Constant MistsConstant Mists | Art by Phil Foglio

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

Sometimes, all I want to do in a game of Magic is nothing at all. There are a lot of ways accomplish that, from traditional control decks to spicier options, like Lantern Control. One of my favorite ways to do nothing is through the repeated use of FogFogs to nullify opposing combat steps over and over again until inevitability and my opponents' exhaustion hands me the win. In this installment of 60 to 100, I'm going to tackle a Turbo Fog deck from right around the time I was first getting into competitive Magic that does just that. Let's get to the source material.

The Source Material

When I think of Turbo Fog, this deck from Guilds of Ravnica Standard is the one that pops into my head. The shell of Nexus of FateNexus of Fate paired with Search for AzcantaSearch for Azcanta is at its best here. The goal is very simple: force an infinite game. What exactly does that mean? Well, the FogFog effects, like Root SnareRoot Snare and Pause for ReflectionPause for Reflection, can buy a lot of time. In that time, all that needs to be done to win the game is find a Teferi, Hero of DominariaTeferi, Hero of Dominaria, pull off his -8 ability, getting an emblem that says "Whenever you draw a card, exile target permanent an opponent controls."

From there, all your opponents' threats can be stripped away, then their lands. Eventually, the game will be completely unplayable. Winning from this point is simply a matter of not running out of cards. Thankfully, Teferi also covers that. A new Teferi can come down and immediately use his -3 ability to put himself back into the deck. Nexus of Fate also shuffles itself back in every time it would go to the graveyard. Once the lock is set up, it is a simple matter of patiently waiting for the opponent to either concede or run out of cards. This is Magic: the Gathering as Richard Garfield intended.

Choosing a Commander

The 99 of this deck is completely commander-agnostic. The card in the command zone has little to no impact on the game plan, and that's how it should be for FogFog strategies. When the goal is to play an arduously long game, I can't have the potential liability of a key strategy piece getting locked into the command zone, forcing me to pay 20 mana to replay it. Angus MackenzieAngus Mackenzie is a serious contender, and is likely optimal in a build that centers around Seedborn MuseSeedborn Muse and similar effects. I ultimately went with Derevi, Empyrial TacticianDerevi, Empyrial Tactician, as it cheats on command tax and allows me a definite win condition that I can point to when asked "so how are you going to win from here?" This is often all many experienced opponents need when deciding to concede or not once the lock has been established.

Key Cards for Turbo Fog

First up are the FogFogs themselves. There are only nine of them in total, which might raise some eyebrows. Doesn't that seem a little low? Yeah, maybe a little. The ones I've got are all really good, though. I only wanted the best of the best.

Moment's PeaceMoment's Peace, Riot ControlRiot Control, and ArachnogenesisArachnogenesis are all representatives of the best classes of Fogs. Moment's Peace provides two Fogs for the price of just one card. Riot Control gains a lot of life, hopefully making one or two Fogs unnecessary in future turns. Arachnogenesis produces a lot of tokens that can be used either on offense or defense later. All three of these categories of Fog pale in comparison to Constant MistsConstant Mists, however.

Constant Mists will often be the only Fog required to shore up a game. Once the deck's engines are going, recurring lands with Crucible of WorldsCrucible of Worlds and Life from the LoamLife from the Loam and playing additional lands with ExplorationExploration and Icetill ExplorerIcetill Explorer, Constant MistsConstant Mists can effectively nullify combat damage indefinitely. The addition of Drownyard TempleDrownyard Temple provides a land that can be recurred at instant speed over and over again once the deck has established enough mana.

Next, I've got a plethora of cards that stop creatures from attacking at all. These are why I feel so comfortable with a low count of Fogs. A Fog is a temporary measure. MoatMoat is not. Island SanctuaryIsland Sanctuary is a miniature Moat with the added drawback of making me choose to skip drawing a card in my draw step, something I'm willing to accept in a card that costs about $1,000 less than a Legends copy of Moat. Neither Moat nor Island Sanctuary can protect me from creatures with flying. This is manageable via Mystic DecreeMystic Decree, a world enchantment that deprives all creatures of their flying ability. Even without a way to remove flying from creatures, these two dramatically relieve the pressure placed on the deck's Fogs.

I've made up for Island Sanctuary's draw skipping with a lot of Howling MineHowling Mines. In theory, at a table of people primarily looking to win the game via combat, removing their creatures' ability to attack should render most of their cards irrelevant, so increasing the number of them they get to draw isn't an unbearable drawback. Plus, when stacked together, these Howling Mines should also make it easier to find my interaction to deal with players that are pursuing noncombat win conditions.

By far my favorite way I've ever seen Fogs used is as a means of keeping the monarchy and the initiative. I've included a small package of cards that introduce the monarchy and the initiative as a nod to that, and they're just phenomenal advantage engines. The initiative in particular is its own source of inevitability, as with enough time (potentially 120 turns), it can serve as a win condition! That's a little clunky, and obviously it's not very likely the game will be able to go on for that long. This deck is protected from losing to deck out, but the opposing decks are often not.

Court of CunningCourt of Cunning is the best of the bunch, as it creates card advantage and drastically increases the viability of decking the opponents out by churning through up to ten additional cards per opponent per turn. On the initiative side, Undermountain AdventurerUndermountain Adventurer and Explore the UnderdarkExplore the Underdark are two of only four ramp spells in the whole deck!

How Does this Turbo Fog Deck Win the Game?

The win conditions section for a deck like this can get a little complicated. There are very few ways to proactively end a game in a FogFog deck. Instead, I'm looking to be the last person standing after all other opponents have collapsed from exhaustion. Each turn cycle that this deck is not losing, it is ahead regardless of nearly any resource imbalances or other factors that would make someone playing an ordinary deck feel like they're behind in a game.

The simplest way to win the game is with Jace, Wielder of MysteriesJace, Wielder of Mysteries. In the kind of games this deck wants to play, reaching the point of deck out is very common. I've opted for Jace over Laboratory ManiacLaboratory Maniac because deploying Jace really early and building advantage with him is much safer in a deck like this, and I'd rather not have to waste deck space on a card that only wins the game. After all, an opening hand with a Laboratory Maniac is basically a forced mulligan, and that's not the case for Jace.

The next win condition is agonizingly slow resource denial. Just like in the source material, Teferi, Hero of DominariaTeferi, Hero of Dominaria's -8 ability does a lot of work here, allowing any opposing permanent to be removed... eventually. In order to assist with the slow resource denial plan, Strip MineStrip Mine and WastelandWasteland combined with the three Crucible of WorldsCrucible of Worlds and ExplorationExploration effects will allow this deck to chip away at opponents' mana.

Finally, I have a way to continuously deny key spells an opponent may use to break free from the many layers of shackles this deck imposes. CounterbalanceCounterbalance, combined with top deck manipulation, like BrainstormBrainstorm, Mystic SanctuaryMystic Sanctuary, and Sensei's Divining TopSensei's Divining Top, grants an effortful but effective way to fight against combo strategies that can't be contained by Fogs and MoatMoats. While powerful, Counterbalance also requires the most restraint to use effectively. Many players fall into the trap of trying to get free value from Counterbalance by extending valuable resources to attempt to counter any spell they can with it. While I of all players understand that impulse, it must be controlled when piloting this Fog deck. Counterbalance is nothing more than a way to fend off spells that are both threatening to the game plan and cannot be answered more easily through other available means.

Turbo Fog Commander Deck List

Conclusion

Of all the installments of 60 to 100 I've written, this may very well both be the longest and the one where I feel as though I have left out the most strategic information. The real joy of Turbo Fog as a strategy is how mentally taxing many of the decisions can be. There is a lot to think about, from when you should deploy Moat, when it is correct to take a chunk of combat damage when you have a Fog ready to go in your hand, and especially managing politics at the table as you progress towards your nefarious end game. At the end of the day, this deck is for the twisted, Machiavellian types like myself.

As for Brackets, I'd place this deck no lower than Bracket 3 (Upgraded). For the most part, Bracket 2 (Core) decks are not and should not be expected to have the answers for a strategy like this, and I don't think this deck has any place at those tables. In Bracket 3, I'd expect more of a struggle as this deck wraps around your opponents and squeezes the life out of them like a boa constrictor. That's the style of gameplay I most enjoy, and so to Bracket 3 this deck shall go.