Ah, Mono-Blue. Home to Instants, Sorceries, and more Instants and Sorceries. Blue commanders feel right at home casting a lot of spells, often at surprising times, and drawing a ton of cards. Today's commander is no different.

For four mana, we get a 2/4 with Flash. That's pretty good; it can block a Beast Within token in a pinch, and it lets us cast our Sorceries any time we feel like it. Additionally, we can draw extra cards if we decide to mess around with the Ring. All great things. Let's do none of them.

Gandalf, Friend of the Shire | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Gandalf, Friend of the Shire

• Creatures (3)
• 1 Acquisition Octopus
• 1 Archaeomender
• 1 Mischievous Catgeist

• Enchantments (14)
• 1 Aether Tunnel
• 1 Aqueous Form
• 1 Auramancer's Guise
• 1 Cloak of Invisibility
• 1 Combat Research
• 1 Curiosity
• 1 Curious Obsession
• 1 Drake Umbra
• 1 Eldrazi Conscription
• 1 Flight of Fancy
• 1 Octopus Umbra
• 1 Security Bypass
• 1 Take Flight
• 1 Tricks of the Trade

• Artifacts (42)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Argentum Armor
• 1 Batterskull
• 1 Brass Knuckles
• 1 Chariot of Victory
• 1 Diviner's Wand
• 1 Ebony Fly
• 1 Goggles of Night
• 1 Grappling Hook
• 1 Guardian Idol
• 1 Hammer of Nazahn
• 1 Haunted Cloak
• 1 Haunted Plate Mail
• 1 Hedron Archive
• 1 Hedron Matrix
• 1 Helm of Kaldra
• 1 Infiltration Lens
• 1 Kaldra Compleat
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Nazgul Battle-Mace
• 1 Psychic Paper
• 1 Robe of the Archmagi
• 1 Rogue's Gloves
• 1 Shield of Kaldra
• 1 Sky Diamond
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Strata Scythe
• 1 Sword of Body and Mind
• 1 Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1 Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1 Sword of Forge and Frontier
• 1 Sword of Hearth and Home
• 1 Sword of Kaldra
• 1 Sword of Light and Shadow
• 1 Sword of Once and Future
• 1 Sword of Sinew and Steel
• 1 Sword of the Animist
• 1 Sword of Truth and Justice
• 1 Sword of War and Peace
• 1 Thought Vessel
• 1 Ur-Golem's Eye
• 1 Worn Powerstone

• Lands (40)
• 30 Island
• 1 Castle Vantress
• 1 Desert of the Mindful
• 1 Lonely Sandbar
• 1 Memorial to Genius
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Remote Isle
• 1 Riptide Laboratory
• 1 Rivendell
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Terrain Generator

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Nope, instead we're going to do something completely different. We're going Voltron. We're going to suit Gandalf up with more swords and Auras than he knows what to do with, and send him off to smack the ever-loving heck out of our opponents. No one will have any idea what to do when you declare you're attacking for 14. With Double-Strike. And Menace and quite possibly Annihilator. Then they'll go get another drink, 'cause they'll probably be dead.

We're going to need mana to do all this, so once again we've got 40 Lands. (I can't say this enough. Just put 40 Lands in your decks. I swear they'll work better and you'll be a happier player. I know it's hard to cut non-Lands. Take the pain and do it. It'll work better.) We've got a few Lands that Cycle and do other stuff, plus Riptide Laboratory can bounce Gandalf back to our Hand should we want to save him from something, but mostly we just need the mana, so 40 Lands. Additionally, we've got a batch of mana rocks, and we're going for volume here. We don't really care if we ramp to Gandalf (it's okay if we do, but not necessary). We want to ramp to Eldrazi Conscription, and to do that, we don't care when we cast the rock, just that we have the mana. We do, however, have several which can draw us cards in the later game, which can be clutch for this strategy.

And we will attack with Gandalf. We will attack with him often, and we will attack with him hard. It won't be unusual to be attacking with three or four abilities, a couple of draw triggers, and at least 10 damage if not more on turn six or seven. Throw everything you've got in your Hand on him and swing for the fences; the only thing not to do is double up on abilities when unnecessary. It's fine to give him Trample twice from Kaldra Compleat and Chariot of Victory, but don't give him Double Strike twice with Brass Knuckles and Grappling Hook. Anything which gives a power boost should go on him right away. And if you can, give him evasion or make him unblockable. It'll save you a lot of trouble.

We are sacrificing our ability to answer problems, and it will cost us. Sometimes, someone faster than us will be able to just beat us up (though it's possible we can convince them we're not a threat). Sometimes someone will have a combo or a board state which requires an answer to deal with and we can't. We make up for it in style! Play your titans, your primordials, your dinosaurs! I'm coming at you with an ancient Wizard armed to the teeth with more blades than you can count, and you can't block him and oh yeah you're dead.

Out of respect for the theme of doing something completely unexpected, we're running zero Instants and Sorceries. The deck would be different if you decided to add in some counters or bounce spells or something, but it might be better at your tables. There are three other Creatures in the deck: the Catgeist, Archaeomender to grab back a Curiosity, and Acquisition Octopus, which is also an Equipment. I tend to prefer Chariot of Victory to Swiftfoot Boots, but you can run whatever you'd like. I've also got a full slate of Swords of X and Y here, but if that's too spendy for you, it'll be fine with things like Trusty Machete and other cheap bulk Equipment designed for Limited. The point is to make Gandalf huge and swing with him, and it doesn't really matter how. Yeah, Sword of Fire and Ice will make the deck stronger because that card is insane. But just think how awesome Gandalf would look with a Pirate's Cutlass?!

Oh, speaking of Sword of Fire and Ice, be aware that when you give Gandalf protection from Blue, any Blue Auras or Equipment will fall off him. It's worth running it to have the power, but keep it in mind.

I promise you, no one will expect you to swing at them with Gandalf while wearing a suit of Argentum Armor. They'll stop laughing really quickly.

I'd love to hear how you'd build Gandalf if you were trying to break the mold with him. What are your thoughts? And did I miss a key Voltron piece? Let me know on socials!

Thanks for reading.