Multicolor Commanders are the face of the format. While I personally love to see the zany antics that a monocolored theme produces, if it weren’t for the collection of colorful Commanders, the format probably wouldn’t exist. Multiple colors allows the peanut-butter-meets-chocolate moments of mixing every card you ever loved, and the vote was clear.

It’s time to mix it up.

When I checked the vote at the end of the night prior to the New Phyrexia prerelease (which was utterly amazing—thanks, everyone!) the multicolor Commander option was the clear winner. While Homura, Human Ascendant was the runaway monocolored winner, it was an extremely narrow win by Jenara, Asura of War over Glissa, the Traitor by a vote or two—and going multicolor won as well.

Who said getting out the vote doesn’t matter?

Jenara is an Angel left forgotten from Alara Reborn. After a little hype, she fell by the wayside in the world of Mythic/Jund Standard. But in the hearts of Commander players, the Bant shard lives on, carried by wings of hope.

Or something like that, anyway.

Angels: How Do They Work?

Jenara, as our latest Commander of choice, has some interesting tension built in. The colors of Blue, White, and Green combine to great effect for decks to play aggro or control angles. Jenara herself is an evasive attacker who quickly scales up to whatever mana you have. She’s a builder’s dream—whatever kind of deck you want, you can get.

And before diving deep into tuning a tricolored conglomeration, I’d like to take some time to approach a different, but related, topic. What do you think of the following deck?

"Jenara"

• Creatures (20)
• 1 Acidic Slime
• 1 Calciderm
• 1 Chameleon Colossus
• 1 Consecrated Sphinx
• 1 Dauntless Escort
• 1 Deathless Angel
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Knight of New Alara
• 1 Lighthouse Chronologist
• 1 Masked Admirers
• 1 Nacatl War-Pride
• 1 Qasali Pridemage
• 1 Silklash Spider
• 1 Sunblast Angel
• 1 Terastodon
• 1 Thornling
• 1 Wall of Denial
• 1 Witch Hunter
• 1 Wurmcoil Engine
• 1 Jenara, Asura of War

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
• 1 Garruk Wildspeaker

• Spells (45)
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Disenchant
• 1 Dissipate
• 1 Enlightened Tutor
• 1 Harrow
• 1 Hinder
• 1 Krosan Grip
• 1 Momentous Fall
• 1 Naturalize
• 1 Oblation
• 1 Radiant's Judgment
• 1 Realms Uncharted
• 1 Reprisal
• 1 Spin into Myth
• 1 Austere Command
• 1 Day of Judgment
• 1 Desert Twister
• 1 Dust to Dust
• 1 Green Sun's Zenith
• 1 Harmonize
• 1 Hymn of Rebirth
• 1 Phyrexian Rebirth
• 1 Primal Command
• 1 Regrowth
• 1 Rout
• 1 Asceticism
• 1 Cream of the Crop
• 1 Defense of the Heart
• 1 Finest Hour
• 1 Hunting Grounds
• 1 Land Tax
• 1 Oblivion Ring
• 1 Quest for Renewal
• 1 Rancor
• 1 Rhystic Study
• 1 Righteous Aura
• 1 Lignify
• 1 Cauldron of Souls
• 1 Darksteel Ingot
• 1 Everflowing Chalice
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Mimic Vat
• 1 Mind's Eye
• 1 Planar Portal
• 1 Sol Ring

• Lands (33)
• 2 Forest
• 4 Island
• 4 Plains
• 1 Coastal Tower
• 1 Elfhame Palace
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Gemstone Mine
• 1 Glacial Fortress
• 1 Grand Coliseum
• 1 Graypelt Refuge
• 1 Horizon Canopy
• 1 Krosan Verge
• 1 Mystifying Maze
• 1 Razorverge Thicket
• 1 Reflecting Pool
• 1 Seachrome Coast
• 1 Seaside Citadel
• 1 Stirring Wildwood
• 1 Strip Mine
• 1 Sunpetal Grove
• 1 Tectonic Edge
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Vesuva
• 1 Windswept Heath
• 1 Arctic Flats
• 1 Boreal Shelf

Buy This Deck Export text format

I can hear the echoes already. Mediocre. Average. Weak. Let me share a little secret: This deck steals games and no one really sees it coming. This is a deck list for my friend’s Jenara deck, one that he continues to tweak and tamper with, but never deviates from his plan.

Playing ’possum.

A Deck to Suit

Everyone has different approaches to gaming. For illustrative purposes, let’s talk about the three broad categories of playing multiplayer:

• Aggressive: You immediately and directly work to win.
• Passive: You actively resist being overt or direct.
• Defensive: You actively stop other players’ plans.

These are groundbreaking systems or new ways to slice the same game; these breakdowns are to help classify actions and activity we plan to take in games.

Defensive gaming is classical turtling: You craft a fortress, then rain pain behind the sturdy blocks against your opponents. It’s also so much more:

• Wrath of God effects
• Prison and lock-down decks
• Rule-setting effects (Rule of Law)

Defensive playing is both proactive or reactive interaction; it’s any combination of effects that stop opponents from taking their plans through to completion. Defensive players play to deflect heat or focus to what they perceive as the greatest threat. Defensive players also highlight their lack of aggression and overtly dangerous activity.

Aggressive gaming is what I specialize in: attacking head-on, clearly, and without too much inhibition. Anything powerfully explosive or devastating to levy against opponents is considered aggressive:

• Armageddon and Creeping Corrosion effects
• Mass token production
• Equipment, auras, and other boosting effects
• Combo decks

Being aggressive isn’t as simplistic as just “Attack!” every time. Directly attacking other players, looking to bring them down, can come through various angles outside of the combat step. Playing aggressive means not beating around the bush, and being unafraid to roll into the danger zone as the rule.

Passive playing is what my friend specializes in: angling to be neither overly defensive nor actively aggressive, making measured steps to be unassuming and lower on the threat chain. Unlike aggressive and defensive styles, passive gaming is characterized by certain cards. It’s all about control of information and reading opponents—choosing to act only when it’s required.

Passive players understand that it’s usually the most obvious of things that will get you killed, so they plan to never be the big threat—whether it’s with creatures and destruction, or defensive positioning and mana-ramping. It’s an entire philosophy of calculated weakness, and by the late game, they will have sculpted other players’ demises while stocking explosive effects in hand, surprising the last remaining player(s).

Bank on It

The Jenara deck above is piloted by a passive player, and it shows: lots of answers to keep the game moving, but specific threats that close the game out in a hurry. Cards like Mimic Vat take advantage of longer games, and provide sources of interaction without having to overcommit resources.

That’s the beauty of playing passively: Unless things are going really wrong, you can generally wait out a firestorm and rely on political maneuvering to keep you out of trouble. And when things start to get carried away, leveling a Wrath effect seems like smart business rather than aggressive or defensive posturing.

While I don’t plan to be passive while playing Magic anytime soon, I can certainly mine his passive deck list for some of the cards that would fit a more aggressive one.

Creatures:

Consecrated Sphinx

Thornling

Wurmcoil Engine

Noncreature Permanents:

Elspeth, Knight-Errant

Finest Hour

Hunting Grounds

Spells:

Hymn of Rebirth

Green Sun's Zenith

Spin Into Myth

It’s pretty sweet to be aggressive: You get to play with all the cool toys at once. What does this mean for us? It’s means there are different packages of aggression that can be assembled.

A creature package features many of the ideas that drove my Kamahl, Fist of Krosa deck to other colors. Two of the creatures listed above were highlighted as things to include in a mono-Green deck; Consecrated Sphinx is just the tip of the iceberg outside of that.

Blue:

• Gilded Drake steals the best around.
• Sakashima the Impostor does as well.
• Keiga, the Tide Star is one of the best Dragons ever.
• Body Double only gets better the longer things go.

White:

• Mirror Entity can end games on the spot.
• Archon of Justice rewards aggressive attacks.
• Stonehewer Giant tutors equipment.
• Stoneforge Mystic does as well.

Multicolor:

• Knight of the Reliquary is a personal favorite of mine.
• Rafiq of the Many—using other “Commanders” in a deck often surprises opponents.

Creatures aren’t the only permanents that get better by looking beyond just Green.

Blue:

• Rhystic Study is the face of annoying card draw.
• Equilibrium helps you clear blockers.

White:

• Elspeth, Knight-Errant is an amazing card for aggressive decks.
• Land Tax opens up incredible land-fetching.
• Aura of Silence can be defensive, but the Seal of Cleansing side is very useful.

Multicolor:

• Venser, the Sojourner opens up enters-the-battlefield shenanigans.
• Hunting Grounds allows you to slip things into play quickly.
• Finest Hour is probably the best attack enchantment ever.

The spells available to us in Bant are incredible as well. The power that can be added to a usual Green plan is staggering.

Blue:

• Bribery is as brutal as it is effective.
• Acquire is often the same.
• Time Stop is a way to shortcut an opponent’s turn.

White:

• Hallowed Burial can wreck many players game plans.
• Oblation is the best removal against other’s Commanders.
• Rout lets us Wrath then untap to load the board.

Multicolor:

• Wargate is like a tutor on steroids.
• Bant Charm has so many uses.

A Question of Angles

While I have some ideas for piecing together the puzzle of two additional colors, I’m interested in understanding how you want to see it go down. Just like before, take your vote to the ballot and tell me how to build my deck.

[poll id=18]

[poll id=19]

Let me know what you want, and I’ll come back next week with spreadsheets of cards and pricing, fleshing out a final deck list to rock. See you then!