Archaeomancer Another Eternal Witness style effect, more narrow in scope but an instant or sorcery is usually my preferred target anyways. Mimic Vat abuse, flicker abuse, Cackling Counterpart abuse. Can be returned with Riptide Laboratory in a pinch or used for an expensive but convenient instant/sorcery recursion loop.
Azusa, Lost but Seeking early game ramp, makes those lands in the 20+ cards hand actually reach the field and keep you going. Have this cutie out before a Sunder to hand me the game by accelerating past everyone and keeping my card advantage over them.
Consecrated Sphinx A really pushed Blue card that 9/10 eats a Path to Exile the second it hits the board. If it sticks it gives me cards, which will win me the game if no one stops it. It always feels dirty to have this card in deck, but it is too strong not to. Rite of Replication means I swing on with an army of flyers and draw too much.
Deadeye Navigator Bounce abuse/evasion/protection for whatever I decide to SB him to. Eternal Witness, Vendilion Clique, Snapcaster Mage, etc. Combos/synergy for days and he comes with a decent body as well. Protects my entire field from spot removal and with my usually ridiculous mana pool, the shenanigans never cease.
Drift of Phantasms Transmute is a wonderful ability in this brew, and a 0/5 flyer for 3 early game plugs up a particular weakness I usually run into, stopping big beefy flying commanders. The transmute can hit 15+ things in deck that are pretty darn variable at any point in the game, but most importantly grabs Eternal Witness, Mimic Vat, or Cackling Counterpart which give me so much abusable synergy at any point in the game.
Duplicant Exile based removal, possibly large bodied, copy abuse/flicker abuse out the wazoo, and I pulled a masterpiece of this guy so its fate.
Eternal Witness Always remember to treat yourself. Panharmonicon, Cloudstone Curio, and to a lesser extent Mimic Vat allow me to create a recursion engine which can be used strictly to accrue card advantage or softlock the board with counterspells and removal. Evacuation + Eternal Witness causes a soft lockdown for the low low sum of 8 mana for as long as you want to essentially. It is always a boon to flash this lady in with Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, Winding Canyons, or Alchemist's Refuge so you can get around responses or that Path to Exile someone has been saving.
Faerie Artisans Gives me free etb effects to abuse or efficient bodies to round up my defenses. Cackling Counterpart lets me keep a token that I wanna keep around or provide another FA to double down on the effect. My meta tends to avoid playing creatures until this guy is removed, which is reasonable and stalled games tend to play in my favor. Mimic Vat, Panharmonicon, Cloudstone Curio and Mirage Mirror allow for a litany of ways to abuse this cute little bugger and keep the tokens I wanna keep.
Glen Elendra Archmage combos with Mimic Vat and Cackling Counterpart splendidly, stalls early game out hard, always feels good to topdeck. Alongside Spellskite protects your key pieces extremely well, soliciting them to double down if not triple down on removal which they can rarely scrape together.
Greenwarden of Murasa see Eternal Witness. Has a pretty darn nice body, if you are into plant bois. My favorite thing to do with this guy is recur Cackling Counterpart or Rite of Replication repeatedly over the course of a few turns (or one big turn depending on how much mana I have saved) and just create and army of em to brute force my way to victory.
Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur Forces opponents to dump their hands, gives me repeatable card advantage, can almost guarantee at least one instance of either because it has built in flash. Nothing is saltier than an opponent that has to dump their hand when you have 20+ cards in yours. By and large my most reliable multiplayer win con.
Nissa, Vastwood Seer
Free land on etb, have often retrieved her from the graveyard multiple times a game to get the land I need. When flipped she is free draw/land acceleration and has the option of giving me a 4/4 body that I often use to turn Rhonas the Indomitable on , which isn’t bad for a 3 drop. The ult acts as a “single card army” which can win me the game if the opponents aren’t careful, non removal walkers tend to get ignored a lot. The draw off of her is extremely handy and early game she is a free land.
Oracle of Mul Daya ramp, peek, just a solid card to see on your board. When it works, it works. When it doesn’t, your opponents get to see all the horrible things going into your hand, which affects how they play in your favor. They hold on to big plays if they see you reveal two counters in a row
Prime Speaker Zegana usually nets 6+ cards which leads to either copy effects, protection, more littles to bolster her, or a wincon for that or the following turn. All the cards, all the beats, and quite abusable with my engines and is even recurable/protected by Riptide Laboratory
Progenitor Mimic Makes every game a new experience and is always followed by table wide laughter. Acidic Slime, Giant Adephage, and Duplicant pair well with this Ravnican beauty.
Reclamation Sage kills super rampy rocks early game, removes problem pillows mid-late game.
Rhonas the Indomitable I love daddy snek. A 5/5 indestructible deathtoucher who serves as a mana dump for my reserves all at the low low sum of 3 cmc. Deal. I frequently copy him with Sakashima the Impostor and just beat face with the death snakes. I have pumped a Snapcaster Mage to 44 damage with his ability before. All around a very versatile card with just enough evasion to necessitate them using their “real” removal on him, which paves the way for fatter fatties to be played.
Sakashima the Impostor A wonderful clone variant and acts as a mana sink when I have abundant mana and few options. Playing him with flash allows me to recur an etb on an opponent’s turn for 8 mana, which can arguably change everything. He can be anything you want him to be and more because he gets around legend rule. 2 Prime Speaker Zegana? Sure. 2 Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur? Done. Let alone anything I steal from my opponents. Golden card, surprised I don’t see in more edh builds. Usually he ends up doubling as an Eternal Witness effect, but the combat tricks I can pull off are unreal.
Sakura-Tribe Elder Steve is a good guy. He gets you the colors you need, when you need them, as much as you need them. My absolute favorite card to tuck under Mimic Vat because you don’t mourn the exile late game and just keep accelerating.
Scavenging Ooze because when im staring down the barrel of a reanimator deck, I wanna make sure that Sheoldred, Whispering One, Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed, and Yosei, the Morning Star stay gone. Nets me some free life, can get surprisingly beefy, pretty good in slot because it remains relevant late game because it can pump itself. My GF mains an Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim edh deck that essentially ive permaslotted this in for.
Seedborn Muse more mana is ok I guess, if you are into that. Untap my dorks for more abuse or chump blocking? Well I guess so. Can be copied for multiple untap steps on opponents’ turns….yeah I guess it deserves the slot. Seriously busted. Usually use this the turn before playing Kruphix because I can bait out the removal and catching them with a Desertion or Ghostly Flicker usually offsets the rest of midgame in your favor. With my new Sunder funder synergies this card can be as backbreaking as Azusa, Lost but Seeking on the wiped board because I can stockpile my mana.
Shaman of Forgotten Ways Alternative win con that ramps me 2 mana early game, in a neat little package. It is important to note that I can use his mana to cast my commander. Activating his secondary ability and playing Cyclonic Rift is a pretty satisfying way to win the game. Even with just the 2 mana ramp on a 2/3 body has been far more useful than say Somberwald Sage
Snapcaster Mage Surprisingly, not many people expect to see snappy in commander. He gives me a lot of options, flickerable/copyable, I prefer to see Eternal Witness or Torrential Gearhulk, but it is handy to have em all because responses keep the tempo in my favor.
Spellskite because I want to break games sometimes. Spot removal becomes pretty obsolete, especially if I have copies of him to abuse as well. Fizzling spells with Deadeye Navigator attached to him feels so right. Comes down and feels like Asceticism most of the time, mainly used to protect Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur for a final victory push.
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir Makes my spells uncounterable, grants my creatures flash, and stops spot removal on my turn. All on a cute little body that can turn Thassa, God of the Sea and papa on at flash. Can be protected with Riptide Laboratory and Cloudstone Curio (due to the flash critters)
Thassa, God of the Sea fixes my draws early game, forces big damage through late game. One of my favorite cards to see in an opening hand.
Thragtusk helps mitigate some of the punches that land on me early game, nets big life with Deadeye Navigator or Panharmonicon and even leaves a body when it gets removed. Always a happy topdeck midgame. Not a bad Rite of Replication target.
Torrential Gearhulk an extremely handy card. Big body with flash and all the utility in the world. Playing this guy, targeting Cackling Counterpart, granting me another gearhulk, into any other instant gains me a ton of ground. 10/12 on 2 bodies and a free instant spell afterwards for 6 mana is golden. Got that combo off way too many times for my playgroup’s liking, doing all of this in response and getting a Sunder off of the last copy makes an opponent saltier than rock candy.
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger exiles anything I need to late game, can mill out an opponent as an alt win con. The only useful eldrazi titan to me because it doesn’t shuffle my graveyard away, allowing me to recur it to hand for further abuse. I once copied it with Sakashima the Impostor and returned him to my hand with Cloudstone Curio, which caused the table to scoop because I was gonna keep doing that until they did.
Venser, Shaper Savant repeatable Unsubstantiate on a body. Pair with Deadeye Navigator to lose friends. Fits the partial wizard tribe, therefore can be utterly abused with Riptide Laboratory. 7 mana counter/bounce slows down the game really hard, people just stop playing until they can bait it properly half the time.