In this experiment, we leverage our creatures’ legendary status to play creatures without hindering the consistency of our polymorphic powers.

Given the above, and given the fact that Jalira is legendary, she must be prime commander material, right? Unfortunately, she has several elements working against her.

First, with Jalira, Master Polymorphist as our commander, we’ll be limited to only blue and/or colorless bombs to drop onto the battlefield. Consecrated Sphinx is extremely powerful, and Blightsteel Colossus can do a lot of—if not all—the work on its own, but those two cards are ones I avoid for how obnoxious I find them to be to play with and against. Feel free to run them in your Jalira decks, possibly as your only nonlegendary creatures, as they’re the most powerful options.

The second of Jalira’s Commander shortcomings is the fact that she can only fetch nonlegendary creatures. That means Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre are not options. (Of course, Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is banned anyway.)

And the third problem for Jalira is that we require creatures to sacrifice for the Polymorph activation. Normally, tokens are great for this, but mono-blue isn’t known for its tokens. Sure, there’s the new Chasm Skulker and Coral Barrier, there’s Master of Waves and Wall of Kelp, and there’s Aerie Worshippers and Havengul Runebinder, but all of those are creatures that we don’t want in our library for when we’re actually Polymorphing. That leaves only a few effects to work with.

However, despite those drawbacks, I want to give a Jalira decklist a shot. And that second drawback can actually be used to our advantage. Since Jalira won’t Polymorph anything into a legendary creature, we can run a bunch of legends in our library so that we have creatures to work with and don’t have to resort to an almost-creatureless deck. Of course, as time goes on and more Magic sets are released, there will be more options for filling out this troop, but we still have some options.

Legendary Creatures

There aren’t a ton of blue legendary creatures, and many of them really want to be built around rather than be tossed into a deck that’s already built around something else. For example, Hakim, Loreweaver, Arcum Dagsson, and Ambassador Laquatus aren’t exactly stock Commander material without proper support. But there are certainly some generic-feeling legendary creatures. Check out the whole suite in the decklist below, but here are some highlights:

Kaho, Minamo Historian – I’ve always wanted to build a Commander deck around Kaho, but there just aren’t the blue instants to make it worthwhile. Maybe one day Wizards will give me all the spells I’ve ever desired. I decided to toss him in here, though, alongside a bunch of instants. I may have gone overboard with the Kaho theme, but playing this many instants means having mana available on opponents’ turns, which is nice.

Meloku the Clouded Mirror and Talrand, Sky Summoner – Both of these are relatively powerful on their own, and in addition to Talrand’s ability to play along with Kaho’s same support structure (a bunch of instants), this Moonfolk and this Merfolk are great sources of tokens for Jalira.

Sakashima the Impostor – Clones can be good in Commander, and this one’s legendary, so we can play it without interrupting Jalira.

Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir – Teferi is super-strong and super-annoying. He plays with the instant theme well (at least in that he’ll help us not have to tap lands on our own turn).

Heroes' Podium – This isn’t a legendary creature, of course, but it seems to fit in this category. It probably isn’t worthwhile, even with this legendary-creature theme we’re running, but if this isn’t the deck for the Podium, what is? (The answer is in a Captain Sisay deck, but oh well.)

Tokens

Though blue isn’t known for its token creation, there are some options. In addition to Meloku and Talrand—above with the legendary creatures—and Geist Snatch and Summoner's Bane—hidden among the instants—here are a few choice picks:

Druidic Satchel – Druidic Satchel, innocuous as it may seem, I feel is one of the most useful cards in mono-colored and nongreen Commander lists. It puts extra lands onto the battlefield outside of ramp colors, and it generates incremental advantage over the course of a long game. Here, with Jalira, we’re able to especially leverage the Saproling tokens.

Helm of Kaldra – This card was not one I expected to find as I searched for token-making options. Running Helm of Kaldra, Sword of Kaldra, and Shield of Kaldra has always been something I’ve wanted to try, so I decided to toss in all three. With them online, we have the ability to pay to make 4/4s, with the restriction that we only have one at a time. Jalira is happy to sacrifice Kaldra for Polymorphing purposes—and then just conjure up another for .

Throne of Empires – This is a pretty efficient source of tokens, and I couldn’t resist playing all three pieces of the Empires line. Thus, Crown of Empires and Scepter of Empires make appearances as well. As with the Kaldra Equipment, it just seemed to be the time and the place.

Polymorph Candidates

In a way, this is the most important part of the deck. The most powerful way to build this section is to include Blightsteel Colossus and leave it at that—Jalira, would fetch the Colossus every single time, and if it died, it would shuffle back in for a do-over. However, I’d just prefer to not play with the card. There are several other options, some of which are almost as frustrating for opponents.

Vesuvan Shapeshifter and Brine Elemental – With these two as our only nonlegendary creatures, we can enact the old Standard “pickles” lock in which we deprive our opponents of their untap steps for the remainder of the game. This will most likely result in the slow death of our opponents, though the possibility remains for their recovery.

Benthicore, Wanderwine Prophets, and Deadeye Navigator – With these three, we can make Merfolk tokens, champion one with the Prophets, make more Merfolk by Flickering Benthicore with the Navigator, and then take an extra turn by hitting an opponent with Wanderwine Prophets. And then, we can repeat, defeating all of our opponents before any of them has another turn.

In the end, I decided that rather than stick with one combo that I could employ consistently, I’d run all of these cards—and a couple more—to give me the potentiality of achieving a combo but without the recurring frustration of my opponents. Also, winning the game the same way every time is a surefire way to ensure I’ll grow tired of a deck quickly.

If one of those combos looks super-sweet to you—including the one-card combo of Blightsteel Colossus—just cut the rest of the nonlegendary creatures to make Jalira super-consistent.

Legend of the Polymorphist ? Commander | Andrew Wilson

• Commander (0)

• Polymorph Candidates (9)
• 1 Benthicore
• 1 Brine Elemental
• 1 Deadeye Navigator
• 1 Great Whale
• 1 Scourge of Fleets
• 1 Vesuvan Shapeshifter
• 1 Wanderwine Prophets
• 1 Kuldotha Forgemaster
• 1 Myr Battlesphere

• Token Generation (9)
• 1 Acorn Catapult
• 1 Batterskull
• 1 Druidic Satchel
• 1 Echo Chamber
• 1 Helm of Kaldra
• 1 Nuisance Engine
• 1 Tatsumasa, the Dragon's Fang
• 1 Throne of Empires
• 1 Trading Post

• Support (11)
• 1 Crown of Empires
• 1 Fabricate
• 1 Gilded Lotus
• 1 Heroes' Podium
• 1 Illusionist's Bracers
• 1 Scepter of Empires
• 1 Shield of Kaldra
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Sword of Kaldra
• 1 Surveyor's Scope
• 1 Tezzeret the Seeker

• Instants (19)
• 1 Aetherspouts
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Desertion
• 1 Evacuation
• 1 Exclude
• 1 Gather Specimens
• 1 Geist Snatch
• 1 Illusionist's Gambit
• 1 Keep Watch
• 1 Mnemonic Nexus
• 1 Polymorphous Rush
• 1 Ray of Command
• 1 Spin into Myth
• 1 Summoner's Bane
• 1 Tidal Wave
• 1 Triton Tactics
• 1 Twitch
• 1 Whispers of the Muse
• 1 Wipe Away

• Legendary Creatures (11)
• 1 Azami, Lady of Scrolls
• 1 Arcanis the Omnipotent
• 1 Kaho, Minamo Historian
• 1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
• 1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
• 1 Sakashima the Impostor
• 1 Thassa, God of the Sea
• 1 Talrand, Sky Summoner
• 1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
• 1 Thada Adel, Acquisitor
• 1 Venser, Shaper Savant

• Lands (40)
• 1 Springjack Pasture
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Academy Ruins
• 1 Bant Panorama
• 1 Coral Atoll
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Esper Panorama
• 1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1 Grixis Panorama
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Riptide Laboratory
• 1 Soldevi Excavations
• 1 Terrain Generator
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Thespian's Stage
• 25 Island

Buy This Deck

If you love turning creatures into other creatures, if you love legendary tribal, if I’ve triggered your nostalgia for Standard pickles, or if you’ve just been looking for any excuse to play Tatsumasa, the Dragon's Fang, give this deck a try.

Andrew Wilson

@Silent7Seven

fissionessence at hotmail dot com