Commander 2014 has landed, and boy are these decks something. They look good on paper, barring their penchant for flooding out. I had the opportunity this
past weekend to play in a free-for-all where we pitted all five of the decks against one another, and I have a better sense of how they play.

They play well.

Commander 2014 is a good product for anyone from entry-level Commander players to those with a long history in the format under their belt. The
planeswalker commanders do break the mold a bit, but it seemed like their biggest addition to the Commander format was having a bunch of cards helming
decks that can’t kill you out of nowhere with general damage.

Since these are potentially user friendly for new players, Sean and I thought this would be a great opportunity to tweak these decks so that a person could
spend less than $100 in total and end up with a fun Commander deck that would be at home in most casual environs. Sean covered the Abzan wedge in his
article last week, and today I’m going to be focusing on the Izzet part of the pentagram:

I feel somewhat vindicated by their choice of red archetypes, since I have long held that Machine Red is the place to be in mono-red Commander decks. Both
decks, however, could use some focus. Since they’re also meant to be compatible with their new legendary creatures, the decks lack a single centralized
theme. As usual, they’re split between two complementary, but not totally synched up, motifs.

Goal
: Cost-effective upgrades for the red and blue Commander 2014 precons

Means:
Focusing them around a single theme, tied to the planeswalker commanders

Restriction:
Under $50

Disruptive Teacher

Teferi’s deck is a little hard to gauge. It seems to lack the same sort of centralized theme you’ll find in the others: Daretti has artifacts, Ob Nixilis
has lifedrain, Nahiri has equipment, and Freyalise has elves. Teferi is split between beefy fliers and fiddly other subthemes. Even the morph subtheme,
which is the closest thing to an identifiable handle on the deck, doesn’t really extend for more than ten cards.

All this means is that there’s more room to meddle. So, without further ado, let’s look at the sub-$50 changes I made to each deck. Here’s what Teferi,
Temporal Archmage looked like before any changes:

Peer Through Time

Test deck on 11-30--0001

Commander

Creatures (25)

Lands (38)

Teferi had the odd distinction of being the only deck with the proper number of lands in it, by which I mean it was running 38 lands. As such, there was no
pruning necessary for the manabase, although I’m sure someone with an unlimited budget could go to town here. For example, my Azami, Lady of Scrolls deck
runs all Snow-Covered Islands, with Scrying Sheets and Extraplanar Lens, but that’s the deck that I can’t play anymore because it’s a little too sharky for
my comfort.

Lands

I did make one tweak, though. It’s small, but I think it’s worth playing:

Out
(1):

In
(1):

Soldevi Excavations compares favorably with Coral Atoll, although it’s definitely worse to sacrifice the untapped island instead of returning it to your
hand. This card makes up for that by allowing you to scry 1 repeatedly, and it also works great with Teferi’s untap ability.

Walkers

The real problem with Teferi, Temporal Archmage, is that it should be in a deck focused around planeswalkers. As much as I hate that ultimate, it gives you
something to shoot for, even if the better play most turns is just going to be to untap four permanents for a major mana advantage. Still, let’s blow some
of our budget to give Teferi some friends, cutting out some of the chaff to do so.

Out
(4):

In
(4):

Yes, some of the cards I cut are good. Assault Suit is a lot of fun and actually surprised me the most of all the new cards in terms of how well it plays.
It’s just not the right boost for this particular deck. Same goes for Crown of Doom: it’s awesome, flavorful, and powerful, but it’s going to do better in
a deck where you’re going wide, not in one where you’re going to be attacking with fewer, bigger creatures.

Infinite Reflection and Fool’s Demise are not new, and Fool’s Demise is not particularly good. But Infinite Reflection is! Again, though, it’s a question
of having the right tool for the right deck. And Infinite Reflection does better in decks where you’re either going wide with tokens, where it represents a
sizeable anthem effect, or decks where you’re running sub-optimal creatures for thematic purposes. But this deck has a lot of Sphinxes and other big game,
so it seems like potentially shutting them all off is a bad thing.

Variety is the spice of life, after all.

I brought in some walkers, and Contagion Engine. I’m just going to put this out here now: Contagion Engine is brutal in these planeswalker-helmed Commander
decks. I actually think you can go infinite with Teferi, Temporal Archmage, Contagion Engine, The Chain Veil, and an Everflowing Chalice or Astral
Cornucopia with sufficient counters. Now, it is an open question as to whether or not this is worth doing, since Teferi doesn’t really affect the board,
but throw in one of the other planeswalkers, and you can see how this would get gross.

Each one of these other ‘walkers offers a way to end the game. Jace, Architect of Thought has a fun ultimate that scales well for multiplayer, letting you
cast the best card from everyone’s library. Jace, Memory Adept can mill out all your opponents, given multiple activations in a turn or turn cycle. Tamiyo,
the Moon Sage has one of the most brutal emblems that you can get, easily beating out Elspeth, Knight-Errant and even Domri Rade. Being able to cast and
recast your spells over and over again turns out to be hard to beat! And in the meantime, she’s icing down your opponents’ permanents and drawing you cards
when it’s convenient.

It’s also worth looking at what I didn’t include. Shockingly, The Chain Veil is a cheap card. I could have totally gone full-on combo here, but I didn’t
add it to the deck. It’s cheap in more ways than just its financial valuation. Make your own decisions, but it won’t be making it into my list. Similarly,
I didn’t include the other two Jaces that could have made the list: Jace Beleren and Jace, the Living Guildpact. Jace Beleren is powerful, but I’ve found
him boring as of late. Considering he would suck up 20% of the budget, I just didn’t feel like he earned a slot. And Jace, the Living Guildpact, is just a
terrible card. Play it in graveyard decks, because everywhere else it is awful.

Interaction

What this deck had a lot of were weird interactive cards. I’m not the most interactive Commander player. I like having a couple of Wrath of God effects
here and there to keep off the pressure, but in general I prefer my interaction to be tied to a stick. I play Commander as a card advantage game, and it’s
hard to get advantage out of a bunch of one for ones.

Out
(9):

In
(5):

Aether Gale seems designed to be the blue Hex, and I responded to it about as tepidly as I responded to a “kill six creatures” card. In general, I tend to
much prefer the “up to” templated cards than the mandatory targeting ones. It’s not about being worried I’ll be unable to find six permanents to bounce,
it’s that I can see being forced into making a politically awkward move if I need to get something off the board, and I tend to be wary of such things.
Breaching Leviathan is another poor templating. Like Aether Gale’s clear tie to Hex, Breaching Leviathan is templated a lot like Dread Cacodemon. It’s a
shame; I like both of those cards, and I get why the abilities might be a little too powerful with Conjurer’s Closet or similar flickering cards, but it’s
just so bad. Maybe if it wasn’t tied to such a ridiculous mana cost, but between the high cost and the hurdles to reuseability, I’m not a fan.

Cyclonic Rift is too powerful these days, so I cut it. It’s just the blue Insurrection, and I’ve grown bored of those cards. Into the Roil is the type of
spot removal I tend to cut in decks that aren’t specifically prowess or spell-themed. It’s not bad, but personally I think we can do better. Frost Titan is
a strong card, but I think the whole Titan cycle is not ideal for Commander. You have to give me a big bonus to swing into a chump blocker, and I just
don’t think a Chilling Touch is worth it.

Lorthos, the Tidemaker is such a flavorful card, but it’s about as powerful a card as a legendary octopus could possibly be. I mean, don’t get me wrong,
that can be pretty powerful (that one outside the Mines of Moria seemed on point), but Magic is a game where we get to play with gods. An expensive octopus
just doesn’t measure up.

Tormod’s Crypt is good, but without artifact recursion I’d rather run Relic of Progenitus, and this deck shouldn’t be as troubled by graveyard recursion as
most others (bounce tends to be good when a creature’s death advantages its owner). Nevinyrral’s Disk isn’t right for this deck; it’s a powerful effect,
but this deck wants to cultivate a board presence, particularly of its artifact mana since that ramps so effectively with Teferi’s -1.

Shaper Parasite is weak, because most of the two-butt creatures in Commander do their effect when they hit the board. While they exist, in general there
aren’t a ton of Mother of Runes and Royal Assassins in my own metagame. Even when you do see those cards, though, I think there are better ways to handle
them. And Turn to Frog, while a cute removal spell, is a strict one for one, and I tend to avoid those.

I did keep Pongify, though, because every once in a while you need something to die, and the token gives you a single-mana way to pull up a blocker. I also
added in its functional reprint, Rapid Hybridization, since blue isn’t known for having a ton of ways to kill.

Do you know who usually has tons of ways to kill things, though? Opponents. And cards like Diluvian Primordial are great because you use your opponents’
strengths (and past misdeeds) against them.

Scourge of the Fleets is worth considering in some two-color decks, but in a mono-blue deck you’ll be bouncing most everything else. Definitely worth
playing!

Thousand Winds is mass bounce spell that also interacts with the minor morph subtheme, and further slots into the skies element I’ll talk more about below.
It’s got evasion, a decent body, and a relevant morph ability; that seems worthy of a slot to me!

Finally, I wanted a mass bounce spell to replace Aether Gale, and I settled on Whelming Wave. Our opponents will probably have fewer sea-themed creatures
than we do, and if even one or two of our giants stay on the board when everything else returns to hand, we’re in really good shape.

Skies

But this is where I started to run into thematic issues. I mean, the deck is powerful and plays well together, but it’s hard to put a finger on the exact
theme. So I decided to add one in. We’ve got some of the waves represented by our leviathans and other marine life, but blue owns the sky as well. Let’s
bring some of those cards in!

Out
(2):

In
(5):

Now, if I’m paying six mana for some flying beef, I want it to do more than simply evade targeted spells and abilities. I’m even going to need more than
the excess information you get by knowing the top card of your library. While there are decks where knowing that information is worth the slot, like ones
that abuse Call of the Wild and similar cards, that is not true of this one. As such, I cut Sphinx of Jwar Isle, a good card in the wrong home.

Fog Bank is another strong card that I don’t particularly like. In my opinion, the reason to run those purely defensive cards is to keep people from
attacking you in the first place. Fog Bank doesn’t really do that. Since there’s no penalty to keep them from attacking, people are still going to attack
you even if you have Fog Bank in play. Sure, it blanks their biggest attacker, but it’s next to useless when they have trample.

Instead, I brought in some cards that reward you for being evasive. Windreader Sphinx draws you extra cards whenever you swing in, and as a 3/7 it gets to
do offense or defense with equal aplomb. Stormtide Leviathan turns off a bunch of aggressive decks, while letting you still swing through. It’d be worth
considering on an enchantment, and it’s definitely worth playing when it happens to be attached to an 8/8.

Master of Predicaments and Prognostic Sphinx are in because they’re both solid fliers at the lower part of the curve. Plus, Master of Predicaments is a
super fun card, and Prognostic Sphinx is a lot of selection on a very hard-to-kill body.

Finally, there’s Arbiter of the Ideal. I think it’s worth playing in any deck that has a bunch of permanents, but Teferi, Temporal Archmage is a great fit
for a card with inspired. You’re going to be using his -1 a lot anyway; Arbiter lets you do it second main phase and rewards your tighter play with a
random permanent off the top of your library.

Miscellany

Because Stitcher Geralf is the secondary commander, there is a lot in this deck that’s focused on self-milling. Most of it is still worth playing, but I
don’t think we need all of it. It opens up some slots, and I used them to balance out the broader needs of the deck.

Out
(3):

In
(5):

There was a long time, back when Rise of the Eldrazi was the draft format, when I would try to jam Artisan of Kozilek into every draft deck I made. It was
not a wise decision on my part, and I learned my lesson. Just because it’s colorless and powerful, doesn’t mean it belongs in every deck. Teferi is not the
right deck.

That’s basically how I feel about Cackling Counterpart and Call to Mind as well. In a spell focused deck Call to Mind is decent, although certainly not
amazing; in a deck with only twelve other spells, though, it’s going to be dead or bad a lot of the time. And Cackling Counterpart is great, but I like it
the best in devoted Mulldrifter builds. Even there it’s not my first choice in cloning. The instant speed is nice, and Flashback is always ideal, but in
general I prefer my clones to be useful even when I don’t have the best creatures on the board.

In the place of these cards, I got to round out some of the rougher edges. I wanted another mana rock, and Astral Cornucopia works well with Contagion
Engine, and like Everflowing Chalice it scales well and grants you a bunch of mana when you’re using Teferi to ramp.

Bident of Thassa is a draw engine, but I brought it in over some of the other options because the Nettling Imp effect is politically useful. Sometimes
people need a little push.

I don’t know why Caged Sun was in Daretti, Scrap Savant, because in that deck it seems a little weird. But it’s great for Teferi, Temporal Archmage. There
are enough evasive threats that the anthem effect can add up, and the mana doubling effect makes your Teferi, Temporal Archmage untap activations net you
even more mana. It comes in.

Pearl Lake Ancient is something I wanted to try out in Commander. It’s strong, but not overpowered. It’s guaranteed to land, and it’s a leviathan, which
works well with cards like Whelming Wave. Plus, it dodges wrath effects, and it’s not the only card in the deck that can bounce lands to your hand. That’s
got to be worth something, no?

Finally, we have Vesuvan Shapeshifter. Not only is it one of the two ingredients that make up the “Pickles” combo (Brine Elemental providing the salt, of
course), but it’s also a great clone. It can change every turn, it can provide you with morph triggers, and it only costs three mana to land. It’s a strong
card, and I think they should have considered including it in the precon in the first place.

The List

So here’s how the deck looks:

Teferi, Temporal Archmage

Jess Stirba

Test deck on 11-30--0001

Commander

Creatures (28)

Planeswalkers (3)

Lands (38)

Now, I didn’t hit the cost ceiling as closely as Sean did last week. I considered adding in more expensive cards to get
closer to the target, but I decided that I liked how these changes would make the deck play. If you do want to get closer to the $50 mark with your
changes, I would suggest adding in Jace Beleren, but my arguments against his inclusion still hold true.

Anyway, here’s the pricelist for my added cards:

Diluvian Primordial	0.49
Thousand Winds	0.49
Whelming Wave	0.49
Stormtide Leviathan	0.49
Scourge of Fleets	0.49
Master of Predicaments	0.49
Bident of Thassa	0.49
Arbiter of the Ideal	0.49
Astral Cornucopia	0.75
Prognostic Sphinx	0.99
Soldevi Excavations	1.49
Windreader Sphinx	1.49
Contagion Engine	1.49
Pearl Lake Ancient	1.49
Rapid Hybridization	1.49
Vesuvan Shapeshifter	1.99
Jace, Architect of Thought	2.99
Caged Sun	2.99
Jace, Memory Adept	5.99
Tamiyo, the Moon Sage	14.99
	42.06

As you can see, there’s still room left in the cushion. There would be even more budget available had I not added the planeswalkers, but I think they merit
inclusion. Particularly Tamiyo. I think she’s great, and I’m excited about the rumor I heard that we’ll be seeing more of her going forward.

I’m a little Jaced out.

Eccentric Artificer

Let’s switch gears and talk about Daretti, Scrap Savant. First off, how cool is it that we now have a planeswalker in a wheelchair? I think it’s
really cool, and I’m not just saying that as an Oracle fan. I think there are people playing this game with a wide range of abilities, and being able to
see yourself reflected in the cards is powerful.

As Junot Diaz said, “if you want to make a human being into a monster, deny them, at the cultural
level, any reflection of themselves.” I can’t be the only person who feels monstrous now and again, and it sucks. Let’s continue bringing diversity of
representation to this game.

Anyway, Machine Red gets some serious love with Daretti! I really love the design of his card. And look at how cool this decklist is:

Built from Scratch

Test deck on 11-30--0001

Commander

Creatures (26)

Lands (41)

What was interesting with Daretti, Scrap Savant’s deck is that the synergy between Daretti and Feldon of the Third Path is pretty clear. Unfortunately,
while this lead to me keeping in Feldon, who has a cool card, there are plenty of cards included for his half of the deck that don’t have great synergies
with anything else. As such, I ended up cutting many of the dragons.

There are still some dragons. Red is lousy with dragons.

Lands

Out
(3):

In
(0):

Daretti’s deck had the worst land balance of any of them. I think it’s because they characterized the two artifact lands as artifacts and not lands, but 41
lands is too much. It’s just too many lands for a deck like this. Even with all the looting, I’d still rather three of those Mountains be real cards.

Feldon’s Friends:

Out
(7):

In
(3):

Feldon of the Third Path is all about the Mulldrifters, and as a result the deck has a lot of these great red control cards that don’t really mesh well
with Daretti’s artifact theme. Like, Bogardan Hellkite is in this deck. I love Bogardan Hellkite, and I considered keeping it in since this deck seems like
it could cast her. But as good as it may be, it would just be in there because it’s powerful, and not because it has any real synergy with the rest of what
I’m doing. I dislike that, so I cut it. And I cut Flametongue Kavu, Spitebellows, and Beetleback Chief for the same reason.

The others are a little more interesting. A lot of the new cards seemed to be made due to their potential synergy with Feldon of the Third Path, and not
because of any synergy with Daretti. I get it, I mean, you don’t want to spend all your new card slots on artifacts in the only mono-red Commander product
we’re going to see this decade. If you ever have a chance to up red’s power level, it is now.

Which is a long way of saying that, while I like these new red cards, I don’t think Daretti is the right deck for them. Let’s take Dualcaster Mage. That
card is legitimately awesome. In the game I played with these decks, one of my friends used Dualcaster Mage to ride on the coattails of a Praetor’s Counsel
cast by Freyalise, Llanowar’s Fury. It was gross, and he made it deep into the endgame off that play. But when you’re putting mostly artifacts in your
deck, cutting down to a mere eight spells, it’s worth considering whether or not a card like Dualcaster Mage is worth playing. I mean, what happens if you
run up into an all-creature bash-up? Plus, Daretti is not the control, so are you wasting mana leaving this card up? Probably. So I cut this excellent
card.

Tyrant’s Familiar is brutal. I will admit, going into the game I played I had bought the conventional wisdom on that dragon. Too costly, too weak, too
situational. I think I must have missed the haste factor, though. There are some cards that are just better when they get to swing immediately, and this is
definitely one of those. My friend kept recurring it while Daretti, his planeswalker general, was on the board. It invariably would remove something, hit
for a chunk of some player’s life total, and then quickly get killed because it could not be suffered to keep that card on the field. So it’s a little
pricey; it’s that good. But, again, it’s just powerful, not synergistic, so it got cut.

Warmonger Hellkite is a Feldon of the Third Path card because it’s the type of thing you animate on an opponent’s turn to force their hand. The danger with
running that card outside of a token deck, though, is that not being able to keep up a viable defense is a huge downside. It was that forced attack that
got my friend knocked off the board, and Daretti doesn’t have a ton of sacrifice engines for non-artifact permanents.

The inclusions should be fairly obvious; if you’ve played Machine Red before, or really any artifact deck, you probably know these cards. Hoarding Dragon
is great in any artifact build, and it’s a good synergistic card with both Daretti (artifact fuel) and Feldon (tutoring you an extra artifact each
activation). And it’s an Air Elemental. How great is that?!

Shimmer Myr is a strong artifact enabler, helping to mitigate the sorcery-speed disadvantage that most permanent-heavy decks face. Plus it’s a myr, and
some people love those little dudes. Feldon of the Third Path can use him to act as a sort of Winding Canyons or Alchemist’s Refuge, but in red! And Feldon
plus Precursor Golem leaves you with six power of tokens after each activation. Not too bad!

Removal:

Out
(2):

In
(4):

This is yet another section where I had to cut some powerful cards in favor of less powerful options that fit the theme a little better. Blasphemous Act
may be red’s best sweeper, but my choice was between Magmaquake, Starstorm, and Blasphemous Act in order to shave a mass removal spell. Since this deck
didn’t seem to have a ton of trouble with its mana, I figured the scalability of the instants would probably work out better than the mana discount you get
on Act.

Impact Resonance is strong. But it’s off theme, and it only kills creatures. Admitedly, it kills a bunch of them, but all in all I think I’d rather have
something that’s a little more reliable to trigger.

Something like Duplicant. Duplicant is the premier colorless creature removal option in Commander. It’s a little pricey, and it doesn’t always end up huge,
but when everything comes together it’s priceless. Plus, exile-based removal is always useful in Commander, where resistance to removal is one of the
important factors governing what cards see play.

Ratchet Bomb is also pretty strong in this deck. Daretti can bring it back from the graveyard, and the inclusion of Contagion Engine means you can crank it
up pretty quickly to deal with even the biggest problem permanents. Plus, one of the reasons I think Contagion Engine is particularly good in this deck is
that you can reuse its enter the battlefield effects through Daretti’s ability to resurrect dead machinery.

But Daretti runs on artifacts, and that’s one of the reasons I included Goblin Kaboomist in the mix. Yeah, it’s a gimmicky little card, but I think it’s
fun design, and the artifact tokens it creates will serve as great fodder for Daretti. Plus, as a two-drop, it’s got an opportunity to stop early aggro if
that’s the way the game seems to be going.

Ramp:

Out
(2):

In
(3):

As I mentioned in the blue section, I’m not a fan of shoving Caged Sun into every monocolored deck and assuming that it will be good in each one.
Admitedly, it is good in many of them. It is significantly less good, though, in a deck that plans on having primarily colorless creatures, and in which
mana rocks are a more useful means of ramping. I took it out of this deck, and put it into the blue one. It’s a better fit there, and opening up the slot
gives us the ability to get a faster start.

Oh, and it’s clear why Ruby Medallion’s a bad fit, right? Most of the cards in this deck are going to be artifacts. Ruby Medallion doesn’t reduce the cost
of artifacts. Having almost any mana rock in that place would be better.

And a mana rock like Mana Vault, which gives you yet another way to drop your commander on turn two, is a great addition to the team. Plus, if the damage
ever gets to you, you can sacrifice it to Daretti. And finally there’s Gilded Lotus. Few mana rocks are better. I used to have a Mirrodin one that I was
particularly proud of. I only had a single copy of the card, being fought over by my different decks. Then they reprinted the thing in Magic 2013, and I
managed to get a few more copies through drafting and trading. Now every deck that wants one can get it, and it seems a fair amount of play across my
stables.

Finally, I brought in Koth of the Hammer. I remember back when Big Red was a standard deck, and this guy would see play amongst the machine army of the
free(ish) Phyrexians. I’ve always associated him with the archetype since then, and now that there will be two different proliferate engines in the deck,
it seems likely that you can get this fella to his lethal ultimate.

Artifacts

Out
(2):

In
(6):

I recognize why both Myr Sire and Cathodion are good in a Daretti deck, but even adding in another artifact sacrifice engine I feel like there aren’t a ton
of ways to get the mana out of the Cathodion when you need it. Plus, it’s just so underwhelming! Same goes for Myr Sire. Yes, a second sacrifice is cute,
but two 1/1 myr for two mana isn’t amazing. I’d rather bring in that extra sacrifice engine, which in this case was Throne of Geth. It helps you emblem
Daretti, and then once Daretti goes off it gets really brutal.

Hammer of Purphoros is in both because haste is useful, it’s an artifact, and it creates artifact tokens in a pinch. Admittedly, the cost is high, but
there are times in the late game when it’s a price you’ll be more than willing to pay.

Kuldotha Forgemaster is an artifact deck standby. It’s just so powerful! It also gives you another way to sacrifice your rocks, which is useful when
Daretti has the scrap equivalent of Living End in Scrap Mastery. Mirrorworks is another faithful addition to the pile, and it’s particularly good when you
resurrect an artifact with Daretti. Two mana and an artifact that has outlived its usefulness seems like a solid discount on two copies of the best
artifact in your graveyard.

Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient is an ability doubler for artifacts. Since many of these creatures have abilities, as do many of the artifacts themselves, it seems
like he’s a good fit. I can’t wait to crack a Mind Stone for 1R to draw two cards. Seems powerful.

Finally, there’s Scarecrone. I’m a fan! I know, her first ability should probably just read “1, sacrifice Scarecrone: Draw a card,” but that’s still very
useful, particularly in an artifact deck where you’ll occasionally want to feed artifacts to your graveyard. Scarecrone autoterminates and draws you cards,
plus it acts as an additional way to use your graveyard.

Miscellany

Out
(2):

In
(2):

Incite Rebellion is a neat card, but I think we can do better than a situational, sorcery-speed, mass removal spell slash direct damage… mess. It’s kinda a
mess. I would like to see it played in some sort of weird Akroan Horse build, but this is not that deck. Bitter Feud is cute, but it doesn’t really fit
anything else that the deck’s doing. It’s the type of card I would run in a Zedruu the Greathearted deck and promptly give away. It’s got its uses, but
there’s no real benefit for Daretti.

Scuttling Doom Engine, on the other hand, is some serious beef. Vaguely evasive, built for combat, and with a death trigger that may as well say “kill
target planeswalker” on it, it seems like exactly the type of card Daretti wants to be recycling.

Urza’s Blueprints is a bit of a pet card for me. I know it’s expensive, but the ability to merely tap to draw a card is worth a lot of mana. Magical
Christmas Land for the card is getting Daretti up to emblem, and then letting the blueprints die during your upkeep so you can draw two extra cards a turn
cycle, not just one.

The List

So here’s how the deck looks:

Daretti, Scrap Savant

Jess Stirba

Test deck on 11-30--0001

Commander

Creatures (26)

Planeswalkers (1)

1 Koth of the Hammer

Lands (38)

Weirdly, just as Sean found himself inadvertently hitting the same mark across several of the decks he doctored, I found this one ended up around the $42
mark as well. I suppose it really is the meaning of life. Here’s what the changes cost us:

Throne of Geth	0.25
Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient	0.49
Hoarding Dragon	0.49
Hammer of Purphoros	0.49
Goblin Kaboomist	0.49
Precursor Golem	0.49
Urza’s Blueprints	0.49
Ratchet Bomb	0.75
Shimmer Myr	0.75
Kuldotha Forgemaster	0.75
Mirrorworks	0.99
Contagion Engine	1.49
Scuttling Doom Engine	2.99
Koth of the Hammer	4.99
Gilded Lotus	5.99
Mana Vault	6.99
Scarecrone	6.99
Duplicant	6.99
	42.86

These aren’t the most powerful builds of these decks, but they’re ones I think will be fun for people to play with. And that’s the point of Commander, for
me at least. It’s about fun, and that’s what I love about these precons. There are some definite misses in the new cards they print for these products, but
there are plenty of fun elements as well. And anything that lowers the bar for new players is a definite positive in my book.

That was the point of these exercises, after all. It’s easy for us Magic writers, who usually have been playing for a while with established collections,
to discount how much it costs to get into even the casual side of this hobby. But with the high quality of these Commander 2014 decks, and the
cost-effective upgrades we’ve suggested over the last two weeks, maybe the bar will seem a little lower for some folks.

As we mentioned last week, we’re looking for deck submissions going forward that cover the minor legends newly printed in these decks. That’s right, if you
have a flavorful Stitcher Geralf or Ghoulcaller Gisa deck, or even a Grimgrin, Corpse-Born deck that charts the sibling rivalry of those two, submit away!
We’re always accepting email submissions, and we’re excited to see what you all think about
these new commanders.

Want to submit a deck for consideration to Dear Azami? We’re always accepting deck submissions to consider for use in a future article. 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.

Dear Azami: Walk This Way, Part 2

Disruptive Teacher

Creatures (25)

Lands (38)

Spells (36)

Lands

Walkers

Interaction

Skies

Miscellany

The List

Creatures (28)

Planeswalkers (3)

Lands (38)

Spells (30)

Eccentric Artificer

Creatures (26)

Lands (41)

Spells (32)

Lands

Feldon’s Friends:

Removal:

Ramp:

Artifacts

Miscellany

The List

Creatures (26)

Planeswalkers (1)

Lands (38)

Spells (34)