The Wire — The Street and the Stats

Commanded by the partners Jimmy McNulty, Natural Police and Stringer Bell, the Businessman — one from each side — this Abzan (white/black/green) 100-Card Commander Deck covers five seasons of one city and one argument: the people on the corners and the people in the offices are doing the same job. Both sides produce numbers. The Barksdale organization counts packages and corners held; the Baltimore police count arrests, clearances and crime down year on year. The deck is that symmetry: the street holds the territory, the institution keeps the count.

• The Corner: printed on fifteen cards. Put a corner counter on a land you control; a corner has {T}, tap an untapped creature you control: add two mana in any combination of colours. That is why the deck runs Hopper tokens and cheap bodies — every activation needs someone to work it. Stringer makes a corner every upkeep and puts a +1/+1 counter on the creature that works it; The Greek adds one more mana per corner; Bodie untaps himself.
• Territory: whenever an opponent's creatures deal combat damage to you, that player may move a corner counter onto a land they control, and it works for them until you hit back. Avon Barksdale, Michael Lee and Raid the Stash take corners back, Omar Little robs them for Treasure, Marlo Stanfield makes anyone who moves one sacrifice a creature, and Hamsterdam taxes every attacker by the number of corners you hold.
• Juking the Stats: printed on twenty-one cards. Up to N times, choose a counter on a permanent and move it onto another permanent or reclassify it as a different kind. A -1/-1 counter becomes a +1/+1, an opponent's +1/+1 becomes a stun counter, the corner across the street becomes yours. It is the deck's removal, protection and growth at once, and McNulty draws a card the first time you do it each turn.

Why Abzan

White is the institution — the police, City Hall, the prosecutor, the school, the union, the newspaper, each one sending a number up the chain. Black is the game — the organization, the re-up, the stash house, the envelope. Green is the street itself: corners, courtyards and low-rises, territory that is held, taken and grown back. Two combos close the game: The Numbers Always Go Down (Ervin Burrell + The Comstat Meeting) reclassifies the same counter for unbounded drain with no mana, and The Co-Op (Proposition Joe + Bodie Broadus + any corner) makes unbounded mana to pour into Senator Clay Davis. Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Burner Phones and New Territory ramp; The Connect tutors; Write It Up as a Robbery, Clearance Rate and Hit on the Corner remove threats; Twenty-Two Bodies wipes the board with -1/-1 counters you then reclassify on your own survivors; The Chessboard in the Pit keeps the cards coming.

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.