Killing commanders (permanently)
Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 4:44 pm
I've been doing some thinking recently on methods for dealing with especially problematic commanders - commanders that are either particularly dangerous (selvala, heart of the wilds), particularly hard to get rid of (derevi, empyrial tactician), or which removal/counters are not very effective against (Maelstrom Wanderer). Commanders that you'd like to erase off the face of the Earth. Of course, in the days of yore there was the option of tuck, but while that tool has been taken away, there are still options left available.
I'll just list off what I've got so far:
1) Song of the Dryads, darksteel mutation, or other removal that keeps the commander on the battlefield but renders it irrelevant. Especially the two that turn it into a land (imprison in the moon being the other) can be very difficult for decks to deal with if they don't have enchantment removal, since most decks can't sacrifice lands. And what enchantment removal they might have can be countered. This method is the most straightforward, compared to the other tricky tricks. However, it does run the risk of the commander being freed at some point down the line.
2) The fakeout tuck. Start by putting the commander on top of their deck with, say, expel from orazca. They let it go on top, preferring to lose the draw as to not to jack up the tax. Then follow it up with a spell that forces a shuffle, like bribery. Commander didn't change zones, so they're SOL. Tuck achieved in 2020!
3) Mindslaver. There's only 4 cards that let you control an opponent (not counting word of command which I'm pretty sure can't be used in this way, but if there's some way it can be lmk, that card is confusing as hell), and two are black (sorin, worst fears, emrakul being the other 3), so your options are somewhat limited here. And they're all very slow and expensive. But with mindslaver you can either force them to chump attack and leave their commander in the grave, or exile their commander with either your own removal spell, or theirs if you're very lucky. Permanent exile, sweet. It even works against eminence commanders like Inalla because you can force them to be cast and then Swords them right in the face.
4) The fakeout exile. This one is my favourite but unfortunately it's kind of cheating. The idea is to exile their commander with a temporary effect - such as mistmeadow witch - and then stifle the trigger when it tries to return to the battlefield. But unfortunately with *most* of these effects, it's relying on a bit of a cheat. With mistmeadow witch, you can send your commander to the command zone instead of exile and - provided no stifles happen - it will still return regardless, so that if it DOES get stranded there by a stifle, you can just recast. Meaning there's no reason NOT to send it to the CZ unless you didn't know that part of the rules, or you just didn't bother to specify because you weren't expecting anything tricky to happen. To my understanding of the rules, in order to avoid this loophole, you need a card that references "the exiled card" specifically - for example, voyager's staff. To really make this work, though, you'd prefer something reusable so that they can't just treat your voyager staff like removal, shrug, and pay the tax. Barring some recursion/blinky shenanigans, the only reusable tools that do this, to my knowledge, are identity thief and Tawnos's coffin. And coffin is such that they're likely to put it in the CZ anyway, since it's presumably trapped in there without artifact removal - leaving identity thief as really the only card where they're likely to "take the bait" and allow their commander to be exiled so you can stifle the trigger.
5) Meddling Mage, Nevermore, etc. If they can't even cast their commander, there's not much to fear from it. Unless it's Derevi, then you'll need a pithing needle. This method is pretty similar to #1 in that it works great so long as it doesn't get removed, but you can never be certain that you've solved the problem permanently. One K-grip and it's back to square one.
6) Use Vanishing to keep their commander off the board constantly. This has some advantages compared to #1 in that the enchantment comes with the creature when it phases out, so it's resistant to removal. But it's still weak to sacrifice outlets, and many commanders can activate abilities or trigger during that brief window before they phase out, making it ineffective.
7) Theft. If you've got the commander, then it's probably not going to be a problem anymore, barring something like Hokori that has a symmetrical effect. Of course this has all the risks of #1, but at least you have the benefit of having the commander yourself. And if you have a sac outlet, at least you can sacrifice it if they try to destroy whatever enchantment you're keeping their commander in thrall with.
8) Price them off it. This could be done the hard way by removing it over and over, or the easy way by destroying/disabling the mana with land/artifact destruction.
9) Efficient repeated-removal machines. The most commonly used being grave pact and co, which can even keep Derevi off the field with sufficient fuel. Along with everything else, of course. Depending on your target, something as simple as Avatar of Woe might do the trick.
Do you have any other ideas, or information to add to the existing ones? Please share!
I'll just list off what I've got so far:
1) Song of the Dryads, darksteel mutation, or other removal that keeps the commander on the battlefield but renders it irrelevant. Especially the two that turn it into a land (imprison in the moon being the other) can be very difficult for decks to deal with if they don't have enchantment removal, since most decks can't sacrifice lands. And what enchantment removal they might have can be countered. This method is the most straightforward, compared to the other tricky tricks. However, it does run the risk of the commander being freed at some point down the line.
2) The fakeout tuck. Start by putting the commander on top of their deck with, say, expel from orazca. They let it go on top, preferring to lose the draw as to not to jack up the tax. Then follow it up with a spell that forces a shuffle, like bribery. Commander didn't change zones, so they're SOL. Tuck achieved in 2020!
3) Mindslaver. There's only 4 cards that let you control an opponent (not counting word of command which I'm pretty sure can't be used in this way, but if there's some way it can be lmk, that card is confusing as hell), and two are black (sorin, worst fears, emrakul being the other 3), so your options are somewhat limited here. And they're all very slow and expensive. But with mindslaver you can either force them to chump attack and leave their commander in the grave, or exile their commander with either your own removal spell, or theirs if you're very lucky. Permanent exile, sweet. It even works against eminence commanders like Inalla because you can force them to be cast and then Swords them right in the face.
4) The fakeout exile. This one is my favourite but unfortunately it's kind of cheating. The idea is to exile their commander with a temporary effect - such as mistmeadow witch - and then stifle the trigger when it tries to return to the battlefield. But unfortunately with *most* of these effects, it's relying on a bit of a cheat. With mistmeadow witch, you can send your commander to the command zone instead of exile and - provided no stifles happen - it will still return regardless, so that if it DOES get stranded there by a stifle, you can just recast. Meaning there's no reason NOT to send it to the CZ unless you didn't know that part of the rules, or you just didn't bother to specify because you weren't expecting anything tricky to happen. To my understanding of the rules, in order to avoid this loophole, you need a card that references "the exiled card" specifically - for example, voyager's staff. To really make this work, though, you'd prefer something reusable so that they can't just treat your voyager staff like removal, shrug, and pay the tax. Barring some recursion/blinky shenanigans, the only reusable tools that do this, to my knowledge, are identity thief and Tawnos's coffin. And coffin is such that they're likely to put it in the CZ anyway, since it's presumably trapped in there without artifact removal - leaving identity thief as really the only card where they're likely to "take the bait" and allow their commander to be exiled so you can stifle the trigger.
5) Meddling Mage, Nevermore, etc. If they can't even cast their commander, there's not much to fear from it. Unless it's Derevi, then you'll need a pithing needle. This method is pretty similar to #1 in that it works great so long as it doesn't get removed, but you can never be certain that you've solved the problem permanently. One K-grip and it's back to square one.
6) Use Vanishing to keep their commander off the board constantly. This has some advantages compared to #1 in that the enchantment comes with the creature when it phases out, so it's resistant to removal. But it's still weak to sacrifice outlets, and many commanders can activate abilities or trigger during that brief window before they phase out, making it ineffective.
7) Theft. If you've got the commander, then it's probably not going to be a problem anymore, barring something like Hokori that has a symmetrical effect. Of course this has all the risks of #1, but at least you have the benefit of having the commander yourself. And if you have a sac outlet, at least you can sacrifice it if they try to destroy whatever enchantment you're keeping their commander in thrall with.
8) Price them off it. This could be done the hard way by removing it over and over, or the easy way by destroying/disabling the mana with land/artifact destruction.
9) Efficient repeated-removal machines. The most commonly used being grave pact and co, which can even keep Derevi off the field with sufficient fuel. Along with everything else, of course. Depending on your target, something as simple as Avatar of Woe might do the trick.
Do you have any other ideas, or information to add to the existing ones? Please share!