Commanding Liberator, Urza's Battlethopter

Posted on December 8, 2022

Hello awesome folks! I hope that your day is as awesome as you are. Today I want to do something fun for everyone; I want to build around the Shimmer Myr in the Command Zone that was just printed in The Brothers' War: Liberator, Urza's Battlethopter. Check it out:

As you can see, this 3-drop has flash and flying and a 1/2 sized body. You can cast both colorless and artifact stuff with flash! Then when you cast a spell of any type you put a +1/+1 counter on this for Commander Damage purposes if the mana spent was greater than Liberator's power. Note, this looks at mana spent not mana cost, so an eight-cost Treasure Cruise with delve that you only paid two mana for will count just as two mana spent. I love the idea of brewing around a colorless Commander, which doesn't happen that often. Ready? Let's look at my deep dive starting... now!

Key Colorless Creatures and Non-Creatures Alike:

Blightsteel Colossus is a 12-drop 11/11 with infect, trample, and instructible. With infect and trample this thing can kill in one hit pretty reliably and adds a win con to my brew. I also tossed in Metalwork Colossus to drop down pretty early, and then recur, as well as Darksteel Colossus that Blightsteel is based on. Spine of Ish Sah is a 7-drop artifact that destroys anything on arrival to the battlefield, even lands. Then when it dies, you recur it to your hand for another go around. This pair is nasty with flash.

Darksteel Juggernaut is a 5-drop indestructible dork that has power and toughness equal to your artifact count, so it is a game winner in indestructible form, but it has to bring the attack each combat. Stonecoil Serpent is an X-cost creature with reach, trample, and protection from multicolored. With that trample and variable size this can be a pretty nice game winner as well. A flashable X spell with reach can be a nasty surprise when you are attacked.

Check out this Eldrazi Titan pair. I tossed in four eldrazi as well as Artisan of Kozilek. Kozilek, Butcher of Truth is a 10-drop 12/12 which draws you four when you cast it, and then rocks annihilator 4. Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger is a 10-drop 10/10 with indestructible that will exile two permanents when you cast it, even lands. The other Kozilek and Ulamog are here as well. I really like the idea of being able to flash these in at instant-speed.

Synergies and Win-Cons

Mascot Exhibition is a fun seven-cost sorcery that makes three dorks with 9 power between them. It's brilliant with flash. Forsaken Monument is a 5-drop that pumps my colorless dorks by +2/+2 so it's a double Glorius Anthem. All of your colorless mana sources also produce an extra colorless mana and you gain two life each time you cast a colorless spell, which is every spell in the deck.

Check out my pair of Ugins! The former Ugin is an 8-drop with 7 loyalty that can +2 to Lightning Bolt any target. You can also -X him to exile all colored permanents with that cost or less, so he is mass removal that won't hit your stuff. The latter Ugin is a 4 loyalty, 6-cost planeswalker that drops your colorless costs by generic mana each. Then you can +1 to exile the top card from your library face down as a colorless Spirit token that heads to your hand after it leaves the battlefield. He also -3's to destroy an opposing permanent with a color.

Check out Karn. This five loyalty 4-cost planeswalker will shut down your foes' activated abilities of their artifacts. Then you can +1 him to Animate Artifact a non-creature artifact you control and turn it into an X/X where X is its mana cost, like a 7/7 for Spine of Ish Sah. The Construct is a four drop 3/3 Hill Giant cost and size that gives your other artifact creatures hexproof, which is a powerful thing to flash in as you can answer targeted removal like Swords to Plowshares or Cyclonic Rift at instant speed. Nasty synergies here, right?

Unwinding Clock is a 4-drop artifact that will let you untap all of your artifacts each untap step, not just yours, so in a four player multiplayer game, that's four untaps. You can swing all out and then untap to block. You can tap your mana rocks, artifact lands and our one mana dork a few times over multiple turns. Eldrazi Conscription is an 8-cost enchantment that gives the enchanted dork a huge +10/+10 bonus, trample, and annihilator 2. That's massive on your flying Liberator for a fast Commander Damage kill out of nowhere and you can flash it as a combat trick to block and kill something.

Commander's Plate is a 1-drop, three to equip for your Commander and for your other things, and then it get +3/+3 and protection from all colors since Liberator is colorless. Nasty, and very good at winning the game by swinging through defenses with your Battlethopter. The planeswalker is a 4-drop, four loyalty with a +1 to make you a tapped Powerstone token, and then a -1 to spend any amount of mana and then look at that many cards of your deck and put one to your hand, and the rest on the bottom of your library. It combines ramping with card flow on a nicely priced and loyalty-ed walker of the planes.

Answers

Now, let's turn to some answers beyond the obvious Meteor Golem, Duplicant, or Steel Hellkite. All Is Dust is a 7-cost sorcery that forces everyone to sacrifice all of their colored permanents. That's a mass sweeping removal for your foes but not for you. Note that this is a sacrifice, not destroy, so it gets around indestructible. With flash from your leader? That's nasty in response to your opponent's things. The artifact is a flashable 1-drop that can tap and sacrifice at instant speed to destroy any opposing permanent, even a land. It's nice to have that at instant speed, even when your Commander has been answered.

Check out this colorless common removal pair. Scour from Existence is a 7-cost instant that exiles any permanent, even a land. Introduction to Annihilation is a 5-cost, sorcery speed, exile target that's not a land and it's owner draws a card, so it feels less bad. It can be cast with flash by my Commander which adds to my fast response queue.

Warping Wail is a 2-cost colorless Charm with three options. You can exile a dork with one or fewer toughness or power, which is a lot of things. You can counter a sorcery. Or, you can make a 1/1 Eldrazi Scion token that can sacrifice for a mana. It can make a blocker out of nowhere to stop a key attack. It also has all of the mana storage synergies for later as well. Karn is a 7-drop with 6 loyalty and two key abilities. You can +4 him to force a foe to exile a card from their hand, a nice way to force them to play their hand since exiled cards cannot be recast with flashback or recurred with reanimation. Then you can -3 to exile any permanent.

Card Flow

Mystic Forge is a 4-drop that lets you look at the top card of your library and cast them with the normal mana needed if they are an artifact. That's very strong here as most of the deck is artifacts. Canoptek Spyder is a nice sized 4/4 flyer for five mana. As another non-token artifact dork (or Vehicle) arrives to the battlefield, you draw a card. That's brilliant card flow over time.

Mana, Ramping, Rocks, Dorks, and Lands

Now let's turn to mana and lands. Environmental Sciences is a 2-cost sorcery that lets you search up a Wastes, puts it in your hand, and then gains you two life. The artifact is a 1-drop, to tap and sacrifice and it ramps a Wastes onto your battlefield tapped. Both are great colorless ways to help ensure that you are getting lands. These are my only ways of fetching up Wastes in this deck.

These two mana rocks are great! Unstable Obelisk is a 3-drop that taps for colorless and then can be tapped with seven mana to destroy any permanent. Nasty removal here in an emergency from a mana rock slot. Stonespeaker Crystal taps for two colorless on a 4-drop and can be tapped for two and sacrificed to draw a card and exile all opposing graveyards. That is a brilliant way to answer opposing graveyard use and abuse that is rife in Commander.

Guardian Idol is an uncommon 2-drop that arrives tapped, taps for colorless, and then you can spend two and make it a 2/2 Golem artifact dork. I also am running Fountain of Ichor that costs three, taps for any color of mana, and can be turned into a Dinosaur dork for the turn. I really like the agency in colorless artifact dorks from mana rocks here. Mishra's Factory is a tapper of colorless, turns into a 2/2 artifact Assembly-Worker dork for one mana and can tap to pump an Assembly-Worker, like itself, for +1/+1. I also am running Mishra's Foundry, Blinkmoth Nexus, and Dread Statuary that can become dorks for the turn of various sizes and costs. I love using these after a foe's mass removal to swing and attack for damage on an otherwise cleared board and then have great synergy with this artifact-centric deck.

Urza's Saga is a Saga in land form that taps for colorless on arrival, then can be tapped when it hits Chapter II for two mana to make a Construct token with power and toughness equal to your artifact count. Then you can do it again when you put Chapter III on the stack. Then you can search out a Sol Ring or Darksteel Citadel from your library and put it onto the battlefield. Nasty here. Then Urza's Workshop taps for one colorless for each Urza's land you control if you control at least three artifacts. I have all three of the original Urza's lands here.

War Room taps for colorless mana and can be tapped for three mana to draw a card for no life loss since you have no color identity in your Commander. I also tossed in Bonders' Enclave for card drawing in the land zone. Sanctum of Ugin can tap for colorless as well, and when you cast a colorless spell with a mana cost of seven or more, you can sacrifice it and Tutor for a colorless creature card and put it into your hand from your library, which is also sort of a cross between Tutoring and flow from your lands. I also tossed in Inventors' Fair to sacrifice for an artifact Tutor if you have metalcraft. Nice quartet.

Field of the Dead enters tapped, taps for colorless, and makes a 2/2 Zombie token when a land enters the battlefield as long as you have 7 different names in your land base. Here, that's very likely. It's a win-con in land form. I also am running Expedition Map to Tutor for Field when needed, or Urza's Saga as a different style of win con in land form if you control a ton of artifacts. Mikokoro, Center of the Sea taps for colorless and taps with two mana to let everyone draw a card, again card flow in land form, although everyone benefits. I also tossed in Geier Reach Sanitarium that also lets everyone draw a card, but this time discards.

Ready for the decklist? I hear ya!