So it’s nice for me to get off the coach and start building some real life decks. One of my Real Life Commander projects is a deck that I initially made online in theory, but I really liked it.

Welcome to Vela the Night-Clad!

Now the goal and concept of this deck is simple. It’s not built around Vela. Instead it is built around the interaction of three different mechanics in Black and Blue (Dimir). The first is shadow. Creatures with shadow can only be blocked by other creatures with shadow, and since very few creatures out there are getting running, it basically means they are unblockable in most multiplayer situations. However, they can only block shadowers as well, so they suck on defense. Then I added in ninjutsu for scary Ninjas. Given that your shadow attackers are already slipping past defenses, it seems like a good combination to trigger ninjutsu. And the final mechanic is cipher. Cast a cipher spell, and get it resolved. Then encipher a creature about to attack and slip through, likely a shadow guy and get the spell cast again. Do that a few times for many iterations of the same spell.

And we have in some cool combos, like Dauthi Embrace to make a creature swinging your way shadow so you can block it, make a shadowy creature for Bill to attack either Dan or Dan’s Planeswalker successfully, tap a Dauthi Cutthroat to kill it and a whole lot more.

But once I added in Vela the Night-Clad, who gives intimidate to the whole team, it seemed like a good place to add a serious amount of flavor to the deck. After all, Ninjas and Shadow creatures led by the Night-Clad seems like an obvious bit of flavor. So I want all of the cards to fit the flavor of the deck, as well as mechanically as well.

When a card gave needed mechanical support, but had no flavor value one way or the other, I tossed it in. Larceny is a good example. When you smash face, you will force your foe to discard. Suddenly hitting someone with a few small shadow creatures looks pretty serious! So you really want it here. But the name Larceny is totally generic, so you can play it in the deck without having flavor issues. On the other hand, take Sun Quan, Lord of Wu. He is a huge mechanical asset. But the Lord of Wu is all sorts of wrong for the flavor of the Night-Clad. So there’s no way Sun Quan can be in my deck. For a similar reason, I am not running Bident of Thassa. Neither Thassa, God of the Sea herself, nor Kiora who stole it, would really seem like the sort to have their Bident helping out in this role. It’s a mechanical hit, but a flavor no-no. So what about Coastal Piracy? Is it sufficiently generic then?

Similarly, I can’t run Insidious Will or Dismiss as good counters. Now I don’t want a lot of counter magic running around, but a few cards here and there interest me. No to Undermine, but I can run something like Dream Fracture I think. Or Lost in the Mist as a poor Abe’s version of Cryptic Command. But if I am only running two counters, at that point, is there any value in running any at all?

Now here is the interesting question — what about mana? Can I run Sol Ring? Darksteel Ingot? Cultivator's Caravan? Dimir Signet? And if I can’t run Dimir Signet, can I run Dimir Aqueduct? Can I run lands that help, but like Murder aren’t essential? Like Thespian's Stage? Or Strip Mine? And if I allow Dust Bowl, Strip Mine or Volrath's Stronghold, then why am I avoiding Bident of Thassa and Sun Quan, Lord of Wu? Or at least Murder and Insidious Will?

These are all interesting questions when I build a deck that seeks to embrace both mechanics and flavor.

Therefore, I can only run turn one accelerants. There’s just no value in anything else. So Sol Ring has to be in. Now I could run something like Mox Diamond (don’t have any spares) or Mana Crypt (ditto) or Mana Vault or something. But I don’t see anything else making the cut. Do I have enough artifacts for Mox Opal? Just 9 right now with the Sol Ring added. I mean I could add in some artifact lands and such but that’s not enough for a Mox Opal to have enough partners to matter. So it’s just Sol Ring today.

I am going to admit it right now. I purchased another copy of Sword of Light and Shadow for this deck. You’ll never regret the financial investment in a high quality card like that, and it was so on theme I just couldn’t resist myself. I know, the series is supposed to be about real life decks built from my pre-existing card stock, but how could I not do that? I mean come on, it’s Sword of Light and Shadow in a Shadow themed deck. Vela approves!

I also run Whispersilk Cloak, Skeleton Key, Mask of Memory, Mask of Riddles, and Blade of Selves. All of those are obvious fits. The mechanics of the first four are all on point. The Cloak and Key fit the themes perfectly. And the Masks both add mechanical flavor to our deck that wants to hit people for triggers. The Blade of Selves is arguably the best piece of equipment for this deck. Toss it on something simple, like a Shadowmage Infiltrator and swing. Make a bunch of copies, hitting other folks. You’ll slip past many defenses with that built-in fear, and you will get multiple cards from the Blade. Post-combat, those token creatures die. And they will trigger Vela’s death clause, and hit people for a few life each and bump your own life total as well. No, this deck does not abuse Vela’s drain ability, but it’s there, and it’s nice to remember.

What about my other equipment? Can I run both Quietus Spike and Scytheclaw? Both of those equipment aren’t in the flavor genre. What about something like Fireshrieker?

Remember that in order to block, you have to meet all of the blocking restrictions, not just one. So an attacking creature with both flying and intimidate must be blocked by a creature that is the same color (or an artifact creature) as well as flying.

So here is where I am drawing the line. Things that are sufficiently generic in concept are in — Quietus Spike and Coastal Piracy, but not Bident of Thassa or Scytheclaw and it’s clear New Phyrexian construction.

But then I add in some flavor hits like Altar of Shadows and here we go:

Rise of the Night-Clad ? Commander | Abe Sargent

• Commander (1)
• 1 Vela the Night-Clad

• Creatures (34)
• 1 Abyssal Nightstalker
• 1 Ashling, the Extinguisher
• 1 Bone Dancer
• 1 Dark Impostor
• 1 Dauthi Cutthroat
• 1 Dauthi Ghoul
• 1 Dauthi Mindripper
• 1 Dauthi Trapper
• 1 Demon of Wailing Agonies
• 1 Fiend of the Shadows
• 1 Ghastlord of Fugue
• 1 Higure, the Still Wind
• 1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
• 1 Kiku, Night's Flower
• 1 Looter Il-Kor
• 1 Mistblade Shinobi
• 1 Necropolis Regent
• 1 Nether Traitor
• 1 Nightveil Specter
• 1 Ninja of the Deep Hours
• 1 Okiba-Gang Shinobi
• 1 Sakashima's Student
• 1 Scion of Darkness
• 1 Shadowborn Demon
• 1 Shadowmage Infiltrator
• 1 Silent-Blade Oni
• 1 Spirit of the Night
• 1 Stronghold Overseer
• 1 Thalakos Deceiver
• 1 Thalakos Dreamsower
• 1 Thalakos Seer
• 1 Throat Slitter
• 1 Wei Night Raiders
• 1 Wharf Infiltrator

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver

• Instants (5)
• 1 Devour in Shadow
• 1 Memory Plunder
• 1 Shadow of Doubt
• 1 Shadow Rift
• 1 Victim of Night

• Sorceries (8)
• 1 Choice of Damnations
• 1 Hidden Strings
• 1 Last Thoughts
• 1 Night's Whisper
• 1 Ribbons of Night
• 1 Stolen Identity
• 1 Undercity Plague
• 1 Whispering Madness

• Enchantments (4)
• 1 Coastal Piracy
• 1 Dauthi Embrace
• 1 Larceny
• 1 Night Dealings

• Artifacts (10)
• 1 Altar of Shadows
• 1 Blade of Selves
• 1 Mask of Memory
• 1 Mask of Riddles
• 1 Phyrexian Splicer
• 1 Quietus Spike
• 1 Skeleton Key
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Sword of Light and Shadow
• 1 Whispersilk Cloak

• Lands (37)
• 4 Island
• 4 Swamp
• 1 Ash Barrens
• 1 Blasted Landscape
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Dimir Aqueduct
• 1 Dreadship Reef
• 1 Drowned Catacomb
• 1 Encroaching Wastes
• 1 Frost Marsh
• 1 Ghost Quarter
• 1 Jwar Isle Refuge
• 1 Maze of Ith
• 1 Maze of Shadows
• 1 Mirrorpool
• 1 Moonring Island
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Opal Palace
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Salt Marsh
• 1 Strip Mine
• 1 Tainted Isle
• 1 Temple of Deceit
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Thespian's Stage
• 1 Tolaria West
• 1 Underground River
• 1 Vivid Creek
• 1 Vivid Marsh

Buy This Deck

And there you have it!!!

This is a real life deck, right? How about some pictures, right? Right!

Here is a zoomed out image with the whole deck splayed out for you! Lands! Creatures! More Creatures! Artifacts! Fun!

And then I zoomed in. I have the Ninjas on top spread out, and shadow carriers fanned beneath them:

All is fun in love and war!

Here are my attack-y creatures! They have hit-triggers of various sorts. Draw cards! Force discards! Animate creatures! Kill stuff! Smash away! I also have a handful of support creatures that give me needed options while also fitting the theme, like Shadowborn Demon to kill something on arrival as my Nekrataal or Shriekmaw variant.

What else? Hmmm . . .  how about my cool enchantments and artifacts? You can see some cool Altar of Shadows, Larceny, and Skeleton Key tech rocking the block.

Don’t sleep on Night Dealings. That card gets a counter for each damage you deal not for each time you deal damage. If Vela slips over for four damage, your Dealings just got four counters layered on it. You can spend a Diabolic Tutor amount of mana to remove any number of counters to Tutor something with that cost and put it into your hand. You don’t even have to use it as a sorcery. You could remove two counters for a Counterspell to cast. (In this deck you are looking at different answer, but still, you get the point!)

And let’s finish with my mad cipher and spell tech. Sure, there are some obvious choices in here like Victim of Night, Ribbons of Night, Night's Whisper, and Undercity Plague!

But there are a couple of cool cards in here too. Memory Plunder is a great tech card for modern Commander. So many opponents are playing the best sorceries and instants ever printed, right? So you can cast any instant or sorcery, at instant speed, in any opposing graveyard for 4 mana. I have used it for simple stuff like card drawing spells, reanimation or removal to major stuff like Wrath of God or Insurrection. It’s a nasty spell that often doesn’t get played much in U/B decks. Trust me, it’s worth it.

Oh, and do you see Choice of Damnations? That card is always an event. Unless your opponent has played with it before, they never know how to play it. It’s pretty simple. They choose a number. Then I choose if they lose that much life, or sacrifice down to that many permanents. So, suppose they chose 10. Am I going to make them lose ten life or drop to 10 permanents? It’s a board wiping spell the lower their life gets, and a massive life hit earlier. People overvalue lands and often just run it as a Planar Collapse against just them because they chose the wrong number. (In a 40 life environment, make a big number, and just lose the life). Choice is a great follow up to the tiny whittling damage this deck can sometimes do, or a great way to open up a hole in a life total first to put them in the danger zone.

You can also see cool cards in here like Shadow of Doubt!

That’s a fun deck, right?

Do you believe that I am all out of Banshee of the Dread Choir and Broodbirth Viper? So annoying. Ditto Predatory Nightstalker. That sucks!

I got a chance to play the deck recently, and enjoyed it. I unveiled a cool combo when I recently played it. Thalakos Seer and niinjutsu. When the Seer leaves play you draw a card. That means you draw when you do something simple like bounce it, flicker it, and so forth. So attacking with the shadow body, and then bouncing it for Ninja of the Deep Hours and drawing two cards is just fun and sick. And fun.

This is a great deck and I found that Vela’s second ability to winnow opposing life as your creatures bite it is sort of the finisher after you knocked life down slow and steady early off with these little pinpricks. I also added a few bigger creatures for later, totally on theme, like Scion of Darkness and Spirit of the Night.

I think this is a pretty nifty concoction, so enjoy!