$0.36 Warlock Precon Commander Wins by Cheating Haymakers into Play

While the bar that Commanders need to clear to see competitive play is quite high, every now and again, an unexpected legend will showcase its power. For example, just this week, Winter, Cynical Opportunist Winter, Cynical Opportunist Deathtouch
Whenever Winter attacks, mill three cards.
Delirium — At the beginning of your end step, you may exile any number of cards from your graveyard with four or more card types among them. If you do, put a permanent card from among them onto the battlefield with a finality counter on it. boasted a 5-0 finish in a Duel Commander League out of nowhere. It’s not often that precon Commanders make a splash in this format, but Winter provides some incredible utility that’s hard to replicate.

Cheating Out Bombs with Winter

The main goal behind this deck piloted by ZacharyHaleComstock is to enable Delirium as quickly as possible, maximizing Winter’s final ability. While Winter does technically fuel the graveyard via attacking, it’s often better not to expose the Warlock until you can get value the same turn.

Fortunately, this deck features a bunch of other ways to Mill cards, including Satyr Wayfinder Satyr Wayfinder When this creature enters, reveal the top four cards of your library. You may put a land card from among them into your hand. Put the rest into your graveyard. and Town Greeter Town Greeter When this creature enters, mill four cards. You may put a land card from among them into your hand. If you put a Town card into your hand this way, you gain 2 life. (To mill four cards, a player puts the top four cards of their library into their graveyard.) . Efficient trinkets like Mishra’s Bauble Mishra’s Bauble {T}, Sacrifice this artifact: Look at the top card of target player's library. Draw a card at the beginning of the next turn's upkeep. and Urza’s Bauble Urza’s Bauble {T}, Sacrifice this artifact: Look at a card at random in target player's hand. You draw a card at the beginning of the next turn's upkeep. or multi-type cards like Haywire Mite Haywire Mite When this creature dies, you gain 2 life.
{G}, Sacrifice this creature: Exile target noncreature artifact or noncreature enchantment. or Summon: Titan Summon: Titan (As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter. Sacrifice after III.)
I — Mill five cards.
II — Return all land cards from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.
III — Until end of turn, another target creature you control gains trample and gets +X/+X, where X is the number of lands you control.
Reach, trample help hit Delirium even more consistently.

Once you have Delirium assembled, your next step is to make sure you have a game-altering haymaker in the yard for Winter to bring back. Graveyard tutors like Unmarked Grave Unmarked Grave Search your library for a nonlegendary card, put that card into your graveyard, then shuffle. and Dina’s Guidance Dina’s Guidance Search your library for a creature card, reveal it, put it into your hand or graveyard, then shuffle. do a great job setting up Archon of Cruelty Archon of Cruelty Flying
Whenever this creature enters or attacks, target opponent sacrifices a creature or planeswalker of their choice, discards a card, and loses 3 life. You draw a card and gain 3 life. , Summon: Bahamut Summon: Bahamut (As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter. Sacrifice after IV.)
I, II — Destroy up to one target nonland permanent.
III — Draw two cards.
IV — Mega Flare — This creature deals damage equal to the total mana value of other permanents you control to each opponent.
Flying , or whatever other bomb you want to resurrect. Notably, you can also choose to put a noncreature bomb like Ugin, Eye of the Storms Ugin, Eye of the Storms When you cast this spell, exile up to one target permanent that's one or more colors.
Whenever you cast a colorless spell, exile up to one target permanent that's one or more colors.
+2: You gain 3 life and draw a card.
0: Add {C}{C}{C}.
−11: Search your library for any number of colorless nonland cards, exile them, then shuffle. Until end of turn, you may cast those cards without paying their mana costs. , or Portal to Phyrexia Portal to Phyrexia When this artifact enters, each opponent sacrifices three creatures of their choice.
At the beginning of your upkeep, put target creature card from a graveyard onto the battlefield under your control. It's a Phyrexian in addition to its other types. into play with Winter’s ability, increasing its utility.

To create a window to pull this off, cards like Grief Grief Menace
When this creature enters, target opponent reveals their hand. You choose a nonland card from it. That player discards that card.
Evoke—Exile a black card from your hand. and Thoughtseize Thoughtseize Target player reveals their hand. You choose a nonland card from it. That player discards that card. You lose 2 life. can help clear the way. If you need to buy time to pull this off, Toxic Deluge and Vicious Rivalry Vicious Rivalry As an additional cost to cast this spell, pay X life.
Destroy all artifacts and creatures with mana value X or less. can stave off tons of pressure, riding your haymakers to victory.

Powerful… If You Dodge Hate

As a whole, this deck’s game plan is both explosive and consistent, helping it beat a wide variety of different archetypes. Against aggro decks like Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd Flash
Whenever Phelia attacks, exile up to one other target nonland permanent. At the beginning of the next end step, return that card to the battlefield under its owner's control. If it entered under your control, put a +1/+1 counter on Phelia. , your healthy mix of early removal spells like Fatal Push Fatal Push Destroy target creature if it has mana value 2 or less.
Revolt — Destroy that creature if it has mana value 4 or less instead if a permanent left the battlefield under your control this turn. and Bone Shards Bone Shards As an additional cost to cast this spell, sacrifice a creature or discard a card.
Destroy target creature or planeswalker. allows you to assume a control role. So long as you can stay alive long enough, your reanimation targets should completely take over the game.

Yet, against control decks that don’t apply lots of early pressure, you have more time to craft a hand to fight through disruption. Besides just discard spells, this deck features a bunch of redundancy in its reanimation effects, with cards like Animate Dead Animate Dead Enchant creature card in a graveyard
When this Aura enters, if it's on the battlefield, it loses "enchant creature card in a graveyard" and gains "enchant creature put onto the battlefield with this Aura." Return enchanted creature card to the battlefield under your control and attach this Aura to it. When this Aura leaves the battlefield, that creature's controller sacrifices it.
Enchanted creature gets -1/-0. and Necromancy Necromancy You may cast this spell as though it had flash. If you cast it any time a sorcery couldn't have been cast, the controller of the permanent it becomes sacrifices it at the beginning of the next cleanup step.
When this enchantment enters, if it's on the battlefield, it becomes an Aura with "enchant creature put onto the battlefield with Necromancy." Put target creature card from a graveyard onto the battlefield under your control and attach this enchantment to it. When this enchantment leaves the battlefield, that creature's controller sacrifices it. in the mix.

Unfortunately, despite this deck’s versatility, you still need to avoid hate cards to have success. Most Duel Commander strategies have some forms of graveyard hate, such as Ghost Vacuum Ghost Vacuum {T}: Exile target card from a graveyard.
{6}, {T}, Sacrifice this artifact: Put each creature card exiled with this artifact onto the battlefield under your control with a flying counter on it. Each of them is a 1/1 Spirit in addition to its other types. Activate only as a sorcery. or Unlicensed Hearse Unlicensed Hearse {T}: Exile up to two target cards from a single graveyard.
Unlicensed Hearse's power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards exiled with it.
Crew 2 , that make enabling Delirium or sticking a reanimate effect a nightmare. On top of that, pesky hatebears like Containment Priest Containment Priest Flash
If a nontoken creature would enter and it wasn't cast, exile it instead. and Drannith Magistrate Drannith Magistrate Your opponents can't cast spells from anywhere other than their hands. also demand interaction in most games before you can go off.

With so much to worry about, and little in the way of answering noncreature problems, Winter unfortunately still falls outside the top echelon of Duel Commander decks. Nonetheless, the deck is definitely capable of running hot, so don’t be surprised if it pops up every now and again.

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