Nighthawks by Edward Hopper (1942). Daring Saboteur by Victor Adame Minguez. Rampaging Ferocidon by Jonathan Kuo. Rowdy Crew by Steve Prescott. Jace, Vryn's Prodigy by Jamie Jones.

Every once in a while, we get an exciting new legendary creature who teases us with its cool party trick but suffers from the sin of not being in quite the right colors to be able to achieve its true potential. It's designed well and gives us an interesting angle to build an EDH deck around but falls short of what it could have been as a commander because WotC's card designers couldn't bring themselves to splash another color into its card frame somewhere.

Today's column is about an intriguing commander who is more likely to be found tagging buildings as leading your forces into battle. Meet Errant, Street Artist.

Flash, defender and haste are a weird combination of keywords, but it makes sense when you look at her activated ability. For two mana, one of which must be Blue, she can tap and let you copy target spell you control that wasn't cast. As usual, you may choose new targets for the copy.

The key words to look at here are "that wasn't cast." That is the yuck in our yum.

There are lots of colors that are great at copying spells, but for all of the things that Blue is fantastic at doing, copying spells isn't one of them.

Errant could have been an Izzet or Simic commander and we would have had a lot more interesting things to do with her. Instead of having a two-color activated ability, Errant only requires Blue, cutting us off from many of the cards that might have made her a fantastic new player in the copying spells game in Commander.

Alas, she is what she is, and that happens to be a legendary creature that was born to be in the 99 of a dozen other commander decks - some of which are even mono-Blue. She'd be fantastic in Volo, Guide to Monsters. She'd get along swimmingly with Riku of Two Reflections. Kalamax, the Stormsire, Sevinne, the Chronoclasm and Melek, Izzet Paragon could all put her to good use. In mono-Blue, Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant could certainly put her to work.

What if you wanted to build a deck solely around Errant, Street Artist?

Maybe you've tagged your share of buildings in your time or you went to art school, love playing Blue in Commander, and you feel like a challenge. Maybe you've got some fantastic alter in mind for Errant and you can't bear to hide your gorgeous new hand-painted card in the 99 of another deck. Maybe you just lost a bet. Whatever the reason, today I'm going to explore how I might approach building a mono-Blue commander deck with Errant, Street Artist in the command zone.

No, I didn't lose a bet.

Copying Spells in Blue

The first question is a key one. For Errant to do anything at all for this deck, I have to be able to copy spells without casting the copies. Only then can Errant use her activated ability and make another copy of the spell. While I went out of my way to bemoan the fact that this deck is tangled up in Blue with no access to other colors, there are a few cards that might help out.

There are a couple of keywords that can play into Errant's strategy. Casualty is a new ability in Streets of New Capenna and will allow me to sacrifice a creature with sufficient power to copy that spell. Storm, an old and powerful keyword, will let me cast a spell and then copy it for each spell cast before it this turn. Neither keyword casts the copies so both can be used for this deck.

Cut Your Losses will mill target player for half of their library. If you sacrifice a creature with power 2 or greater you can copy it. If you can also activate Errant, you'll copy it again. If you target a player with 80 cards left in their graveyard, you'll halve that library to 40, halve it again to 20 and again to 10 - putting them on a very short leash if they don't have a way to shuffle that graveyard back into their library. Of course if you picked a player on a graveyard deck, you might just hand them the game.

Flawless Forgery has Casualty 3 and will have you exile target instant or sorcery from an opponent's graveyard, copy the spell and cast the copy. Errant won't work on the copy you cast, but if you are able to use the casualty ability, that copy won't be cast and you can use Errant's ability on it. I'm also running Rooftop Nuisance, Make Disappear and A Little Chat, all of which have casualty. These aren't high impact spells and I'm concerned that my creature count isn't enough to support a heavy focus on an ability that needs me to sacrifice a creature, but this is a singleton format and I've only got five of these new spells to worry about. Leaning more on instants and sorceries plays into Errant's ability but also makes it harder to play out enough creatures to enough sacrifice fodder to make those casualty copies. I suspect finding the right balance will take playing the deck a bit.

I am running a couple of storm cards in Mind's Desire, Temporal Fissure and Flusterstorm. Mind's Desire is a sorcery that will let me shuffle and cast the top card of my library for free. Temporal Fissure will bounce a permanent to its owner's hand. Flusterstorm will counter an instant or sorcery unless its controller pays 1. None of these are fantastic but if I can get even a single storm copy then I can use Errant to copy that copy. These three might be on the bubble for cards I cut if they don't perform well enough, but I'm happy to try them out in this first draft.

Fortunately, there are a few simpler Blue spells that outright copy a spell on the stack.

Echo Storm will make a token of target artifact and I'll get a copy for each time I've cast my commander from the command zone this game. Whether I'm copying a Solemn Simulacrum, a Sol Ring or something spicier that one of my tablemates brought to the game, the value could be huge. Insidious Will is a modal Blue spell that can copy an instant or sorcery spell on the stack. Narset's Reversal will copy target instant or sorcery spell and then return that spell to its owner's hand. I can target my own spells or an opponent's, and Errant can copy the copy.

Wandering Archaic will let me cast any instant or sorcery an opponent casts, provided they don't pay a 2 mana tax. It's possible they'll just pay the tax every time, but if they don't I'll not only get a copy, but I might be able to use Errant to copy it again.

If I'm interested in copying spells, it would be wrong to leave out Jin Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant. I'm only running the one Praetor in this list (I mean... I'm not a monster) but you can still expect to take a little hate and a lot of aggro if you resolve this bad boy. Jin Gitaxias will copy any artifact, Instant or sorcery I cast and will counter the first artifact, instant or sorcery my opponents cast each turn. Your tablemates may try to murder you if you play this Praetor, and rightly so. Of course, they started the game wanting to murder you because that's one of the most common ways to win games of EDH: by bringing your opponents' life totals down to zero. Still, with the right hand you should be able to nail down a win with copies from Jin and an extra copy from Errant each turn. Jin is too powerful and has too much synergy with Errant not to be included in this list.

Finding My Angles

Just copying spells is all well and good, but I want to find as many angles as I can to try to convert Errant's cute little party trick into enough value to be able to win games.

Psychic Rebuttal is an interesting example of this. It will counter target instant or sorcery that targets me. That might not be relevant very often, but with two or more instant and or sorcery spells in my graveyard I'll get to copy the spell countered this way and choose new targets for the copies. Again, it will be rare that this will matter. If I happen to have a card like Stroke of Genius or Time Warp in hand it could make a big difference. Stroke of Genius draws me cards. Time Warp gives me extra turns. Countering either of those and making a copy for two mana and then copying that copy for another two mana is pretty good value if I have the mana to pull it off.

Am I crazy to even include the above cards in this list? Maybe. Psychic Rebuttal is likely to get dropped out of the list as the deck evolves, but I often run cards in my first drafts that might be a little too "Magical Christmasland" to make it through the first few sets of revisions.

I also tried to include a lot of spells that just naturally gave me copies I could copy.

Chain of Vapor and String of Disappearances will return something to its owner's hand. Chain of Vapor will hit a nonland permanent and String will target a creature. Both can be copied, but at a cost. The former requires the sacrifice of a land. The latter just needs the payment of two Blue mana. That copy isn't cast, so if I target my own stuff and then pay the cost to make a copy, I can activate Errant to copy the copy. I'll probably use those copies to bounce my opponents' stuff unless I'm responding to a boardwipe. This might be a lot of work for a fairly small payoff, but every once in a while you absolutely, positively have to remove more than one problem permanent from the battlefield.

Swarm of Intelligence is an enchantment that costs a hefty 7 mana and will let me copy any instant or sorcery I cast. I'm also running Lithoform Engine, Primal Amulet and Twinning Staff. My goal in this draft is to give myself the greatest opportunity to be able to use Errant's ability when playing this deck. Adding those extra ways to copy spells is a good starting point.

There are dozens of Blue Beasts in Magic, but only one Mischievous Quanar. This 3/3 Beast can be cast as a morph and flipped up to copy target instant and sorcery spell. For five mana, it can be flipped back down so you can do it again. It's not cheap, but it's an odd little beast and you'll have people wanting to look at the card just to figure out what the heck you're playing. I love cards like that and I love Mischievous Quanar. I imagine there's even a way to go infinite if you can jump through enough hoops, make infinite mana, and then use Quanar to get up to some real mischief.

Finding Your Tribe

This is not just good advice in Magic, it's good advice in life.

Figure out who you fit in with best and where you feel like you're with family and spend time with those people. For Errant, Street Artist, I don't think he belongs at the head of a Human or a Rogue tribal deck... but sometimes your tribe isn't the tribe you look like you belong to.

Any Blue deck will want to draw cards and there are few creatures better at drawing cards than Arcanis the Omnipotent. Another great Blue draw creature is Archmage Emeritus, which will draw me a card for every spell I cast or copy. Azami, Lady of Scrolls will let me tap an untapped Wizard I control to draw a card.

Echo Mage plays into my copy theme nicely, assuming I can pay the mana to level him up at least once. Sigil Tracer will let me pay two mana and tap two untapped Wizards I control to copy target instant or sorcery spell. Any Blue deck that wants to focus on instant and sorcery spells also wants Archaeomancer in the 99 so that I can get an instant or sorcery back from the graveyard.

There are Wizards that play into the theme of copying spells. There are also Wizards that help us draw cards, which is pretty important in any deck, let alone a Blue deck. If you haven't figured out yet, I'm choosing to go with Wizard tribal for this list and we're making Errant an honorary Wizard. Mischievous Quanar can be their mascot. Jin Gitaxias can be the ominous godfather figure that lurks in the background and only comes out when someone needs to get fitted for concrete galoshes.

How We Win

Copying spells and playing a bunch of Wizards might work well, but winning games in Commander can be hard. I'm not running enough Wizards to go with some combat focused aggro strategy where I tap my opponents' creatures or make my Wizards fly and then drop down a Coat of Arms so they hit hard enough to kill my tablemates. A deck like that would probably be led by a wizard like Azami or Arcanis.

I am leaning into the Wizard tribe enough that it makes sense to use them for my wincons. That means combo when you're in mono Blue and you're not planning to play an aggro strategy.

Naru Meha, Master Wizard will copy target instant or sorcery spell I control when he enters the battlefield. The copy can be copied with Errant, but if I were to cast Ghostly Flicker, hold priority, and then cast Naru Meha, I can make infinite mana. My Ghostly Flicker copies have to copy Naru Meha and a land so that I can keep making mana and keep making copies of Ghostly Flicker. Each time I exile and return a land to the battlefield, I'll tap it for mana and eventually make infinite mana.

I can also make infinite mana by using Dramatic Reversal, imprinted on Isochron Scepter. I just need enough mana rocks to pay for additional activations of Isochron Scepter. If I can tap nonland permanents for 3 or more mana, I'll be able to go infinite. If I've got Arcanis or Azami, Lady of Scrolls on the field, I can draw my deck.

I'm relatively sure there are ways to take infinite turns with the right combination of permanents in this deck. Dramatic Reversal can untap Errant. Errant can copy an extra turn spell. Archaeomancer can get an extra turn spell back from the graveyard. Better minds than mine probably saw all of this a few paragraphs ahead of this one, but it's worth noting that loading up with infinite turns is a reliable, if long and drawn out, way to win games or at least get your tablemates to concede.

You don't ever want to be in the position where your tablemates (rightly) refuse to concede and force you to demonstrate the win and you don't actually have a wincon. For those situations, or if you just want to draw your deck with Stroke of Genius or card draw from tapping Wizards, there are two more Wizards that are happy to jump in and help.

Laboratory Maniac and Thassa's Oracle can win you the game, but the former will require you to draw when you have an empty library. The latter can just hit the field when you have an empty or nearly empty library and win you the game with its ETB trigger.

If Errant were in Red and Blue I would have loved to explore an Izzet burn deck with Errant as a key player to copy spells I copied with Fork, Reiterate and other great Red copy spells. If Errant were in Green and Blue, I would have explored copying creature spells in addition to all of the instants and sorceries that Blue plays so well with. Being in Blue is limiting enough that it stands to reason that I would find my way to Lab Man yet again. I think it's a reasonable end point for this build and a perfectly viable wincon, even outside of cEDH.

To me the line that marks cEDH off from high powered EDH is how fast you are able to get to that Thassa's Oracle. If you're doing it reliably, and so quickly that nobody has the chance to build up a board and have a chance to interact, you're in cEDH territory. If you're playing some derpy Wizard tribal deck with a subpar commander in the command zone and you'll rarely threaten a Lab Man / Thoracle win before turn 7 or 8 (or later), you might have a cEDH wincon, but you're not really playing cEDH.

Is it Real or is it Memorex?

I'm not incredibly bullish about this list but I think it's a good starting point and there's no reason to think you couldn't start here and build and evolve your way to a strong, flexible, fun mono-Blue copy deck with Errant in the command zone. It might edge up towards high power, but I don't think it's going to be edging into cEDH or even fringe cEDH territory.

Errant, Street Artist | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Errant, Street Artist

• Creatures (20)
• 1 Arcanis the Omnipotent
• 1 Archaeomancer
• 1 Archmage Emeritus
• 1 Azami, Lady of Scrolls
• 1 Echo Mage
• 1 Gadwick, the Wizened
• 1 Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant
• 1 Laboratory Maniac
• 1 Meletis Charlatan
• 1 Mischievous Quanar
• 1 Naru Meha, Master Wizard
• 1 Sea Gate Stormcaller
• 1 Sigil Tracer
• 1 Snapcaster Mage
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Spellseeker
• 1 Thassa's Oracle
• 1 Tribute Mage
• 1 Uyo, Silent Prophet
• 1 Wandering Archaic

• Instants (20)
• 1 A Little Chat
• 1 Chain of Vapor
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Cryptic Command
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Dramatic Reversal
• 1 Flusterstorm
• 1 Ghostly Flicker
• 1 High Tide
• 1 Insidious Will
• 1 Make Disappear
• 1 Muddle the Mixture
• 1 Narset's Reversal
• 1 Pongify
• 1 Psychic Rebuttal
• 1 Rapid Hybridization
• 1 String of Disappearances
• 1 Stroke of Genius
• 1 Swan Song
• 1 Wizard's Retort

• Sorceries (9)
• 1 Cut Your Losses
• 1 Echo Storm
• 1 Environmental Sciences
• 1 Flawless Forgery
• 1 Mind's Desire
• 1 Rooftop Nuisance
• 1 Step Through
• 1 Temporal Fissure
• 1 Time Warp

• Enchantment (1)
• 1 Swarm Intelligence

• Artifacts (12)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Crystal Shard
• 1 Extraplanar Lens
• 1 Fellwar Stone
• 1 Gilded Lotus
• 1 Isochron Scepter
• 1 Lithoform Engine
• 1 Primal Amulet
• 1 Sapphire Medallion
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Thought Vessel
• 1 Twinning Staff

• Lands (37)
• 33 Snow-Covered Island
• 1 Arcane Lighthouse
• 1 Mystic Sanctuary
• 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1 Reliquary Tower

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If I had to guess, I think this deck would evolve towards more draw spells and fewer Wizards. The more instants and sorceries you run in a deck like this, the more targets you're going to have to make copies of so that you can then use Errant to make more copies. It's also possible that revisions could lean more into extra turn spells, as those are powerful enough when you're not copying them. When you're set up to make multiple copies you can really pull ahead of the rest of the table. Adding a few combat threats might make sense but this current list isn't even trying to be an aggro deck. It can be done in mono Blue, but I don't expect Errant, Street Artist is the commander you want for that kind of strategy.

Final Thoughts

This ended up being a more interesting deck than I expected it to be. To be honest, I'm still a little skeptical that this approach is going to get there without the extra flexibility you'd get with another color or two added into the mix. Errant does not want to be one of those artists forever stuck in a single color scheme. Even if you were to try out this list or a variation on it - I would urge you to eventually explore other commanders with Errant where she probably belongs - in the 99 of the deck instead of at its helm.

It's worth noting that you could pivot to having Naru Meha, Arcanis or Azami in the command zone and have a stronger deck. If you're just in it for the wins, you probably won't run Errant as your commander, but if you love her flavor and feel like doing something a little different, I think this could be a fun deck to play at the right tables. You should definitely load in cards like Propaganda, Aetherize and Aetherspouts if you are playing against enough aggro in your meta that you need more answers to combat threats. Every deck I put together here is a starting point and you should shape it to fit your playstyle, your meta and your budget.

I'd like to note that I owe a shout out to Christian Pena, who caught an issue in last week's column about Kamiz, Obscura Oculus. Kamiz can give another attacking creature double strike but I neglected to mention that the double strike buff can only be given to a creature with lesser power than the creature that was made to connive and become unblockable. As always, the devil is in the details. Thank you, Christian!

If there's anything I missed in today's column, or if I accidentally included a copy trigger that casts the spell - thereby keeping it from being a valid target for Errant - please leave a comment. I might have missed some cards that are perfect for Errant and I'd love to hear about them if you feel like sharing your suggestions.

With this column done, I'm clear to move beyond the mean Streets of New Capenna. I'm not sure what's next but I am still thinking about putting together my own take on The Beamtown Bullies. That might be up next week, but then again, it might not. If you have a card or commander you'd like to see me write about, please let me know. I have taken requests in the past and I'm happy to take more when I have gaps in the writing schedule that let me go off on the occasional tangent.

That's all I've got for today. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!