Building a Commander Deck with Only Johannes Voss Art

Posted on June 2, 2022

Hello awesome folks! Wow do I have a fun idea for our deck today! I was looking at Esika, God of the Tree // The Prismatic Bridge and saw it was painted by Johannes Voss, a prolific illustrator for Magic, and then I remembered that Voss just did the Go-Shintai cycle of Shrines from Neon Dynasty. Given that, I felt that I needed to build a Five Color Shrine and Legendary deck around this leader!

Our Commander! We can lean on Esika as a 3-drop 1/4 in green that taps for any color of mana and turns our other legendary dorks into Birds of Paradise with vigilance so they can swing and then tap for mana in the post-combat main phase. The Bridge is a 5-drop, five-color legendary enchantment that will give you a free dork/planeswalker from the top of your library to the battlefield during your upkeep. I am not running spells like Cultivate or Kodama's Reach or rocks like Chromatic Lantern that will better enable a Five Color mana base unless Voss illustrated it.

We also have an Aura subtheme since we have a few legendaries that care about Auras and a few nice ones to drop on an Esika to deal some damage.

This is my first Commander deck ever built around an artist!

Ready?

Shrines of Note

We have 11 legal Shrines, the five mono-color uncommon Go-Shintai and the entire Sanctum cycle from Magic 2021. This is a rare 5-drop one of each color, and that'll be harder here, but that's still a powerful option whenever it does arrive. At the beginning of your upkeep, you can fetch out a Shrine from your graveyard or library and place it onto the battlefield ready to rock and roll all night, and party every day. Get the one you need the most, and then you get two triggers per Shrine if you have at least six. Good stuff!

Legendaries of Note

Check out these two 3-drop three-color dorks that were just printed in Streets of New Capenna. The first is a Jund colored option that gives your bigger stuff blitz, which is a nice way to get a free drop as well as card flow since the card replaces itself. The latter one is a 3-drop Esper colored leader of a family I built around here and love it loads. It's a powerhouse, and it's very good at the conniving fun times, and also remember these cheaper options will tap for any color of mana.

Galea is a key dork we are building around since this on-curve 4-drop 4/4 with vigilance can look at the top card of your library and cast Auras from it, which is great! Thalia is a 3-drop 3/2 with first strike that's a bit swingy early on and adds an interesting tempo mechanic by preventing your foes from getting their nonbasic lands and creatures untapped and ready to use.

Card Draw and Flow

We don't have a lot of traditional card draw like Fact or Fiction and Phyrexian Arena, but we do have these two. The first will trigger for a card each time a smaller dork arrives to the party, which includes tokens from your Shrines or a land. Good card flow here, and then the Mission will draw a card each time you punch a player's face, and we have a bunch of dorks here to go wide with as well as token making. Good pair!

Answers

We have a ton of answers, including this Command and Fog. The first is a two-color answer that Shocks, draws, ramps, and Shatters, all good stuff, and I often used the Shatter/Shock for a two for one. The second card is a fun three cost instant that will make a ton of 1/2 tokens with reach (cough...Mentor of the Meek...cough) for each attacker, and then you Fog non-Spiders so you can block and keep your army alive and it's one of the most beloved Fog variants ever printed.

Check out these two Black options. The first is a 3-drop 2/2 that can spend six mana to exile a dork and toss a counter on the Assassin and then it has those abilities, which is pretty good. It's slow, and expensive, but exiling removal answers key problems at the kitchen table. The next card is the pricey mass sweeping Vanity, which can sweep everything that isn't your God. It does have an easier to cast flip side in case you need the cheaper option.

Key Cards

Check out these two cards! The former is a powerful card in Commander and will Zombify a dork on arrival to the battlefield and adds some key reanimation to the brew. Estrid is the other card we are looking at. This 4-drop, three-loyalty planeswalker can -1 to toss an Aura on a dork and give it Totem Armor to protect it from death and you can +2 her to untap your enchanted permanents which make can a lot of mana if you control the God of the Tree. Good stuff here!

The Metamorph, like the Karmic Guide above, is a key card in Commander, and this four (3?) drop Clone of any dork or artifact on the battlefield is pretty sexy and keen and cool. Love it loads here. Tyvar is the other planeswalker in this deck, and as you can see, he is a 4-drop, 3 loyalty 'walker, with a +1 to toss a counter on one of your Elves while untapping it and giving it deathtouch for the turn, which is nice. And then you can 0 him to make a 1/1 Elf Warrior that can tap for mana with his first ability. This ability to make a bunch of dorks over time is great value here since they can attack, block, and get deathtouch to trade up.

Key Auras

Let's check out some White auras! The uncommon is a 4-drop legendary that will give your Commander +1/+1 and a lot of abilities: flying, lifelink, and vigilance. The mythic is also a 4-drop that gives a stronger +4/+4, flying, first strike, the Angel type, and then can come back when the enchanted dork dies (but not exiled, tucked, or bounced). Good pair!

Check out two more White auras! The Coronet is a 2-drop +3/+3 and lifelink, first strike, and vigilance which is heavily played at the kitchen table but can only target something with an aura on it already (see Estrid here). It's really strong here! Check out the downshifted Gift! It was printed as an uncommon and then dropped to common is the reprint so it's legal in Pauper. It's easier to cast with hybrid mana but a bit weaker with just a flying, lifelink, and +1/+1 bump. Don't over play these Auras and walk into a mass removal or targeted one for that matter.

Synergies

The Invocation can arrive to the battlefield as a Clone of an enchantment you control, and stuff like Reconnaissance Mission and the next card are nasty here. You can flicker it in your upkeep to copy a better option that arrived to the battlefield. The Sphere is a heavily played pillow fort card that will tax your foes for the number of enchantments you control, and with 11 Shrines and tons of other options, that could be quite high!

Ramp and Lands

Check out these two mana rampers! The first is a 1-drop for and taps for one White, and would be an ideal card as many of our key cards are in White. The Adventure card is a 3-drop 2/3 that also taps for any color of mana just like your leader! Good card ramp here!

Did you know that our good illustrator has done fetch lands? Yup! Check out the Vault that you can sacrifice for Treasures to use for...anything at all! Love it loads here.

Four Pathways were done by Voss, and they are all here!

We also have the rare creature land cycle from the first D&D set, but I am only running the game-winning Lair here since we need Green lands. The Pass is one of the few double color options we have in the brew.