Combining overlapping themes is a key component of how I build Commander decks. It serves two very important purposes. First, it provides you with mechanical synergies that increase the power of your cards. Second, and perhaps more importantly, it gives your deck identity, creating unique gameplay beyond a pile of good cards.

This week, I’ll be doing a deck-building walkthrough demonstrating this technique using one of the recently spoiled Powerpuff Angels: Bruna, Light of Alabaster.

Bubbles, Blossom, and Buttercup

Theme #1: Voltron

The most obvious strategy Bruna suggests is Voltron—load her up with powerful Auras and start killing opponents in one or two hits. We don’t want to rely on this strategy exclusively, since at 6 mana, Bruna can be difficult to protect from multiple opponents. However, we will certainly want to devote a couple of slots to ensure that she remains a must-answer threat throughout the game.

Eldrazi Conscription, Battle Mastery, Steel of the Godhead, Celestial Mantle, Protective Bubble, Indestructibility

Of course, we’ll also want to run some ways to search out our deadliest Auras. There are a number of powerful options in white and blue.

Sovereigns of Lost Alara, Totem-Guide Hartebeest, Auratouched Mage, Three Dreams, Intuition, Tallowisp

Intuition is extremely powerful with Bruna. You can even wait until her trigger is on the stack, search out three powerful Auras at instant speed, and then attach all of them from hand and graveyard alike. Auratouched Mage may look a little unexciting, but think of it as a 13/13 trampling Eldrazi for 6 mana that lets Bruna use the Aura later in the game. We’ll talk about Tallowisp a bit more later.

Theme #2: Removal Auras

The key to linking themes is finding common synergies. We’re already running a bunch of ways to search out Auras, and adding in Arrest and Control Magic effects lets them search out answers as well as questions.

Treachery, Corrupted Conscience, Volition Reins, Confiscate, Faith's Fetters, Prison Term

Treachery and Corrupted Conscience are extremely powerful in their own right, but they both have additional synergy with Bruna. You can steal something early on, and a few Wrath effects later, untap lands or swing for infect damage when Bruna attacks. In fact, let’s add a couple of Aura-moving effects so that we can bring removal Auras back with Bruna and then move them onto our opponent’s creatures.

Aura Finesse, Crown of the Ages

We could also play Aura Graft and Enchantment Alteration if we really wanted to push this theme. Of course, once we start bringing back Auras for purposes other than buffing Bruna, we can start exploring a whole new set of synergies.

Theme #3: Aura Recursion

Bruna’s ability to bring back multiple Auras every turn can become a powerful card-advantage engine when combined with a sacrifice outlet and cantripping Auras. At worst, you can play them on your other creatures early on to cycle them.

Flight of Fancy, Traveler's Cloak, Unquestioned Authority, Capashen Standard, Faith Healer, Claws of Gix

Of course, we don’t want to rely on Bruna exclusively to bring back our Auras, so let’s run some other options that will allow us to bring back piles of buffs, removal, and card advantage from our graveyard.

Nomad Mythmaker, Hakim, Loreweaver, Hanna, Ship's Navigator, Replenish, Retether

Hakim actually gives us some infinite combos with Treachery, but they’re janky and easily disrupted enough to qualify as fair play in my book.

Theme #4: Spirits

I’ve already mentioned Tallowisp, which is an awesome repeatable tutor if you have enough Spirits. But I knew I had to push this subtheme when I remembered Angel of Flight Alabaster. The flavor is perfect, and she’s a powerful recursion engine if we build around her a bit. We don’t need to run lords to push the tribal theme heavily, but we can take a look at some sweet cards to trigger Tallowisp and recur with the Angel.

Crib Swap, Drift of Phantasms, Ethereal Usher, Moonlit Strider, Drogskol Reaver, Geist of Saint Traft, Karmic Guide, Kira, Great Glass-Spinner

We’re already running Sovereigns of Lost Alara. Ethereal Usher can grab a couple of cool Auras/creatures and can search out Bruna if she becomes tucked. Moonlit Strider is the only soulshift card I felt was worth running, but it’s neat and unusual—it can protect Bruna while returning something such as Tallowisp, Crib Swap, or Geist of Saint Traft.

Unused Themes

There were a couple of theme ideas that I considered but that I ended up deciding against. Self-mill could potentially be powerful, as Bruna and cards like Replenish can bring back at all once all the Auras we hit. However, this plan requires a high density of Auras to be effective, and I don’t think that’s the way I’d want to build this deck. Additionally, we run enough Aura tutors that having specific Auras in our deck is a valuable resource. Tallowisp can’t find Treachery if we’ve put it into our graveyard. Worse yet, graveyard hate could permanently remove our best cards before we have a chance to use them.

Combining Flicker effects with enters-the-battlefield abilities is also a powerful option for W/U. You can run a whole package of Reveillark, Karmic Guide, Mulldrifter, Gilded Drake, Momentary Blink, Venser, the Sojourner . . . The list goes on and on. In the end, I decided that this would take up too much deck space to properly support, and it’d pull focus from our other, more unusual themes.

Finishing Touches

With the core themes of our deck built, we can search out a few other cards that support our various strategies. We already have some card advantage and threats, so we’ll want to emphasize defending ourselves and our game plan.

Winds of Rath, Austere Command, Lightning Greaves, Grand Abolisher, Sun Titan

Sprinkle in some staple removal, counterspells, and mana, and we end up with a pretty solid-looking decklist.

"Bubbles, Light of Alabaster"

• Commander (1)
• 1 Bruna, Light of Alabaster

• Creatures (20)
• 1 Tallowisp
• 1 Angel of Flight Alabaster
• 1 Sovereigns of Lost Alara
• 1 Totem-Guide Hartebeest
• 1 Auratouched Mage
• 1 Nomad Mythmaker
• 1 Hakim, Loreweaver
• 1 Hanna, Ship's Navigator
• 1 Faith Healer
• 1 Drift of Phantasms
• 1 Ethereal Usher
• 1 Moonlit Strider
• 1 Drogskol Reaver
• 1 Geist of Saint Traft
• 1 Karmic Guide
• 1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
• 1 Grand Abolisher
• 1 Sun Titan
• 1 Kor Cartographer
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum

• Auras (15)
• 1 Eldrazi Conscription 1 Battle Mastery
• 1 Steel of the Godhead
• 1 Celestial Mantle
• 1 Protective Bubble
• 1 Indestructibility
• 1 Treachery
• 1 Corrupted Conscience
• 1 Volition Reins
• 1 Confiscate
• 1 Faith's Fetters
• 1 Prison Term
• 1 Flight of Fancy
• 1 Traveler's Cloak
• 1 Unquestioned Authority
• 1 Capashen Standard

• Other Synergy (8)
• 1 Three Dreams
• 1 Intuition
• 1 Replenish
• 1 Retether
• 1 Aura Finesse
• 1 Crown of the Ages
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Claws of Gix

• Removal/Counterspells (10)
• 1 Winds of Rath
• 1 Austere Command
• 1 Hallowed Burial
• 1 Crib Swap
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Pact of Negation
• 1 Hinder
• 1 Spell Crumple

• Mana Search/Ramp (9)
• 1 Land Tax
• 1 Tithe
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Armillary Sphere
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Azorius Signet
• 1 Coalition Relic
• 1 Darksteel Ingot

• Lands (36)
• 1 Hall of the Bandit Lord
• 1 Strip Mine
• 1 Dust Bowl
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Kor Haven
• 1 Tolaria West
• 1 Azorius Chancery
• 1 Karoo
• 1 Coral Atoll
• 1 Glacial Fortress
• 1 Nimbus Maze
• 1 Adarkar Wastes
• 1 Sejiri Refuge
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 11 Plains
• 11 Island

Buy This Deck

I hope this was a helpful guide to theme-weaving in Commander and provided some cool ideas to anyone planning a similar deck!

I’ve been focusing my articles on Commander so far, and I am curious if people would like to read more about it or would be interested in hearing about some other formats such as Cube or Planechase. Let me know in the comments, and I’ll be back next week to talk about some more Avacyn Restored spoilers!