For those unfamiliar with Emperor, here is the gist. You play on a 3 player team. Each team has an Emperor and 2 Lieutenants. Lieutenants face of against a specific Lieutenant on the opposing team(s). Emperors can not attack or be attacked until one of their lieutenants has been defeated. The goal of the game is to take out the opposing Emperor.
Now let's add commander to the mix: Everything is better with commander!!!
Deckbuilding:
1) For this challenge specifically we will be using unified team building rules. This means that only 1 copy of each card can be found on a team (other than basics).
2) As an additional challenge, I want to build the Emperor at a 3 color commander and each Lieutenant as a 2 color commander with 2 of the Emperor's colors. (I like the flavor and will suggest it for your playgroup as well). If I was to make an event I would say that the Emperor had to be more colors than the Lieutenants and that the Lieutenants together must have all the colors of the Emperor, seems simple enough.
3) We are going to keep in mind that this is meant to be played against a 3 team pod.
Extra Emperor specific rules to keep in mind.
1) Players can only target a player or player's permanent that they are facing, or their their opposite role teammates. One way to keep track of this is to hand out tokens to the Lieutenants at the beginning of the game. One Lieutenant on each team gets a token A and a token B. You can only target and attack a player who has the same token as you. When you are defeated pass the token to your Emperor. Emperor's can target their Lieutenants and their permanents and Lieutenants can target their Emperor and their permanents. Lieutenants cannot target the other Lieutenant on their team.
2) Global spells: Some playgroups have whats called a range of influence, which means that if you play a global spell it only affects players within so many steps of you. I suggest not doing this as it leads to degenerate game play where the Emperor has to play things like prosperity and if they don't draw them their team is screwed. Global effects should affect everyone. -this is how my playgroup plays and how I will be building.
3) Teams play their turns together: This is mostly a time saving deal, but it does change the power of some things, especially extra turns or extra combat phases.
Strategy:
There are many strategies that you could implement here that are outside the normal for magic. I will be focusing on having the Lieutenants attack quickly while the Emperor pumps up their attacks.
On to the Emperor's deck:
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest- I want a commander who will speed up the damage my Lieutenants' can deal. Granting doublestrike to creatures for 2 mana will do the trick.
Top
Elspeth Knight Errant- Repeated +3/+3 and flying to our lieutenants' creatures. Indestructible will help if they make it through our lieutenants.
Koth of the Hammer- I just want to be able to help my allies attack, with their mountains!
Awaken the Ancient- Turns one of my Lieutenants' Mountains into a 7/7 Giant. It's like summoning a creature for someone else. (now, which Lieutenant(s) are using mountains...)
Celestial Mantle- This is a good way to grant a Lieutenant 4 times their current life.
Chamber of Manipulation- Grants the ability to one of our Lieutenants' lands, turning any of their cards into one mana act of treasons.
Donate- This one is iffy. Do I want to give my Lieutenants something of mine? Maybe a planeswalker about to ult?
Waves of aggression- This is a solid kill card for this format.
Angelic Destiny- This card is a real beating and will come back if the creatures is dealt with.
Archetype of Imagination- The main key is opponents lose flying, making our team's fliers hard to block.
Gravitational Shift- Makes our guys bigger, slows the ground games.
Shiv's Embrace- Note that we have to pay for the firebreathing, the creature does not gain it.
Lobber Crew, Sizzle, Tunneling Geopede, - all damage can be redirected at planeswalkers when needed.
Blind Obedience- Slows down both of my opposing Lieutenants offences and defenses.
Stranglehold- Shuts down extra turns and library manipulation. Extra turns is another good strategy.
Aetherize- Returns all attackers to their owner's hand.
Lieutenant 1:
Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius- This deck needs to be aggressive. Niv-Mizzet is probably the most consistant RU aggressive commander as he can refill a depleted hand quickly as well as control some elements of the board.
Notable cards
Temporal Fissure- With 3 players going at once, storm counts are going to be high.
Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker- Aggressive creature that avoids wraths, doubles as removal
Dack's Duplicate- Mostly as a clone with haste.
Dragon Tempest- If we go with a dragon subtheme this can be a key player.
Hellkite Charger, Thundermaw Hellkite - Yeah, I think we want to go dragons and clones.
Dragonstorm- and of course storm.
Lieutenant 2:
Iroas, God of Victory- Really we could go with most RW commanders. Aurela would be amazing, but I have done that a few times already.
Gideon, Martial Paragon- So many Gideon to chose from and you really can't go wrong. I think untapping all our creatures is really what we want. esp if someone else has activated an extra attack card...
Sun Titan, Inferno Titan- Just tons of effective beatstick creatures. especially if they have when they attack type riders on them.
Alternatively most of my RW commander decks could be used as a lieutenant...
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