Norin the Wary is one of Magic: The Gathering’s more interesting commanders. Its big trait is how it’s rarely on the battlefield, constantly going in and out of it to confuse and burn your opponents.
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What makes Norin the Way so unique is the number of ways to build a Commander deck around it. For this guide, we will focus on a hybrid strategy of burn and stax. Its goal is to cut off your opponents from being able to use their decks efficiently while slowly dwindling their life totals by utilizing Norin the Wary’s effect to act as a blink effect.
Decklist
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Commander: Norin the Wary |
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Chandra, Awakened Inferno |
Agate Instigator |
Birgi, God of Storytelling // Harnfel, Horn of Bounty |
Dragonmaster Outcast |
Gimli of the Glittering Caves |
Grinning Ignus |
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Iron Myr |
Irreverent Gremlin |
Krenko, Mob Boss |
Magus of the Moon |
Molten Gatekeeper |
Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might // Temple of Power |
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Purphoros, God of the Forge |
Rose Room Treasurer |
Silent Arbiter |
Solemn Simulacrum |
Solphim, Mayhem Dominus |
Sunset Strikemaster |
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Terror of the Peaks |
Torbran, Thane of Red Fell |
Twinflame Tyrant |
Witty Roastmaster |
Blasphemous Act |
Chain Reaction |
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Disrupt Decorum |
Faithless Looting |
Ruination |
Chaos Warp |
Lightning Bolt |
Tibalt’s Trikcery |
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Wild Magic Surge |
Arcane Signet |
Chaos Wand |
Commander’s Sphere |
Crawlspace |
Cursed Mirror |
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Fellwar Stone |
Fire Diamond |
Genesis Chamber |
Hazoret’s Monument |
Meekstone |
Mind Stone |
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Panharmonicon |
Ruby Medallion |
Sol Ring |
Thought Vessel |
Tome of Legends |
Urabrask’s Forge |
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Wayfarer’s Bauble |
Blood Moon |
Burning Earth |
City on Fire |
Confusion in the Ranks |
Descent into Avernus |
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Dictate of the Twin Gods |
Fiery Emancipation |
Furnace of Rath |
Impact Tremors |
Mechanized Warfare |
Outpost Siege |
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Price of Glory |
Smoke |
Spiked Corridor // Torture Pit |
Warstorm Surge |
Cori Mountain Monastery |
Kher Keep |
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Mines of Moria |
x28 Mountain |
Myriad Landscape |
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle |
War Room |
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The decklist contains one planeswalker, 22 creatures, five sorceries, four instants, 18 artifacts, 15 enchantments, and 34 lands. Much of the deck either generates tokens, deals burn damage when creatures enter the battlefield, or makes sources deal extra damage.
Key Cards
Norin The Wary
As soon as you cast Norin the Wary, you will likely never see it again. This is because it will spend more time being exiled than it will be on the battlefield. It’s rare for no spells to be cast in Commander, so Norin the Wary will trigger practically every turn.
The only time Norin the Wary might stick around is at the very early stages in the game, where your opponents might not have turn one plays. Take this opportunity to attack with Norin to get in some minor damage.
If Norin the Way manages to stay on the battlefield when your turn comes back around, make sure to attack with it before you start casting spells. Otherwise, it will just get exiled again and you’ll miss out on some free damage.
Gimli Of The Glittering Caves
With Norin the Wary constantly going in and out of the battlefield, you’ll have constant triggers of Gimli of the Glittering Caves’ effect. In just one turn cycle, you can amass three +1/+1 counters on Gimli, possibly even more if you have other legendary creatures being cast.
These counters are very useful thanks to Gimli’s double strike. If an opponent doesn’t have creatures to block Gimli, they’ll be taking a ton of damage while you get to reap the rewards of getting Treasure tokens.
Gimli’s effect to create a Treasure token triggers whenever it deals combat damage to a player. Since it has double strike, both attacks will trigger it, creating two Treasure tokens in total.
Krenko, Mob Boss
Krenko, Mob Boss is going to be your main way to amass a battlefield. It starts off slow, but with just a few Goblin tokens, you can start creating dozens of Goblin tokens to attack and defend with.
Not only does Krenko help you to create creature tokens, but it also gives you more triggers for your enter the battlefield burn effects. With how many creatures Krenko can make in one turn, this turns into devastating burn damage, especially with damage doublers and triplers on the battlefield.
Grinning Ignus
Grinning Ignus is a card that is easily recastable, allowing you to constantly burn opponents with enter the battlefield triggers. Even in combat, it’s decent, as you can chump block a large creature and bounce it back to your hand so it doesn’t get destroyed and you don’t take damage.
The main attraction for Grinning Ignus is its infinite combo with Birgi, God of Storytelling. This enables you to cast Grinning Ignus as much as you’d like, and in some cases, generate infinite colorless mana and lets you draw your whole deck. Here’s how the combo works.
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Prerequisites: Birgi, God of Storytelling on the battlefield. Grinning Ignus either in hand (with enough mana to cast) or on the battlefield (with one red mana available). |
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Step 1 (only needed if Grinning Ignus isn’t on the battlefield): Cast Grinning Ignus, triggering Birgi and adding a red mana. |
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Step 2: Activate Grinning Ignus, returning it to the hand, and add two colorless and one red mana to your mana pool. |
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Step 3: Repeat steps 1 and 2. |
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Results: Infinite enter the battlefield triggers, infinite colorless mana (if Hazoret’s Monument or Ruby Medallion is on the battlefield), infinite draw and discard (if Hazoret’s Monument is on the battlefield). |
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How To Play The Deck
A Norin the Wary Commander deck is slowing your opponents down with stax pieces while burning them with permanents that deal damage when creatures enter the battlefield. Norin the Way is near impossible to remove once it hits the battlefield, as it always exiles itself when a spell is cast. This lets you keep triggering your burn permanents.
The deck’s primary source of damage is cards that deal damage when creatures enter, such as Agate Instigator, Terror of the Peaks, and Impact Tremors. Make sure to get these permanents on the battlefield as quickly as possible.
A lot of the damage that the deck does is rather minor. While it can add up slowly, it gives your opponents time to find their answers to your stax pieces. To help, you want cards like Fiery Emancipation or City on Fire, which will make your burn damage output much higher.
The deck can take a while to win with, as it is not at all an aggressive deck. It’s very passive, slowing your opponents down with stax pieces such as Smoke, Blood Moon, and Ruination. While your opponents try to deal with those, you slowly amass a battlefield while dealing burn damage.
The primary win condition of the deck is winning through burn damage. There aren’t a ton of powerful creatures in the deck, so combat is not likely to be a path to victory (though it’s not impossible). Combat becomes stronger over time if Urabrask’s Forge has a lot of counters on it, or Krenko, Mob Boss can generate a ton of tokens.
The biggest downside of the deck is its likelihood to become a public enemy. As soon as you play your first stax piece, your opponents will likely focus on you to take you out before you can interrupt them more. Due to the deck’s speed and low defenses outside of stax pieces, there unfortunately isn’t much you can do about this. As such, it’s best to wait to cast stax pieces until you’re more prepared for your opponents’ offense.
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