That is, unless we find some hidden gems on the list. Perhaps there is a commander on there that is overlooked because it’s simply a bad version of an existing commander and there’s no reason not to just play the better one. When looking at the list of commanders EDHREC generated (there are a few missing, as pointed out in this reddit post) I noticed Zhuge Jin, Wu Strategist. I started thinking about all of the sweet creatures Blue has which draw cards and have other cool effects when they get through unblocked. My brainstorming session ended about 30 seconds later when I realized I had invented the Sun Quan, Lord of Wu deck where only one of your creatures has “horsemanship” some of the time. Looks like Sun Quan took all of the Dilu horses and left Zhuge Jin with the scraps. So, while I was proud of how much Zhuge Jin excited me for those 30 glorious seconds, it’s likely Zhuge is underplayed because there’s basically no reason not to play Sun Quan, especially when you factor in how cheap Sun Quan got after the FTV printing.

We don’t want to build a bad version of a better deck, nor do we want a deck where our commander will never do anything. As much as I like DImir colors, Riven Turnbull just doesn’t seem worth it to me. Call me crazy, but if I just want an excuse to be in those colors, I could pick a commander that occasionally does something. Sygg, River Cutthroat, for example. So while I could build a deck with Riven Turnbull at the helm, I’m still a worse version of the same deck with an actual commander in the command zone.

The three I came up with were Myojin of Life's Web, Yuan Shao, the Indicisive, and Alexi, Zephyr Mage. Alexi seems very strong but hard to keep sated given the big cost to using her ability. Mono-Blue should not have any problems keeping the hand full, though. Yuan Shao basically makes all of your creatures unblockable, or at least tough to deal with, and coupled with some combat buffs and Red’s ability to make a bunch of tokens, it could be fun. Myojin was the final finalist. It will take work to get Myojin into your hand and therefore castable since you won’t get the Divinity counter if you cast it from the command zone (that is, unless you use That Which Was Taken!), but being able to dump your whole mitt on the table seems worth it. Ultimately, I think Yuan Shao is a little too weak and Myojin is a little too fraught to be worth it. Sure, there are ways to get Myojin into your hand or get counters on it, and I love the idea of dumping like 4 Eldrazi on the table; but, ultimately, you have to do a ton of work to get your hand full of creatures on top of working to make sure you somehow get a divinity counter on Myojin. I think Alexi is flexible and strong, letting you re-buy your own creatures as well as keeping theirs off of the board. I read the reddit thread later, and they came to basically the same conclusions I did vis-a-vis both Alexi and Green Myojin being good with Alexi being the best to build around, so I knew I was on to something. A few of them like Yuan Shao, also, though not as many as liked Skeleton Ship.

I am basically on my own since the entire reason we’re building around Alexi is it ended up on a list of cards no one else is building around. That means I need to figure out what I want the deck to do. I want to play a decent number of creatures that do things when they come into play so bouncing them to my hand if I need to means I can re-buy their triggers. I think being able to get back lands or spells out of the yard means what I pitch to Alexi’s abilities either gets better in the yard or at the very least, takes some of the sting out of having to pitch two lands. I also want to try and run as many Madness, Flashback and Retrace spells as are actually good in a Mono-Blue deck. This all puts a lot of pressure on my permanents, so I want to use a lot of permanents that can re-usably steal their stuff like Vedalken Shackles, Chamber of Manipulation, Dominating Licid, etc. This actually works out very well, because I just remembered Master Thief was a card and I wanted to write about it before I forgot. So let’s keep their stuff off of the board, steal the rest and try to get there with a political commander that could very well make them think twice about messing with you; unless they want their entire board to vanish, that is.

What would that deck look like?

Alexi, Zephyr Mage ? EDH | Jason Alt

• Commander (1)
• 1 Alexi, Zephyr Mage

• Creatures (29)
• 1 AEther Adept
• 1 Arcanis the Omnipotent
• 1 Archaeomancer
• 1 Azami, Lady of Scrolls
• 1 Cognivore
• 1 Consecrated Sphinx
• 1 Darksteel Colossus
• 1 Deadeye Navigator
• 1 Dominating Licid
• 1 Fathom Seer
• 1 Harbinger of the Tides
• 1 Jace's Archivist
• 1 Kederekt Leviathan
• 1 Keeper of the Mind
• 1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
• 1 Man-o'-War
• 1 Master Thief
• 1 Mist Raven
• 1 Mulldrifter
• 1 Overtaker
• 1 Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1 Scrivener
• 1 Slithermuse
• 1 Snapcaster Mage
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Sower of Temptation
• 1 Sphinx of Lost Truths
• 1 Volrath's Shapeshifter
• 1 Wonder

• Spells (32)
• 1 Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1 Cackling Counterpart
• 1 Circular Logic
• 1 Controvert
• 1 Fervent Denial
• 1 Oona's Grace
• 1 Overwhelming Intellect
• 1 Pulse of the Grid
• 1 Whispers of the Muse
• 1 Deep Analysis
• 1 Inundate
• 1 Recall
• 1 Silent Departure
• 1 Windfall
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Dismiss into Dream
• 1 Mind Unbound
• 1 Mystic Remora
• 1 Rhystic Study
• 1 Telekinetic Bonds
• 1 Thought Reflection
• 1 Ashnod's Altar
• 1 Caged Sun
• 1 Crucible of Worlds
• 1 Elixir of Immortality
• 1 Extraplanar Lens
• 1 Feldon's Cane
• 1 Gilded Lotus
• 1 Illusionist's Bracers
• 1 Phyrexian Altar
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Thousand-Year Elixir

• Lands (38)
• 28 Snow-Covered Island
• 1 Academy Ruins
• 1 Cephalid Coliseum
• 1 Lonely Sandbar
• 1 Maze of Ith
• 1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1 Mystifying Maze
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Remote Isle
• 1 Saprazzan Cove
• 1 Tolaria West

Buy This Deck

This seems like it does a lot of work.

I tried to maximize the number of spells that would still be useful if you pitched them by virtue of Retrace (slim pickings in Mono-Blue) or Flashback or Madness. I didn’t have quite enough Flashback to play something like River Kelpie but I did have enough to not feel so bad about those two cards I have to discard, necessarily. Circular Logic and Fervent Denial are likely to make for some pretty surprising plays, for example. It’s not quite a Dralnu, Lich Lord deck, but we’re not going to spend 100% of our commander activations just pitching gas and regretting it.

I included a lot of ways to steal their stuff. I decided to include ways to throw it in the trash and turn it into mana with altars so you can bounce your Sower of Temptation and swipe something else or just reactivate your shackles. Sower is great in this deck because it does its 75% job of swiping their best creature and it also gets better when you return it to your hand, like your commander allows you to do. I like the idea of swiping stuff with Master Thief, also. Being able to sac their stuff and re-buy the creature that swiped it is an appeal of the deck. I’m not trying to bounce my creatures all of the time, but I like having the option open. If you can find room for Equilibrium, Cloudstone Curio or something like that, go nuts. I like being able to re-buy my Fathom Seer so I can turn excess land into trigger fodder.

The deck is pretty straightforward-looking, but it was a little tougher than normal to construct. I am sure it’s not 100%, but I feel that with a little tinkering, we could get this baby purring. We’re trying to keep our hand full enough to be able to activate our commander, steal enough of their stuff to murder them with it, and have enough reasons to want to replay our creatures. This deck does all of that. Is that enough to win? Sleeving it up would go a long way to answering that, but my inclination is that this deck can surprise people and has quite a bit of power in its synergy. I wouldn’t be surprised if this could hang with decent decks. You’re certainly not going to tyrannize casual night, but I bet you win your fair share, provided they furnish you with enough good stuff to steal and don’t play more than you can bounce.

What do we think? Any glaring omissions or questionable inclusions? Would you have picked a different commander from the list or gone a different way with Alexi? Had you never heard of EDHREC before and now you’re running amok over the site like a kid in a candy store? Leave it in the comments section. Thanks for reading!