Magic Monday: Our Club’s 2025 Colour Challenge Decks

Our club’s Commander random colour challenge has arrived, and decks are due in. Here are the decks that have been submitted. They are in no particular order, and I’ll offer some initial thoughts on each.

Naya: Baylen, the Haymaker

First up, we’ve got my deck! I’ve already written about putting this deck together, so I’m not going to spend long repeating myself here. In my games with it this far, it’s been a bit hit or miss. Last Thursday, I played two games with the deck. In one, it stomped to victory; in the other, it just did… nothing. That’s okay; you do get games that are duds.

Overall, I’m really happy with the deck, and it’s a lot of fun to play.

You can click here to view this deck.

Green: Fynn, the Fangbearer

This is not the way I would have gone with green, but I do like it. It’s actually more interesting than the direction I’d have taken. Poison hurts, and I do think that this deck has the potential to get very nasty, very quickly.

Of course, the deck has a lot of simple, little deathtouch creatures, such as Moss Viper, Sedge Scorpion, Tajuru Blightblade, and the like. There are also creatures with Infect, such as Spinebiter and Viridian Corruptor, to really maximise those poison counters and sources of Proliferate, such as Evolution Sage, to add yet further poison counters once you’ve managed to get an initial counter onto each player.

Add in a bunch of creatures that force targeted blocking to help your infect and deathtouch creatures get through to enemy players and you’ve got a real stew going.

You can click here to view this deck.

Jund: Thantis, the Warweaver

A spider tribal! Of course, there are a bunch of spiders in here, which range from simple spiders like Deadly Recluse and Brood Weaver, through to more interesting cards like Arasta of the Endless Web and Shelob, Child of Ungoliant. Shelob is actually really cool, and I’m looking forward to seeing her on the table.

The deck is creature-focused, and looks like a lot of fun.

Much like how my deck is mostly white with a splash of other colours, this deck is overwhelmingly green. Despite that, there’s a little less ramp than I might have expected. There are plenty of lands, but not too many mana rocks. There are some ramps pieces, though, such as Far Wanderings and Satyr Wayfinder.

One card in this deck that I had not seen before, but which I really like the look of is Patriarch’s Bidding. It’s really cool, and one that I could see myself picking up.

You can click here to view this deck.

Black: Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose

This has the potential to be quite nasty, but don’t all mono-black decks have that potential? Hell, I run Tergrid… I can’t criticise anything.

At heart, this is a lifegain deck. The commander then deals damage equal to said lifegain. There are plenty of lifelink creatures, such as Indulgent Aristocrat and Gifted Aetherborn, a few big damage-you-heal-me spells, like Exsanguinate and Corrupt, and lifegain artifacts like Aetherflux Reservoir. Of course, Alhammarret’s Archive is in there to double any lifegain, too.

One thing that did jump out at me pretty quickly was an infinite loop between the commander and Exquisite Blood. That’s going to be an exile-on-sight card. The idea of someone taking damage, which heals the player, to deal damage, to heal the player, to deal damage to heal the player… ugh. Exile!

I do think this is a deck I’d have a lot of fun running.

You can click here to view this deck.

Gruul: Muerra, Trash Tactician

Gruul go stompy stomp? This is a fun mix of things that might lack some focus, but will be a lot of fun. The core seems split between Raccoons and big beasties. You’ve got ‘coons like Brazen Collector, Bakersbane Duo, and Wandertale Mentor. These are mostly either generating mana or getting buffed when you spend mana. Sometimes they do both.

You’ve then got your stompy side, which includes cards like Hugs, Grisly Guardian and Worldspine Wurm. There are also a bunch of cool hydras, like Nyxborn Hydra, Wildwood Scourge, and Polukranos, World Eater.

I like having all these big X-value creatures, which will function as mana sinks for all that Raccoon-generated mana. Yeah, this feels really fun, and I hope I get to see it popping off. It won’t be a fast deck, but if it gets going, it could hit really hard.

You can click here to view this deck.

Dimir: Jon Irenicus, Shattered One

Dimir nonsense time! I’d actually really like to do a Jon Irenicus deck for myself and, whilst I don’t think this is the best deck of those I have featured today, it’s probably my favourite.

Jon is all about unwanted gifts. I suppose it’s a bit like my Beamtown Bullies, but not quite as cruel. The cards that I am sure will make their way onto my board when playing against this deck will include such… gems as Taniwha, Flesh Reaver, Demonic Taskmaster, Rotting Regisaur, Grid Monitor, and Ebon Drake.

The goading and the inability to sacrifice these creatures is just fantastic. I will build a Jon Irenicus deck at some point.

You can click here to view this deck.

Mardu: Queen Marchesa

I like Queen Marchesa. I like most of the Marchesa cards, actually. I also like cards that play with Monarch. This time, Marchesa is being put at the head of a lifegain deck.

So what do we have? We have some lifelink creatures, like Mangara, the Diplomat and Aerith Gainsborough. There are plenty of cards that give life when creatures enter, like Soul Warden and Mirkwood Bats. There’s a little bit of token generation from the commander, as well as cards like Benevolent Offering, Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, and Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath.

I’m not quite sure how this deck wins, except perhaps through survival and picking off whoever is left after other players fall. There are some cool creatures, so it can do damage. It feels like the deck wants to be a token deck, but lacks token generation, or a lifegain deck, but it doesn’t really do anything with the life, other than survival. There’s a good core here, but it needs just a little bit of focusing.

You can click here to view this deck.

Golgari: Yargle and Multani

A commander with no abilities. I was initially curious as to what this deck was going to be about. It did not take me long to recognise the gameplan.

Commander damage, and lots of it.

This deck has focus. This is all about getting plenty of mana to keep bringing out the commander, buffing him to make sure he can hit home, and ensuring that he can one-shot other players.

For mana, we’ve got cards like Llanowar Elves, Sakura-Tribe Elder, The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride, The Eternity Elevator, Cultivate, and more. To buff the big boy, we’ve got a lot of options, including Ruxa, Patient Professor, Overwhelming Stampede, Charge Through, Garruk’s Uprising, and Berserk. These will all help him get through blockers and hit home against opposing players.

I think this deck is going to do very well. It’s going to hit like a truck. I also think that it might be the smartest deck in this lineup; I like it a lot.

You can click here to view this deck.

Esper: Silas Renn, Seeker Adept and Rebbec, Architect of Ascension

Esper is one of my favourite colour combinations, so I was keen to see what would be done with it. This is interesting. It’s not a route I’d have gone down, but it’s interesting. Partner commanders for an Esper artifact deck.

This deck feels very focused, and it features a ton of artifacts. These include a lot of artifact creatures, such as Baleful Strix, Myr Battlesphere, Angel of the Ruins, and Steel Overseer. Where creatures are not themselves artifacts, they do synergise strongly with them. Examples of this include Digsite Engineer and my beloved Losheel, Clockwork Scholar.

Straightforward damage is a good wincon with this deck, but there are others. With sacrifice outlets like Ashnod’s Altar in play, it should be easy to fill one’s graveyard with artifact creatures and fulfil the requirements to start taking opposing players out using Mirrodin Besieged. Given the multiple sources of Thopter tokens, I’m a little surprised not to see Mechanized Production in here.

You can click here to view this deck.

Temur: Riku of Two Reflections

This is a vibrant, spell-slinging brew with a clear love for tempo, recursion, and cheeky transformation. Riku of Two Reflections is such a rewarding commander for anyone who enjoys doubling up on value and sequencing with flair, and this deck feels like it’s leaning into that with a mix of prowess, flashback, and clever interaction.

There’s a fair bit going on here. First up, we’ve got cheap instants/sorceries like Brainstorm, Faithless Looting, Slip Through Space, and Train of Thought. These are all great for fueling Riku’s copy ability and triggering prowess. We’ve then got board control pieces like Evacuation, Devastation Tide, Sweltering Suns, and Aether Gale. These tempo resets will keep you ahead while preserving your own board. There’s some graveyard interaction via Flashback and Recursion in the form of Past in Flames, Goblin Dark-Dwellers, Snapcaster Mage, and Torrential Gearhulk, letting you reuse spells and, of course, double them with Riku. Finally, the deck focuses heavly on prowess and spell payoffs via cards such as Soul-Scar Mage, Monastery Swiftspear, and Stormcatch Mentor. These turn your spell flurries into combat pressure.