Readers!

I almost wrote this article months ago. I know that doesn't sound THAT remarkable, but here's some additional context - I'm only writing it now because I couldn't come up with a commander for the deck before and they just printed one. You read that right, I had the deck and it just needed a commander. Luckily, and I do mean luckily because this had to be just for me and sickos like me, my Thesis Enchantment, the one I was considering running stuff like Demonic Tutor to try and fish out of my Rakdos deck, now has a second printing. This time it's a creature. A Legendary one. Our Thesis Enchantment is our commander. I'm legally obligated to build this deck.

Before we talk about the commander, though, we should talk about the card that made me really want to build the deck. This won't shock you - it came from Commander Legends: Baldur's Gate, a set I just recently expressed my appreciation for. It's not a Legendary creature but it nevertheless showed me how I wanted to build at first sight.

This costs six but it sure is worth it, as Nalfeshnee doubles things. Doubling things is what we want to do in this format and this doubles something new - Spells played from Exile. I couldn't really think of too many off the top of my head, so I decided to use scryfall and see how many cards actually let you cast spells from exile. There were way more than I thought, and it wasn't all dumb, expensive stuff like Dream Pillager (great name, but weird for a Red card), some of the cards were cards Red decks should play anyway like Dire Fleet Daredevil and Laelia, the Blade Reforged. Imagine Doubling Etali triggers, or Stolen Strategy, or a second Stolen Strategy that is also your commander. I alluded to this earlier - we're not going to be able to stay Rakdos but we're not even going to mind once you get a load of who I want at the helm.

It's like Stolen Strategy but more political? Be still my heart! This is a fine commander if you just want to get a bunch of extra spells for value, but if we're building around it, let's build around it. If we're going to focus on casting spells from exile so that we get full value from Nalfeshnee we can play all sort of cards that we've never considered before. You're going to have to look up what an Enchant World even is, baby, because card number one on my "I want to build around this" wishlist is an oldy but a finally goody.

Sure, your opponents get access to something new as well, but this isn't about giving them incidental value, it's about generating so much value for yourself with these cards that they can't compete anyway. One great thing about Plargg and Nassari is that you have the opportunity to get access to their mana rocks every so often, which will be huge. This deck is very, very mana-hungry. It's also a bit slow, which means it's a bit of a relic these days. Commander used to be slow, but as people continue to think this is a format where optimization is better than fun and winning is better than doubling an Elkin Lair cast with a creature you can't pronounce, it gets faster. We're unlikely to be able to keep up with faster decks unless we get some help, and getting help from their decks seems like the best way. When I started making 75% decks, I wanted decks that wouldn't steamroll casual tables. Now I am using gimmicks just to be able to keep up with precons. Power creep is making the six-mana creature an endangered species, but things aren't so dire that we can't get things going in our favor with the help of a bunch of their spells. We use their cards to make sure our deck is appropriate for the table and we still are. Let's see this monstrosity of a decklist, shall we?

Nassari, Take Two | Commander | Jason Alt

• Commander (1)
• 1 Plargg and Nassari

• Creatures (21)
• 1 Atsushi, the Blazing Sky
• 1 Birgi, God of Storytelling
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Dire Fleet Daredevil
• 1 Dualcaster Mage
• 1 Etali, Primal Storm
• 1 Hellkite Tyrant
• 1 Kami of Celebration
• 1 Keeper of Secrets
• 1 Laelia, the Blade Reforged
• 1 Nalfeshnee
• 1 Oblivion Sower
• 1 Professional Face-Breaker
• 1 Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
• 1 Robber of the Rich
• 1 Runaway Steam-Kin
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Storm-Kiln Artist
• 1 Tectonic Giant
• 1 Urabrask, Heretic Praetor
• 1 Wild-Magic Sorcerer

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance

• Instants (11)
• 1 Big Score
• 1 Bolt Bend
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Delayed Blast Fireball
• 1 Reiterate
• 1 Seething Song
• 1 Tibalt's Trickery
• 1 Unexpected Windfall
• 1 Wild Magic Surge
• 1 Wyll's Reversal
• 1 You Find Some Prisoners

• Sorceries (10)
• 1 Creative Technique
• 1 Dance with Calamity
• 1 Ignite the Future
• 1 Inspired Tinkering
• 1 Jeska's Will
• 1 Light Up the Stage
• 1 Mana Geyser
• 1 Reckless Handling
• 1 Reckless Impulse
• 1 Wrenn's Resolve

• Enchantments (6)
• 1 City on Fire
• 1 Descent into Avernus
• 1 Passionate Archaeologist
• 1 Share the Spoils
• 1 Stolen Strategy
• 1 Valakut Exploration

• Artifacts (11)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Caged Sun
• 1 Chaos Wand
• 1 Cursed Mirror
• 1 Fire Diamond
• 1 Glittering Stockpile
• 1 Lithoform Engine
• 1 Ruby Medallion
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Strionic Resonator
• 1 Wand of Wonder

• Lands (39)
• 33 Mountain
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Scavenger Grounds
• 1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
• 1 War Room
• 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1 Elkin Lair

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This looks like a ton of fun, honestly. I wanted to add a lot more cute cards than I did - I am not able to cast as many of their spells as I'd like, but given that my commander is one of the ways to do it and I will have access to that creature a lot of the time, building around making it better when that happens seemed prudent.

A lot of our creatures trigger on ETB and I considered adding a bounce and blink package. Ultimately, I deemed it too cute, but if you wanted to pursue that route, let me know how it goes. I knew what to add but, as is often the case, not what to cut.

I really wanted to steal more of their permanents, or at least threaten them. I know I occasionally get to swipe a perm, but not nearly as often as I'd like. This deck isn't as good at it as others I have built, and it immediately stopped making sense to dilute the deck's focus by adding something incongruous. Captivating Crew and especially Aladdin do me no good here, even if I run Liquimetal Torque as a mana rock, something I opted not to do. If you want to find room for a copy of Insurrection, it won't even be the only 8-drop in this deck; you should be good.

What do we think? Too cute? Not cute enough? Already obsolete because we're on week 3 of Lord of the Rings previews? Let me know on twitter. Until next time!