Idea generation isn’t an easy process. Sure, sometimes fresh perspectives leap out at you, but you can’t control when that happens. That fact tends to be problematic when trying to write a weekly article focused on bringing new ideas to the table. Luckily, you don’t always need to come up with novel concepts; there’s plenty to Plagiarize.

What a Notion!

Notion Thief has mostly been discussed for Standard usage. It hoses Sphinx's Revelation pretty effectively, but a bunch of different people all independently came up with a more proactive approach.

Drawing sixteen or so cards seems great, but in a Commander game, this combinations could easily result in you picking up something closer to fifty. Sign me up! Of course, unless we stuff a deck with a hundred million Demonic Tutors, finding two specific cards isn’t going to be easy . . . unless we play multiples.

Award-Winning Research

Drawing 3.18 × 10²²⁷ cards is an excellent place to start, but we do need to plan on killing the other players somehow. The most straightforward option is to play some Maros.

The ease of chump-blocking or removing these creatures varies, but even when they’re working, each one can only attack one opponent at a time. Then again, we’re not the only ones drawing cards. Sure, Notion Thief and Plagiarize stop opposing draws, but Consecrated Sphinx, Mind's Eye, and Psychic Possession all let the other players have their fair shares. I wish they’d stop looking so smug about that.

And drawing all of those cards can be damaging in more ways than just the obvious one. We can use those cards against their owners.

And drawing a ton of cards presents one danger more: Once our opponents draw sixty more cards than they expected to, the normally hefty hundred-card deck size starts to look a lot more millable. We don’t want to flood our draws with a bunch of mill cards, but we have yet to pick a commander . . . 

At first, it might look strange to pick Mirko over the ostensibly bigger milling potential of Oona, Queen of the Fae or Szadek, Lord of Secrets, but he actually does a much better job of it. Between lower land counts in general and an abundance of Rampant Growth effects, Mirko’s more likely to average eleven cards than the nine or so he’ll hit in Limited. That saves a lot of mana over Oona, but what about Szadek? If the deceased guild leader lands three consecutive hits, he may mill slightly more cards, but with the number of Wraths running around this format, he’ll usually need to be recast before that happens. Mirko, on the other hand, is ready to mill a bunch right away.

Covering Your Tracks

So, we’re drawing a bunch of cards and have ways to kill off our opponents. But there are a few problems still unsolved.

1. How do we avoid decking ourselves?
2. How do we keep cards in hand?
3. How do we cast all the cards we draw?

Putting it all together, we have a deck like this:

Academic Integrity

• Commander (0)

• Citations (8)
• 1 Notion Thief
• 1 Consecrated Sphinx
• 1 Mind's Eye
• 1 Plagiarize
• 1 Psychic Possession
• 1 Baleful Stare
• 1 Withering Gaze
• 1 Recurring Insight

• "Research" (19)
• 1 Jace's Archivist
• 1 Forced Fruition
• 1 Otherworld Atlas
• 1 Font of Mythos
• 1 Howling Mine
• 1 Anvil of Bogardan
• 1 Temple Bell
• 1 Teferi's Puzzle Box
• 1 Whispering Madness
• 1 Kami of the Crescent Moon
• 1 Seizan, Perverter of Truth
• 1 Windfall
• 1 Jushi Apprentice
• 1 Magus of the Jar
• 1 Memory Jar
• 1 Minds Aglow
• 1 Prosperity
• 1 Skyscribing
• 1 Temporal Cascade

• Guilt (13)
• 1 Underworld Dreams
• 1 Iron Maiden
• 1 Sword of War and Peace
• 1 Viseling
• 1 Black Vise
• 1 Entropic Specter
• 1 Empyrial Plate
• 1 Kagemaro, First to Suffer
• 1 Promise of Power
• 1 Psychosis Crawler
• 1 Aeon Chronicler
• 1 Soramaro, First to Dream
• 1 Sturmgeist

• Falsified Documents (5)
• 1 Diluvian Primordial
• 1 Sepulchral Primordial
• 1 Silent-Blade Oni
• 1 Mindleech Mass
• 1 Treacherous Urge

• Shredder (7)
• 1 Decree of Pain
• 1 Oblivion Stone
• 1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
• 1 Submerge
• 1 Commandeer
• 1 Snuff Out
• 1 Venser's Journal

• Hurry (9)
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Wayfarer's Bauble
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Darksteel Ingot
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Gilded Lotus
• 1 Mind Over Matter
• 1 Skirge Familiar
• 1 Patron of the Moon

• Publication (38)
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Vesuva
• 1 Thespian's Stage
• 1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
• 1 Nephalia Drownyard
• 1 Shelldock Isle
• 1 Dimir Aqueduct
• 1 Creeping Tar Pit
• 1 Jwar Isle Refuge
• 1 Salt Marsh
• 1 Frost Marsh
• 1 Dimir Guildgate
• 1 Underground River
• 1 Drowned Catacomb
• 1 Academy Ruins
• 1 Volrath's Stronghold
• 1 Lonely Sandbar
• 1 Remote Isle
• 1 Barren Moor
• 1 Polluted Mire
• 8 Swamp
• 10 Island

Buy This Deck

Game the System

I simply didn’t have time to draw cards for myself before this assignment was due, so despite the risks, I submitted some other people’s card-drawing. Here’s how it went:

I glanced around the table to find three more common commanders eyeing mine suspiciously.

Things began blazingly fast as both Ruhan and Oona led off with Sol Rings. Ruhan then began chaining Ravnica-block Karoos with Weathered Wayfarer, and Oona went straight for Liliana Vess while Animar and I played our lands one by one. Animar joined the fray and started ramping with Farhaven Elf and Dream Stalker, but Oona didn’t plan to wait around for the Soul of Elements to catch up, and she promptly moved the game to its next stage.

My fourth turn finally rolled around, and I selected Oona for Psychic Possession, a prospect at which the whole table shrugged. Ruhan continued to sit around with a ton of open mana, but he didn’t seem intent on using it, sitting idly by as Animar made a Clone of Grave Titan and Oona went to the Trading Post. My big play, on the other hand, did not escape Ruhan’s notice. Teferi's Puzzle Box, meet Suffocating Blast. Suffocating Blast, Teferi's Puzzle Box.

Content with stopping my shenanigans, Ruhan entered the fray himself, but he presented little board presence in the face of Animar’s army, which presently grew to include Urabrask the Hidden and a 6/6 Nimbus Swimmer. Attackers flew every which way, killing Oona’s Liliana and smacking every player around a bit. I somehow got it into my head that what all of these opponents swimming in mana needed was more cards, so I forecast Skyscribing and played Howling Mine. (Okay, this play may have been more motivated by wanting to ensure I could cast the Decree of Pain in my hand as soon as possible.) Ruhan randomly chose to beat the spit out of me before passing, and then Animar continued to go crazy with a 12/12 Apocalypse Hydra. Oona cracked back at Animar, trading off a bunch of Zombie tokens, and my life total continued to dwindle. Something needed to change.

Thanks to Psychic Possession, I drew ten cards, but I didn’t find a Spellbook. Before I discarded, Ruhan received some Mystical Tutoring in the art of the Terminus. The board clear and everyone half dead, Ruhan summoned Talrand, Sky Summoner and cast Unwinding Clock to keep mana open on everyone’s turn. Oona had a Bonehoard to benefit from all the creatures I’d discarded, but there was one I’d kept around. I summoned Mindleech Mass.

Ruhan attacked the wide-open Animar with all his creatures, but Oona killed him on the crack-back with Bonehoard. Then, the Fae Queen tried to summon It That Betrays, but living up to its name, it became a snack for a 13/13 Draining Whelk instead. Then, it was my turn again.

Step 1: Attach Empyrial Plate to Mindleech Mass.

Step 2: Cast Whispering Madness.

Step 3: ???

Step 4: Profit!

Mindleech Mass hit Animar for 11 despite the efforts of the Draining Whelk blocking it and filched a Woodfall Primus to destroy Bonehoard. All of this Whispering Madness ended up with eighteen-card hands and two of my Reliquary Tower effects discarded without one to actually play. Animar took advantage of the fresh cards to deal with some problematic permanents.

Oona dealt with the remaining horror by flashing back Grasp of Phantoms on Mindleech Mass and using her ability to exile it. Then, it was time to go crazy again.

There weren’t enough cards left in my library for all of the Sphinx triggers, but after drawing most of the rest of my deck, I passed to discard Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre. Before drawing, Animar helped Consecrated Sphinx become acquainted with the Beast Within. Next came the patented combo with Avenger of Zendikar and Oracle of Mul Daya to make an awful lot of 3/4s. I didn’t want to wait around for those to become bigger. When Oona attacked, I Submerged her, which she responded to by exiling thirteen cards from Animar’s library in search of blockers.

I untapped and cast Mind Over Matter. Then, I finally gave Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker his debut, equipping him with Lightning Greaves to attack Animar. Mirko didn’t quite make it through the rest of Animar’s deck, but he did mill enough to enable my follow up. I discarded all but one of my remaining cards to untap lands with Mind Over Matter and cast Temporal Cascade, decking Animar. Then, I discarded a bunch of those cards to untap lands and cast Prosperity. Now Oona had twenty-one cards in hand and just 15 life. Time for the finishing blow.

Quotation Marks

At the end of the day, we play Commander in order to have fun. And while coming up with zany deck ideas is fun, so is pulling them off. If you have a cool new idea you want to share—or a deck like any of the ones I’ve written about—or if one of these pieces has inspired you to play in a new way, I’d love to hear about it. Until next week, take note of good ideas no matter their sources.