Dear Azami – Singing For Souls (For My Supper)

Rubinia gives you a considerable ability to control the game, and while it’s true that Merieke may be more powerful in a vacuum because it can kill creatures when combined with untap shenanigans, I’m more interested in the fun that goes with Rubinia and the selectiveness with which her ability can be used. Merieke stops being interesting about five minutes after I start thinking about her because you can just jam your deck full of untappy things and bouncy things and it becomes impossible for a creature to survive. As “just” a Vedalken Shackles, Rubinia Soulsinger is just a good card you can build around, though I concur that you’ve stretched your deck a little too thin in trying to figure out what you’re doing with all of the cards.

The token theme is where you overreach and it starts to spread too thin, from my observation—the rest of the deck fits in a generally-controlling shell that has an enchantment-driven theme, while the tokens aspect stretches you out of shape and pulls the deck in entirely a different direction tempo-wise. So most of what we’ll be doing will focus on making your Commander a bit better at her job and paring the deck down to fit the roles you’ve otherwise selected. That the cards we’re cutting are good doesn’t trouble me; we need to focus on a set of goals more than we need to play “only good cards.”

All told, I found twenty substitutions to make, so we’re going to break the usual tradition of going through the deck in sections and instead discuss which twenty came out and which twenty came in to replace them. The why of these decisions is more interesting than a fair number of the card choices were, so we’ll go over the swaps one by one in detail.

1. Out: Akroma’s Memorial; In: Rings of Brighthearth

Akroma’s Memorial is one of your token-themed cards, and that focus is too blurry and diffuse at present to really be something we want to build up further. Rings of Brighthearth, however, works exceptionally well with Rubinia Soulsinger—she is able to steal twice as many creatures a turn at that rate—and can do ridiculous things in combination with some of your other cards like Sensei’s Divining Top and Greater Good. It combines with lands pretty interestingly as well—double Strip Mine action is one thing, double Panorama activations quite another. We’ll be building in more things that this doubles as well while we’re adding to the deck, but even in the skeleton you’ve started with Rings of Brighthearth would be pretty strong.

2. Out: Scrabbling Claws; In: Relic of Progenitus

This is more for pure effectiveness than anything else—their uses are very similar, and I’m taking the inclusion of one such card to mean that you’re interested in being able to combat recursion effects and consider it important to have something in this slot filling this role. As later additions will change how much you use your graveyard, the downside of picking the stronger tool for the job fades in intensity, so we’re going to reach for the one that is not prone to miss a spot when you absolutely, positively need to exile every spent card in the graveyard. Scrabbling Claws versus Living Death is a poor answer; Relic, when asked the same question, simply laughs.

3. Out: Harmony of Nature, In: Behemoth Sledge

I’m sorry that I have to cut one of your cute cards. For what it’s worth, I did have to read it. I hadn’t seen that particular Portal sets card before, and while it did a good job in your token-ish build of the deck, it no longer does that side of things and needs to be replaced with something more effective. Pure life gain always disinterests me anyway, but attach that life gain to an effect I can find worth having and suddenly we’re talking. You’ll have more ways to gain back life points before we’re done with this, and I’m substituting out Harmony of Nature for a card that should gain an equal or greater amount of life points back over the course of a game, so while you lose cuteness points you do benefit in effectiveness. Besides, even if it’s a little passé, handing out Armadillo Cloaks on a stick is a pretty fun time in Commander.

4. Out: Oracle of Nectars; In: Baneslayer Angel

Another life point “question,” we’re cutting the card that lets you spend mana on life points for the card that just happens to attack for them very effectively. As-is, this deck is fairly threat-light, so another opportunity to include a meaningful body that can close a game out eventually is an opportunity worth taking. Oracle of Nectars, in a late game situation, can buy back more life points, it’s true…what I’m criticizing is not abstract strength in a hypothetical board position but simple efficiency and suitability to your needs. The opportunity to spend your mana to prevent life-loss will come in later slots, to help buffer some of these concerns, and in the meantime you get some muscle power with the hyper-efficient Angel.

5. Out: Doubling Season; In: Animal Boneyard

Since we’re cutting the token theme, Doubling Season now only really affects your planeswalkers and is not worth including just for that. As awesome as firing off an immediately-ultimate Elspeth is, letting her be an immediate Wrath effect that leaves something meaningful in play, there just isn’t enough going on with Doubling Season now that the token theme is getting cut back. Animal Boneyard takes advantage of the card type you’re already good at finding by providing you a powerful tool that fits well with your commander and can help take over games…and, yes, reclaim you some of those lost life points you find so dear. Merieke doesn’t have to have any help undermining an opposing board state, but Rubinia does, and this is the sort of help that’s worth finding. Also: not exactly a card a lot of people play in Commander.

6. Out: Vivid Creek; In: Miren, the Moaning Well

Lands are the other type of permanent you have a relatively easy time finding—searching for enchantments gets you access to creatures, one of which can find lands and another of which gets Expedition Map, so you have multiple lines of access. One addition is much more impactful, and just like Animal Boneyard is worth including because of how well it works with your commander. Miren, the Moaning Well does the same job and thus has the same utility. There are a few too many lands coming into play tapped in this deck, so we’re going to find room by picking on one of them, cutting a Vivid land for a land that at least comes into play untapped… There don’t seem to be that many colored mana problems you need to worry about with this deck, so this swap shouldn’t be a major issue for casting your other spells.

7. Out: Vivid Grove; In: Kor Haven

I promised you’d have the ability to spend mana on your self-defense, as well as more cards that are awesome with Rings of Brighthearth. The last two switches let you double the effect to gain more life, something I doubt you’re opposed to, but this switch likewise picks on a land that comes into play tapped (sorry, Vivid lands!) to improve your ability to cast your spells on time and adds to your self-defense capabilities. With Rings online, you can defend yourself (or others…) from two creatures in a messy attack and a little more effectively than Mystifying Maze does—the Maze is awkward against creatures with comes into play abilities, which are very common in Commander after all. Having the ability to steal a creature and protect yourself from another creature makes attacking you very challenging turn after turn, which means the opponents will go after easier nuts to crack instead of trying to bash up against you time and again. The best offense, after all, is someone else’s offense going somewhere else instead, right?

8. Out: Replenish; In: Safeguard

Self-defense is important, and enchantments are your strong point for finding and putting into play. We pursue this overlap with an obscure old enchantment not often seen—that should cheer you right up—that helps keep the board under control and opponents going somewhere else instead of attacking into an entrenched position. More mana equals more self-defense, and this lets you both play politics and pick off attacking creatures at no risk to your own, since unlike some cards of this sort Safeguard doesn’t prevent the damage that creature receives, just how much they deal.

9. Out: Naturalize; In: Aura of Silence

Since enchantments are your strong suit to begin with, we’re going to replace the harder-to-find Naturalize with the more powerful version that can also serve as a hoser as well. Yes, we could substitute it for Seal of Primordium and it would be just as easy to find and easier to cast, but sometimes the disruptive effect of increasing casting costs is even more important than the ability to destroy an artifact or enchantment, and Aura of Silence is a hard worker that taxes all opponents’ resources at the same time. A little bit more mana gets you a considerably more relevant card and one that can solve problems you might not even have known existed at the time…some goofy combo engines are hard to break up with the Disenchant side but fall over flat in the face of mana taxation.

10. Out: Enlightened Tutor; In: Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger

Part of this substitution is that I feel you need more creatures in your deck, which is why this doesn’t map up exactly. Enlightened Tutor isn’t really special or interesting in your deck—you already have Rector, Idyllic Tutor, and Sterling Grove to find an enchantment, and most of your artifacts aren’t especially interesting. Since Mystical Tutor for Idyllic Tutor still finds all the same enchantments already and most of your artifacts likewise fit in the “search for Trinket Mage” chain, we’re just going to cut a Tutor and add a more meaningful card. Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger is just a massively disruptive threat—he doubles your mana while halving that of your opponents and is a quite sizable creature besides at the same time. With Mirari’s Wake already suggesting that doubling your mana is a good thing, he’s an easy fit and powerful as a kick to the teeth besides.

11. Out: Mobilization; In: Evangelize

The token theme fades out, card by card, and is replaced by something else instead. Here we add another control element as well as something else worth doing with all that doubled mana, a card that is quite hard to deal with via conventional means and which depletes the opponent of a threat while providing you with another one instead. This helps balance the deck’s control elements and ability to close out a game, hopefully, and can be quite a sticky lock for a single-minded creature deck to wriggle out of. Since you don’t seem to want too many sweepers or counterspells, this fits the reactive but not destructive theme pretty handily… It leaves the permanents in play and lets the creatures resolve, after all; it just modifies who gets to own ’em.

12. Out: Far Wanderings, In: Preacher

The Preacher is picked for the same reason Evangelize is… After all, the Time Spiral spell is templated off of the critter from The Dark in the first place as a “nostalgia” throwback, so if one is good enough for your purposes the chances are the other’s good enough too. Preacher overlaps nicely with Rubinia Soulsinger and is just a solid creature in general since it’s a cheap drop that controls much more expensive board states pretty handily. Far Wanderings comes out because your potential for getting threshold quickly is pretty low, and your need for a ramp spell is likewise not exactly very high—it looks like it got included for being a good spell, and that’s not quite good enough when something’s not on-focus.

13. Out: March of Souls; In: Austere Command

We are cutting another one of those cards I think you liked just because no one else was playing it or possibly because you thought it would have a beneficial overlap with your token theme. With the death of your token theme, all you have is the “because it’s cool” factor, and that’s not quite enough of a reason to keep the card—obscure is good, dying because you played this particular Wrath effect and it doesn’t stop a token horde, merely upgrades them to critters with flying…not so good. The obvious inclusion is obvious in its stead, and the sweeper reached for is Austere Command—good at solving whatever the immediate problem is, with very high flexibility that lets you sculpt your choices based on the game state and what is the most profitable option for you right now. Sad as I am to replace an interesting card with a boring one, it’s got to be done.

14. Out: Mirror Entity; In: Avenger of Zendikar

Now we see things get a little weird. We did, after all, say we were killing the token theme—but here with Avenger of Zendikar it’s really just an accidental overlap as we try to kill you very quickly and we swap out another token-theme-beneficial enabler for a creature that’s not teensy tiny, and in fact, an army in a box. There’s a certain irony to the fact that you weren’t playing the most powerful token card in your colors, I said we were killing that theme, and then I added it, but the fact of the matter remains that Avenger is darn good at that job and you look to have potential problems with actually closing out a game on time.

15. Out: Mentor of the Meek; In: Overbeing of Myth

Assuming the card drawing part was very important, this switches out a small creature for a considerably larger one that helps you draw extra cards each turn. Mentor of the Meek is a strong token enabler, and that’s the theme we’re jettisoning; on his own merits he’s just a grey ogre, but since the card flow that card was providing you is likely quite important, we replace it with another card that helps provide a flow of cards to the hand. In the choice between Aeon Chronicler and Overbeing, I figure you’re more comfortable tapping out once for a low price and getting a possible benefit every turn instead of just the once (but you can scale it in the later game to make sure it happens as many times as you want). While I love Aeon Chronicler, it doesn’t actually fit in every deck automatically, and here I think the Overbeing is more interesting and more fun.

16. Out: Awakening Zone; In: Beguiler of Wills

Another token card goes because it takes a lot of time to do not very much, and the little bit of acceleration doesn’t really get you much of anywhere either. Beguiler of Wills is another on-theme creature that fits alongside your commander and can enable the same tricksy cards like Animal Boneyard to turn opposing resources into your own life points. Taking possession of the creature is permanent, so those aren’t needed, but the focus is the same: control the board so opposing creatures can’t hurt you too badly, grind out an advantage by stealing enemy threats, and over the course of a long, fun game, good things happen and you win eventually. A five-mana 1/1 is not exactly a great deal, but tapping to steal a creature permanently for no mana is pretty impressive—I’d originally considered Dominating Licid in this slot instead, despite the fact that it too doesn’t really overlap neatly with Animal Boneyard or Miren, then remembered Beguiler of Wills can do it for no mana while the Licid requires you to have access to three mana whenever you want to use it, more if you want to use it well.

17. Out: Opposition; In: Decree of Silence

Since you’re giving up the ability to control the board mightily through the loss of the token theme, I figured another solid way to keep major threats off the board and gain a little bit of an advantage would be worthwhile. Without the tokens, Opposition lets you handle what, three or four permanents? Not really enough to be worth investing in the card and dedicating your board position to its use. Decree of Silence gets added as another way to get card advantage out of the game; no matter what the situation looks like or what the opponent is playing, you can find some way to profit off it—as well as another card that interacts with things that are on the stack instead of in play, since that is something of a weak point for this deck—prior to adding another there were just four cards that messed with something before it resolved, and that’s not very many. Chosen over Time Stop because while Time Stop has more interesting corner-case uses and is “the only answer possible” to some ridiculous problems, Decree of Silence as an “uncounterable counterspell” happens to be an enchantment, and thus within the class of cards you are already best at Tutoring into your hand as the problem requires. It can also occasionally be cast for benefit, in addition to its more commonly used cycling effect here.

18. Out: Evolving Wilds; In: Krosan Verge

Your basic lands are a little overtaxed—you only have seven, after all—and the thinking here is, so long as you’re forcing the land to come into play tapped and feed off that resource, you might as well go a little further and get some extra value out of it while you’re at it. Krosan Verge is the ideal G/W mage’s land and is patently ridiculous combined with the aforementioned Rings of Brighthearth, but it can just give you a little bit of card advantage and ramp without having to spend a spell to do it. I suppose you could argue I cut Far Wanderings and added Krosan Verge, but I didn’t modify the land count so we’ll just note that the same functionality is present somewhat even though we cut that spell.

19. Out: Terramorphic Expanse; In: Stirring Wildwood

Terramorphic is the same card as Evolving Wilds and thus is getting cut for the same reason—it isn’t compelling me to keep it around, your mana seems quite solid as it is already anyway, and you can get a little extra value on having that land come into play tapped if you change which one it is. In this case, you can get a dual land that can be a considerable body if you need it to be, adding a bit to your threat density and thus helping out over the course of a long game by providing additional aggressive or defensive options as a free benefit included in your mana base.

20. Out: Pursuit of Knowledge; In: Ritual of Subdual

Here’s where I went a little wacky and creative trying to figure out what the card was trying to do before I replaced it. I reasoned that Pursuit of Knowledge was trying to draw a fresh grip of cards and thus help close out a game that you’re already doing well at or possibly even already winning. The problem is, Pursuit of Knowledge is not actually very good at this job without dedicated cards to help it, and nothing sucks worse than skipping two draws and having it Disenchanted…besides possibly skipping two draws and having it disappear with the next Oblivion Stone because then it wasn’t even pointed at it. Ritual of Subdual was my querying “What are we trying to do with that enchantment?” noting you had a toolbox of options, all of which were accessible pretty much whenever it was the right card to grab.

Ritual of Subdual, then, is the card that lets you turn a game that you’re slightly ahead into a game you’ve won, because you can use those turns in which no one is actually able to cast pretty much any meaningful spell to leverage that advantage and push further and further ahead. Rubinia plus time equals the ability to turn the game in your favor and then win it, as it’s presently built, and Ritual of Subdual helps you buy time at a reasonable rate while also being the permanent type you have the easiest time searching up.

Putting it all together, you end up with the following deck:

Rubinia Soulsinger

Sean McKeown

Test deck on 03-18-2012

Commander

Creatures (24)

• 1 Preacher
• 1 Rubinia Soulsinger
• 1 Phantom Nishoba
• 1 Weathered Wayfarer
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Yavimaya Elder
• 1 Trinket Mage
• 1 Academy Rector
• 1 Loxodon Hierarch
• 1 Omnibian
• 1 Plaxcaster Frogling
• 1 Stonecloaker
• 1 Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1 Overbeing of Myth
• 1 Mycoloth
• 1 Qasali Pridemage
• 1 Baneslayer Angel
• 1 Avenger of Zendikar
• 1 Primeval Titan
• 1 Thrun, the Last Troll
• 1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1 Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
• 1 Snapcaster Mage
• 1 Beguiler of Wills

Planeswalkers (2)

• 1 Elspeth Tirel
• 1 Garruk, Primal Hunter

Lands (36)

• 1 Strip Mine
• 3 Forest
• 2 Plains
• 1 Reflecting Pool
• 1 Kor Haven
• 2 Island
• 1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1 Nantuko Monastery
• 1 Krosan Verge
• 1 Miren, the Moaning Well
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Academy Ruins
• 1 Tolaria West
• 1 Mosswort Bridge
• 1 Windbrisk Heights
• 1 Mystic Gate
• 1 Wooded Bastion
• 1 Flooded Grove
• 1 Bant Panorama
• 1 Seaside Citadel
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Rupture Spire
• 1 Glacial Fortress
• 1 Sunpetal Grove
• 1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
• 1 Celestial Colonnade
• 1 Stirring Wildwood
• 1 Tectonic Edge
• 1 Mystifying Maze
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Hinterland Harbor
• 1 Gavony Township

Spells (38)

• 1 Sensei's Divining Top
• 1 Hinder
• 1 Mystical Tutor
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Regrowth
• 1 Aura of Silence
• 1 Darksteel Ingot
• 1 Sterling Grove
• 1 Mirari's Wake
• 1 Decree of Silence
• 1 Ritual of Subdual
• 1 Safeguard
• 1 Defense of the Heart
• 1 Greater Good
• 1 Eladamri's Call
• 1 Restock
• 1 Animal Boneyard
• 1 Storm Herd
• 1
• 1 Voidslime
• 1 Evangelize
• 1 Krosan Grip
• 1 Austere Command
• 1 Cryptic Command
• 1 Rings of Brighthearth
• 1 Idyllic Tutor
• 1 Bant Charm
• 1 Relic of Progenitus
• 1 Martial Coup
• 1 Behemoth Sledge
• 1 Wargate
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Rite of Replication
• 1 Momentous Fall
• 1 Recurring Insight
• 1 Leyline of Anticipation
• 1 Green Sun's Zenith

As is the tradition with Dear Azami, for participating in today’s write-in column you’ll be receiving a $20 coupon to StarCityGames.com to help make some new additions appear. Pricing each of these suggested additions out, we have the following:

— Sean McKeown

Want to submit a deck for consideration to Dear Azami? We’re always accepting deck submission to consider for use in a future article, like Bruno and Nate’s Wydwen, the Biting Gale deck or Daryl’s Child of Alara deck. 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!

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