Companion deck-building challenge

[Morganator 2.0]

Do you know what my second favorite thing about Deckstats is? The decks.

Let's get another challenge going! This one is going to revolve around the companion cards from Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths. Your task is to build a commander deck with a companion card. This card won't be your commander; you'll have to use a different legendary for that. Instead your deck must be able to use a companion as it's 101^st card. You can use one of the 8 following companions:

Gyruda, Doom of Depths
Jegantha, the Wellspring
Kaheera, the Orphanguard
Keruga, the Macrosage
Lurrus of the Dream-Den
Obosh, the Preypiercer
Umori, the Collector
Zirda, the Dawnwaker

The two companions that are excluded are Lutri, the Spellchaser (banned) and Yorion, Sky Nomad (unable to fulfill companion requirement in this format). I will be judging the decks, based on the following criteria:

Adherance: Are you legally allowed to have this companion for your given deck? Note that some companions have harsher restrictions than others. Pay close attention to the cards you use in your deck.
Creativity: Show me something I can't find somewhere else. The set hasn't been released yet so there is plenty of opportunity for a unique deck.
Relevance: Does the companion work with the commander and theme of the deck? Are there many moments in the game where you will want to cast the companion?
Effectiveness: Treat this deck like you're actually going to play it one day. Make sure that it can accomplish whatever gameplan you decide on. Be sure to include a strong land base, good mana ramp, card advantage, and removal.

You are allowed a 500 word description for your deck to explain how to play it and what the game-winning interactions/combos are. Once you have submitted your decklist you are not allowed to edit it further (exception: editing to fix the legality of the companion). Submissions will be open until April 27^th. I will give a one day extension if requested (send me a private message). Once submissions have closed, I will spend no more than one week to judge submissions. Here are the fake internet points karma prizes you will be competing for:

First place: 10 karma
Second place: 7 karma
Third place: 5 karma
Other participants: 2 karma

[Slyvester12]

I have been wanting to build Jegantha as a companion. I like Zirda the best, but I'm already working on a cEDH build for him/her.

Alright, here's my deck. I haven't had time to test it, and it might be a bit battle-cruisery, but it should function properly and be pretty dangerous given some room to breathe.
https://deckstats.net/decks/132279/1614125-ramos-and-jegantha-rainbow-tri

The only card I'm not sure about is Bound // Determined. If that doesn't work with Jegantha, I'll sub in Primal Vigor instead.

[WizardSpartan]

I will preface this with the fact that I don't usually build out of the box decks. While I love deckbuilding as much as actual gameplay, I struggle to work outside of EDHRec. I've been working on that, though, and I think I'm getting better.

I started out building a Scion of the Ur-Dragon & Zirda, the Dawnwaker deck, simply because Molten Skittles still works within Zirda's restrictions. It still felt too clunky, and I scrapped it. Instead, I looked for a Companion with a lesser restriction while still having a nice payoff. Gyruda seemed perfect. He doesn’t cut off much in the way of ramp, has a nice, abusable etb, and having only even CMC cards doesn’t seem too bad. I focused on abusing his etb trigger, as the self mill allows him to reanimate creatures without much outside graveyard help. Atris stood out as a solid commander, providing a nice curve out from a T2 rock, having a nice etb, and providing some graveyard filler. Here’s the list with him and Atris:
https://deckstats.net/decks/120669/1614824-atris-oracle-of-half-truths-gy
A big part of the deck includes Clone effects. Most clones have an even numbered CMC, and are flexible in that they can copy Gyruda (and some like Spark Double even survive) for another etb trigger or they can copy a fatty I already have in play.

[MajordomoTom]

This card:  Jegantha, the Wellspring just screams to be in a Sliver deck, so this is my placeholder for one.

[Morganator 2.0]

The only card I'm not sure about is Bound // Determined. If that doesn't work with Jegantha, I'll sub in Primal Vigor instead.

It took me a while but I found the rule.

708.4: In every zone except the stack, the characteristics of a split card are those of its two halves combined. This is a change from previous rules.

This card does have 2 of the same mana symbol in it. You'll have to swap it.

[Spinsane]

I assume someone will come up with a decent Jegantha, the Wellspring with Keruga, the Macrosage Companion-tribal that includes all 9 legitimate companions in their 101...

For now I went with Jegantha as commander with Zirda as my companion:
Jegantha, Activated abilities tribal

[Slyvester12]

The only card I'm not sure about is Bound // Determined. If that doesn't work with Jegantha, I'll sub in Primal Vigor instead.

It took me a while but I found the rule.

708.4: In every zone except the stack, the characteristics of a split card are those of its two halves combined. This is a change from previous rules.

This card does have 2 of the same mana symbol in it. You'll have to swap it.

Balls. Primal Vigor it is.

[Kalaxis]

https://deckstats.net/decks/93981/1608455-lurrus-theorycraft-vampires/en

A Lurrus deck with a vampire theme. I would be happy to play this against my playgroup and probably could if I found one or two bits.

[Kalaxis]

https://deckstats.net/decks/93981/1600790-obosh-oddball-dragons/en

I also have this Obosh, the preypiercer effort. It's based around ramping into Dragons with lots of removal.
As for playability, I have actually built this deck for real (with Obosh proxied) and am just waiting for a chance to test it.

[Spinsane]

A Lurrus deck with a vampire theme. I would be happy to play this against my playgroup and probably could if I found one or two bits.

You seem to have made the same mistake most people do at first with Lurrus of the Dream-Den, unless that really was intentional: only your permanents are limited to CMC 2 or less, instants and sorceries can be more expensive if you need them to...

[Aetherium Slinky]

https://deckstats.net/decks/93006/1614507-golos-tireless-pilgrim-umori-t?lng=en

This here is an artifact based control deck with lots of ramp and high costed artifacts. It's a casual deck because I couldn't get my tutors working well enough to reliably rely on infinite combos. We managed to squeeze in one infinite combo: Nesting Grounds + Magosi, the Waterveil + Karn's Bastion since Golos can reliably tutor for lands of all kinds. The land base is interesting: with the new Triome lands we are able to rely on their ability to trade for cards or alternatively enable the Check Lands. I'm still thinking about the Reveal Lands since they'd be much easier to pull of with the new Triomes. We've got the following steps to winning:

• Play ramp. Lots of it.
• Cast Golos and Umori for extra ramp.
• Play removal. Lots of it.
• Recur removal. Preferably many times.
• Win by bashing face.
• Since all of our permanents are either lands or artifacts we get lots of value from Golos.

The list doesn't contain cards over 10€ so you could call it a pseudo-budget build. This leaves out important pieces like Darksteel Forge but oh well, what can you do.

[Kalaxis]

https://deckstats.net/decks/93981/1608455-lurrus-theorycraft-vampires
An edited version of the Lurrus deck I submitted earlier.

[Aetherium Slinky]

https://deckstats.net/decks/93981/1608455-lurrus-theorycraft-vampires
An edited version of the Lurrus deck I submitted earlier.

The rules of the competition explicitly say you shouldn't edit the deck once you've submitted it.

[Kalaxis]

So use the fucking original one then. Mustakofta = Absolute Bellend

[Aetherium Slinky]

So use the fucking original one then. Mustakofta = Absolute Bellend

Hey I wasn't trying to be mean. I apologize for pointing that out, I just figured you'd accidentally skipped a word or a sentence. It happens, last time around I didn't catch a rule, so no need to call me names, ok?