Grab your torch, your map, and your rope. It's time to do some exploring.

Sefris begs us to lean into Venture, and fortunately for us, their precon doesn't do a whole lot of it. Let's take a look at what happens when we build a deck with every possible Venture card!

Sefris Enters the Dungeon | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Sefris of the Hidden Ways

• Creatures (36)
• 1 Acererak the Archlich
• 1 Angel of the Ruins
• 1 Ashen Rider
• 1 Barrowin of Clan Undurr
• 1 Bloodghast
• 1 Clattering Skeletons
• 1 Cloister Gargoyle
• 1 Diluvian Primordial
• 1 Displacer Beast
• 1 Doom Whisperer
• 1 Dungeon Crawler
• 1 Eccentric Apprentice
• 1 Esper Sentinel
• 1 Gloom Stalker
• 1 Hama Pashar, Ruin Seeker
• 1 Karmic Guide
• 1 Keen-Eared Sentry
• 1 Luminate Primordial
• 1 Nadaar, Selfless Paladin
• 1 Obsessive Stitcher
• 1 Planar Ally
• 1 Ranger's Hawk
• 1 Reassembling Skeleton
• 1 Secret Door
• 1 Sepulchral Primordial
• 1 Shortcut Seeker
• 1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1 Shriekmaw
• 1 Sun Titan
• 1 Sunblast Angel
• 1 Triumphant Adventurer
• 1 Trophy Mage
• 1 Veteran Dungeoneer
• 1 Yuan-Ti Fang-Blade
• 1 Yuan-Ti Malison
• 1 Zombie Ogre

• Instants (6)
• 1 Bar the Gate
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Utter End
• 1 Wizard's Retort

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 Buried Alive
• 1 Fates' Reversal
• 1 Merciless Eviction
• 1 Necromantic Selection
• 1 Unburial Rites

• Enchantments (3)
• 1 Animate Dead
• 1 Fly
• 1 Precipitous Drop

• Artifacts (9)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Azorius Locket
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Delver's Torch
• 1 Dimir Locket
• 1 Dungeon Map
• 1 Fifty Feet of Rope
• 1 Obelisk of Esper
• 1 Orzhov Locket

• Lands (40)
• 3 Island
• 4 Plains
• 5 Swamp
• 1 Arcane Sanctum
• 1 Bad River
• 1 Blighted Fen
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Dismal Backwater
• 1 Drowned Catacomb
• 1 Dungeon Descent
• 1 Encroaching Wastes
• 1 Fetid Pools
• 1 Flood Plain
• 1 Glacial Fortress
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Haunted Fengraf
• 1 Homeward Path
• 1 Irrigated Farmland
• 1 Isolated Chapel
• 1 Orzhov Guildgate
• 1 Prairie Stream
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Scoured Barrens
• 1 Sunken Hollow
• 1 Temple of Deceit
• 1 Temple of Enlightenment
• 1 Temple of Silence
• 1 Tranquil Cove
• 1 Watery Grave

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The first thing we get is some weird, sub-optimal stuff. This is often the case when we use a new ability - there simply aren't enough cards for everything we want to run to be good. Eccentric Apprentice is a good example. We get a 2/2 Flier for , then if we complete a dungeon we get to... turn something into a Bird for a turn? I suppose a 1/1 is better than a 13/13 or whatever, but that Ulamog is still an Ulamog, just one that is much smaller and flies. Secret Door has great flavor, but a 0/4 Wall isn't the world's best thing, and the cost to Venture is pretty high (though it doesn't require a tap, which is nice, so if we happen into a bunch of mana, we can activate more than once). Bar the Gate is an expensive, limited Counterspell, but hey, we get to Venture.

We're running all those cards, plus everything else that cares about Venturing into the Dungeon. The goal here is to Venture like crazy; we want to complete Dungeons all the time. Because Sefris triggers whenever our stuff dies, we want to attack aggressively with our creatures who Venture when they attack (I'm looking at you, Triumphant Adventurer). If they get blocked, they die (well, maybe not that Triumphant Adventurer) and trigger Sefris. If they don't, they live to trigger again next turn, so win/win. If we can finish a Dungeon every couple of turns, we won't have too much trouble getting our stuff that dies back.

We actually have a few additional Legendary creatures in here which could be Commanders on their own, but probably belong in the 99. Take a look at Hama Pashar, Ruin Seeker. She's cool, but much better in a deck which a) has Black mana and b) is doing things other than caring about the Dungeon itself. Acererak the Archlich, too - great creature, but wants more support. (Also, that's a reason to do Tomb of Annihilation first. Unless you really need an ability from one of the other Dungeons, start with Tomb.)

While we're at it, we may as well have some additional targets for Sefris to get back; after all, if we discard a creature or put it into the 'yard from our library, we still get the Sefris trigger, then we can get it back via completing a Dungeon without paying for it. Stuff like Sheoldred, Whispering One and Diluvian Primordial should be good. Sunblast Angel is always a pain for our opponents. Ashen Rider is always a good time, too.

(It's worth pointing out one of the silliest-looking Venture cards is Keen-Eared Sentry, because what are the chances other people are also trying to Venture? But giving ourselves Hexproof makes it a lot harder for someone else to remove our 'yard from the game, which could be quite problematic.)

Bloodghast and Reassembling Skeleton will bring themselves back to the Battlefield, which is nice, because we can sacrifice them or throw them at opponents to get the Sefris trigger, then just get 'em back. We also have Reanimate and Unburial Rites as ways to get things back, plus they work as additional ways to bring out one of our big guys if we really need it right now and we can't figure out how to finish a Dungeon.

We've got some ramp, removal, mass removal, and the like as well. The deck could probably have more card draw, but this is a first draft: it's probably too much Venture anyway, so as Ventures comes out, draw can go in.

Oh! Trophy Mage is there to get Dungeon Map.

The thing is, as I was looking at Sefris I started thinking about how Dungeons are basically a mini-game within the game. That's fun and all, but what if we took another mini-game within the game and added it to our deck about mini-games?

Sefris Becomes the Monarch | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Sefris of the Hidden Ways

• Creatures (33)
• 1 Acererak the Archlich
• 1 Archon of Coronation
• 1 Azure Fleet Admiral
• 1 Barrowin of Clan Undurr
• 1 Canal Courier
• 1 Clattering Skeletons
• 1 Cloister Gargoyle
• 1 Custodi Lich
• 1 Displacer Beast
• 1 Dungeon Crawler
• 1 Eccentric Apprentice
• 1 Garrulous Sycophant
• 1 Gloom Stalker
• 1 Hama Pashar, Ruin Seeker
• 1 Keeper of Keys
• 1 Knights of the Black Rose
• 1 Nadaar, Selfless Paladin
• 1 Palace Jailer
• 1 Palace Sentinels
• 1 Planar Ally
• 1 Protector of the Crown
• 1 Ranger's Hawk
• 1 Secret Door
• 1 Shortcut Seeker
• 1 Staunch Throneguard
• 1 Thorn of the Black Rose
• 1 Throne Warden
• 1 Triumphant Adventurer
• 1 Trophy Mage
• 1 Veteran Dungeoneer
• 1 Yuan-Ti Fang-Blade
• 1 Yuan-Ti Malison
• 1 Zombie Ogre

• Instants (5)
• 1 Bar the Gate
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Return to Dust
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Utter End

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 Akroma's Vengeance
• 1 Fates' Reversal
• 1 Feast of Succession
• 1 Merciless Eviction
• 1 Necromantic Selection

• Enchantments (7)
• 1 Court of Ambition
• 1 Court of Cunning
• 1 Court of Grace
• 1 Fall from Favor
• 1 Fly
• 1 Marchesa's Decree
• 1 Precipitous Drop

• Artifacts (9)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Azorius Locket
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Delver's Torch
• 1 Dimir Locket
• 1 Dungeon Map
• 1 Fifty Feet of Rope
• 1 Obelisk of Esper
• 1 Orzhov Locket

• Lands (40)
• 5 Plains
• 5 Swamp
• 3 Island
• 1 Arcane Sanctum
• 1 Bad River
• 1 Dismal Backwater
• 1 Drowned Catacomb
• 1 Dungeon Descent
• 1 Fetid Pools
• 1 Flood Plain
• 1 Glacial Fortress
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Haunted Fengraf
• 1 Irrigated Farmland
• 1 Isolated Chapel
• 1 Morphic Pool
• 1 Orzhov Guildgate
• 1 Prairie Stream
• 1 Rogues Passage
• 1 Scoured Barrens
• 1 Sea of Clouds
• 1 Sunken Hollow
• 1 Tectonic Edge
• 1 Temple of Deceit
• 1 Temple of Enlightenment
• 1 Temple of Silence
• 1 Throne of the High City
• 1 Tranquil Cove
• 1 Watery Grave

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This deck is built on the same shell. All the Venture cards are here again, because once again we're going to attempt to Venture as much as possible. However, much of the other stuff has dropped out: all the reanimator stuff and big quality reanimator targets are gone. The removal is here, and we have basically the same mana base. However, in place of all the synergistic cards, we have instead put every card which lets us become the Monarch in our colors in the deck. Our angle, therefore, will be two angles: we'll be Venturing, and we'll be the Monarch. Along the way, we'll draw some extra cards, force some action by getting people to fight over who's the Monarch, and cause some other very strange effects, like Archon of Coronation making it so we won't take any damage or force discards with Court of Ambition.

Playing this version will be quite different. There is a possibility it could win, but it's no longer really the goal. Instead, the goal is to do absurd things, have crazy amounts of triggers happening, and create strange interactions which make the table break down in laughter at how ridiculous it has gotten. It should cause some fun. And most of the cost is tied up in the mana base, so making it much more casual would reduce the price of the deck a lot, which could make it a fun additional deck for when silliness is desired.

How are you planning to use Venture in Commander? Would you use Sefris or someone else? Anything else you're excited about from Adventures in the Forgotten Realms? Let us know in the comments!

Thanks for reading.