Mystical TeachingsMystical Teachings | Art by Ron Spears

Welcome back to 60 to 100, a series where I take beloved decks from 60-card formats and convert them to Commander.

In this installment, I'd like to turn my attention to Standard. I go through phases where I find a deck that speaks to me, play it for a month or two, and then fall back off the train. Lately, one of such decks that have caught my attention is the creatively named Four Color Control. This is a deck full of spot removal, card draw, a little bit of ramp, and that's pretty much it. That's everything I could ever want in a Magic deck! Let's have a look at the source material.

Four Color Control is the product of the incredibly powerful card advantage spells currently available in Standard. Stock UpStock Up, Consult the Star ChartsConsult the Star Charts, and Flow StateFlow State are all phenomenally powerful draw spells to have legal simultaneously, and they enable this deck to play thin counts of a wide variety of interaction and rely on these card draw spells to find the right answers at the right time. Add in Tablet of DiscoveryTablet of Discovery, a mana rock that taps for two to cast instants and sorceries (conveniently the only other nonland card types in the deck) to cast top end spells like Jeskai RevelationJeskai Revelation ahead of schedule. The result is a control deck that can draw cards, remove all opposing threats, and end the game more efficiently than many of the other control decks in Standard's history.

Choosing a Commander

There's only one (non-partner pairing) commander that fits cleanly into the colors I need to recreate this deck, and that's Breya, Etherium ShaperBreya, Etherium Shaper. There isn't going to be much in the way of synergy with her, she's just here to donate her colors and offer a potential combo win condition. I also considered Tymna the WeaverTymna the Weaver with Kraum, Ludevic's OpusKraum, Ludevic's Opus and Ishai, Ojutai DragonspeakerIshai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker with Vial Smasher the FierceVial Smasher the Fierce; however, none of the partner options bring very much to the table for this strategy specifically.

Key Cards

This deck's core is tutors like Mystical TeachingsMystical Teachings. The only way to make sure that a deck this reactive can find the right answers for each situation is to constantly tutor those answers out! Mystical TeachingsMystical Teachings, Merchant ScrollMerchant Scroll, Mystical TutorMystical Tutor, Firemind's ForesightFiremind's Foresight, and Invert // InventInvert // Invent provide both many opportunities to plan ahead and the ability to grab a silver bullet answer immediately when the need arises.

Firemind's ForesightFiremind's Foresight is my favorite of the bunch, as there are a lot of choices to be made. Typically, it will fetch Mana DrainMana Drain, but the other two choices get difficult. Do I search for a three-mana-value spell, like Sphinx's RevelationSphinx's Revelation? What about a tutor, like PerplexPerplex? Will the one-mana card be Mystical TutorMystical Tutor or Swords to PlowsharesSwords to Plowshares? What about Occult EpiphanyOccult Epiphany? That's a lot of thought and planning just to cast this one spell.

The key feature of Mystical Teachings and Waterlogged TeachingsWaterlogged Teachings is that they not only find instants, but can also find any card with flash. This opens up the door for both silver bullets and value engines that are creatures. I wouldn't ordinarily include a narrow card like Containment PriestContainment Priest in most control decks, but it completely hoses any opponent that uses ReanimateReanimate effects or that wants to cheat creatures into play with the likes of Monster ManualMonster Manual or Sneak AttackSneak Attack and it's very easy to find at the right time thanks to the abundance of tutors.

Notion ThiefNotion Thief and Opposition AgentOpposition Agent are more broadly appealing versions of Containment Priest, punishing two of Commander's most common game actions. There's no blowout in Magic more satisfying than stealing an opponent's fetch land with Opposition Agent or nullifying their Guardian ProjectGuardian Project with Notion Thief. Neither of these are at the top of my list of Mystical Teachings targets, but the more grindy a game is, the more often they're able to shine.

Next are the defensive tools that the deck's tutors can fetch. As with any control deck in Commander, opponents will simply be putting too many threats on the board each turn cycle for single target removal to keep up with. Instead, I've included board wipes and ways to buy time against aggressive strategies. EvacuationEvacuation and DesynchronizationDesynchronization fulfill the need for instant-speed board wipes.

InkshieldInkshield is a FogFog that will often generate enough tokens to eliminate a player. Every time it's cast, the dynamic of the game shifts dramatically. More importantly, since all of the tutors in this deck reveal what they find to the rest of the table, keeping a face-up Inkshield in the hand will cause the opponents to navigate combat very differently. Suddenly, the value proposition of making a big swing at me when I have five mana and a known Inkshield seems really poor, and many opponents will send their creatures elsewhere.

Winning the Game

When piloting this deck, I'm almost never concerned about winning the game in a hurry. What I need, like many control decks in Commander, is a button I can press that says "I win the game" after I've successfully locked the game down. Breya, Etherium ShaperBreya, Etherium Shaper is a piece that slots nicely into just that kind of combo, and she gets to sit in the command zone all game! When combined with Ashnod's AltarAshnod's Altar and a way to blink or recur Breya, like Nim DeathmantleNim Deathmantle or Eldrazi DisplacerEldrazi Displacer, Breya can go infinite and burn out the table.

Thankfully, this combo can be blended into the deck's game plan very easily. Since I'm going to be able to access instants with tutors like Mystical Teachings, all I need to do is make the tutors that find these combo pieces instants. Whir of InventionWhir of Invention is able to find Nim Deathmantle and Ashnod's Altar, and PerplexPerplex can transmute to find either Ashnod's Altar or Eldrazi Displacer, or Sevinne's ReclamationSevinne's Reclamation to recur some them if they find their way into the graveyard over the course of the game.

Four Color Control Commander Deck List

Conclusion

I've written many, many installments of 60 to 100 over the past year (19 of them, in fact!), and this deck was the most challenging to recreate of them all. Toolbox decks that rely on a lot of narrow tutors can get very complex, especially when the tutors are able to grab other tutors. For example, Toxic DelugeToxic Deluge came in as a third board wipe when I realized that Mystical TeachingsMystical Teachings can search for PerplexPerplex, which can then transmute to find the Toxic Deluge. Perplex ended up being the reason Sevinne's ReclamationSevinne's Reclamation was included as well.

It was also very challenging to check my work on this one, as a deck that's filled to the brim with reactive cards is very difficult to set up testing conditions for. There's no way to account for the near-infinite combinations of opposing commanders and strategies one will face when sitting down to play Commander, and the cards that work well against the decks I play against in my local play groups could be wildly different than the ones someone else may need to compete with theirs. In modern day Magic, being the person with a bunch of answers is usually worse than being the person that's asking hard questions. As far as I'm concerned, that dynamic just makes my victories even more satisfying!