Readers!

I figured out one simple trick to pretend in November that 2022 is the year where I played more Instants and Sorceries like I said it was going to be. Remember when I said that? One problem I have encountered with my attempts to play those spells is that I just love permanents too much. I want a thing to be a thing forever, not just temporarily. I love to play a lot of creatures in my decks, and when I have a lot of creatures but want to jam one more, do I take out my worst creature? I don't - I cut a Brainstorm or a Swiftfoot Boots. I just want to play the cards I want to play even if it's at the expense of cards I should play. I could cut some creatures to make room for spells, but if I need to find room for a creature, I'll always cut something else. I would need a pretty good reason not to run as many creatures as I could fit in a given deck if they have good abilities. I think I found a good reason, finally.

Hurkyl does not require you to not play creatures in your deck, certainly. You don't lose anything by playing creatures except getting fewer chances to draw a card you want. The question remains, though, if I don't want to cheese a stupid win by decking myself, how am I going to win games? Well, if you'll recall, I said I wouldn't be playing creatures in the deck, not that we wouldn't attack with any creatures. We're going to attack with creatures, readers. We're going to do that a lot. This is a 75% article series and this will be a 75% deck and if we're not going to play creatures, we're going to steal them. The best part? If I play a creature, I don't get anything, but if I play a Control Magic on a creature, I get 5 chances to draw another enchantment. Sound fun? It will be, even though this is a Mono-Blue deck and I may end up having to play some number of Ponder effects. If I am forced to play Blue, forced to play creatureless (go with it) and forced to think about winning the game, the answer is clear - they will be providing me with the creatures I will use to end the game.

My first idea was to ignore the other modes and load up on enchantments, which I am absolutely going to do, don't worry about that. The thing is, it felt a bit like I was leaving some value on the table because the more types of non-creature spells you play in a turn, the more value you get from the once-a-turn trigger Hurkyl provides. I realized that there is a kind of Magic card I play very infrequently despite not playing that often - I would benefit a ton from running a lot of Planeswalkers. With no creatures in the deck, I have plenty of room to run a bunch of them and still not have to cut anything I'd normally run. I won't jam 30 Planeswalkers, so I'm still going to have plenty of room to run a ton of Enchantments.

The Instants and Sorceries I run don't have to be boring to me. Some number of Ponder and Brainstorm effects are going to be quite good here - ordering the top of my deck to make sure I can get maximum value from Hurkyl, but also just making sure the game goes well for me. I don't play monochromatic decks that often, and I play Mono-Blue even less often. Cards like Bribery and Expropriate are perfect for the deck, and with the help of Helm of Possession and Mind's Dilation, we are going to draw a lot of extra cards and use them to snare their stuff and point it the other way. It's going to be a lot of fun, I promise. How does a deck like this look?

No Creature Feature | Commander | Jason Alt

• Commander (1)
• 1 Hurkyl, Master Wizard

• Planeswalkers (10)
• 1 Jace, Ingenious Mind-Mage
• 1 Jace, the Living Guildpact
• 1 Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
• 1 Karn Liberated
• 1 Karn, Living Legacy
• 1 Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor
• 1 Mu Yanling, Sky Dancer
• 1 Teferi, Master of Time
• 1 Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim
• 1 Will Kenrith

• Instants (17)
• 1 Aetherize
• 1 Aetherspouts
• 1 Arcane Denial
• 1 Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1 Brainstorm
• 1 Consider
• 1 Desertion
• 1 Evacuation
• 1 Frantic Search
• 1 High Tide
• 1 Narset's Reversal
• 1 Opt
• 1 Pongify
• 1 Rapid Hybridization
• 1 Reality Shift
• 1 Resculpt
• 1 Snap

• Sorceries (10)
• 1 Baral's Expertise
• 1 Blatant Thievery
• 1 Entrancing Melody
• 1 Expropriate
• 1 Invoke the Winds
• 1 Mass Manipulation
• 1 Ponder
• 1 Preordain
• 1 Rite of Replication
• 1 Tempted by the Oriq

• Enchantments (12)
• 1 Confiscate
• 1 Control Magic
• 1 Corrupted Conscience
• 1 Grafted Identity
• 1 Inexorable Tide
• 1 Mechanized Production
• 1 Mind's Dilation
• 1 Persuasion
• 1 Propaganda
• 1 Shark Typhoon
• 1 Treachery
• 1 War Tax

• Artifacts (13)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Helm of Possession
• 1 Lithoform Engine
• 1 Midnight Clock
• 1 Sapphire Medallion
• 1 Sceptre of Eternal Glory
• 1 Sky Diamond
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 The Chain Veil
• 1 Thought Vessel
• 1 Thran Dynamo
• 1 Unwinding Clock
• 1 Vedalken Shackles

• Lands (37)
• 30 Island
• 1 Academy Ruins
• 1 Castle Vantress
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Mystic Sanctuary
• 1 Otawara, Soaring City
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Riptide Laboratory

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I mentioned Bribery earlier, but it ended up being the 101st card and Acquire was the 102nd. While these cards are fun (for me) to play, I haven't played them since the start of the pandemic, and with webcam Magic being infinitely more fun for me than the LGS, I don't know if I am going to stop mostly playing webcam Magic anytime soon. Bribery is cool and all, but it's a pain on webcam and I don't want a pain, I want a fun.

What do we think? Too many Instants and Sorceries? Too many 'walkers? Should I play the Teferi that goes infinite with The Chain Veil? (No, but you can, if you insist). Not what you want to be doing with Hurkyl? If you added one creature to the deck, what would it be? Leave it for me in the comments section. Thanks for reading - until next time!