Animating Commander with Katsumasa

Posted on February 22, 2022

Hello Amazing People! I hope that your day is going incredibly well today! Today I want to do another deep dive into a new Commander that debuted in the latest set Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty or in this case the Commander set that debuted with it.

I have previously written around the set, and here are the first group:

The first was built around Hidetsugu, Devouring Chaos - Commanding Hidetsugu, Devouring Chaos | Article by Abe Sargent (coolstuffinc.com). This deck uses a number of big cost cards that have cheaper play costs like Blasphemous Act, the evoke-ing of Mournwhelk, the delve of Tombstalker and the suspend of Greater Gargadon to get big damage triggers and then be castable that turn. Love it a lot!

The second deck I built around was an Orzhov enchantments and artifacts matter build around uncommon newcomer, Naomi, Pillar of Order. (You can find it here - (Commanding Order with Naomi | Article by Abe Sargent (coolstuffinc.com)). I tossed in tons of artifacts, enchantments, and creatures that counted as one or the other, like Esper Sentinel and Agent of Erebos. Then I used those types for removal of stuff like Dispeller's Capsule, Duplicant, and Seal of Doom. Then I tossed for, for game winning, the powerhouse of Nettlecyst and other similar pumping effects for a Commander damage win if needed. Check it out!

The third deck I created was around Tatsunari, Toad Rider. This deck played around 20 enchantments to get triggers off his cast ability to make his legendary fun, like Rhystic Study and Sylvan Library, around 15 Frogs and changelings to use his ability on like Yargle, Glutton of Urborg and The Gitrog Monster and then some Voltron-ish and unblockable elements to get some punches in like Archetype of Imagination and Whispersilk Cloak. You can check out this fun build here - (Commanding Tatsunari, Toad Rider | Article by Abe Sargent (coolstuffinc.com))

The fourth deck I crafted was around the Boros Samurai needs of Raiyuu, Storm's Edge. I included around 25 mostly Samurai with the trigger that Raiyuu has from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty as well as it's Commander set. I also tossed in Warriors like cards like Moraug, Fury of Akoum; Samurai loving things like Godo, Bandit Warlord; Samurai makers like The Wandering Emperor and loads more synergies. I made it feel Voltron around the leader. Enjoy it here!!! - Commanding Raiyuu's Samurai | Article by Abe Sargent (coolstuffinc.com)

The fourth deck I built was a Mono-Black ramp and combo deck around the Nastiest of Commanders, Nashi, Moon Sage's Scion. In this build I had 6 infinite combos in Black or colorless and I leaned heavily into Nashi's Spikey exiling cards and casting them with life rather than mana. This included cards like life-loss matters things like Vilis, Brooker of Blood or deck sorting stuff like Scroll Rack. It's very strong at the kitchen table and you can check it out here - Getting Nasty in Commander with Nashi | Article by Abe Sargent (coolstuffinc.com)

Who am I building around today?

This mono-Blue Moonfolk Artificer that is an on-curve 3/3 flyer for four mana with two abilities. The first is three mana and you can, for the round, turn a non-creature artifact you control into a 1/1 if it is not a Vehicle and then it's base stats if it is. It also gains flying. Then you can play out three non-creature artifacts you control with +1/+1 counters. We only have 6 decks over at EDHREC.com as of the writing of this decklist and deep dive (2/14 - 15). Fun stuff!

How am I going to build around it? Mono-Blue Vehicles? Not really. Well...maybe a bit. I'll toss in the occasional Vehicle here and there since it has nice synergy, and won't need to be crewed if you control Katsumasa and you have three mana to activate it. Prior to this set there were only 39 Vees in print and many of those just aren't Commander-playable. My goal is to hit around 10ish in Vees from older stuff and new stuff that just debuted. But what I am looking at is something very different...

Treasures, Clues, and Foods! Since you can often make these in big numbers in addition to your spell or effect, we'll make loads of those on the cheap, and then animate them. We'll also need some other ways to animate them since three mana each time and just for a 1/1 is pretty minor. Then we'll need mana ramping since many of these options cost more mana than normal effects, and mana rocks are on theme here. Ready?

These were the first two cards that came to my mind when I was reading Katsumasa, as they do what you want to do (counter target spell) and then they make Treasures and Clues en masse for the animating of a certain leader. This duo is also in my Type Four Stack and Confirm Suspicions is one of the best non-free counterspells in the format with your infinite mana drawing you three cards immediately. Love this pair a lot!

Now let's turn to some mono-Blue friends that are also in NEO's Commander set: Cyberdrive Awakener and Kappa Cannoneer. Other artifacts fly, so your animated dorks from things like Rise and Shine now fly. It's a Levitation on Legs. Then when it arrives to the battlefield, your non-dork artifacts become 4/4 for the turn so that's a big punch in the face with a bunch of non-artifacts like mana rocks and Treasures and Clues. Check out the Cannoneer! When your artifacts arrive to the battlefield, toss a +1/+1 counter on this and it cannot be blocked this turn. In here? That can be a game changing amount of size. I also tossed in a Rogue's Passage for this thing as well. These two are great additions to the brew!

This Assembly-Worker is a fun artifact creature. As you would create a Clue, Food, or Treasure, instead you'll make one of each, and this comes down early enough that things like Turn into a Pumpkin or Gone Missing are eligible for casting. Powerful stuff!

I have four planeswalkers in here, let's look!

They are all Tezzerets! The first Tezzeret we'll look at is from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. He drops the first cost of your activated artifacts by 2 each turn, nice for the contest. That makes cracking one Clue free each turn if you need the card draw. Then you can +1 him and draw two and discard an artifact, which is also great card flow on a four drop, and you can -2 to turn a non-creature to a dork and it if it's not a Vehicles you give it 4/4 and this is permanent. Nice! The second Tezzeret is here to +1 and untap a pair of mana rocks and make some mana each turn. You can also -X him to search out an artifact from your library to the battlefield and you can get an artifact land to ramp yourself as well as key cheap artifacts like Sol Ring and Lightning Greaves.

Our third Tezzeret is the 5-mana Magic 2019 mythic that's also pretty good. You can +1 him to make 1/1 flying Thopters. Then you can 0 him to draw a card and if you control three or more artifacts (likely) draw two. Good stuff! The fourth Tezzeret is from the Planeswalker Decks that came with the set and is a 4-loyalty option, with a +1 to draw a card, and a 0 to turn an artifact into a 5/5 dork until your next turn. Note that this does not say "non-creature" so you can turn a 1/1 Silver Myr or 2/2 Solemn Simulacrum into a 5/5 for the turn.

Check out this pair that's pretty good in multiplayer. The Contract is a 4-drop artifact that can, at the beginning of your upkeep, give your foes each a Treasure, and each one who takes one also gives you one. Who can resist free Treasure for everyone? The Investigator is also a 2/3 flyer with the ability on arrival to make a number of Clues equal to your opponent count, and with a traditional 4 player multiplayer game that's three Clues. You can also turn your second card drawn into a 1/1 flying Spirit which is a nice body for blocking attacks on planeswalkers. Good pair!

Check out the common piece of Equipment Goldvein Pick. It's very strong and when it smashes face you make a Treasure. It's way better than Short Sword. I tossed in Access Tunnel to hep connect with this, but I love it on a flying 1/1 Thopter or a flying Spirit token or a flying Treasure token that was animated by your leader. This is very reliable Treasure-making each turn. It's also pretty cheap for the wins.

Let's check out two flavorful colorless vehicles. The first is a base 4/5 flying for a crew of 3. When it connects in combat with a foe, you dig 5 and draw a historic card from your deck. That's all of your artifacts and legendary stuff like Sai, Master Thopterist or a Tezzeret. Great stuff! And then the second card is a 6/5 flying that also crews three. When it enters the building or attacks you can shoot any target dork or planeswalker for three damage which is nice creature control in case a dork got past your counter-shield.

Cosima, God of the Voyage // The Omenkeel

Check out this modal God. Cosima is nice in a ramping deck like this, but that's not why it's in my brew, (it's also legendary for Weatherlight punching, by the by). It's here for the 2-drop 1 crew 3/3 Vee. When a Vehicle deals combat damage to a player you can exile that many cards form their library and then cast them. That is amazing card flow in this brew! Now I don't have that many Vees here, unlike the EDHREC.com recommendations. Just 9 are in here and one is this. But that's fine and dandy, just like candy.

Check out these two cards from Neon Dynasty. The first is a fixed Tinker. For four mana you can sacrifice an artifact or a dork and ramp out an equipment or vehicle from your deck to the battlefield. That means you could go Treasure into Skysovereign. The next card is a bit high on the crew but then you can get the free animation with Katsumasa. When this enters your battlefield you can shoot any nonplayer target for twice your Vee count, so that's at least two damage on a naked board since it counts itself. This is also nice creature removal in a mono-Blue brew. Good pair!

Can you see why I tossed in this Manalith? Mono-colored brews don't normally run Manaliths but two mana rocks like Coldsteel Heart. But in this case, I made an exception. This is a 3-drop indestructible force of mana-making, so you can turn it into an indestructible dork with animation like Rise and Shine and Katsumasa. Plus, I love indestructible on a mana rock in a big mana deck so you'll won't lose it to mass removal like Vandalblast or Akroma's Vengeance. And with kicker you make two more tokens to animate so that's three total artifacts for one card.

How about two more mana rocks? The Torque can tap to turn a nonland into an artifact for the turn. With Katsumasa that means you can turn something like Thopter Spy Network into an artifact and then animate it and swing out of nowhere for combat damage to trigger its card draw. You can also make enough artifacts to draw two cards with Tezzeret or to sacrifice Inventors' Fair. The Caravan is a Manalith which is also a 5/5 three crew vee that can swing and has mad synergies here.

Let's move to this massively synergetic 1-drop. As you can see, this can, when you place +1/+1 counters onto a permanent (note the key word used here), you can spend some mana to make a 1/1 Servo artifact token. Because Katsumasa puts these counters on non-creatures it doesn't have synergy with these sorts of effects normally, but in this case it does! You can also tap it and three mana to add a loyalty counter to a Tezzeret or a +1/+1 counter to a thing here.

Now let's move to some lands!

I added in a bunch of artifact lands that are in my colors. The Citadel is here to ramp with Tezz and give you an indestructible animated dork with your various effects. The later is here to also ramp out as well as to sacrifice for a bunch of Treasures to increase the size of Nettlecyst for game winning purposes or to animate with your stuff. Good pair!

I also tossed in this pair of creature lands. Each of these will turn into artifact creatures for a single mana. The first makes a 1/1 flyer and the second a 2/2 ground dork. Note that this pair will trigger things like the combat damage triggers of your Thopter Spy Network. I also added in a bunch of mana rocks that also turn into dorks for giving +1/+1 counters to by your Katsumasa like Guardian Idol.

Check out these two lands. The former is another artifact land (although it arrives tapped and it's less good of a choice for Tezzeret ramping), and it can tap for any mana of any color for artifact abilities or spells, which is pretty much all of my stuff other than my Treasure/Clue/Food makers and a handful of counters like Cryptic Command. And then the latter is here to tap for four to proliferate counters on Tezzerets and artifacts. I also tossed in the counterspell Fuel for the Cause which proliferates as well for that synergy.

Let's finish with three cards just printed. The first is a land that doesn't arrive tapped, so it's easily played and it can be channeled for bouncing a non-land permanent. Sure, it's four mana to do so, but bouncing something that slipped past your counter-shell for another go around the ride should not be dismissed. I also love the second land that arrived untapped and can tap for any color of mana as well, but this time only for Vees and Pilots (of which we have none). It's here for the tap ability with three mana to turn one of your 9 Vehicles into a crewed dork, just like Katsuamasa does. Good pair!

Let's check out another Vehicle and a card added from the same set as our good leader. As you can see, this fun two drop can Clone an opposing dork but it's a Vehicle with crew 3, so you have to crew it to swing and block, but with your leader you can animate it for three mana, which is much more likely than the crewing with creatures. Love it a lot here!

Check out my deck below!