In case you weren't aware, all dogs are the goodest girls and boys. Mine are the best (I have four - three Chihuahuas and a Terrier), the one we lost during pandemic was (he was a mini Poodle mix), my dad's dog Sancho was a popular regular at his game shop (a Chow Chow mutt built like a tank). But also the dog I met at a baby shower yesterday was the goodest girl. And any of you who have or have had dogs - they're the goodest.

This one, too.

Have you ever played fetch with a retriever? They will chase your toy and return it to you until they're so tired they physically cannot move anymore. That's the way I understand Phelia - we're throwing something we control (a nonland Permanent) and she's running to retrieve it (at the beginning of our End Step).

I think we can have fun with this.

Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd

• Creatures (33)
• 1 Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward
• 1 Aerial Extortionist
• 1 Charming Prince
• 1 Circuit Mender
• 1 Claim Jumper
• 1 Combat Thresher
• 1 Eagle of Deliverance
• 1 Errand-Rider of Gondor
• 1 Farsight Adept
• 1 Felidar Guardian
• 1 Flickerwisp
• 1 Fortune, Loyal Steed
• 1 Inspiring Overseer
• 1 Karmic Guide
• 1 Loran of the Third Path
• 1 Priest of Ancient Lore
• 1 Restoration Angel
• 1 Reverent Hoplite
• 1 Roving Harper
• 1 Rumor Gatherer
• 1 Sanctuary Warden
• 1 Sandstone Oracle
• 1 Search Party Captain
• 1 Skyclave Apparition
• 1 Skyscanner
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Spirited Companion
• 1 Steel Seraph
• 1 Sun Titan
• 1 Sunblast Angel
• 1 Wall of Omens
• 1 Welcoming Vampire
• 1 Witch Enchanter // Witch-Blessed Meadow

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 The Eternal Wanderer

• Instants (5)
• 1 Cloudshift
• 1 Eerie Interlude
• 1 Ephemerate
• 1 Semester's End
• 1 Swords to Plowshares

• Sorceries (3)
• 1 Another Round
• 1 Ravnica at War
• 1 Winds of Abandon

• Enchantments (4)
• 1 Blessed Sanctuary
• 1 Far Traveler
• 1 Teleportation Circle
• 1 Tocasia's Welcome

• Artifacts (13)
• 1 Archaeomancer's Map
• 1 Bounty Board
• 1 Brotherhood Regalia
• 1 Conjurer's Closet
• 1 Coveted Jewel
• 1 Decanter of Endless Water
• 1 Mithril Coat
• 1 Panharmonicon
• 1 Strionic Resonator
• 1 Thought Vessel
• 1 Throne of Eldraine
• 1 Trailblazer's Boots
• 1 Whispersilk Cloak

• Lands (40)
• 27 Plains
• 1 Access Tunnel
• 1 Animal Sanctuary
• 1 Castle Ardenvale
• 1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
• 1 Maze of Ith
• 1 Minas Tirith
• 1 Monumental Henge
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Scavenger Grounds
• 1 War Room

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There is a common belief in Commander that White struggles to draw cards. I think we can use Phelia's fetching to confound that belief. In fact, the final change I made to this deck (in testing!) was to add Thought Vessel in as a third way to make sure we didn't have a limited hand size. This deck draws a lot of cards.

It also makes plenty of mana. We have 40 Lands, most of which are Basic Plains, and in at least one test game I was able to get every Basic in the deck on the 'field by turn one0. Such is the mighty power of the goodest girl playing fetch! Claim Jumper and Archaeomancer's Map both help make sure we're hitting our drops and keeping up. Thought Vessel and Decanter of Endless Water both help with early ramp, and Coveted Jewel and Throne of Eldraine are bigger-ticket items for later (Coveted Jewel also enjoys being fetched). Bounty Board is kind of a test for me, and I'd like to hear back from you on it. It seems like a decent political play to get others to do your dirty work. Does it work?

Solemn Simulacrum is the all-star here, of course. If you can park Sad Robot out for a few turns and get a few fetches in (heck, maybe getting to play with the goodest girl will make the robot less sad?), you'll have all the Land you need.

And then we draw. When Wall of Omens first came out, it was very exciting - an early drop in White which replaces itself! Now, they're everywhere, and we're running them. Spirited Companion (another goodest boy!), Errand-Rider of Gondor, Farsight Adept (make friends!), Inspiring Overseer... the list goes on. Play these early, play them often, and play fetch with them as much as you can. You'll draw plenty of cards.

Combat Thresher is a particular case. It came in because it's a decently cheap Creature which draws us a card. But it turns out if you play fetch with (flicker) a Creature with Prototype, it comes in with its full stats. So, we can play Combat Thresher for three mana, draw our card, then play fetch with Phelia and it'll come back, draw us another card, but this time as a 3/3 with Double Strike. Excellent.

We've also got Welcoming Vampire and Tocasia's Welcome, both of which have enough targets in our deck they should do decent work. I never ran out of cards when play-testing this deck.

We have no specific win condition, though we do have a few decent Creatures which can probably get the job done. I like the idea of Sunblast Angel coming down, blowing up everyone else's stuff, then attacking in the air. We have a decent number of other fliers as well, including Aerial Extortionist, Eagle of Deliverance, and Sanctuary Warden. We can also make a boat load of Tokens with Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward and Reverent Hoplite. In the right situation, that, plus maybe Blessed Sanctuary, can create enough of a board state to knock some players out. Phelia, too, gets rather large herself, and we have a number of ways to sneak her through (Rogue's Passage, Whispersilk Cloak, and more) or make her hard to kill (Mithril Coat, Eagle of Deliverance), so she could conceivably become a decent threat. We'll definitely want to attack, though, so don't sit back. Attack when there are openings. No big deal if stuff dies, because we'll surely be able to replace it.

Something like Witch Enchanter // Witch-Blessed Meadow is great here; it's more than we'd normally like to pay for this effect, but it's repeatable (in our deck), plus it can function as Land if we need it in the early game. Sunblast Angel is here, and an excellent play right before we attack on our turn. She'll probably kill Phelia if we flicker her, but Phelia's cheap enough we can afford it if it means we get a bunch more value from her ETB effect. Skyclave Apparition is a great one to play fetch with, because it'll get rid of great stuff and leave your opponents with vanilla Tokens. Ravnica at War and Winds of Abandon both do good work, and once you cast Swords to Plowshares a single time with this deck, everyone will assume you've got it in Hand for the rest of time. You watch - your friends will play around the Plow.

Semester's End and Eerie Interlude can both protect from removal. Most of our other additional Flicker effects won't, though, because they return the card right away, so the removal spell can still find its target, or it'll be back on the field when the board wipe resolves. That's okay, though, because we recover our resources quickly enough we should be fine through some removal.

We have a number of additional ways to flicker stuff, like Far Traveler, Conjurer's Closet, and Cloudshift. Another Round is how I managed to get all my Plains on the 'field - I cast it for X = 6 with Sad Robot out and pulled my last remaining six Plains. The Eternal Wanderer is good for this, too. Because basically all our Creatures have some great ETB effect, we don't mind having them enter over and over.

We've also got some Creatures which flicker other Creatures, so it's worth noting when you can create a chain. With Blessed Sanctuary out, it's a good idea to flicker your Flickerwisp to flicker your Restoration Angel to flicker your Witch Enchanter // Witch-Blessed Meadow, because we'll get three Unicorns out of it rather than one. There's another reason: Phelia triggers on attack, so we have to flicker out a Creature before damage. However, if we flicker out Flickerwisp, we can still do damage with our remaining Creatures, but still get the benefit of having them flicker later. It also untaps them all so we can use them as blockers.

We have a few ways to protect Phelia, since she has to attack in order for us to do our thing. We have Equipment which gets her through, like Trailblazer's Boots and Whispersilk Cloak. We also have a couple of ways to make her Indestructible, and Maze of Ith allows us to attack with her then just remove her from combat, keeping her from dying.

Panharmonicon and Strionic Resonator both do good work here; Panharmonicon, of course, means we get double triggers from all our stuff entering, and Strionic can copy Phelia's ability or the ability of one of the things re-entering (imagine that with Coveted Jewel!). And of course, Animal Sanctuary had to be in here.

This deck will surprise a lot of people, especially with how full your Hand will be pretty much all the time. You can swap in some of the big Creatures with others, like Atraxi Warden, Archangel of Strife (that'd be fun!) or Serra's Emissary. Linvala, the Preserver would be good. I'd err on the side of drawing more cards to start, rather then seeing if the deck has room for more fat.

Thanks for reading.