Welcome back to the ReCycling Bin, a series in which I look back at theorycrafted Magic decks that never saw the light of day. This installment features a deck I threw together … nearly seven years ago? I’d just learned Commander was a thing, and I was really excited to build a deck featuring the most badass Legendary you’d ever seen:

Yeah, I was THAT guy right away in Commander. I didn’t want to cast huge Dragons or summon a veritable army of Elves; I wanted to steal YOUR stuff. Doesn’t that sound fun?

Why’d I Build It?

After learning about Commander, I went looking for the neatest Legendary creatures I could find. And by neatest, I of course mean most oppressive.

First, I inflicted Zur the Enchanter on my incredibly casual playgroup (assembled from across Wisconsin via Cockatrice). That went about as well as you might expect. Realizing I needed to bring things down a notch, but not wanting to move out of Esper colors, I began looking for substitute Legendaries.

That’s when I found Sen Triplets. It was love at first sight.

But not, y’know, in a creepy way.

What Was the Deck Supposed to Do?

Theoretically, my Sen Triplets deck was supposed to be a ton of fun for not just me, but my entire playgroup.

Click to see this decklist on TappedOut.

They’d all complained that my first deck was too strong. Well, this deck would be only as strong as THEIR decks. It would steal the things my friends wanted to play and win using those things. So it could never be stronger than what my group brought to the table.

You’ll also notice a lot of Walls in that decklist up there. I’m not actually sure why those are there? I think the plan was to sit behind the Walls while my opponent’s stolen creatures did all my actual attacking. That thought sounds cool to me even now, so I bet that’s it.

There are cards I look at on this list, like Emerge Unscathed, and I cringe. Surely there must’ve been some other card that could have been? But then I look at deep cuts like Ritual of the Machine and admire Past Me’s research and dedication to theme. I was going to build Walls, protect things, and STEAL things, dammit.

So why didn’t I?

Why’d It Never See Play?

Turns out, my friends liked to play with their cards, and they DID NOT like it when I played with their cards. Control Magic‘ing an opponent’s Avacyn and killing them with it is fun for everyone the first couple times. After a while, opponents get tired of it (or of two-for-one-ing themselves to stop it).

Our Commander playgroup hadn’t developed yet, in many senses of the word. I was still searching for the first Commander deck I was going to build in paper, and after watching my friends get upset about having their things constantly stolen, I knew Sen Triplets wasn’t going to be it. So I abandoned the Triplets and moved on to better things … which also kept the people I wanted to play Magic with happy. Really, it was a win-win.

Will I ever give the Sen Triplets another chance? Maybe. For now, I’ve got other Commander decks I still need to build (see here for that). And who knows? It’s possible my playgroup still hasn’t forgotten about the Triplets … though seven years sure is a long time.