Sleek. Poetic. Inky.
Killian is back.
As the face Commander for the new Silverquill Influence precon, Killian, Decisive Mentor rewards our enchantments entering by goading and tapping opponent’s creatures, allowing us to clear the way for aura-buffed attackers while forcing our opponents to duke it out. Out of the box, this build includes a host of creatures and enchantments that heap on the rewards when our opponents attack each other or are foolish enough to direct their attackers at us.
But, are double rewards really what we are looking for?
What if instead of spending turns accumulating incremental advantages, we just send haymakers that mercilessly knock opponents out of the game?
Enter, aura storm.
This upgrade consists of seven main groupings of cards that we will explore one-by-one to get to a final build: enchantress effects, cost reduction, storm enablers, storm payoffs, power, protection, and, of course, shenanigans.
Enchantress Effects
Enchantress effects are central to this version’s gameplan. So much so that I am tempted to add tutors to the deck to increase consistency. But, in the spirit of kitchen table fun, I have opted to rely on pure card velocity and density to help us get our draw engines online.
Silverquill Influence comes with Kor Spiritdancer, Pearl-Ear, Imperial Advisor, Sage’s Reverie, and Sram, Senior Edificer. To this mix, let’s add Mesa Enchantress and Lord Skitter’s Blessing. Mesa Enchantress, as a tried-and-true enchantress effect, is an easy add for us. Lord Skitter’s Blessing is a painfully slow draw engine by contrast, but two enchantments for two mana tied to recursive draw is exactly what we want.
Cost Reduction
Storm builds rely on rituals and/or cost reduction to increase the number of game actions taken each turn. Silverquill Influence comes with Starfield Mystic, Transcendent Envoy, and Killian, Ink Duelist. To this group, we are going to add Hero of Iroas, Danitha Capashen, Paragon, Starnheim Courser, and Cloud Key.
The casual in me really wants us to play Stone Calendar, but if we are being real, by five mana, we are looking to do a lot more than play a juicy target for Ancient Grudge.
The spike in me is still tempted to play tutors to help us consistently get one of our seven mana reduction spells set up alongside of one of our six draw engines. With most pieces at the two- or three-cost slot, let’s take an aside here to admire Dimir Machinations and Shred Memory as inexpensive, narrow tutors that we won’t be adding to the build today, but that we might keep unsleeved in the deck box if this build fizzles on us one more time.
Stepping away from the sideways glance toward the flavor of tutors in Strixhaven, let’s get our card velocity and game actions going by relying on auras with draw triggers.
Picking up Speed
This is a category of card that is nearly absent from the out-of-the-box build. The closest thing Wizards gives us is a copy of Flickering Ward that can impersonate card draw by returning itself to hand after triggering our enchantresses, but at a heavy investment of white mana that makes it slow and unreliable.
In this upgrade, let’s begin by add all eight cheap b/w auras that draw us cards. On a developed board with both cost reduction and enchantresses in play, these cards will all function as 1-mana draw two or more cards with upside. On a board that has yet to put all the pieces together, these cards will be the ones that give us the velocity needed to trigger Killian and payoffs while waiting for the haymaker turns to arrive.
The auras we are looking at here are: Rune of Sustenance, Rune of Mortality, Angelic Gift, Feather of Flight, Unquestioned Authority, Chosen by Heliod, Scourgemark, and Pentarch Ward.
Storming Off
Aside from Killian, Decisive Duelist, Silverquill Influence provides us with two reasons to play as many auras as we can in a turn: Archon of Sun’s Grace and Ajani’s Chosen. To these, we are going to add Victor, Valgavoth’s Seneschal, Sigil of the Empty Throne, Hallowed Haunting, and Light-Paws Emperor’s Voice.
The addition of Sigil of the Empty Throne and Hallowed Haunting in particular make it easier for us to cut the political pillow fort pieces, like Ghostly Prison. Once we have a team of giant flying vigilance creatures, it’s unlikely our opponents will feel incentivized to attack us.
Power
This is another category that Wizards opted to mostly exclude from this build. In the deck, we are given Eidolon of Countless Battles as a way to supercharge our attackers into game winning haymakers. Kor Spiritdancer and Starfield Mystic can contribute to this part of the plan, but are already high-priority targets for our opponents’ removal. Playing double duty as beater and enabler is great, but the likelihood of them surviving into the attack phase is much lower than a Pegasus Token.
We are going to add six cards here that will help our Pegasi punch above their weight class: Tempest Technique, Michiko’s Reign of Truth, Katilda, Dawnheart Martyr, All that Glitters, Mantle of the Ancients, and Ethereal Armor. Of these, Tempest Technique is the card that I am the most excited to get an opportunity to play with. A four-mana aura with storm will not make the cut for most decks, but we have just the right mix of cost reduction and payoffs to give this underplayed gem a home.
Now, if our beaters are going to send our opponents to the couch to wait for the next game, they will need a little protection.
Protection
This is another category that Wizards left us without much to work with, Shielded by Faith and Flickering Ward both require a proactive anticipation of upcoming removal, allowing our opponents easy reign to pick off the creatures that remain unprotected.
To make life more difficult for those who aim to thwart Killian, we are going to add Umbra Mystic and Benevolent Blessing to the mix.
Shenanigans
Ah, shenanigans. My favorite Magic archetype.
Spirit Link (and its more expensive cousin, Vampiric Link) offer us an easy way to gain a bunch of life in the early to mid-game off the back of our opponents’ attacks. Because this isn’t lifelink, we are the one who gains life on each attack no matter who controls the creature.
Pariah is the card among all the others that you should not take my advice on, but hear me out. At the absolute worst, Pariah provides us a fog that kills one of our opponents’ creatures. With a little work, we can Voltron an opponent’s creature with either Shielded by Faith or Darksteel Mutation to create an indestructible headache for our opponents to answer before they deal us any damage, and that indestructible headache just might be their commander.
Tainted Strike deserves its own love song. One mana. Instant. A creature with 9 power attacks, and an opponent is defeated. This is another card that I am prone to over including in commander decks just because it feels so good to eliminate an opponent during a combat we were never a part of. With this deck’s particular mix of goad and Voltron, Tainted Strike is sure to overperform for its cost.
The Cuts
To make this build happen, we will need to make 29 cuts. A lot of these will seem crazy, but will be cut because they either 1) encourage a slower political pace of play that we are moving away from or 2) cost too much for our high-velocity, cast-five-auras-and-draw-ten-cards-a-turn dream.
- Scriv, the Obligator
- Breena, the Demagogue
- Herald of Amity
- Shadrix Silverquil
- Defacing Duskmage
- Tomik, Wielder of Law
- Armored Skyhunter
- Forum Filibuster
- Combat Calligrapher
- Intermediate Chirography
- Firemane Commando
- Eldrazi Conscription
- Mangara, the Diplomat
- Ghoulish Impetus
- Nils, Discipline Enforcer
- Angelic Destiny
- Doomwake Giant
- Songbirds’ Blessing
- Keen Duelist
- Fallen Ideal
- Screams from Within
- Fracture
- Ghostly Prison
- Vanishing Verse
- Martial Impetus
- Parasitic Impetus
- Raffine’s Guidance
- Promise of Loyalty
- Sentinel’s Eyes
Clean-Up Step
We have taken a deck split between auras and political persuasion and firmly moved the needle to auras. In doing so, we managed to get the average mana cost down and increase the card velocity to create a storm-like enchantments build.
Other upgrades could lean more heavily into the politics and control, utilizing cards like Split Up alongside the bevy of political pieces in the original build. Though here, I am led to wonder if a 3-color commander would be better suited. There is yet another build that ramps out Mortality Shift before the final suspend trigger of Resurgent Belief to lean into the synergies between Herald of Amity, Armored Skyhunter, and Eldrazi Conscription. But those shenanigans are likely too pricey for me.
As always, Table for Four believes in fun, kitchen table Magic and good beats. Cast auras and send your opponents to the couch.
