Things change. This week, we experienced what we in the MTG finance community call an “event.” Usually, an event is a card’s printing, announced reprinting, banning, unbanning, or the like. This event has an effect on prices, either of a specific card that was affected or of cards related to it—a kind of financial ripple effect.

Duel Commander had a lot of shakeups, including the banning of Food Chain and the unbanning of Sensei's Divining Top, but even those events didn’t seem to mean much. Duel Commander is a drop in the bucket in terms of overall Commander play, and those few changes don’t really have any financial upside or downside. I was starting to think we had escaped another day unscathed. But there was one problem: We were still awaiting the update by the Commander rules committee.

I didn’t know what to expect. I see a lot of complaints online about cards like Deadeye Navigator, Prophet of Kruphix, and Consecrated Sphinx, but the rules committee doesn’t seem to consider those cards the real problem. Commander doesn’t have to be a fun experience; that’s up to the social contract and players’ own sensibilities. The rules committee isn’t the police. Prophet of Kruphix was spared this week, as was Deadeye Navigator. In fact, nothing was banned. Instead of banning cards, they decided to go further than anyone had anticipated they would and ban the actual concept of tucking.

I’ll explain. Tucking is the shorthand slang that refers to taking someone’s commander and either shuffling it into the deck or putting it on the bottom of the deck. The player is deprived of his or her commander unless the player can tutor for it since a creature in the deck can’t be cast from the command zone.

Until now! With the announcement that a commander could be returned to the command zone no matter to which zone it had been assigned—graveyard, hand, exile, or even the library—the rules had changed forever . . . or, you know, until they change it back or people ignore the ruling.

What will a world with the new tuck rules look like? Oblation is a good card still, but it’s a worse card than it was last week. I feel the same way about Chaos Warp and Hinder and Terminus. But some cards became better. Removal like Darksteel Mutation and Song of the Dryads are looking mighty tasty. And some troublesome commanders, specifically ones who really suffered from a-tuckin’, became better. Can we build one of those without taking too much advantage of how people are going to scramble to deal with them by building 75%?

Maybe a card pool restriction will get the creative juices flowing. Can we run a deck in which we have only enchantments plus our commander but not suffer from the typical scenarios in which we only have one creature. We were vulnerable to tuck before and couldn’t go all-in on only having one creature, but now we can stretch out a bit. I may even cheat a little bit—Courser of Kruphix is an enchantment after all! But why even cheat? Why not include a few creatures that support the Enchantress theme? What would it look like?

Uril, the MistStalker ? Commander | Jason Alt

• Commander (0)

• Creatures (16)
• 1 Academy Rector
• 1 Ajani's Chosen
• 1 Argothian Enchantress
• 1 Auramancer
• 1 Eidolon of Blossoms
• 1 Eidolon of Countless Battles
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Kor Spiritdancer
• 1 Mesa Enchantress
• 1 Sun Titan
• 1 Totem-Guide Hartebeest
• 1 Umbra Mystic
• 1 Verduran Enchantress
• 1 Heliod, God of the Sun
• 1 Nylea, God of the Hunt
• 1 Xenagos, God of Revels

• Spells (49)
• 1 Ancestral Mask
• 1 Angelic Destiny
• 1 Armadillo Cloak
• 1 Asha's Favor
• 1 Aura of Silence
• 1 Aura Shards
• 1 Battle Mastery
• 1 Bear Umbra
• 1 Bearscape
• 1 Cage of Hands
• 1 Celestial Mantle
• 1 Daybreak Coronet
• 1 Dragon Roost
• 1 Enchantress's Presence
• 1 Flickerform
• 1 Flickering Ward
• 1 Gift of Immortality
• 1 Hyena Umbra
• 1 Indrik Umbra
• 1 Instill Energy
• 1 Keen Sense
• 1 Kudzu
• 1 Land Tax
• 1 Luminarch Ascension
• 1 Madcap Skills
• 1 Mana Bloom
• 1 Mayael's Aria
• 1 Oblivion Ring
• 1 Pattern of Rebirth
• 1 Pollenbright Wings
• 1 Privileged Position
• 1 Rancor
• 1 Runes of the Deus
• 1 Sacred Mesa
• 1 Seal of Cleansing
• 1 Seal of Primordium
• 1 Shackles
• 1 Shield of the Oversoul
• 1 Sigil of the Empty Throne
• 1 Snake Umbra
• 1 Spectra Ward
• 1 Spider Umbra
• 1 Spirit Mantle
• 1 Sterling Grove
• 1 Trace of Abundance
• 1 Unquestioned Authority
• 1 Verdant Embrace
• 1 Vow of Wilderness
• 1 Eldrazi Conscription

• Lands (34)
• 2 Mountain
• 2 Plains
• 3 Forest
• 1 City of Brass
• 1 Clifftop Retreat
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Contested Cliffs
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Fire-Lit Thicket
• 1 Jungle Shrine
• 1 Krosan Verge
• 1 Mosswort Bridge
• 1 Razorverge Thicket
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Rootbound Crag
• 1 Sacred Foundry
• 1 Spinerock Knoll
• 1 Stirring Wildwood
• 1 Stomping Ground
• 1 Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
• 1 Sunpetal Grove
• 1 Temple Garden
• 1 Temple of Abandon
• 1 Temple of Plenty
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Temple of Triumph
• 1 Thespian's Stage
• 1 Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
• 1 Serra's Sanctum
• 1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep

Buy This Deck

There are a lot of combos here. What’s just as important is what’s missing. I excluded a lot of board wipes such as Cleansing Meditation. I am playing creatures, lands, and enchantments. We had to use some durdly enchantments to help with mana, which feels good to me as a 75% builder. They get the job done and constrict our card pool so we can build with powerful cards. I excluded a lot of the mass land destruction that is characteristic of Uril decks as well. But ultimately, the deck needs to be beatable. Before, when commanders could be tucked, decks with Uril ran cards like Sigarda, Host of Herons and Tajuru Preserver to make sure Edicts didn’t pants you. I excluded those cards to give other decks a fighting chance. Feel free to slot them in if your group adapts.

There is real power and real synergy here. I think this is a ton of fun, and I think, despite you being able to return Uril to the command zone nearly no matter what happens to him, this is a fair, fun, powerful 75% Uril deck, and I think you can get there 1 × X games without adding anything, although feel free.

Will we miss the old tuck rules? Will your group ignore the new decree? Has it been a really long time since anything was tucked in your group? Let’s get a dialogue going below. Thanks for reading, and I’ll be back next week, and I’ll try not to talk about Dragons and Hydras as I seem to everywhere else!