I want to keep a lot of the core of the deck intact and that means transitioning the deck to something else without spending a lot of money. It’s bad enough that I have decks at all; financiers shouldn’t get high from their own supply after all. Since I’m not going to be able to resist the urge to build decks, at the very least I can tell myself not to spend too much money. Accordingly, I wanted to try to see if I could keep a certain percentage of this deck intact when I transitioned over to a new deck. I thought to try keeping 75% of the deck intact, but is that doable? I’m already switching commanders and that’s two cards,which means I can only change 23 cards. With so many cards being devoted to a strategy I wanted nothing to do with, I wouldn’t have much room to maneuver at all. Would the new deck be different enough? Here is the current list.

Do Not Try This Build At Home ? Commander | Jason Alt

• Commander (2)
• 1 Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix
• 1 Thrasios, Triton Hero

• Creatures (15)
• 1 Arcanis the Omnipotent
• 1 Birds of Paradise
• 1 Coiling Oracle
• 1 Forgotten Creation
• 1 Kiora's Follower
• 1 Laboratory Maniac
• 1 Managorger Hydra
• 1 Murkfiend Liege
• 1 Mystic Snake
• 1 Prime Speaker Zegana
• 1 Progenitor Mimic
• 1 Rampaging Baloths
• 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1 Seedborn Muse
• 1 Weaver of Currents

• Instants (11)
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1 Brainstorm
• 1 Capsize
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Frantic Search
• 1 Muddle the Mixture
• 1 Mystical Tutor
• 1 Plasm Capture
• 1 Sprout Swarm
• 1 Stroke of Genius

• Sorceries (15)
• 1 Boundless Realms
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Explore
• 1 Explosive Vegetation
• 1 Fabricate
• 1 Farseek
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Mind Spring
• 1 Preordain
• 1 Recurring Insight
• 1 Regrowth
• 1 Skyshroud Claim
• 1 Treasure Cruise
• 1 Urban Evolution
• 1 Windfall

• Enchantments (4)
• 1 Burgeoning
• 1 Intruder Alarm
• 1 Rhystic Study
• 1 Rites of Flourishing

• Artifacts (15)
• 1 Amulet of Vigor
• 1 Basalt Monolith
• 1 Chromatic Lantern
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Gilded Lotus
• 1 Isochron Scepter
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Mana Vault
• 1 Simic Signet
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Sword of the Paruns
• 1 Teferi's Puzzle Box
• 1 Thousand-Year Elixir
• 1 Thran Dynamo
• 1 Paradox Engine

• Lands (38)
• 10 Forest
• 9 Island
• 1 Ash Barrens
• 1 Botanical Sanctum
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Hinterland Harbor
• 1 Lonely Sandbar
• 1 Lumbering Falls
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Simic Growth Chamber
• 1 Simic Guildgate
• 1 Strip Mine
• 1 Temple of Mystery
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Thornwood Falls
• 1 Tranquil Thicket
• 1 Yavimaya Coast

Buy This Deck

Everything I thought about doing felt like something I’d done before. I started to wonder if it wasn’t Kydele and Thrasios that was boring, but Simic. Is Simic really that boring? Is there really nothing to do but ramp your mana and draw a bunch of cards and then bore yourself and everyone else to sleep? I refused to accept that. I thought about building some manner of Edric, Spymaster of Trest deck but I wasn’t going to get there from where I was with only 25 changes. Then it finally dawned on me — if what I was bored with was linearity, wouldn’t the total opposite be a lack of linearity? Wouldn’t a very narrow game plan be contrasted with a wide open one? Instead of running a ton of cards to serve one strategy, what if I had a deck full of answers to any situation? I could run a toolbox deck of sorts and, with Momir Vig at the helm, I could find any answer I needed in the deck provided I could cast another creature to be able to tutor. I don’t like tutoring for combo pieces but I sure do love the idea of tutoring for answers. Finding creature-based answers to my problems seems challenging and fun and just like that, I’m back on board. What does a Momir Vig deck that is only 25 cards different from the deck I’m tearing apart look like?

Momir Vig ? Commander | Jason Alt

• Commander (1)
• 1 Momir Vig, Simic Visionary

• Creatures (36)
• 1 Altered Ego
• 1 Arcanis the Omnipotent
• 1 Birds of Paradise
• 1 Citanul Hierophants
• 1 Coiling Oracle
• 1 Cytoplast Manipulator
• 1 Dawnstrider
• 1 Djinn of Infinite Deceits
• 1 Empress Galina
• 1 Endbringer
• 1 Ertai, Wizard Adept
• 1 Experiment Kraj
• 1 Glissa Sunseeker
• 1 Hua Tuo, Honored Physician
• 1 Imperious Perfect
• 1 Kiora's Follower
• 1 Managorger Hydra
• 1 Murkfiend Liege
• 1 Mystic Snake
• 1 Nullmage Shepherd
• 1 Patron of the Orochi
• 1 Prime Speaker Zegana
• 1 Progenitor Mimic
• 1 Rampaging Baloths
• 1 Rashmi, Eternities Crafter
• 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1 Seedborn Muse
• 1 Shaman of Forgotten Ways
• 1 Simic Manipulator
• 1 Temporal Adept
• 1 Temur Sabertooth
• 1 Tradewind Rider
• 1 Trygon Predator
• 1 Vedalken Mastermind
• 1 Vizier of the Menagerie
• 1 Weaver of Currents

• Instants (4)
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Plasm Capture
• 1 Sprout Swarm

• Sorceries (8)
• 1 Boundless Realms
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Explore
• 1 Explosive Vegetation
• 1 Farseek
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Skyshroud Claim
• 1 Urban Evolution

• Enchantments (4)
• 1 Burgeoning
• 1 Intruder Alarm
• 1 Opposition
• 1 Rhystic Study

• Artifacts (9)
• 1 Chromatic Lantern
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Gilded Lotus
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Mana Vault
• 1 Paradox Engine
• 1 Simic Signet
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Thousand-Year Elixir

• Lands (38)
• 10 Forest
• 9 Island
• 1 Ash Barrens
• 1 Botanical Sanctum
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Hinterland Harbor
• 1 Lonely Sandbar
• 1 Lumbering Falls
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Simic Growth Chamber
• 1 Simic Guildgate
• 1 Strip Mine
• 1 Temple of Mystery
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Thornwood Falls
• 1 Tranquil Thicket
• 1 Yavimaya Coast

Buy This Deck

If you couldn’t tell, I decided that with Paradox Engine, Intruder Alarm, Kiora's Follower and Thousand-Year Elixir in the deck, creatures with tap abilities are pretty strong. I figured that since Momir Vig let us get any creature we wanted, why not go get creatures with tap abilities that can solve our problems? Lots of Momir Vig decks run Reclamation Sage, but how many run Nullmage Shepherd? Problem permanent? Find a way to bounce it, or use Temporal Adept to bounce your Coiling Oracle to get more Momir triggers. We even run goofy creatures with tap abilities like Empress Galina to steal their stuff.

I removed a lot of cards that did nothing but support a boring, linear combo deck but when I was done making 25 cuts, I had a very good shell of a deck. I had mana rocks, I had ramp spells, I had cards like Burgeoning and Rhystic Study and I had cards like Weaver of Currents, Kiora's Follower, Thousand-Year Elixir, Intruder Alarm and Sprout Swarm that ended up serving the new direction of the deck well. Intruder Alarm and Paradox Engine are still powerful but they’re not going to be as boring. We can still make infinite saprolings or elves but with no way to tutor for our combo pieces and the fact that we still have to contend with cards like Propaganda, Frozen Aether, Fog effects and our opponents doing stuff to stymie our plan of “attack them with a lot of creatures” your games will even feel more exciting when you combo off, which thankfully won’t be every game you win with this deck. Having a toolbox full of creatures with useful tap abilities feels so much better than playing a bunch of tutors and card draw spells.

What do you think? Should we have left the deck alone? Did you take Kydele and Thrasios in a different direction? Not enough gold creatures? Did I leave your favorite creature with a tap ability out of my list? Hit me up in the comments section and let me know. I really enjoyed doing something with most of my previous list (75% of it, in fact) and making a fun deck out of a boring one. You can’t ask for much more than that. Until next week!