Thrun, Breaker of Silence Commander Deck Guide

Last updated on March 14, 2024

Thrun, Breaker of Silence | Illustration by Simon Dominic

I don’t crack packs too often. I’ve never really pulled anything all that great so it makes opening packs more frustrating than anything else. But once, a long time ago, I did pull a really cool card: Asceticism. This card felt absurdly strong at the time, and honestly, it still holds up. It also made me interested in the character of Thrun, and I’m really glad we got to see him come back in Phyrexia: All Will Be One.

Both Thrun, the Last Troll and Thrun, Breaker of Silence are very cool cards. They make themselves almost impossible to take out, which inherently makes them amazing for Voltron decks. So that’s what we’re gonna be building today: a Voltron deck for Thrun, Breaker of Silence.

The Deck

Alpha Authority | Illustration by Dave Kendall

The Commander

Thrun, Breaker of Silence is really hard to get rid of. Uncounterable, almost untargetable and indestructible most of the time. Pretty much the only way your commander can be removed is with green removal which isn’t played too often, or wraths on someone else’s turn, which means you’re not the only one getting hit.

This commander also has trample which means it has some very useful evasion. This combination of being highly resistant to removal and pretty much always hitting means you can build a pretty solid Voltron strategy around this card. You’ll want to be taking your opponents down through commander damage.

I placed two alternative commanders for this deck that work in a very similar way: Thrun, the Last Troll has hexproof and can be regenerated, which may not be as good as indestructible (and it’s a kinda confusing ability) but it’s still pretty great. The other alternative is Toski, Bearer of Secrets, which ticks off pretty much the same boxes as our commander thanks to it being indestructible and uncounterable; no trample and lower base stats make it harder to get that commander damage through, but it’s not impossible.

The Auras

This is pretty much an enchantress Voltron deck. There are only a handful of equipments to place on your commander. Most of your upgrades will come from enchantments that boost Thrun, Breaker of Silence to get that nice commander damage in.

Ancestral Mask, Blanchwood Armor, Colossification, three totem armor cards, and a couple more enchantments are all there to make your commander a massive creature that’ll just trample over any blockers in its way.

Alpha Authority ensures that your opponents can’t prevent too much of the commander damage you can do by blocking with all they have. This is especially great against go-wide strategies since they usually count on being able to block with many low-stat creatures.

Keen Sense and Sixth Sense ensure you get a nice amount of card draw to keep your hand full.

Equipments

This deck doesn’t rely on equipments so much since it prioritizes a more enchantment-centric strategy, but we have some utility pieces that are hard not to take advantage of.

Blackblade Reforged and Strata Scythe can both power up a creature massively thanks to the deck running almost exclusively Forest lands.

Thran Power Suit won’t only buff your commander but it’ll also make it even harder to target with any kind of removal.

Both Fireshrieker and Basilisk Collar give some very useful utilities. Double strike on a massive trample creature is simply pure gains; same thing goes for deathtouch, since it allows you to only lose a single point of damage on the blocking creature and let the rest trample over to your opponent. The additional benefit of lifelink isn’t exactly game-changing but it’s always good to have a backup plan if you’re getting hit too often.

Galadhrim Bow (as well as Spider Umbra) ensures you have some way to protect against flying creatures.

Protection

Even though our commander already has a pretty solid protection system built in, it never hurts to have some extra ways to keep it on the battlefield. Especially when it’s a high mana value commander that’ll probably have quite a few enchantments on it.

We have Snakeskin Veil, Silkguard, and Tamiyo's Safekeeping to ensure some additional protection from single-target effects and wraths. Arguably something like Farewell can be the biggest threat against our commander, since it’s particularly hard to protect against.

We also have Snake Umbra, Spider Umbra, and Bear Umbra. These serve as power ups but they also protect Thrun, Breaker of Silence. Keep in mind that totem armor will prevent destruction either by damage or “destroy” effects, and if you have several totem armor auras, only one of them will be destroyed in your creature’s stead.

Removal

Green isn’t exactly known as the strongest color for removal but even so we still have a few ways to get rid of particularly troublesome creatures.

Ancient Animus, Cosmic Hunger, Khalni Ambush, and Ram Through all make it so that your commander won’t only be able to take out your opponents but their creatures too.

We also have Krosan Grip, Acidic Slime, Reclamation Sage, Beast Within, and some others to take out almost any other troublesome permanent.

Kenrith's Transformation and Lignify both serve as a way to go around things like indestructible when trying to get rid of certain targets.

The Creatures

Pretty much all of the creatures in this deck support the enchantment strategy one way or another. Including a handful of them being enchantment creatures themselves.

Argothian Enchantress, Eidolon of Blossoms, Setessan Champion, Tanglespan Lookout, and Verduran Enchantress all have enchantress-style effects to make your enchantments also serve as cantrips.

Destiny Spinner and Tajuru Preserver both work as some extra protection. Tajuru Preserver is particularly useful since Thrun, Breaker of Silence doesn’t have any built-in protection against being forced to sacrifice it.

The Mana Base

Most of the lands in this deck are simply basic Forests because you don’t need much more than that. Especially with cards like Blanchwood Armor and Primal Bellow in the deck.

We also have some utility lands. Myriad Landscape can help you ramp up. Reliquary Tower ensures you won’t have to discard once you have a ton of enchantress creatures on the field. Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx is honestly a must-have in almost any monocolored deck. And Rogue's Passage can serve as a way to finish an opponent up through commander damage.

Ramp

Cultivate and Kodama's Reach are the only non-permanent ramp spells in the deck. This deck mostly relies on creatures and enchantments to fix its mana base. Elvish Mystic, Llanowar Elves, and Sanctum Weaver all help generate some additional mana.

Tanuki Transplanter pairs up nicely with the more aggressive playstyle of this deck and can serve as an additional power up for your commander.

Fertile Ground, Gift of Paradise, and Wild Growth all serve as ramp as well as synergizing well with your enchantress cards and things like Ancestral Mask.

The Strategy

Thrun, Breaker of Silence has a ton of built-in protective abilities as well as trample. This makes it a great Voltron commander for two reasons: On one hand, it makes it really hard to remove from the battlefield, which means you can attack with it with relative ease; on the other, trample ensures that as soon as your commander gets somewhat big it’ll always hit for a pretty decent amount of commander damage.

This means you’ll want to be attacking your opponents often, usually going for large blows that either take out a player in one hit or at least leave them against the ropes. It’s a very green style of gameplay, after all.

I also chose to add a reasonable amount of interaction like removal because you never know when an opponent will play that one specific permanent that’ll make your game plan harder to execute. It’s good to always be prepared, even in a color that’s not exactly known for its interaction spells.

Combos and Interactions

This isn’t a deck that focuses particularly on combos. Most of the cards are meant to interact decently with each other, either through the enchantress theme or the Voltron strategy.

I don’t believe there are any cards worthy of a Rule 0 warning, but that always depends on your playgroup. But this deck should be relatively safe.

Budget Options

The most expensive card in this deck is Argothian Enchantress. While obviously useful and powerful, you can replace it with any other enchantress effect, be it creature or enchantment. You can also put Kami of Transience or Herald of the Pantheon in its place since they both synergize well with the deck.

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx can honestly be simply replaced by another Forest or any other utility land you want. There aren’t any cards that can really replicate its effect, but it’s also not exactly fundamental to how the deck works so you can easily take it out.

Toski, Bearer of Secrets is another relatively costly card. Once again, while useful and considerably good, it’s not key to how the deck works so you can easily replace it for many other things. Shigeki, Jukai Visionary could work as a decent replacement with some utility.

Bear Umbra is pretty strong which means it’s also pretty expensive, but can be replaced with Boar Umbra for the totem armor protection.

That covers some of the more expensive cards in the deck. There are a few other cards worth one or two bucks, but most of them can be easily replaced by either things with similar effects or simply anything that synergizes well with Voltron and enchantress strategies.

Other Builds

I honestly wouldn’t build Thrun, Breaker of Silence in a non-Voltron way because I think it’s the best (if not the only) way to properly take advantage of its abilities.

What you can do is take that Voltron strategy in different ways: You can focus more on equipment rather than enchantments, or even a full +1/+1 counters strategy.

Commanding Conclusion

Audacity | Illustration by Rudy Siswanto

I like Voltron decks and decks that focus on combat. They’re fun to play, they usually feel very energetic and straightforward, leaving all of those political and underhanded strategies to the side and just swinging at your opponents for tons of damage. And with a card that basically makes itself impossible to remove, that’s even more fun.

But enough about what I think. Did you like this deck? Would you change anything about it? Which one of the Thrun cards is your favorite? Leave a comment letting us know! And while you’re here, go ahead and pay our Discord server a visit. There you’ll find a wonderful community of MTG fans to share your hobby with!

That’s all from me for now. Have a good one and I’ll see you next time!