Readers!

Recently, I had a bit of an epiphany about how I build Commander decks and it caused me to look at the building process very differently. If you haven't read my Thesis Enchantment article, now is an excellent time to check it out so the rest of what I'm saying makes sense. If you... just straight up refuse to do that and insist I tell you here... OK, fine, you win. You're doing me a favor by engaging with my content, so I'll do you a favor and not assign you prerequisite reading for this article. The yadda yadda yadda version of that article is that whether or not I was ever aware I was doing it, I tended to build Commander decks that had, at their core, an Enchantment that paired with the commander's abilities. If it only paired with one of the commander's many abilities, I found myself including cards that paired just with how that ability interacted with my central Enchantment. A Thesis Enchantment, like a thesis sentence in an essay, sums up the central theme of your argument and/or deck of children's playing cards. If you take a look at a Greater Good in a Thrasta, Tempest's Roar deck, knowing it's the thesis of the deck tells you that the player is looking to sac Thrasta to draw cards and potentially churn a bunch of summonings in one turn because you net a mana reduction to the CMC every time you recast. You can predict a ton of cards - Ashnod's Altar, Aetherflux Reservoir, Allosaurus Shepherd - all based on just the Thesis Enchantment. If you're rocking a stock build, that's fine, but often a Thesis Enchantment that is not in line with a stock build can inform a ton about how the deck can be built.

I want to go down the list of commanders in Crimson Vow, as I did with Midnight Hunt a few weeks back. I'll talk about how the stock list appears to be built as well as discussing any improvements I'd make, potentially selecting a different Thesis Enchantment that might hopefully take the deck in a new, more exciting direction. With that preamble out of the way, let's get going already.

Anje, Maid of Dishonor

Thesis Enchantment: Grave Pact

Anje may create Blood Tokens for you, but she doesn't require you to sac a Blood Token to drain everyone for 2. This means as long as you have a steady supply of Vampires, you can chip away at life totals and build your own so much that they may get desperate and start swinging at you, giving you more ways to put chump blockers in harm's way and start wiping their board. Anje was made to pair with Grave Pact.

But can we do better?: Even if Anje is great as a Grave Pact deck, there is another Enchantment that pairs with her specific abilities even more, and that's Call the Bloodline. Vampire decks, apparently, have a madness subtheme sometimes, and enabling madness, triggering Anje's Blood Token production ability and giving her a token she can sac to drain everyone for 2 is excellent synergy. Focusing on making tokens to churn through her ability and getting Madness triggers at will would make me build a deck much lighter on creatures and heavier on tricksy ones like Bloodghast (which everyone forgets isn't a Zombie).

Donal, Herald of Wings

Thesis Enchantment: Gravitational Shift

The payoff for playing a bunch of big, dumb fliers to double them and get some good etb abilities is that you have a bunch of big, dumb fliers at your disposal. Why not shrink their team while you're at it?

But can we do better?: I don't know if this is better, exactly, but Day of the Dragons sure seems like a good pick for a deck where you have a bunch of ETB creatures. If you find a way to bounce the Enchantment, you get all of those ETBs back, something it might be worth losing the Dragons over. They may be afraid to remove it themselves for that reason. Having this be one of your payoffs requires you to have ways to get rid of the Enchantment at instant speed, but that seems very worth it to me. I actually really love this idea.

Dorothea, Vengeful Victim

Thesis Enchantment: Anointed Procession. Anything that makes tokens could benefit from making more tokens. Turning any creature into Geist of Saint Traft seems fine, but a lot of people are playing Spirits tribal, I assume because they intend on leaving the precon largely intact which is... a choice.

But can we do better?: Building around Secrets of the Dead speaks to me as a builder. You're going to try and cast, at the very least, your commander as a copy of Dorothea's Retribution. Casting more cards from the 'yard allows you to get more mileage out of your cards because you can sometimes cast them twice. There's no reason to build a straight spirits deck when you can be casting big spells like Sevinne's Reclamation and Increasing Devotion. Dorothea's Retribution makes you have to attack with a creature, why play fragile ones when you can be using Timeless Dragon and Adorned Prowler?

Edgar, Charmed Groom

Thesis Enchantment: Sanguine Bond (?)

From the lists I have seen online, one of the only Enchantments that is present in the plurality of builds is Sanguine Bond. We can somewhat reliably make some tokens with Lifelink (albeit slowly) so that seems like a good place to start, and then add in Exquisite Blood and a few more lifegain vampires (Ixalan block is going to do a ton of heavy lifting here) and you've got a stew, baby!

But can we do better?: I don't know if it's "better" to build something a bit more like other decks, but before I dug in and saw what other people were playing, my idea was an Aristocrats build. Most commanders don't reward you for wanting to sac creatures quite like a commander that you can sac to turn him into a token creation machine, then back into himself. Bastion of Remembrance and Grave Pact are both possibilities here.

Eruth, Tormented Prophet

Thesis Enchantment: Underworld Breach. If we're going to cast spells, let's REALLY cast spells, shall we? Underworld Breach lets you get a second use out of discard cantrips and, more importantly, mana generation spells like Seething Song. It's a real powerhouse in this deck.

But can we do better?: One major drawback of Possibility Storm is that it's symmetrical - you're subject to the same chaotic energy you brought into the world. If you didn't, however, have to play cards from your hand, you would be able to play the exact spell you meant to and your opponents would not. What might that be like? Unfair? I agree! Do you want to put the Arcane Laboratory lock in the deck? Up to you! You certainly can't build a stock Eruth deck if that's the case, making your build deviate from the stock list even more.

Geralf, Visionary Stitcher

Thesis Enchantment: Necroduality, obvs. The second most powerful "necro" ever printed (I don't actually think that, why is this card still like $30?) was tailor-made for this deck. Sure, people will load up with cards like Glacial Wall and Hover Barrier, but you can't just play bad cards and Undead Alchemist and Skaab Ruinator are always there for you.

But can we do better?: Intruder Alarm. Sure, it's harder to go infinite with a Zombie deck than a deck with a lot of mana dorks, but if you abandon the temptation to go Zombie tribal, you can pretty easily use cards like Kindred Discovery to draw your whole deck, use creatures like Fatestitcher to untap Geralf at will and benefit from other creatures that tap to make a creature like Havengul Runebinder. Intruder Alarm is one of my personal favorite cards and it has a ton of explosive potential and synergizes not just with Geralf, but with a ton of spicy Blue creatures.

Grolnok, the Omnivore

Thesis Enchantment: Xenograft. I said almost all of Magic's Frogs are bad and should be avoided, but some builders want to skate uphill and make good creatures into Frogs so you can mill yourself. In this way, you can create a two card combo that mills fewer cards than Court of Cunning.

But can we do better?: Build a Court of Cunning deck. Run a bunch of Monarch stuff, mill cards and just win that way. I hate to guide people down a path that basically leads directly to building a Lab Man deck, but since everyone wants to mill themselves, run good cards to mill you and not bad creatures or ways to make creatures into a bad creature type to mill you. Literally any other payoff for running Frogs and I might go for it, but trust me, ignore the Frog stuff and go for the goal directly.

Halana and Alena, Partners

Thesis Enchantment: Branching Evolution. It's kind of a no-brainer here - not because the card is "obvious" in this case but because I think it's too good not to run. That said...

But can we do better?: Gratuitous Violence, baby! If we're all-in on one creature, why not really go for it? Extra combat steps, damage doubling, the works. If you have Gratuitous Violence out, you WANT them to block your huge creature. Deathtouch and Trample are really nasty in combination, so take a look at some Xenagos decks for inspiration and really load up on damage dealers.

Henrika Domnathi

Thesis Enchantment: When I brewed the deck last week, I was enamored with Black Market. That's not exactly stock, though - people tend to build around Sanguine Bond, as is customary with a lot of Vampire builds this set.

But can we do better?: I liked the Black Market idea a lot, but if you're not as keen on it as I was, I'd like to see someone really lean into my Heartless Summoning idea. If you're trying to cast and rebuy creatures like Patron of the Vein, being able to do it cheaply seems ideal. You will have to exclude a lot of creatures that would die to Summoning, but I think it's worth it since you're mostly running thick, midrange chonkers anyway and two fewer mana on their costs is a Time Walk worth of value at least.

Jacob Hauken, Inspector

Thesis Enchantment: Paradox Haze

Anything that triggers on your upkeep must surely be worth triggering twice, right? Players are really making the most of this powerful ability by running it back. I must say, it's going to be hard to improve on "double triggers."

But can we do better?: Eyes of the Watcher is as close as Blue is going to get to a Sylvan Library for under five mana. Sure, getting double triggers on your upkeep is great and you should run the Sphinx and the Haze and anything else to give you more triggers. However, let's not forget that card selection matters a ton and stacking the top of your deck is very useful. Don't forget cards like Eyes of the Watcher that are less clunky than Scroll Rack and reward you for running ways to interact with their board.

Kamber, the Plunderer and Laurine, the Diversion

Thesis Enchantment: Kamber and Laurine is very much a goad-based deck and cards like Shiny Impetus and, the card that is in my opinion the thesis of the stock list, Parasitic Impetus, you can make the opponent pretty miserable for playing a creature that then becomes a source of a lot of misery until they can kill their own creature.

But can we do better?: Relying on them to play a creature is risky. They may keep their good creatures back waiting for someone to deal with your board and goading a 2/2 isn't much fun. What if you could give them a 5-power goaded creature that always dies? Readers, such a concept is not only possible, it's very probable thanks to Rite of the Raging Storm. Giving them creatures to beat each other with is why we play Goad decks to begin with. Have fun!

Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr

Thesis Enchantment: Hallowed Haunting. What card could be better than one designed specifically to pair with your commander? As long as you can keep dumping out Enchantments, you can also make big spirits. What could be better?

But can we do better?: Court of Grace. Enchantress decks usually load up on ways to make 4/4 Angels and ways for them not to be able to attack you which turns Court of Grace into a Phyrexian Arena that gives you a 4/4 creature instead of a damage. If you build around making it hard to hit you with cards like Sphere of Safety and don't overextend into board wipes like you would with Hallowed Haunting, you can have the biggest shield and the biggest sword, which makes it hard to lose.

Millicent, Restless Revenant

Thesis Enchantment: Favorable Winds. You're a 1/1 flier deck, so making them into 2/2 fliers seems like a very good way to get in there. Intangible Virtue is also good here, but they're basically the same, right?

But can we do better?: Bident of Thassa. The deck seems to be leaning into the whole "token swarm" thing, which is cool, and keeping your hand full is crucial if your deck is full of smaller creatures. Even bigger creatures like Drgoskol Reaver are quite good with Bident. Making it so an opponent basically can't block? Card draw city. Bident works well with going tall as well as going wide, which may give you the idea to run different creatures than you might have.

Odric, Blood-Cursed

Thesis Enchantment: Ghirapur Aether Grid. You're going to get a lot of Blood Tokens, especially if you blink Odric, and turning them into a source of damage can be very nasty.

But can we do better?: Legion's Initiative. If we are going to be a blink deck, and we should be a blink deck, having more ETB creatures than just Odric seems ideal. Initiative is a one-time use card, but building around blink in general seems powerful. Sun Titan, Dockside Extortionist - the list of ETB creatures the stock list doesn't run is endless and you can play the best cards from the pile. Blink it up!

Old Rutstein

Thesis Enchantment: Parallel Lives. Old Ruttyboi isn't exactly weak, per se, but only triggering once per upkeep is kind of underwhelming compared to... basically every Simic commander ever.

But can we do better?: Revel In Riches. Once you lean into a treasure theme, making treasure on your upkeep is a best case scenario, not a worst case one. This also encourages you to make creatures die and make stuff happen on the board rather than durdle around on your upkeep like a Blue deck. I'm not saying Parallel Lives builds are wrong - I'll use Parallel Lives. I'm simply suggesting that seeing it as a "Revel deck" will help you figure out the last 10 cards to include, and those are usually crucial to the identity of the deck.

Olivia, Crimson Bride

Thesis Enchantment: Aggravated Assault. Getting a trigger when you enter combat is so nice, why not trigger it twice? You deal double damage but also dole out double the pain. Very cool.

But can we do better?: Sneak Attack! If cheating a card from your graveyard is good, sneaking it in, hitting them, saccing it, then bringing it back has to be gooder. If you build around Sneak Attack, you'll load up on big creatures, cards like Ilharg, the Raze-Boar and Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded, and you'll cheat way more. Sure, Olivia is meant to get creatures into the yard with stuff like blood tokens and other discard outlets, but isn't it more fun to just pay a single Red to get the party started? Sure, additional combat phases are great, and you'll do that in the Sneak Attack deck, too, but you'll run completely different cards, and you'll be happier for it if you're like me.

Rhoda, Geist Avenger and Timin, Youthful Geist

Thesis Enchantment: Opposition. You get a ton of benefit from tapping their stuff and allowing all of your creatures to get in on the fun only draws you more cards with Verity Circle and grows Rhoda.

But can we do better?: Tapping their creatures is cool, but what if you never had to see them again? Building around Dismiss into Dream (and Cowardice if you're nasty) means that you have thought about dealing with their creatures permanently. Running a ton of bounce, and some ETB creatures, will elevate you above the stock build. Who doesn't want to rebuy Thieving Skydiver over and over? I know I do.

Runo Stromkirk

Thesis Enchantment: Quest for Ula's Temple. We waited a long time for this particular Quest to do anything while some of the others popped off a decade ago, but it's finally this very specific card's very specific time to shine. Unfortunately, to flip Runo, you need your deck built a very specific way and there's not much point in trying to reinvent the wheel when you can just enjoy that there's finally an Octopus Lord and he's a Vampire Cleric.

But can we do better?: Heartless Summoning! It's the second time this month I've recommended you jam this card in a Vampire deck, and this time you have even fewer Vampires, though you still have an average Mana Value of about 11.5. If you need your Krakens and Octupi and whatever the plural of Leviathan is to be in play in order to be doubled, get them into play. Your opponent won't somehow have an advantage when the 3 copies of Spawning Kraken connecting with their dome are 5/5 instead of 6/6, they're pretty dead either way.

Strefan, Maurer Progenitor

Thesis Enchantment: Molten Echoes. Sometimes a "Thesis Enchantment" isn't one that a ton of people are playing but rather one that sums up how the deck plays. Stock Strefan lists are very much Molten Echoes decks - you're putting Vampires into play for free with his ability, making a copy seems good, right? It has to be a Vampire for both cards, making this, basically as close to Parallel Lives as we are likely to get in Rakdos.

But can we do better?: Faith of the Devoted et. al. I think weaponizing the Blood tokens for a purpose other than dumping Vampires out is just what we need. Faith of the Devoted is the most interesting because you're getting something out of the drawback that Blood Tokens force you to discard a card, but anything that does chip damage to the whole table is worth it. Pyrohemia, Pestilence, Theater of Horrors - even Retreat to Hagra can get in on the fun. Your Ghirapur Aether Grid will thank you for making sure you get everyone at the table for at least a damage to maximize your Blood Token payout. This deck seems clunky but it doesn't have to JUST be Vampire tribal when there is so much fun space to play around in. Does that make it a bad Odric? I don't think so - Odric doesn't have access to Sanguine Bond, after all.

Timothar, Baron of Bats

Thesis Enchantment: Bad Moon? It's fitting - Bad Moon for a bad commander. This is two kinds of tribal decks, one where you take Vampires and can occasionally bring one back from the dead if you get through with a fragile Bat. I don't want to dump on how bad I think Timothar is, but I'd love for it to be easier to combo with this deck. If there were a way to make your Bats and Vampires better that was better at it than Bad Moon, I'd suggest that.

But can we do better?: Attrition is a good place to start. Sacrificing our Vampires for mana or cards is cool, but it's hard to get the Bats through in the meantime. If we can just Attrition every blocker, we can get our Vampires back, and when that involves getting back Vampires like Bloodwitch of Malakir and Patron of the Vein, you have a nice little engine going. Revel in Riches and Grave Pact predictably join the party here, but deliberately going in knowing you want to be optimized for drawing Attrition helps you figure out the non-staples, which is the hard part of building decks. You can even be a real monster and run Contamination or Gate to Phyrexia since the rest of the deck is mostly precon.

Torens, Fist of the Angels

Thesis Enchantment: Cathars' Crusade. Making creature tokens regularly and rewarding you for having bigger ones attack alongside smaller ones lends itself directly to Crusade. It bumps creatures more for being in play longer, ensuring you can always trigger Training. That's... fine.

But can we do better?: Boy howdy! If we're a tokens deck, let's load up with the tokens cards we play in 75% decks. Let's run Glare of Subdual. If we're a Cryptolith Rite token deck, we can attack with that 1/1 with Training if we want, and if we don't, keeping it home doesn't mean it's useless. We can Glare down blockers and attackers, Rite ourselves a big drop or a third thing, probably. I think this might be a deck that wants Sigarda's Summons but NOT Divine Visitation, but there's probably a whole article's worth of worms in that can, so I'll leave it for now.

Toxrill, the Corrosive

Thesis Enchantment: Inexorable Tide. Toxrill, I assume by design, uses counters that function as -1/-1 counters when Toxril is in play but aren't exactly -1/-1 counters. This is better when they are adding +1/+1 counters because if you can proliferate faster than they can, you win, versus a -1/-1 counter being negated by a +1/+1 counter. Other than that, it seems like mostly downside since Toxril decks can't use cards like Blowfly Infestation. Inexorable Tide still works, though, and it works like a charm.

But can we do better?: Grave Betrayal comes to mind. If we're going to be killing their creatures, and we are, why not swipe them? Putting them into play on your side takes some of the pressure off of you having to keep drawing so many cards, allowing you to build up a board state rather than devouring all of your slugs.

Umbris, Fear Manifest

Thesis Enchantment: Leyline of the Void. A ton of cards that weren't really that useful have recently gotten a lot better with Umbris. Don't forget Planar Void, Dead Man's Chest, and Gravestorm! It's the Enchantmentiest deck and I got to save it for last. Hot damn!

But can we do better?: Cunning Rhetoric! If we're going to exile their cards, being able to play them is very useful. Cunning Rhetoric may also serve as a deterrent, keeping them from taking out their frustration out on you. This will pair nicely with the Draugr Necromancer and Dauthi Voidwalker I plan to include. Always be exiling!

I have to be honest, I kind of expected to pursue this "Thesis Enchantment" thing and find out that I think all of my decks are either Cryptolith Rite or Grave Pact decks. I have not only learned that decks are far more varied than I thought, but simply pursuing a different Enchantment can shift between 5 and 10 cards around in your build, which can fundamentally alter the way the deck plays. Re-centering your conception of the deck around a new card can make the same old deck seem new and exciting, or help you break away from the stock build doldrums. However you build, think about the Enchantment (or other permanent, sure) that you want the deck to serve and the rest of the deck will build itself. That's all for me - until next time!