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Are You Experienced?

The great Bennie Smith likes experience counters enough to build a deck that amasses as many as humanly possible! See his build and his thoughts on MTGO’s sweet new Legendary Cube!

By

If you can just get your mind together

Then come on across to me

We’ll hold hands an’ then we’ll watch the sun rise from the bottom of the sea

But first

Are you experienced?

Have you ever been experienced?

–Jimi Hendrix, “Are You Experienced?”

Each of the new experience counter legends headlining the Commander 2015 deck products make sweet commanders to build around, and I’ll be doing just that over the coming couple months, but one of the first things I started thinking about was whether I could build a viable deck running all of them. The cool thing about experience counters is that experience earned from one legend can be used to juice up any of the other experience legends.

Start Your Engines!

If you look at all five of the experience counter legends, you’ll notice that you can divide them into two camps. Three of them gain experience counters whenever you cast a certain type of spell. In general, it’s very difficult to create an open-ended engine with these three legends to gain a gigantic amount of experience.

However, there are two that are ripe for engine-making:

There are quite a few combos in the vast, deep oceans of Magic card history that produce either a creature dying as many times in a turn as you want, or putting as many small creatures into play in a single turn as you want (even if they don’t stick around). One combo comes to mind that satisfies either Meren or Ezuri, one that some who’ve played Magic for a while might recognize from a funky Standard deck called Project X:

The idea here is to have Saffi Eriksdotter in play or in your graveyard when Crypt Champion comes onto the battlefield without using red mana to cast it. Put his sacrifice trigger on the stack, then add his reanimate a creature with converted mana cost 3 or less trigger on the stack to bring back Saffi. Sacrifice Saffi targeting Crypt Champion, and then sacrifice Crypt Champion. Saffi’s delayed trigger ability kicks in and Crypt Champion comes back to do it all over again. In Project X you would combine this with Essence Warden to gain infinite life, which in general bought you a lot of time to figure out another way to kill your opponent.

A Modern combo that satisfies both experience engines might be more familiar:

Often this combo will just flat out win the game on its own, but savvy Commander players should have various measures to prevent themselves from being overwhelmed by a horde of token creatures. The infinite tokens will ping Ezuri’s experience trigger, and when they’re sacrificed during the next end step they’ll ping Meren’s experience trigger.

Meren’s trigger is quite easy to satisfy if we just focus on her (that’s what she said). For instance:

Sacrifice Composite Golem for five mana, and then use four of that mana to pay for Nim Deathmantle’s trigger to bring Composite Golem back from the graveyard. Rise, repeat = infinite Meren triggers and infinite mana of any or all colors as a side benefit.

Here are a couple more, providing you have some way of sacrificing a creature for no mana (Viscera Seer springs to mind):

Sacrifice Karmic Guide, and then sacrifice Reveillark. Reveillark’s trigger brings back Karmic Guide, and Karmic Guide’s trigger brings back Reveillark. Here’s another one:

Sacrifice Saffi to put a delayed trigger on Sun Titan. Sacrifice Sun Titan, and then bring it back with Saffi’s trigger. When Sun Titan comes back into play bring back Saffi.

With a little bit of work you can go off with Mizzix of the Izmagnus. With four experience counters you can cast Sprout Swarm with buyback for just one green mana, and you can tap a green creature to pay for that green mana with convoke. The Saproling token is a green creature so once you’ve made your first Saproling you can tap it to play Sprout Swarm the next time. While this won’t increase your experience counters from Mizzix’s ability (which says each spell needs to cost more than the current experience count), it will give you lots of Saprolings, and if Ezuri’s around, he’ll give you experience.

With a lot of work you can go off with Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas in play. In addition you’ll need Animar, Soul of Elements in play with at least five +1/+1 counters and Cloudstone Curio. Cast Blight Herder for no mana and add a counter to Animar. Then for three mana (maybe sacrificing a couple Scions for mana if you need to) cast Artisan of Kozilek and trigger Cloudstone Curio to bring Blight Herder back to your hand while adding another +1/+1 counter to Animar. Cast Blight Herder for free and add another +1/+1 counter to Animar, and return Artisan to your hand. Now cast Artisan for just one mana, add another counter to Animar, and return Blight Herder back to your hand. At this point you can now continue the loop for no mana, making Animar as big as you want and pinging Kalemne’s experience trigger as much as you want. Not to mention getting back all your creatures from the graveyard with Artisan of Kozilek.

What’s really nice about many of these combo pieces is that many of them can get back other combo pieces from the graveyard if your opponents have been diligent about breaking up your shenanigans. However I think I’ll add in Doomed Necromancer, Eternal Witness, and Body Double to improve the chance of getting back useful pieces.

Pulling it Together

One way to build this deck is with no tutors just to see what might come together during the course of the game, and depending on your playgroup, that’s certainly a fun option. However, since the concept of this deck is to assemble an experience engine, my first build is going to have ways to search for the pieces you need under the assumption that you’ll play this deck against other higher-powered decks. Vampiric Tutor and Demonic Tutor are the usual suspects for the job, and since a lot of this is driven by creatures, Summoner’s Pact, Eladamri’s Call, Defense of the Heart, and Tooth and Nail fit the bill. Since all of our experience creatures are legends, Time of Need can even do good work. Mystic Speculation, Sylvan Library, Shadows of the Past, and Garruk, Caller of Beasts can help us dig into what we need.

Reaping the Benefits

Daxos the Returned that plays nicely with the rest of the deck, but I figure Daxos does a ton of heavy lifting in his own dedicated Commander deck that he can take the night off here, relax, and reap the benefits of infinite experience to pump out impossibly large white and black Spirit enchantment creature tokens three mana at a time. Much like Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas becomes a literal giant with unlimited experience counters. Since neither the tokens nor Kalemne have evasion, we might need a way to push through the damage, so I’m going to include Loxodon Warhammer for trample and Dragon Throne of Tarkir to make all of our other creatures impossibly large.

If we get Mizzix of the Izmagnus on the battlefield with unlimited experience, the classic way to win is Fireball, killing all opponents and all their creatures simultaneously. I’ve also included a number of utility spells with buyback that lets you get the effect repeatedly for each colored mana you have to pay for it: Whispers of the Muse, Invulnerability, Shattering Pulse, and Allay.

So here’s how my first pass at the “Are You Experienced?” deck:

Child of Alara
Bennie Smith
Test deck on 12-04-2015
Commander
Magic Arena

Creatures (26)

Planeswalkers (1)

Lands (40)

Spells (33)

Magic Card Back


In addition to actively going after your creatures to stop your shenanigans, your opponents might very well just try and kill you to end it. Since none of the available five color legends really helped my deck’s plans, I picked Child of Alara to provide a board sweep if the battlefield was looking too hazardous for my health, though I’d need to be careful an opponent’s instant-speed removal spell on Child wouldn’t break up my own plot. Wrath of God and Rout play a similar function. I quickly found room for the new Commander 2015 card Arachnogenesis as a great Fog with huge upside, especially if your opponent is swarming you with a massive horde of 1/1s. It also very kindly leaves your own board intact.

So what do you think of my attempt to squeeze all the experience legends from Commander 2015 into one viable deck? Is there anything I’m missing? What sort of plots do you have for using and abusing experience counters at your Commander table?

Legendary Cube

Commander fans, have you tried out drafting the Legendary Cube on Magic Online? I try and jump on Magic Online every once in a while, especially to pick up Commander staples and get in a few games of Commander. I’ve tried Cube draft once before and it didn’t really grab my interest, but a Cube with nothing but legends as creatures sounded very appealing to me. As a fan of Commander, this sounded like something that would be right up my alley, so the other night I gave it a whirl. I hadn’t really heard much about the format other than it was slow and all about mana acceleration, mana fixing, and throwing bombs. So after my first few picks of Simic Signet, Golgari Signet, Fellwar Stone, and Opulent Palace I figured it was safe to start nabbing my bombs among clan Sultai. I was pretty happy with how my deck turned out. I got a Sword of the Chosen, which is awesome in this format. An early Thada Adel, Acquisitor could nab my opponent’s Signets, while Glissa Sunseeker could mow them down if they were on the battlefield. Song of the Dryads could neutralize an otherwise terrifying legend on the opposing side, while Sakashima the Impostor could copy it. Meren of Clan Nel Toth, Sidisi, Brood Tyrant, and The Mimeoplasm together made my graveyard a nice resource. Karn, Silver Golem let me turn my early mana acceleration into attackers. Aboshan, Cephalid Emperor and Visara the Dreadful gave me nice removal options, and Kamahl, Fist of Krosa is a game ender. The only card I was rather underwhelmed by was Engineered Explosives, which probably should have been in my sideboard and replaced in the maindeck with Anticipate or Krosan Grip.

Fellwar Stone Golgari Signet Simic Signet Mycosynth Wellspring Sword of the Chosen Staff of Domination

Thada Adel, Acquisitor Song of the Dryads Glissa, the Traitor Edric, Spymaster of Trest Sakashima the Impostor

Harmonize Meren of Clan Nel Toth Sidisi, Brood Tyrant Ezuri, Claw of Progress Karn, Silver Golem Sidisi, Undead Vizier Kodama of the North Tree The Mimeoplasm Aboshan, Cephalid Emperor Visara the Dreadful Kamahl, Fist of Krosa

Mikokoro, Center of the Sea Glissa Sunseeker Engineered Explosives Reflecting Pool Opulent Palace Dreadship Reef Sunken Hollow Flooded Grove Overgrown Tomb Misty Rainforest Shizo, Death's Storehouse Swamp Forest Forest Forest Island Island Island

These were the cards I didn’t play in my maindeck:

Catch Contagion Clasp Anticipate Psychotic Fury Helvault Krosan Grip Hedron Archive Mind's Eye That Which Was Taken Absorb Vis Vicious Shadows

I was playing in the three rounds of Swiss queue. My confidence in having a good deck was crushed in my first match when I played against a griefer who went totally against the grain of the format and drafted every piece of removal or counterspell he could find and just controlled me into oblivion. I felt better in the second match when I won two out of three fun, interactive games, and Aboshan, Cephalid Emperor showed his ability to crack open stalemates with his Falter ability.

The first game of the last match was a slugfest that ate up a lot of time, but I managed to swing it in my favor by casting Sakashima the Impostor to copy his Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, and then turn his Ulamog into a Forest with Song of the Dryads. In the second game, they seemed to draw a lot of control cards. They were able to stop me each time I tried to seize initiative. Finally, I was able to craft a game-winning plan, but it took a while to work out the lines of play, and I was running out of time. Luckily, I’d win the match with my victory and wouldn’t need the time for a third game. I’d copied his Ulamog with Sakashima again last turn and had Karn and a few Signets out, so my plan was to cast The Mimeoplasm, copying Kamahl, Fist of Krosa in my graveyard, activate Karn to animate a few Signets, and then use Kamahl’s Overrun ability and attack with Ulamog, Karn, and Signets for the win. I did all that, but somehow clicked through my attack step without attacking and passed my turn, and my opponent killed me on his turn. Game 3, I ran out of time and lost the match, so I didn’t even get a Legendary Prize Pack. Still, I was happy with the deck and pleased with my play and would have won that last match if not for a dumb mouse click.

Have you tried drafting the Legendary Cube? Are there any cards in my sideboard I should have had in the maindeck and any cards in the maindeck I should have not played?


New to Commander?


If you’re just curious about the format, building your first deck, or trying to take your Commander deck up a notch, here are some handy links:

Commander write-ups I’ve done
(and links to decklists):

• Zurgo Bellstriker (Bellstriking Like a Boss)

• Dragonlord Ojutai (Troll Shroud)

• Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund (Dragons, Megamorphs, and Dragons)

• Dromoka, the Eternal (One Flying Bolster Basket)

• Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest (Tempests and Teapots)

• Tasigur, the Golden Fang (Hatching Evil Sultai Plots)

• Scion of the Ur-Dragon (Dragon Triggers for Everyone)

• Nahiri, The Lithomancer (Lithomancing for Fun and Profit)

• Titania, Protector of Argoth (Titania’s Land and Elemental Exchange)

• Reaper King (All About VILLAINOUS WEALTH)

• Feldon of the Third Path (She Will Come Back to Me)

• Sidisi, Brood Tyrant (Calling Up Ghouls with Sidisi)

• Zurgo Helmsmasher (Two Times the Smashing)

• Anafenza, the Foremost (Anafenza and Your Restless Dead)

• Narset, Enlightened Master (The New Voltron Overlord)

• Surrak Dragonclaw (The Art of Punching Bears)

• Avacyn, Guardian Angel; Ob Nixilis, Unshackled; Sliver Hivelord (Commander Catchup, Part 3)

• Keranos, God of Storms; Marchesa, the Black Rose; Muzzio, Visonary Architect (Commander Catchup, Part 2)

• Athreos, God of Passage; Kruphix, God of Horizons; Iroas, God of Victory (Commander Catchup, Journey into Nyx Edition)

• Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient (Ghost in the Machines)

• Jalira, Master Polymorphist (JaliraPOW!)

• Mishra, Artificer Prodigy (Possibility Storm Shenanigans)

• Yisan, the Wanderer Bard (All-in Yisan)

• Selvala, Explorer Returned (Everyone Draws Lots!)

• Grenzo, Dungeon Warden (Cleaning Out the Cellar)

• Karona, False God (God Pack)

• Child of Alara (Land Ho!)

• Doran, the Siege Tower (All My Faves in One Deck!)

• Karador, Ghost Chieftain (my Magic Online deck)

• Karador, Ghost Chieftain (Shadowborn Apostles & Demons)

• King Macar, the Gold-Cursed (GREED!)

• Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind ( Chuck’s somewhat vicious deck)

• Roon of the Hidden Realm (Mean Roon)

• Skeleton Ship (Fun with -1/-1 counters)

• Vorel of the Hull Clade (Never Trust the Simic)

• Anax and Cymede (Heroic Co-Commanders)

• Aurelia, the Warleader ( plus Hellkite Tyrant shenanigans)

• Borborygmos Enraged (69 land deck)

• Bruna, Light of Alabaster (Aura-centric Voltron)

• Damia, Sage of Stone ( Ice Cauldron shenanigans)

• Emmara Tandris (No Damage Tokens)

• Gahiji, Honored One (Enchantment Ga-hijinks)

• Geist of Saint Traft (Voltron-ish)

• Ghave, Guru of Spores ( Melira Combo)

• Glissa Sunseeker (death to artifacts!)

• Glissa, the Traitor ( undying artifacts!)

• Grimgrin, Corpse-Born (Necrotic Ooze Combo)

• Jeleva, Nephalia’s Scourge ( Suspension of Disbelief)

• Johan (Cat Breath of the Infinite)

• Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer (replacing Brion Stoutarm in Mo’ Myrs)

• Karona, False God (Vows of the False God)

• Lord of Tresserhorn (ZOMBIES!)

• Marath, Will of the Wild ( Wild About +1/+1 Counters)

• Melira, Sylvok Outcast ( combo killa)

• Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker ( Outside My Comfort Zone with Milling
)

• Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis (evil and Spike-ish)

• Nicol Bolas (Kicking it Old School)

• Nylea, God of the Hunt ( Devoted to Green)

• Oloro, Ageless Ascetic (Life Gain)

• Oona, Queen of the Fae (by reader request)

• Phage the Untouchable ( actually casting Phage from Command Zone!)

• Phelddagrif (Mean Hippo)

• Polukranos, World Eater (Monstrous!)

• Reaper King (Taking Advantage of the new Legend Rules)

• Riku of Two Reflections (

steal all permanents with Deadeye Navigator + Zealous Conscripts

)

• Roon of the Hidden Realm ( Strolling Through Value Town)

• Ruhan of the Fomori (lots of equipment and infinite attack steps)

• Savra, Queen of the Golgari ( Demons)

• Shattergang Brothers (Breaking Boards)

• Sigarda, Host of Herons ( Equipment-centric Voltron)

• Skullbriar, the Walking Grave ( how big can it get?)

• Sliver Overlord (Featuring the new M14 Slivers!)

• Thelon of Havenwood ( Campfire Spores)

• Varolz, the Scar-Striped (scavenging goodness)

• Vorosh, the Hunter ( proliferaTION)

• Xenagos, God of Revels (Huge Beatings)

• Yeva, Nature’s Herald (living at instant speed)