Commander Deck Tech - Indominus Rex, Alpha

The Jurassic World Collection miniset brought several very interesting new cards for Commander. Among them, we have today's deck tech main character - Indominus Rex, Alpha.

We will work with one of Indominus Rex, Alpha's ability key mechanics, with creatures with keywords to draw us cards, and also focus on Reanimate, so we can return the discarded creatures to the board.

Indominus Rex, Alpha brings the Sultai color combination, and great support for ramp cards, answers and Reanimate inside these colors. We'll focus on discarding the highest number of cards we can with our commander to draw that same number of cards, and then Reanimate the discarded creatures.

We chose our creatures that will be discarded well so that they aren't only fuel for Indominus Alpha. The idea is to have, on the board, big creatures that are also useful, and finish our opponents through combat damage.

This list doesn't have a fixed budget limit, but, later on, we'll show you a budget list with this same focus: keywords and Reanimate.

Accelerators

We'll start with the basic artifact kit for almost any Commander deck: Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Dimir Signet, Golgari Signet and Simic Signet.

As a mana dork, we have just a single Birds of Paradise, whereas the rest of the accelerators are sorceries: Farseek, Three Visits and Nature's Lore for 2 mana, and Kodama's Reach and Cultivate for 3 mana.

Keywords

This is our deck's engine - creatures with keywords. We'll start with some of the most important ones, such as Indestructible, for instance - Kefnet the Mindful, Rhonas the Indomitable, Bontu the Glorified and Darksteel Colossus.

It is important to note that, besides Indestructible, each one of these cards carries another keyword, and basically any card we mentioned has 2 to 3 keywords to create more counters and consequently more card draw for Indominus Alpha.

Now, for Flying and similar, we use Baleful Strix, Mirri the Cursed, Gurmag Swiftwing, Nightveil Predator, Vampire Nighthawk, Nighthawk Scavenger, Vengeful Reaper, Venomthrope and Scavenged Brawler. Again, all of them have several keywords.

Finally, with Deathtouch, Trample, and any other keywords that are relevant, we also have End-Raze Forerunners, Leyline Prowler, Questing Beast, Glissa Sunslayer, Wilson, Refined Grizzly, Banehound and Weathered Sentinels.

Reanimate

Of course, to return our creatures from the graveyard, we need Reanimate. For that, we use, as creatures, Phyrexian Delver and Nullpriest of Oblivion (which also has keywords), and some enchantments: the classic Animate Dead and Diabolic Servitude.

As for sorceries, we use, to return multiple creatures at once, Living Death, Ever After, Agadeem's Awakening, which can also serve as a land, Entreat the Dead and Victimize.

To Reanimate only one creature at a time, we use Stitch Together, Dread Return, Rise of the Witch-King, Beacon of Unrest and Writ of Return. I'll highlight these last two cards, as they can be played multiple times thanks to their effects.

Reanimate Targets

It is important to note that it isn't our goal to Reanimate small creatures with various abilities. As a result, we have a selection of cards with good keywords to serve as fuel for Indominus Alpha, and also serve as good Reanimate targets: from stronger creatures, like Stonehoof Chieftain, Sphinx of the Final Word, Triplicate Titan and Elder Gargaroth, to simpler ones, besides ones with good board presence, like Sagu Mauler, Cragplate Baloth, Copper Host Crusher and Carnage Tyrant.

Counters, Answers and Other Interactions

This deck is clearly not made only of creatures; it also has answers and recursion. To recover cards from the graveyard to use in any way you'd like, we use Phyrexian Reclamation, Tortured Existence and Bala Ged Recovery.

We have good targets, such as the Amonkhet gods, Baleful Strix or Glissa Sunslayer.

As counters to protect our board, we use Counterspell, Arcane Denial and An Offer You Can't Refuse, which is just enough if you find yourself in a problematic situation.

For removals, we have Assassin's Trophy, Beast Within, and, as global removal, Damnation.

Finally, we have Heroic Intervention to protect the board, Planar Incision and Teferi's Time Twist to blink our commander and draw even more cards.

This is the budget list, which is a bit more geared towards Voltron, but with the same reasoning as the deck we presented above, and some differences regarding the staples in each deck - but nothing that really changes the essence of this version of the deck.

This is a deck I would like to pilot in real-life events. Imagine how fun would it be to discard all your cards, recycle your entire hand and then Reanimate all at once. From what I've seen in games in which I faced this deck when some of my friends were testing out builds, I saw some mechanics have a lot of potential - to deal damage with card draw, draw your entire deck and win with Laboratory Maniac and the like focusing on blinking our commander, etc. The possibilities are diverse and quite interesting.

Did you like this list? Would you include another mechanic? Do you prefer other keywords? Comment down below!