Ever wish you could have something like Forgotten Ancient as your commander? Ever wish that when you distribute counters to other creatures they stay on
Forgotten Ancient? The Commander 2015 Djinn was listening and your wishes have been answered. Soon coming out of a magic lamp near you is Ezuri,
Claw of Progress.
Ezuri takes advantage of the new Commander 2015 mechanic of experience counters. Since you, the player, get the counters, they don’t go away until
the end of the game (I’m already dreaming of an Un-card in which they do!). So long as you have the permanent which takes advantage of the counters on the
battlefield, cool stuff happens. In other formats, this is more difficult to make repeated use of because recasting or reanimating cards takes considerably
more effort. In Commander, where you have nearly constant access to your commander, things can get pretty wild in short order.
Ezuri is a textbook build-around commander. The best part is that unlike some others, you can go in multiple different directions with him; things are far
from linear. You won’t have to look far to find stockpiles of weapons for your Ezuri arsenal. Blue and green are colors that like +1/+1 counters and also
like to fulfill Ezuri’s trigger condition of putting creatures two power or less onto the battlefield. Once you start piling up the experience counters,
the sky is the limit.
– Want to engage in Hardened Scales/Doubling Season shenanigans? Ezuri is right up your alley.
– Want to make small creatures into large ones (and toss in some Parallel Lives to boot)? Look no further.
– Want to crush your enemies and hear the lamentations of their women
? Ezuri is your Elf (although be careful with Elf tribal because once you get Elvish Champion and friends rolling, your creatures will be too big for
the trigger).
Many deckbuilders will have loads of fun exploring possibilities.
Ezuri is so good that I’m already considering doing a straight-up swap with him as commander of my deck Zegana and a Dice Bag (although Prime Speaker then definitely
gets a spot in the 99). The deck likes to leverage creatures with +1/+1 counters, move them around, and battle. It also provides some defense with the
supremely underrated Spike Weaver and Spike Feeder. With Ezuri, both of them become offensive and defensive weapons. Even if you put three or four
counters onto Spike Weaver each combat step, it soon becomes a monster that can bash into the strongest defenses without fear of dying (especially since
you can just Fog if an opponent comes up with a combat trick). Crowned Ceratok ensures that chump blocking isn’t in anyone’s future. Need some life? Pile
up counters on Spike Feeder.
Because Ezuri triggers on the combat step, you’ll want to consider your own combat tricks. Two which jump to mind are Biomass Mutation and Bioshift.
Biomass Mutation gives your creatures base power and toughness of X until end of turn, with X being the amount of mana you put into the spell. Because base
power and toughness exist in a lower layer than counters, your creatures become that first and then get the bonus from the counters (which also
helps when someone plays Sudden Spoiling on you; your creatures might not have any abilities, but they’re still 0/2 plus the number counters). Suddenly,
your whole army gets beefy. The real tomfoolery comes from Bioshift. For the low, low cost of one mana, either green or blue, you can move any number of
counters from one of your creatures to another. In addition to being a safety valve for targeted removal, you can transfer all of them from a blocked
creature to an unblocked one. Better yet, if Ezuri participates in the attack, you might be able to get in a fair amount of commander damage by shipping
back the counters that he just gave away, turning him into a two- or three-turn killer.
Ramp up the insanity by adding creatures or spells that create large numbers of small creatures. The standard-bearer is Avenger of Zendikar, especially
since it creates them as 0/1s (which you later make larger with landfall). Mycoloth is the creature that keeps on giving you tokens each upkeep. If you’ve
already played some small utility creatures, like Wood Elves, Elvish Visionary, Solemn Simulacrum, or Mulldrifter, eat them with Mycoloth for long-term
gains. Awakening Zone gets you experience counters plus creatures you can sacrifice for mana to cast more stuff. For super-secret tech that everyone else
will have to pick up and read, try out Sporogenesis.
Druidic Satchel (or “man bag” as we call it locally) is a utility artifact that will give you the occasional extra creature. Jade Mage does it for 2G (and
doesn’t tap, so you can pump as much mana as you have into it), as does Nemata, Grove Guardian. Night Soil is great creature-creation tech which also keeps
other players’ libraries under control. Anything that you might find in a U/G token deck will pay dividends alongside Ezuri. Then add some bounce to
continue replaying those utility creatures. Cloudstone Curio, Species Gorger, Stampeding Wildebeests, Crystal Shard, and Erratic Portal will all let you
rinse, lather, and repeat. For super tech that bounces a troublesome creature and nets you a pile of experience counters, try out Aether Mutation.
The experience counters mechanic opens new possibilities for Commander deckbuilders. It’s a resource what will stay around as long as you do, giving you
the opportunity to continually generate advantage after advantage for the stuff you’ve done earlier in the game. The best part is that it’s additive with
the kinds of things you’re already doing (like making swarms of creatures). With Ezuri, Claw of Progress, even the smallest creature can end up making the
largest difference.