The (Not Quite) Million Dollar Deck (EDH / Commander)

The inspiration for this deck meets a crossroads between Magic and one of my other major loves, professional wrestling. I found Gwafa Hazid one day looking through a box of random cards at a game shop and noticed his flavor text.

“Everyone has a price.”

Immediately my mind jumped to the iconic catch phrase of WWE Hall of Famer “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase, one of the most manipulative heel wrestlers of his era and arguably all time. Needless to say, I bought a copy and set out to make a whole themed Commander deck around this flavorful connection. My big idea was to center it as if Gwafa was The Million Dollar Man himself, giving him his posse of hired muscle (and later big managerial clients) in big beaters such as Inkwell Leviathan (equivalent to The Undertaker, his own discovery from back in 1990) and Blightsteel Colossus (equivalent to the equally-as-legendary Andre the Giant) as well as more manipulative compatriots such as Azorius Guildmage (playing DiBiase's right hand man and major lackey, Virgil) and Magus of the Tabernacle (portraying DiBiase's best remembered tag team partner Irwin R. Shyster.).Also, since all good pro wrestling events needs an elaborate stage and entrance set, Planar Bridge takes care of that and puts any of our wrestler creatures, or anything else handy, right onto our battlefield. Other cards in this deck show the range of individual cards being able to do simply insane things for a price, especially given the colors of the deck, such as ending the turn at will (Time Stop), stealing other people's turns (Mindslaver), returning cards directly to hand (Recall most notably for being able to get any type back), stealing certain spells on cast (Desertion).... And if that's not good enough, there's several ways to copy or steal any other creature an opponent is graciously allowed to play, if it isn't bribed by Gwafa himself, of course. Other handy things in here can limit creatures from attacks (Propaganda and friends) or punishing opponents for doing their normal stuff throughout the game. Oh, and let's not forget a few cards that make Treasures and let the rich get richer!

In short, all the cards in this deck link back to Gwafa's flavor text and The Million Dollar Man's favorite saying, everyone, or everything, has a price.