Hello and welcome back! Strixhaven has been released, and of course contains a myriad of new legends to build around, from the commander preconstructed decks to the main set. Many are based around rewarding you for casting or using instants and sorceries, whether by giving tokens, reducing their cost, or allowing more spells by copying them.
While the vein of that kind of reward is the majority in this set, being on Arcavios and all where spellcraft is the pinnacle of anything, there are other legends that offer unique rewards for doing that and more. Today, we’ll take a look at a selection of those legends.
BERTA, WISE EXTRAPOLATOR
If you like spell slinging but with Green instead of Red, this commander is for you. Casting spells bigger than its toughness or power every turn gives this commander a +1/+1 counter. When it gets a counter, you get a mana to use for another spell.
This opens up a few things. You don’t have to use spells to add the counter. Since the paragraphs are separate, you can just add counters from another source and get that mana. It opens up some combo possibilities. It also means that if you prefer a more traditional +1/+1 counters commander, this legend is also something for you to consider.
With the mana from the ability, you can fuel all kinds of things, and the mana isn’t restricted to any kind of use. Berta themselves does have an outlet for the mana, making a fractal token with X +1/+1 counters on it where X is the mana put into the ability. Of course as I just mentioned, you can find ways to produce infinite mana and shove it into other spells and effects.
BLECH, LOAFING PEST
What I like about this design is that it is completely extra. By that, I mean the deck you put behind this only has to have creatures the Blech cares about, and that’s it. All other synergies, besides lifegain since Blech wants it, are up to you. While narrower than ‘anything in Black and Green’, the deck is still very wide open as far as included cards you might select.
The deck also doesn’t NEED Blech to function. That’s something rare with decks today, where the commander can whole heartedly be secondary to the deck. That means you aren’t depending on your commander, lending resilience to your deck’s strategy.
Better, a lot of cards you can put into the deck are very good. Insects and spider have decent to good typal support, different kinds of snakes (and older Naga typed cards that are now snakes) offer good support to the deck construction, and while bats don’t have as many good cards as the other kindred types, there are still enough to offer effects for the deck strategy. Specifically, the Bloomburrow bats cared about life gain and drain, making them an excellent pool of cards for this deck.
NITA, FORUM CONCILIATOR
This legend is an interesting take on a theft deck, at least as the leader. It rewards you for doing a few different things as long as you are using both your and your opponents’ resources. It also means you can build the two sides of this coin in a few different ways.
Beyond the commander, you're going to want to have other ways to cast or use other players’ spells. While Nita’s second ability helps with this a little, in my experience playing Commander there aren’t going to be many opportunities to cast other spells from graveyards that are worth it outside of ramp spells if those even exist that early in the game. On top of that, you need another creature to sacrifice to the ability, and then mana to cast that spell.
That all said, each piece of the text box here rewards you for doing things on your own. The mom-Black Gonti cards would be a good inclusion here, as would most Black stealing spells that allowed you to cast opponents cards. White doesn’t contribute so much to theft, so we’ll be using that part of the deck for counter synergies and possible recursion advantages, like Smile At Death or Karmic Guide.
As far as mana goes, making treasure tokens is something a White and Black deck can do, from Smothering Tithe to Revel in Riches. This could give you the mana to cast those stolen spells, though Black again dominates this space in the deck. White does offer us the ability Convoke to help pay for spells, and a card like Eirdu, Carrier of Dawn // Isilu, Carrier of Twilight could be a good inclusion here to support your side of the equation to fuel the spell casting side. Speaking of, Wand of the Worldsoul will let you use Convoke on any spell.
We also want some decent death triggers, potentially with creatures that abuse +1/+1 counters on their deaths, like Bloodtracker. Carmen, Cruel Skymarcher might also do well in this deck, especially getting those Gonti out of your graveyard to steal again.
MICA, READER OF RUINS
Much like Nita, Mica here is two sides of a coin. The things you want to do; cast instants and sorceries and use artifacts to copy them again via sacrifice. Treasures are kind of the obvious choice (when aren’t they outside of food decks?). Red is pretty good at making them, too. Generous Plunder, Hit the Motherlode, Pain Distributor, Unexpected Windfall. I could go on.
With that in mind, we could ritual ourselves into larger and larger spells, coming to a crescendo to finish out opponents. Getting there we would need to dig for cards, so things like Faithless Looting. Having a few recursion outlets or spells while doing this is also going to be excellent, like Flashback or Past in Flames.
There are other artifacts we can sacrifice as well. Ichor Wellsping and Prized Statue are good early game investments that help you copy potential spells and dig through the deck for spells to cast, and Cursed Recording gives some extra mileage you can get rid of at your leisure before succumbing to its damage ability.
AZIZA, MAGE TOWER CAPTAIN
The last legend I want to cover today is a real team player. Aziza has a very similar feel to Mica at first glance. We want to copy some really awesome instants or sorceries, possibly handing us the game. However, there is a bit of a trade off between these two legends. Mica is probably easier to get going and copy spells with, but Aziza also lets you build defenses with tokens and adds another color and therefore avenue of victory.
So, what does White give us in this build. One answer is in how we copy instants and sorceries. While Red is quite capable of making a bunch of creature tokens, they tend to be limited. White offers a larger breadth of tokens, and more importantly for Aziza’s ability here, tokens with vigilance. Since we have to tap creatures to get that copy, having creatures we can attack with and defend with that we can then tap to use instead of leaving ourselves open is a great benefit.
Another thing to consider with Aziza is that you can make it combat tricks if you want, or more finessed that straight combat. Adding some cards like Wildifre Awakener could do well in the mid game and give your deck some extra reach, while Drumbellower and Augusta, Dean of Order can help you untap your tokens if you don’t want to focus as much on combat and more on getting the most out of your creatures to copy spells.
I also want to mention Wand of the Worldsoul again. This deck could use the tokens it wants to create to cast larger spells, especially if you lean into the untapping abilities you can use here.
GRADUATING CLASS
Those are the legends in the main set I find most interesting. While they all focus somehow somewhere on instants and sorceries, I think these are more the most interesting to build around outside of the founder dragons. Specifically, I think Nita is an interesting challenge and would do well at casual tables if you can balance that coin on its edge.
Let me know if you have a different take on these legends, or are completely inspired by another legend from the set.
Until next time, remember to cast spells responsibly on campus.
