(Wrangler of the Damned | Art by Michal Ivan)

A Spirited Beginning

Good day, friends! My name is Quinn, and I’m super excited to welcome you to the first entry of a brand-new article series - Commander Fusion! I’ve been using EDHREC now for close to a decade, and I feel fortunate to be able to give back to the community that helped me learn to play the game we know and love. But enough about me- let’s jump in!

What's All This Fusion Business About?

Ok, here’s the premise: each article, we will take two commanders generated from EDHREC’s random commander feature and see if there's any feasible way we can combine their color identities and build one deck while taking inspiration from both commanders.

We'll take a look at the most synergistic cards in each deck based on EDHREC data and see which new commander could be a good “fusion” of both decks or strategies.

I am anticipating some pretty janky brews, surprising synergies, and above all, lots of fun ahead. I’ll consider it a job well done if this series simply gives you a breath of fresh air in your own deckbuilding process.

The question you may be asking, of course, is why? Have you ever been stuck in the deckbuilding process, having a general idea or ideas of a deck you think you maybe might possibly want to build if the wind blows in the right direction, but you’re just not sure? Maybe you like to be the one bringing something different to the table - a deck you know no one has seen before?

Or maybe you just have two decks you’re interested in building, but only have the budget for one?

For me, I like to think this method just scratches that ol’ Simic Biomancer itch of seeing just what monstrosities we can create by jamming two commanders together. Hopefully this series will give you some inspiration!

With no further ado, I present to you our first two commanders we have the challenge and privilege to fuse together: Jem Lightfoote, Sky Explorer and Crovax, Ascendant Hero!

Go West, Young Jem

A relatively recent commander at time of writing, Jem comes to us from Outlaws of Thunder Junction, where it seems everyone is either plotting, committing crimes, or plotting how to best commit crimes.

Jem is one of the Atiin, who, according to the MTG Wiki, are Omenpath-wandering nomads of whom notable members include Wylie Duke, Atiin Hero (I should have figured that one out on my own); Miriam, Herd Whisperer; and Annie Flash, the Veteran.

While all of these synergize more with Mounts and Vehicles, Jem seems to be the odd one out with no mention of Mounts in sight.

Jem wants to make sure none of the spells in your hand leave, and rewards you with a card for keeping your hand full. The Plot mechanic from OTJ seems an obvious choice, allowing you to go ahead and spend mana to exile a spell on one turn, then cast it for free later on.

Let’s take a look at the top 10 high synergy cards for Jem from her EDHREC page:

1. Wrangler of the Damned
2. Geyser Drake
3. Smirking Spelljacker
4. Errant and Giada
5. Prairie Dog
6. Eaten by Piranhas
7. Wavebreak Hippocamp
8. Cathar Commando
9. Brineborn Cutthroat
10. Alms Collector

Jem’s OTJ roots are obvious in this list; Wrangler of the Damned, Geyser Drake, Smirking Spelljacker, and Prairie Dog are all from the Plane of Cowboy Hats.

Flash seems to be a popular strategy here too, even more so than plot: since Jem’s ability on triggers on YOUR end step, it makes sense to try and cast everything you can on your opponent’s turns instead.

A popular commander Jem is not, however, with only 82 decks to her name at time of writing. The payoff of one card per turn cycle pales in comparison to the likes of Nymris, Oona’s Trickster: simply swap white for black and you get three cards in hand and three in the graveyard for whatever recursion or flashback shenanigans you desire.

If you go the foretell/plot route, you also have much better options for the same (or less!) mana value in the form of Ranar the Ever-Watchful and Kellan, the Kid, where Jem looks much better in the 99.

Watch Your Ascent

Our next commander cannot be called recent by any stretch of the imagination, unless you consider the most recent reprinting of this card - which even then was four years ago.

Crovax was one of the original members of the Weatherlight crew who fell victim to Phyrexia and became what we now call “compleated” (and also a vampire? It was a different time).

But wait, not this version. This is the alternate-timeline version from Planar Chaos where Mirri got cursed instead…ok, no worries, there’s no quiz on the lore today. Let’s look at Crovax’s top synergies:

1. Honor of the Pure
2. Benalish Marshal
3. Celestial Crusader
4. Dictate of Heliod
5. Flowering of the White Tree
6. Glorious Anthem
7. Paragon of New Dawns
8. Force of Virtue
9. Mass Calcify
10. Defiler of Faith

Lots of folks seem to build Crovax as a sort of “Anthem typal” deck, filling the deck with all sorts of permanents to give your creatures a continual +1/+1 or more. I’m using the term “lots” very generously, as despite being around since 2007, Crovax only has about 70 more decks to his name (151 at this time) than our friend Jem, who came out earlier this year.

Why is that? Well, while anthem effects can be a strong part of a well-built deck (e.g., Elvish Archdruid in an Elf typal deck), having a deck of all anthems doesn’t exactly make for very innovative gameplay.

With Crovax specifically, one needs to look not just at what his card says, but what it DOESN’T say- notably, “creatures you control.” This means that when Crovax is on the board, ALL white creatures get a buff- including all those tokens that Baylen, the Haymaker player just made from casting March of the Multitudes, where X=an ER trip.

Like Jem, the drawbacks of building Crovax are apparent, and the rewards are just not there.

Sky Hero? Ascendant Explorer?

Now comes the fun part: which commander can we build around to make a deck with elements from both Jem Lightfoote and Crovax that is fun, intuitive, and maybe just a LITTLE bit janky (but also, hopefully, mostly functional?) We’re working in Azorius () colors, so what are some of our best options?

When we look at which of those 20 top-synergy cards are showing up in other Azorius decks, we get an idea of which commanders might be viable for our fusion experiment.

From taking a look at the top commanders from each of the pages of those 20 cards, we get a shortlist of a few viable choices: here are the top 5.

1. Errant and Giada
2. Ephara, God of the Polis
3. Millicent, Restless Revenant
4. Kangee, Sky Warden
5. Harbin, Vanguard Aviator

I should have given a spoiler alert earlier in the article, I guess. Errant and Giada showing up in Jem’s top synergistic cards was a pretty good giveaway that they could helm a pretty similar deck.

What I did not expect, however, was the amount of anthems in Crovax that also had flash, such as Dictate of Heliod and Celestial Crusader, making the synergy with Errant and Giada even stronger.

Ephara likes to see our creatures entering on other people’s turns, and Millicent not only has flying but wants to make a lot of Spirit tokens, which then receive a substantial buff from the anthem cards.

Hold on- I think I’ve got it. Seeing Millicent on our shortlist has me thinking… Or maybe it’s just because it’s spooky season. What kind of creature almost always has flying, often enough has flash, and would love nothing more than to give someone a jump-scare from getting cast right out of our library onto the field?

New Capenna Ghostbusters

Errant and Giada, surprisingly, make excellent commanders for a Spirits deck. We keep the feel of playing on other people’s turns and casting spells from strange places from Jem Lightfoote, but our gameplan is also to get our Spirits on board and pump them up with Anthems like Crovax.

Let’s take a look at the key pieces of the deck below.

Turns out there are a decent amount of nontoken Spirits that have both flash and flying, making them oh-so-synergistic with Giada and making for a fun flavor win when they pop out unexpectedly.

The new-ish Final-Word Phantom can make sure all your Spirits (and other spells, too) have flash on each end step, while Guardian of Faith can flash in to protect your board. Rattlechains takes the best of both of these cards, giving hexproof to one Spirit while giving all your Spirits flash.

Spell Queller offers some flavorful removal, and we kept Wrangler of the Damned from Jem Lightfoote to make us more Spirits as a reward for casting from our library rather than our hand.

Spirit Bonds is one of my favorite finds from this brew, as we can give our commander indestructible just by sacrificing a Spirit (it can be a token!), which should be no problem.

True to our Crovaxian (Crovaxan? Crovite? Krovikan? Wait, not that one) roots, we also have a large amount of anthems to pump up our Spirits and Spirit tokens.

Supreme Phantom pumps our Spirits up and Drogskol Reinforcements provides a situational anthem in the form of giving our Spirits melee.

Empyrean Eagle, a staple for flying decks, also happens to be a Spirit, which is a major win for us. Favorable Winds, Gravitational Shift, and Kangee, Sky Warden also provide some major power boosts to our fliers (as well as nerfs to our opponents' non-fliers in the case of Gravitational Shift.)

I want to highlight some new Duskmourn: House of Horror cards that come in very handy in this deck. Ghost Vacuum is more than a Ghostbusters (or Luigi’s Mansion, for those with excellent taste) reference - it can provide us with a way to get rid of our opponent’s threats when they hit the graveyard, and eventually recruit them over to our side.

The fact that they come back as 1/1s won’t matter much with the power buffs we will have on board. Speaking of boards, Séance Board is an excellent mana rock that will help us get more Spirits on board faster.

When it’s time to finish out a game, you have some options. Faithbound Judge is a flavorful way to knock out an opponent with no enchantment removal, if you can manage to get the Judge in the graveyard and pay it’s hefty disturb cost.

Moonshaker Cavalry is perfect in this deck, as it is a Spirit, and a Spirit deck winning the game through a massive flying army of ghosts is perfectly reasonable, appropriate, and preferable to other alternatives, despite what your opponents may say.

If you want to make sure your opponents are REALLY dead, make sure to cast a Notorious Throng or a big Path of the Ghosthunter to get your creature count up as high as possible, and maybe even an Alrund's Epiphany to give yourself a little extra time and swings.

Don't Ghost Me, Please

Well, I thought that was a blast! I don’t have the money to buy every deck I brew, but this one is sorely tempting.

I hope you all are feeling inspired to go out and make your own off-the-wall decklists. Share your thoughts, suggestions, or cards I missed down in the comments below. I can’t wait to join you all again for our next Commander Fusion!

Read more:

Recross the Paths - Building a Spirits Deck with Marneus Calgar

The Magic of Mechanics - Duskmourn's Scary Spicy Tricks and Treats

Quinn Lambert

Quinn has been playing Magic since Kaladesh. A Bant player at heart, his number-one goal in any game is always to have more cards in hand than anyone else at the table. Outside of Magic, he is a licensed mental health counselor, non-professional but eager Jesus-imitator, and totally unlicensed toddler-wrangler.