Fishermen At Sea by JMW turner (1796). Brainstorm by Chris Rahn.

I recently had the chance to do a deep dive on Legendary Background Enchantments as a guest co-host for the longest running EDH podcast, Commandercast. Mark Mahler's partner in podcasting, Adam, was on vacation and I was invited to join Mark to talk through every single background enchantment released in Battle for Baldur's Gate. After two hour and a half long conversations in which we touched upon dozens of these exciting new cards, I'm still taken aback by how many interesting combinations you could make with these new cards.

Today's topic is one of the many legendary creatures that has "Choose a Background" on it. These creatures cane paired with new "Background" enchantments and run out of the command zone. You can also put them in the 99 of any commander deck, but you can only run a Background enchantment out of the command zone if your commander's text box includes those three magic words.

Gale has no relevant keywords that would make him a combat threat, but that's okay because he's reasonably costed at two and a blue, and he lets you "Choose a Background."

If that was all, he'd be pretty underwhelming, but Gale has a neat party trick. Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell from your hand, you may cast up to one target card of the other type from your graveyard. That spell cast from your graveyard will get exiled.

The question that Gale is begging to be answered is a simple one.

Which Background should I choose?

The options aren't limitless, but there might be as many as two dozen of those new legendary enchantments that could pair nicely with Gale, point me in a direction and give me a strategy to build towards. Should I go for a two-color build? Do I want to be combat-focused? Are there natural pairings that provide more synergy than others?

I ended up being guided by a feeling that Gale would be at his best being able to cast lots and lots of spells. I want to make the most of his ability, so I want to have a relatively even spread of instants and sorceries and I'll want a lot of each type. I'll want them to have a low mana value so it's easier to cast multiple spells per turn. If I want to be casting lots of spells that means I'll want a lot of draw, card selection, recursion or even impulse draw.

That train of thought led me to the following Background enchantments.

Candlekeep Sage would give me card draw, but would have me stuck in mono-Blue. I'm not against to the idea of having this be a mono-Blue deck, though it does seem a little uninspired. Candlekeep Sage would probably point me in the direction of building a deck around flicker and bounce spells. This could be a fun deck, but let's keep looking.

If I wanted to build in Dimir, Scion of Halaster would let me check the top two cards of my deck every turn and put one in the graveyard. Black has lots of spicy options from rituals and card draw spells to the spiciest of spicy lines of play: Demonic Consultation into Thassa's Oracle. Black has enough tutors that this might even represent a fringe cEDH build path, though I don't think it's going to be unseating Kess, Dissident Mage any time soon.

A very different color pairing could be a Gale deck in Izzet with Tavern Brawler as his background. Tavern Brawler will have me exile the top card of my library and he'll get +X/+0 until end of turn where X is that card's mana value. I get to play that card this turn, so that weird little pump ability is also going to serve as impulse draw. Red gives me lots of cantrip spells, token generators and other interesting options.

The power level ceiling on a Gale, Tavern Brawler deck would probably be lower than a Gale, Scion of Halaster deck, and I think it would push me in more of a storm direction. I've grown to really enjoy storm decks and I'm not inclined to want to push up towards cEDH today. I also don't want to be limited to mono-Blue, as much as flicker decks can be fun to play. I think that leaves me in blue and red for today's build.

I also think Gale, Tavern Brawler just has a really nice ring to it.

Breaking Timing Restrictions

What if I told you that Gale's best party trick is turning your sorcery spells into instants?

I'd be wrong, as it's hard to overstate how cool Gale's ability is, but when you dig into that text box there is a surprise. Whenever you cast a sorcery, you may cast up to one instant from your graveyard. Whenever you cast an instant, you may cast up to one sorcery from your graveyard. You do still have to pay the casting cost for those spells, as the card does not state that you get to cast them for free.

The real surprise is the four words that aren't there - "until end of turn".

As I understand it, the "whenever" is the key part. If the card specified that you could cast it "until end of turn", normal timing restrictions on sorcery spells would apply. The fact that it does not specify until end of turn means you get to cast them right then and there, after putting that first spell on the stack.

That means Gale will let you cast sorcery spells out of your graveyard at instant speed!

There's always a chance that someone could stifle that trigger or respond in some other way, but Gale is letting you do something that normal timing restrictions don't usually allow,

I could see loading up a graveyard with sorcery speed burn spells and then having them available as combat tricks to respond at instant speed to something happening on another player's turn. Burn doesn't usually work that well in EDH, but it's a thought.

I'm relatively sure there are ways to abuse this that I'm not going to think of. If you have ideas on sorcery spells in blue and red that you wish were instants, Gale might be the way to make that happen. I'd love to hear your ideas in the comments!

You Can't Have Everything

Apologies to Memnarch, who probably still believes that he should have everything, but one of the things I struggle with when deckbuilding is the desire to do too many things at once. I want to do all the fun things but when you try to take a deck in too many directions, you risk being able to do none of them well.

I want this to be a burn deck. I also want to run counterspells so I can play them and then pop a sorcery out of the graveyard and feel all clever for getting around timing restrictions. Of course, I also want to play extra turn spells, I kind of want to play around with lots of token generators and I'd really love to have this be a storm deck. I also love combat tricks and I've grown very fond of drawing cards.

The bottom line is that when you try to do everything, you can end up having a deck with little synergy and no real game plan. That kind of deck can still be fun, but I like to have my decks at least try to stay focused.

A Blast From The Past

For some reason I ended up being drawn to some old standbys that I played around with back when I was first getting into Commander.

Talrand, Sky Summoner, Young Pyromancer and Murmuring Mystic all excel at putting out creatures when you cast instants and sorceries. This deck should be doing a lot of that - doubling up castings for many of my spells by casting from my hand and then from the graveyard. Guttersnipe isn't likely to win many games outright, but it should help push out some damage to all of my opponents at once, which I always love to do.

Doubling up on my spells won't be easy, but it will be easier if I have a lot of one and two mana spells. I decided to load up my first draft with an 8 card slot of instant speed one mana cantrips and another 8 card slot of sorcery speed one mana cantrips.

I've got the usual quality one mana staples like Brainstorm, Opt, Thought Scour, Serum Visions, Ponder and Preordain. They're all good, they all replace themselves and if I can double up on them I should be able to keep my hand nice and full.

I'm also running less quality choices like Cerulean Wisps, which will turn a creature Blue and untap it along with drawing me a card. Crimson Wisps is in Red and will turn a creature Red and give it haste, along with again drawing me a card. Renegade Tactics will keep a creature from blocking. Expedite will give a creature haste. Warlord's Fury will give my creatures first strike. Slip Through Space will make target creature unblockable. All of these are cantrips so while I might be able to offer up my beloved combat tricks to help my tablemates I'll also be trying to dig through my deck to get to the cards I really want.

I also decided this deck is going to play with tokens. It might not be the best plan, but these little guys should be able to help protect me and each token generator will have the chance of getting cast twice. If I'm able to load up my Storm count Empty the Warrens could really build me a sweet little Goblin army. If I'm able to get Impact Tremors or Purphoros onto the battlefield before that big turn I might even be able to kill a table in the process.

For me, this build path feels like a blast from the past. It harkens back to the kind of decks I would tinker with when I was first getting into Commander nearly 10 years ago. It isn't the best plan ever, but I'm hoping to play this list online on Tabletop Simulator, and I'm excited to see how it plays. It might not be as strong a game plan as it used to be, and there might be newer cards I've left out but for a starting point I think I'm on the right path.

A Gale Force Storm

Empty the Warrens isn't the only Storm card in this deck. With the number of one-mana spells I'm running and the ability to double-dip by casting them out of the graveyard, it only makes sense to see what other Storm cards I can use to squeeze more value out of Gale.

Brain Freeze might be at its best when you have an infinite storm count, but in this deck I might end up using it on myself to give me more options for cards to cast out of the graveyard. Grapeshot is another card that can just win the game if I'm able to hit the old Dramatic Reversal / Isochron Scepter combo but if I'm just playing out a modest turn of a half dozen spells I should still be able to use it to kill a few creatures. Ground Rift can open an opponent up for an attack so if I've got a decent little token army I might have a way to get through blockers.

Ignite Memories is a spell that adds real drama to the game. Target player will randomly reveal a card from their hand and take damage equal to the card's mana value. I've hit someone with enough storm copies of Ignite Memories to make me think I'd be able to kill them only to have them reveal a land every single time. Big mana cards can get stuck in players' hands in the mid-game if they haven't been hitting land drops, so I'm still optimistic that this could still be an effective, and more importantly, a fun card in this deck.

Haze of Rage has buyback, which I can use when casting out of my hand but not out of my graveyard. A decent storm count, even if I can't buy it back, could make my token army into a real threat. Mind's Desire is a pretty sweet card but with a cost of six mana, I'm not sure how often I'll have a good storm count when casting it. The chance to cast a bunch of free spells is still hard to pass up. With this kind of deck I have to at least consider running Aetherflux Reservoir. I've found that particular artifact can really put a target on your back. It's a great card, to be sure, but in this first draft I left it out.

I might still get a target on my back if I play Possibility Storm, but it will be worth it. That enchantment throws a wrench into many players' plans, my own included. I really enjoy that kind of chaos every once in a while. I'll also get twice as many cast triggers, which might help with my storm count.

Thousand-Year Storm is perfect for a deck like this and any table that lets it stick around long enough may regret it. I'll get to make copies of my instants and sorceries for every instant and sorcery I've cast before it that turn. I might just hit a bunch of cantrips and draw a mess of cards, but I also might really hit something great. Those one-mana spells will go a long way towards loading up my hand and if I've got a token generator to cap off a big turn, I could go from a modest boardstate to a huge army in no time.

Epic Experiment will let me dig down into my deck and cast a bunch of spells for free. Those spells will go into the graveyard for later use. I might just end up drawing a bunch of cards and setting up my next turn, but that's not a bad thing.

The cherry on top of this sundae is the aforementioned Dramatic Scepter combo. If I can hit this combo I'll get an infinite storm count and probably infinite mana as well. That can play into Haze of Rage or any of my other Storm spells, all of which can be cast from my hand or cast from the graveyard. You don't have to run a combo like Dramatic Scepter for this deck to be fun, but I do like having a finisher in the deck that can close out games.

I like that this deck has a number of directions it can go in. I could kill the table with tokens and Impact Tremors or Purphoros damage. I might win a game or two in combat with a huge army. I could even knock someone out on a big turn with Guttersnipe every now and then. It's not a control deck and I don't have extra turns or many ways to repel attackers, but I'm OK with that. If it devolves into a search for my combo in every game, I'd probably get bored with it, but I am optimistic that this list gives me enough options to give me varied gameplay.

A True Blue Prodigy | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commanders (2)
• 1 Gale, Waterdeep Prodigy
• 1 Tavern Brawler

• Creatures (13)
• 1 Ancient Copper Dragon
• 1 Ancient Silver Dragon
• 1 Archmage Emeritus
• 1 Electrostatic Field
• 1 Goblin Electromancer
• 1 Guttersnipe
• 1 Mirrorwing Dragon
• 1 Murmuring Mystic
• 1 Niv-Mizzet, Parun
• 1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
• 1 Talrand, Sky Summoner
• 1 Young Pyromancer
• 1 Zada, Hedron Grinder

• Instants (17)
• 1 Brain Freeze
• 1 Brainstorm
• 1 Cerulean Wisps
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Chilling Trap
• 1 Consider
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Crimson Wisps
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Dramatic Reversal
• 1 Expedite
• 1 Opt
• 1 Pongify
• 1 Rapid Hybridization
• 1 Seething Song
• 1 Swan Song
• 1 Thought Scour

• Sorceries (21)
• 1 Descent of the Dragons
• 1 Dragon Fodder
• 1 Empty the Warrens
• 1 Epic Experiment
• 1 Fabricate
• 1 Grapeshot
• 1 Ground Rift
• 1 Haze of Rage
• 1 Hordeling Outburst
• 1 Ignite Memories
• 1 Immolating Gyre
• 1 Jeska's Will
• 1 Krenko's Command
• 1 Mind's Desire
• 1 Mizzix's Mastery
• 1 Ponder
• 1 Preordain
• 1 Renegade Tactics
• 1 Serum Visions
• 1 Slip Through Space
• 1 Warlord's Fury

• Enchantments (3)
• 1 Impact Tremors
• 1 Possibility Storm
• 1 Thousand-Year Storm

• Artifacts (9)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Chromatic Lantern
• 1 Chromatic Orrery
• 1 Decanter of Endless Water
• 1 Gilded Lotus
• 1 Isochron Scepter
• 1 Izzet Signet
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Thought Vessel

• Lands (35)
• 13 Island
• 13 Mountain
• 1 Arcane Lighthouse
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Scalding Tarn
• 1 Steam Vents
• 1 Stormcarved Coast
• 1 Sulfur Falls
• 1 Training Center

Buy This Deck Export text format

I could probably switch out a dozen cards from this deck and think I'm making it better, but I'm not interested in trying to optimize this particular list. If you wanted to tune it up, you could ditch some cantrips and focus much harder on digging for that Dramatic Scepter combo. You'd want to add in Spellseeker and you might want to add more combos so you're not just leaning on one. A heavier focus on Dramatic Reversal / Isochron Scepter might mean playing more big card draw spells so you can funnel that mana more easily into drawing into your wincon. You might also aim for a Laboratory Maniac / Thassa's Oracle path to victory so you have another strong wincon.

All that feels a little tired to me, but you might see Dramatic Scepter in much the same way. This is already a very budget friendly deck, but if you wanted to tune it down and drop the budget even further, you'd probably drop out the Ancient Dragons. I like them, but they are both expensive and a bit off theme. This list is running Zada, Hedron Grinder and Mirrorwing Dragon and could easily pivot towards a more combat-focused build. Zada isn't a weak card by any stretch of the imagination, but focusing on Zada would mean playing more combat tricks and pump spells alongside focusing more on token generation. That would probably be a lot of fun to play, but might have less of a focus on Storm cards.

Final Thoughts

After all that talk about Background Enchantments, I didn't end up talking much at all about how Tavern Brawler would help this deck. Extending your hand by one card is great. When I cast an instant or sorcery out of exile, I won't be able to then cast the opposite type out of the graveyard, but my focus was on trying to make sure every spell could get cast twice, and Tavern Brawler accomplishes that. Scion of Halaster would have put a card into my graveyard, which could reduce the number of possible castings I'd be getting out of a given instant or sorcery.

This list could play ways to benefit from playing cards out of exile, but you're likely only going to do that once per turn with Tavern Brawler. Adding more ways to play cards out of exile and more ways to make that matter could be an interesting build path, but it isn't one I chose to follow.

I'm starting to think I might want to churn out a series of these "Choose a Background" decklists, because this pairing wasn't even one of the six that I chose to spotlight when talking with Mark Mahler on Commandercast. We each chose three pairings and we ended up doing two episodes, but neither of us saw Gale, Tavern Brawler as a pairing worth talking about.

I suspect these "Choose a Background" pairings are going to be much like the partner pairings from the original Commander Legends, where people were discovering exciting new decks for a long time after the set was released. I've yet to build one of these new pairings in paper, but I expect that to change over the next few months. I just have to pull apart a deck or two and I always have a hard time doing that.

If you are going to be at Commandfest Montreal over the weekend of July 15-17, I would love to get the chance to meet and play some EDH with you! I'll be bringing a bunch of my "altered" decks. Most of them are muppets, but I do have a Marvel and a Nightmare Before Christmas deck as well. I'll be doing two panels over the weekend, and I'm looking forward to an amazing weekend of Commander. I'll be the guy with the Cookie Monster t-shirt - a call out to my many muppet alters and my habit of baking cookies every Saturday morning for the EDH League I've run since 2016.

If you can't make it up to Montreal, I highly recommend that you find a way to get to one of these big gatherings. I've heard CoolStuffInc is holding one down in Orlando that might be closer to you if you're down south in the U.S.

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