MTG Commander Deck Of The Week: Cosima, God Of The Voyage

Cosima, God of the Voyage is a cool card, with both sides playing into a theme of making land drops. During your upkeep, you can send Cosima on a voyage (into exile), and each time you make a land drop, you can choose to bring Cosima back from exile, or you can add a voyage counter. When you decide to bring Cosima back from exile, for each voyage counter, she gets a +1/+1 counter, and you get to draw a card – spoils from far-flung lands!

The other side of Cosima, The Omenkeel, is a Vehicle. Whenever a Vehicle you control deals combat damage to an opponent, you get to exile that many cards from their library, and for the rest of the game, you get to play land cards from those exiled cards. This helps ensure that you make your land drops each and every turn for Cosima’s front side ability… but you need to reset The Omenkeel first.

I’ve seen a lot of decks that just focus on the front side of Cosima, but I wanted to really use both sides of the card, so my deck is heavily focused on Vehicles and deploying The Omenkeel early to bank plenty of lands in exile.  Eventually I reset The Omenkeel to Cosima, God of the Voyage and set sail to the distant lands of exile to eventually draw more cards.

Vehicle-heavy decks have the problem of being vulnerable to counterattacks, since you typically have to tap two or more creatures for each attacker (the Vehicle, and then the crew), but I’ve got ways to help shore up that weakness.

Let’s explore my decklist!

Utility Vehicles

Even though Cosima provides card draw, it is rather slow, so I’ve got some Vehicles that can help with that – Reckoner Bankbuster is a classic, and I like the criminally underplayed Mighty Servant of Leuk-o. Of course, the new card from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, The Indomitable, is awesome in this regard – it has a Coastal Piracy static ability, and if it gets destroyed, you can cast it from your graveyard if you control three or more Vehicles and/or Pirates.

Mobilizer Mech is a great way to get two Vehicles going from just one crew, and Skysovereign, Consul Flagship is awesome at picking off smaller creatures (or planeswalker loyalty) while smashing opponents’ life totals through the air.

Deluxe Dragster is awesome for a mono-color deck, letting you poach instant or sorcery spells for effects you might not have access to from opponents’ graveyards. Its ability to evade non-Vehicle creatures is pretty much unblockable most of the time too.

Other Vehicles

Whenever I can put Mechtitan Core in a deck and reasonably expect to be able to get that Mechtitan token onto the battlefield (10/10 flying, vigilance, trample, lifelink, haste), I’m a happy camper! That sort of mini-game is super-satisfying, even if your opponents deal with the Mechtitan relatively quickly. I love the flexibility of Vehicles like Imposter Mech and Mindlink Mech. Even though I don’t have any other ways to generate energy, the incidental lifegain of Aethersphere Harvester can be quite helpful.

Reset The Omenkeel

Other than just dying in combat and going back to the command zone, I’ve got some other ways to reset The Omenkeel so that I can use the Cosima side. Sanctum of Eternity and Crystal Shard will let me return it to my hand, while Teferi’s Time Twist will exile it and bring it on its front side.  Grazilaxx will let you bounce it to your hand if it’s blocked!

Land Shenanigans

With Cosima on her voyage, it’s good to get multiple land drops in a turn.  The Panoramas and the new Shire Terrace enter the battlefield untapped and supply colorless mana until you need to crack it for an extra land trigger. They also work great with Scaretiller bringing lands back from the graveyard whenever it is tapped – including crewing the Vehicles!

Oblivion Sower can nab a bunch of lands you’ve previously removed with The Omenkeel triggers all at once.  Parallax Tide is a fancy way to get up to five land triggers during your next upkeep by removing fade counters during your opponent’s end step, or you can exile a few powerful lands from your opponent before you cast Oblivion Sower and steal them!

Other Land Stuff

I’m playing a few double-faced cards like Beyeen Veil and Glasspool Mimic that I can play early to make land drops, and later I can bounce them back to my hand with Guildless Commons or Trench Behemoth to cast their spell side.  Oh, the value!

Animate/Crew Vehicles

Animating the Vehicles means I don’t have to tap blockers to crew, so I’ve got Mech Hangar; The Blackstaff of Waterdeep; Katsumasa, the Animator; and Karn, Silver Golem. Endbringer makes a pretty good way to crew the Vehicles, since you’ll untap it during each opponent’s turn. Sphinx of the Second Sun gives you an extra untap step at the end of your turn so that your Vehicles and crew creatures can be at the ready during your opponents’ turns.

Surgespanner makes a great crew creature if you have an extra two mana to bounce something, like a problematic permanent an opponent has on the battlefield. Or you can reset The Omenkeel, or even Parallax Tide, to keep getting those land triggers over and over.

Artifacts Matter

A Vehicle-heavy deck is also an artifact-heavy deck, so I’ve got some cards to take advantage of that. The Construct tokens from Urza’s Saga love all the artifacts I’ll have on the battlefield, and it’s a great land to bring back with Scaretiller. All the Thopters generated from Sai, Master Thopterist make excellent blockers and extra crew creatures.

Other Card Draw

Beyond the Vehicles that let me draw cards, I’ve got some other ways to keep the foot on the gas. War Room is obviously awesome in a mono-color deck, and I also like Ghostly Pilferer, since it can tap to crew, which means you can unlock that untap trigger. Also, it’ll randomly let you draw a card from someone casting a card from the command zone, or anywhere other than the hand. Research Thief is fantastic at drawing cards, since Vehicles are artifact creatures when crewed and many of them are flying.

Removal/Interaction

There are a few cards you’d expect from a typical mono-blue deck, but I’ve also got an Evacuation here that I think will be particularly effective when half of my attack force aren’t typically creatures during my opponents’ turns. I also love Surgehacker Mech as a Vehicle that deals damage to a creature equal to twice the number of Vehicles you control when it enters the battlefield. Some of the ways I have to reset The Omenkeel can reuse this ability too.

Mana Ramp

Nongreen mana ramp can be hard to come by outside of mana rocks, but I’ve added Dreamscape Artist here, since it can help with the land triggers and it can also crew Vehicles. Silver Myr is able to crew when it’s not needed for mana. Cultivator’s Caravan doubles as a mana rock and a Vehicle that can beat down if I need it to. 

The Deck

Okay, here’s the full decklist!

Here are the deck stats from our friends at Archidekt:

So, what other must-have cards might I have missed including here?  Are there any cards I should keep an eye out to add from the Fallout Commander decks?

Talk to Me

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And lastly, I just want to say: let us love each other and stay healthy and happy.