Brawling on a Budget w/ Targ Nar, Demon-Fang Gnoll
- Leo De Jesus
- Apr 21
- 10 min read
Hey there!
Two articles in a month?! Is something wrong?!
No!
I’m leaving most of the personal stuff in that last article so all you need to know is that I’ve been feeling inspired and want to push myself to write more for Precon Playground!
Today’s topic is Targ Nar, Demon-Fang Gnoll and the utility of budget decks!
Why I Built It?
When I went to MagicCon Chicago earlier this year, I was extremely excited for the three events that I had signed up for. I’ll have an article on my trip to Chicago and the con as a whole, but all you need to know for now is that I had one event which was a Dungeons and Dragons Commander Sealed event. This event gave you the following 12 packs to build a 60 card commander deck:
4x Commander Legends Battle for Baldur’s Gate
3x Adventures in the Forgotten Realms
3x Magic the Gathering Foundations
2x Commander Masters
The event was hosted by Ify Nwadiwe and Brian David Gilbert from Um, Actually and also featured Ally Beardsley, also from Dropout.tv (Subscribe to Dropout.tv and watch it, it’s super worth it.) I was very fortunate to be one of the people that got to play in a game with Ify Nwadiwe. He’s super cool and I had an amazing time playing commander against him and the other two guests that got chosen to play in this pod!
The commander I built for the event is the same commander that I’m going over today. Targ Nar, Demon-Fang Gnoll is a two mana Gruul commander that lets you double its power and toughness for four mana. The whole deck I had for the event was centered around ramping as much as possible and activating that ability as many times as I could while also protecting it in combat. It seems like a very simple strategy but it is very effective and gets explosive out of nowhere.
Why Budget?
I think placing restrictions while deck building is where the true fun in deck building is. In a world of Moxfields and EDHRECs, it is very easy for decks to get very same-y. It’s why for the longest time I didn’t want to build a Muldrotha, the Gravetide deck because everyone builds it the same way. And when someone says “Here’s Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice, but it’s not like other Atraxa decks” YOU SHOULD NEVER BELIEVE THEM. It’s always focused around counters whether of the infect, loyalty, or +1/+1 variety. (Speaking of, now I want to make an Atraxa Voltron deck using shield counters to keep her around for longer. We’ll workshop that one later.) Since decks can all start to look the same I like focusing on commanders that have a cool angle or inspire a different play strategy.
A budget deck is nothing new, but working at a $50 budget means you have to be very deliberate about what makes the cut. You can’t just dump in all of the crazy overpowered cards because one, it’s expensive that way and two, the decks all look and play the same. I think there is no better feeling than when someone asks to see what the card you just played does and then says “That’s pretty cool, I never knew that card existed.” In a game with just about 30,000 cards, finding diamonds in the rough and obscure under-played cards makes for really fulfilling and exciting gameplay!
Last reason for keeping this deck as a budget build is that it preserves that sealed “use what you got” mindset that came from the sealed commander event. Every time I take this deck out for a spin I feel like I did when I played it at MagicCon. I have a grip of wonky and wacky cards that somehow result in a 24/24 unblockable commander that leaves your opponents in disbelief as you remove them from the game on turn six.
The Commander
As per the Dungeons and Dragons website “Gnolls are feral, hyena-headed humanoids that attack without warning, slaughtering their victims and devouring their flesh.” And that’s exactly what you feel like when you swing in with Targ Nar. Targ Nar is only two mana which makes it a very resilient and early threat. Its activated ability to double its power and toughness is what the whole deck is based around. It’s a very streamlined voltron build that focuses on making as much mana as possible, and swinging in for as much commander damage as you can. The first Pack Tactics ability is interesting but it doesn’t come into play as often as you think.
Gameplay
As mentioned before this is a straight ahead Voltron build which means we are focusing on what I call the Voltron P.E.G., Protection, Evasion, & Growth. We want to protect Targ Nar as it is often our only creature which makes it a preferred target for single targeted removal spells. Targ Nar doesn’t have any natural evasion (Menace Deathtouch, or Flying) so we need to give it trample or get it to be unblockable. What Targ Nar lacks in evasion, it makes up in growth. Instead of depending on a bunch of expensive (both in mana cost and actual cost) equipment and auras, we can activate its ability a few times with a ton of mana and give it all the power it needs to close out games. In our case, growth is also going to include ramp as that is how we make Targ Nar a giant problem at instant speed.
Protection
Since this deck relies so heavily on a single attacker, we want a bunch of protection options to keep it around as long as possible. The best protection spells are the ones that also help in evasion and growth at the same time.
Mortal’s Resolve - aids in growing Targ Nar but most importantly it keeps Targ Nar around through board wipes, pesky blockers, and single-target removal.
Snakeskin Veil - provides permanent growth instead of temporary growth (more on that later) but also grants hexproof. Always a great reason to keep up one green mana just in case someone interferes during combat.
Overprotect - Two mana and it does it all. Grows power and toughness by three, gives trample, and gives hexproof and indestructible. Easily the second best card in the whole deck.
Tyvar’s Stand - Great flexible option as you can sink mana into it for offense or leave up just one green mana to keep it for defense.
Ring of Evos Isle - I think this card is an auto-include in any decks whose commanders are essential to the deck operating. For just two mana we can grant hexproof to Targ Nar whenever we need to. I’ve played games with this out and just camped out with 6 mana open to ensure that on each player’s turn, Targ Nar wasn’t getting messed with.
Evasion
Targ Nar doesn’t have trample or any sort of evasion so he could get chump-blocked forever unless we have a way to break through. These are some of the options that ensure that Targ Nar is making contact.
Rogue’s Passage - It is an expensive activation (essentially 5 mana) but it is worth it when it ensures that someone is getting knocked out of the game.
Skarrg Guildmage - This is one of the cheaper ways to ensure that Targ Nar always has trample. And it’s a bonus if you have other creatures attacking to seal the deal.
Dreadmaw’s Ire - Another great does-it-all option in the deck. +2/+2 for some growth, trample to get in, and an added bonus of tearing apart one of your opponents’ most problematic artifacts.
Scepter of Celebration - A little on the expensive side but when we are certain that Targ Nar is getting in for a ton of damage, creating that many citizen creature tokens is very helpful in a deck that is very light on creatures.
Growth
Targ Nar’s specialty! The ability baked right into the card is OBVIOUSLY fantastic so to maximize it we run a ton of ramp options. Yavimaya Elder includes some additional card draw, Journeyer’s Kite ensures we don’t miss a land drop every single turn, and Svella, Ice Shaper means we can make an additional mana every turn. We also run the typical (yet budget conscious) suite of ramp spells: Explosive Vegetation, Gruul Signet, Rampant Growth, Kodama’s Reach, and Cultivate.
One distinction I want to make in this section is the difference between temporary and permanent growth. If we can increase Targ Nar’s initial power and toughness permanently we can make the doubling of its power make a bigger impact. Look at the difference one +1/+1 counter makes in doubling Tar Nar’s power three times with 12 mana.
Starting at two: 2 - 4 - 8 - 16
Starting at three (having a +1/+1 counter): 3 - 6 - 9 - 18
Starting at four (two +1/+1 counters): 4 - 8 - 16 - 32
With just two +1/+1 counters it’s like getting an additional four mana to activate Targ Nar an additional time. This makes for an interesting game of when to dump the mana into one of these temporary growth spells and when to dump the mana into Targ Nar’s ability. We only need 21 commander damage to get through to knock someone out of the game, so saving some mana in reserve for a protection spell is sometimes better than saving it all for Targ Nar. The most interesting interaction I’ve had was casting Overprotect in the middle of dumping mana into Targ Nar. I activated Targ Nar twice once there were no assigned blockers which led to the opponent trying to remove Targ Nar. With everything still on the stack, I cast Overprotect in response to the kill spell which gave Targ Nar hexproof and +3/+3. As the spells and abilities resolved Targ Nar ended up with five power and toughness doubled twice to TWENTY instead of two getting doubled twice to eight. These sort of interactions is what makes these growth spells the most fun and explosive part of the deck.
Colossal Dreadmask - It’s a meme by itself but on Targ Nar it effectively saves eight mana in ability activations and provides the necessary trample to close out games.
Siege Smash - A great utility spell that more often than not brings Targ Nar up to five power before activations.
Forced Adaptation - A single +1/+1 counter every turn means each activation of Targ Nar is more and more efficient.
Colossal Might - Probably the most efficient use of two mana and the trample is a great bonus!
Ring of Valkas and Ring of Kalonia - Like in Forced Adaptation, a +1/+1 counter every turn gets out of control very quickly.
Halana and Alena, Partners - We usually want to dump all of our mana and spells into/onto Targ Nar but Halana and Alena make for a great target. The more we invest into this card, the better return we can get onto Targ Nar with an excess of counters every turn. Getting two counters every turn is a great floor for this card and the ceiling is almost unlimited!
Agatha of the Vile Cauldron - The only other creature worth investing some counters into. As long as we get just one +1/+1 counter onto Agatha, Targ Nar’s ability is half as expensive, meaning twice as many activations for the same amount of mana.
MVP OF THE DECK
Bear Umbra - It offers some great protection with the totem armor but the real benefit is in the untapping of the lands. As an example, let’s say you have Targ Nar, Bear Umbra and 8 untapped lands at the start of your turn. In your combat step you can float all of your mana, declare Targ Nar as an attacker, and then untap and retap all of your mana to get two more activations. This results in an original 4/4 attacker turning into a 64/64 attacker. With additional mana from Mana Flare and Heartbeat of Spring, Bear Umbra can get ridiculous real quick. Now it is easily the most expensive card in the deck, but we have been able to keep the price down in other places to afford having a copy in the deck. I’m also a huge proponent of using heavily played and damaged cards to keep the price down and play what you want to play.
Pros and Cons of the Deck
Pros
It’s a cheap build - Always nice to have a new custom deck to play with that’s reasonably priced against most new precons
It’s surprisingly strong - It can hit like a tank and do so out of nowhere as mentioned before going from a 2/2 to a 20/20 all in the attack steps.
Easy to upgrade - This deck is mostly ramp spells and combat tricks and there is no short supply of those kinds of cards in red and green. Almost every set has a few new pump spells for limited play that slot great into this deck! They are also almost always at lower rarities so they are easy and cheap pickups if you want to try out some new options.
Cons
It needs a lot of mana - There are a few things that make the mana more effective and efficient but getting to 12 - 16 mana is still a tall order if you don’t hit your ramp spells on time.
It is still a Voltron Deck - While we want to save our protection spells for the turns we try to go off, we will still have to spend some when our opponents want to remove Targ Nar on their turn. We want to save mana for activating Targ Nar’s ability, not necessarily for casting Targ Nar a bunch.
Card Draw is Lacking - Red & Green aren’t great colors for card draw, especially when on a budget. Red’s impulse draw doesn’t necessarily work here either as we want to save our spells for our explosive turns when we can take someone out.
Conclusion
Like I said before this deck slaps! And it feels even better knowing it’s doing its job at just $53 at the time of writing this article. The deck strikes a great balance of easy to play as it plays pretty straightforward but also has interesting combat phase decisions. Below is the full decklist. I hope you enjoy the deck and the article. Feel free to reach out with any improvements or upgrade advice and as always…
Remember to Play Nice and No Shoving!
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