Commander Deck Tech: Tameshi, Reality Architect
For this week's article I wanted to bring another brew from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. It's been on my radar for a while, but I was kind of sick of building Blue based decks. I've had several Enchantment based decks within the past few months, and this one runs a ton of the same cards, but is more of a hybrid Artifact and Enchantment deck.
For my Commander I chose: Tameshi, Reality Architect
I've been able to feel the power of this card first hand while drafting Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. Tameshi is very powerful in limited formats, especially if you have a great sealed or draft pool to support it. When we bring Tameshi over to the Commander format though, will the power level be the same? I think with a bigger card pool and more support Tameshi definitely will have the same power level. However, the opponents decks' power levels should be higher vs playing him in a limited format. I tried to go with some versatility, synergy, and cool interactions.
The deck's power level can definitely be upgraded if you add mana rock cards like Mana Vault, Grim Monolith, Mana Crypt, and others.
I was trying to stay on a lower end budget on this deck, but still kept some key annoyance cards. The annoyance cards are: Rhystic Study, Aura of Silence, Ghostly Prison, Propaganda, Mana Breach, Mystic Remora, and Solitary Confinement. These cards either make it harder for your opponent to get to you, or allow you to draw extra cards gaining card advantage. The Mana Breach can allow you to get card advantage when Tameshi is in play while also making it harder for your opponents to keep their mana in play.
We do have a few spot removal spells that also can interact with Tameshi, and some can even be brought back from the graveyard for multiple uses. These cards consist of: Elspeth Conquers Death, Inventive Iteration, Seal of Cleansing, Seal of Removal, Soul Snare, Blink of an Eye, Into the Roil, Path to Exile, and Swords to Plowshares. Some of these bounce spells may not be full on removal, but can usually buy you a turn or slow down some chain of events. This buys time to let you draw more cards and become more annoying or get some synergies online while gaining card advantage.
The deck also has a secondary theme which is Landfall. At one point I had both Hedron Crab and Ruin Crab in the deck, but I thought the mill strategy should be saved for the main theme of a different version of this deck. You can build a Tameshi Commander deck that is more mill themed and I think it would pack a nice punch. I will go ahead and leave the mill deck strategy to Commanders like Bruvac for the time being. The Landfall cards in the deck are: Roil Elemental, Emeria Shepherd, Felidar Retreat, and Retreat to Coralhelm. These either bring an interaction to the table or just make Creatures to hopefully amass an army. Although I don't plan on winning every game with Landfall I think with the synergy interaction with Tameshi it will help win more games.
No Blue White deck is complete without a counterspell or two. I went ahead and put four counterspells in the deck just to stay somewhat controllish. The counters chosen were: Counterspell, Absorb, Dovin's Veto, and Swan Song. These spells speak for themselves, we have 2 normal counters, and 2 situational counters. After playtesting these counterspells may change, but I'll have to wait and see how they perform during different situations that occur.
We do have a few board wipes or board resets in the deck with: Cyclonic Rift, Supreme Verdict, Farewell, and Consuming Tide. These all help you get back in the game if you get pretty far behind or are going in for the kill. I'd like to point out that Farewell is around a $4-$5 card and will be seeing plenty of play from me in Commander going forward. It's definitely not overpowered or anything, but I think the versatility the card brings to Commander will keep it as an in-demand rare.
There's plenty of mana rocks in the deck which if destroyed can be brought back later on with Tameshi's second ability. Also no White deck is complete without a copy of Teferi's Protection. This can potentially save a late game boardstate from a wipe or just buy a turn randomly here and there. To hopefully hop up the power level of the deck I also decided to put four Planeswalkers in the deck. Narset, Teferi, and the new kid on the block The Wandering Emperor all help assemble the quad laser. I'd also note that Venser would also work well within the deck. I just ran out of slots to add everything I wanted to.
Most of the Creatures in the deck I tried to make Artifact Creatures for ease of getting them back from the Graveyard. I'd say the most powerful Creatures in the deck are: Wurmcoil Engine, Sun Titan, Urza, Lord High Artificer, Hullbreaker Horror, and Angel of Ruins. These creatures should help with card advantage, get to an end game, or just keep attacking every turn.
This deck needs some tedious playtesting against some different brews of Commander. Some fine tuning for Tameshi will definitely be needed, but overall I think this build would be a great start for someone wanting to give Tameshi a go. Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty definitely brought lots of great cards and Commanders to the format. It's only been around a little over a month and it's almost time for the next new thing.
I'm looking forward to bringing some new commander brews from Streets of New Capenna which is right around the corner. It should make for some great new three color Commander brews!
Until Next Time,
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