Evereth, Viceroy of Plunder is a commander featured inMagic: the Gathering’sFoundations Jumpstart set. While it’s a mono black card, it has a Rakdos (black/red) color identity, something that is very appreciated for the kind of sacrifice and Treasure-based deck it wants you to play.
Evereth, Viceroy of Plunder is a unique sacrifice commander as you can opt to use Treasure tokens for either mana generation or to feed Evereth’s effect. If you like decks that have you sacrificing creatures for value or damage, then Evereth, Viceroy of Plunder is the perfect commander for you to play a different take on that strategy.
Blade of the Bloodchief
x8 Mountain
x9 Swamp
Tainted Peak
War Room
The decklistconsists of 33 creatures, four sorceries, six instants, 16 artifacts, six enchantments,and34 lands. Most of the deck consists of cards that care about permanents being sacrificed, or are tools to create more creatures to sacrifice.
Key Cards
Evereth, Viceroy Of Plunder
Evereth, Viceroy of Plunderis the commander of the deck and one that does a whole lot. You cangive it +1/+1 counters by sacrificing a creature or an artifact. This is accomplished by the plethora of cards in the deck that create creatures every turn cycle to make sure you always have sacrifice fodder.
Evereth’s effect can be used at instant speed. So if it’s ever targeted for removal, you can sacrifice creatures to deal a larger amount of burn damage on the way out.
When it dies,Evereth can deal damage equal to its power to each opponent. With how quickly you’re able to stack up +1/+1 counters on it, this can cause a massive outburst of burn damage, accompanied by dealing damage with flying to take your opponents out of the game quicker.
Pitiless Plunderer
With how much sacrifice you’ll be doing,Pitiless Plundereris a great wayto turn that into Treasure tokens. These tokens can be used to eithercast other spells,or used tosacrifice Treasure tokens toEvereth’s effect. Both options are valid, and there are merits to post.
Pitiless Plunderertriggers whenever a creature you control dies. The circumstances of that death do not matter, so even if a creature dies in combat you’ll still get the Treasure token. However, you’ll primarily get the Treasure from sacrifice effects.
The Ozolith
The Ozolithis one of the most important cards in the deck, largely because of its interaction with Evereth itself. The Ozolith essentiallystores +1/+1 counters on it when creatures with them die. At every combat, you have theoption to put them all on a creature.
When you sacrifice Evereth, it deals damage equal to its power and can gain a ton of +1/+1 counters. When you re-cast Evereth,you can put the old counters back on it thanks to The Ozolith. This lets you essentially double up on your damage, and is the quickest way to burn all your opponents out of the game.
Black Market Connections
Black Market Connectionsis the most useful enchantment in the deck as it can generate both aTreasure tokenanda creature token. This gives you two things you can potentially sacrifice with Evereth’s ability.
The effect of Black Market Connectionsis mandatory,meaning you have to use at least one of the effects no matter what. While this isn’t a big deal thanks to your high starting life total, at the end game it can become more dangerous when life totals are more fragile.
Even if you don’tuse the tokensfrom Black Market Connections for Evereth’s ability, the card is useful on its own.The Treasures can be used to cast spells, and thecard draw gets you to your key cards quicker.
How To Play The Deck
An Evereth, Viceroy of Plunder Commander deck is all aboutgenerating permanents to sacrifice for Evereth’s effect, and then using her as your primary source of damage. Evereth can do a ton of damage before dying thanks to having flying, so youwant to attack evenly before sacrificing Evereth itself to deal burn damage to all your opponents.
Thereare a ton of ways to create tokensto sacrifice each turn.Urabrask’s ForgeandLagomos, Hand of Hatredboth make a token that dies at the end step, so you may as well sacrifice them to Evereth. More permanent token generators includeBitterblossom, Black Market Connections, Ophiomancer, andLoyal Apprentice.
If you use a creature to block that will die in combat, you’re able to sacrifice it before damage and still not take damage (so long as the attacking creature doesn’t have trample) while gaining the benefits of sacrificing a creature.
Cards that give extra +1/+1 counters to Evereth are importantas they help to close the gap needed to burn everyone with one effect trigger quicker.Blade of the Bloodchiefgives Evereth two counters when a creature dies since it’s a Vampire, andTarrian’s Soulcleavergives a +1/+1 counter whenever a creature or artifact goes to the graveyard.Treasure tokens being sacrificed count as an artifact going to the graveyard, so if you sacrificed it with Evereth, you get two +1/+1 counters for the price of one.
Theprimary win condition of the deck is a mixture of burn and combat damage. Since Evereth has flying, unless your opponent has creatures that also have flying (or reach), you can get in for some guaranteed damage. Once everyone is low enough, you can set up a situation where Evereth will die and burn everyone for whatever her power is. Youdo not want to have Evereth die unless you can take someone out of the game, or cause a hindrance on their gameplan.
Thebiggest downside of the deck is reliance on Evereth. While the deck can function without it on the battlefield, if youwant to close out games quickly, you’ll want Evereth on the battlefieldas soon as possible. Luckily, it has a low casting cost, something the entire deck has with only a few spells costing over three mana. This lets you get set up quickly and start going through with your gameplan before your opponents can stabilize.
