Captain America, First Avenger Commander Deck Guide

Last updated on October 27, 2024

Captain America, First Avenger | Illustrated by Ryan Pancoast

Not long ago, I was lying in bed watching TV when I stumbled across a channel running an Avengers marathon. You won’t believe which movie was playing: Captain America, First Avenger.

As funny as it sounds, Marvel has now entered the Magic: The Gathering scene, and today we’re going to explore a deck centered around the iconic Captain America. My goal is to build the best Voltron deck I can think of to deal massive damage to our opponents.

Curious to see how it turns out? Come along and find out!

The Deck

Colossus Hammer | Illustration by Dmitry Burmak

While this deck runs other support creatures that serve specific niche roles, this is ultimately a deck centered around our American Hero as a Voltron commander. The main plan is to bring the pain with Captain America, First Avenger and avenge entire battlefields by stacking powerful equipment on it.

Your support creatures help to fill the gaps, but ultimately, it’s all about leading the charge with your commander.

The Commander: Captain America, First Avenger

Captain America, First Avenger has a very cool triggered ability that lets you attach any equipment on it at the beginning of combat, meaning that expensive ones like Argentum Armor can be equipped with no effort. Additionally, its activated ability is unique in the sense that each piece of equipment can be used as a removal spell or as a way to deal direct damage to players.

Equipment and Auras

As you may have guessed, this deck is built around equipment to fully exploit your commander’s potential. Since Cap’ is a relatively early commander to deploy, you want cheap equipment that can be attached to it right away like Colossus Hammer, Lavaspur Boots/Lightning Greaves/Swiftfoot Boots to give it haste and protection, and other cheap ones that can be played on curve and give the boost this commander needs to overperform in combat.

This decklist also runs equipment with high equip costs like Argentum Armor and Excalibur, Sword of Eden, as you can bypass the cost thanks to Captain America’s ability. More importantly, since these have a high mana value, you can easily deal massive damage whenever you pay 3 mana to equip and use them as removal or to deal a big chunk of damage to your opponents.

Of course, you can’t forget about Cap’s iconic personal equipment Shield of War and Peace, a reskin of Sword of War and Peace. While I’d have loved to get fresh new equipment, I’m fine with how this turned out, as the original name of the artifact resembles what Captain America stands for.

Since this deck runs many equipment tutors, utility equipment like Assimilation Aegis, Sunforger, and Mithril Coat are handy to run.

Tutors

This deck runs a total of 13 tutors that can be used to fetch a wide variety of your equipment. The most important ones, of course, are the cheapest ones like Steelshaper's Gift and Enlightened Tutor because you can use them early and play them on curve along with your commander.

Others like Stoneforge Mystic and Kellan, the Fae-Blooded play a huge role due to their versatility, with the former being key to put big equipment into play for just 2 mana at instant speed.

The rest are a mix of cards that fetch artifacts, regardless of whether they’re equipment or not. Trinket Mage can even get you lands, and pseudo-tutor cards like Astor, Bearer of Blades can fetch equipment from the top of your library.

While expensive, my favorite tutor is Stonehewer Giant as not only can it search your library for an equipment but also attach it to other creatures for a mere 2 mana.

Protection Spells

It won’t matter if you have the perfect commander and the best equipment for it if you can’t prevent it from being killed, and because of this, you need to run some general protection spells to make our plans run smoothly. The first way to protect your permanents is to run other cheap cards that give them protection from colors like Mother of Runes and Pippin, Guard of the Citadel.

Boros Charm, Fierce Guardianship, and Teferi's Protection are must-have non-creature spells to run in this deck to prevent opponents from killing your valuable creatures.

Removal

Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares are this deck’s spot removal spells, while Cyclonic Rift is a no-brainer for any deck running blue. Aside from that, there aren’t really many ways to remove things from the battlefield, but Argentum Armor somewhat does that.

Cost Reduction

For any equipment commander, reducing the mana and equip costs is essential for keeping things running smoothly. Cards like Puresteel Paladin are perfect for this strategy as not only does it draw you cards whenever an equipment enters the battlefield, but with metalcraft, it makes all equip costs free, letting you gear up your creatures at no extra cost.

Bruenor Battlehammer and Bureau Headmaster are other examples of cards that play a similar role, making the deck more efficient and explosive by allowing you to equip powerful gear quickly and without spending too much, if any mana.

And of course, no equipment deck is complete without Sigarda's Aid, reskinned here as Captain America's Aid.

The Mana Base

You have to run mana rocks, so a combination of Talismans and Signets in the Jeskai () color identity and the ever-present Sol Ring should do the trick.

That said, I also wanted to add The Irencrag, as it's an extra piece of legendary equipment once your commander or another legendary creature has entered the battlefield.

Aside from that, this decklist runs a mix of shock lands, check lands, and some fetch lands that many decks use nowadays. I also decided to add artifact lands like Great Furnace and Razortide Bridge to help with metalcraft, and more importantly to fetch them with the likes of Fabricate or Trinket Mage.

The Strategy

As usually happens in many Commander games, your goal in the early stages is to accelerate play with the use of mana rocks like Sol Ring and Arcane Signet and cast equipment and cost reducers like Puresteel Paladin or Danitha Capashen, Paragon. Tutoring specific equipment is easy with cards like Stoneforge Mystic or Steelshaper's Gift, while Sigarda's Aid or Hammer of Nazahn allow you to bypass the costs of attaching them.

Once your board is set, it’s time to attack for a lot of damage, usually pursuing the commander damage strategy route. Adding evasion, protection, and indestructibility with your creatures and equipment ensures your key pieces and Commander are hard to remove. If you can’t attack for any reason, you can just smash your opponents Hulk Style with Cap’s main ability.

All in all, it's a fun brew to try!

Combos and Interactions

This deck is straightforward in its approach—essentially, it’s all about following the game plan and smashing with Captain America early. However, there are some interactions worth mentioning.

Godo, Bandit Warlord + Helm of the Host: Let’s be clear, this is the only two-card combo in the deck that wins you the game on the spot. I included it because in many cases, you won't want to play fair, especially if your opponents aren't. Having the potential for at least one combo is important. That said, you don’t always have to cast the Helm—you could fetch another piece of equipment to extend the game instead.

Beyond that, there are synergies you don’t want to overlook, or even “non-bos,” like with Lightning Greaves. Once attached, you can’t target Cap’ with other equipment unless you either move the boots to another creature or use your commander’s first ability to detach it, which can be handy if Captain America is your only creature.

It’s also worth remembering that your equipment tutors can fetch cards like Lizard Blades for the extra body and boost.

Sunforger is also a very useful card. It lets you fetch protection spells at instant speed to safeguard your board or commander. If you wanted to be especially tricksy, you could run white counterspells like Lapse of Certainty to catch people off guard.

Lastly, remember that adding even a single card can change the power level of this deck. For example, Aggravated Assault not only excels in Voltron strategies but also has the potential to go infinite with Sword of Feast and Famine.

Rule 0 Violations Check

For the most part this deck plays a fair, straightforward game – as soon as your pod sees your commander, they'll probably guess what you're up to.

As noted, the deck runs a two-card game-winning combo and a free counterspell, so you may want to clear that up in a Rule 0 conversation.

Budget Options

When building Commander decks, you have to look at things like mana curve, deck distribution, and, more importantly, the financial impact of building a deck.

Mask of Memory and Rogue's Gloves are prime candidates when looking to trim expensive cards that give card advantage.

From there, it's all about what you’re looking for. If you want lifegain, Basilisk Collar and Loxodon Warhammer are your options, while Whispersilk Cloak and Maul of the Skyclaves are there in case you’re looking for evasion.

Like those, you can replace some other cards by adding the likes of Dispatch instead of other removal spells or even bounce lands or Snarls as a way to substitute fetch lands.

Other Builds

While the main build focuses on equipping Captain America, First Avenger with the best gear available, there are other ways to build your deck without losing its core elements.

For instance, you can take an affinity or metalcraft approach with cards like Nettlecyst, Thoughtcast, and Dispatch.

You could also explore an Artifact Value theme, where cards like The Key to the Vault, The Reality Chip, and Sensei's Divining Top become essential tools for victory.

Finally, you can go full combo, loading up the deck with as many degenerate plays as possible—like infinite combat phases or infinite tokens—by adding just a few key cards to the original decklist, like Jeskai Ascendancy or Aggravated Assault.

I Could Do This All Day

Kellan, the Fae-Blooded | Illustration by Anna Steinbauer

In the hopes of keeping the deck somewhat affordable, I ended up with pretty much a stock list of what an equipment Commander deck should look like, but having one that equips things on its own at will is a major upside. Now, you just need to get lucky and draw Colossus Hammer in your initial hand to deliver massive blows along with Captain America with no more than just the lands you need to cast it.

What do you think? Since there’s always room for upgrades or customization depending on your playgroup’s power level or budget, what cards would you cut or add? Let us know in the comments!

Thank you so much for reading up until now, and whether you are a big fan of Marvel or just excited to have a new Jeskai commander, I hope this deck was to your liking, and if you want to see similar ones remember to follow us on X/Twitter and join our Discord to never miss a thing!

Take care, and see you next time.