Rocky Commander Deck · 100 Proxy Cards · MTG EDH · Go the Distance

A fully custom Rocky Magic proxy Commander deck, ready to play straight out of the envelope: 100 proxy cards with original artworks, built around a club fighter from Philadelphia who never expected to win and only ever asked to still be standing at the end. This is a red-white (Boros) deck led by Rocky Balboa, the Italian Stallion.

Why Boros? Red is the training: the meat locker, the steps, five in the morning, raw eggs, and a man hitting things until his hands stop working. White is the institution around it — the sanctioning body, the ten count, the corner, the rules that decide when a fight is over regardless of who wants to continue. The deck is a red engine bolted to a white clock, which is what a boxing match is. There is no blue in it because nobody in this story out-thinks anybody.

Targeted power level: Bracket 4 — this is the only deck in the multiverse that is paid for taking damage, and the only one whose primary win condition is an enchantment that counts to twelve in full view of the table.

Deck Strategy

The whole deck is one sentence: get hit on purpose, and be there when the bell goes.

Take it is the original mechanic and it is printed exactly like this: "Take it — At the beginning of your end step, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature for each 2 damage dealt to it this turn." Damage here is not a cost and it is not removal — it is the resource. Blocking a take it creature makes it bigger, burning it makes it bigger, and the only clean answer is to kill it outright in a single action. Six cards carry the keyword, the Sparring Partner token has it, and Mickey Goldmill gives it to every creature you control. Duke Evers adds a second counter for {1} each time one of them is damaged, Eye of the Tiger seeds a counter onto anything that is hit while empty, and Rope-a-Dope redirects all combat damage from a creature to you and converts every 2 of it into a counter anyway.

Rounds is the second mechanic, and it is the win condition. Go the Distance is a legendary enchantment that takes a round counter at the beginning of your upkeep and loses one at the beginning of your end step if you lost no life that turn — and when the twelfth round counter goes on it, you win the game. That is the film's own condition stated as a rules text: you do not have to win the fight, you have to still be there at the end of it. Fifteen cards push counters onto it — the Bell, Fifteen Rounds (three at once), Sanctioning Body, One More Round, the Championship Belt, the Spectrum, the Russian Crowd Turns, Adonis Creed every time he is damaged, and Apollo Creed when he dies. The deck therefore wants to be hit, the table can see the count, and the last three rounds become a negotiation.

• The commander — Rocky Balboa is a {2}{R}{W} 3/5 with take it who can't be blocked by more than one creature, and once he has four or more +1/+1 counters he gains trample and "whenever this creature is dealt damage, put a round counter on Go the Distance". He never kills anybody quickly. He is built to survive to a number.
• Standing up — the Ten Count saves a countered creature once each turn by stripping its +1/+1 counters instead of letting it die; Get Up returns a cheap creature to the battlefield with two counters on it; Ain't So Bad prevents 4 damage to you and pays a counter for every 2 prevented; and It Ain't About How Hard You Hit is a hard lock — you can't lose the game and your opponents can't win it while you control a creature with five or more counters and Go the Distance has six or more rounds on it.
• The cast — Mickey Goldmill, Adrian Pennino, Paulie Pennino, Apollo Creed, Clubber Lang, Ivan Drago, Tommy Gunn, Duke Evers, Adonis Creed, Bianca Taylor, Spider Rico, Robert Balboa Jr., Little Marie, Gazzo, Butkus the bullmastiff and the two turtles, plus the referee, the doctor and the sanctioning body that keep interrupting the fight.
• The interaction — He's Not Getting Up destroys any creature with no +1/+1 counters on it, He's Cut deals 2 (or 4 into a counter), the Doctor's Inspection shrinks and taps down an attacker, Nobody Owes Nobody Nothin' throws damage equal to every counter on your board at one target, and the Press Conference hard-counters while you control a creature with three or more counters.
• Two combos, both custom. Rocky Balboa + The Meat Locker: the locker deals 2 damage to your own creature at instant speed for {1}, so at end of turn take it converts that into a +1/+1 counter you bought for one mana — repeat every turn and the commander outgrows the removal that was cheap enough to answer him, and past four counters he starts advancing the round count himself every time he is hit. Go the Distance + Apollo Creed: Apollo makes each opponent lose 3 life at their end step if they dealt no damage to you that turn, which is exactly the clause Rounds needs — so the opponent trying to keep you off round twelve has to choose between hitting you and letting the count run.

Thirty-five lands, and they are the places rather than a mana base: the Art Museum Steps, Mighty Mick's Boxing, the Spectrum Arena, the Meat Packing Plant, Adrian's Pet Shop, the Kensington Docks, the Siberian Farmhouse, the Los Angeles Gym, the Corner, the Front Street Apartment, the Ring at Moscow, the Underground Circuit, the Weigh-In, Adrian's Restaurant, the Rooftop Before Dawn, South Philadelphia, the Cold Street at Five, the Locker Room, the Tunnel to the Ring and Centre of the Ring, plus eight Mountains and seven Plains. Four tokens — Citizen, Treasure, Sparring Partner and Round Counter — come in the box.

Average mana value 2.75, built to be standing on turn twelve.