I'm going to give you a little insight into the mind of a Commander Content Creator:

We actually want to do something interesting with our content.

We generally assume you, the reader (or viewer or otherwise content receiver) are smart, an independent thinker, and generally reasonably-educated on all things Magic: The Gathering. If we have a Commander like, say, Talrand, Sky Summoner, we assume you don't need us to tell you to jam a deck full of Instants and Sorceries (probably which draw cards) and swing with a bucket load of free fliers. Nah, we want to do something like Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest, where we combo off and kill an opponent with a single strike - or figure out how to mill an opponent with Shu Yun. We want to move away from the obvious and give you something you might not have thought of on your own.

So, I have to admit, today's Commander is a bit of a challenge. Because honestly, I'm not sure how to do anything different with her.

The only thing I can offer is she came out in C14 and hasn't been reprinted since, so maybe there are some of you who haven't seen her because you started playing after she was released. But the truth is, this deck kind of builds itself. Not exactly - I'm still going to apply my rules regarding lands, ramp, and card draw. Of course, we have choices surrounding which Equipment we run, and how much of it. Given last week's super-cheap deck, though, I'm going to not care about price as I go through this one (even when I'm not on a budget, I still am aware of putting expensive cards into decks. I want my decks to be reasonably accessible whenever possible). Normally, we go through the cards first, but I think we can start with the list on this one:

Nahiri, the Lithomancer | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Nahiri, the Lithomancer

• Creatures (16)
• 1 Archivist of Oghma
• 1 Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist
• 1 Danitha Capashen, Paragon
• 1 Deep Gnome Terramancer
• 1 Halvar, God of Battle
• 1 Indomitable Archangel
• 1 Leonin Abunas
• 1 Leonin Shikari
• 1 Mentor of the Meek
• 1 Puresteel Paladin
• 1 Rumor Gatherer
• 1 Sram, Senior Edificer
• 1 Stone Haven Outfitter
• 1 Stonehewer Giant
• 1 Sun Titan
• 1 Welcoming Vampire

• Instants (2)
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Swords to Plowshares

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 Austere Command
• 1 Phyrexian Rebirth
• 1 Single Combat
• 1 Steelshaper's Gift
• 1 Winds of Abandon

• Enchantments (4)
• 1 Anointed Procession
• 1 Divine Visitation
• 1 Sigarda's Aid
• 1 Smuggler's Share

• Artifacts (32)
• 1 Archaeomancer's Map
• 1 Argentum Armor
• 1 Blackblade Reforged
• 1 Bonder's Ornament
• 1 Colossus Hammer
• 1 Commander's Plate
• 1 Hedron Archive
• 1 Kaldra Compleat
• 1 Lantern of Revealing
• 1 Loxodon Warhammer
• 1 Mace of the Valiant
• 1 Magnifying Glass
• 1 Mask of Memory
• 1 Maul of the Skyclaves
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Network Terminal
• 1 Rogue's Gloves
• 1 Seraphic Greatsword
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Sword of Body and Mind
• 1 Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1 Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1 Sword of Hearth and Home
• 1 Sword of Light and Shadow
• 1 Sword of Sinew and Steel
• 1 Sword of the Animist
• 1 Sword of Truth and Justice
• 1 Sword of Vengeance
• 1 Sword of War and Peace
• 1 Thaumatic Compass
• 1 Worn Powerstone

• Lands (40)
• 29 Plains
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Castle Ardenvale
• 1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
• 1 Field of Ruin
• 1 Homeward Path
• 1 Maze of Ith
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 War Room
• 1 Inventors' Fair
• 1 Kor Haven
• 1 Ancient Den

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Elephant in the room: no Stoneforge Mystic. Why? Because that card makes people mad. We're already able to cheat out our Equipment (Nahiri) and we can search for Equipment (Steelshaper's Gift and Stonehewer Giant) so let's keep eyes off us by avoiding the obvious turn-two play. That said, if you've got one, feel free to run her: she's awesome. Just be prepared to get something really good because she will bring the hate!

We have 40 lands, most of which are Plains. Deep Ghome Terramancer can go get us those Plains, so we're going to run mostly Plains. We've got a few Lands which do other things, like Rogue's Passage (which gets our Equipped Creature through), Castle Ardenvale (which makes more Creatures), Emeria, the Sky Ruin (which buys back our dead stuff), and Maze of Ith, which can save us from a certain death. We've also got some mana rocks, including the ubiquitous Sol Ring (which can lead us to some extremely explosive starts) and a few more most of which interact with our Library, either looting or drawing. All good things.

Because we're often going to be attacking with an Equipped Creature, Rogue's Gloves is a great and obvious choice for drawing some extra cards, but so is Sword of Fire and Ice. Because we're making tokens, we can run Skullclamp, but we can also run Rumor Gatherer, Mentor of the Meek, and Welcoming Vampire. Because we have a ton of Equipment, we can run Stone Haven Outfitter, Puresteel Paladin, and Sram, Senior Edificer. And because White has gotten a ton of powerful pieces in the last couple of years, we've got Smuggler's Share and Archivist of Oghma. In addition to our mana rocks which mess with card draw, we should be able to keep a decent flow of cards to our hand.

We've also got a pile of weapons to stick on a Creature to send trundling off toward our opponents. The goal here is to make a token with Nahiri, give it some big ol' thing, and let them hit really hard. No need to talk about each piece, but there are a couple worth mentioning specifically. All of the existing Swords of X and Y are here, and they're all great. These are fantastic targets for your tutors, because they can get you past an annoying blockade. Blackblade Reforged will win you more games than Kaldra Compleat. Colossus Hammer is hilarious when you don't have to pay to Equip it. Remember with Argentum Armor you can blow something up that doesn't belong to the person you're attacking. If you get Leonin Shakiri out and have mana you may move equipment mid-combat. Oh, you're Pathing that creature? Let's move its Equipment to another attacker. And we don't have the new thing that can turn Nahiri into a Creature, because I didn't want to do that, but you should feel free.

A couple more things. Anointed Procession and Divine Visitation both help us out with our Tokens, either making more of them or making them bigger (and flying!). And almost all our Equipment is three mana or less, for a couple reasons. We want to be able to cast it all the time, and we want to be able to get it back with Sun Titan. Sun Titan should be looked at as a recovery spell here; don't play it out because you have it. Keep it until you get Shatterstormed and play it out to get back the best piece you lost. Then attack with it and get the next best piece.

It's possible some of the excellent hate cards White is so good at would be good here. Containment Priest? Hushwing Gryff? Aven Mindcensor? All of these are solid and shut down specific strategies. Consider them if something in your group is particularly oppressive. You might also substitute something like Strip Mine for one of the Plains.

I'm curious what you think here. Have you played Nahiri? Played against her? What would you or do you run? Let us know in the comments.

Thanks for reading.