When we were first introduced to Ezuri in Scars of Mirrodin, he was an impressive leader for an Elf tribal deck as Ezuri, Renegade Leader.
I can remember playing against him in a tournament, and both of his abilities were scary to deal with. Basically, you had to use your removal on Ezuri before you could kill any other Elf, and if you didn’t have removal, the Overrun ability would crush you with just a handful of Elves on the battlefield.
When next we saw Ezuri in Commander 2015, the Phyrexians added blue to his color identity as Ezuri, Claw of Progress and featured the new experience counter mechanic to distribute +1/+1 counters to your creatures each combat.
In the same set we also got Ezuri’s Predation, a sweet sorcery for heavy-green decks that might otherwise struggle with creature removal. At eight mana, it seems to have fallen out of favor in recent years, but I just wanted to bring it up as a card that still has a lot going for it in pods that aren’t playing high-powered, super-optimized decks.
Eight years later in Phyrexia: All Will Be One, we check in with Ezuri for the third time as Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres, looking quite jaunty and jovial in the artwork and flavor text: “Ah, my old friends. Have you decided at last to stop clinging to the past and join me in the grand pursuit of perfection?”
The newest version of Ezuri is all about proliferating so you get that triggered ability that says “draw a card,” the three most attractive words in Magic: The Gathering. Ezuri doesn’t proliferate itself unless you pay three generic mana when it enters the battlefield, but if you do, you get to proliferate twice and draw two cards.
This offers an interesting choice from the command zone: do you cast Ezuri for four mana or wait until you have a whopping seven mana to “kick” it and proliferate twice? Given that the Simic color combination offers a ton of mana ramp options, you can certainly build your deck to first cast Ezuri for seven total mana, and hopefully get a bunch of value from the double proliferate past the two fresh cards.
A quick aside from the Release Notes regarding Ezuri’s proliferate ability:
If you proliferate twice, you don’t have to choose the same set of players and/or permanents to get additional counters each time.
One thing I’d like to mention up front: Ezuri will make a great commander for a deck that focuses hard on +1/+1 counters or poison counters, and I won’t dig deep into that aspect, since it’s pretty easy to search for cards that support either one of those strategies. I personally will find it more interesting to spread out the various types of counters I’ll want to proliferate so that each game plays out differently and, when I win, it’ll be something cobbled together based off what I’ve drawn. So let’s dig in and I’ll show you the cards I’m thinking about putting in my deck!
Proliferate Creatures
Creatures that proliferate are awesome because they have the ability to proliferate turn after turn. Thrummingbird is perfect, since it can come down early and often find someone vulnerable to its flying combat damage. Since it’s only dealing a point of damage, it’ll likely avoid being targeted by a precious direct removal spell.
When researching this article, I ran across Park Heights Maverick, a card from New Capenna Commander I didn’t even know existed, but I’ve now ordered a few copies because it’s got a great collection of abilities that work well together. It has a limited form of evasion by not being able to be blocked by creatures with power two or less, and its dethrone ability lets you add a +1/+1 counter if you attack the player with the most life. If it deals combat damage to a player (or dies), you get to proliferate, potentially adding another +1/+1 counter among any other counters you ramp up.
I also like the new cards Bloated Contaminator, Tainted Observer and Contaminant Grafter, which unlock poison as an optional way to knock out players.
Evolution Sage and Flux Channeler let you proliferate outside of combat by just play a game of Magic. Roalesk, Apex Hybrid offers a nice choice; as a flying trampler, it makes a solid attacker if you can get +1/+1 counters on it, but you also kind of want it to die, so you might keep it back on defense.
Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus doesn’t proliferate, but definitely helps support the strategy. Its ability to gain an indestructible counter you can proliferate might be useful if you find a way to move counters around.
Other Proliferate Cards
I also really like other permanent-based ways to proliferate, especially the enchantment Inexorable Tide; if you’ve got Ezuri on the battlefield, you could chain together a bunch of spells from the cards you draw and really proliferate like a lunatic! Sword of Truth and Justice is a great way to give a proliferate creature evasion against white or blue creatures, and when you deal damage, you get to add a +1/+1 counter to a creature and then proliferate. With Ezuri on the battlefield, you can activate Staff of Compleation for three life to proliferate and draw a card.
On the non-permanent spell side of the equation, Planewide Celebration really stands out as something you want to cast with Ezuri on the battlefield; “proliferate four times and draw four cards” is how you draw up the grand plan, but the other modes can come in handy too, particularly getting a permanent card from your graveyard back to your hand.
Counters Matter
Any sort of green deck that cares about counters on permanents or players will want to run Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider, with the ability to hose your opponents just gravy. Deepglow Skate is a one-shot doubling of counters, which usually will be best when targeting a planeswalker, but in this deck I’ll likely include cards that can blink or bounce Ezuri and that synergize well with the Skate.
Ichormoon Gauntlet gets a lot of attention for how it gives planeswalkers additional loyalty abilities, but it also lets you do a mini-proliferate on one permanent whenever you cast a noncreature spell. Nesting Grounds is a must-run card in this deck, letting you move a counter from one permanent you control onto another one; this is the perfect way to start moving duplicate indestructible counters around, even on noncreature permanents!
Charge Counters
This is where I’d personally be leaning towards in my own Ezuri deck: charge counters! Magistrate’s Scepter and Darksteel Reactor are the game-winning cards here; if you can proliferate three times a turn, you can just take all the turns with Magistrate’s Scepter once you get an extra charge counter on there, and of course Darksteel Reactor will just flat-out win the game. Adding counters to Everflowing Chalice, Astral Cornucopia, Coalition Relic, and Druids’ Repository will let you generate more and more mana as the turns play out, which will help everything else run more smoothly.
Less scary but no less fun would be cards like Sun Droplet to gain extra life, and Transmogrifying Wand to destroy big scary monsters on the battlefield and turn them into 2/4 Ox tokens.
Other Counters
I’ll also spend a lot of time digging for oddball counters to proliferate too, but because “counter” could mean a +1/+1 counter or any sort of counterspell – of which there are a ton of in Simic – it makes searching for oddball counters much more difficult. These are the cards I’ve found so far that interest me, with the previous version of Ezuri, Claw of Progress at the top of the list giving us experience counters.
I also want to play with Infectious Bite since it gives each opponent a poison counter, which will help turn on any corrupted abilities I might be playing or just flat-out win with poison counters. Agent’s Toolkit is another card I missed from New Capenna Commander that I really like, particularly the shield counters that can be proliferated to really protect a creature from being destroyed.
You know I like the janky stuff, so I’m really looking forward to proliferating Fertilid to keep ramping a basic land onto the battlefield every turn, shaving off the time it takes to pop off with Replicating Ring and Midnight Clock.
Planeswalkers
I won’t lean super-hard on planeswalker cards because they tend to draw a lot of heat in a game of Commander, but they work so well with proliferate I’ll likely pepper in a handful of them. Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim is a must since it benefits from Ezuri’s card draw, and when you put a +1/+1 counter on the 2/2 blue Spirit token Teferi makes with its -2 ability, it will grow in a hurry with each proliferate. The Fractal token creature that Kasmina makes will be a little less frightening, but it can grow to a decent sized blocker.
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar and Jiang Yanggu can add +1/+1 counters to creatures for proliferating goodness. Teferi, Temporal Archmage’s abilities don’t tie into the deck’s strategy directly, but this deck should be able to ramp loyalty in a hurry and get that emblem to make all your other planeswalkers bonkers.
Blink/Bounce Ezuri
I’ll definitely look for ways to blink Ezuri over and over, like Conjurer’s Closet and Thassa, Deep-Dwelling; so long as I have three mana available, I’ll be able to proliferate twice and draw two cards, which is living the Magic: The Gathering dream! One-shot effects like Teferi’s Time Twist and Ghostly Flicker are totally worth it, too. Other options are bounce effects like Crystal Shard or Run Away Together, then spending seven mana to cast Ezuri and pay the three extra to proliferate twice. You can even get tricky with Grazilaxx, Illithid Scholar on the battlefield, attacking someone who wants to block Ezuri and bouncing it back to your hand.
What are you planning on doing with Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres? And please let me know what are the jankiest counters you’d want to proliferate that are available in Simic!
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And lastly, I just want to say: let us love each other and stay healthy and happy.
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