This time in Deck Check we have a four-color Breya, Etherium Shaper commander deck!
This week we will continue the search for great commander cards! The color for this time is probably the strongest of Magic: Blue. In Deck Check, we will also check out delicious four-color Breya, Etherium Shaper deck!
Because blue is probably the most powerful color in Magic, this list was not the easiest one to gather. Blue offers a great variety of deck building choices if it is the dominant color for your deck. It also works very well as a supportive color! Common things for blue are drawing cards, artifacts, and the manipulation of the game with various tools like counterspells. The card advantage, distinctive for blue, is the reason why it is so powerful. Blue is often characteristic color for control decks but because of its flexibility, it works very well as a supportive color for combo decks as well.
Let's dive into the top 10 commander cards!
This card has seen play in standard, pioneer, modern and German Highlander but isn't that popular in commander. It suits very well a slower, more grindy strategy and it can also fill your graveyard. After flipping into the land, it starts to create card advantage and gives it user various opportunities to choose the right spell for the right time. As a land, it is also harder to interact with.
The static ability of Narset denies the extra card draws for opponents. The more powerful effects the table has, the more powerful this effect gets. Paired with cards like Windfall, Timetwister or Wheel of Fortune this card sets your opponents well behind you in card advantage. It also replaces itself with its first action thus making it a good example of a good multiplayer card.
Two-mana bounce effect for problematic nonland permanents is a strong play. Cyclonic Rift offers even more with its overload alternative casting cost. Overloaded it gets rid of all the nonland permanents your opponent's control. It is also instant speed thus making it very flexible! In commander, the cyclonic rift is the strongest board wipe effect blue has to offer.
7. Mana Drain
Despite protecting your own winning combo, counterspells are not as strong in Commander as they are in 1 vs. 1 formats. Mana Drain is a strong exception to this as it provides valuable resources to its caster, usually letting to do something really strong in the following main phase after it has been cast. If you can consider it as a one-for-one trade, Mana Drain is arguably the best in its class.
From spot removal bounce effects, Chain of Vapor is probably the most powerful because of its cheap casting cost. It gets rid of basically any problematic nonland permanent. The copying effect is hardly ever a drawback so be sure you include this, especially in your combo decks!
5. Windfall
Wheel of Fortune style effects are popular in EDH because of the number of cards you will get out from one spell. Windfall is more situational than it's red counterpart but it might draw you even more than seven cards! It also feeds your graveyard making it usable for decks that can take advantage of this.
Mystic Remora does what blue as a color in Magic does: draws cards. Early in the game this card either gives you a ton of cards or slows opponents down if they are not willing to let you draw. The only downside for this card is its cumulative upkeep, which can slow you down if you haven't found lots of mana producing artifacts. In later games, the cheap upkeep cost is hardly a problem.
Rhystic Study is a bit stretched version of Mystic Remora. It doesn't have an upkeep cost, but it costs three mana instead of one. It lets you draw cards from all spells but only requires the opponents to pay one to deal with this effect. On the other hand, when it gets to the table you don't have to worry about paying any mana to it anymore, but remember the trigger!
The best one-mana tutor from the blue can search for any instant or sorcery card in your deck. You can either look for a proper answer for something your opponents might play or your wincon. With miracle cards, this gets even better as you can make sure you will draw the miracle card just in the right spot.
1. Timetwister
This card is the only commander-legal card from the legendary and notorious Power 9. It will let you draw seven cards with only three mana and even though your opponents will do the same, you probably still want to cast this. Timetwister is probably one of the strongest cards from any color you can play in commander and this is why it has earned its place on the top place of this list.
Deck Check
This time we will look into a four-color commander deck!
This deck includes the legendary Bomberman combo, where the player makes infinite mana with the ability of Auriok Salvagers and Lion's Eye Diamond. The mana can then be used to cast Breya and sacrifice it to its own ability dealing three damage to target opponent or to cast huge Rolling Earthquake.
The sole purpose of this deck is to win as fast as possible. The main wincon is similar to the first commander related article of Poroscope: to win by Thassa's Oracle's trigger with the help of Demonic Consultation or Tainted Pact. The backup plan is to create infinite mana with Auriok Salvagers and Lion's Eye Diamond and then use it to cast and sacrifice Breya to its own ability to deal lethal damage to opponents. You can also cast Angel's Grace to protect yourself and then sink the infinite mana to infinitely large Rolling Earthquake to gain some style points!
Underworld Breach got already banned from Legacy because of this combo: With it, you can cast the Lion's Eye Diamond from your graveyard multiple times just by exiling three cards from your graveyard. Then you need Brain Freeze which will add more and more cards to your graveyard because of its Storm mechanic. At some point your whole library will be in your graveyard and playable because of the Underworld Breach!
The wincon in this deck is usually not tutored to players hand but instead, the aim is to play Underworld Breach and Lion's Eye Diamond to the battlefield and then look for Brain Freeze to gain access to the player's whole library by milling it to the graveyard with Brain Freeze and Lion's Eye Diamond. Because of the storm mechanic, the Brain Freeze will add more and more cards to your grave thus letting you finally play the Thassa's Oracle (or Auriok Salvagers) and winning the game with multiple counterspell backups. In addition to the counterspells, the deck also plays Silence from white, which found its place also in the previous Top 10 White Commander Cards article!
The deck is four colors but it is mainly Blue-Black-Red (or in Magic terms Grixis) with only five cards from white: Angel's Grace, Enlightened Tutor, Silence, Sevinne's Reclamation and Auriok Salvagers.
There are multiple tutor cards in the decks from all four colors it plays! Intuition can search for Lion's Eye Diamond, Underworld Breach and Sevinne's Reclamation which should help the player to win the game no matter which card your opponent chooses.
The other cards in the deck include mostly these: tutor effects, fast mana in form of rituals and mana producing artifacts, cards that draw more cards and interaction to protect your combo or slow down your enemies. The commander works mainly as an infinite mana outlet for the Bomberman combo. In longer games, the commander can be used to deal with problematic creatures or to gain some life for example.
This deck is built for cEDH and its budget is also pretty expensive.
Deck: Pekka "Löhis" Löhönen
Budget: 5/5
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Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths prereleases will exceptionally be held at home and we are allowed to send the prerelease kits directly to the players. We will announce more closer to the prerelease weekend (April 17th-19th)
Stay healthy and play Magic!
Pekka "Löhis" Löhönen