Pattern Recognition #148 - Commander Combined

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

9 April 2020

832 views

Hello everyone! Welcome back to Pattern Recognition! This is TappedOut.net's longest running article series. In it, I aim to bring to you each week a new article about some piece of Magic, be it a card, a mechanic, a deck, or something more fundamental or abstract. I am something of an Old Fogey and part-time Smart Ass, so I sometimes talk out my ass. Feel free to dissent or just plain old correct me! I also have a Patreon if you feel like helping out.

I you find today's article to be a little rougher than usual, please forgive me. For you see, this weekend, I realized that there was an article that I wanted to do, and that the information I needed for it would only come out on Monday, thus giving me less than 72 hours to concept, write and plot this article.

You see, I realized that with Commander 2020 coming out very soon, that I should start thinking about what deck I would want to take to my Slow Grow League once that fires. And after thinking about it, I decided that I wanted to try my luck with the Jeskai deck again this year, as I had fun with it last time.

Of course, this deck was all about Cycling, rather than Flashback, but that's alright, I have more of those cards than I do of the latter. Then I said as much on a certain other board I frequent, and one of the people there said they were looking forward to my writeups about that.

Then I had a brain wave.

I had a stupid idea. One so brilliant that it warped right back around to being dumb!

Why not take this new Jeskai Cycling deck, called Timeless Wisdom (click for a decklist) and punch it up? Not just do an upgrade video. I mean, TheCommandZone will be doing one this week, though I don't know if it will be today or tomorrow (or yesterday) yet. So I will recommend watching that for sure if you want to know what I'm planning on doing for the most part.

But no, if all I was doing was a run-of-the-mill article like that, I wouldn't be dropping everything to rush it out the door. No, you see, I had a better idea, one that plays into a few factors that should help new players more than others.

What if, I thought to myself, I tried to improve the Timeless Wisdom deck, using only cards from the Jeskai Mystic Intellect Deck from last summer?

Here's the thing, you see. I realized that both decks should be able synergize pretty well. The Cycling sees cards come and go while the Flashback deck looks at cards in the graveyard as a further resource.

Now, the affiliations between the two isn't perfect, but what sealed the deal was the reveal of the Partner Commanders for the Cycling deck - Brallin, Skyshark Rider  ^Flip and Shabraz, the Skyshark  ^Flip.

And in my mind, it clicked. That the deck would be between with those two as your Commanders, rather than the face of the box. For Flashback didn't care about discarding cards, and there were cards in that deck that drew cards when cast even from the graveyard, and things just kept getting better in my head.

So let's build a deck, using just the cards from these two decks as a way for those who are starting in Commander to build a deck without yet dipping their toes into the singles market.

We'll start with our Commanders, and that's two out of a hundred, leaving us with 98 to go. For now, I'll set aside 34 cards for lands, but I won't hold myself to that, it's just a placeholder number. This leaves me with 64 cards to go.

Counting all the cards with Cycling, we have Dismantling Wave, Eternal Dragon, Nimble Obstructionist, Curator of Mysteries, Vizier of Tumbling Sands, Akroma's Vengeance, Decree of Justice, Slice and Dice, Migratory Route, Hieroglyphic Illumination, Astral Drift, Tectonic Reformation, Cast Out, Raugrin Crystal, Valiant Rescuer, Boon of the Wish-Giver, Neutralize, Ominous Seas, Reconnaissance Mission, Rooting Moloch, Irrigated Farmland, Ash Barrens, Desert of the Fervent, Desert of the True, Desert of the Mindful, Drifting Meadow, Forgotten Cave, Lonely Sandbar, Remote Isle, Secluded Steppe and Smoldering Crater.

That's 31 more cards, of which 11 are lands, which leaves us with a provisional 44 regular cards and 23 lands to go.

Now, because this deck is all about drawing and discarding with our Commanders, I'm going to look into the cards that allow you to draw cards, or simply discard them from both sets. From there, we have Crackling Drake, River Kelpie, Deep Analysis, Faithless Looting, Chemister's Insight, Desperate Ravings, Farm / Market - or rather the Aftermath half of that - Oona's Grace, Think Twice, Commander's Sphere, Chandra, Flamecaller, The Locust God, Isperia, Supreme Judge, Mercurial Chemister, Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind, Windfall, Hieroglypihc Illumination is already on the list as a Cycling Card as is Boon of the Wish-Giver and New Perspectives.

Not as much, but that's still... 17 more cards for a total of 27 non-lands and 23 lands to go. Hey 50 cards already! We're halfway there!

That's good. But so far, all I've done is just throw together a mechanic and all the supplementary cards in the two decks that I could, ones that feed into the draw and discard mechanic of the Commanders I have chosen. But right now, let's start adding in utility cards.

First, I'll look at the cards from this year's deck. As Cycling is still in the core of our deck, there are cards in there that are optimized for it and are built to support it. So, let's add in some more cards.

We'll start with the most painfully obvious one - Fluctuator. In a deck that's got a third of it with a mechanic, making that mechanic cheaper is a no-brainer.

Herald of the Forgotten and Sun Titan are both good high-costing options to start getting your Cycling cards back into had, directly or indirectly, so they're both good choices, that's for sure. In you go!

Psychosis Crawler is a card that rewards you for drawing cards, like our flying Skyshark of a Commander, so that's a good addition. Also being potentially very big is a good thing.

Crystalline Resonance is another card that works well with Cycling, as when you cycle a card you can double up on something with value for when you do more cycling, or just copy something of general value and worth.

Astral Drift is another must-have in the deck, as it will help you flicker your creatures around, especially those with enters-the-battlefield effects, like Sun Titan or Crackling Drake. Drake Haven is a good segue from that last card, and more creatures is always fine by me. And it can take effect when you discard as well, not just when you cycle, unlike Lightning Rift or Savai Thundermane, all of which go in as well.

From the Flashback deck, we do have a few nice cards to roll into the deck. Backdraft Hellkite is another beefy creature that can allow us to recur those cards we've cycled away and need to use sooner rather than later, and with the amount of Instants and Sorceries this deck is seeing, Guttersnipe is a no-brainer. By the same token, Clever Impersonator is a good choice as a backup for the above Crystalline Resonance, even becoming one itself for extra hilarity!

Looking at things now... That's still 11 lands, and 50 non-lands. That leaves us room for 14 cards not toward the mechanic, and 23 lands.

Wait. My math is off. 11 lands. 50 non-lands. 61 total. 23 more lands for 34 of those and 84 total and I need 16 more non-lands. OK, math fix'd!

Let's start with the important utility - Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Command Tower, Izzet Signet, Boros Signet and Azorius Signet. These last three are not set in stone depending on how the rest of the deck goes, but for now, they are place holders. 11 more non-lands.

With Guttersnipe, let's look to Instants and Sorceries first and of those, we want a couple of counterspells. So Fervent Denial and Fierce Guardianship aren't already on the list, with Neutralize already on.

Let's also add Sevinne's Reclamation for the card recursion, and as an additional Flashback card. Dockside Extortionist is also a good card for the Treasures he provides. Mystic Retrieval, Leadership Vacuum and Prismatic Strands are nice choices as well, each with their own uses in the deck. That's... 4 more to go.

Ah, yes! Magmaquake, Dusk / Dawn, and Descend upon the Sinful to round out our Boardwipes. And let's go with Surly Badgersaur as another utility effect for all the Cycling we'll be doing.

Wait! I have Astral Drift twice! Let's take one out and replace it with Cliffside Rescuer for the protection it affords.

Now, before I punch in any lands, let's have a look at my mana costs and curve. I popped the deck as-is into TappedOut's deckbuilder, and it told me that I have 36 , 23 and 27 . My mana curve is ... weird, but pretty consistent at about 10 cards each from cost to so I have options throughout the game.

Now, with 34 lands, that means that after I do some math... that's 14 Lands, 9 and 10 lands. Right now let's add in the bouncelands - Azorius Chancery, Izzet Boilerworks and Boros Garrison and Exotic Orchard.

But looking at my current mana base, that's a lot of tapped lands. I think the rest need to come into play untapped, even with the mana rocks we're running, so the rest will be basics. Let's see, 16 lands already, 18 left to go....

I'll save you the math, but I'm looking at 6 Plains, 5 Mountain and 7 Island.

Weird, I plug that into the deckbuilder and it says that I only have 97 cards. Let's do some checking here....

Yeah, 97.

This is why you always double and triple check your math and count your cards religiously people. Because I realized that I hadn't added in Mystic Retrieval, Leadership Vacuum and Prismatic Strands to the decklist.

And tah-dah! Here we go!

Commander Combination #1 - TW+MI

Commander / EDH* berryjon

SCORE: 6 | 4 COMMENTS | 149 VIEWS | IN 2 FOLDERS

So, obviously the deck is a little rough around the edges, given that I'm just trying to merge two deck together, I think it's a good effort! The mechanics work nicely together, and there's still plenty of room for improvement once you dip your toes into the singles and packs in your FLGS, and not just the two precon decks.

Let me know what you guys think in the comments below, and if you have any suggestions, feel free to debate them! After all, everyone builds their decks differently, and seeing where you choose differently can help all of us improve.

Join me next week when I talk about something. I just don't know yet, and I'm always open for suggestions.

Until then, please consider donating to my Pattern Recognition Patreon. Yeah, I have a job, but more income is always better. I still have plans to do a audio Pattern Recognition at some point, or perhaps a Twitch stream. And you can bribe your way to the front of the line to have your questions, comments and observations answered!