Hello awesome readers! I hope that your day is as kicking butt as you are! Today I want to look at another legendary creature from the latest Streets of New Capenna and the Commander decks that debuted with it.

This is my eighth deck I've built around a Commander from those sets! You can find the first seven here.

1. My first deck was a Jund build featuring the powerful Ziatora, the Incinerator, the leader of the Riviteers Family. I tossed in Ball Lightnings that swing out of nowhere and die anyway, so they can be sacrificed for 6 damage with Ziatora's ability. I also packed the list with Threaten effects like Zealous Conscripts that can steal creatures for a turn for Ziatora to snack on. I also included temporary token copy effects like Feldon of the Third Path that provide more bodies to be sacrificed, as well as damage increasers like Fiery Emancipation. You can check out the deck here!
2. Next, I built a Esper colored deck around Queza, Augur of Agonies. I included Group Hug cards like Howling Mine and Temple Bell to get loads of card drawing fun times as well as winning triggers like Psychosis Crawler and Underworld Dreams. I even snuck in the winning Approach of the Second Sun that will be able to be cast twice, and the trio of game winners like Thassa's Oracle and Laboratory Maniac. Check it out here!
3. Third, I built a Commander deck around the Naya token loving Jinnie Fay, Jetmir's Second! I tossed in loads of cards that care about making Food, Treasure, Clue and Blood tokens like Tireless Tracker and Old Gnawbone that you can convert into 2/2 or 3/1 swingers with Jinnie. We have ramp that plays into this like Growth Spasm and removal like Root Out and synergetic lands like Kher Keep. We have a double-digit number of cards from Streets of New Capenna. Good stuff!
4. My fourth deck was built around Bess, Soul Nourisher. This Selensya colored lover of 1/1 dorks was built around life gain from the Soul Sisters archetype like Auriok Champion and Essence Warden, as well as hate bears like Esper Sentinel, life gain matters like Well of Lost Dreams and going wide effects like Decree of Justice as game winners alongside things like Test of Endurance and Voltron to win with a giant Bess like Rogue's Passage and Light of Promise. Love it loads - check out my Bess Brew here.
5. For my fifth deck I built a Grixis Vampires deck around Evelyn, the Covetous which is the first Grixis Vampires matter Commander. Since she can exile opposing cards from all libraries when Vampires arrive, I tossed in a ton of mana matters cards like Cabal Coffers and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth; a bunch of cheap instants to cast one on each turn like Vampiric Tutor and Swan Song; a bunch of Vampires like Anje, Maid of Dishonor and Midnight Arsonist. Nice stuff! You can check out my 5th deck here.
6. For my next deck, I built an Azorius Counters Matter build around Denry Klin, Editor in Chief (which you can find here) around whom I built a deck to give Denry flying counters with cards like Avian Oddity and Spontaneous Flight and then a bunch of combat damage triggers like Augury Adept and Cephalid Constable. I also have some Ninjas here like Ninja of the Deep Hours and Mist-Syndicate Naga. Good synergy here!
7. Vazi, Keen Negotiator is the next one I built around, and she has a nice and fun Treasure theme where you give them to your foe and then draw cards when they cast spells with Treasures no matter how they got them. You can find cards in here like Old Gnawbone that make massive amounts of Treasure, ones that give them away like Bucknard's Everful Purse, and then ways to use and sacrifice those Treasures like the win-con of Imperial Hellkite or the sacrificing to make a 1/1 dork like Stimulus Package. Powerful stuff!

Who am I building around this time?

This Grixis colored 5-drop 4/4 with two abilities. First when you or your permanents gets targeted by a foe's thing, they lose 4 life or it's countered, so your stuff (and you) basically has ward: four life. That's a pretty strong keep-away. Whenever the controller of Parnesse copies a spell, a target foe can also copy it with new targets. Even though this fun Vampire Wizard plays into a new Copy-space and plays three colors, there are just 81 decks over at EDHREC.com thus far and we haven't even hit triple digits so there is a lot of unexplored space here.

This thing really wants copies from things like the in-set ability called "casualty" that makes a duplicate if you sacrifice a big enough dork and magecraft triggers from a few sets ago that will trigger when you cast instants, or sorceries, or copy one as well. Look for those synergies here. You'll want to have loads of targeted things to keep them away from you to copy and then look elsewhere so they won't lose 4 life. Note that the copy is an "up to one" not target opponent so you don't need to target anyone. If you copy your Brainstorm, you don't need to offer it to another.

Ready for the deck? All righty!

Copy Effects

Vision is a 5-cost method of copying your first instant/sorcery of each turn. You are investing less mana into this card than other effects and just getting one copy for Parnesse each turn, it scales up in multiplayer. The Intelligence will copy them all, but costs two more mana to do so.

These are two spells that copy. Reiterate costs one more mana than your normal Fork effect, and then you can spend three more mana to buy it back to get an extra copy that also triggers your magecraft stuff twice. The Ricochet can redirect the targets of a spell and give you a copy effect as well. Nice combo!

I also regularly run Insidious Will in my Commander decks that are looking for a more flexible answer. This is a four-mana counter that can also change the targets of a spell or copy it. Nice three set of options, and you'll counter with it 4 out of 5 times easily done and have the Twincast and Deflection as options as well. Nice effect!

Triggers

Let's turn to some key triggers! The rare is a 4-drop 2/2, a bit behind the curve, but his magecraft is pretty nice. Any time you cast an instant, sorcery, or copy one, you draw a nasty card. That's a lot of cards for no mana down if it's not answered quickly, so you may have to fight it. The mythic is a powerful iteration of Liliana who arrives with 5 loyalty counters and magecrafts a win con with a Syphon Soul effect when it triggers. You can +1 her to lose a life (easy in a 40-life format) and dig three and draw one. You can also -3 to force your foes to each sacrifice their highest power guy, and that's pretty cool, and nice board control. Good pair of contrasting magecrafts!

Check out these two! The 3-drop is a nasty 3/2 with menace to swing and a ward 3 life, which is 7 life total if you control your leader so no one is paying that. Magecraft you can make a 1/1 Pest that makes you a cool life when it dies, which is pretty nice. The 5-drop is a 3/3 a bit small but can magecraft into making a 0/0 dork with +1/+1 counters on it equal to the copied or casted spell. With a Fact or Fiction that's a nice sized 4/4. You can also spend 4 mana to make your token(s) unblockable. Both are nice win cons and provide bodies to sacrifice to casualty. I also tossed in Talrand and Young Pyromancer to play into a similar concept.

Answers

I tossed in two overloads to answer opposing problems en masse. The first is the obvious Cyclonic Rift, which is still strong here since you can overload it, and then don't let your foe cast it back. This is the other one. For 2 mana at sorcery speed you can Lightning Blast an opposing dork for 4 damage. Nice removal, and then later you can overload it to shoot the opposing stuff for 4 damage each, but it's triple Red to overload so you might not always be able to do so.

Card Draw

Most of my card draw is obvious like Fact or Fiction and Brainstorm, but I did want to take a second to talk (er...write) about how strong this pair of 4-mana uncommon sorceries are. They trade three life for three cards, unlike most options in Black like the heavily played Bitter Revelation that only draws two, this pair goes one card deeper and I really like running them. They are also cheaper on the secondary market than normal, and I like them here in this build a lot when they get copied one or two times each.

Synergies

Check out these two massive synergies! The former rare is a magecraft trigger on a 2/2 body that will get pumped by +1/+1 each trigger. And then as you are casting (or copying) an instant or sorcery, you can get a triggered ability like your magecrafts to trigger a second time, which is very synergetic here. The latter card will, when you copy a spell (including non-instants or sorceries) you can instead get an extra copy, so each Fork is another Fork. And then you can spend a whopping 7 mana to copy an instant/sorcery for the turn that you control which will trigger itself. Nice!

Check out the power of Lier here! This 5-drop 3/4 is uncounterable so it will resolve; when it does your instants and sorceries have flashback. That means you can recast them for their mana cost so you can flashback Terminate or Chaos Warp. That's one of the few ways we can use the graveyard here. Enjoy the doubling power here!

The Amulet is a 4-drop artifact that will let your instants and sorceries cost one fewer to cast. When you cast one put a charge counter on here. Have four? Transform it to the Wellspring, which can tap for any color of mana and then when it's used for an instant or sorcery you get a copy...nice!

Next, check out Replication Technique! This 5-drop sorcery can make a copy of any permanent you control. Might I suggest a trigger that wins the game? You can copy this for free and make another copy and give a foe a key copy as well. Nicely done!

Ramp and Lands

Most of my ramp is obvious (Solemn Simulacrum) or already talked about recently in my Grixis deck article (Gem of Becoming). This is not! This 5-drop artifact can tap for a mana and then when it's used for an instant or sorcery, you get a copy! Nice right? Right!

Most of my lands are obvious, like Bojuka Bog and the scrying Temple cycle, but I did want to check in with this Island. It arrives untapped if you control three or more other Islands, which given the 7 basics and dual lands like Steam Vents and the Triome could be possible. And then when it does you get a free placement of an instant or sorcery to the top of your deck from your graveyard so you can reload that key answer like a Bedevil or a key counter. Nicely done!

New Cards from Streets of New Capenna

Check this pair of copy effects. Errant is a quick 0/3 defender, haste, flash. Odd. You can tap this Rogue to copy a copy you control. That's a nice way to trigger magecraft and get more goodies! The Bombardment that can, when you cast your first instant/sorcery, exile a random one from your graveyard and copy it. This should keep on working so you would copy each spell exiled with this each time you cast that trigger. Note that it's only limited to one spell per turn but is very powerful here with 35 spells to cast and trigger it (5 of those are modal but front side spell to be exiled).

Check out this powerhouse 1/3 deathtouch for 3 mana. He may play keep away with his deathtouch. The first instant or sorcery you cast each turn can be cast with casualty 2 which would likely include things like tokens and Solemn Simulacrum. Good thoughts! Don't do this too often as you only have so many good options to copy and not enough juice, things like Malakir Rebirth or Negate are unlikely to need to be copied as well as Cyclonic Rift.

Check out this pair of options for casualty. The first is a card drawing nightmare that can turn X mana into a massive card draw (and life loss) option! Casualty it for 3 and you could get two triggers of magecraft and double the card draw and life loss. Nasty! Note that this can only be easily made with a 3 power (or more) Deekah token but even alone it's fine. The second card will exile an opposing instant/sorcery from their graveyard and copy it, which is a double magecraft trigger on its own as the cast and the copy, and then if you copy this it's four copies and casts to get triggers from one 5 mana investment. I know, right?

The Shipment is a Diabolic Tutor for one more mana, so it's nice here to get a key trigger or key synergy. Then you can sacrifice a key dork to search up a second card as well and get another magecraft trigger as well. Nasty! I really like this here to keep up the momentum. The planeswalker can casualty X on arrival and make a X loyalty copy of him. He won't trigger magecraft but he will trigger Parnesse, although I wouldn't give them a copy. Then you get a 3-loyalty walker and the X loyalty you made. You can +1 them and force your foes to lose two life unless they discard a card, likely the first although two loyalty gained and four life loss is pretty strong. You can sacrifice any 1/1 token for a now two loyalty copy with a +1 loyalty gained. You can also -2 to make a 1/1 Devil to sacrifice to future casualty effects, force a target to take a damage, and gain two life off the +1. Good synergy. As soon as you drop and activate these, folks will start playing out their hand to stop the life drain so they can just choose the discard effect on a naked hand, or they will come after the pair hard. Either way works.

These are our last two cards! The Charm is a 3-drop instant with three abilities. You can drain three life from each foe to kill out of nowhere, you can shoot a dork or walker of the planes for 5 damage to kill something, and you can Impulse for five cards down rather than 4 and place the cards in your graveyard. Nice!

Then the Confluence is a powerful 6-drop with all three colors. You can choose three times and more than once each time. Your options are pretty cool - return a mono-colored instant/sorcery to your hand from your graveyard (great synergy here); drain a target dork of -3/-3 (which gets past indestructible); and goad each dork target player controls (in a four-way game that's all of your foes). Nice power here! Imagine this pair copied!

And there we go! Let's turn to the decklist proper!

Copying Parnesse | Commander | Abe Sargent

• Commander (1)
• 1 Parnesse, the Subtle Brush

• Creatures (12)
• 1 Archmage Emeritus
• 1 Anhelo, the Painter
• 1 Deekah, Fractal Theorist
• 1 Errant, Street Artist
• 1 Guttersnipe
• 1 Lier, Disciple of the Drowned
• 1 Sedgemoor Witch
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Talrand, Sky Summoner
• 1 Veyran, Voice of Duality
• 1 Wandering Archaic
• 1 Young Pyromancer

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Ob Nixilis, the Adversary
• 1 Professor Onyx

• Instants (26)
• 1 An Offer You Can't Refuse
• 1 Baleful Mastery
• 1 Bedevil
• 1 Brainstorm
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Dismiss
• 1 Fact or Fiction
• 1 Galvanic Iteration
• 1 Hagra Mauling // Hagra Broodpit
• 1 Insidious Will
• 1 Jwari Disruption // Jwari Ruins
• 1 Lazotep Plating
• 1 Maestros Charm
• 1 Maestros Confluence
• 1 Malakir Rebirth // Malakir Mire
• 1 Mystic Confluence
• 1 Negate
• 1 Prismari Command
• 1 Rakdos Charm
• 1 Reality Shift
• 1 Reiterate
• 1 Silundi Vision // Silundi Isle
• 1 Terminate
• 1 Wild Ricochet

• Sorceries (9)
• 1 Ambition's Cost
• 1 Ancient Craving
• 1 Cut of the Profits
• 1 Flawless Forgery
• 1 Illicit Shipment
• 1 Mizzium Mortars
• 1 Replication Technique
• 1 Rob the Archives
• 1 Shatterskull Smashing // Shatterskull, the Hammer Pass

• Enchantments (3)
• 1 Arcane Bombardment
• 1 Double Vision
• 1 Swarm Intelligence

• Artifacts (12)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Chromatic Lantern
• 1 Dimir Signet
• 1 Gem of Becoming
• 1 Izzet Signet
• 1 Lithoform Engine
• 1 Mirari
• 1 Primal Amulet
• 1 Pyromancer's Goggles
• 1 Rakdos Signet
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Twinning Staff

• Lands (35)
• 7 Island
• 7 Swamp
• 6 Mountain
• 1 Blood Crypt
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Crumbling Necropolis
• 1 Mystic Sanctuary
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Smoldering Marsh
• 1 Steam Vents
• 1 Sulfur Falls
• 1 Sunken Hollow
• 1 Temple of Deceit
• 1 Temple of Epiphany
• 1 Temple of Malice
• 1 Watery Grave
• 1 Xander's Lounge

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Decks done! What did you think of my Parnesse build? Anything in here that I missed? Anything you agreed with? How are you building your own brew? Just let me know and have an awesome day!