In this week’s experiment, we decree that our opponents be silent, coat the decree in metal, and imbue our metal decree with life to smash our opponent for 8.

However, the expensive artifacts I found were also creatures, such as Myr Enforcer. The most expensive noncreature artifacts are Scale of Chiss-Goria and Tooth of Chiss-Goria . . . and at 3 mana, they’re just not very impressive for Sydri’s tastes.

A couple weeks ago, I ended up building around Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge instead.

Coat It with Metal

Besides, there are some awesome, large enchantments we can animate.

The very knowledgeable elephant in the room is Omniscience. The prospect of a 10-power beater that lets us cast our spells for free is pretty enticing. I’m sure we’ll have room for this.

The card that actually down this week’s path, though, was one I rarely see used and that I’ve hardly used for myself—but that looks both awesome and frustrating. Decree of Silence has been around for a long time, and it is pretty good at locking an opponent out for a while. Its absence in many Commander decks is probably due to its unfun factor and the fact that, with multiple opponents, it’s just easier to pop off than it is with only a single opponent.

Dismiss into Dream is a sweet 7-mana enchantment that interacts quite nicely with the Liquimetal Coatings we’ll already be running. Once we bring out this enchantment, we can hold off on our primary, Sydri-enabled combo until we’ve picked off our opponents’ Illusions with liquimetal.

Finally, sticking with Esper-colored expensive enchantments, we have Debtors' Knell. This is a popular Commander card, though it will be less useful here. It doesn’t directly enable or synergize with our combo, but returning creatures from any graveyard each turn is still quite powerful, and we can use it to recur copies of Sydri if necessary.

Galvanic Synergy

Fortunately, at 4 mana, Replenish is a cheap way to put onto the battlefield any amount of mana’s worth of enchantments. The only caveat is that said enchantments need to be in our graveyard. To this end, we have a couple copies of Entomb. This powerful card can set up any piece we need. Careful Consideration is a sweet filtering spell that helps us dig deep and put these expensive enchantments in their place. Sometimes, that place will be our hand, but often, especially if we have a Replenish at the ready, that place will be our graveyard. Finally, to synergize with Liquimetal Coating—in more traditional Ancient Grudge style—we have Devout Witness, a Spellshaper that can pick off our opponents’ artifacts even when they’re not Illusions.

A deck with a bunch of expensive enchantments would hardly be complete without at least a copy of Academy Rector. However, a few of these cards can be pretty expensive. But there are often alternative. Consider alternatives, such as Frantic Search and other filtering for Entomb, Open the Vaults for Replenish, and Lost Auramancers for Academy Rector.

Mnemonic Wall is another great Debtors' Knell target, allowing us to rebuy a Replenish or Entomb—or whatever else, depending on what we need. While I already mentioned Devout Witness, which works by filling up our 'yard and by taking advantage of Liquimetal Coating, we also have Capashen Unicorn. This plays a similar role, abusing the Liquimetal Coating, but it works better with Debtors' Knell than the Spellshaper. A Silverchase Fox template—without the tap cost—would be preferred, but as Disenchant effects have moved out of white (and into green, with Naturalize) over the years, we have to take what we can get.

Finally, I’ve included six Signets. This will help fix our mana for the requirement of Sydri, they can help us ramp into Careful Considerations and Academy Rectors, and with Sydri, they can act as Daggerback Basilisks with lifelink.

"Galvanic Silence"

• Creatures (12)
• 1 Mnemonic Wall
• 2 Academy Rector
• 2 Capashen Unicorn
• 2 Devout Witness
• 1 Griselbrand
• 4 Sydri, Galvanic Genius

• Spells (28)
• 2 Entomb
• 4 Careful Consideration
• 4 Replenish
• 1 Dismiss into Dream
• 2 Debtors' Knell
• 2 Omniscience
• 3 Decree of Silence
• 2 Azorius Signet
• 2 Dimir Signet
• 2 Orzhov Signet
• 4 Liquimetal Coating

• Lands (20)
• 2 Swamp
• 3 Island
• 3 Plains
• 2 Godless Shrine
• 2 Hallowed Fountain
• 2 Sejiri Refuge
• 2 Temple of Deceit
• 2 Temple of Silence
• 2 Watery Grave

Buy This Deck

If you like the idea of an 8/8 with lifelink, deathtouch, and “Whenever an opponent casts a spell, counter it,” as much as I do, this deck experiment will be at least a little bit enticing. If I were to try to fit one-ofs of these cards into a Commander deck, I think I’d just have to find room for a bit of trample-granting . . . 

Andrew Wilson

@Silent7Seven

fissionessence at hotmail dot com