Commander Smash up

For those who have never heard of smash up, it is a living card game where players take 2 factions (say wizards and giant ants) and "smash" their decks together to battle each other for control of different bases. It's a really fun, fast paced game. Check it out. Smash up

Using this as inspiration and utilizing the new "Partner" mechanic in Commander 2016, I've decided to try and brew some 50 card decks that we can mash together to play some commander. (sure we could have done this before, but now  it's completely legal)

For those who haven't seen the partner mechanic, well go to the previews and check them out....

You can have two commanders as long as each commander has Partner. There are 15 in the commander 2016 product: one of each allied pair and two of each enemy colored pair. This gives us 105 possible combinations, so yeah there is some variety here.

I'll build the actual decks later today's part in the exercise is to brainstorm the themes behind the decks. The idea of commander smash up will be to create 15- 50 card decks that when we want to play we just pick two at random and shuffle them together and go. Note: we can not reuse non basic cards between decks or we may break the singleton rule of commander.

Each deck will have about 29 non-land cards in addition to the commander. Lands will be fairly simple basics with a few to fix mana depending on how they can fit in.

Silas Renn, Seeker Adept: Reusing artifacts is a pretty obvious theme. We also want to run some artifact creatures. We likely need some forms of evasion for Silas to get through (wispersilk cloak). This theme is probably the easiest to come up with.

Vial Smasher the Fierce: This guy wants a good bit of draw as to not run out of gas. The deck needs to have plenty of instants to play on everyone's turn. Mana rocks are a definite plus. He also wants to do what he can to control the board. We should also look at X costing spells and spells that get cheaper to cast for whatever reason.

Tana, the Bloodsower: At first Tana looks like she is aiming for a token deck, but that's not the case. What she is actually looking for is ways to increase the damage she deals. I'm going to say this is the deck to run pump spells. Some global anthem like pumps and a lot of targeted pump.

Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa: I haven't figured out this guy yet. He seems kinda all over the place. He gives every small creature not attacking you flying while attacking. I think we definitely need ways to kill flying creatures. Tokens seem like a good idea to start with. We may want to find ways to encourage players to attack each other, but the colors are off for this... Not sure where to go beyond a typical GW token deck. Suggestions are more than welcome.

Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker: This guy has some potential, but he needs protection from removal first. Some hexproof granters will do the trick as well as some instant speed protection spells. He wants your opponents to cast spells, so some global draw is a possibility. Some shenanigans with +1/+1 counters would be fun as well.

Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder: This guy is really, really open and we could pretty much do whatever we want with him. Creatures that do something cool when they deal damage seem like a good idea. extra attack steps are typically good with this type of effect.

Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix: Obviously, she wants a lot of draw and some very expensive spells. X spells seem really good (hydras?). Draw spells probably shouldn't be expensive, but repeatable and more cards that mana cost (think brainstorm types and sylvan library).

Ravos, Soultender: This guy lets me reuse creatures. My first thought is to run a bunch of ETB effects. Honestly he is really open ended though and aggro deck using him to bring back the initial wave would be great, he also pumps up the early attackers. Evoke and echo are two keywords I'll be searching when it is time to build his deck.

Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist: All I can think to do with this guy as the focus is to push the other players attacking each other theme. Another idea is to play cards that punish people for drawing then force them to draw.

Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper: I want something to do with all that life. She definitely points to a toughness matters theme.

Akiri, Rope Thrower: Second commander in the list that cares about artifacts. This one could also use creatures, but seems more at home in an equipment based deck.

Thrasios, Triton Hero: When I first read this card I thought it was kinda meh. Then I realized it doesn't tap to use its ability.... any kind of mana acceleration deck can utilize this a great deal. Landfall also seems really good here...

Tymna the Weaver: Life gain and pay has become somewhat standard for BW. This is no different. Enabling attacks against defensive positions is probably a bit more important than normal so evasion like shadow is something I'll want to look at.

Kraum, Ludevic’s Opus: This commander looks like it wants to be balls to the wall and let our opponents' help us refill our hand as they try to deal with us. Adding a bit of spells matter to give it some more direction. We also want our opponents to play multiple spells so cards to help them draw may be appropriate?

Reyhan, Last of the Abzan: It would be pretty obvious to say +1/+1 counters, but here you go. Most of the +1/+1 counter themed GB commanders will go perfect in the 49 as support for her.

That should be plenty to get us started brewing. What do you think? Am I on the right track? What would you do differently?