Wizards And Insects, Instants And Sorceries

I hope you didn’t miss last week’s column due to the holiday weekend because I thought it was a really good deck to show off the power of the new Emrakul in Commander. If you did miss it, you can check it out here.

Before I get to the main course today, I wanted to briefly sample some of the sweetness that’s been spoiled so far in Eldritch Moon, namely the emerge mechanic.

Raise your hand if you first saw Elder Deep-Fiend and read it as Elder Deep-Fried.

*raises hand*

That’s some big calamari!

I really love the horrific flavor of some horrible Eldrazi beast erupting from inside another creature. It’s similar in a way to the meld mechanic in that you’re using two cards to create one monstrous creature. Being able to split the cost over multiple turns lets you get out a creature earlier than you would otherwise, and I’ll certainly be curious to see what we can cook up with these in Standard and other tournament decks. Where they’ll really shine is in Commander, since there are tons of great options where you can sacrifice creatures to emerge without losing a card in the process. I was sketching out some ideas and thought I’d share them with you.

Reporting for Chest-Burster Duty Sir!

Undying (Vorapede, Flayer of the Hatebound): the beauty of using undying creatures for emerge is that not only are you not losing a creature, but the creature gets even bigger.

Persist (Kitchen Finks, Heartmender, Murderous Redcap, Cauldron of Souls, Puppeteer Clique, River Kelpie, Woodfall Primus): Using a creature with persist to emerge leaves a smaller body than undying creatures, but they often have some sort of enters-the-battlefield effect. Cauldron of Souls can let you use a more expensive creature with a nice enters-the-battlefield effect to double effect.

Phytotitan: Phytotitan may just be the perfect emerge fodder, since it provides you with six mana towards the emerge cost with no card lost, no matter how many times you use it.

Weatherseed Treefolk, Shivan Phoenix: A step down from Phytotitan in that you’ll have to recast these; nevertheless, you’re not going to be down a card using these old-school cards.

Saffi Eriksdotter: One of my all-time favorite cards, you can use her ability to allow a higher-cost creature to pay a large chunk of the emerge cost but be able to come back to the battlefield while Saffi takes the hit instead.

Gift of Immortality: Auras are a little risky, but this works great in the right deck and provides a great way to pay for emerge without costing a card. Hey, wait a minute—how about Saffi Eriksdotter enchanted with Gift of Immortality?!

Marchesa, the Black Rose: When I build Marchesa decks, I use plenty of creatures that naturally enter the battlefield with +1/+1 counters, which means that, with Marchesa, the Black Rose on the battlefield, we can feed one to emerge without going down a card.

Meren of Clan Nel Toth: If you’re running a Meren deck, getting another experience counter and reanimating dead creatures give you plenty of reasons to sacrifice to emerge.

Death with Benefits (Chasm Skulker, Dragon Egg, Rukh Egg, Roc Egg, Matter Reshaper, Sprouting Thrinax, Tuktuk the Explorer, Academy Rector, Aura Thief, Corpse Augur, Mindslicer, Reef Worm, Solemn Simulacrum, Archon of Justice, Seedguide Ash, Destructor Dragon, Deadwood Treefolk, Scuttling Doom Engine, Wurmcoil Engine, Symbiotic Wurm. Also Kokusho, the Evening Star and all the Kamigawa legendary Dragons): There are a whole host of creatures that do stuff when they die, which makes them fantastic emerge fodder. I’ve focused mostly on higher-cost creatures to pay huge chucks of emerge. Anyone else looking forward to having a Decimator of the Provinces bursting out of a Symbiotic Wurm? That’s a 7/7 and seven 3/3s all with trample and haste, not counting any other critters you might have lounging about waiting for a big alien pig to get them fired up.

What other sorts of cards would be good to pair up with emerge cards in Commander?

Final Iteration

The inspiration for this week’s Commander deck comes from the Eldritch Moon card Docent of Perfection. It’s got some really cool flavor when you think about it being the final(?) chapter in the story that first started being told by Delver of Secrets.

It occurred to me that the perfected form Final Iteration could make a sweet “lord” for a Wizard deck, and for flavor reasons I’d want each chapter in the story represented in the deck. Delver of Secrets is himself a Wizard, but all the other forms are not. However, all the cards care about instants and sorceries, which is definitely a theme that shows up on various Wizard cards, including one legendary Wizard, Mizzix of the Izmagnus. It seems to me that an Izzet Wizard would certainly find experimentation to transform a lowly 1/1 Wizard into a powerful Wizard “lord” a worthy project to invest in, no? Here’s what I’m thinking:

Instants/Sorceries (40)

Overmaster, Quicken, Whispers of the Muse, Mystic Speculation, Ponder, Preordain, Serum Visions, Pongify, Rapid Hybridization, Brainstorm, Peer Through Depths, Cyclonic Rift, Impact Resonance, Impulse, Anticipate, Telling Time, Haze of Rage, Shattering Pulse, Geistblast, Long-Term Plans, Reiterate, Chaos Warp, Polymorphist’s Jest, Mizzix’s Mastery, Cryptic Command, Fiery Confluence, Rite of Replication, Beacon of Destruction, Mana Geyser, Mystic Confluence, Library of Lat-Nam, Rise from the Tides, Spelltwine, Amnesia, Interpret the Signs, Mob Rule, Firemind’s Foresight, Dig Through Time, Red Sun’s Zenith, Epic Experiment

The Final Iteration and our commander Mizzix of the Izmagnus work best when we’re playing lots of instants and sorceries, so the bulk of the cards in the deck are instants and sorceries. The buyback spells are particularly sweet once you’ve racked up experience with Mizzix on the battlefield. I’ve stuffed in just about all the library manipulation I can, mostly as a way to find our story chapters, particularly Final Iteration.

There’s the possibility of going “arbitrarily large” with Reiteration copying Mana Geyser on the stack and enough mana produced by Mana Geyser to make tons of Wizard tokens. Once that happens, there are lots of fun options in the deck. Haze of Rage could boost our little Wizards into serious threats!

If you’ve ever seen Rite of Replication with kicker, you know it’s some serious good times, and it’s pretty easy to pull off with Mizzix of the Izmagnus. What’s better than one Final Iteration? Six Final Iterations!

Instants and Sorceries Matter (9)

Goblin Electromancer, Eyes of the Watcher, Jace’s Sanctum, Archaeomancer, Mizzix of the Izmagnus, Docent of Perfection, Pyromancer’s Goggles; Melek, Izzet Paragon; Epic Experiment

Since we’re playing so many instants and sorceries, I figured we can play a bunch of cards that do fun things with instants and sorceries. Eyes of the Watcher and Jace’s Sanctum give us more library manipulation to find our Docent of Perfection. Pyromancer’s Goggles provide some mana acceleration that can also do crazy copy things with our red spell; I can’t wait to copy a big Epic Experiment!

Wizards/Wizards Matter (15)

Riptide Laboratory, Delver of Secrets, Information Dealer, Stonybrook Banneret, Vedalken Aethermage, Voidmage Prodigy; Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy; Diviner’s Wand; Jori En, Ruin Diver; Patron Wizard, Sage of Fables, Sigil Tracer, Mana Echoes; Azami, Lady of Scrolls; Supreme Inquisitor

If we can generate a bunch of Wizard tokens with Docent of Perfection, we can do some fun things with our “Wizards matter” cards. Voidmage Prodigy and Patron Wizard give us some permission that we’d otherwise not want to hit with Epic Experiment (which is why I don’t have any stand-alone counterspells in the deck). If Docent makes a ton of Wizards, we can rip through opposing libraries with Supreme Inquisitor or draw a bunch of cards with Azami, Lady of Scrolls.

Jori En, Ruin Diver does great work keeping our fuel flowing when we’re chaining together spells and racking up experience with Mizzix of the Izmagnus.

Mana Echoes seems like a nice way to get spell chains rolling once you’ve got a fair number of Wizards on the battlefield and Docent is out there making Wizard tokens. You get a trigger from Mana Echoes each time a Wizard enters the battlefield.

Insects (4ish)

Swarmyard, (Insectile Aberration), Aberrant Researcher, (Perfected Form)

The various evolved forms of Delver of Secrets share one creature type: Insect! And since I really want to keep Docent of Perfection around, Swarmyard seemed like an easy inclusion.

The time has come for me to share my findings:

Mizzix of the Izmagnus

Bennie Smith

Test deck on 07-08-2016

Commander

Creatures (17)

Lands (38)

One thing I’m concerned about is I have few ways to gain life. I’ve avoided many artifacts to keep my instant and sorcery count high, but maybe I should toss a few in.

What sort of cards might I have overlooked? How are you planning on having fun with Docent of Perfection once Eldritch Moon releases?

Keep those “mailbag”-style questions coming to my email inbox: starcitygeezer AT gmail DOT com. I’ll be gathering some together and answering questions and starting some discussions soon.

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 Primer Part 1
(Why play Commander? Rules Overview, Picking your Commander)
Commander Primer Part 2
(Mana Requirements, Randomness, Card Advantage)
Commander Primer Part 3
(Power vs. Synergy, Griefing, Staples, Building a Doran Deck)
Commander Starter Kits 1
(kick start your allied two-color decks for $25)
Commander Starter Kits 2
(kick start your enemy two-color decks for $25)
Commander Starter Kits 3
(kick start your shard three-color decks for $25)