Commander Inspirations: Mishra, Claimed by Gix

“Magictating” is defined as getting into the zone with your Magic the Gathering collection--thinking, planning, organizing, reminiscing about past games, and imagining future games. It is a combination of hard thinking about the game and calm meditation, reveling in the joy it brings you.

The Brothers' War early spoilers have hit, and now we're in the lull between early reveals and official spoiler season. I have been so excited for this set that I've decided not to wait for any other new items. I'm diving right into this as fast as possible. Mishra, Claimed by Gix is going to be the Rakdos Voltron Commander we've all been waiting for. Sure, you can use it as part of a go-wide tokens strategy as well, but why not build a massive Voltron melded creature to kill your friends in a single shot? This article will take you through all the pieces you should seriously consider buying if you plan to build your very own Voltron style Mishra, Claimed by Gix deck.

Melding Reliably

Our Voltron has to be built, or assembled, or more aptly melded in order to be the big bad threat we want it to be. We need not only our Commander, but our Phyrexian Dragon Engine in play, and both creatures to be attacking to hit our giant meld mechanic. This works out rather nicely when we can simply dump the Dragon Engine into the graveyard and then unearth it while Mishra is in play and ready to attack. At first, it may seem like unearthing Phyrexian Dragon Engine might be a bad idea, because it will exile itself when it attempts to meld, yet that's not the case. Unearthing will only exile the creature if it tries to leave the zone any other way besides exiling, hence when we exile it to meld we're all set to create Mishra, Lost to Phyrexia. This tragic moment from the story is our dream moment for our deck. Once we live the dream and meld our two halves together we are able to create a massive threat, and start doing some serious damage.

The trick is to have the Phyrexian Dragon Engine in the yard, so here's some cards to do exactly that. Final Parting, Fervent Mastery, Entomb, Gravebreaker Lamia, Buried Alive, Goblin Engineer, Corpse Connoisseur, Unmarked Grave, Vile Entomber, or even Oriq Loremage. The beauty of this meld combo is that it works well from both the graveyard or the hand. So, if you'd rather snag it directly to your hand you can utilize some more traditional tutoring effects. It really is wonderful how the Phyrexian Dragon Engine was given unearth. I especially love it as, later on in the book, Mishra literally unearths more dragon engines.

Tutoring Effects can also help just put the engine in your hand. Some excellent and slightly different tutors to consider include Imperial Recruiter, Hoarding Dragon, Dark Petition, Sarkhan's Triumph, and Dimir Machinations. Sure, you can always use the more common tutors as well, like Diabolic Tutor, Demonic Tutor, Diabolic Intent, Grim Tutor, Cruel Tutor, Diabolic Revelation, Beseech the Queen, or even Vampiric Tutor. Regardless of the package you choose to run, you'll want a handful of these in the deck to help smooth out and ensure that you're melding a 9/9 into play on turn five or six as often as possible. Consider that you can mana rock on turn two, tutor turn three, cast Mishra turn four, and unearth the engine and meld on turn five. Granted, it'll be turn six or so if you have to cast the engine from your hand, but that's still pretty fantastically early to be swinging with such a bomb.

Split the difference with Fervent Mastery and Gamble, since your big payoff works well in your hand or in the yard. Additionally, the flavorful win of Cruelty of Gix works wonders whether the engine is in the graveyard or in the deck.

Protection Package

Once we've melded our monstrous new Phyrexian together we need to keep it protected. Like all Voltron decks we will need a package of protection tools. However, things that provide Undying or Persist or graveyard recursion are not the tools we need. A meld creature ceases to be a melded creature once it goes to the graveyard. It basically becomes the two halves as it goes to the graveyard, so it can't successfully be given undying as it doesn't exist in its melded form while in the graveyard. This means that Indestructibility, Hexproof, and protections are preferred methods of protecting our Phyrexian Voltron. We should include the ubiquitous Swiftfoot Boots along with others such as Mask of Avacyn, Commander's Plate, Hammer of Nazahn, Darksteel Plate, Whispersilk Cloak, and any of the “Sword of ____” you feel like running. On a separate note, you wouldn't want to use Supernatural Stamina to protect your creatures, while Rush of Vitality works as an excellent replacement.

Now that we've got our commander properly protected, it is time to beat some serious face. Once Mishra has melded and become lost to Phyrexia, it's our time to live the dream. Heck, all nightmares are technically dreams, right? With Mishra, Lost to Phyrexia in play we should get ready to blow up lots of stuff, but also pump up our monstrous creature as much as possible. Some fantastic and powerful pump cards include Jeska, Thrice Reborn, Unleash Fury, Temur Battlerage, Brute Force, Titan's Strength, Infuriate, Built to Smash, Reckless Charge, and Twinferno. Also, consider the flavorful and rather salty pair of Tainted Strike and Phyresis for the, “Oops, you're dead!” poison kills.

Equipment needn't be solely for protecting our Commander, they can pump him up! Some of the very best options for this include Hero's Blade, Embercleave, and Dueling Rapier. Each of these allows us to toss it onto the melded Mishra while it is hitting play or during combat. While cards like Colossus Hammer, Two Handed Axe, Blackblade Reforged, Lizard Blades, Fireshrieker, Vorpal Sword, Inquisitor's Flail, and Trailblazer's Boots are all great, they don't hop onto Mishra, Lost to Phyrexia during its initial attack phase.  

The Wrap Up

With the tutoring packages, protection package, and pumping package, we really only have to consider packing in a few other Creatures or Enchantments worth including to round out the deck. Sure, you can toss some mana rocks into the deck as well, considering we're playing Rakdos and will definitely need a few of them. While we're speaking about artifacts, I'm willing to bet that there will be more than a few goodies in The Brothers' War set that will help round out the deck. Likewise, I expect that both of the new Commander decks will likely have more than a few pieces worth including. Meanwhile, you can probably pick up as many of these interesting and odd-ball cards before the demand for them creeps up and up. I hope that your new Mishra Voltron meld will be a deck you love to play, and while you're melding with it, may the meld and the cards be ever in your favor!