Welcome back to another edition of A Seat at the Table.

This week, I tackle Three King’s Loot owner, Greg Thibault’s favourite Commander: Shattergang Brothers!

With the latest printing in Double Masters being about a quarter, Shattergang Brothers will surprise newer players with its flavour and utility. There’s a fine like and a balance to strike with Shattergang Brothers. Let’s see how we can make these bad boys shine.

Liquimetal Torque / Liquimetal Coating

Liquimetal Torque is one of the best mana rocks Wizards of the Coast has printed in recent memory. Especially for mono red decks or Rx decks that have to pack a ton of artifact removal. This turns your non-overloaded Vandalblast into a single target removal spell of any nonland permanent. The Coating lets you hit lands, too – but it won’t let you tap it for mana.

Need to sacrifice an artifact but don’t have one on board besides the Torque and you’ve got a bunch of token creatures? Turn one of those lil’ guys into an artifact to sack to the Brothers so you can force an artifact edict for all of your opponents.

Are you already sacrificing a clue for that edict effect, but an opponent doesn’t have an artifact to sacrifice? Turn their Commander into an artifact! Bye bye, big guy! Maybe they only have one artifact that they really want to keep – turn another piece on their board into one and give them  a real decision to make.

Unsurprisingly, these cards are great inclusions in this deck and are on the cheap end… for now. I fully expect Torque to go up over time.

Felhide Spiritbinder / Pharika, God of Affliction / Forlorn Pseudamma

These creatures fall under a category I’m calling Double Up, specifically Double Up – Enchantments. There are a bunch of enchantments out there to play, but more often than not, they’re things you want to keep around like Riveteers Ascendancy or Vicious Shadows. Enchantments aren’t as represented as Artifacts in the sense that there aren’t thousands of cards that create enchantment tokens. That’s why I’ve targeted this bunch of cards, even including the truly meh Forlorn Pseudamma (at least it has Intimidate!) Which is quite literally scraping the bottom of the barrel.

On the flip side though, I love Felhide Spiritbinder. Combine it with Cryptolith Rite and Seedborn Muse for an efficient way to use this Minotaur Shaman that’s ready to copy ANY creature on the battlefield AND make it an enchantment creature token. It feels like magical Christmas land to think about it all but imagine: untap step, trigger, target Dockside Extortionist, then sacrifice it as an enchantment to Shattergang Brothers to get rid of Smothering Tithe, Rhystic Study, and an opponent’s Doubling Season! It’s open-ended possibility. Yes, it costs five mana to create an enchantment creature token and then sacrifice to the Goblin Bros, but you knew coming into this deck with one look at the Commander that they’re hungry for mana. The flexibility this gives you is amazing. You create a create, hopefully with a relevant ETB or ability, and then sacrifice it before it goes away to edict for a creature or artifact. Chef’s kiss. No notes.

Pharika is a cheap to cast God that smacks face well and makes good blockers if you’ve got the disposable creatures in your graveyard. This inclusion is mostly a surprise to your opponents. It’s got its applications, but make no mistake: Pharika is in the deck for the enchantment creature token creation.

Smoke Spirits’ Aid

I think this card is nifty. You create and control the auras and attach them to any creatures you can target. If the creatures go away before you can pop them to the Shattergang enchantment ability, then you’ll have a Treasure for mana or to sacrifice to the Gang – not to mention, you’re pinging that creature’s controller for one. I think this card has a lot of fun baked into it and hope to see it more, especially in an enchantress build with Constellation going wild.

Mahadi, Emporium Master

Mahadi is a stupid good card. Gadrak, the Crown-Scourge gets an upgrade (depending who you ask) – Mahadi doesn’t care if the creatures that died were tokens, this Cat Devil is paying you for all of them.

In this deck, a turn with Mahadi out looks like this: Sacrifice a creature to Shattergang Brothers’ ability, four creatures have died. Go to combat, maybe more die. Maybe you can activate the ability more than once or you’ve got Illusionist’s Bracers or Battlemage’s Bracers on them. Many, many creatures die. Mahadi sees all of them and gives you four Treasures minimum in one activation as long as each opponent had a creature. Then you can use those Treasures to pay for or be sacrificed to the Brothers to edict away your opponents’ artifacts.

I think Mahadi is an all-star anyway and recommend getting the etched-foil versions while they’re under a buck, because that won’t be forever.

Tireless Provisioner / Loyal Apprentice / Oni-Cult Anvil / Academy Manufactor

Now, we arrive at Double Up – Artifacts.

Tireless Provisioner turns your land drops into versatile fodder that you can use for card draw, life gain, or more mana, but they can also be sacrificed to the Brothers to get rid of your opponents trinkets.

Combine the Provisioner with Academy Manufactor (HOW IS THIS A REAL CARD?!?!) for some token making shenanigans.

Loyal Apprentice loves helping out the Goblin Twins when they’re hanging out together by creating a Thopter every time you go into combat. Artifact creatures have two types that can get tossed to the Brothers and they make for excellent attackers and blockers in the air.

Oni-Cult Anvil only needs one artifact to go to your graveyard on your turn to make an artifact creature that you can use next turn to keep the cycle going. Good luck keeping creatures and artifacts! Also, when the Brothers aren’t around, the anvil still allows you to drain the table for one.

Honorable Mention: Tergrid, God of Fright / Dictate of Erebos / Grave Pact / Mayhem Devil

This section is reserved for the “duh” picks for the deck. Tergrid allows you to take the things that get sacrificed.

Dictate of Erebus and Grave Pact turn your Shattergang Brothers creature sacrifice ability into a double creature edict. That’s not all! Artifact creatures being sacrificed to the Brothers as an artifact still trigger Dictate and Pact as creatures, so you’ll edict for an artifact and a creature. Solemn Simulacrum, get in the bin!

Mayhem Devil lets you send 4 damage for every time you edict all of your opponents with the Gang-Gang abilities. Even when you’re not activating the abilities of your Commander, just using Treasure tokens gets you a ping from this bad boy. Bootleggers’ Stash, thank you for being here.

LET’S DOUBLE UP!  

That does it for another edition of A Seat at the Table. Thanks for stopping by and see you at Commandfest Montreal!

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