Venser - The Man, The Myth, The Legend

Commander / EDH Artifact Combo Pillow Fort Value Engine WU (Azorius)

Edgewalker007

Creature (28)

• 1x Archangel of Tithes
• 1x Arena Rector
• 1x Azor, the Lawbringer
• 1x Blade Splicer
• 1x Blighted Agent
• 1x Brago, King Eternal
• 1x Cloudblazer
• 1x Consecrated Sphinx
• 1x Dream Trawler
• 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1x Ephara, God of the Polis
• 1x Fatespinner
• 1x Geist of Saint Traft
• 1x Grand Arbiter Augustin IVGC
• 1x Isperia, Supreme Judge
• 1x Lighthouse Chronologist
• 1x Master Splicer
• 1x Meddling Mage
• 1x Medomai the Ageless
• 1x Mirror-Sigil Sergeant
• 1x Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1x Reveillark
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Soulherder
• 1x Thassa, Deep-Dwelling
• 1x Venser, Shaper Savant
• 1x Wall of Omens
• 1x Wing Splicer

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Bribery
• 1x Fabricate
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Stolen Identity
• 1x Supreme Verdict
• 1x Temporal Mastery
• 1x Time Wipe

Land (33)

• 1x Adarkar Wastes
• 1x Ancient Den
• 1x Azorius Chancery
• 1x Celestial Colonnade
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Glimmervoid
• 1x Halimar Depths
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 6x Island
• 1x Mystic Gate
• 1x Nimbus Maze
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 5x Plains
• 1x Port Town
• 1x Prairie Stream
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Sea of Clouds
• 1x Seachrome Coast
• 1x Seat of the Synod
• 1x Sejiri Refuge
• 1x Temple of Enlightenment
• 1x Thespian's Stage
• 1x Tranquil Cove
• 1x Vesuva

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Darksteel Mutation
• 1x Dissipation Field
• 1x Frozen Aether
• 1x Ghostly Prison
• 1x Oath of Teferi
• 1x Propaganda
• 1x Steel of the Godhead

Planeswalker (4)

• 1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
• 1x Karn Liberated
• 1x Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
• 1x Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

Commander (1)

Artifact (13)

• 1x Caged Sun
• 1x Conjurer's Closet
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Norn's Annex
• 1x Panharmonicon
• 1x Pearl Medallion
• 1x Sapphire Medallion
• 1x Seal of the Guildpact
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Sword of Light and Shadow
• 1x Thaumatic Compass  ^Flip
• 1x Vedalken Orrery
• 1x Venser's Journal

Instant (7)

• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic RiftGC
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Return to Dust
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Teferi's Protection

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Venser, the Sojourner

The Deck

This deck is all about Venser, the Sojourner, in mechanics, and in flavour.

The deck itself if built around three components:

1. The main blink value strategy.
2. A flavourful artifact synergy.
3. A whole thematic subset revolving around Venser's story in the lore.

Priority 1: Next Stop, Blink City

The main strategy of this deck seeks to use Venser, the Sojourner's +2 ability to blink permanents, abuse useful ETBs, and amass tons of value until I can -8 Venser and banish my opponents' boards to the Blind Eternities.

While Venser is the main blink engine, a complement of other blink cards like Brago, King Eternal, Conjurer's Closet, Soulherder, and Thassa, Deep-Dwelling can help blink stuff consistently, often, and typically several times a turn for max value.

The value itself comes from powerful ETBs like Cloudblazer, Azor, the Lawbringer, Solemn Simulacrum, or Wall of Omens. While not directly an ETB, Ephara, God of the Polis provides extra card draw, and in a pinch, Sword of Light and Shadow can help one of my creatures connect and return utility creatures that had been sent to the yard.

Now, card advantage is wonderful, but games do need to end. Permanents like Mirror-Sigil Sergeant, Dream Trawler, and Geist of Saint Traft assemble a evasive army. Medomai the Ageless, Lighthouse Chronologist, and Temporal Mastery allow me to take some extra turns and grind opponents into the dust.

Finally, a small pillowfort package of Propaganda, Ghostly Prison, Archangel of Tithes, Norn's Annex, Frozen Aether, and Dissipation Field makes it hard for my opponents to land hits, protecting Venser when he's out, and allows me the time to assemble my board state.

Priority 2: A Tinkerer's Paradise

Venser is an artificer, and therefore he loves artifacts. Some notable inclusions in this deck include Pearl Medallion, Sapphire Medallion, and Seal of the Guildpact, which help transform some of the higher CMC spells in this deck into very efficient power cards. Vedalken Orrery helps me play at instant speed and around whatever my opponents try and throw out, while Caged Sun ramps me and pumps my creatures. Panharmonicon doubles all my ETBs, and Venser's Journal has the triple advantage of allowing me to keep all the cards I draw, gaining me a bunch of life, and being perfectly on-flavour. Finally, an artificer is known for making all sorts of mechanical constructions, so Blade Splicer, Wing Splicer, and Master Splicer play into the blink strategy and raise an army of Golems.

Priority 3: Time Spiralling to New Phyrexia

The last consideration of this deck is flavour and theme. Venser's story is all about being part of Teferi's crew during the events of Time Spiral, artifice, and messing with the Phyrexians' plans on Mirrodin. So, this deck obviously includes Teferi, Hero of Dominaria and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite for flavour AND utility. Karn Liberated is present as well as a reminder that Venser sacrificed himself to save the silver golem, and so he's gonna have to put in some work to pay back that debt. Extra Mirran/Phyrexian flavour comes from cards like Blighted Agent, Fatespinner, Chancellor of the Annex, Phyrexian Metamorph, Glimmervoid, and even Elspeth, Knight-Errant. Obviously, all these cards provide significant individual advantage to the overall deck strategy, and synergize well with either the blink or artifact themes.

A Note on the Commander

Venser, the Sojourner is my favourite planeswalker of all time. Maybe it's his cool design in both his planeswalker and creature forms, maybe it's the great lore he's a part of (Time Spiral cycle) and his affinity for all things artifacts which I share, maybe it's how he was done dirty by "The Quest For Karn" (seriously, what was that all about?!), maybe it's because he's very, very queer coded in all the material relating to him (I will fight you on this), or maybe it's just because he's really hot, but either way, I love Venser and that will never change. So, I really wanted to build a Commander deck around him. Now, even though the rules of EDH don't officially condone a regular planeswalker as a commander, unless you play Brawl, since my playgroup leans more towards the casual side, none of them have an issue with letting me use Planeswalker Venser as the Commander. After all, he still costs to cast at base, and then would be subject to Commander tax, making him increasingly more difficult to bring out to affect the board. However, if necessary, I can swap out Venser with Brago, King Eternal which enables the blink strategy just as well, or else Grand Arbiter Augustin IV if I want to be stax-y and put a lock on the game.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	25 - 0 Mythic Rares 40 - 0 Rares 17 - 0 Uncommons 7 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.90
Tokens	Angel 4/4 W, Copy Clone, Emblem Elspeth, Knight-Errant, Emblem Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, Emblem Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, Emblem Venser, the Sojourner, Phyrexian Golem 3/3 C, Soldier 1/1 W