I've been thinking about how to start this article for a few days. I had thoughts of doing a little play, where I read from a prepared statement. I considered quoting from a Wikipedia article. None of it really seemed to work, so I'm simply going to bare my soul:

I know basically nothing about Street Fighter.

There, I said it. I've been, at most, a casual video game player, and none of my interests have ever been in fighting games, despite many friends being super into them over the years. In middle school we used to go down the street after school to the arcade (there actually was one!) and my friends would play Street Fighter and Mortal Combat. As gaming consoles became more ubiquitous, I'd get roped into playing something, where I'd quickly be outclassed by people who actually knew and cared about what they were doing.

So, when papa Wizards announced they were doing a Street Fighter tie-in, I simply didn't care. I don't know any of the characters (though some of my fellow writers here on CSI have been kind enough to educate me on a few things) and have no skin in the game. I did, however, look through them as Magic cards, rather than Street Fighter characters, and one of them reached out to grab me, because I've never before seen a card which cared about creatures having Reach.

I'll choose not to ask the obvious question of why a pacifist is a character in a fighting game, or the less obvious question why he's particularly pliable, and just go with Dhalsim does a lot of things I really like in a Commander. It's hard to kill (Hexproof unless he's attacking), he grants evasion (can't be blocked by creatures with higher power) and even Vigilance (untap your creatures when they attack), and draws us extra cards just for attacking, which is a thing we're going to want to do anyway.

So, let's take Dhalsim and his super-sweet beard out for a ride and see what comes back, shall we?

Dhalsim, Pliable Pacifist | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Dhalsim, Pliable Pacifist

• Creatures (27)
• 1 Annoyed Altisaur
• 1 Arasta of the Endless Web
• 1 Arcus Acolyte
• 1 Bird Admirer // Wing Shredder
• 1 Brood Weaver
• 1 Diligent Farmhand
• 1 Elder Gargaroth
• 1 Ezzaroot Channeler
• 1 Gemrazer
• 1 Great Oak Guardian
• 1 Halana, Kessig Ranger
• 1 Kodama of the East Tree
• 1 Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar
• 1 Neverwinter Dryad
• 1 Ohran Frostfang
• 1 Penumbra Spider
• 1 Qasali Ambusher
• 1 Qasali Slingers
• 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1 Silklash Spider
• 1 Skylasher
• 1 Sweet-Gum Recluse
• 1 Toski, Bearer of Secrets
• 1 Ulvenwald Hydra
• 1 Whiptongue Hydra
• 1 Wildborn Preserver
• 1 World Breaker

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Huatli, the Sun's Heart
• 1 Vivien, Monsters' Advocate

• Instants (9)
• 1 Akroma's Will
• 1 Arachnogenesis
• 1 Heroic Intervention
• 1 Hunter's Insight
• 1 Momentous Fall
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Return of the Wildspeaker
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Warriors' Lesson

• Sorceries (12)
• 1 Austere Command
• 1 Doomskar
• 1 Farseek
• 1 Fell the Mighty
• 1 Hunter's Prowess
• 1 Into the North
• 1 Invoke the Ancients
• 1 Nissa's Revelation
• 1 Rampant Growth
• 1 Rishkar's Expertise
• 1 Slash the Ranks
• 1 Soul's Majesty

• Enchantments (4)
• 1 Assault Formation
• 1 Bear Umbra
• 1 Curse of Clinging Webs
• 1 Font of Fertility

• Artifacts (4)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Argentum Armor
• 1 Kaldra Compleat
• 1 Wayfarer's Bauble

• Lands (41)
• 19 Snow-Covered Forest
• 6 Snow-Covered Plains
• 1 Arctic Flats
• 1 Arctic Treeline
• 1 Boseiju Reaches Skyward
• 1 Bountiful Promenade
• 1 Canopy Vista
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 1 Fortified Village
• 1 Gavony Township
• 1 Overgrown Farmland
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Scattered Groves
• 1 Stirring Wildwood
• 1 Sunpetal Grove
• 1 Temple of Plenty

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This deck is attempting to leverage the abilities we get from Dhalsim to bury our opponents in difficult-to-block damage and overwhelming card advantage. It should make plenty of mana, put out its commander a turn early, and draw extra cards through the majority of the game with very little trouble.

Our lands are my traditional 40, many of which are designed to help fix our colors. We have a lot more Green than White in this deck, but extra fixing is always good. Our non-dual lands are important too, though; Rogue's Passage can sneak a creature through to guarantee that card draw, and Reliquary Tower helps us not discard when we draw too many. Gavony Township is a nice place to dump extra mana; even if it's a counter on only one creature, that's okay, and it can be done after blockers are declared to sneak past a blocker with higher power. Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire is a solid addition, serving as a combat trick or a land, depending on what we need at the time.

We have a lot of two-mana ramp spells. Farseek, Rampant Growth, Wayfarer's Bauble, Arcane Signet, Font of Fertility, Diligent Farmhand, Neverwinter Dryad, and Sakura-Tribe Elder all do basically the same thing: on turn two, they put an extra land into play for us. Into the North does too, but it specifically looks for Snow Lands, so we're running Snow-Covered Forests and Plains in the deck, in addition to Arctic Treeline and Arctic Flats, which are probably what we want to get. Truth is you could probably just run one Snow-covered version of each (or maybe two Forests and one Plains) plus the Arctics; the chances that you'll have all of them when you see Into the North is pretty small, and saves you having to get a bunch of Snow-covered Lands.

The reason for this particular style of ramp is specific: we want to play Dhalsim on turn three. Our entire game plan revolves around having him out, and the sooner, the better. So, turn one, we play a tapped land, turn two, get a land, and turn three, play our Commander and start the Reach party.

All our draw is tied to our creatures in some way; because Dhalsim will provide us with some early card advantage, we can use our draw to get great bursts of cards later and completely refill our hand. Probably the biggest example of this is Nissa's Revelation; with some luck, we'll draw a bunch of cards off this, plus probably gain a substantial amount of life. We have 11 Creatures with power three or greater, so the likelihood we see one is decently high. Rishkar's Expertise draws a few and gives us a free spell, and Soul's Majesty just draws cards. I'm a fan of Momentous Fall in decks that can run it, because Wrath effects are likely and it makes the sting of losing one's board less painful when you have a full grip. Hunter's Prowess and Hunter's Insight are both great fun; the Insight in particular is neat when used after blockers are declared, since we can choose the one that didn't get blocked.

Dhalsim himself is not particularly threatening, so we'll want some fat on the board to throw some damage around. We have a variety of creatures, almost all of whom have Reach. Wildborn Preserver can get huge. Whiptongue Hydra clears the skies and gets huge. Ulvenwald Hydra is just huge. Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar is also huge. Kodama of the East Tree, Sweet-Gum Recluse, and Annoyed Altisaur all provide free spells. There are quite a few Spiders who make more Spiders, Elder Gargaroth gives us a choice of things, and Gemrazer and World Breaker both get rid of stuff while Halana, Kessig Ranger lets our creatures Fight. Invoke the Ancients makes us two Creatures with Reach, and of course Stirring Wildwood becomes a Creature with Reach as well. Ohran Frostfang and Toski, Bearer of Secrets both don't have Reach, but they're worth it because they double up on Dhalsim's draw trigger, providing our sneaky Reachers with even more cards.

We are running a few cards to deal with problems; we have a couple of board wipes in the form of Doomskar and Austere Command, plus Slash the Ranks which keeps Dhalsim alive and Fell the Mighty, which we might be able to work into a good trade for us. Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile are both really great in any deck running White, plus we have some Creatures which serve as removal.

There is a lot of fun stuff in this deck, too. The nice thing is the only thing the deck really needs is Dhalsim for the evasion and the card draw, and we always have him. Otherwise, we can kind of play with what we draw as we go. Assault Formation and Huatli, the Sun's Heart both make Creatures assign damage via their Toughness, which works out for us more often than it doesn't and, unless someone is randomly running Doran, the Siege Tower, won't really matter to anyone else. Vivien, Monsters' Advocate lets us play stuff off our library and makes us Beast tokens with Reach, so that's fun. Arachnogenesis is hilarious and can be really crazy if someone has exploded Goblins out or something. Boseju Reaches Skyward is really here to flip and be another Multani. Bear Umbra untaps all our mana. Kaldra Compleat and Argentum Armor both will turn a little dude into a big dude. Akroma's Will can be a way to make a few unblockable little dudes much more of a problem.

Dhalsim is a powerful Commander, whether he's a Street Fighter character or not. His benefits are great, and they let us leverage Creatures we are sometimes less excited about. I mean, when was the last time Bird Admirer // Wing Shredder actually made sense in a deck? This deck will be fun to play, fun to play against, win fairly when it wins, and is a great one to have around for people who are just getting into Magic, because it plays fun and relatively straightforward. Might be a great choice to get that video gamer friend to sit and play a card game with you!

What do you want to do with Dhalsim? Is there some Street-Fighter-specific thing I missed? Let us know!

Thanks for reading.