I’ve become the kind of person that wants to see the look on my opponents’ faces when I tap 4 mana and murder them with Paradoxical Outcome and a full board. I have to keep a full board, but if there is a color that can keep them from wiping you out, it’s Blue. I can even Snapcaster Mage or Archaeomancer or Torrential Gearhulk it back if I want. I’m not primarily relying on this spell to do that, but in the games where I do either win or take a hunk out of their hides with it, I’m going to be a happy camper. Considering campers are the most despised sort of person in FPS games, I’m going to go full Dimir and really embrace the role, stealing as much of their stuff as I can with my sneaky “Hit them to do cool stuff” cards like Thada Adel, Acquisitor and Dimir Cutpurse. I play cards like that when I can, anyway, and giving them intimidate means I’ll hit more often and put them in lethal “Outcome” range. Even casting outcome with 2 creatures in play and no Vela means I can bounce creatures like Mulldrifter and Solemn Simulacrum to recast them for even more value. There’s a lot that this card can do in the deck it inspires but let’s not pretend we’re not a lethal fighting force without it because we absolutely are. I’m jamming a ton of ninja in the deck because of course I am. How would a Vela deck optimized for Paradoxical Outcome wins look?

Smooth like VelaBeata ? Commander | Jason Alt

• Commander (1)
• 1 Vela the Night-Clad

• Creatures (32)
• 1 Archaeomancer
• 1 Baleful Strix
• 1 Deadeye Navigator
• 1 Diluvian Primordial
• 1 Dimir Cutpurse
• 1 Dimir Infiltrator
• 1 Faerie Artisans
• 1 Filigree Familiar
• 1 Ghastlord of Fugue
• 1 Gonti, Lord of Luxury
• 1 Grave Titan
• 1 Higure, the Still Wind
• 1 Inkfathom Witch
• 1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
• 1 Invisible Stalker
• 1 Mistblade Shinobi
• 1 Mulldrifter
• 1 Nightveil Specter
• 1 Ninja of the Deep Hours
• 1 Okiba-Gang Shinobi
• 1 Sakashima's Student
• 1 Shadowmage Infiltrator
• 1 Shriekmaw
• 1 Silent-Blade Oni
• 1 Sire of Stagnation
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Sower of Temptation
• 1 Thada Adel, Acquisitor
• 1 Thassa, God of the Sea
• 1 Throat Slitter
• 1 Walker of Secret Ways
• 1 Wrexial, the Risen Deep

• Instants (7)
• 1 Curtains' Call
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Desertion
• 1 Disallow
• 1 Disappearing Act
• 1 Mirror Match
• 1 Paradoxical Outcome

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 Curse of the Swine
• 1 Decree of Pain
• 1 Rite of Replication
• 1 Stolen Identity
• 1 Undercity Plague

• Enchantments (6)
• 1 Coastal Piracy
• 1 Dire Undercurrents
• 1 Equilibrium
• 1 Omniscience
• 1 Phyrexian Arena
• 1 Rhystic Study

• Artifacts (10)
• 1 Blade of Selves
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Conjurer's Closet
• 1 Crystal Shard
• 1 Dimir Signet
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Panharmonicon
• 1 Quietus Spike
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Whispersilk Cloak

• Lands (39)
• 13 Swamp
• 15 Island
• 1 Choked Estuary
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Dimir Aqueduct
• 1 Dismal Backwater
• 1 Drowned Catacomb
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Sunken Hollow
• 1 Tainted Isle
• 1 Temple of Deceit
• 1 Watery Grave

Buy This Deck

I think the mana curve of ETB creatures may be a bit high. If you Outcome mid-game, you may not be able to recast much of that stuff very easily. One way to combat this was with the addition of Omniscience, a card that should end the game fairly easily if you have lots of ways to bounce permanents. Equilibrium, a few mana and Omniscience should be enough to get you a game-ending number of Vela triggers. It’s expensive, but “I win” spells should be and its inclusion here is going to be fun and if they can’t deal with it, they deserve to lose. I may try and lower the curve on my ETB stuff if I tune this deck, but I added Filigree Familiar in an attempt to mitigate it already. I may want to add creatures like Tormented Soul just to make sure at the very least I’m able to play some early ninja.

I added fewer of my pet cards than normal, which feels bad, but I’ll get over it. Vela is built a specific way and I didn’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater by changing too much. I like where this ended up and I think trying to optimize a deck that already exists to interact more with a new card is a fun way to spruce a tired, old deck up. If you had Vela built and got sick of it, why not try to optimize it to interact with a new card? I picked Paradoxical Outcome but you could easily pick Aetherflux Reservoir or Mechanized Production or Aether Poisoner. It lets you build a “new” deck without scrapping one. Believe me, those of us in the finance community love it when EDH players (myself included, I’m super guilty of this) build new decks and never tear old ones apart. Financiers love to talk about how Legacy players will buy 4 Tarmogoyfs but EDH players only buy one Puresteel Paladin but they forget about my 11 foil Perilous Forays and 8 [card]Chromatic Lantern[/cards.

Thanks for reading, everyone. Got an idea about how to change up an old deck to interact more with a new card? Hit me with a list in the comments section. Until next time!