Hello and welcome to Weekly Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Asmoranomardicdaistinaculdacar!

Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar is a zero mana 3/3 that as long as you’ve discarded a card this turn you may pay a black or red to cast them, when they enter you may search your library for a card named The Underworld Cookbook, reveal it and put it into your hand then shuffle, the you can sacrifice two Foods to have target creature deal 6 damage to itself.

Asmor, which I how I will be referring to them from now on, is a Commander that plays into discard strategies with a Food subtheme, primarily because of The Underworld Cookbook, which can help the strategy while also having a way to get some creatures back to your hand.

We can play around with this in a variety of ways, using Food as a way to act as removal while having payoffs for sacrificing them, along with making use of discard strategies to help produce some value along the way and that being the way we can potentially build a win condition out of.

Piles of Plates

The first thing to look at are ways we can make some Foods as well as ways we can have alternative uses for that Food.

Since Asmor tutors it up, The Underworld Cookbook is a way for us to discard a card to make a Food token, and a way for us to return a creature from our graveyard to our hand, which can be a way for us to get a strong creature or a utility creature that was sent or discarded in an earlier turn to make use of it now.

Witch’s Oven is another great generic way for us to get a Food token since all we need to do is tap it and sacrifice a creature to get a Food token, getting two Food tokens if we sacrificed a creature with power 4 or greater.

We can also double up the number of Food tokens we make if we use Scavenger’s Talent, which once each turn if one or more creatures we control dies then we make a Food token, which when it gets to level two then let’s us mill a player for two cards whenever we sacrifice a permanent, and at level three we can sacrifice three other nonland permanents to bring back a creature from our graveyard with a finality counter on it.

There is also some removal spells that can create a Food token like Savor which gives a creature -2/-2 and makes a Food token, Feed the Cauldron which destroys a creature with mana value three or less and if it was done during our turn then we make a Food token, and Bake into a Pie which just destroys target creature to make a Food token.

We can also make use of cards that benefit from us sacrificing Food, like Nuka-Cola Vending Machine, which for one mana and tap makes a Food token and whenever we sacrifice a Food token we make a tapped Treasure token, which for Asmor means that we can make two tapped Treasure tokens when we use her ability.

Another way for us to make use of all of that Food sacrifice is with Experimental Confectioner, which when it enters makes a Food token, and whenever we sacrifice a Food, we create a 1/1 Rat creature token that can’t block, but for us can function either with Witch’s Oven to sacrifice to make a Food, or with Scavenger’s Talent to get more nonland permanents to sacrifice to bring a creature back from the graveyard.

Discard That Card

The next thing we need to look out for are discard strategies, as well as cards that make use of cards being discarded or itself being discarded.

There are plenty of cards that give us some sort of advantage that use discarding a card as an additional cost, like Magmatic Insight being one mana and discarding a land card to let us draw two cards. Faithless Looting falls in a similar vein since it let’s us draw two cards and then discard two cards while also being able to be cast from the graveyard.

Big Score and Unexpected Windfall are great because they both have us discard a card as an additional cost and they both draw us two cards and then make two Treasure tokens, which we can use for more cards that have discarding cards as an additional cost like Lightning Axe, which gives us the option to either discard a card or pay five additional mana to deal 5 damage to target creature.

Among the cards we want to discard are cards that have Madness, like Big Game Hunter, which would normally be three mana for a creature that when it enters destroys a creature with power 4 or greater, but if we discard it and cast it through it’s Madness cost, then we get all of that for one mana instead.

In a similar vein there is Dark Withering which would destroy target nonblack creature for six mana unless we pay the Madness cost of just a single black mana if we discard it. Terminal Agony also falls in this category of card because we can pay two mana to destroy target creature if we pay the Madness cost.

Mayhem is similar enough to Madness, but it can be cast at any time during the turn (following timing rules) if it was discarded this turn, and something like Sandman’s Quicksand also has an interesting interaction in which it would normally give all creatures -2/-2 until end of turn, but if it was cast for it’s Mayhem cost, then only our opponents creatures get -2/-2 until end of turn.

We can also make use of other cards that can make use of us discarding cards like Chainer, Nightmare Adept, which once each turn let’s us discard a card and until end of turn cast a creature spell from the graveyard, and if a nontoken creature we control enters and it wasn’t cast from our hand, then it gains haste until end of turn.

This means we can discard a big creature like Voracious Fell Beast and cast it later with Chainer, then we can still make use of a big creature that has each opponent sacrifice a creature and makes a Food token for each creature sacrificed this way to help with Asmor and their ability.

Of course there are also creatures like Glint-Horn Buccaneer which have it so that whenever we discard a card then it deals 1 damage to each opponent, while also having the benefit of being a way to discard a card and draw a card when it attacks as a bonus. There is also Magmakin Artillerist which has it so that whenever we discard one or more cards it deals that much damage to each opponent, can cycle for two mana and when we do cycle it, it deals 1 damage to each opponent.

Forks in the Road

There are several ways we can play the deck, and this is where we can use a variety of card to help define the deck depending on what sort of way we want to play it.

If we want to go all in on discard, then one of the better ways to take advantage of it are with cards like Surly Badgersaur, which has is so whenever we discard a creature card then it gets a +1/+1 counter, if we discard a land then we make a Treasure token, and if we discard a noncreature, nonland card then we can have it fight a creature we don’t control.

There is also Bone Miser, which has it so whenever we discard a creature card we create a 2/2 Zombie token, if we discard a land card then we add two black mana, and if we discard a noncreature, nonland card the we draw a card.

Since Asmor sacrifices artifacts to activate their ability, then we can make use of artifact sacrifice strategies. Vat of Rebirth has it so that when an artifact or creature card we control is put into the graveyard from the battlefield then we put an oil counter on it and for three mana, tap, and removing four oil counters from it then we can return a creature from our graveyard to the battlefield.

Crime Novelist has it so that whenever we sacrifice an artifact then we put a +1/+1 counter on it and add a red mana, Marionette Apprentice has it so whenever another creature or artifact we control is put into the graveyard from the battlefield each opponent loses 1 life, and Mayhem Devil has it so that whenever a player sacrifices a permanent then it deals 1 damage to any target.

Looking at the Game Changers, other then the generic tutors, we can actually use Underworld Breach as a way to potentially get a lot of value from casting spells from our graveyard since it gives every nonland card in our graveyard an Escape cost of its mana value and exiling three other cards from our graveyard.

If we have a way to discard a bunch of land cards like Seismic Assault, which let’s us discard a land card to deal 2 damage to any target with Surly Badgersaur and/or Bone Miser in play to help us generate a ton of mana, then we can use Underworld Breach to get a ton of cards from our graveyard into play or help us cast a bunch of cheap spells to get a Storm win with something like Tendrils of Agony.

Finishing Touches

As far as how we win, with how wide our strategy pool is we can take a variety of options from that.

One thing we can do is make use of our Foods by using Hazel’s Brewmaster, which when they enter or attack, we exile up to one target creature from a graveyard and make a Food token and they give all Foods we control the activated abilities of creatures we exiled with them, meaning that if we managed to exile a creature with a mana ability or a strong activated ability, we can make our Foods even more effective.

We can also get a bit tricky with how we use Asmor’s ability, for example using a card like Shelob’s Ambush, which gives a creature +1/+2 and deathtouch until end of turn while also making a Food token. The fun tricky part is that we can target an opponent’s creature with it in order to give it deathtouch, then use Asmor’s ability to have that creature deal 6 damage to itself, which if has higher toughness then 6 will end up killing it.

Speaking of tricky ways to make use of Asmor’s ability, there are cards like Brash Taunter, which when it takes damage, it deals that much damage to target opponent, while also being indestructible and has an ability that it can use to fight a creature an opponent controls.

Asmor’s ability isn’t tied to being used against opponents creatures, meaning that we can target creatures like Brash Taunter, or Barbed Servitor which when it also is dealt damage (while also being indestructible) it has target opponent lose that much life and is suspected when it enters and draws us a card for 1 life when it deals combat damage or even the classic Stuffy Doll, which when it enters has us choose and opponent and much like the others is indestructible and when it is dealt damage it deals that much damage to chosen player and can tap to deal 1 damage to itself.

There is also a decent strategy that let’s us go all in on the discard aspect of the deck by having solid payoffs like Archfiend of Ifnir, which has whenever we cycle or discard a card, each creature our opponents control gets a -1/-1 counter, which can definitely deal with armies of smaller creatures and can get rid of problematic creatures with protection abilities and indestructible.

Monument to Endurance is more of a slow burn discard payoff in that whenever we discard a card we choose an option that hasn’t been chosen from drawing a card, making a Treasure token, or having each opponent lose 3 life, which if we can get a solid discard outlet each turn we can drain our opponents of 3 life each turn while also gaining card and mana advantage.

We even have access to a reanimator strategy with Grimoire of the Dead, which we can use to pay one mana, tap, and discard a card to put a study counter on it and if we tap it, remove three study counters and sacrifice it then we can put all creature cards from all graveyards onto the battlefield under our control and they also happen to become Zombies until the end of turn.

In Conclusion

Asmor has a variety of strategies that we can lean towards, each of them having a different amount of focus on Asmor’s importance to the deck.

We can lean hard into the Food synergies and artifact sacrifice to have Asmor be effective at clearing the board or being quirky with how we deal damage, or we can focus on the discard strategy to be able to get them into play for cheap and to get some subtle benefits from the discard strategies, or we can go for a general theme deck that makes use of self discard while having few strategies for Asmor to make use of, more so being a cheap Commander that can help in some niche scenarios.

With Asmor being as broad in their scope, focusing on one strategy can be beneficial because there are plenty of directions to take the deck and get lost with the potential of other strategies.

If you have a major discard focus, then implementing some Food strategies may not be as helpful because they detract from the intent of the deck and vice versa.

Asmor can serve many strategies, and it is up to the deckbuilder to focus on those strategies so things don’t feel like a mess, and once that recipe is followed, then the deck can run smoothly and optimally. It isn’t going to be majorly competitive by many means, but with a focus on a game plan the deck can serve some positive results.

Thank you all for reading, see you next week for the next Weekly Commander!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual

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