Dante's Inferno — Abandon All Hope

Commanded by partners Dante Alighieri, the Pilgrim and Virgil, Guide Through the Dark, this Mardu (white/black/red) 100-Card Commander Deck goes down. The Inferno is read as it is written: a filing system of nine terraces, each with a penalty decided in advance and applied forever. Dante draws a card and drains each opponent every time you descend; Virgil lets you descend an extra step and, while untapped, spares you the punishment of the circle you are standing in.

• The Nine Circles: you begin in Circle 1 and may descend once per turn. Each circle grants a permanent ability and a permanent punishment, and you never climb back. Lust gives your creatures flying and makes them attack every combat; Wrath gives haste and +1/+0 and takes away blocking; Violence adds 2 damage to everything you deal and to everything dealt to you. The ninth circle is not fire. It is ice: every opposing creature tapped and held, and your own locked in the same shape.
• Contrapasso: whenever a permanent dies, its controller pays what its type calls for — an artifact for an artifact, life equal to a creature's power, a card from hand for an enchantment, three cards milled for a land. You are not exempt, which is why Pier della Vigna is printed with 0 power.
• Two combos that cancel each other: Ugolino and Pier della Vigna drain the table from Circle 7; Lucifer, The Ice of Judecca and Cocytus freeze it from Circle 9, where Ugolino stops working. You choose once how far down to go.

Why Mardu

White is the law of the place: the notice over the gate informs rather than threatens, and everything below it is sentencing. Black is the ledger and the ice at the bottom. Red is the weather — the whirlwind, the rain of fire, the boiling river. No blue, because Dante solves nothing; he is walked through it. Thirty-five cards read how deep you are, and twelve permanents carry Contrapasso.

A complete 100-card Commander deck plus 4 tokens, tuned for Bracket 4, available as a digital print-yourself edition or a printed physical deck, and offered in 10 languages.