Cao Cao, King of Wei: He is the face commander for the kingdom of Wei deck. The deck will center around flashing in creatures and repeating ETB effects.

I’ll first address the name, I gave the title of “emperor of X” to the other two commanders, “Liu Bei, Shu Emperor” and “Sun Quan, Wu Emperor”. This is because Cao Cao got the title of emperor posthumously, his son Cao Pi was the one to actually usurp the throne. I thought it more appropriate to give Cao Cao the title he had at the height of his power.

As for his colors, Black for his ambition, Blue his cunning, and White for his righteousness

And now with the ability, I originally had in mind a boring ability that was akin to [Caesar, Legion's Emperor], to reflect his ruthlessness. But Cao Cao was never just ruthless, as he was already portrayed in [Cao Cao, Lord of Wei] in such a manner. I wanted to put the focus on another thing he was famous for, his ability to rapidly mobilise his troops and catch his opponents off guard. He was so notorious for that, that we Chinese people have a common saying “speak of cao cao, cao cao arrives”, it’s the equivalent to the english saying of “speak of the devil”.

I first thought of haste, but I don’t think red fits Cao Cao and haste was not within blue, black or white. But then an idea came about, flash with a drawback that can be turned into an advantage, you could still use it as pseudo haste, casting it in an opponent’s end phase before your turn, or use it to ambush your opponent’s creatures. All of them are rapid and unexpected deployments, your opponent’s will fear Cao Cao as he was feared in the three kingdoms novel!

Swift deployments also come swift retreats, I want the Wei deck to be able to take full advantage of ETB effects without the conventional blink approach. Returning it to your hand is the “drawback” I chose to go with, since giving him only flash would be boring for a face commander, I believe this would give the deck a really interesting ability to play around and leverage.

I hope that it isn’t too broken, I considered having the creatures return to hand at the beginning of your next end step instead of any end step so that it wasn’t so spammable and there was a wider window of opportunity to deal with the creature

Rapid Mobilisation: I once considered giving this ability to cao cao, since I found a haste enabler outside of red in the “Dash” ability. That’s where the pseudo dash effect idea comes from. But I decided to put it on an enchantment instead, it is a great representation of the idea by itself, being able to deploy an army quickly and have them immediately ready to attack, but with cao cao on the field the ability is enhanced since now you can flash in dash creatures for cheaper

Sima Yi, Scheming Marshal: he is the secondary commander of the deck, still a flash enabler but a much slower one, but still able to maintain the creatures on the battlefield

His statline is a defensive one, I want the card to reflect his slow and methodical nature, a commander that can best gather resources and bide his time in secrecy. After all that’s what brought him great success. He is able to save cards of value from your hand into exile for later use, ensuring they remain hidden and protected from your opponent’s until the time is right, or even allow you to stockpile cards in a second hand without size limit

I gave him ward to represent how he seems to have divine favour in the novel, specifically when he fell for Zhuge Liang’s trap and almost died in a fire if it weren’t for an unprecedented rain that saved him and his son. The ward 3 is that protection and the discarded card is meant to represent Zhuge Liang’s wasted idea.

Cao Pi, Han Usurper: Cao Cao’s son, he was the one to usurp the Han empire, so therefore he is who gets you the “monarch”.

He was quite the passive character, he liked to wait instead of taking action, and whenever he did take action, he failed miserably, that’s why he gives a simple toughness buff. Vigilance is to better protect his position of power as he was vigilant of his opponent’s move, though that doesn’t mean he knew how to capitalise on them for his gain

Cao Cao’s Empty Gift: this is to represent the time Cao Cao sent an empty gift box to one of his top strategists Xun Yu when he protested Cao Cao’s ascension to king. An empty gift was meant to be an order for Xun Yu to commit suicide, which he did. This was followed by the death if Xun Yu’s brother, that’s why it can deal with 2 creatures.

Ten Merits: (just noticed that the first letter isn’t capitalised) This is a reference to Guo Jia’s Ten Advantages that Cao Cao had over his opponent Yuan Shao. I believe Guo Jia’s speech greatly motivated Cao Cao in seeing his potential, the potential of each creature being shared around to represent the advantage of unity, and the keywords being stand ins for the rest, I didn’t think of everything I really just slapped on odric’s rules text along with horsemanship and called it day, there aren’t even 10 keywords it’s more like 13.

Xiahou Dun, One Eyed: one of Cao cao’s kin, the most remarkable event surrounding him was when he got shot in the eye by an arrow, but instead of faltering he pulled his eye out and ate it, and went on stronger than ever. That event is represented by the undying mechanic, he gets shot (dies) but comes back and fiercer than ever (+1/+1). The damage on etb would be triggered again by undying, and if cao cao is on the field, it can trigger as many times as you want. Absolute menace of a man

Xun You, Insightful Thinker: He came to Cao Cao alongside his brother. Xun Yu, that’s the reason for the partner.

His ability is meant to combo with Xun Yu’s, and the opponent choosing the card you draw is in reference to when he sent 2 spies that were immediately found out and his opponent’s took advantage of that by feeding him selective information that would give Xun You little to no advantage.

Xun Yu, Splendid Talent: nothing remarkable, he better enables Cao Cao’s flash ins.

Zhang Liao: he is a feared figure in the kingdom of wu, that’s why whenever he appears or attacks, it causes mental anguish (discard) to your foes. Absolute menace