Deck Tech - Ilharg, the Raze-Boar
Get more for your combat dollar with Ilharg, The Raze-Boar!
Deck Techs
$100 decks that are cheap, fun, and competitive.
Total cost: $96.05 (at time of publication)
I remember the good ol’ days when there were four commander pre-constructed decks per year and you only had to pay between $180-$200 for the entire set. When MSRP went away, retailers could mark them up based on the popularity of individual decks. At the time of this article, Modern Horizons 3 has been released, and the Eldrazi Incursion deck is going for $112 on TCGPlayer. Gone are the days of being able to consistently pick up a commander deck, at release, for $50.
Even if you are able to pick up decks at or below $50 (and to be clear, after release the prices do tend to fall back down to reasonable levels), you will likely want to add upgrades to them. It’s becoming popular to add about $50 of upgrades to the decks. Therefore, I want to formally welcome you to the budget Deck Tech series, where we’ll build decks for $100 that are powerful enough to compete at most tables.
For this first entry, I want to discuss my favorite deck, which I call “Ilharg sneak attack." The goal is to get Ilharg, the Raze-boar out as fast as possible and start cheating in big creatures with his triggered ability.
Win conditions
When building a deck, the first goal should be knowing how you want to win. In this case, we want to cheat out big creatures very early in the game and swing. And then do it again. And again. Sometimes even multiple times in the same turn.
There are quite a few inexpensive extra combat cards we can put in. Port Razer, Grim Reaper’s Spirit, and the new Great Train Heist are all under $4, with a more expensive option in Bloodthirster from the Warhammer 40k set.
Not all attacks are the same
I’ll spoil the main thing to understand about the creatures in this deck and why it is so key to the extra combats. You will likely see a lot of cards on EDHREC that have the line “when this creature attacks,” but with Ilharg, creatures enter tapped and attacking. This means that you do not get the trigger. A great example is Etali, Primal Storm.
He will not trigger off of being cheated into play by Ilharg. What you DO want are creatures that either
- Have powerful enter the battlefield effects.
- Have abilities that trigger when they deal damage.
Port Razer and Bloodthirster have some interesting text: “can’t attack a player it has already attacked this turn.” This means that when you cheat it into play with Ilharg, this clause will NOT take effect, allowing you to attack the same player twice. I’ve personally been able to have four combats in a row with Port Razer, and then if you add in something like Bloodthirster, that can be as much as another seven total combats.
Ramp
We need to get Ilharg out as fast as possible while our opponents are still building their boards. There are two ways of doing this: low cost mana value spells and large bursts of mana.
- 1 mana value: Sol Ring
- 2 mana value: Arcane Signet, Mind Stone, Desperate Ritual, Generator Servant, Iron Myr, Runaway Steam-Kin, Liquimetal Torque
- Burst of manage: Seething Song, Mana Geyser, Rousing Refrain
Seething song is probably the best way to do this, as we can get Ilharg out on turn 3.
Normally, people suggest adding about 10 pieces of ramp. I’ve added 17 here to make sure we hit a few in our opening draws.
Card draw
You’re probably wondering what happens if we get flooded with mana rocks and other ramp spells? We can include extra card draw, especially ones that wheel our hands away. The best card in the deck is likely Dragon Mage because every time it hits, it is effectively a Wheel of Fortune, giving you a fresh new seven cards with more creatures to cheat into play.
Surprisingly, there are quite a few other solid, cheap Wheel of Fortune impersonators. Wheel of Misfortune is about $4, Ruin Grinder is $0.50, and Magus of the Wheel is $0.40. Some one sided wheels like Change of Fortune and Cavalier of Flame, while they won’t refill your hand, can help you cycle through dead lands or ramp. Something to make sure to include is Containment Construct, a $0.16 card that enables you to play anything you discard.
Interaction
Because we want to go fast, we care less about lasting into the long game, which is why the number of interaction spells is somewhat low. Spells that protect our commander are key, like Bolt Bend and Return the Favor.
The classic red removal spell, Chaos Warp, is included, as well as what I believe is an underrated card in Wild Magic Surge because it can destroy anything.
Also, Meteor Golem is a repeatable form of removal when you cheat it into play with Ilharg.
Finally, we're only playing two board wipes because we need Ilharg to stay in play, so these are really to keep our opponents in check, like if they are playing creature token heavy strategies. Blasphemous Act is perhaps the best red board wipe, while Rolling Earthquake doubles as a pseudo finisher, which I will touch on later.
What to cheat into play
Beyond the creatures that give extra combats or provide card draw, we need creatures that really put the pressure on our opponents. Avatar of Slaughter and Terror of Mount Velus, both under $1, give our creatures double strike! Breaker of Armies is a giant beater. Burning Sun’s Avatar and Meteor Golem both are repeated forms forms of removal. Red Dragon deals damage to our opponents, which can build up as you continue to cheat him into play.
Backup commander
I never like to rely solely on having my commander in play for my deck to function. If it gets removed one too many times, you can end up sitting there waiting for the game to be over. Trust me, once your opponents realize how powerful Ilharg is, they WILL remove him on site. Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded and Sneak Attack are harder to remove, because they are enchantments, and allow your deck to behave similarly to Ilharg.
Alternate Win Conditions
Ilharg cheating creatures into play and attacking multiple times is the number one game plan. However, if he gets removed too many times and you can not find Sneak Attack or Purphoros, you may need to resort to alternate ways to win. Remember that Cavalier of Flame from earlier? And how we’re often wheeling away our hand? If you have a ton of lands in the graveyard and Cavalier of Flame dies, that is a good chunk of damage. The other win condition, which I’ve personally pulled off many times, is Rolling Earthquake. It’s not just a board wipe, because late in the game when opponents life totals are low, pop this off to deal them direct damage.
Don’t get fooled
A problem with using a site like EDHREC is that it creates an echo-chamber of deck building. If someone wants to build Ilharg, they’ll often add the top recommended cards. When you make your deck on Moxfield, EDHREC will pull that new data, reinforcing the card you’ve added. Now, I’m not saying to not use EDHREC (you should in fact use it as a starting point and to make sure you didn’t miss any obvious cards), but after looking at that page when writing this article, I want to warn you about a few things to avoid when building Ilharg:
- Avoid cards that trigger on attack, as Ilharg is worded such that they enter “tapped and attacking.” Similarly, be wary of things that create tokens before or upon entering combat. For example, say you cast Combustible Gearhulk and create a token copy with Flameshadow Conjuring. You will not be able to return the Gearhulk to your hand to use again.
- Be careful about adding too many “win-more” cards, which in this case would be cards that double or increase damage, like Torbran, Thane of Red Fell. Torbran will not do much if you can’t actually hit an opponent or is the only thing you have to cheat into play.
- Don’t play cards that impulse draw. Ilharg cheats into play from the hand, not from exile.
- You may be tempted to keep things in play that you cheated in, like with Sundial of the Infinite, but that means you take less advantage of ETBs.
Clean up
Ilharg is a high variance commander. He can be extremely explosive with the right cards, but if he gets removed a few times you may get stalled out. But that is what makes him so fun. The games where he is humming along makes you feel truly unstoppable. He also holds a special place in my heart because he was one of the first foil legendary creatures I opened in a pack when I started playing. I hope you will get as much as enjoyment from playing him as I have!