PSA: Ghyrson Starn is not just a pinger lord
Dear Izzet friends, I've seen your [[Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph]] decks. I've read your articles touting his strength as a pinger tribal commander. When he was spoiled, I too dug through my bulk box hoping to finally put my [[Prodigal Sorcerer]]s to good use. And like you, I brewed a pinger deck with Ghyrson Starn at the helm. But we are Izzet mages. We can be more creative than this.
So I kept going. I added more win conditions to the pinger deck, broadening its focus. But that wasn't enough, so I brewed three more Ghyrson Starn decks with totally different strategies. And now I can happily share the good news that the brewing space for this guy is woefully underexplored.
# The Strategies
The best way to think of Ghyrson Starn is as a lord for any kind of 1-damage effect. Yes, pingers like [[Firebrand Archer]] and [[Prodigal Pyromancer]] are one option. But any set of cards that reliably creates a lot of "this deals 1 damage" events is potentially viable.
## Pinger Tribal
If you brew the pinger gameplan, you'll quickly discover that adding too many single target pingers like Prodigal Pyromancer makes your deck slow and underwhelming. Too many of them cost 3 mana (the same as Ghyrson Starn, unfortunately) so your curve becomes bloated and it takes forever to set up a board with multiple pingers + Ghyrson Starn. To make matters worse, there aren't many good mass untap effects. [[Dramatic Reversal]] and [[Turnabout]] are serviceable, but unless you're going for an infinite mana combo of some sort, they're underwhelming and highly situational options. Yet if you include them for combo purposes, you become reticent to use them to get extra pings.
So if you go the pinger route, it's best to focus on creatures that ping all opponents, especially those that cost 2 mana or less. [[Electrostatic Field]], [[Kessig Flamebreather]], [[Thermo-Alchemist]], and so on. That puts you firmly into spellslinger territory, making [[Gelectrode]] the only single target pinger that really fits into the plan. But [[Niv-Mizzet, Parun]] is also a pinger who can trigger more than once a turn and you're already playing [[Curiosity]], so that combo slots in quite naturally. And if you lean hard enough into the spellslinger angle, you can add [[Aetherflux Reservoir]] as a win condition and power it with cards like [[Epic Experiment]], [[Mizzix's Master]], and [[Bonus Round]]. If you play [[Storm-Kiln Artist]] and [[Narset's Reversal]], there's even a janky infinite storm combo. Now this is starting to feel like an Izzet deck.
The main gameplan is to burn out opponents with an ever increasing number of pings, each of which Ghyron Starn effectively turns into [[Sizzle]]. Having two backup win conditions that don't require the commander helps the deck be less single-minded and more robust to targeted removal and board wipes.
[Ghyrson Spellslinger](https://www.moxfield.com/decks/YLr6p_cjzUu4zDZMTTgovA/primer).
## Izzet Goblins (yes, you read that right)
Maybe you already have an Izzet spellslinger deck and don't want yet another one. Maybe you'd rather play a deck with 40 creatures instead of 40 spells. Fair enough. Ghyrson Starn is also a viable goblin lord. Most goblins have 1 power and any Krenko player knows how easy it is to produce a ton of them. Ghyrson Starn effectively makes all these 1 power goblins deal 3 damage, giving you a 3 mana [[Fiery Emancipation]] in the command zone. Oh, and by the way you now have countermagic to protect your board state. You may not be able to make as many goblins as [[Krenko, Mob Boss]], but you don't need to since yours will deal more damage. And you can play Krenko in the 99 anyway.
Blue gives you access to more protection like [[Goblin Flectomancer]] and some pretty powerful effects for a go-wide deck: [[Timestream Navigator]] and [[Beguiler of Wills]]. If you encounter another go-wide deck, fear not, as [[Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive]] can make your team unblockable. But most importantly, blue gives you access sufficent card advantage to grind into the late game: [[Shared Discovery]], [[Distant Melody]], [[Keep Watch]], [[Reconnaissance Mission]], and so on.
This is a more proactive strategy than the typical Ghyrson Starn pinger build, but not as all-in as the average Krenko build. Like the pinger deck above, you have backup combo win conditions that don't require your commander:
* [[Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker]] + [[Combat Celebrant]] -> infinite combats * [[Conspicuous Snoop]] + [[Goblin Recruiter]] -> infinite damage
And neither combo requires you to play cards that don't already fit into the main gameplan.
[Ghyrson's Goblins](https://www.moxfield.com/decks/_cO2WzNAN0Cb5J5Nxlp4KQ/primer)
## Wizard Tribal
If you liked the tribal idea but aren't a fan of goblins, there's also a wizard tribal deck to be enjoyed. But this deck is first and foremost a combo deck with a go-wide plan as a backup:
* [[Dualcaster Mage]] + [[Twinflame]] -> infinite 2/2s with haste * [[Niv-Mizzet, Parun]] + [[Curiosity]] -> damage limited only by your deck size * [[Dualcaster Mage]] + [[Ghostly Flicker]] -> infinite mana + ETBs
Wizards are a highly interactive tribe so you get to interfere with your opponents in many ways. [[Fatespinner]] messes with their turns, [[Sigil Tracer]] wins counter wars or copies their removal or ramp. Several wizards counter spells, [[Rockslide Sorcerer]] is removal, and so on. This is a deck for players who like to make lots of small decisions that add up over the course of a game.
Ghyrson Starn gives you a beatdown plan as a backup. This helps you against stax decks and more controlling decks.
[Ghyrson's Wizards](https://www.moxfield.com/decks/v6jU-ZDwL0Gcyez1UzS-ZA/primer)
## Artifacts
Ghyrson Starn's text box didn't say anything about goblins or wizards. You can check again but he doesn't say anything about artifacts either. But there's no reason he can't helm a strong artifact deck.
The artifact build of Ghyrson Starn is a synergy-driven deck but not a tribal one (maybe you could brew Myr tribal or something, however). It's all about having *more* than your opponents. More permanents on the battlefield. More cards in hand. More mana. All of the above. Card quality is for other decks, this one is all about card *quantity*.
Like Modern affinity, this deck can be hellbent on turn 3. But ample card advantage sources (16 of them!) keep the gas flowing. Ghyrson Starn works as the commander because a lot of cheap artifacts have 1 power or produce tokens with 1 power. And many of those artifacts have evasion (thopters, [[Gingerbrute]], [[Hope of Ghirapur]], etc). So emptying your hand, casting Ghyrson Starn, and dealing 18+ damage on turn 4 is not unrealistic.
This deck doesn't have any combos so it's more reliant on Ghyrson Starn than the others. However [[The Antiquities War]] and [[Grafted Exoskeleton]] both work as backup win conditions, although the latter is stronger with Ghyrson Starn in play.
[Ghyrson Artifacts](https://www.moxfield.com/decks/RxsDRdijQ0eUbO4hjBoqcQ/primer)
## Other Builds
I'm convinced a go-wide deck exists for Ghyrson Starn that eschews any tribal or other synergies. One playing all the best ways to generate tokens cheaply and/or repeatedly. [[Hanweir Garrison]], [[Tilonalli's Summoner]], and such cards. You could probably get a good start brewing it by looking at typical [[Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive]] and [[Subira, Tulzidi Caravanner]] staples and working from there.
There might also be other tribes besides goblins and wizards that generate a lot of 1/1s. A lot of enchantments deal 1 damage so perhaps there is potential there too. If you have ideas I'd love to hear them!
Notably, the four builds I presented above only share four nonland cards in common: [[Curiosity]], [[End the Festivities]], [[Chaos Warp]], and [[Arcane Signet]]. They feel and play quite differently as a result. I hope Wizards continues to print more commanders like Ghyrson Starn who support multiple strategies without being overpowered or too generic.