MTG Commander Deck Of The Week: The Master, Multiplied

For the most part, the commanders available in Rakdos haven’t really appealed to me. I have a sacrifice deck helmed by Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools partnered with Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh that’s fun, and a Rohgahh, Kher Keep Overlord deck that’s split between Kobolds and Dragons that I think is a hoot. But when Doctor Who Commander revealed The Master, Multiplied, I knew I had to make a new Rakdos deck!

The Master, Multiplied is (ahem) a masterful design, taking a sweet mechanic in myriad and making it flavorfully busted on a legendary creature, with card text that makes it all work the way you want. But even better, it does it in a way that lets you unlock a bunch of other spells and effects that make tokens that should be on the battlefield temporarily, but thanks to The Master, you get to keep them around.

Before we dig in, here are some release notes to keep in mind if you’re interested in building and playing The Master, Multiplied:

Notably, the part of myriad that makes you exile the creature tokens at end of combat is a triggered ability. This means that the ability will trigger, but you won’t exile the tokens when it resolves. Since the tokens also have myriad, attacking with each of them will cause that myriad ability to trigger, causing the Master to, well… multiply.

Although the tokens enter the battlefield attacking, they were never declared as attackers. Abilities that trigger whenever a creature attacks won’t trigger, including the myriad ability of the tokens. If there are any costs to have a creature attack, those costs won’t apply to the tokens.

Okay, let’s dig in!

Haste

The Master, Multiplied costs a whopping six mana to cast, so by the time I get it on the battlefield, I want to take advantage of it immediately by giving it haste. Being able to attack and get the myriad copies right away means that you now have insurance from pinpoint removal, since each copy will function just like the original outside of not being your actual commander for commander damage consideration.

Lightning Greaves is a powerful haste enabler that I don’t usually play in Commander, as I prefer not to shut down my opponents’ ability to interact with my cards, but since I’m investing six mana (at least) to cast this and The Master is in fact a villain, I’m making an exception here. I also really like Urabrask the Hidden, since it also disrupts your opponents from deploying problematic blockers or their own haste shenanigans.

Extra Attacks

The next part of a one-two punch with The Master is getting extra attacks, so each copy of The Master will generate even more myriad copies. I have to admit one big motivator for building this deck is being able to flood the battlefield with my special Star City Games Personality copy tokens!

Creatures like Port Razer and Moraug, Fury of Akoum offer repeatable ways to get extra combats, but I think it’s worth running a copy of Relentless Assault too. I also love having a copy of Savage Beating in here, too. If I can pay the entwine cost to give all my creatures double strike in addition to the extra attack, I just might take down an opponent or three.

Myriad

Since The Master makes myriad that much better, I went ahead and added a few other creatures with myriad. I’ve long loved Firbolg Flutist’s ability to steal the best creature on the battlefield for the turn and give it haste and myriad, so I’m looking forward to keeping all those copies with The Master’s abilities. You can even steal a legendary creature and the myriad copies won’t legend-rule themselves. Of course, the dream is to equip The Master with Blade of Selves to give him two cases of myriad!

Tokens Matter

The Master loves keeping creature tokens around past their expiration dates, so I’ve got a lot of other ways to make them that are usually temporary, like Heat Shimmer and Delina, Wild Mage. Even Splinter Twin is here for the fun! I have to admit, a mini-quest I’ve built into the deck is to see just how many copies of Ragavan I can have on the battlefield from Kari Zev, Skyship Raider. It won’t necessarily win the game, but all those Monkey tokens will make me happy!

I’m hoping to equip Mirkwood Bats with Blade of Selves to start doing wild things with the triggers from tokens entering and leaving the battlefield.

End the Turn

A lot of my cards that are amazing with The Master on the battlefield get a lot less so if an opponent removes it, so I immediately put Sundial of the Infinite in the deck, since I can use it to keep some of those temporary tokens around. And once Sundial of the Infinite entered the mix, I started thinking about those “No Guts, No Glory!” red cards like Final Fortune and Glorious End. These high-risk, high-reward cards make for super-fun games even without the saving grace of Sundial or The Golden Throne. And to be honest, one extra turn might be all you need with The Master, Multiplied multiplying all over the place. You can’t lose the game if you’ve just won!

Card Draw/Selection

To ensure I make land drops each turn, I want to keep the cards flowing, so I’m playing a bunch of ways to help with that. Sign in Blood and Night’s Whisper are great for the early game, while Magus of the Wheel and Stinging Study are great when you need a complete reload of cards. I also like the flexibility of Gruesome Realization for its sweeper mode if you need to clean up a bunch of small token creatures.

I don’t run Demonic Tutor in many decks these days, but in fully embracing the villainy of The Master, it seemed appropriate. Mostly I imagine it snagging a copy of Sundial of the Infinite or one of the No Guts, No Glory cards, but it is supremely flexible in finding the right card for the job at hand.

Removal

Rakdos is nothing if not good at killing creatures and artifacts, so I’ve got a lot of removal here. If I had an extra copy of Damnation lying about, I’d slot it in the deck for sure. I’m particularly excited about casting Red Sun’s Twilight where X equals five or more with The Master on the battlefield, letting me keep all those usually temporary copies of the artifacts I destroyed. Give me your Sol Rings, your The Great Henges, your Panharmonicons! Let’s put them to work for the dark side.

Mana Ramp

I’m running a lot of the expected artifact ramp, like Arcane Signet and Solemn Simulacrum. I especially love Liquimetal Torque, since it also has the ability to turn nonland permanents into artifacts to help your artifact removal handle problematic things like enchantments. The Balrog of Moria appears here because you can discard it to make two Treasure tokens, which lets you ramp from four to six mana ahead of schedule to cast The Master.

I tried to find a copy of Dark Ritual for some additional fast mana to help power out The Master. I couldn’t get my hands on it, but ended up finding Culling the Weak and Burnt Offering instead. To be honest, I like those better, since they somehow feel even more evil and villainous than a Dark Ritual. Burnt Offering also makes good use of token copies of higher mana value creatures, such as The Master’s myriad copies, cashing them in for six or so mana.

The Deck

Okay, here’s the full decklist!

The Master, Multiplied

Bennie Smith

Test deck on 02-02-2024

Commander

Creatures (20)

Lands (25)

Here are the deck stats from our friends at Archidekt:

So, what other must-have cards might I have missed including here? Which Rakdos commander do you have a Commander deck built around?

Talk to Me

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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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