Tasha, the Witch-Queen by Martina Fackova

Or perhaps this is a more apt name?

A mortal's journey from the alias Iggwilv to Tasha, the Witch-Queen, from human to nigh-divine archfey, is one etched across multiple pages of Forgotten Realms lore. Though these stories are new to me, at least outside of the classic 90's Baldur's Gate PC game, I've watched Hocus Pocus enough times to know that witches are not to be trifled with. Especially those with the sort of connections Tasha has. Raised by Baba Lysaga, the Night Witch, Tasha has been summoning demons since she was ten years old. As she grew in years, so too did her power. Tasha's Hideous Laughter, with its potential to annihilate opposing libraries, was one of her earlier works. Later on, after ascending to an archfey, she became one of the most powerful individuals in the D&D multiverse.

Within Commander Legends: The Battle of Baldur's Gate, Tasha, the Witch-Queen's skill at the dark arts translates into an utter invasion of your opponents' minds. She's clearly talented at reducing sanity to mush, but her abilities extend well beyond that. While our last entry saw Zevlor, Elturel Exile pilfer enemy permanents, Tasha prefers a more cerebral approach. Rather than wait for an opponent to cast threats with which to steal, she simply reaches into their brain and finds them, herself.

Not only will she enable you to cast enemy spells, but she'll also reward you with demonic lackeys along the way. An important resource, as these 3/3's serve as her primary form of protection. She's also an excellent card-advantage engine, scaling up loyalty while filling graveyards with future resources. Whereas Zevlor asked us to lean into spell-slinging, Tasha is just as happy to reward us for casting enemy creatures as she is Instants and Sorceries. Heck, any spell we control but don't own (i.e. - We stole it) will add to our army. Though our Commander is a witch, if our deck were a Class-type, it'd totally be Rogue. Theft is the tool that enables our arsenal to be as flexible as our opponents', letting us turn their own threats and removal against them.

Xanathar, Guild Kingpin by Kieran Yanner

"Someone mention criminal activity?"

Let's delve deeper into the spellbook and break down our Commander's nuances:

1. Tasha, the Witch Queen is plenty adept at casting choice spells from enemy graveyards, but so too is the rest of our deck. Our aim is to harness enemy weaponry while generating demonic blockers along the way. Spells like Memory Plunder, Mnemonic Betrayal, and Wrexial, the Risen Deep further transform opposing graveyards into spell banks. Or we can plunder opposing hands via Silent-Blade Oni, Extract Brain, and Covetous Urge. Even the top of their decks aren't safe, with cards like Xanathar, Guild Kingpin, Stolen Goods, and Thief of Sanity essentially drawing us cards from other libraries. No matter which thieving route we take, Tasha will reward us with demons for our troubles.

2. With our general being a Planeswalker, an elevated creature count helps keep her alive from enemy attacks. 3/3 Demons are an excellent help, but a host of synergistic creatures are also on hand to hold the fort. The combination of large army and token stream allows us to have fun with the fittingly- sneaky Ninjitsu. Witches and Ninja must have an excellent working relationship, as stealthy assassins like Silent-Blade Oni, Nashi, Moon Sage's Scion, and Fallen Shinobi align perfectly with our gameplan. Sheer numbers aside, cards like Dauthi Voidwalker and Krydle of Baldur's Gate provide evasion to help push attackers through.

3. In order to have access to the most options, it behooves us to keep enemy graveyards full. Dimir is just as happy to threaten enemy sanity as enemy lives, so milling is not only copious, but even comes in two flavors. Teferi's Tutelage, Court of Cunning, and Memory Erosion take the gradual approach, steadily whittling opposing decks with each turn cycle. Alternatively, we could take a bolder tactic with Nemesis of Reason, Glimpse the Unthinkable, and Maddening Cacophony, which melt a sizable chuck of an enemy's brain in one nasty shot. Either way, the ever-increasing morgue population provides additional options for Tasha, the Witch Queen to draw upon. We do pack some removal, but ideally, it's these full graveyards that'll provide the sweepers for Tasha to invoke.

4. While we're busy filling up graveyards, we might as well take advantage of all the newly-buried resources. Creatures like Consuming Aberration and Sewer Nemesis get progressively gigantic in combat. Shadow Kin and Dimir Doppelganger gleefully mimic fallen foes. Or we could opt to recur enemy threats via Draugr Necromancer, who'll trigger Tasha while he's at it. If our ever-escalating wave of value isn't enough to end things, a late-game Rise of the Dark Realms is bound to resurrect an absolute horde of corpses to close things out.

In summary, we'll want to start things off in typical Commander fashion: ramp and get a mana base underneath us first. We should start deploying troops before Tasha, the Witch Queen becomes available, helping ensure she'll survive that first pivotal turn cycle after arriving. Bear in mind, because she can only recur spells with Page counters on them, Tasha is unable to activate her second ability the turn she enters play. You won't be able to draw upon enemy removal as initial protection once you first cast her. She'll need a turn to exile spells. Thus, make sure you've enough support to keep Tasha alive before inviting her to the party. Once you untap, you'll have ample resources with which to simultaneously protect her and start stealing munitions from your enemies. This one-two punch gets steadily more powerful the longer Tasha lives, meaning each turn she prevails gets you one step closer to winning.

In the words of the immortal Winifred Sanderson: "I'll put a spell on you. And now you're mine."

Yes, I'm aware that's a song lyric a witch from the 1600's couldn't possibly have known but, whatever, it was a fun scene.

Intellect Devourer by Brian Valeza

Maybe she found a familiar that eats pop-culture memories?

The Wicked Witch with the Best | Commander | Matthew Lotti

• Commander (1)
• 1 Tasha, the Witch Queen

• Creatures (27)
• 1 Brainstealer Dragon
• 1 Chancellor of the Spires
• 1 Consuming Aberration
• 1 Dauthi Voidwalker
• 1 Dazzling Sphinx
• 1 Diluvian Primordial
• 1 Dimir Doppelganger
• 1 Disciple of Deceit
• 1 Draugr Necromancer
• 1 Fallen Shinobi
• 1 Gonti, Lord of Luxury
• 1 Hostage Taker
• 1 Intellect Devourer
• 1 Krydle of Baldur's Gate
• 1 Manic Scribe
• 1 Mindleecher
• 1 Nashi, Moon Sage's Scion
• 1 Nemesis of Reason
• 1 Nightveil Specter
• 1 Opposition Agent
• 1 Sewer Nemesis
• 1 Shadow Kin
• 1 Silent-Blade Oni
• 1 Thief of Sanity
• 1 Wandering Archaic
• 1 Wrexial, the Risen Deep
• 1 Xanathar, Guild Kingpin

• Instants (5)
• 1 Gale's Redirection
• 1 Hagra Mauling // Hagra Broodpit
• 1 Memory Plunder
• 1 Siphon Insight
• 1 Spelljack

• Sorceries (12)
• 1 Agadeem's Awakening // Agadeem, the Undercrypt
• 1 Covetous Urge
• 1 Extract Brain
• 1 Fractured Sanity
• 1 Glimpse the Unthinkable
• 1 Maddening Cacophony
• 1 Mnemonic Betrayal
• 1 Predators' Hour
• 1 Rise of the Dark Realms
• 1 Stolen Goods
• 1 Toxic Deluge
• 1 Xander's Pact

• Enchantments (9)
• 1 Court of Cunning
• 1 Cunning Rhetoric
• 1 Dead Man's Chest
• 1 King Narfi's Betrayal
• 1 Memory Erosion
• 1 Mind's Dilation
• 1 Psychic Corrosion
• 1 Rogue Class
• 1 Teferi's Tutelage

• Artifacts (10)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Chaos Wand
• 1 Dimir Signet
• 1 Everflowing Chalice
• 1 Fellwar Stone
• 1 Moonsilver Key
• 1 Rod of Absorption
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Talisman of Dominance
• 1 Thought Vessel

• Lands (36)
• 10 Snow-Covered Swamp
• 11 Snow-Covered Island
• 1 Ancient Tomb
• 1 Blast Zone
• 1 Command Beacon
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Drowned Catacomb
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Fetid Pools
• 1 Morphic Pool
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Mystic Sanctuary
• 1 Nephalia Drownyard
• 1 Polluted Delta
• 1 Shipwreck Marsh
• 1 Sunken Ruins
• 1 Watery Grave

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Enter the Coven: Let's begin this nefarious tale with our army. Whether they hail from witch's cottage or thieves guild, all are driven by nefarious intent. Though many are accustomed to attacking for value, they'll also serve as protection for our commander. That said, if the coast is clear, these saboteurs will reward you with illicit goods. For example, Nightveil Specter, Thief of Sanity, Silent-Blade Oni, Fallen Shinobi, Nashi, Moon Sage's Scion, Dazzling Sphinx, and Wrexial, the Risen Deep require bloodletting in order to give you access to enemy spells. Luckily, all have some form of evasion or trickery to help sneak them past enemy defenses.

Other hooligans don't even worry about connecting with an opponent's throat. Brainstealer Dragon, Chancellor of the Spires, Diluvian Primordial, Gonti, Lord of Luxury, Hostage Taker, Intellect Devourer, Mindleecher, Opposition Agent, and Xanathar, Guild Kingpin immediately begin the heist into your opponents' vaults just by entering or remaining in play for a turn. Others like Dauthi Voidwalker, Wandering Archaic, and Draugr Necromancer get more powerful the longer they stay in play, much like our commander. This trio of creatures will punish opponents for playing spells and sending creatures into combat.

The next batch of cutthroats prefers to shred sanity over stealing resources. Granted, because said sanity-shredding takes the form of milling, these creatures provide both Tasha, the Witch Queen and a few of the aforementioned troops more ammunition to work with. Nemesis of Reason, Shadow Kin, Consuming Aberration, Manic Scribe, Sewer Nemesis, and Krydle of Baldur's Gate all chip away at opposing libraries, with the latter even providing additional evasion to your saboteur-style creatures. Finally, Disciple of Deceit brings up the rear with tutor-style utility. With our gameplan taking time to build up steam, her ability to recycle unneeded cards into more relevant resources is not to be overlooked.

Wicked Witchcraft: Tasha's centuries-long career has seen her spellbook grow thicker than a Multiverse-phonebook. Taking the psychic approach to cracking an opponent's cerebrum sees us employ the dark likes of Extract Brain and Covetous Urge to go directly after their hand. Or we could further punish players for simply playing the game a la Mind's Dilation, Cunning Rhetoric, Rod of Absorption, Spelljack, Gale's Redirection, Mnemonic Betrayal, and Memory Plunder. With Tasha, the Witch Queen being more than capable of recurring removal, we can also get maximum value out of Dead Man's Chest. If we'd rather the direct approach, Xander's Pact, King Narfi's Betrayal, Rogue Class, Chaos Wand, Predators' Hour, Siphon Insight, and Stolen Goods go straight for the library. No matter the angle of attack, our "hand" is bound to be overflowing with cards. Many just don't belong to us.

Just as with our army, the other side of spellcraft sets aim on opposing gray matter. Milling revs up via Fractured Sanity, Glimpse the Unthinkable, and Maddening Cacophony, or hums along steadily through Court of Cunning, Psychic Corrosion, Memory Erosion, and Teferi's Tutelage. The more we can stockpile enemy graveyards, the more spells we'll have to draw upon via Tasha and cards like Mnemonic Betrayal, Memory Plunder, etc. Plus, we'll be super-sizing creatures like Sewer Nemesis and Consuming Aberration. Exiling choice spells from enemy graveyards also mitigates any unintentional assistance we might be providing other graveyard-centric decks at the table. An enemy Muldrotha, the Grave Tide can't recur permanents if we exile them first. We're technically a graveyard deck, ourselves, it's just that we're most interested in their graveyard. In that light, if an opponent is happy to fill up their own 'yard as part of their central game plan, all the better for us.

Supporting Spells: With all this effort spent tossing corpse after corpse into the graveyard, it's only fitting to have some mass-recursion to take full advantage. It's not our main strategy, but if all those cold bodies are ripe for necromancy, who are we to let a good zombie-army go to waste? A late game Rise of the Dark Realms could easily see our creature-count leap past twenty. Our own higher creature-count also means Agadeem's Awakening // Agadeem, the Undercrypt is bound to have ample targets as the game drags on. It's modal nature makes it and the underrated Hagra Mauling // Hagra Broodpit into flexible tools. That said, despite our Dimir-nature, we rely little on our own removal. A lone Toxic Deluge is included as a just-in-case, but ideally, we're hoping to harness enemy removal as our main form of answer. Spot removals and sweepers are such a key component of the format that you can reliably count on nearly every deck packing at least some destructive-firepower to draw upon.

Mana Support and Rocks: Though the majority of our ramp comes from the expected sources (Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, etc.), the inclusion of Fellwar Stone (and Moonsilver Key to potentially find it) is important for certain enemy spells. For while most like Mnemonic Betrayal, Hostage Taker, and Xanathar, Guild Kingpin allow us to bypass color restrictions, others like Mindleecher or any color-based activations present on stolen permanents, will need colors outside of Blue and Black. Also note that theft-spells that denote "you may play this card", rather than just cast it (Ex. - Nightveil Specter vs. Thief of Sanity) will let you play enemy lands. With our options also split between our own hand and our opponents', in addition to the inherent card advantage Tasha, the Witch Queen provides, Thought Vessel can go a long way toward ensuring we need not have to discard to seven at our turn's end.

Moving onto real estate, other than the usual Blue/Black territories (Watery Grave, Polluted Delta, Sunken Ruins, etc.), we bring in Exotic Orchard to provide a second Fellwar Stone-effect. Mystic Sanctuary enables reuse of a helpful spell, and Nephalia Drownyard allows us to utilize excess mana to continue filling enemy graveyards. Finally, utility-land Blast Zone provides another mana sink to keep on hand for board control.

Siphon Insight by Livia Prima

'Buffet table' has a much darker connotation when it comes to vampires.

Budget Options: When you stop and think about it, the Necronomicon was actually a budget-friendly publication. In lieu of costly paper and ink costs, the authors opted for flesh and blood, which given their ghastly reputation, was likely in ample supply. Tasha, the Witch Queen may not have penned the Evil Dead-infamous tome, but she did compose the Demonicon of Iggwilv. Her research wasn't bound in viscera, but it certainly would've been on-brand. In that regard, here are some substitutes for players who'd rather not break the bank on cardboard. All cards over $20 will be noted and recommended for swap-outs. If anything seems interesting, regardless of price tag, give them a roll in the main! Creativity is a oft-forgotten cornerstone of Commander. One of the aspects that makes it special. Mix and match card choices to your vivisected-heart's content!

Creatures: N/A

Opposition Agent comes close to breaking budget at roughly $17, but everyone else is well below. That said, plenty of alternative options exist for creatures. Cards like Mindleech Mass, Arvinox, the Mind Flail, and Elder Brain were in the original deck, only cut because we already had some mana-heavy creatures aboard. They nonetheless fit perfectly into our strategy and could easily tag in for heavies like Brainstealer Dragon, Diluvian Primordial, or Chancellor of the Spires. Other great choices include Kheru Spellsnatcher and Kheru Mind-Eater.

If you're more in the market for milling, cards like Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker, Phenax, God of Deception, Hedron Crab, and Ruin Crab all provide a steady stream of annihilated libraries in their wake.

Supporting Spells: Toxic Deluge: $20.00

With only a single sweeper spell coming in over budget, options abound. If we'd prefer to replace it with another sweeper, our excess of snow-covered basics adds to the value of Blood on the Snow. If instead we'd rather dig deeper into synergy, spell-stealing cards like Psychic Intrusion, Hedonist's Trove are also available. For added milling, look to cards like Traumatize, Sanity Grinding, and Cut Your Losses, for which you should have plenty of demon tokens for that Casualty cost. Finally, with our commander being a Planeswalker, Proliferate options like Contentious Plan, Thrumming Bird, and Inexorable Tide could also be helpful additions.

Mana Options: Ancient Tomb: $70.00, Polluted Delta: $44.00, Sunken Ruins: $20.00

As usual, our mana base is the most expensive component of the deck. Direct mana-making replacements are in ample supply: Choked Estuary, Darkwater Catacombs, Clearwater Pathway // Murkwater Pathway, Dreadship Reef, River of Tears, Creeping Tar Pit, etc. If you'd rather more in the realm of utility, Duskmantle, House of Shadow can come in for additional incremental milling, Port of Karfell works to resurrect dead creatures, and Hostile Hostel // Creeping Inn provides another source of damage. Just ensure you've enough tokens to both feed it and protect Tasha.

Mnemoic Betrayal by Clint Cearley

The coolest album-art ever has never appeared on an actual album cover.

If you've come this far, and your sanity is still intact, I'm sure you've earned Tasha, the Witch Queen's respect. She may be a millennia-old archfey who views players as little more than Chess pawns, but if you've hung around her this long and can still string together cohesive sentences, she must find you amusing. At the very least. The same can't be said for your opponents, who by this dire point are likely reduced to cackling fiends, laughing as their own doom descends upon them. Grim a picture as it may paint, you can at least take consolation in this: At least she's on your side.

Thanks for reading, and may your spellbook be ever-full of options.

-Matt-

@Intrepid_Tautog