New school year, new series! As I’ve been wrapping up 26 Decks in a Year, my editors, bosses, and I have been discussing the future of my writing, and we’ve wound up with a column with the following basic premises:

• It will involve Commander decks;
• The decks will, as of the writing, cost less than $75 to build on CoolStuffInc.com;
• It will shine light on a specific commander, card, or mechanic; and,
• It will be written as mini-series.

What this all means is I’m going to continue to build $75 Commander decks, but instead of going around the color wheel, we’re going to be a bit more loose and go a bit more in-depth. We’ll spend two to four (most often three) articles focusing on a single thing—a commander, a card, a mechanic—and build different decks using that thing. I would love the community to be as involved as they wish, which means I love hearing suggestions and ideas of topics to cover. Please post them in the comments!

In the meantime, let’s start with this guy. We’ll spend the next few articles looking at different ways to use him. Today, let’s start way outside the box and just make the hills land come alive.

Mark Rosewater’s preview from Monday is a flavorful and interesting take on the return of Allies and the introduction of awaken. For 5 mana—and two colors—we gain a 4/4 Merfolk Ally, and whenever we cast an instant or a sorcery, one of our lands becomes a 0/0 creature with three +1/+1 counters on it.

Mana is key to most Commander decks, but when the lands are the primary means of victory, even more. A suite of dual lands (along with Command Tower, always a good investment) help fix for a bunch of and requirements. We also have a Temple of the False God and a Darksteel Citadel, which has the fine distinction of being indestructible even without Terra Eternal. Additionally, we have a bunch of storage lands—things like Mage-Ring Network and Calciform Pools. We’re going to be adding counters to things, so why not add storage counters, too? A few mana rocks bring our mana sources up to a total of forty-five; we’re not looking to ramp too hard, just to make sure we’re hitting our drops.

Traditionally, we want reusable ways to draw cards in Commander. Cards that net us a bunch of draw (like Rhystic Study and Tower of Fortunes) are usually great. With Noyan Dar, though, we also want to be triggering the pseudo-awaken ability, so we’re leaning into one-shot draw spells that net more than they cost. Divination is a fine benchmark; for 3 mana, we gain a replacement card and an additional card, and we turn one of our lands into a 3/3 attacker. Then, we have a variety of variations on that theme, like Foresee, Deep Analysis, and Frantic Search. The last one draws two and then discards two but also allows us to untap three lands at instant speed, which is really funny when they’re giant lands ready to block and even sweeter if they’re indestructible. Coastal Discovery is our newest one, netting us a couple of cards with an alternate awaken cost, giving us another attacker. Jace, Memory Adept draws a card every turn until he’s killed, kindly drawing fire away from our dome right to his.

The second way to buff our Island and Plains Elementals is with outlast. The Abzan may only share one color with Azorius, but there are enough “outlast lords” in white it’s worth playing with. Abzan Battle Priest, Abzan Falconer, Ainok Bond-Kin, and Herald of Anafenza all do something good to creatures with +1/+1 counters, and High Sentinels of Arashin does a ton of good work here, letting us use extra mana to beef up our land guys and sometimes just being a huge guy.

Finally, a few Planeswalkers help us along. Ajani Steadfast gives our fighting force a lovely, team-wide upgrade for a turn or lets us just tick up the whole team—plus any other ’Walkers we have kicking around. Ajani, Caller of the Pride, meanwhile, lets us pump up one dude with an extra counter or just send one big guy into the air, which is nice if we already have a land with fifteen or so counters. Elspeth, Sun's Champion, down in price due to her reprinting and impending exit from Standard, is pure value, but is really spectacular if we can reach the ultimate. She can also Wrath for us if we haven’t added any counters to our lands yet, clearing the way for our smaller Islands and Plains to do some damage.

We’re so thick with synergy our answers are a bit thin, but we have a few. Oblivion Ring and Banishing Light both do catch-all duty, getting rid of any problem permanent. Sheer Drop will take care of a creature, albeit after it’s done some damage, and it has the extra mode of giving us another creature land. The new Planar Outburst will blow up the whole board for us, minus our lands, which, if properly timed, should win us the game. We also have a miser’s Dismantling Blow, which will Disenchant and draw us a couple of cards if we have the extra mana.

We have some other fun things to do. Venser, the Sojourner (R.I.P.) mostly just jumps up and down and points at himself to distract people away from us, but we have some nice enters-the-battlefield effects to play with, mostly of the Archaeomancer variety. It’s sweet to be able to bring back our counterspells or draw spells when we need them. We can also Flicker Oblivion Ring to hit a nastier target should the need arise, and it turns out making a bunch of animated lands unblockable for a turn can be surprisingly deadly. To Arms! is hilarious because it can wind up generating a bunch of mana by untapping all our lands—cast a bunch of spells to make a few more guys, and then cast To Arms! and attack in. Teferi's Response is narrow but belongs here—as soon as someone points anything at one of our land-dudes, we can crack back with that little gem. Faith's Reward is a slick way of answering a Wrath effect if Terra Eternal isn’t out, even if our lands come back as nothing but lands. Terra Eternal’s ability to make our fighting lands indestructible is valuable enough to run a card to look for it, which makes this our first Lost Auramancer target. Honestly, Auramancer itself may be worth it just to bring Terra Eternal back; it didn’t make this cut, but it certainly could be worth trying. Sacred Ground is a good backup if Terra Eternal is destroyed, but indestructible is better.

Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper ? Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (0)

• Creatures (11)
• 1 Abzan Battle Priest
• 1 Abzan Falconer
• 1 Ainok Bond-Kin
• 1 Archaeomancer
• 1 Draining Whelk
• 1 Herald of Anafenza
• 1 High Sentinels of Arashin
• 1 Lost Auramancers
• 1 Mnemonic Wall
• 1 Mulldrifter
• 1 Scrivener

• Planeswalkers (5)
• 1 Ajani Steadfast
• 1 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
• 1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
• 1 Jace, Memory Adept
• 1 Venser, the Sojourner

• Spells (43)
• 1 Cancel
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Discombobulate
• 1 Disdainful Stroke
• 1 Dismal Failure
• 1 Dismantling Blow
• 1 Dismiss
• 1 Dissipate
• 1 Dissolve
• 1 Faith's Reward
• 1 Frantic Search
• 1 Fuel for the Cause
• 1 Gush
• 1 Inspiration
• 1 Mysteries of the Deep
• 1 Render Silent
• 1 Steady Progress
• 1 Stoic Rebuttal
• 1 Teferi's Response
• 1 To Arms
• 1 Weave Fate
• 1 Coastal Discovery
• 1 Counsel of the Soratami
• 1 Deep Analysis
• 1 Divination
• 1 Foresee
• 1 Kiss of the Amesha
• 1 Planar Outburst
• 1 Sheer Drop
• 1 Tezzeret's Gambit
• 1 Thoughtcast
• 1 Banishing Light
• 1 Inexorable Tide
• 1 Oblivion Ring
• 1 Sacred Ground
• 1 Terra Eternal
• 1 Azorius Signet
• 1 Contagion Clasp
• 1 Contagion Engine
• 1 Fellwar Stone
• 1 Guardian Idol
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Ojutai Monument

• Lands (40)
• 17 Island
• 9 Plains
• 1 Azorius Guildgate
• 1 Calciform Pools
• 1 Coastal Tower
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Fountain of Cho
• 1 Icatian Store
• 1 Mage-Ring Network
• 1 Sand Silos
• 1 Saprazzan Cove
• 1 Sejiri Refuge
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Tranquil Cove
• 1 Boreal Shelf
• 1 Darksteel Citadel

Buy This Deck

Decks almost always benefit from better lands. Some of the pricier duals would be great here, though this deck is slow enough it shouldn’t matter too much as long as we’re hitting our lands. A copy of Desertion would be really fun—honestly, it’s just great anywhere it can be played, but it’s just a touch too pricey. Crucible of Worlds is amazing, of course. And Elspeth, Knight-Errant would be a lovely addition.

We’re draw-go here, especially for the first ten or so turns. Draw a card, play a land, and pass. Let your opponents beat up on each other, maybe get the first Wrath effect out of the way, and then, once we can start playing stuff and leaving countermagic mana up, we start making dudes and causing trouble. We’re unlikely to win games with big plays and huge turns; instead, we’re going to have to play politically and stay under the radar, with our friends suddenly realizing we’ve created quite the board state.

Until next time, when we look at another way to play with our newest Merfolk commander. And if you have any great ideas for another name for this series, please post them in the comments!

Total cost: $75.00