OK, I've been on a kick to find really fun interesting commanders to play and Alexi, Zephyr Mage is pretty interesting. I want to use a tap commander specifically to give some love to underplayed commanders. Alexi may not be the best choice due to her limitation of creatures only. I want to broaden the search of all mono blue commanders that would have interesting synergies with them. If Alexi is too narrow and doesn't do enough, than who else would be a fun option? What commanders would you recommend? Let me know of any great ideas you all have tried out for similar deck building challenges.
Her is a list of what Alexi could do with her bounce.
I'm not wanting to break down on your brew, but Alexi is really hard to make effective in EDH.
Don't get me wrong, cause I love the legendary spellshapers. I've maintained a latulla, keldon overseer deck for some time as she was one of my first few generals ever, and I've piloted Greel and Mageta both to great effect.
While the 2-card discard per activation is what makes most players turn away from these old spellshapers, with Alexi the primary issue is actually that she can only bounce creatures. This makes for two very strong reasons to not run Alexi;
and 2.), which is most likely the biggest issue, is that what if there isn't any creatures to bounce? Far too many decks hardly care about creatures or combat, and some wouldn't mind you bouncing their guys that have sweet etb-triggers so they can get more value.
Now again I'm not wanting to persuade you away from Alexi. The Dismiss into Dreams trick is sweet. But from what you have listed so far, it seems like a very delicate scenario to get Alexi online just to bounce and possibly manipulate hands, and only if they have creatures worth the mana+discard to activate her bounce.
If you are set on running her then I would consider going in one of two routes;
~ a very strict control shell w/ lots of counter magic that uses Alexi as a sort of back-up plan, where you run dismiss into dream and possibly overburden/sunder sort of effects to really punish creature based opponents. Alexi most likely won't see play until later stages of the game, will mostly come out to manipulate combat, and eventually swing with runechanter's pike as a wincondition. Think of a draw+go Vendilion Clique build.
~ or a creature-based deck with tons (30+) etb-value creatures that you want the option to re-buy+re-cast with Alexi. The type of deck that runs solemn simulacrum and a pile of clones so you can keep cloning the solemn and ramp your arse into the late game. Alexi most likely won't see much play unless you just want to re-buy a few things or manipulate combat to try and survive mid game.
You may want to take a peek at her relative/descendant (i think?) in Linessa, Zephyr Mage. Granduer is a cute gimmick to work around but if you are just after the bounce ability she seems a bit more stable, trading the multi-targeting for an x-to-mana-cost, and not requiring cards to activate. She also has one of the most beautiful bits of art I've ever seen in mtg cards.
Otherwise I think we just need more techy cards to enable Alexi, which don't exist (yet). Perhaps if there was some way in mono-blue to make the opponents lands turn into creatures, you could play the same game Jolrael, Empress of Beasts does and try to 1-sided landwipe the opponent.
I like Heidar, Rimewind Master more since he can bounce permanents, not just creatures, but I understand not using him if you don't have snow-covered lands. As for Alexi, madness/flashback. Discard cards you can still use to try and ignore/lessen the impact of the cost of her ability.
I can understand the point of view that she is a little underwhelming and many spells do what she does better. I guess my goal is to find an underplayed commander that 1. doesn't have a negative stigma around it, and 2. fits the bill of tap: do X. I currently have two other decks that are structured this way and I want to give some love to commanders that don't have a sure guarantee of being busted without a little synergy to look into. Alexi has the appealing return x creatures to their owner's hand but if the opponent does not use too many creatures she is definitely underwhelming. I'm not sure how well a mono blue ETB creature deck would do if I am to utilize the ability for my creatures, it may not have enough to work with just in mono blue.
Heidar is not bad, and the snow lands are not an issue, I just don't like the fact that he is a single target bounce the same with Linessa. Their tap abilities are less of a downside I agree.
I will just modify this thread to ask, what mono blue tap commander has enough design around them that there are enough cards with synergy and fun interactions?
I've played Heidar before. He's a lot of fun and very disruptive. He draws a lot of removal so people can develop their boards in peace, but he has some inbuilt protection in that he can bounce himself for two mana if he's untapped. Being able to bounce any permanent gives you a ton of room to build around. There are cute interactions like Reality Acid, hard locks like Stasis, etb abuse, almost hard removal for any permanent type thanks to countermagic/windfalls, and he's a very powerful tempo tool on his own. Bouncing 8-drops for almost no investment is one of the most satisfying plays. He's better at playing an unfair game than Alexi, but doesn't have to be built that way. My list was pretty fair and almost entirely untuned, and it still did fine.
I could see Alexi being a lot of fun and I have fond memories of using her from when I was just playing kitchen table casual. I would just be worried about the discard cost. All of the other spellshaper legends makes up for the negative card advantage through their abilities to some degree. Alexi's being soft removal means that she's much more dependent on the 99 to pick up some of that. You could get away with heavy etb effects, but you're talking an enormous amount of mana if you go that route.
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[Pr]Jaya | Estrid | A rotating cast of decks built out of my box.
for your original idea, i think you can definitely run with it. one important thing for your deck is to pack it full of card sifting and possibly some sort of graveyard recycling effect in case the game goes long. even simple spells like impulse can go a long way, since you wanna fuel your X ability to be as large as possible many times, and you'd therefore always wanna hit your land drops, and brainstorm/shuffle effect the rest away.
@Weebo- You make some valid arguments for Heidar and I can see that there are some great synergies there. He could easily become hated off the board with the fact that he manipulates the board state pretty heavily. Definitely some upsides to his bouncing a permanent. I've always liked abusing Reality Acid. Alexi is more for casual play and I want to make this as competitive as it possibly can be, which may not be that much at all. But at least I will give it a shot and Heidar may be the better option for that.
@schweinefett- I agree that the incremental draw options will smooth the game play out and Brainstorm and Impulse effects would be needed for this. Finding more ways to make her viable is still on my radar and if it looks like it is possible to make her effective enough, I will probably throw a list together. She has a few shortcomings that will be hard to get over, one being the constant discard to use her ability and two is the fact that she needs creatures to target for her to do anything at all.
@PhroX- to be honest, Reveka, Wizard Savant was not even on my radar until you mentioned her. I do feel she is much more janky than Alexi is, having to find a way to untap her and to get that card each game so that she does do something. There are quite a few options to do this, but outside of lots of draw, blue has very few tutors all of which will only get the artifact options. It is something very interesting and it sounded like it was a fun deck to pilot.
@MightyPox- Obviously he taps a LOT of creatures. I appreciate the input, just want to keep it to {t}: "insert name here" does X.
All the ideas so far are fantastic. The ideas for the different options are very interesting and I'm starting to form some ideas of what I want in the commander. I want the commander to add some sort of advantage over the opponent or a set back of the opponent. With this in mind the commanders that I am deciding between are these. If anyone knows ways to utilize them further and exploit their abilities please let me know what ideas you have for this. Thanks again for all the support and input.
I ran an alexi deck featuring timetwister to refill my hand and remove the creatures from the field in a more permanent way (this was before tuck stopped being a thing). Works even better with Sunder.
It was OK but it's hard to keep control of a table full of people when you keep refilling their hands for them.
I saw your list DirkGently and it was one thing that helped inspire the idea. Seeing as it was hard to keep control of everyone is the thing that steers me away from trying her out as well. She didn't pan out and unless I use her for my benefit with my creatures, she probably won't give enough value to warrant putting her together. That said, I do like the bounce control idea and that as me leaning toward Heidar, Rimewind Master a bit more. He can do a few things Alexi can't and it appeals to me to bounce things like Winter Orb, Stasis, and Reality Acid to make him turn into a monster. Putting in many untap effects to make sure he is always able to respond is something to consider.
The second option I may go with is Arcanis the Omnipotent. Hardly a low profile commander but he can at least save himself from removal. Having drawing and a hand size matters subtheme seems like a good way to go. Cards along the lines of Psychosis Crawler, Sphinx's Tutelage, Chasm Skulker, and Diviner's Wand would be particularly good in him. I do want to steer him away from a generic blue eldrazi deck as most blue decks seem to be subjected to. He has so much draw power that it can be put to great use of keeping my hand full of answers.
What would have more support, a bounce control, or draw/hand matters theme? Both have some great cards to use and blue has so many untap creature effects. So tapping either of them three to four times a turn is not hard to do. Let me know what you think?
Aboshan, Cephalid Emperor: Cephalid tribal is go! Or just tap Aboshan to lock down their Blightsteel, w/e. (Actually, there are some pretty good cephalids you could run.) Llawan, Cephalid Empress: she doesn't tap, herself, but she's pretty good with the bounce ideas you've got rattling around. You can also hack her to lock out colors other than blue (Alter Reality, Glamerdye, Sleight of Mind, and Spectral Shift all work, plus Crystal Spray which will let you change what to bounce, but she'll revert to locking out blue at EOT) Empress Galina: everybody at the table is guaranteed to have at least one legendary permanent, and they'll probably have more. Run Leyline of Singularity to shut down token decks and take any permanent you want.
Try vedalken shackles coupled with ashnods altar so you can steal and sacrifice their guys lol. Tapping down and bounce control is fun but you need it on permanents or lock pieces so it is repeatable. Temporal adept, vedalken shackles, stasis, propaganda, winter orb, static orb, surgespanner, Isochron scepter etc. Arcane laboratory also helps slows things down and combines well with Ertai, wizard adept. Also, their is silent arbiter and opposition for more slow rolling and board control. And, lastly, i know its cmc is HIGH, but if u play mana rocks and doublers then meishin the mind cage can be hilarious with arcanis.
Aboshan, Cephalid Emperor: Cephalid tribal is go! Or just tap Aboshan to lock down their Blightsteel, w/e. (Actually, there are some pretty good cephalids you could run.) Llawan, Cephalid Empress: she doesn't tap, herself, but she's pretty good with the bounce ideas you've got rattling around. You can also hack her to lock out colors other than blue (Alter Reality, Glamerdye, Sleight of Mind, and Spectral Shift all work, plus Crystal Spray which will let you change what to bounce, but she'll revert to locking out blue at EOT) Empress Galina: everybody at the table is guaranteed to have at least one legendary permanent, and they'll probably have more. Run Leyline of Singularity to shut down token decks and take any permanent you want.
Thanks for the response!
I feel like the color changing spells are a bit narrow outside of something like Blind Seer to make Llawan, Cephalid Empress work. She is an interesting idea, but strays from my objective. The same is true for Aboshan, Cephalid Emperor. His "tap" ability isn't exactly what I'm after and feel like if I'm going down this route, I might as well use Azami, Lady of Scrolls for her sheer amount of advantage. Empress Galina was something I considered running, but then I thought, she would only be as good as the creatures in my opponents deck minus their commander. Sure taking their commander is devastating to them, but if she doesn't get much more use than that, she falls a little short on putting out in a build around me strategy. Leyline of Singularity will help with this, but it is one card in a singleton format and blue has no way to tutor for it other than lots of draw which can be better suited to Arcanis the Omnipotent. I appreciate all the ideas, and they were something I considered before determining the idea I wanted to go with. It want to focus on {Tap}: commanders since they are undervalued and underplayed. It is a theme I am going with. Bonus if the Commander is a very obscure commander as it is a lot of fun to make a monster out of something so unassuming.
Try vedalken shackles coupled with ashnods altar so you can steal and sacrifice their guys lol. Tapping down and bounce control is fun but you need it on permanents or lock pieces so it is repeatable. Temporal adept, vedalken shackles, stasis, propaganda, winter orb, static orb, surgespanner, Isochron scepter etc. Arcane laboratory also helps slows things down and combines well with Ertai, wizard adept. Also, their is silent arbiter and opposition for more slow rolling and board control. And, lastly, i know its cmc is HIGH, but if u play mana rocks and doublers then meishin the mind cage can be hilarious with arcanis.
I like the ideas you present in making a control shell. Vedalken Shackles is a favorite of mine and utilizing it where I can is fantastic. Although finding a good steal and sac general is a problem with what I want to build with. Arcanis would be better suited to this of the options I'm deciding between. The card advantage will get me to the spells to steal my opponents creatures with. My favorite of the suggestions you listed however is Meishin, the Mind Cage. it is a fantastic spell and one that I have been wanting to use for some time. Drawing lots of cards is the way to go and this pushes me to want Arcanis. I know I can be a huge **** with Heidar and Stasis and friends but I'm sure that will lead me to taking the deck apart very quickly with my playgroup. I think Arcanis is where I'm settling with the ideas everyone has listed. There are so many ways to build him and he doesn't have to cater to a specific strategy. Everyone likes drawing cards.
Thank you both for the great ideas, and if there are ways to put my plan into action that will make this a fun and interestingly different take on mono blue let me know. Control will always be present, but I want to make this feel more unique if possible.
Precognition is s super fun card. Its a 5 drop enchantment that during your upkeep you can "fateseal" an adversary. Mesmeric sliver also does the same thing on ETB trigger. So, with any kind of blink effect its a more interesting way of interacting. Soothsaying is also a lovely gem I adore. As a 1 drop blue enchantment it allows library manipulation and deck reshuffling. Very underrated card. Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar is another fun card allowing each instance of draw a card into a brainstorm, and with Arcanis would be just ridonkulous. And for more tricks Vesuvan Shapeshifter+Brine Elemental for a lock. If you go with ashnods altar fun, Reins of power is just gross as you swap creatures then sacrifice all theirs to the altar and get mana to boot.
Leyline of Singularity will help with this, but it is one card in a singleton format and blue has no way to tutor for it other than lots of draw which can be better suited to Arcanis the Omnipotent.
Archmage Ascension is pretty strong, although probably paints a big target. Noble Benefactor is risky (since your opponents each get a tutor effect), but he's another way blue can tutor an enchantment.
Also, even without Leyline of Singularity, you might be surprised at how much of a threat Galina poses. There are a lot of staples in the format that are legendary, and there are a lot of decks that depend heavily on their generals. I play her in my Thada Adel deck, and I've seen people's game plans grind to a stop when she hits the board, as they try to dig for removal.
Leyline of Singularity will help with this, but it is one card in a singleton format and blue has no way to tutor for it other than lots of draw which can be better suited to Arcanis the Omnipotent.
Archmage Ascension is pretty strong, although probably paints a big target. Noble Benefactor is risky (since your opponents each get a tutor effect), but he's another way blue can tutor an enchantment.
Also, even without Leyline of Singularity, you might be surprised at how much of a threat Galina poses. There are a lot of staples in the format that are legendary, and there are a lot of decks that depend heavily on their generals. I play her in my Thada Adel deck, and I've seen people's game plans grind to a stop when she hits the board, as they try to dig for removal.
I guess I should have mentioned the normal artifact tutor suite, but blue itself has a difficult time tutoring for cards that are not artifacts. Intuition is of course the best of the options, although you would have to get any of the cards you mentioned with it to guarantee you get the Leyline. Long-term plans is a thing, although I typically only use it if I have a Sensei's top active or Scroll Rack. Crookclaw Transmuter, I assume is not the card you were meaning, Blue does not have a 4 cmc transmute card, only black and blue/black do. Adding in a lot of cards just to make a strategy work is something, in my own experience, that makes a deck perform less than it should. If each card included doesn't help the deck outside the few pieces together, it isn't worth drawing it. Crystal Chimes and Skull of Orm are cards that only more dedicated enchantment decks would run. If I run 3-4 enchantments, they don't do enough. Noble Benefactor, as you said, is dangerous and I probably would never consider him unless I really needed a tutor effect.
I do know how powerful she can be and the threat she poses, I've used her in other decks as well and she does bring down a good amount of opponents. I think if she is my focus, however, it will paint a target on me for the entire game. Many commanders do, and Arcanis will probably be the same, although he can't just shut our opponents commanders down with just him on board. He will be more likely to survive a long fight. I'll have to do some thinking on whether I can protect her well enough to really make her as the focus of the deck worth while.
Not sure why anyone didnt mention Jalira, Master Polymorphist. Turning a thopther into a kraken is tons of fun. Not to mention all the polymorph related cards have hilarious artwork like: Turn to frog. Cards that shuffle back into the deck like Darksteel Colossus are great too.
Not sure why anyone didnt mention Jalira, Master Polymorphist. Turning a thopther into a kraken is tons of fun. Not to mention all the polymorph related cards have hilarious artwork like: Turn to frog. Cards that shuffle back into the deck like Darksteel Colossus are great too.
Jalira is an interesting thought. I think with her it is more just a luck game of what I hit with her ability. I can manipulate the library some to get what I want, but I feel like just flipping into big creatures is something blue already tries to accomplish with all of its end game strategies outside of combo. I think I'd rather try something a little less conventional than flip a big creature and swing. Plus I can't hit legendary creatures which is a little bit of a downside.
I've been doing a lot of thinking on this idea and am leaning towards Arcanis the Omnipotent. What I am thinking of doing with him is using card draw triggers and hand size matter type cards. The cards I'm thinking of are these:
What are some other ideas that would work well with these cards or with large hand size/drawing cards with Arcanis? It's a WIP but I think it is coming along to something that will be fun and enjoyable.
I'm not sold on the idea of the maro style cards just yet, it was just an initial thought. Meishin would not work with the two of them specifically but would make the list before the others for control purposes.
Her is a list of what Alexi could do with her bounce.
3 Jace's Archivist
3 Day's Undoing
3 Windfall
5 Magus of the Jar
5 Memory Jar
5 Time Reversal
6 Time Spiral
7 Temporal Cascade
2 Cyclonic Rift
5 Evacuation
5 Sunder
Targeting
7 Dismiss into Dream
WBR Alesha's Death Brigade WBR
WWW Brigid the Battlefield Saboteur WWW
UB Wydwen, the Biting Gale UB
Don't get me wrong, cause I love the legendary spellshapers. I've maintained a latulla, keldon overseer deck for some time as she was one of my first few generals ever, and I've piloted Greel and Mageta both to great effect.
While the 2-card discard per activation is what makes most players turn away from these old spellshapers, with Alexi the primary issue is actually that she can only bounce creatures. This makes for two very strong reasons to not run Alexi;
1.) mono-blue already has far superior bounce spells that do not require a 5cmc creature w/o summoning sickness and 2x discarded cards to activate. Mono-blue just got a nasty bounce spell in engulf the shore, and has a huge stock of bounce spells that can either be non-conditional (cyclonic rift/devestation tide/crush of tentacles/kederekt leviathan), or built for you to take advantage of (displacement wave/inundate/whelming wave/wash out/evacuation/scourge of fleets). It will be a very exotic scenario for a clearly-telegraphed Alexi to out-shine these.
and 2.), which is most likely the biggest issue, is that what if there isn't any creatures to bounce? Far too many decks hardly care about creatures or combat, and some wouldn't mind you bouncing their guys that have sweet etb-triggers so they can get more value.
Now again I'm not wanting to persuade you away from Alexi. The Dismiss into Dreams trick is sweet. But from what you have listed so far, it seems like a very delicate scenario to get Alexi online just to bounce and possibly manipulate hands, and only if they have creatures worth the mana+discard to activate her bounce.
If you are set on running her then I would consider going in one of two routes;
~ a very strict control shell w/ lots of counter magic that uses Alexi as a sort of back-up plan, where you run dismiss into dream and possibly overburden/sunder sort of effects to really punish creature based opponents. Alexi most likely won't see play until later stages of the game, will mostly come out to manipulate combat, and eventually swing with runechanter's pike as a wincondition. Think of a draw+go Vendilion Clique build.
~ or a creature-based deck with tons (30+) etb-value creatures that you want the option to re-buy+re-cast with Alexi. The type of deck that runs solemn simulacrum and a pile of clones so you can keep cloning the solemn and ramp your arse into the late game. Alexi most likely won't see much play unless you just want to re-buy a few things or manipulate combat to try and survive mid game.
You may want to take a peek at her relative/descendant (i think?) in Linessa, Zephyr Mage. Granduer is a cute gimmick to work around but if you are just after the bounce ability she seems a bit more stable, trading the multi-targeting for an x-to-mana-cost, and not requiring cards to activate. She also has one of the most beautiful bits of art I've ever seen in mtg cards.
Otherwise I think we just need more techy cards to enable Alexi, which don't exist (yet). Perhaps if there was some way in mono-blue to make the opponents lands turn into creatures, you could play the same game Jolrael, Empress of Beasts does and try to 1-sided landwipe the opponent.
Links to my most current deck lists;
Primary EDH; Rakka Mar Token Perfection, Crosis Mnemonic Betrayal, Cromat Villainous, Judith Gravestorm, Rakdos Empty Storm, Exava Artifacts, Bant Trash, & Fumiko Voltron!
EDH kept at home; Ruzzian Isset & Rakdos LoR!
EDH (nostalgic/pimp/retired) in storage;
Latulla Burns, Akroma Smash, Jeska Voltron, Rakdos Storm, Bladewing Darghans, Lyzolda Worldgorger, Xantcha Steals your Heart, Jori Storm, Wydwen Permission, Gwendlyn Paradox, Jeleva Warps, & Sigarda Brick!
Legacy Showanimator and High Tide!
If you're in for a crazier idea: Barrin, Master Wizard
You can use cards like Chamber of Manipulation and Homarid Spawning Bed to fuel his bounces.
Beating Face with Bane
Beatrice, the Golden Witch
Heidar is not bad, and the snow lands are not an issue, I just don't like the fact that he is a single target bounce the same with Linessa. Their tap abilities are less of a downside I agree.
I will just modify this thread to ask, what mono blue tap commander has enough design around them that there are enough cards with synergy and fun interactions?
WBR Alesha's Death Brigade WBR
WWW Brigid the Battlefield Saboteur WWW
UB Wydwen, the Biting Gale UB
I could see Alexi being a lot of fun and I have fond memories of using her from when I was just playing kitchen table casual. I would just be worried about the discard cost. All of the other spellshaper legends makes up for the negative card advantage through their abilities to some degree. Alexi's being soft removal means that she's much more dependent on the 99 to pick up some of that. You could get away with heavy etb effects, but you're talking an enormous amount of mana if you go that route.
also, trade routes and tradewind riders.
Legacy - Solidarity - mono U aggro - burn - Imperial Painter - Strawberry Shortcake - Bluuzards - bom
UGTatyova, Benthic DruidUG | RBRakdos the DefilerRB | RNorin the WaryR | BGThelon of HavenwoodBG
@Weebo- You make some valid arguments for Heidar and I can see that there are some great synergies there. He could easily become hated off the board with the fact that he manipulates the board state pretty heavily. Definitely some upsides to his bouncing a permanent. I've always liked abusing Reality Acid. Alexi is more for casual play and I want to make this as competitive as it possibly can be, which may not be that much at all. But at least I will give it a shot and Heidar may be the better option for that.
@schweinefett- I agree that the incremental draw options will smooth the game play out and Brainstorm and Impulse effects would be needed for this. Finding more ways to make her viable is still on my radar and if it looks like it is possible to make her effective enough, I will probably throw a list together. She has a few shortcomings that will be hard to get over, one being the constant discard to use her ability and two is the fact that she needs creatures to target for her to do anything at all.
@PhroX- to be honest, Reveka, Wizard Savant was not even on my radar until you mentioned her. I do feel she is much more janky than Alexi is, having to find a way to untap her and to get that card each game so that she does do something. There are quite a few options to do this, but outside of lots of draw, blue has very few tutors all of which will only get the artifact options. It is something very interesting and it sounded like it was a fun deck to pilot.
@MightyPox- Obviously he taps a LOT of creatures. I appreciate the input, just want to keep it to {t}: "insert name here" does X.
All the ideas so far are fantastic. The ideas for the different options are very interesting and I'm starting to form some ideas of what I want in the commander. I want the commander to add some sort of advantage over the opponent or a set back of the opponent. With this in mind the commanders that I am deciding between are these. If anyone knows ways to utilize them further and exploit their abilities please let me know what ideas you have for this. Thanks again for all the support and input.
WBR Alesha's Death Brigade WBR
WWW Brigid the Battlefield Saboteur WWW
UB Wydwen, the Biting Gale UB
It was OK but it's hard to keep control of a table full of people when you keep refilling their hands for them.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
The second option I may go with is Arcanis the Omnipotent. Hardly a low profile commander but he can at least save himself from removal. Having drawing and a hand size matters subtheme seems like a good way to go. Cards along the lines of Psychosis Crawler, Sphinx's Tutelage, Chasm Skulker, and Diviner's Wand would be particularly good in him. I do want to steer him away from a generic blue eldrazi deck as most blue decks seem to be subjected to. He has so much draw power that it can be put to great use of keeping my hand full of answers.
What would have more support, a bounce control, or draw/hand matters theme? Both have some great cards to use and blue has so many untap creature effects. So tapping either of them three to four times a turn is not hard to do. Let me know what you think?
WBR Alesha's Death Brigade WBR
WWW Brigid the Battlefield Saboteur WWW
UB Wydwen, the Biting Gale UB
Llawan, Cephalid Empress: she doesn't tap, herself, but she's pretty good with the bounce ideas you've got rattling around. You can also hack her to lock out colors other than blue (Alter Reality, Glamerdye, Sleight of Mind, and Spectral Shift all work, plus Crystal Spray which will let you change what to bounce, but she'll revert to locking out blue at EOT)
Empress Galina: everybody at the table is guaranteed to have at least one legendary permanent, and they'll probably have more. Run Leyline of Singularity to shut down token decks and take any permanent you want.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
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Thanks for the response!
I feel like the color changing spells are a bit narrow outside of something like Blind Seer to make Llawan, Cephalid Empress work. She is an interesting idea, but strays from my objective. The same is true for Aboshan, Cephalid Emperor. His "tap" ability isn't exactly what I'm after and feel like if I'm going down this route, I might as well use Azami, Lady of Scrolls for her sheer amount of advantage. Empress Galina was something I considered running, but then I thought, she would only be as good as the creatures in my opponents deck minus their commander. Sure taking their commander is devastating to them, but if she doesn't get much more use than that, she falls a little short on putting out in a build around me strategy. Leyline of Singularity will help with this, but it is one card in a singleton format and blue has no way to tutor for it other than lots of draw which can be better suited to Arcanis the Omnipotent. I appreciate all the ideas, and they were something I considered before determining the idea I wanted to go with. It want to focus on {Tap}: commanders since they are undervalued and underplayed. It is a theme I am going with. Bonus if the Commander is a very obscure commander as it is a lot of fun to make a monster out of something so unassuming.
I like the ideas you present in making a control shell. Vedalken Shackles is a favorite of mine and utilizing it where I can is fantastic. Although finding a good steal and sac general is a problem with what I want to build with. Arcanis would be better suited to this of the options I'm deciding between. The card advantage will get me to the spells to steal my opponents creatures with. My favorite of the suggestions you listed however is Meishin, the Mind Cage. it is a fantastic spell and one that I have been wanting to use for some time. Drawing lots of cards is the way to go and this pushes me to want Arcanis. I know I can be a huge **** with Heidar and Stasis and friends but I'm sure that will lead me to taking the deck apart very quickly with my playgroup. I think Arcanis is where I'm settling with the ideas everyone has listed. There are so many ways to build him and he doesn't have to cater to a specific strategy. Everyone likes drawing cards.
Thank you both for the great ideas, and if there are ways to put my plan into action that will make this a fun and interestingly different take on mono blue let me know. Control will always be present, but I want to make this feel more unique if possible.
WBR Alesha's Death Brigade WBR
WWW Brigid the Battlefield Saboteur WWW
UB Wydwen, the Biting Gale UB
There's also Crookclaw Transmuter for the Transmute angle. Intuition for Leyline, Recall/Crystal Chimes/Skull of Orm/Codex Shredder and another card is also an option.
Archmage Ascension is pretty strong, although probably paints a big target. Noble Benefactor is risky (since your opponents each get a tutor effect), but he's another way blue can tutor an enchantment.
And, of course, there's colorless options in Planar Portal and Ring of Three Wishes.
Also, even without Leyline of Singularity, you might be surprised at how much of a threat Galina poses. There are a lot of staples in the format that are legendary, and there are a lot of decks that depend heavily on their generals. I play her in my Thada Adel deck, and I've seen people's game plans grind to a stop when she hits the board, as they try to dig for removal.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
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I guess I should have mentioned the normal artifact tutor suite, but blue itself has a difficult time tutoring for cards that are not artifacts. Intuition is of course the best of the options, although you would have to get any of the cards you mentioned with it to guarantee you get the Leyline. Long-term plans is a thing, although I typically only use it if I have a Sensei's top active or Scroll Rack. Crookclaw Transmuter, I assume is not the card you were meaning, Blue does not have a 4 cmc transmute card, only black and blue/black do. Adding in a lot of cards just to make a strategy work is something, in my own experience, that makes a deck perform less than it should. If each card included doesn't help the deck outside the few pieces together, it isn't worth drawing it. Crystal Chimes and Skull of Orm are cards that only more dedicated enchantment decks would run. If I run 3-4 enchantments, they don't do enough. Noble Benefactor, as you said, is dangerous and I probably would never consider him unless I really needed a tutor effect.
I do know how powerful she can be and the threat she poses, I've used her in other decks as well and she does bring down a good amount of opponents. I think if she is my focus, however, it will paint a target on me for the entire game. Many commanders do, and Arcanis will probably be the same, although he can't just shut our opponents commanders down with just him on board. He will be more likely to survive a long fight. I'll have to do some thinking on whether I can protect her well enough to really make her as the focus of the deck worth while.
WBR Alesha's Death Brigade WBR
WWW Brigid the Battlefield Saboteur WWW
UB Wydwen, the Biting Gale UB
GSelvala, Heart of the Wilds Inf Combo/FattiesG
GWSaffi Eriksdotter Inf ComboGW
BLiliana, Heretical Healer StaxB
RKiki-Jikki, Inf Combo/ETB AbuseR
Jalira is an interesting thought. I think with her it is more just a luck game of what I hit with her ability. I can manipulate the library some to get what I want, but I feel like just flipping into big creatures is something blue already tries to accomplish with all of its end game strategies outside of combo. I think I'd rather try something a little less conventional than flip a big creature and swing. Plus I can't hit legendary creatures which is a little bit of a downside.
I've been doing a lot of thinking on this idea and am leaning towards Arcanis the Omnipotent. What I am thinking of doing with him is using card draw triggers and hand size matter type cards. The cards I'm thinking of are these:
3 Chasm Skulker
3 Laboratory Maniac
5 Psychosis Crawler
6 Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar
5 Archmage Ascension
3 Sphinx's Tutelage
3 Diviner's Wand
5 Alhammarret's Archive
5 Sturmgeist
6 Soramaro, First to Dream
7 Meishin, the Mind Cage
2 Scroll Rack
2 Empyrial Plate
5 Venser's Journal
What are some other ideas that would work well with these cards or with large hand size/drawing cards with Arcanis? It's a WIP but I think it is coming along to something that will be fun and enjoyable.
WBR Alesha's Death Brigade WBR
WWW Brigid the Battlefield Saboteur WWW
UB Wydwen, the Biting Gale UB
I'm not sold on the idea of the maro style cards just yet, it was just an initial thought. Meishin would not work with the two of them specifically but would make the list before the others for control purposes.
WBR Alesha's Death Brigade WBR
WWW Brigid the Battlefield Saboteur WWW
UB Wydwen, the Biting Gale UB