Most keywords are good, and we all know it, but sometimes deathtouch is the best one. Knowing you can trade whatever you’re using with whatever comes at you is great.
Better yet, you can combine it with first strike and trample to make sure you’re always getting a good amount of damage through. So, that’s why we’re talking about Basilisk Collar today.
What is Basilisk Collar?
Basilisk Collar is a one-mana equipment that costs two mana to equip, and grants the equipped creature both deathtouch and lifelink. Those are good abilities for sure, but honestly, it’s a little underwhelming unless you’re using it on the right creatures.
But what are the right creatures? Well, they’re the ones you can use to inflict damage onto other creatures, because then it turns them all into headshotting turrets. The ability to kill anything that’s troubling you isn’t something you can underestimate, and as long as you’re clever you’ll be able to decimate any defense that dares to stand against you.
For the record, we’re talking about creatures like Walking Ballista and Triskelion, both of which can be used to pick off whatever you need removing. With those two already mentioned, let’s talk about the specific commanders we think are the most fun with Basilisk Collar in the list.
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Kelsien’s Collar
First up is Kelsien, the Plague, a three-mana red, white, and black 2/2 with vigilance and haste. It gets +1/+1 for each experience counter you have. You can then gain experience counters by tapping them to deal one damage to a creature you don’t control. If that creature dies that turn, then you get an experience counter.
Even without anything else in the deck, this and the collar are going to turn your commander into a sniper. We do really like Thousand-Year Elixir in this deck though, as it allows you to untap Kelsien which is a huge boon when you’re looking to do as much damage as possible to the opposing side.
Because the main focus here is utilising the commander more than the deck itself, it means that both Rune of Mortality and Gift of Doom are excellent choices, because they help make sure you have more ways of giving Kelsien deathtouch. That being said, we also really like Goblin Sharpshooter too, as they can also kill things off if they have deathtouch, but they also untap naturally when doing so. They also work in our next deck too.
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Tibor, Lumia, and the Baslisk
Tibor and Lumia are a four-mana blue and red 3/3 with a bunch of text on it. “Whenever you cast a blue spell, target creature gains flying until end of turn. Whenever you cast a red spell, Tibor and Lumia deals 1 damage to each creature without flying.” Naturally, we’re really looking at the whole red spell thing here, because that’s what’ll get the most out of the deck.
So, all you need to do is fill your deck with red spells. We also really like Harmonic Prodigy as they double the triggers you’ll be getting, and that’s a huge boost to how many creatures you can kill off. Veyran, Voice of Duality also does this, so that’s a big deal.
Niv-Mizzet Parun can be used as a stand-in when needed because they can also ping things for one damage. Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind pings things when you draw cards too, so they’re another great addition. Gorgon’s Head is another good choice for adding deathtouch to creatures too. All of those should allow you to obliterate your foes and friends alike.
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