There are so many things to write about and not nearly enough time to get it all done. That’s been the story of my life for the last few months, and I’ve hated it. Fortunately, I should be finishing a shiny new degree at the end of May. Unfortunately, that means that I have another month to go before I am able to start gaming in earnest again. The upside is that whenever I can’t play Magic, I start thinking about it a lot, and I have a lot of exciting ideas for sweet decks.

Grand Prix Atlantic City is coming up, and that reminds me of the last large event in New Jersey. Grand Prix New Jersey was a great event for all the awesome people who made it out. Commander (2014 Edition) had just come out, and that meant there were a ton of people exploring what the new Planeswalker commanders could do. During that weekend, I was impressed by most of the Planeswalkers as part of the ninety-nine—but not as commanders.

Most of the time, these Planeswalkers felt like expensive Divinations rather than actual engines that can take over a game. It turns out that it’s hard to protect Planeswalkers in commander, a format in which you have to worry about the likes of Utter End, Perilous Vault, giant, tramply monsters, and huge swarms of creatures. Even so, there’s one emblem I just can’t get out of my head:

Daretti does so many things that I like that I don’t know where to begin. It turns out that Faithless Looting every turn is pretty awesome in the color of Squee, Goblin Nabob and other Shard Phoenix-esque effects. Giving red access to actual card advantage is already a big deal, and it certainly helps that looting sets up the Trash for Treasure effect. Suddenly, red has the ability to generate extra cards and cheat giant cards into play! What happened to red being a bad color in this format?

I know most people are thinking about recycling Myr Battlespheres and Unstable Obelisks and other degenerate nonsense like that; that’s not the first thing I think of. You have to understand that I played Eggs in Modern while it was legal and tried to make it work in Standard for a few weeks, and I have played more Chromatic Spheres and Chromatic Stars in Pauper decks than I care to admit. Salvaging Station has actually always been among my favorite budget card-advantage engines in Commander since it rebuys value artifacts such as Scrabbling Claws, Expedition Map, and Executioner's Capsule. What’s the only thing better than gaining a bunch of free cards? It’s gaining them one card at a time.

The reason Daretti is so exciting is that he gives all the cantripping artifacts a shell to fit into. They contribute early by being sacrifice fodder for Trash for Treasure’ing. They smooth out draws in the midgame when you’re digging for action. They’re an engine unto themselves once you’ve emblem’d up. The trick is actually reaching emblem territory, which is harder in Commander than in any other format. For that, I’m drawing inspiration from another really interesting deck from Standard past—one that actually got me back into playing real Constructed formats. Take a look at Patrick Chapin’s Machine Red:

Machine Red ? Scars of Mirrodin Standard | Patrick Chapin

• Lands (20)
• 19 Mountain
• 1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

• Creatures (5)
• 3 Necropede
• 2 Pilgrim's Eye

• Spells (30)
• 4 Contagion Clasp
• 4 Everflowing Chalice
• 3 Lux Cannon
• 4 Throne of Geth
• 3 Voltaic Key
• 3 Galvanic Blast
• 4 Mox Opal
• 3 Destructive Force
• 2 Pyroclasm

• Planeswalkers (6)
• 2 Chandra Nalaar
• 4 Koth of the Hammer

Buy This Deck

Who can argue with proliferate plus Lux Cannon and Everflowing Chalice? With Voltaic Key to untap your Lux Cannon? With the singleton value Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle? It’s as though this deck were just for me! It’s also a great engine to help ensure that Daretti reaches emblem range as quickly as possible.

Then comes the fun part: finding ways to bring all these pieces together into one, beautiful, proliferaty, emblemy, valuey monstrosity. Burnished Hart with Daretti emblem to trigger Valakut? Astral Cornucopia as a backup Everflowing Chalice? All the cantripping artifacts I can find? Perhaps even killing opponents with Decimator Web? Sounds like a dream come true to me. Here’s how I’m starting to put all the pieces together:

Daretti ? Commander | Carlos Gutierrez

• Commander (0)

• Lands (40)
• 1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
• 1 Vesuva
• 1 Thespian's Stage
• 1 Urza's Tower
• 1 Urza's Power Plant
• 1 Urza's Mine
• 1 Cloudpost
• 1 Glimmerpost
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Great Furnace
• 1 Darksteel Citadel
• 1 Phyrexia's Core
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 26 Mountain

• Creatures (16)
• 1 Coretapper
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Wurmcoil Engine
• 1 Steel Hellkite
• 1 Myr Battlesphere
• 1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
• 1 Kuldotha Forgemaster
• 1 Junk Diver
• 1 Myr Retriever
• 1 Hoarding Dragon
• 1 Hellkite Tyrant
• 1 Goblin Welder
• 1 Scarecrone
• 1 Duplicant
• 1 Shimmer Myr

• Spells (4)
• 1 Faithless Looting
• 1 Scrap Mastery
• 1 Trash for Treasure
• 1 Bonfire of the Damned

• Artifacts (19)
• 1 Ichor Wellspring
• 1 Mycosynth Wellspring
• 1 Trading Post
• 1 Rings of Brighthearth
• 1 Mirrorworks
• 1 Sculpting Steel
• 1 The Chain Veil
• 1 Tsabo's Web
• 1 Spine of Ish Sah
• 1 Decimator Web
• 1 Caged Sun
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Unstable Obelisk
• 1 Crucible of Worlds
• 1 Pristine Talisman
• 1 Shield of Kaldra
• 1 Helm of Kaldra
• 1 Sword of Kaldra

• Baubles (8)
• 1 Lotus Bloom
• 1 Scrabbling Claws
• 1 Phyrexian Furnace
• 1 Chromatic Star
• 1 Salvaging Station
• 1 Wayfarer's Bauble
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Conjurer's Bauble

• Proliferation (8)
• 1 Contagion Clasp
• 1 Contagion Engine
• 1 Throne of Geth
• 1 Voltaic Key
• 1 Lux Cannon
• 1 Coalition Relic
• 1 Everflowing Chalice
• 1 Astral Cornucopia

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 1 Koth of the Hammer
• 1 Chandra Nalaar
• 1 Karn Liberated
• 1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

Buy This Deck

I really like how much overlap there can be in the themes of this deck. I’m playing a bunch of proliferation, so I am able to play a few extra Planeswalkers that are easier to protect and use profitably. Chandra Nalaar is incredibly easy to cast and ultimate on the same turn. Karn Liberated is able to exile problematic permanents turn after turn. Koth of the Hammer is yet another Planeswalker that’s easy to ultimate, and his emblem ties together the Valakut-plus-Hart theme and the proliferation-plus-Planeswalker theme.

I’m also excited because this deck is able to play a giant pile of fun cards. When’s the last time you were able to play with Sorcerer's Strongbox? How about the Kaldra Equipment? There’re all kinds of fun things that are possible in this style of shell, so to wrap up this article, I’d like to share a few things that didn’t quite make the cut in this first pass on Daretti.

First and foremost, you have no idea how much I want to fit Bludgeon Brawl into this kind of deck. I’d like nothing more than to find a way to Voltron people out by suiting Daretti up with a pile of Chromatic Stars and Expedition Maps. Unfortunately, I’m not entirely certain how to make that plan happen or if it’s worth including. Some combination of Mycosynth Lattice and Karn, Silver Golem is probably the only way to make this happen, but I haven’t exactly figured it out yet.

Second is my list of is-this-unfun cards: Magistrate's Scepter, Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient, Strionic Resonator, and Unwinding Clock. My fear with these cards is that some combination of these cards make it too easy to go infinite or generate an overbearing and unfun game presence. I know all these card enable powerful things; I just don’t know yet whether those are things I want to be doing. Kurkesh is probably the card I’m most interested in, followed by Unwinding Clock as additional ways to create more opportunities to proliferate my way up to Daretti emblem and abuse the emblem once I’ve made it there.

The last thing I’m kind of interested in is repeatable sacrifice outlets to better take advantage of Daretti’s emblem. Things like Culling Dais provide ways to start pulling ahead with Myr Battlesphere and Wurmcoil Engine, though I suppose Ashnod's Altar and Krark-Clan Ironworks let you go super-degenerate if that’s what you’re looking for. It’s also possible that you want something like Pentavus that doesn’t require the extra piece to start making an absurd number of tokens to keep the board stable while you accrue infinite value.

After all, that is the name of the game, right? Magic: The Valuing? That’s my understanding at least, so I’m going to run with it and give Daretti a chance. That said, I tend to get tunnel vision while I’m building a deck. I focus on the cool things that I want to do and miss out on some of the crazy things that are possible. What are your favorite picks for Daretti that I missed? What do you think the best way to abuse his emblem is?

I haven’t played very many games with the Planeswalker commanders, but they’ve all done fun, powerful things in the games I have seen them in, whether at the helm or as part of the ninety-nine. I’m excited to see what our new Planeswalker overlords can do, and I can’t wait to see if the excitement holds up after a few months of playing with them.

Whispers of the Muse

• Jeskai Ascendancy and tokens in Commander. Finding a mana creature is rough, but cantrips plus man lands plus Myr seem like an engine to kill a table early.
• Pharika, God of Affliction plus Reap or Pygmy Kavu. Darkest Hour for maximum value and extra constellation triggers.
• How many times can I activate Selvala, Explorer Returned in one turn? Can we make the life-gain matter instead of the mana?