take a look at some of the Voltron support I’ve included:

Here we have a selection of cards that are going along with our theme of focusing on equipment to voltron up our commander, but also ways that help us to draw more cards and reduce costs. Vedalken Archmage stacks with Sram and Jhoira when casting artifacts, ditto Puresteel Paladin when casting equipment. Etherium Sculptor and Foundry Inspector (also Danitha) both reduce the cost of artifacts, and most of them are 3 CMC or less so it can turn a bunch of them into free casts. I’ve included the tutors that I can (and are relevant), with Gamble being the only one that can tutor up one of your card draw engines. Others tutor for equipment only, or artifacts, or there’s Muddle the Mixture which is a counterspell but can also double as a tutor for something with CMC 3 in a pinch (this doesn’t help with Sram or Jhoira, but can grab one of the swords or Danitha/Foundry Inspector. Lastly, there’s Sunbird’s Invocation, which essentially means you’ll be cycling through your deck quickly and casting stuff for free more often.

I think all of these cards synergize well, and I think that this deck can go off under the right circumstances. Still probably not higher than Tier 3, but a fun deck to pilot no doubt. I just recently finished this deck so I’ll report back once I’ve done some playtesting.