Spartacus — The Same Blow

Commanded by Spartacus, Bringer of Rain, this Gruul (red/green) 100-Card Commander Deck follows a Thracian auxiliary sold to the house of Batiatus in Capua, drilled on the sand by a doctore with a whip, crowned champion under the rain — and then, with seventy men armed in the kitchens, leader of the greatest slave war in Rome's history. The ludus holds Crixus, Gannicus, Oenomaus, Varro, Barca, Ashur, Batiatus and Lucretia; the rebellion brings Agron, Nasir, Naevia, Mira, Saxa, Duro and the Cilician Castus; Theokoles, Glaber and Marcus Licinius Crassus stand for Rome.

• The Ludus: printed on nine cards and read or fed by twenty more. A gladiator enters with N training counters; whenever a source you control deals damage to it, one comes off, and at the last one it graduates with a +1/+1 counter and a champion counter. One counter per blow, not per point — so the deck trains with the whip: Oenomaus, Batiatus, Doctore's Lash, Sparring in the Yard. Even its sweeper, Blood and Sand, deals 5 to your opponents' creatures and 1 to yours, which is a lesson.
• Champions: graduation pays — Batiatus a Treasure, Lucretia a card, Sura a land — and champion counters make Crixus indestructible, Nasir double-striking and Barca trampling.
• Uprising: printed on thirteen cards and given to the whole army by Spartacus and the Thracian Sica. Whenever a source an opponent controls deals damage to the creature, create a 1/1 red and green Freed Man. The deck wants to be blocked and fought: Saxa forces a block, Crassus makes your creature fight an enemy every combat, and Fight in the Pits and Challenge from the Sands provoke.
• The hinge: every creature that graduates untaps, gains haste and fights an enemy creature — a fight where the enemy's damage makes the Freed Men.

Why Gruul

Red is the house and the war: the whip, the brand, the kitchen spits, Vesuvius and the burning villas of Campania. Green is the body and the land: field hands, shepherds, miners, Thracian hillmen, and an army that lived off the country for two years. Two combos break the chains: The Brotherhood Never Ends (Agron + Doctore's Lash + a graduated, indestructible Crixus) makes unbounded hasty Freed Men, and The March on Rome (Glaber's Captured Eagle + The Road to Rome) adds unbounded combats. Purse of Batiatus, Signet of the Rebellion and Signet of Capua ramp; Recruited at the Mines tutors; Ambush at the Praetor's Camp and Kitchen Spits and Cleavers remove threats; Stand Together and I Am Spartacus protect the army.

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.