Published on 08/23/2021
Commander and Conquer III
By Carsten Haese, Nathan Long, Justin Hovdenes, and Andrew Villarrubia
This Article from: Justin Hovdenes
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Note: This article is over two years old. Information in this article may be out of date due to subsequent Oracle and/or rules changes. Proceed with caution.
Today's article is going to be a bit more personal than usual. This is all about my babies. My personal commander decks. I choose 7 of my commander decks, and for each I'll write a little about that deck, provide a decklist, and then answer 3 rules questions involving the cards in that deck.
As always, if you have rules questions, you can email us at moko@cranialinsertion.com or tweet short questions to @CranialTweet. One of our authors will reply to you, and your question might even appear in a future article!
Deck #1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
I built Kozi as a commander deck, before the real card was even released. About a month before normal previews, wizards website spoiled Kozi as a super early preview. I built the first version of the deck that same week. There were no Wastes back then, so my land base had some really awful lands. Like most of my decks, I find a theme or goal for the deck and run with it. Kozi's theme is colorless token creatures. At some point I decided this deck needed to be as foiled out as it can be, so currently every card that can be foiled it (currently 4 cards can't be). However, the big purchase for the deck is not foil, Mishra's Workshop. I think I bought it when it was about $600. Its hard to gauge its value today, but somewhere between $3000 to $5000.
Q: Can I activate Null Brooch even if I currently have no cards in hand?
A: Yes, you can. It seems strange, but paying the cost of discarding a card, can only be done if you have at least one card in hand. However, you always have a hand even if there are no cards in it, so you can still pay this cost.
Q: I have a colorless commander. Does War Room's card draw ability work in my deck?
A: It does. You have a commander and that commander has no color identity, so you pay zero life when activating it. It's important to note while not playing commander, you can't activate War Room's draw ability since you have no commander and a undefined cost can't be paid.
Q: I activate Karn, Scion of Urza's first ability and my opponent chooses to put Sol Ring into exile with a silver counter on it. Can I use Karn, the Great Creator's last ability into my hand?
A: Yes, you can. Great Creator only cares the colorless card is in exile. It having a silver counter on it doesn't impede Great Creator.
Deck #2 Ramses Overdark
I think Ramses was either the third or fourth commander deck I ever built. I wanted to have a commander deck lead by a Legends set Legend, and he seemed the most interesting to me at the time. The theme is rather straight forward, abusing Auras. Its fairly interesting since usually good aura stuff is Green/White and he is Black/Blue.
Q: My opponent's Teneb, the Harvester is enchanted by my Despondency. I then steal Teneb using Rootwater Matriarch. When does the opponent gain his Teneb back? Only after he kills my Matriarch? Only after destroying the Despondency? After doing either? Only after doing both?
A: The control effect ends, once its no longer being enchanted. Interestingly, if the opponent put an aura on Teneb, then destroyed despondency, you still keep Teneb until he has NO aura's on him. Killing matriarch has no effect on the control effect.
Q: I control Hakim, Loreweaver who currently has no auras. I have 3 aura's in my graveyard. During my upkeep, can I put all 3 aura's on Hakim using his 2nd ability?
A: You can, so long as you active his 2nd ability 3 times rapidly with out letting either of the first two activations resolve before the third.
Q: My opponent controls Invisible Stalker with a Grafted Exoskeleton equipped to it and also has a Glistener Elf with my Despondency attached to it. If I cast a Copy Enchantment can I have it copy the Despondency enchanting the stalker?
A: You can. When you cast an aura, it will target a permanent or player while its on the stack and can not target something that has Hexproof unless its you or you control it. Even though you cast Copy Enchantment its never an aura on the stack, if it becomes one as it enters the battlefield and becomes attached with out targeting. This allows Copy Enchantment that becomes an aura to circumvent Hexproof and enchant creatures normal auras can't.
Its worth noting this doesn't circumvent "protection from enchantments" or "protection from black" if copying Despondency.
Deck #3 Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves
This deck was original lead by Tolsimir Wolfblood and had a theme of Anthem effects. The Anthem theme isn't as strong any more, but now has a theme around abusing persist.
Q: I control Wilt-Leaf Liege and a Phantom Nishoba that currently has no +1/+1 counters on it. If my opponent shoots my Nishoba with a Lightning Bolt, does it die?
A: It does not! Phantom Nishoba's damage prevention effect happens each time it takes damage even if it doesn't have a +1/+1 counter to remove, and its still alive because it get +2/+2 from the Liege.
Q: My opponent attacks me with Sun-Crowned Hunters and I block it with a 3/3 beast token enchanted by my Spirit Loop. I'm currently at 3 life, does the Spirit Loop save me from the dinosaur's trigger?
A: It does. Both Spirit Loop and Sun-Crowned have triggered abilities and they both trigger at the same time. They however get placed on the stack in a specific order. Since its the opponent's turn (they are attacking), they place the dinosaur's trigger on the stack first, then you place your life gain trigger on the stack above that. The stack will then resolve with you gaining 3 life, followed by you being dealt 3 damage.
Q: I control Cathars' Crusade, an Aerie Ouphes with no counters on it, and a 2/2 wolf token. My opponent controls a 1/1 bird token with flying. I think I have an infinite combo to put +1/+1 counters on my wolf, but my opponent says it doesn't work. Who it right?
A: You can put any number (not infinite) +1/+1 counters on your wolf token, if you do this correctly. Sacrifice Ouphes to kill the bird, before the bird can die, you get to put Ouhpes back on the battlefield, after its on the battlefield, the crusade will trigger, if you allow this trigger to resolve, a +1/+1 counter will be placed on both the wolf and Ouphes. The +1/+1 counter and -1/-1 counter on Ouphes annihilate each other. The original activated ability trying to deal 3 damage to the bird is still on the stack waiting to resolve, if you now sacrifice the Ouphes before that resolves, you can repeat the process above. You can choose any number you like, lets say 9,999 times. You will end up with 10,000 +1/+1 counters on your wolf, and you will have 10,000 copies of deal 3 damage to same bird (none of which have resolved yet). Once you let one copy actual deal 3 damage, all remaining copies will become countered from loss of target.
Deck #4 Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain
Jhoira is the most recent commander deck I've built, about 3 years ago. Most of the people I play commander with tend to play strong commander decks, but no where near Competitive Commander. However, one group does, and I wanted to have a deck that could hang with them. No real theme, just Storm // Combo kill deck.
Q: If I control Helm of Awakening, Mystic Forge, and Sensei's Divining Top can I just draw my whole deck?
A: You can. Even if you have no open mana and no artifacts left in your library, you simple use Sensei's tap ability to draw the top card and put Sensei on top of your library. You may now cast Sensei for free and rinse repeat.
I'd suggest winning this turn with out drawing from an empty library, if you choose to draw your whole library.
Q: I currently control Knowledge Pool and Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain. The only non-land card exiled by Knowledge Pool is Sol Ring. I have a Mox Opal in my hand. If I cast the Opal causing it to be exiled under Knowledge Pool, then cast the Sol Ring for free, how many times does Jhoira draw me a card between casting the Opal and resolving the Sol Ring?
A: Twice. You draw one card for casting Mox Opal before Knowledge Pool exiles it. Then when Knowledge Pool casts Sol Ring for free you draw another card.
Q: I control Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain and the only card in my hand is Semblance Anvil. If I cast the Anvil, is there a chance Jhoira will draw me a nonland card to imprint onto the Anvil?
A: There is most defiantly a chance. You draw cards from Jhoira on cast, well before the imprint trigger from the Anvil will happen. Even if Jhoira said "whenever a historic permanent enters the battlefield, draw a card", you could still stack the draw from Jhoira to resolve before the imprint trigger resolved.
Deck #5 Merieke Ri Berit
Merieke is by far my oldest commander deck. Timespiral block just rotated out of standard, and I really liked my Blink deck, so I decided to turn it into a commander deck. I know the deck wanted to be White/Blue/Black as the original standard deck was, and I wanted the commander to at least benefit from being blinked.
Q: Currently, Shipwreck Dowser is in my graveyard. If I cast Living Death can the Dowser return the same Living Death to my hand that returned it to the battlefield?
A: It can. When a sorcery (or instant) resolves, it completes all its instructions and then is placed in the graveyard. Any abilities that triggered from completing those instructions trigger immediately, but are not put on the stack until after state based actions are checked, which will happen only after the Living Death is placed in the graveyard. That mean as Dowser's trigger is put on the stack, the Living Death is already in the graveyard and is a viable target.
Q: I currently control my opponent's Bear Cub because I stole it with Merieke Ri Berit. If I blink both of them with Ghostly Flicker, after it resolves does the Bear Cub die? And if not who controls it?
A: It lives and you control it. Ghostly Flicker puts any creature it exiles back into play under your control, whether or not you own it. The bear cub is considered a new object and although it will be on the battlefield when Merike's trigger resolves, the game won't recognize it as the same Bear Cub, so it won't be destroyed.
This is a neat trick that perma-steals an opponent's creature, and even works on the opponent's commander. You might think since its going to exile the opponent can just put it into the command zone, but they can't. Moving a commander from exile to the command zone is a state based action and by the time state based actions are checked, the opponent's commander will be back on the battlefield under your control.
Q: My opponent controls Fecundity. I'm currently stealing the opponent's Bear Cub with my Merieke Ri Berit. If Merieke dies, do I draw a card when the Bear Cub dies? If Merieke untaps do I draw a card when the Bear Cub dies?
A: So Merieke dying leads to a different outcome from Merieke untapping. If you untap Merieke you still control the bear cub when its destroyed, so you may draw the card from Fecundity. If Merieke leaves the battlefield or you loose control of her, you instantly loose control of the bear cub, then a trigger goes on the stack destroying the bear cub under the opponent's control and they may draw the card from Fecundity.
As an interesting note, if you steal an indestructible creature with Merieke and then untap her, you get to keep the indestructible creature as it doesn't die to her trigger. However, if she leaves the battlefield it returns to the opponents control and doesn't die to her trigger either.
Deck #6 Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
Sidisi has been one of my long time favorite commander decks. The deck theme is straight forward, make as many zombie tokens as possible with out going infinite. I even keep a box of zombie tokens, with two of every official 2/2 zombie token art.
Q: If I put a creature card into my graveyard with Vile Entomber's trigger while I control Sidisi do I get to make a 2/2 zombie token?
A: Yes, you do. Sidisi doesn't care where in the library the creature came from, so long as it went directly to the graveyard. She also works with cards with Surveil and with cards like Cellar Door
Q: Is Eldrazi Monument and Tombstone Stairwell as silly together as they sound?
A: Every bit as silly as they sound. On each player's turn (not just yours) each player (not just whose turn it is) will create X 2/2 zombie tokens with haste, where X is the number of creatures in their own graveyard. Then at the end of each turn, all of these tokens are destroyed, well that is except yours because they are indestructible and have flying and get +1/+1.
If this happens in a 4 player game and each player has 3 creatures in their graveyard. Each opponent would get 3 temporary zombies each turn, but in one go around the table you would net 11 permanent zombies (one being sacrificed to the Monument).
Q: If I control both Endless Ranks of the Dead and Parallel Lives I just double the number of zombies I have each turn right?
A: Some of the time yes, and some times yes -1 zombie. Endless Ranks creates half the number of zombies rounded down, and then Lives doubles that number. When you have an even number, you just double the number, if you have an odd number of zombies you double the number but get that amount -1 zombie.
Deck #7 Esika, God of the Tree//The Prismatic Bridge
This deck's theme has always been lots of Theroes Gods and the 5 hybrid costing avatars from shadowmoor. If a god shares a color with an Avatar, then that God is a creature simple as that. It has a minor theme of being almost all permanents, allowing the two non-permanent cards to shine. The original commander for the deck was Karona, False God being both a "false-god" and avatar seemed fitting, but she is no where near as powerful as Esika.
Q: Last turn I used Path of Ancestry to make one
mana, that mana has gone unused and is still in my mana pool this turn because of Kruphix, God of Horizons but is now colorless. If I use that mana to cast a God creature, which shares a creature type with my commander, do I still get to scry 1?A: You do! Kruphix's ability makes mana colorless but it doesn't remove restrictions or benefits attached to that mana.
Q: I have played two lands so far this turn because I control a Oracle of Mul Daya. The Oracle currently has a coin counter on it from my Athreos, Shroud-Veiled. If the Oracle dies in combat this turn, and is returned to the battlefield with Athreos's trigger, can I play a 3rd land this turn?
A: Unfortunately, no. When determining how many lands you can play at any one time, you check how many land drops you can make this turn, and compare it to how many lands you have already played.
This is a change in the rules (from many years ago). It used to be each card like Oracle would let you play a land for it specifically, and if it left the battlefield and came back it would reset and you could play another land.
Q: I control both Dominus of Fealty and Proteus Staff and have currently stolen my opponents Bear Cub with Dominus. I targeted the Bear Cub with Proteus Staff. I think I get the free creature from my library and my opponent thinks they get the free creature from their library. Who is right?
A: You are correct. This is understood by reading Proteus Staff more carefully. The owner of said creature puts it on the bottom of their library, but the controller of that creatures flips over cards until they get a free creature. Normally, this is the same person, but here, it works out great for you.
Well that all the commander goodness I have for today. If you have any opinions or suggestions for my decks you can leave a comment at the end of this article.
- Justin Hovdenes AKA Hovey
Level 2 Magic Judge
Rapid City, SD
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