A Prosperous Commander

Posted on August 10, 2021

Hello happy people! I hope your day is kicking serious butt! And taking some names as well! Today I have something really exciting to share with you. I am building around one of the leaders from the Commander set that was released at the same time as D&D: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms. This is my first such article around the Commander, although I have built four decks around the original D&D set as well as this one.

Who have I already built around?

Volo, Guide to Monsters - Firstly, I grabbed and built a Simic deck around this unique Human and Wizard. Every creature in the deck has a unique creature type and I built it around my token Shapeshifter - Riptide Shapshifter who you can sacrifice for the perfect creature in this creature-based build. I hope you enjoy it!

Minsc, Beloved Ranger - I loved the idea of a Giant Boo so much that I tossed together a fun ramp deck that wants a big X effect for your Minsc. I also tossed in a bunch of buddies in the vein of Minsc and Boo like Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves and his legendary token Voja or Jiang Yanggu and his buddy Mowu, Loyal Companion. Enjoy the flavor of making a buddy big to swing and win the game with!

Nihiloor - Then I turned to this Esper Commander that wants you to steal and then swing for a lot of triggers with your stolen stuff! I tossed in a ton of cards like Desertion, Ray of Command and Preacher. Enjoy it here!

Targ Nar, Demon-Fang Gnoll. After building around a controlling deck in Esper the previous week I went full Gruul aggro . I built around the attack and combat damage triggers that are big in these colors, like Avenging Druid and Sunder Shaman. It's a lot of fun! You can check out my pack tactics deck here.

And there we go!

Now today what am I building around?

It's Prosperity, the Phil Foglio art from Portal. Nope...wait... sorry...

It's this Tiefling Warlock. Sure, the deathtouch is great for trading up, but he's a bit small for a modern take on a Commander. Why do I like him so much? Well, there are two things going on here. The first? His ability to exile a card in your end step from your library and you can play (which lets you drop lands) until the end of the next turn. Note the timing here - normally an effect like this would trigger on your upkeep and last for the turn, but here you have an whole round of turns, so if you exile a card like a response such as Terminate, then you have a whole round of turns in multiplayer to answer, so this Rakdos leader has built-in card advantage.

Secondly, as you play (note the use of the word "play" which lets you count lands) a card from exile, you make a pretty little Treasure Token which can help you cast more spells from your deck.

So, what direction am I expecting to head into this void?

Exiling Card Drawing - Red has a lot of this effect that Prosper has of exiling a card from your library and then casting or playing it. We'll dig into these effects as our card drawing option rather than Black's card advantage from life loss.

Suspend - When you cast a spell with suspend you exile it and then wait until it resolves. We'll wait until the resolution which will give us a Treasure.

Exiling Top of Opponent's Library - Note that there is something missing from that second ability. It will trigger when you fire it on your opponents' stuff. There are a few effects in Red that will let you exile an opposing card from their library and then you can cast it, like the recent hit of Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer. We'll add those into my brew as well.

Support - After that we'll just run cards like removal, land ramping, mana rocks, and stuff that helps the team out.

Care About Exile - I'll look on Gatherer to see what cards that care about exile I can unearth, and there may be a few in Red in Strixhaven.

His Commander "Planar Portal" Brew - Since Prosper was the leader in a Commander deck, we'll lean on it for some cool cards that exile or play into Prosper's love. Note that this will not be a Treasure build as I have more important things to run than cards that care about Treasures or make a bunch more. This is an exiling deck instead.

Let's do our deep dive into all things Proper. Note that there are several Prosper builds over at EDHREC.com at 343 decks as of the writing of this article, so we are playing into a nice canon.

Actually, hold on a second. I just did a Gatherer search, and I found another keyword that has exiling action in addition to suspend. It's madness. Here is the text for madness, "(If you discard this card, discard it into exile. When you do, cast it for its madness cost or put it into your graveyard."). As you can see, you exile it after discarding and then cast it from there. Do I want to give this a fun madness flavor? No thanks. I like the idea of a Prosper Madness Build but that's not this one. We'd have to dedicate too much space to make it happen.

Actually, cascade exiles as well! "(When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom of your library in a random order."). Do I want to toss in some fun cascades? Yes, I do!

Foretell also casts from exile, so I'll search up some as well. Hmmm...Adventure is also an exile if you cast the spell first. Its language is "(Then exile this card. You may cast the creature later from exile.)". Should I toss in some Adventures? Okay!

When I saw Prosper, want to know what the first thing I thought of was? Uba Mask! This forgotten card from the Kamigawa block is pretty tasty! When anyone would draw a card, they exile it and can cast it that turn, but if not, it's lost. Note that this will mess up reactive cards like counterspells as all you have to do is not cast anything on the turn of the person who exiled Dissipate and you'll be fine. It messes up combos that need a card or folks that lack planning a lot. Love it here! And we'll net treasures from the spells we cast from exile with Uba Mask.

Let's look at some suspending fun times. Check out Demonic Tutor and Wheel of Fortune! Both are great in Rakdos even if we have the suspend version of that card rather than the original from Alpha. I love this pair in this build as card drawing and tutoring are both keys. This is the only tutor in the build other than land searchers like Armillary Sphere. Enjoy this suspending group!

Check out the nasty suspend card Curse of the Cabal. You suspend it for four mana with just two time counters on it. And then your foes are never going to want the Curse to resolve as you'll target one of them. So they'll sacrifice an extra land or a token creature or a Clue or something to keep it suspended and you'll net a lot of powerful sacrifices over the game. It's pretty good here in this brew as well!

Did you forget about this suspending (sorta) creature? When this two-drop 1/1 artifact dork dies you suspend it for three turns and then it comes back as a 4/4 and then it will do so over and over again. It's really good here as you'll get that cast trigger three turns after death each time it triggers.

This Lhurgoyf is pretty good. It gets bigger based on the nonbasic lands in each graveyard, and that may not be much normally, but you could help it with cards like Ruination. It's here for suspend. When you pull off a counter you can destroy a target nonbasic land so in this case you really want to push that X since you can get great card advantage from it and answer nasty nonbasics like Academy Ruins or Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. It's great here!

Do you know why Greater Gargadon is here? Sure, in the late game, you can just drop it for a 9/7 vanilla creature. Also, on the first turn you can suspend it and wait a while. As people target your stuff for removal you can sacrifice them to pop off a counter here instead.

That's not why I am running it here, though. It's here for that first card type you can sacrifice - artifact. It's here to feed Treasure to and then you can get a fast 9/7 with haste.

Let's turn to cascade!

Let's give cascade to things! The Orc Shaman was printed in the same set as Prosper and he works quite well alongside of him! The first spell you cast? Cascade my friend, cascade! You exile cards, and then cast the first one that arrives to the party and hits your required mana cost, and then you cast it. This happens on your turn or your foes'! Although, to be fair, we really aren't much of a reactive deck. The Elemental Wizard will give cascade to Prosper. It's just one cascade every so often, but I'll take it. It's also another creature for me to care about.

Have you seen this Phoenix from the Commander Legends set? It's a six-drop with cascade. Nice. And then it's on a 5/3 flyer so you are still getting something that can win the game for you. I like it here a lot! And then once it dies and is in your graveyard, when you cascade you can Raise Dead the Phoenix for another go around the cascade. And with the giving of cascade with the Wild-Magic Sorcerer that's pretty cool.

Have you seen Throes of Chaos? It gives you a four-mana cascade as well as a retrace. After it resolves and is in your graveyard, you can discard a land and then cast it again for another cascade. You can do this until your heart is content.

This is the final cascade card that we'll be looking at. As you can see, this Engine can cascade on an artifact form for 7 mana. Good stuff! And then we can tap and sacrifice an artifact (maybe a Treasure?) and then bounce an artifact back to our hand, like....the Engine! Or a Solemn Simulacrum. Cast the Engine over and over and over again! It's so good in here! And it's one of many cards in here that aren't on Prosper's EDHREC.com page.

Check out this duo. They both have attack triggers that I like a lot! The Channeler will turn an attack into up to three cards from your deck exiled and rocking the block! Roll that d20 and get a 20! Now it's also a 4/3 for four mana that is on curve as well. Not bad. And then the Robber will rock that 2/2 reach and haste for two mana and swing. Swing at the player with more cards in hand than you and then exile and cast from their library and trigger Prosper. You also have mana washing in play for the exiled card so if you exile Cultivate you can cast it.

I could only find one other engine out there that cared about exiling cards - Laelia. When she attacks, she'll exile the top card from your library, and you can cast it that turn. With haste, she can do so early. As you exile stuff from your library or graveyard, she'll get a +1/+1 counter. Note that she doesn't care about stuff from other libraries. She only works with your stuff. She's great here as an on-curve card flow and exiling engine.

I only have three planeswalkers in my brew, and they are this triumvirate of Chandras. All these Chandras are here for the impulsive exiling card draw. The Fire Artisan can also dig very deep with her ultimate ability. Her Torch of Defiance version has several other abilities including +1 for two mana which is great ramp, and -3 to Lightning Blast a target. She's awesome here. The Pyromaster version is where Chandra learned this ability and she also has a +1 that will shoot a player and creature for one damage, and they cannot block this turn.

Let's turn to foretell!

Have you seen this foretell lord from Kaldheim? It's awesome here! It's a two-mana 0/3 wall that gives foretell to all of your nonlands, which is a lot of cards . You can use two generic mana to exile the card and then you can foretell it on a future turn with two fewer mana than its mana cost! It's awesome in this brew.

Check out the Giant Berserker Quakebringer. It's a nice sized 5/4 for 5 mana. Only you can gain life while it's out. At the beginning of your upkeep, you Shock each opponent! It's a win con and a smash con. It can swing and trigger with the best of them. But it's here for that foretell ability! You can cast it one turn earlier on turn 4 without a mana rock to begin the punching. It's strong here!

Spinerock Knoll is pretty good here as hideaway works wonders in this brew. You drop the Knoll and then dig four and choose one and exile it face down, and then you can play it if a foe was dealt 7 or more damage in a turn. Pretty good right?

Planar Void? Relic of Progenitus? I tossed them both in. Why? Other than the Phoenix and the sorcery that has retrace (Throes of Chaos) I showed you earlier we don't care about our graveyard. Graveyard abuse is rife in Commander, so a one-drop that exiles everything that hits all graveyards or an artifact that will sac to draw a card and exile them all is great here. I also have Bojuka Bog. That's a pretty good triumvirate.

One more card? Deal!

How come they printed a Commander Deck with the name "Planar Portal" and then didn't include this card? We'll fix that! Check out this card from Invasion! I decided to add a second tutor effect for the deck, which you won't likely use since you are drawing a lot of cards, but it's a good late game and top deck card. It works suitably well in that regard. Now our refurbishing of the deck is complete!

And there we go! Now let's turn to the dark side of life.