Half-Life — Resonance Cascade

Commanded by Gordon Freeman, the Free Man, this Jeskai (white/blue/red) 100-Card Commander Deck starts at Black Mesa, New Mexico, on a Monday morning: a late theoretical physicist puts on an orange suit and pushes a crystal sample into the anti-mass spectrometer. The resonance cascade opens the border world Xen onto Earth, the army is sent to silence the survivors, and he walks out with a crowbar. Twenty years later the Combine owns the planet, Dr. Breen speaks from every screen in City 17, and the same man steps off a train with the same crowbar — and is handed the zero-point energy field manipulator, the gravity gun, which lifts anything that isn't bolted down and throws it. The cast includes Alyx Vance and Dog, Eli Vance, Isaac Kleiner and Lamarr, Barney Calhoun, Judith Mossman, Arne Magnusson, Father Grigori, Adrian Shephard, the Vortigaunts, the G-Man and Dr. Wallace Breen.

• Punt: the gravity gun's primary fire, word for word — "punt an artifact. (Sacrifice an artifact. It deals 3 damage to any target.)" Any artifact counts — a Debris, an Equipment, an artifact creature, or an artifact you just took from an opponent. The Debris token is a colorless artifact with no abilities: something to throw. No custom counter.
• Gordon is the plan: a Debris at the beginning of each of your combats, a punt whenever he attacks, and for {2} he gains control of an opponent's noncreature artifact until end of turn and may punt it.
• Twenty-seven cards carry or read punt: Alyx Vance steals an artifact whenever she connects and hits harder on each punt, Eli draws, Grigori doubles the damage to creatures, Adrian Shephard grows, Magnusson heals; and objects made to be thrown — the Explosive Barrel hits every opposing creature, the Ravenholm Sawblade returns to hand, the Combine Energy Ball also exiles a creature, the Magnusson Device deals 7 instead of 3.

Why Jeskai

Blue is science — Black Mesa, the teleporters, the spectrometer, Kleiner's lab, Combine technology turned around. Red is the cascade and the physics of a thrown radiator — explosions, Xen wildlife, the crowbar. White is the Resistance — a man nobody ever heard speak who became a planet's symbol, the rebels who follow him, the medics, the Vortigaunt healers. Two combos close the game: The Gravity Gun with The Anti-Mass Spectrometer punts Debris that remake themselves for unlimited damage, and Kleiner's Teleporter on the Vortigaunt Emissary makes unlimited hasty Vortigaunts. Suit Charger, Lambda Insignia, Black Mesa Keycard and Combine Power Cell ramp; Requisition from Black Mesa tutors; Detained by Civil Protection and Through the Xen Portal remove threats; Suppression Field and Gravity Catch counter; The Resonance Cascade sweeps; The Breencast and Eli Vance draw.

A complete 100-card Commander deck plus 3 tokens, tuned for Bracket 4, available as a digital print-yourself edition or a printed physical deck, and offered in 10 languages.