Nahiri, the Lithomancer - Equipments
Nahiri, the Lithomancer
Approximate Total Cost:
A Brief History
Note - I have disassembled this deck as of 5/22/23. Leaving this up in case I revisit it in the future or someone else wants inspiration. Most of this deck has been transformed into trying out a deck for the new Nahiri, Forged in Fury.
About The Deck
Let's go through each of the loyalty abilities that Nahiri has:
+2: Create a 1/1 white Kor Soldier creature token. You may attach an Equipment you control to it.
This ability is going to be the ability that you use the most. If you have searched up Skullclamp then this ability is a great card draw engine, at that point it basically reads "+2: Draw two cards" which is a fantastic source of card advantage to have in a white deck. Otherwise, Nahiri makes sure any equipment you have in play will have a chance to be wielded without the expense of mana, which can be very impactful if you have something with a high equip cost like Argentum Armor or Colossus Hammer in play. Most offensive equipment can be serviceable in the hands of a 1/1 if you don't have to pay anything to equip. This ability also provides a blocker to protect Nahiri for a turn so if an opponent is getting concerned about Nahiri closing in on 10 to activate her ultimate ability, they are generally going to have to send at least two attackers (unless they have some sort of evasion). Most of the time, unless you are in need of pre-combat card draw and have a Skullclamp or Mentor of the Meek in play, you will be activating this ability in your post-combat main phase.
This ability is going to be the ability that you use the most. If you have searched up Skullclamp then this ability is a great card draw engine, at that point it basically reads "+2: Draw two cards" which is a fantastic source of card advantage to have in a white deck. Otherwise, Nahiri makes sure any equipment you have in play will have a chance to be wielded without the expense of mana, which can be very impactful if you have something with a high equip cost like Argentum Armor or Colossus Hammer in play. Most offensive equipment can be serviceable in the hands of a 1/1 if you don't have to pay anything to equip. This ability also provides a blocker to protect Nahiri for a turn so if an opponent is getting concerned about Nahiri closing in on 10 to activate her ultimate ability, they are generally going to have to send at least two attackers (unless they have some sort of evasion). Most of the time, unless you are in need of pre-combat card draw and have a Skullclamp or Mentor of the Meek in play, you will be activating this ability in your post-combat main phase.
-2: You may put an Equipment card from your hand or graveyard onto the battlefield.
This ability will probably only be used a few times over the course of a game, sometimes not at all, and in my experience a lot of opponents tend to forget she even has it. This can surprise people with equipment they don't see coming, but also when someone expends effort to destroy equipment you have then it makes it easy to recover. I've had a number of opponents overlook this ability when Nahiri is in the command zone, use some removal on an equipment that concerns them, only to see me immediately get it back. You will most likely activate this ability in your pre-combat main phase to get an equipment available for a creature that needs to swing with it that turn but you may find yourself activating it in the post-combat main phase if you have for example, drawn an equipment off of a Sword of Fire and Ice trigger during combat. A great thing about this ability is it gets equipment down without worrying about counterspells, and gets around Rule of Law effects. Cheating in a surprise Argentum Armor or other pricey equipment piece for free is always a nice option to have, especially with effects that let you cheat on equipping as well.
This ability will probably only be used a few times over the course of a game, sometimes not at all, and in my experience a lot of opponents tend to forget she even has it. This can surprise people with equipment they don't see coming, but also when someone expends effort to destroy equipment you have then it makes it easy to recover. I've had a number of opponents overlook this ability when Nahiri is in the command zone, use some removal on an equipment that concerns them, only to see me immediately get it back. You will most likely activate this ability in your pre-combat main phase to get an equipment available for a creature that needs to swing with it that turn but you may find yourself activating it in the post-combat main phase if you have for example, drawn an equipment off of a Sword of Fire and Ice trigger during combat. A great thing about this ability is it gets equipment down without worrying about counterspells, and gets around Rule of Law effects. Cheating in a surprise Argentum Armor or other pricey equipment piece for free is always a nice option to have, especially with effects that let you cheat on equipping as well.
-10: Create a colorless Equipment artifact token named Stoneforged Blade. It has indestructible, "Equipped creature gets +5/+5 and has double strike," and equip .
This ability can absolutely be a major source of damage but it isn't necessarily an immediate game ender like a lot of planeswalker's ultimate abilities are. Adding, at minimum, 11 damage to your combat phase (just assuming a 1/1 has the Stoneforged Blade) is not insignificant. If you happen to have Anointed Procession in play you can get two of these equipment pieces instead of one, which is nice. This is almost always going to be activated in your pre-combat main phase.
This ability can absolutely be a major source of damage but it isn't necessarily an immediate game ender like a lot of planeswalker's ultimate abilities are. Adding, at minimum, 11 damage to your combat phase (just assuming a 1/1 has the Stoneforged Blade) is not insignificant. If you happen to have Anointed Procession in play you can get two of these equipment pieces instead of one, which is nice. This is almost always going to be activated in your pre-combat main phase.
Nahiri generally does not get attacked by opponent's until she is closing in on activating her ultimate ability and usually by that point you will have some decent defenses. Even if you can't get the ultimate ability to go off, every attack opponents throw at Nahiri is less damage coming at you.
An incremental build-up of tokens, which is accelerated greatly by Anointed Procession, Elspeth, Knight-Errant, and Elspeth, Sun's Champion, can slowly become a solid threat, especially when supporting some of the actual creature cards in the deck. A moderate token army, some of which have been been equipped with various things for free when they came into play due to Nahiri's +2 aided by Mirror Entity can be a game ender.
Cards like Rule of Law, Ethersworn Canonist, Archon of Emeria, and Thalia, Heretic Cathar can be vital to keeping the game at a slower pace until you get built up and they keep any of the spellslingers in check. Depending on your local playgroup/meta at any point in time, you may need to lean even heavier into these effects or scale them back a little. Adding further hate bear types of creatures can definitely be a great idea, and most of them are not too shabby at holding equipment.
When it comes to the various equipment tutor effects, you really will have to read the board state at the time to decide what to go for. Sometimes the best thing to go for is going to be Colossus Hammer just to get the big damage going as quickly as possible. Sometimes you will need a source of card advantage instead like Skullclamp, Sword of Fire and Ice, or Sword of Light and Shadow. There isn't a single gameplan that you have to go for every game.
Why Nahiri?
Nahiri will be generating tokens, playing equipment from your hand for free, and having built in equipment recursive abilities gives you some different options that other monowhite equipment commanders don't have.
One other strength a deck like this has is after an enemy plays a creature board wipe like Wrath of God. Nahiri is an immediate source of creatures to pick up your equipment so you can continue swinging quickly. Sometimes you have no creatures in hand after a board wipe, but that isn't a factor here.
Nahiri can also be a pretty good source of card advantage with her +2 ability as detailed above. Sram, Senior Edificer also gets a great card draw engine going but in a different way.
Notable Exclusions
Sun Titan - This is an amazing card as I'm sure most people know. It is pretty high on mana cost and the deck can only support so many high cost cards. It has certainly been in the deck at various points because there are a ton of cards that are CMC 3 or less. You could easily take out one of the other high mana cost cards like Captain of the Watch if you felt the need to include this.
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite - Elesh Norn has been in and out of this deck but much like Sun Titan, it is a high cost card and only so many of those can be run. At one point when this deck was much more token focused, I actually had the deck set up so that I could switch between Elesh Norn or Nahiri as the commander. Elesh is truly great for this deck as one of your high cost cards if you wish to try her out.
Sword of Feast and Famine - A lot of people love this one. I don't see this deck as actually taking full advantage of the abilities it has like some other decks can, although admittedly it is great.
Lightning Greaves & Swiftfoot Boots - Haste and the shroud/hexproof is great and these have been in the deck at various times. Giving haste to just one creature can be crucial with something like Heavenly Blademaster but overall when your deck is going wide it isn't as awful to be missing.
Any sort of board wipes - Occasionally I find myself in games wishing I had something like Austere Command but honestly I'm usually trying to be the aggressor and make it so that my board state is what makes people want to drop a board wipe. I wouldn't fault people for including these to some degree but overall I haven't found myself to be in need of them often enough to care.