Introduction

The deck is for a casual environment where most decks are creature based and the meta has lots of interaction.
This was originally a Glissa, the traitor with deathtouch tribal deck, but slowly evolved into its own deck, keeping the deathtouch theme, while the Glissa deck took its own path towards a artifact creatures focused deck instead. Nonetheless, both decks still have one thing in common: they want to kill opponents' creatures to get value, although they do it in a different way. This deck aims to kill specific creatures, the ones that were assigned a bounty counter, so that with Chevill's triggered ability every removal spell becomes a cantrip. The theme of the deck is to go on a hunt and collect bounties by killing dangerous creatures or planeswalkers, with the help of other creatures that also gain advantage whenever an opponents' creature dies. The deck's strength is that it is quite flexible and versatile, it has answers for a lot of situations and has good survivability thanks to the incidental life gain and the fact that deathtouch discourages attackers. On the other hand, it doesn't have a clear path to victory, and I'm not very fond of combos and tutors in this format, so the main goal is to survive and mitigate the threats, which I think is quite flavourful in itself.
You'll enjoy this deck if:

• You like defensive decks;
• You like a bit of control;
• You like to see a lot of cards and go through your deck;
• You like individually strong creatures that work well even without the commander;
• You like playing removal over synergies;
• You like death triggers;
• You like playing mind games.

> Commander Overview

At first glance, it's clear that Chevill is a low cmc Commander and that allows it to be on the battlefield quite early, even just for defensive purposes, as deathtouch lets it trade well. This also mitigates the fact that its triggered ability takes place during the upkeep, so it does nothing the turn it comes into play.
Note that the triggered ability doesn't say "you may" do it, so the first decision that should be taken carefully is the target of the bounty counter, especially in multiplayer games. The undesirable situation is a bounty counter sitting on a creature for several turns without you being able to claim the bounty. It also appears that other opponents will do what they can to not let you draw that card, so this should also be taken into consideration when assigning the bounty to a permanent.

Therefore I'll outline some factors to take into consideration when deciding where to put your bounty counters:

• What kind of removal do you have available at that point and can you confidently kill the target on your own.
  When you have removal available it's best to prioritize strong creatures/commanders/planeswalkers, especially those that are kill on sight anyway, as they are worth using a removal on anyway. Putting a counter on those targets may make other players reluctant to kill it, to not let you draw cards and gain life, so you want to be sure to be able to kill that creature on your own.
• The creature you want to target is going to die anyway at some point.
  This is the case with some creatures that can sacrifice themselves for some benefit (like giving indestructible to the team), so if you can catch them before they have the need to use them you can get your trigger without even spending removal. They might always sacrifice the creature in response, but that's still not too bad because they are now down a blocker and in a multiplayer game ther might be many players before that player, so it's an opportunity to push some damage in and punish the position. In any case you want to force the situation in which they sacrifice that creature.
• Target creature is expendable.
  Another scenario is when the creature you target is an unimportant token that the player might normally be happy to use to chump block. Mind that if you put a bounty on them, especially if they are able to generate more tokens, they will now never use that token to block or attack, so now you are forced to spend your own removal on a token, so be careful. The best situation to put a counter on tokens is when you have boardwipes available in your hand.

From a broader perspective, Chevill is the type of commander that might be overlooked at first, but people quickly realise it is very powerful when built around, but here comes the twist: at that point it could become the target of removal, but that's not a problem at all and you can turn it to your advantage: sometimes you should use it as a bait so that your opponent wastes a removal (and potentially loses a turn) on it and then cast one of the bigger threats in your arsenal, that they won't be able to answer. You can later recast it for 4 mana if needed, but you might not need it as some other creatures can just take over the game on their own.
There are several secret commanders that can take over the game in combination with other cards that are already in the deck anyway, like Grismold, the Dreadsower or Sarulf, Realm Eater with the boardwipes, Fynn, the Fangbearer with all the deathtouch creatures and Saryth, the Viper's Fang giving deathtouch to every attacking creature, Glissa, the Traitor with Executioner's Capsule, Glissa Sunslayer with Rancor and Sword of Forge and Frontier. There are several viable strategies available even without your commander, so sometimes it's better to eat an early removal with it if it means your opponent not being able to answer your next threat.

> Gameplan

The gameplan is quite simple, put bounty counters on enemy creatures/planeswalkers and get rid of them to seize the rewards. Being able to do this every turn allows you to have a smooth flow of cards. In addition to this, your other draw engine is Generous Patron, which synergizes incredibly well with Tetzimoc, Primal Death and Termination Facilitator. The latter also supports putting bounty counters on the battlefield, in part mitigating Chevill's limitation of only one bounty counter at a time. For the deck to run smoothly a solid, diverse removal package is included, and choosing which ones to use at any time is part of the challenge. Ideally you want to pace it with the bounty counters you are able to put, so there's no need to use too much removal all at once. This deck might feel oppressive to play against in some cases. There is a very small reanimation package included in Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler, allowing you reanimate some of your small creatures and your commander (and Sword of Once and Future can help recur removal spells from the graveyard, as many of your removal spells are 2 cmc or less).

> Starting Hand

Ideally you want to have at least three lands, a cmc 3 creature and a low cost removal spell in your starting hand. Chevill will cover the two mana play if you want to play on curve, and usually it's best to get it out as soon as possible. If you don't have removal in your starting hand, but you are able to play creatures on curve can threaten early attacks that is also a good alternative, especially if you happen to also have a protection spell. In this case, the opponent might be forced to block so you don't actually need removal as far as you choose the bounty target wisely. So the most important thing to consider when deciding to keep a hand or not is your ability to hit three land drops consistently, as from there there are different card advantage tools that can smooth out your draws. Also be mindful of mana fixing, as there might be rare situations in which your starting hand has nothing you can play, because of the high number of basic lands: Nighthawk Scavenger, Glissa, the Traitor and the black boardwipes have quite strict mana costs so be mindful about them if you get them in your starting hand. Bushwhack helps fixing your mana in those situations, so if it is in your starting hand it's a good incentive to keep it.

> Winning the game

Because of the deathtouch tribal theme, Fynn, the Fangbearer proves to be a solid win condition in the early game if left unchecked, especially in the 1vs1. Grismold, the Dreadsower also grows into a huge threat quite quickly and interacts gracefully with the boardwipes and has to be answered. Hooded Blightfang can drain opponents in long games. Revel in Riches is an alternative win condition, that also favors you in the case of a boardwipe.

> Matchups

The deck obviously works well against creature based strategies, while it might struggle against a control deck and superfriends strategies, both for the lack of creatures and the counterspells and because it lacks quick answers to planeswalkers. It's also weak to protection spells or hexproof, although there are ways to bypass that in the deck already, like Bonds of Mortality. But still, fizzling a removal spell might slow you down immensely or even get you stuck, so be aware of untapped mana. It works quite well against tokens and go wide strategies thanks to several board wipes that mainly affect creatures with low toughness. Fliers are obviously a weakness of this deck and the only counterplay is to try to kill all their fliers before they take over. Lifegain decks can lead to very long and grindy matches as this deck has no real alternative win conditions except for poison counters and Revel in Riches. No data for now against burn decks, but I would assume the incidental lifegain from Chevill might help surviving the first few turns. The deck lacks some graveyard hate against reanimator decks at the moment. The deck also struggles if there are graveyard hate effects that exile your opponents' creatures instead of putting them into the graveyards, because that doesn't allow many of your permanents to trigger their effects, but that's what enchantment removal is for.

> Single Card Discussion

Many different cards may go into this deck, so it's far from final, and some cards are always being tested while others are not completely convincing yet.

> Mana Ramp

Elvish Mystic it's a classic, and allows a powerful turn 3, as most of the best creatures stand at cmc 3, but it's one of the only creatures that dies to our own board wipes.
Arboreal Grazer is huge and synergizes well with the many lands that come in tapped, as well as with the bounce land, allowing you to basically cast if for free, if you bounce the land that you used to cast it and then play it.
Sakura-Tribe Elder auto-include.
Leyline Prowler provides mana ramp, fixing, some lifelink, deathtouch synergies and can wield bows as well.
Binding the Old Gods provides some ramp while being a flexible removal spell and interacting with Glissa Sunslayer, who can remove the counters and make the saga chapters trigger again.
Phyrexian Scarpgorer survives the -2/-2 boardwipes and can start eating opponents' graveyards quite soon, a key graveyard hate card.

> Card Draw

Our commander is the main card draw engine especially in the early game.
Generous Patron gives a card boost with manageable downside as it enters the battlefield and then becomes a card draw engine together with the commander and/or Termination Facilitator, Tetzimoc, Prima Death. Every proliferate effect also works with this, although at the moment there's only one card with proliferate.
Drivnod, Carnage Dominus can double up Chevill's death triggers so that you draw two cards every time a creature with a bounty counter dies. It also interacts with other death triggers in the deck, like Grismold, the Dreadsower, Sarulf, Real Eater (only for creatures) and Glissa, the Traitor.
Deathreap Ritual acts as redundancy if our commander is unavailable, and can justify accelerating the pace of our deck with the removal on each turn instead of waiting an entire turn cycle.
Lifecrafter's Beastiary is first of all very flavourful, and then it also provides good card selection and card advantage thanks to the deck being creature heavy.

The deck might need more card draw, maybe including a Glorious Sunrise and Moldervine Reclamation (still not owned) could be useful.

> Interaction

Interaction mainly plays out as a thick removal package made of both spot removal, board wipes and edicts. Removal takes up to 1/6 of the entire deck.
Cut Down is one of the best early removals that can be played on turn three while casting another 2 cmc creature.
Bloodchief's Thirst is another excellent early removal that is also flexible thanks to the kicker ability.
Infernal Grasp is the best unconditional removal at that cost and life is usually not a problem as there's plenty.
Go for the Throat is another classic, although you can sometimes find artifact creatures.
Master's Rebuke is a good bite effect that works well with deathtouch and can hit planeswalkers.
Go for the Throat is quite good in most matchups, although some artifact creatures might be there every once in a while, but still one of the best spot removal.
Executioner's Capsule is a nice way to ward off attackers with its threatening presence, plus it becomes repeatable if Glissa, the Traitor is on the battefield.
Viridian Longbow is another repeatable removal that lets you ping opponents' creatures, so with deathtouchers it's enough to kill the target. It's quite oppressive and can be repeated multiple times with cards like Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler and Saryth, Viper's Fang. There are many valid archers in the deck.
Drown in Sorrow and Pestilent Haze allows you to get rid of those pesky little tokens in go wide strategies, without hitting your own creatures.
Gix's Command is a flexible modal spell that can both bypass protection and be a board wipe or refill your hand.
Putrefy is a fantastic flexible removal spell.
Bushwhack can be used for mana fixing or removal according to the situation.
Casualties of War is just devastating.
Golgari Charm can be used as a combat trick, protection spell, board wipe and enchantment removal, so it's an incredibly flexible spell and must have.
The creatures with removal effects on ETB are also fantastic, so Big Game Hunter and Ravenous Chupacabra are good value, as well as Murderous Rider and its Swift End.
Halana, Kessig Ranger acts as repeatable removal paired with the many low cmc deathtouch creatures.
Thornbite Staff + Viridian Longbow turns the commander into Machine Gun Chevill, basically a board wipe (and with any deathtoucher for that reason). But the total mana cost to cast and equip the staff is six mana, so it's quite slow.
Hunter of Eyeblights works well with several cards in the deck, such as Generous Patron, Tetzimoc, Primal Death, Termination Facilitator and the commander. The cmc is a bit high tho.
Assassin's Trophy is very flexible and there might be the need to remove problematic lands sometimes.
Binding the Old Gods nonland permanent destruction is always welcome, and it comes with some ramp as well. Interacts with Glissa Sunslayer's damage trigger, that can reset it and double the advantages.
Questing Beast can interact with planeswalkers and some of the removal allows to interact with them as well, although it might not be enough. Hooded Blightfang also helps in that sense.
All the boardwipes interacts gracefully with Grismold, the dreadsower.
Krosan Grip is just essential to deal with the many combos based on free sac outlet artifacts and any problematic enchantment.
Windgrace's Judment gets better the more players there are.
Gix's Command is the only edict, but the flexibility as boardwipe and reanimation makes it essential.
Culling Ritual is spectacular, sets up for very big turns and has always been overperforming. It can hit just so many things like creature tokens, treasure tokens, mana rocks etc...Very good also with a Meren in play, as you can get back your own commander and small creatures immediately.

> Tribal Effects

Vraska. Swarm's Eminence can buff the deathtouchers and provide 2 creatures at the same time, protecting herself, so it's important even just for board presence. The tokens are also strong against planeswalkers, especially if paired with Viridian Longbow.
Hooded Blightfang adds some drain effect to all deathtouchers and helps getting rid of planeswalkers, while being a fantastic defender.
Fynn, the Fangbearer provides an alternative win condition, and with the many deathtouchers it's an additional threat. It's also good value for its cost and has amazing art.
There are by chance quite many Shaman type creatures in the deck and this is important for cards like Thornbite Staff, which can be equipped for free when a Shaman creature enters the battlefield. It pairs really well with Grismold, the Dreadsower or Ulvenwald Tracker or Vampire Nighthawk. Other shamans are Underrealm Lich and Meren of Clan Nel Toth.
Mari, the Killing Quill provides some nice Assassin and Rogue sinergies.

> Reanimation

Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler acts as a reanimation tool for many of the small creatures in the deck, commander included. Moreover the untap ability acts as pseudo vigilance and can also allow you to kill multiple targets with Viridian Longbow.
Meren of Clan Nel Toth is amazing and allows you to take a creature back in your hand the turn she comes into play. With boardwipes is also easy to get some Experience counters and get creatures back on the battlefield. Gix's Command can help get back some creatures from the graveyards at times.

> Protection

No boots are included for now, because our commander being on the field is not an essential factor for the deck to work and it's low cmc, so recasting is not a problem. There are however a couple instants to protect other pieces and make the opponents fizzle their removal.
Gaea's Gift is both a defensive and offensive spell that gives a whole lot of nice keywords and a +1/+1 counter.
Tamiyo's Safekeeping can protect any permanent, which is very flexible.
Saryth, the Viper's Fang provides optimal protection and gives deathtouch to other creatures, which can be really dangerous on Grismold, the Dreadsower for example. It also has an interesting untap ability that interacts with Viridian Longbow.
Tyvar's Stand represents both an excellent protection spell and a game winner that makes blocks more difficult for the opponent.
Obscuring Haze can be very sneaky and unexpected and change the tide of a combat phase, as many of your creatures have deathtouch.
Mithril's Coat with flash is fantastic to save a key creature in a boardwipe, and most of the creatures are legendary, good especially to protect a Glissa or a Meren of Clan Nel Toth.

>Graveyard hate

This section is the last one that was included when I moved to a new place and many decks here use the graveyard as a resource, so some changes were needed to manage these cases, and the best way to do it is by cards that have graveyard hate as a plus, but they also do something else for the general strategy.

> Other

Casualties of War is quite high costed and splashy.
Glissa Sunslayer needs to connect and can be chump blocked.
Sarulf, Realm Eater needs to be alive during upkeep and affects your permanents as well.
Bonds of Mortality is a great situational enchantment, especially if the opponents start using Heroic Intervention kind of effects or they can give Hexproof/Indestructible to their creatures.
Quest for Renewal is quite easy to activate and provides some nice synergies with Viridian Longbow, Hunter of Eyeblights, but also mana dorks. Also makes you much harder to attack.
Bojuka Bog and Restless Cottage provide a bit of graveyard hate, although more of it might be needed, even at instant speed.

Glissa, the Traitor and Glissa Sunslayer are just powerful hunting partners for our commander. Glissa, the Traitor can recycle Executioner's Capsule and any of the equipments if they get destroyed. Glissa Sunslayer can give card advantage, kill planeswalkers and flip Battles, even if they are not in this deck. They both wield equipments like champions.
Sword of Forge and Frontier is sometimes slower compared to Sword of Once and Future in this deck, but needs less set up compared to the other one, and provides both ramp and pseudo card advantage. It can create some feel bad moments when you exile good cards and don't have enough mana to play them.

The deck lacks some graveyard hate, I might include a Pharika, God of Affliction.

> Cards to test

Kura, the Boundless Sky
Vivien, Champion of the Wilds
Cankerbloom
Noxious Gearhulk
Hero's Downfall
Deadly Derision
Sword of Once and Future provides some useful protection and instants/sorceries recursion, as many of your removals are in the 2 cmc range.

> Possible changes, upgrades, alternatives

• Shred Memory, Cremate, Extirpate, Nihil Spellbomb, Titania's Command, Primal Command Soul-Guide Lantern, Scavenger Grounds are all good graveyard hate cards.
• Dimir Machinations is a decent tutor for many powerful cards in the deck at cmc 3.
• Massacre Girl is one of the best board wipes to reset the field completely, and it's a creature in addition, so it can be useful when behind.

Speaking of cards I don't have yet, Bounty Hunter, Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire, Strionic Resonator are all good cards that could be added.

Possible upgrades are the mana base and some staples like The Great Henge that are currently out of my budget range. In addition, further upgrading the deck wouldn't necessarely be cost efficient, as it's a deck thought for casual playing and being thematic. In fact, some cards like Sword of Forge and Frontier or Virtue of Persistence are included only because they were opened during prereleases and are clearly overpowered compared to the average strength of the deck. It could indeed be an idea to replace them with more flavourful and weaker cards in order to have more consistent gameplay, as cards like those really accelerate the board state when they are drawn, compared to other cards of same mana cost, so it could bring to a more fest or famine kind of performances of the deck. Owning a good card and not having to buy it doesn't mean you have to put it in a deck.