Commander Deck Tech: General Zhao, the Moon Slayer

I really like Mono Red. No matter the format, that's the strategy I always try to play. Now that we're saying goodbye to Avatar: The Last Airbender and getting into Lorwyn Eclipsed, there is one commander I'd still like to talk about precisely because he is red and nothing else.

In today's article, we'll go over this commander and show you how to build a deck around him to delay and prevent your opponents from developing their game plans. Today's commander is the villain from the first Avatar: The Last Airbender season: General Zhao!

Zhao, the Moon Slayer is, in paper, a 2/2 for with menace. This ability is useful, but we'll hardly win through commander damage. On the other side, cheap commanders are already popular because they're often the best card to play in their curve, and don't cost much to put in play again after they leave for the first time. Zhao, for instance, will affect the board even without any sort of setup. His main ability makes nonbasic lands come into play tapped, which doesn't seem like much but actually impacts the game quite a lot. Whoever opens with a fetchland, shockland, triome, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, or any other nonbasic utility land will simply lose speed if he is in play. And speed is a precious resource, even though it might not seem that valuable next to mana and life points.

This effect applies to all players, so your nonbasic lands will also come into play tapped. Obviously, if you use this sort of deck, in any format, you should try to make it fair to you as well. This means playing mostly mountains and only a few nonbasic lands that aren't as critical for your strategy.

Zhao, the Moon Slayer's other ability is what led us to build this deck. It also represents his role in the invasion of the Northern Water Tribe in the show. If you pay mana, you may put a conqueror counter on Zhao and turn him into a Blood Moon. From then on, nonbasic lands become mountains, lose abilities, and only create red mana. By the way, they'll still be nonbasic lands, so they'll still enter play tapped. This disables multicolored mana bases and utility lands entirely. It also punishes opponents that lean too heavily into land drops that mana fix constantly.

Zhao might be a Blood Moon in the command zone, but this effect doesn't start affecting the game on turn 2. You'll have to invest a lot into it, and that's why it is healthy. In practice, Zhao will delay the game, but he won't do that immediately, so your opponents don't have to target him straight away.

Our main list is a classic Monored Prison. It is popular in formats like Legacy, in which it buys time by locking down mana and takes advantage of its speed to deal a lot of damage and put threats in play that don't need much to win.

Let's see our list:

Mana Base

As we mentioned before, this is a Monored list that plays mostly mountains. The few special lands it plays, like War Room or Blast Zone, only come into play when Zhao is on the board, but that's no problem. You'll usually play them and only use their effects in the following turn, and that's fine. When they're no longer useful, that is, when Zhao, the Moon Slayer already has a conqueror counter, they'll be just another red land.

Command Beacon helps you deal with the commander tax against interactive players. War Room turns leftover mana into card draw, and Scavenger Grounds deals with graveyards (and you don't even have to splash into another color to play it). This list also plays Demolition Field and Blast Zone as clean, spot answers to certain cards, like problematic lands.

Ramp

Zhao, the Moon Slayer doesn't cost much, but activating it does. So, this deck needs to perform well in two curves at the same time: the turn 2 to 3 curve so that you can get ahead early on, and the turn 6 to 7 curve so that you can set up your Blood Moon. As great Monored lists don't play ramp, mana rocks are best.

Mox Amber deserves an honorable mention because it interacts really well with Zhao, a very cheap legendary card. You'll easily be able to get mana from this card, and, like so, you won't have to rely on lands as much. This is critical in a deck that disrupts everyone's mana base. Nonetheless, this deck also plays a few other classic rocks, like Arcane Signet, Sol Ring, and Thran Dynamo, as well as cards that look for lands in your deck, like Burnished Hart.

Besides artifact ramp, this list also plays lots of treasures and spells like Jeska's Will and Mana Geyser. These cards will make sure you can get to your Zhao Blood Moon faster. You'll also have leftover mana for protection.

As for spells like Professional Face-Breaker, they give you mana and also fill your hands with cards. Monored lists often struggle with running out of cards, even in slower pods, so these cards are great. Magda, Brazen Outlaw also turns treasures into another type of resource: Dragons. This deck doesn't play many of them, but you'll never be sad when you draw them.

Control

Zhao, the Moon Slayer's first ability already delays the game, but you'll need to activate its Blood Moon ability to control the game completely. You'll still have to play a few turns before you do that, though. Magus of the Moon and Blood Moon itself add a lot to this strategy. If your commander is removed or if you still don't have enough mana, you should still control your opponents with these cards.

Winter Moon prevents players from untapping more than one nonbasic land in their untapping step. Add that to the fact that nonbasic lands already come into play tapped because of Zhao, and opponents that play a heavy mana base will start out matches one turn behind against this commander.

Vexing Bauble also seems irrelevant, but it disables a specific type of interaction that usually beats Stax strategies: casting spells for free. It counters spells that you didn't cast any mana to play, and also recycles itself afterward. Roiling Vortex and Sulfuric Vortex also punish free spells, but Sulfuric also deals a consistent amount of damage and punishes lifegain.

Punishing Opponents

Like any great Prison list, this one punishes opponents for playing MTG. This is deck is an annoying apparatus, not just an anti-mana base Stax. Zo-Zu the Punisher punishes land drops, which interacts directly with General Zhao. Your opponent will have to keep playing lands even though they'll already be behind, and each attempt to stabilize will result in more damage.

Harsh Mentor, Maddening Hex, and Rampaging Ferocidon play a similar role, but with other basic game mechanics, activated abilities, small actions, and ETB effects that we often see in EDH. Combine that with the fact that many opponents will try to make up for nerfed lands with mana rocks, and this game plan is complete. Avalanche of Sector 7, coming directly from Final Fantasy, punishes artifacts, and you can easily stack it throughout the match.

Win Conditions

The main game plan is pretty much Old Testament Commander. If you successfully delay everyone else, your cards will nearly always be better than theirs. Wurmcoil Engine will stabilize your life points and board. Steel Hellkite turns mana into recursive removal and punishes low-cost token boards.

Chandra, Torch of Defiance shines in slow games, as her abilities are quite relevant. She'll also push the pod to spend resources on her instead of trying to unlock their mana base. The same goes for Chandra, Awakened Inferno.

I really enjoy Dragonmaster Outcast in Monored lists simply because it "doesn't do anything" until it does. In this case, it benefits from two things: your many basic lands and the fact you'll always prefer long games over short ones. If the board is moving slowly, this card will constantly create 5/5 tokens and put a lot of pressure on them. And you don't even have to invest much in it.

As we're already committing a small crime, that is, bringing a heavy Blood Moon list to Commander games, why not take it a step further into madness and do the unforgivable?

Below, here's a list that commits the biggest crime a Commander list can commit: land destruction Zhao, the Moon Slayer.

If you stop and think about it, it is an interesting combination. You'll delay your opponents' mana and destroy their most important lands while your mana will be intact. It's a true taboo for Commander players, but it is interesting as well.

Monored Prison is my favorite archetype for constructed formats. Playing a strategy that is so efficient and plays a Blood Moon in the command zone in EDH is definitely a delight. Personally, I really enjoyed this list, even though it is the third Monored list I build in a row.

What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!