Readers!

Thanks so much for coming back here yet again to hear my weird thoughts. Ikoria has a ton of powerful cards; and, while powerful usually leads to linearity, I'm resisting that urge pretty hard and steering us into some more interesting directions. One thing that interests me is the concept of Companions, easily the most abusable and misguided decision since, I guess, exactly 2 sets ago where they gave us a Commune With Nature that cost 0 mana and a Beast Within on a stick. Anything that's free and repeatable will be abused, and players in every format from Vintage to Standard have made it clear that if you give them what amounts to a Dark Confidant that gains you life instead of costing you life that starts the game on your mat, players are going to take advantage. Lurrus doesn't really interest me as a Commander player, however. There is another Companion I've set my sights on and have been brewing around heavily since Day 1.

You'd think it was Gyruda, Doom of Depths, wouldn't you? Despite the restriction on mana costs which makes it impossible to play Sol Ring, Gyruda is a very, very 75% card, stealing their cards every turn. I will brew with Gyruda someday soon but for now, I'm more interested in a Companion that lets me play my favorite type of card more effectively rather than just being what amounts to the 101st card in a Dragonlord Dromoka deck that needs to replace its Mana Vault with an Arcane Signet and swap out Treachery for Confiscate. What is my favorite type of card? Well, astute readers probably figured it out before I did, but this year it occurred to me that my favorite card type is the Enchantment.

Enchantments do something more than once, they amplify each other's power and your other spells, and they can serve as win conditions, or nullify your opponents'. Enchantments can protect your cards or steal theirs, they can sometimes attack and they can make mana and draw cards. Anything a non-permanent spell can do, an Enchantment can do every turn. They usually have a higher mana cost to compensate for how effective they are, but that doesn't matter since Commander allows us mana ramp, time, and other players being attractive targets to attack, all of which let us survive long enough to play our Thousand Year Storms, Lurking Predators, and Sunbird's Invocations. I managed to make a Control Magic tribal deck, and it's still one of my favorite decks to play. Liking Enchantments this much made me look at a card that could make playing Enchantments more effective by making them all cheaper. That card came from a very unlikely color combination.

Golgari isn't the first color combination you think of when you think "oops, all Enchantments" but Umori made me think of the possibilities instantly. It was a bit of a stretch to try and build an Enchantment deck - most people thought immediately of artifacts. I reached out to Magicfest vendor and Brainstorm Brewery guest DJ Johnson for some advice about how to build a deck around Glissa, the Traitor because I know that was his first deck. When I first looked at his decklist, I thought "Oh, this won't work, he has Artifact Creatures in here" and I brought up Umori to double check the text.

Each nonland card in your starting deck shares a card type.

Shares.

It was on, now. With the ability to play Artifact Creatures, Umori was going to be all upside for a deck like Glissa. DJ's list is pretty old, but here it is for reference.

Glissa, the Traitor | Commander | DJ Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Glissa, the Traitor

• Creatures (14)
• 1 Arcbound Ravager
• 1 Blightsteel Colossus
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Duplicant
• 1 Junk Diver
• 1 Kuldotha Forgemaster
• 1 Lodestone Golem
• 1 Metalworker
• 1 Myr Battlesphere
• 1 Myr Retriever
• 1 Shimmer Myr
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Sylvok Replica
• 1 Wurmcoil Engine

• Sorceries (1)
• 1 All Is Dust

• Artifacts (47)
• 1 Altar of Dementia
• 1 Clock of Omens
• 1 Codex Shredder
• 1 Contagion Clasp
• 1 Contagion Engine
• 1 Cranial Plating
• 1 Crucible of Worlds
• 1 Darksteel Forge
• 1 Darksteel Plate
• 1 Dreamstone Hedron
• 1 Everflowing Chalice
• 1 Gilded Lotus
• 1 Golgari Keyrune
• 1 Golgari Signet
• 1 Grafted Exoskeleton
• 1 Ichor Wellspring
• 1 Krark-Clan Ironworks
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Lotus Petal
• 1 Mana Crypt
• 1 Mana Vault
• 1 Memory Jar
• 1 Mimic Vat
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Mind's Eye
• 1 Mindslaver
• 1 Mox Opal
• 1 Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1 Nihil Spellbomb
• 1 Nim Deathmantle
• 1 Oblivion Stone
• 1 Plague Boiler
• 1 Ratchet Bomb
• 1 Salvaging Station
• 1 Sculpting Steel
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Spine of Ish Sah
• 1 Staff of Nin
• 1 Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1 Thran Dynamo
• 1 Trading Post
• 1 Unwinding Clock
• 1 Vedalken Orrery
• 1 Wayfarer's Bauble
• 1 Worn Powerstone
• 1 Thornbite Staff

• Lands (37)
• 4 Swamp
• 7 Forest
• 1 Ancient Tomb
• 1 Bayou
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Darksteel Citadel
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Forbidden Orchard
• 1 Golgari Rot Farm
• 1 High Market
• 1 Llanowar Wastes
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Phyrexia's Core
• 1 Phyrexian Tower
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 1 Strip Mine
• 1 Thespian's Stage
• 1 Tree of Tales
• 1 Twilight Mire
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1 Vault of Whispers
• 1 Verdant Catacombs
• 1 Volrath's Stronghold
• 1 Woodland Cemetery

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All is Dust has to go and the deck needs to be updated a bit for new printings but as a deck, this would work well with a reduced mana cost for its spells. Glissa gets Artifacts back from the graveyard and puts them in your hand when a creature dies and being able to play a Ratchet Bomb for 1 mana or to more affordably loop a Contagion Engine with Krark-Clan Ironworks would make the deck a little more resilient in addition to the cost reduction in general just making the deck faster. A lot of cards have been printed since DJ took the deck apart like Scrap Trawler, Walking Ballista, and Hope of Ghirapur, so there is no shortage of cards to replace the All is Dust as well as a few older, clunky cards.

How seamlessly Umori would interface with this deck excited me - I like the idea of my enchantments being cheaper even if it meant I would have to run only Enchantments in the deck.

Or did it? Umori's restrictions apply to having Umori be your companion, but if you wanted to build a deck where Umori was the Commander, though it stuck you in Golgari colors, you could run any card type you wanted, though you'd focus on one of them because you'd have to choose that type when you played Umori from the command zone. An Umori deck focused on Enchantments could be fun. I'd run something a little bit like this.

Umori Povitch | Commander | Jason Alt

• Commander (1)
• 1 Umori, the Collector

• Creatures (26)
• 1 Agent of Erebos
• 1 Arasta of the Endless Web
• 1 Archetype of Endurance
• 1 Archetype of Finality
• 1 Argothian Enchantress
• 1 Courser of Kruphix
• 1 Destiny Spinner
• 1 Doomwake Giant
• 1 Dryad of the Ilysian Grove
• 1 Eidolon of Blossoms
• 1 Erebos, God of the Dead
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Fate Unraveler
• 1 Grim Guardian
• 1 Herald of the Pantheon
• 1 Nighthowler
• 1 Nylea, God of the Hunt
• 1 Nylea's Colossus
• 1 Nylea's Forerunner
• 1 Nyx Weaver
• 1 Pharika, God of Affliction
• 1 Pharika's Mender
• 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1 Setessan Champion
• 1 Thoughtrender Lamia
• 1 Verduran Enchantress

• Instants (3)
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Golgari Charm
• 1 Putrefy

• Sorceries (8)
• 1 Casualties of War
• 1 Commune with the Gods
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Extinguish All Hope
• 1 Gaze of Granite
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Kruphix's Insight
• 1 Reviving Melody

• Enchantments (24)
• 1 Ancestral Mask
• 1 Animate Dead
• 1 Cryptolith Rite
• 1 Deadbridge Chant
• 1 Deathreap Ritual
• 1 Dictate of Erebos
• 1 Enchantress's Presence
• 1 Evolutionary Leap
• 1 Fertile Ground
• 1 Font of Fertility
• 1 Kenrith's Transformation
• 1 Lignify
• 1 Moldervine Reclamation
• 1 Oath of the Ancient Wood
• 1 Omen of the Hunt
• 1 Path of Discovery
• 1 Pernicious Deed
• 1 Phyrexian Arena
• 1 Phyrexian Reclamation
• 1 Sandwurm Convergence
• 1 Seal of Primordium
• 1 Song of the Dryads
• 1 Strength from the Fallen
• 1 Wild Growth

• Artifacts (4)
• 1 Golgari Signet
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Whip of Erebos

• Lands (34)
• 13 Forest
• 8 Swamp
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Golgari Guildgate
• 1 Golgari Rot Farm
• 1 Grim Backwoods
• 1 Jungle Hollow
• 1 Llanowar Wastes
• 1 Nurturing Peatland
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Tainted Wood
• 1 Temple of Malady
• 1 Woodland Cemetery

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This is a very quick-and-dirty version of a stock Pharika deck that moves Pharika to the 99 and puts Umori at the helm to make our enchantments much cheaper to cast. We have a ton of Enchantment/Creatures in the deck since this is heavily from Theros blocks but since they'll get the cost reduction from Umori, it benefits us to play as many Enchantments as we can and running cards that are both is all upside. If I'm modifying this deck, I'm likely adding Squirrel Nest/Earthcraft and Parallel Lives and really steering into the token production capabilities since I won't have Pharika every game, but as an example of the kind of things that are possible, even a stock list like this immediately showcases how effective a cost reducer like Umori would be. Spells like Sandwurm Convergence and Thoughrender Lamia are more attractive at a lower mana cost and being able to rip off spells like Fertile Ground for 1 mana to draw some cards with your Enchantresses makes your mid game a lot smoother. You even have Archetype of Endurance coming down a turn earlier to protect Umori and the rest of your creatures.

We've learned quite a bit looking at these decks. The flexibility of having to have your cards share a card type but not all be the same type allows you access to a lot more cards than you might think, and being able to reduce the cost of all of them will only make your deck more effective. With that said, how would we want to approach a 75% build that has access to Umori as a Companion? We don't have to remain Golgari but we'll need the deck to contain at least Golgari colors to have Umori be a legal companion. We can have Creatures and Artifacts as long as they're also Enchantments like Dryad of the Ilysian Grove or Bow of Nylea, but we'll have to figure out some other way to ramp our mana. If I wanted to take advantage of Umori to the fullest, here is what I'd build today.

I wrote an article about an all-enchantment deck inspired by the fun I used to have running Enduring Ideal in casual and that list isn't a terrible starting point. There have been quite a few good cards printed since then, and I think steering into the nastiest elements of the deck are the way I want to approach it. I want to punish my opponents for having creatures and for playing spells and I can do that in a deck like this fairly consistently. I'm going to have a great deal of White cards and Serra's Sanctum will be a big help here. As much as I hate when tutors feel like second copies of cards, I'm going to run Golos, Tireless Pilgrim as the commander of the deck so I can find my mana fixing and, yes, Serra's Sanctum. Sue me. I won't want to activate Golos that often, though, because why make your Enchantments cheaper if you're going to bin a bunch of them and cheat out the rest? This deck is going to be as nasty as I can stand to make it and it should be fairly fun to play. Using the original Genju deck as a basis, here's what I'd play with Umori as a companion.

Nevermore naming Merciless Eviction | Commander | Jason Alt

• Commander (1)
• 1 Golos, Tireless Pilgrim

• Creatures (1)
• 1 Dryad of the Ilysian Grove

• Enchantments (62)
• 1 Abundance
• 1 Assemble the Legion
• 1 Aura of Silence
• 1 Blind Obedience
• 1 Bloodchief Ascension
• 1 Breathstealer's Crypt
• 1 Call to the Grave
• 1 Cloud Cover
• 1 Collective Restraint
• 1 Confiscate
• 1 Control Magic
• 1 Copy Enchantment
• 1 Curse of Opulence
• 1 Dawn's Reflection
• 1 Decree of Silence
• 1 Detention Sphere
• 1 Dissipation Field
• 1 Dueling Grounds
• 1 Enchantress's Presence
• 1 Estrid's Invocation
• 1 Fertile Ground
• 1 Ghostly Prison
• 1 Greater Auramancy
• 1 Honden of Cleansing Fire
• 1 Honden of Infinite Rage
• 1 Honden of Life's Web
• 1 Honden of Night's Reach
• 1 Honden of Seeing Winds
• 1 Humility
• 1 Karmic Justice
• 1 Leyline of Sanctity
• 1 Luminarch Ascension
• 1 Maelstrom Nexus
• 1 Marchesa's Decree
• 1 Mind's Dilation
• 1 Mirari's Wake
• 1 Mirrormade
• 1 Nevermore
• 1 No Mercy
• 1 Oblivion Ring
• 1 Orim's Prayer
• 1 Overburden
• 1 Paradox Haze
• 1 Phyrexian Arena
• 1 Polluted Bonds
• 1 Privileged Position
• 1 Propaganda
• 1 Revel in Riches
• 1 Sacred Mesa
• 1 Sigil of the Empty Throne
• 1 Smothering Tithe
• 1 Sphere of Safety
• 1 Sterling Grove
• 1 Sunbird's Invocation
• 1 Sylvan Library
• 1 Teferi's Moat
• 1 Trace of Abundance
• 1 Treachery
• 1 Utopia Sprawl
• 1 Vicious Shadows
• 1 Vile Consumption
• 1 Wild Growth

• Lands (36)
• 1 Mountain
• 1 Swamp
• 2 Forest
• 2 Island
• 4 Plains
• 1 Arcane Sanctum
• 1 Bountiful Promenade
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Crumbling Necropolis
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Forbidden Orchard
• 1 Frontier Bivouac
• 1 Gateway Plaza
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Hall of Heliod's Generosity
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Jungle Shrine
• 1 Mystic Monastery
• 1 Nomad Outpost
• 1 Opulent Palace
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Path of Ancestry
• 1 Sacred Foundry
• 1 Sandsteppe Citadel
• 1 Savage Lands
• 1 Seaside Citadel
• 1 Temple Garden
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Transguild Promenade

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Is this deck good? It very well might be. It's definitely my kind of deck and it's also a great way to showcase just how effective Umori will be when it's reducing the cost of everything in your deck. Is that significant? I don't know! Yes? Probably? The real question is whether you're hampered by the deck-building restrictions imposed on you by having Umori in your companion zone or in your command zone. I don't know that you are, and these 3 lists demonstrate various ways to circumvent the restriction and also demonstrate how loose it really is. Everything has to share a type meaning you can run Purphoros, God of the Forge and Godsend in the same deck and still be able to cheese wins with Luminarch Ascension. Umori is a fun card, it's not too arduous to follow its rules and I got to dust off a lot of classic decks and breathe new life into them. Can't beat that for your deck's 100th card.

That does it for me, everyone. Please, please argue with me in the comments, or tell me which companion you're building with, or tell me that you liked my early work better like the jaded hipsters you all are. Thanks so much for reading this column long enough for me to have "classic" articles to look back and join me next week for more unhinged mayhem as we wade deeper into the two sets they dropped on us concurrently when we can't even buy cards. Until next time!