The Dawning ArchaicThe Dawning Archaic | Art by Josu Solano

Some new commanders are born into a world ready to welcome them with open arms, slotting perfectly in alongside a well-established strategy. Other commanders make players say "Wait, what?" followed closely by "Wait, how?"

The Dawning ArchaicThe Dawning Archaic fits into this second category. It's a ten drop that teases us with its cost-reduction ability, asking us to play tons of cheap instants and sorceries in a color identity where they don't exist.

There are only twenty-five instants and sorceries in colorless, and their average mana value is a whopping 4.56. Luckily, though, the chonk factor on these spells does give us some advantage with our commander's second ability, since it casts one of them for free from our graveyard when it attacks.

This combination of necessity and promise gives us a clear goal: fill our deck with every colorless instant and sorcery, accelerate out our commander by putting them into the graveyard and using the abundant mana ramp in colorless, and then attack and start slinging huge spells for free.

This strategy is reminiscent of Octavia, Living ThesisOctavia, Living Thesis who also asks for a graveyard full of spells, but instead of being able to run BrainstormBrainstorm and PreordainPreordain to fill our spells quota, we have to rely on the likes of Aang's JourneyAang's Journey and Introduction to ProphecyIntroduction to Prophecy.

The Capitoline TriadThe Capitoline Triad is another great place to look for inspiration, as that's another colorless deck looking to fill its graveyard fast.

Key Cards for The Dawning ArchaicThe Dawning Archaic

First of all, we're running every single instant and sorcery we can. Twenty-five is just barely approaching the density we would really want for this deck to be able to reliably work, so we can't cut a single one.

Some of these spells are great, but we do also have to run cards like Expanded AnatomyExpanded Anatomy, which is very low-impact, and Together as OneTogether as One, which is very hard to get to do anything at all (though we are running Cascading CataractsCascading Cataracts just in case!).

We're running a good number of cards that we're hoping never to cast, and that's fine. But we have to put in some work to make it fine.

We're going to need to put instants and sorceries into our graveyard much faster than we can just by casting them.

To this end, we're running a big self-mill package to stock up our bin.

Codex ShredderCodex Shredder, Wand of VertebraeWand of Vertebrae, and Ghoulcaller's BellGhoulcaller's Bell get the party started at one mana, and Perpetual TimepiecePerpetual Timepiece and Mesmeric OrbMesmeric Orb continue the trend in the two drop slot.

The Warring TriadThe Warring Triad and MillikinMillikin pull double duty for helping us towards our commander, acting as ramp and mill at the same time.

There's a surprising density of looting effects in colorless as well. Matzalantli, the Great DoorMatzalantli, the Great Door and Collector's VaultCollector's Vault give us card selection to loot away any true stinkers we draw.

Key to the CityKey to the City does the same thing slower, but also helps us keep attacking once we get our commander in play.

And everyone is sleeping on Deal BrokerDeal Broker. Even though most of the draft-only text on it is irrelevant, a three-mana looting creature is absolutely solid in colorless, and fits this deck perfectly.

Even with this aggressive discarding and milling, we're going to need to make some serious mana in order to cast our commander.

Luckily, that's exactly what colorless decks do. From Worn PowerstoneWorn Powerstone to Thran DynamoThran Dynamo to Ultima, Origin of OblivionUltima, Origin of Oblivion, we're well set up to leap forward by large chunks of mana at a time.

We can even run Voltaic KeyVoltaic Key and Manifold KeyManifold Key since we have a high enough density of artifacts that produce multiple mana.

Once we cast our commander, we need something in our graveyard that's worth all the effort when we cast it for free. Some standouts include All Is DustAll Is Dust, Rise of the EldraziRise of the Eldrazi, and Calamity of the TitansCalamity of the Titans, all of which give us a huge advantage and can easily enable us to attack again and keep the train rolling.

But even our "second-rate" instants and sorceries like Mascot ExhibitionMascot Exhibition, Desecrate RealityDesecrate Reality, and Scour from ExistenceScour from Existence are good rewards for the deckbuilding constraints we've made for ourselves.

Introduction to AnnihilationIntroduction to Annihilation, Zuko's ExileZuko's Exile, and Selective ObliterationSelective Obliteration round out our interactive suite, meaning that we'll almost always be able to defend ourselves in some way.

There aren't tons of pieces to form a backup plan in the niche of colorless graveyard decks, but there aren't none either. Wondrous CrucibleWondrous Crucible does a great impression of our commander, letting us cast free versions of cards in our graveyard every turn (though the crucible also lets us cast permanent spells!).

Spawnbed ProtectorSpawnbed Protector and Artisan of KozilekArtisan of Kozilek let us recur any big creatures we happen to mill over, giving us a pivot point if our commander is stymied.

Because we're so focused on our graveyard, this is the rare colorless deck with an Eldrazi subtheme that doesn't want to include the original Eldrazi titans. Ulamog, the Infinite GyreUlamog, the Infinite Gyre and Kozilek, Butcher of TruthKozilek, Butcher of Truth are incredibly powerful, but we can't risk them accidentally hitting our graveyard, since they'll shuffle all of our hard work back into our library.

One of the fun pieces of building a colorless deck is filling in the cracks with limited tools. This is doubly true for this deck, since we're already constrained by playing every single instant and sorcery we can run.

A lot of these spells are interesting and flexible pieces that can give us an edge by virtue of their wackiness. No one will know to expect an Eldrazi ConfluenceEldrazi Confluence to blow them out during combat, or an Eldritch ImmunityEldritch Immunity to let us get through blockers.

Even the cards we might try to discard most games will sometimes come in clutch. Gruesome SlaughterGruesome Slaughter would be better in a deck with more big creatures, but it can still help us remove three or four creatures in one turn.

Expanded AnatomyExpanded Anatomy isn't a great rate, but when vigilance is good it is good, sometimes meaning the difference between a win and a loss.

Another joy of colorless decks is the mana base. With no constraints as to having enough sources of multiple colors, we get to play almost as many utility lands as we want.

Alongside classics like Shrine of the Forsaken GodsShrine of the Forsaken Gods and Rogue's PassageRogue's Passage, we also want to include any land that can put cards into our graveyard.

Conduit PylonsConduit Pylons, Gallifrey Council ChamberGallifrey Council Chamber, and Hidden GrottoHidden Grotto all surveil when they enter, and Tocasia's Dig SiteTocasia's Dig Site can do it on command.

TrenchpostTrenchpost lets us include a Locus package, Geier Reach SanitariumGeier Reach Sanitarium can help us loot and make some friends, and Eden, Seat of the SanctumEden, Seat of the Sanctum can recur our permanents in the late game.

Winning the Game with The Dawning ArchaicThe Dawning Archaic

When I set out to build this deck, I was aiming for some good clean Bracket 2 fun, but Archidekt's Bracket Estimator informed me I had inadvertently included multiple combos. The main culprit was, of course, Basalt MonolithBasalt Monolith.

By itself, the monolith can tap and untap infinitely, meaning it can trigger Mesmeric OrbMesmeric Orb as much as we want.

This isn't a game-ending combo in our deck since we don't actually have any way to make that into an easy win, but it does mean that we can get enough instants and sorceries into the graveyard to cast our commander for free, and then guarantee a good spell to cast when we get to attack.

The second, and more powerful combo, involves Basalt MonolithBasalt Monolith and Forsaken MonumentForsaken Monument. The monument means the monolith now taps for , but it still only costs to untap, meaning we can generate infinite colorless mana.

Again, this isn't a game-ending combo, as we don't have any ways to convert infinite mana into a definitive win. If we have Kozilek's CommandKozilek's Command as well, we can make infinite Eldrazi SpawnEldrazi Spawns, which will all be 2/3s thanks to Forsaken MonumentForsaken Monument, but if not we'll just have to settle for casting all of our spells basically for free for the rest of the game.

While those combos certainly turbo charge our deck when we draw them, most of the time we'll win by casting a big spell or two every turn for a number of turns in a row.

We have a good number of board wipes and spells that can deal with multiple threats at once, and so we can slow the game down enough that our big creatures can eat our opponents' life totals in chunks.

The Dawning ArchaicThe Dawning Archaic only needs to hit a player three times before they lose from commander damage, and we've got several ways to make it unblockable.

The Deck List

This deck's goofiness warms my heart. The only thing I like more than playing terrible cards is running cards that I never plan on casting.

Together as OneTogether as One in a deck with barely any colored mana sources? Skittering InvasionSkittering Invasion? Each one of these cards that we can show to our opponents makes our victory that much sweeter.

This deck can make some powerful moves, sure, but the real joy is underselling those moves by revealing the supporting cast.

When our opponents sit down across from us, they'll size us up as another colorless deck with an expensive commander looking to cast huge game-warping threats.

And in a way, they won't be wrong. But they won't be prepared for those big spells to be instants and sorceries rather than creatures, in a color identity with a marked paucity of non-permanent cards.

They may spend their CounterspellCounterspells on other players, figuring our threats might be Eldrazi with cast triggers, and might hold up Swords to PlowsharesSwords to Plowshares against us instead, only to find that outside of our commander, targets are few and far between.

Playing an under-the-radar commander comes with plenty of perks, not only in terms of how we can play but also in how our opponents will play against us.