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Dear Azami: Going Bananas

Tasigur, the Golden Fang may be on his way out of Standard action soon, but he’s still going to be a force to be reckoned with on Commander tables everywhere! Levi tunes Tasigur today!

Grand Prix Washington, DC: March 11-13!

Before we get into the deck of the week, let me just say that the Shadows over Innistrad spoilers look amazing. Archangel Avacyn gives us another Angel commander for Boros decks, but personally I’m most excited about Tamiyo’s Journal and the invention of Clue tokens. That’s probably more a sign of how weird I am than anything else, but regardless of where you look, this set is dripping with flavor.

In light of the previews, what deck will I be working on this week? Some classic throwback to the original Innistrad or a super-early submission about the latest reincarnation of Avacyn?

Dear Azami,

Hi Dear Azami!

I am a sucker for Limited mechanics/keywords. One of the ones to interest me the most is Inspired from Theros. I tried making a Standard Dimir deck around it and Phenax to a “meh” result. Not to be dissuaded, I have been attempting to make a Commander deck centered on the mechanic since Theros rotated out of Standard. I decided on Sultai as it had what I would argue the best Inspiredcreatures and tap/untap enablers. The trick was trying to figure out which legendary creature would lead the deck.

The deck I had in mind was essentially a combo deck, and when a combo piece gets sent to the graveyard, it can be problematic. Tasigur can renew cards sent to the graveyard, so I figured he would work. Plus he has some extra synergy with other cards. But first, the list:

Artifacts (3)

Springleaf Drum

Scrabbling Claws

Puppet Strings

Instants/Sorceries (15)

Vitalize

Grisly Salvage

Tracker’s Instincts

Mulch

Memory’s Journey

Shred Memory

Forbidden Alchemy

Probe

Sudden Reclamation

Turnabout

Murderous Cut

Intellectual Offering

Endless Obedience

Treasure Cruise

Skeletal Scrying

Enchantments (7)

Quest for Renewal

Symbiotic Deployment

Bow of Nylea

Intruder Alarm

Opposition

Frontier Siege

Awakening

Planeswalkers (2)

Kiora, Master of the Depths

Teferi, Temporal Archmage

Creatures (34)

Elvish Visionary

Disciple of Deceit

Satyr Wayfinder

Kiora’s Follower

Riftsweeper

Bramblesnap

Daring Thief

Siren of the Silent Song

Big Game Hunter

Borderland Ranger

Civic Wayfinder

Deep-Sea Kraken

Servant of Tymaret

Fatestitcher

Aerie Worshippers

Forlorn Pseudamma

King Macar, the Gold-Cursed

Nullmage Shepherd

Citanul Hierophants

Phenax, God of Deception

Sphinx’s Disciple

Kruphix, God of Horizons

Sultai Soothsayer

Torrent Elemental

Murkfiend Liege

Arbiter of the Ideal

Pheres-Band Raiders

Soul of New Phyrexia

Arcanis the Omnipotent

Great Oak Guardian

Deathbringer Regent

Mossbridge Troll

Tidal Force

Dread Cacodemon

Lands (38)

Dimir Guildgate

Simic Guildgate

Golgari Guildgate

Dimir Aqueduct

Simic Growth Chamber

Golgari Rot Farm

Temple of Malady

Temple of Deceit

Temple of Mystery

Terminal Moraine

Evolving Wilds

Terramorphic Expanse

Command Tower

9 Islands

9 Swamps

7 Forests

I have a lot of different things attempting to happen here. I have graveyard enablers to make Tasigur cheaper. I have ways to tap and untap my creatures, some of those serving double duty by doing both. I have some cards present for tutor targets with Disciple of Deceit. I have ways of clearing out my graveyard to force my opponent to return specific cards back to my hand. I have ways of generating mana to pay for Tasigur’s ability. And Kruphix, God of the Horizons lets me break the game.

My concern is whether or not any of this leads to something worth doing. I like durdling as much as the next Magic player, but is there a way to streamline the strengths of this deck? Any advice would be helpful!

Thank you!

Olive

Not so much.

It’s easy for me to fall into the trap of looking at Commander exclusively through the lens of how to break specific legendary creatures, so when I saw this list, I decided to work from the opposite end of things and try tuning a deck that had a theme all its own and a Commander that’s there to support the deck instead of vice versa.

Now, let’s see what we can do here:

The Creatures

Out

One of your chief complaints about the deck was a lack of focus, and something that I noticed pretty quickly about the list was that it was very top-heavy with a fairly expensive curve and almost no ways to accelerate into the mana it needs to function.

These cuts are the first step to addressing those problems. Civic Wayfinder and Borderland Ranger aren’t actually ramp spells, and without ways to blink them I’d rather have any kind of mana rock, which is precisely what they’re being replaced with. Deep-Sea Kraken is actually fairly cheap considering how quickly those time counters will fly off of it, but once it’s on the battlefield it’s just an average-sized piece of evasive beef, and you aren’t really planning to win in combat. It’s worth considering as a finisher, but I don’t think you need it.

The rest of these creatures are simply too mana-hungry for where you want them to be, and several of them are also off-theme. Great Oak Guardian is a combat trick, but since you don’t really care about the pump, it’s just an overcosted Vitalize. Sultai Soothsayer has an effect that you don’t really want (more on that later) on a weak body at five mana, not an interesting package.

Wraths are important, but paying seven for Deathbringer Regent is way too slow for an emergency switch, and that’s pretty much the only situation you want a Wrath in, since you’re a creature-based combo deck.

As for Soul of New Phyrexia, I’ve been very disappointed with it. Even in one of my decks that routinely makes hundreds of mana, I was never able to hold up five every turn without significantly stunting my ability to actually play the game.

In

Farhaven Elf is the Borderland Ranger you want, since it actually puts the land onto the battlefield. I’m adding Pain Seer because it’s literally an on-theme Dark Confidant, and I cut some of the higher-cost stuff so it won’t be as painful now (although Dread Cacodemon will still hurt a lot). Skirsdag High Priest and Tradewind Rider are both tap outlets to get more value out of your inspired creatures without attacking, which was always the hardest part of using the mechanic, given that most inspired creatures are pretty flimsy.

And finally we come to Seedborn Muse, which lets you do all the game-breaking stuff you want but clocks in with a price tag that’s roughly equivalent to the rest of the edits I made combined. If you don’t want to spring for one, that’s totally understandable, and I’d recommend slotting in either Topan Ascetic or Llawnowar Behemoth to have another tap outlet.

The Planeswalkers

Out

Yes, both of these planeswalkers have untap abilities. That doesn’t mean they’re good enough to deserve slots in the deck. Teferi, Temporal Archmage has the potential to do some horrendously broken things in the right deck, but you don’t really have the pieces to enable those shenanigans, and even though untapping four permanents is great, his plus ability is mediocre and you don’t have much use for his plus or any for his ultimate. On top of that, he draws hate because he’s usually a combo engine. Kiora, Master of Waves, on the other hand, can only untap one of your creatures and that’s kind of… it. At least as far as her utility here goes. Considering how fragile planeswalkers are, that’s not enough.

The Spells

Out

One of things about Tasigur, the Golden Fang is that you can’t build around his ability. Sure, you can increase your odds by thinning out your graveyard, but because he mills cards as part of the activation, you’ll never be able to fully control it. That means devoting more than one or two slots to building a graveyard theme is just a waste of space, and without another recursion engine, you don’t need all the card selection spells that find something out of the top five cards and then bin the rest. As a result, I’m cutting them all, as well as the pseudo-delve of Skeletal Scrying and Shred Memory. Use Tasigur to get incidental value when there’s nothing else to do with the mana, but don’t try to break it.

In

Three actual actual ramp spells move this deck in the direction of being able to function properly and consistently, and I’ve chosen ones that fall low on the curve so that they aren’t competing with most of your action. Mind Spring comes in to replace Skeletal Scrying, as it loses the exile cost but costs one more. On the whole it should be a lot more consistent.

Breaking Wave plays havoc with combat and will let you net inspired triggers while buying a turn against an aggressive opponent. Bonus points if you ever shut down a Craterhoof Behemoth-fueled massacre with it. However, Breaking Wave can’t quite compare to the hilarity that Reins of Power can produce. Because you still control the creatures when they untap, you technically own the resulting inspired triggers, and you net all the value while still making two of your opponents’ armies fight each pother to the death. Or you can just borrow the creatures attacking you and blank the attack entirely.

The Enchantments

Out

In almost every deck I love Bow of Nylea, but this isn’t almost every deck. The most powerful part of the card is granting your team deathtouch, and that’s just not relevant here since you can’t use it defensively. Of the remaining modes, I’m fairly sure you included this for the ability to recycle cards back into your deck so Tasigur has a higher chance to hit good cards, but we just went over why that’s not a winning plan, and the other three options aren’t all that amazing either.

In

Instead I’m bringing in a pair of Auras that act as consistent untap engines. Crab Umbra doubles as protection for the creature involved, while Aura of Dominion lets you tap creatures to pay for the untap, which is actually an upside in this list. Also note that you can tap the enchanted creature to pay for the cost, so regardless of the battlefield state, it will net you an inspired trigger for every spare mana you have access to.

The Artifacts

In

The Signets come in to complete the ramp package and are some of the best color-fixing spells you can get. Hair-Strung Koto comes in as a way to tap as many creatures as you need each turn cycle, and while it’s outclassed by the Opposition you’re already running, it’s still an outlet you need.

Finally, Strionic Resonator will let you copy any triggered ability, which happens to include all of the inspired abilities. This is far from the most powerful thing the Resonator can do, but it’s entirely on-theme here.

The Lands

Out

In

I’ve always held that this cycle of dual lands are the best for Commander after the original duals, and they’re rather easy to acquire. It isn’t exactly necessary to make this upgrade, but it will make hitting your color requirements that much easier to hit.

Putting it all together, we get this:


And the additions, sorted by price:

Card

Cost

Crab Umbra

0.25

Golgari Signet

0.25

Simic Signet

0.25

Rampant Growth

0.25

Aura of Dominion

0.29

Farhaven Elf

0.35

Skirsdag High Priest

0.49

Hair-Strung Koto

0.49

Breaking Wave

0.49

Pain Seer

0.49

Mind Spring

0.75

Reins of Power

0.75

Dimir Signet

0.79

Strionic Resonator

0.85

Kodoma’s Reach

0.99

Cultivate

1.29

Tradewind Rider

1.89

Downed Catacomb

3.55

Woodland Cemetary

5.75

Hinterland Harbor

6.99

Seedborn Muse

24.49

Total

51.69

The changes come out to just over $50, but the vast majority of that price tag is concentrated in the lands I added and Seedborn Muse. Cutting either of those would bring the total down to just $10 over the $20 in StarCityGames.com store credit that Olive will receive for having her deck featured this week.

That’s it for this week! I hope you enjoyed this installment of Dear Azami; as always, please send us your submissions to DearAzami [at] gmail [dot] com, and I hoped you enjoyed me coming at a deck that’s so different from my different from my normal approach.

Want to submit a deck for consideration to Dear Azami? Only one deck submission will be chosen per article, but being selected for the next edition of Dear Azami includes not just deck advice but also a $20 coupon to StarCityGames.com!

Email us a deck submission using this link here!

Like what you’ve seen? Feel free to explore more of “Dear Azami” here, in the Article Archives! And feel free to check Jess’s own Command of Etiquette column on Hipsters of the Coast for more Commander and casual content.

Grand Prix Washington, DC: March 11-13!