Lady Sun, the most expensive commander you've never heard of

[DirkGently]

For those curious, the most 10 expensive commanders in the format are (from their cheapest English printing):

• Sliver Queen
• Angus Mackenzie
• Hazezon Tamar
• Lady Sun
• Gwendlyn Di Corci
• Sliver Legion
• Lady Zhurong, Warrior Queen
• Rasputin Dreamweaver
• Dong Zhou, the Tyrant
• Tetsuo Umezawa

While none of them are incredibly popular, most of the legends commanders and slivers enjoy a reasonable popularity and minor infamy. But the P3K inclusions are truly strange to me. Dong Zhou is a pretty weak choice of commander, and Lady Zhurong is extremely boring (not to mention a far inferior horsemanship choice to several commanders in other colors).

But perhaps strangest of all is Lady Sun, who is incredibly expensive despite, as far as I can tell, being completely unplayed by anyone. She has a whopping 3 decks on EDHrec - for point of reference, sliver queen has almost 100 times as many, with angus and hazezon not far behind. Of all the top 10, she's the least popular, followed by her fellow P3Kers.

Is she a particularly exciting commander? Well, no. But she's not awful. She's a functional Capsize for creatures only (aka Unsummon with buyback), except as a ~sorcery, if you can give her haste. Otherwise she's a bit slow, but can still efficiently keep something off the board by repeatedly bouncing it. But this synergy can be strengthened by copying her ability or untapping her for extra value.

Anyway, I happen to have a copy and it's been sitting in my collection gathering dust since 2013 or so. So let's give her a shot!

Luckily, the things that synergize with her also synergize with many other mono-blue tap-ability commanders. So you can bet they're all in here as well, and could easily sub in for her, in case you want to get nasty with Ertai, Wizard Adept or ping everyone to death with Reveka, Wizard Savant.

Also I get to run Ovinomancer in this deck and I'm really happy about it.

Decklist

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Commander (1)

1 Lady Sun

Backup Commanders (7)

1 Lu Su, Wu Advisor

1 Heidar, Rimewind Master

1 Arcanis the Omnipotent

1 Empress Galina

1 Reveka, Wizard Savant

1 Ertai, Wizard Savant

1 Azami, Lady of Scrolls*

Other Tap Creatures ()

1 Time Elemental

1 Talas Researcher

1 Vodalian Illusionist

1 Rimewind Taskmage

1 Rimewind Cryomancer

1 Keeper of the Mind

1 Patron Wizard

1 Echo Mage

1 Enclave Cryptologist

1 Seasinger

1 Merfolk Looter

1 Thought Courier

1 Survivor of the Unseen

1 Temporal Adept

1 Archivist

1 Aphetto Alchemist

1 Fatestitcher

1 Callous Oppressor

1 Dominating Licid

1 Ovinomancer (HELL YES)

1 Old Man of the Sea

1 Walking Atlas

1 Beguiler of Wills

1 Vizier of Tumbling Sands

1 Crab Umbra

1 Chakram Retriever

Tap Support

1 Rings of Brighthearth*

1 Dismiss into Dream

1 Disciple of the Ring

1 Pemmin's Aura

1 Freed from the Real

1 Akroma's Memorial

1 Thornbite Staff

1 Illusionist's Bracers

1 Swiftfoot Boots

1 Lightning Greaves

1 Puppet Strings

1 Crashing Drawbridge

1 Magewright's Stone

1 Thousand-Year Elixir

1 Intruder Alarm (Not for infinites, crazy)

General Control Stuff (12)

1 Gilded Drake (Extremely Sick)

1 Trophy Mage

1 Tribute Mage

1 Tezzeret the Seeker

1 Fabricate

1 Drift of Phantasms

1 Tome of Legends

1 Rapid Hybridization

1 Pongify

1 Arcane Denial

1 Mana Drain

1 Cyclonic Rift

Ramp (3)

1 Sol Ring*

1 Mana Crypt*

1 Sapphire Medallion

Land (38)

1 Castle Vantress

1 Academy Ruins

1 Buried Ruin

1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx*

1 Reliquary Tower

1 Arcane Lighthouse

1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge (best evar)

1 Tolaria West

1 Riptide Laboratory

1 Hall of the Bandit Lord

1 Memorial to Genius

1 Blighted Cataract

1 Inventors' Fair

25 Snow-Covered Island

1 Lady Sun 1 Lu Su, Wu Advisor 1 Heidar, Rimewind Master 1 Arcanis the Omnipotent 1 Empress Galina 1 Reveka, Wizard Savant 1 Ertai, Wizard Savant 1 Azami, Lady of Scrolls* 1 Time Elemental 1 Talas Researcher 1 Vodalian Illusionist 1 Rimewind Taskmage 1 Rimewind Cryomancer 1 Keeper of the Mind 1 Patron Wizard 1 Echo Mage 1 Enclave Cryptologist 1 Seasinger 1 Merfolk Looter 1 Thought Courier 1 Survivor of the Unseen 1 Temporal Adept 1 Archivist 1 Aphetto Alchemist 1 Fatestitcher 1 Callous Oppressor 1 Dominating Licid 1 Ovinomancer 1 Old Man of the Sea 1 Walking Atlas 1 Beguiler of Wills 1 Vizier of Tumbling Sands 1 Crab Umbra 1 Chakram Retriever 1 Rings of Brighthearth* 1 Dismiss into Dream 1 Disciple of the Ring 1 Pemmin's Aura 1 Freed from the Real 1 Akroma's Memorial 1 Thornbite Staff 1 Illusionist's Bracers 1 Swiftfoot Boots 1 Lightning Greaves 1 Puppet Strings 1 Crashing Drawbridge 1 Magewright's Stone 1 Thousand-Year Elixir 1 Intruder Alarm 1 Gilded Drake 1 Trophy Mage 1 Tribute Mage 1 Tezzeret the Seeker 1 Fabricate 1 Drift of Phantasms 1 Tome of Legends 1 Rapid Hybridization 1 Pongify 1 Arcane Denial 1 Mana Drain 1 Cyclonic Rift 1 Sol Ring* 1 Mana Crypt* 1 Sapphire Medallion 1 Castle Vantress 1 Academy Ruins 1 Buried Ruin 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx* 1 Reliquary Tower 1 Arcane Lighthouse 1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge 1 Tolaria West 1 Riptide Laboratory 1 Hall of the Bandit Lord 1 Memorial to Genius 1 Blighted Cataract 1 Inventors' Fair 25 Snow-Covered Island //Sideboard

[DirkGently]

I've now played this a sufficient number of times I think. Had a varying level of experiences - some games it absolutely dominated, others it looked pretty fair. There's definitely a lot of combos/synergies that can get pretty miserable, though (as much fun as it was to Ovinomancer combo, it looked pretty annoying to play against). It also didn't have much of a way to close out the game, so it tended to drag on a bit. Unfortunately Lady Sun herself tended to be pretty underwhelming, her ability being ~sorcery only really hurt imo. So does she justify her high price....umm....no.

[Wanli]

Came across Lady Sun and she kind of spoke to me - the expansion and art are unusual and I don't have a deck in mono blue or bounce-oriented yet. Searched for primers and was surprised to find this one. Not totally committed to building the deck yet, let's see if I pull the lever (probably with a Japanese lady at the helm as the English-language version is just too expensive).

But what is that Ovinomancer combo you mentioned?

[TheAmericanSpirit]

But what is that Ovinomancer combo you mentioned?

Yeah, @DirkGently, what is the ovinomancer combo?

[DirkGently]

But what is that Ovinomancer combo you mentioned?

This is a blast from the past, haha.

If you give ivinomancer haste (not at sorcery speed, so boots don't work) you can activate it and return it to your hand before the hefty etb cost falls due. Then you just choose not to pay it, and you don't sac ovinomancer because it's already back in your hand.

So it becomes 2U: destroy target creature, give them a 0/1 sheep.

[Wanli]

A 0/1 sheep, adding insult to injury... Thanks!