Tam, Mindful First-YearTam, Mindful First-Year | Art by Zoltan Boros

At first glance, most of the new commanders from Lorywn Eclipsed didn't excite me. I'm not much of a typal strategies person, and that's a major theme of the set. However, Tam, Mindful First-YearTam, Mindful First-Year ended up really impressing me after I spent some time with her. The concept of a two-color vivid commander is just wacky enough to get me invested.

In this deck tech, I'm going to tackle Tam, Mindful First-Year and see if I can fully capitalize on this two-color/five-color commander.

What Does Tam, Mindful First-YearTam, Mindful First-Year Do?

Tam, Mindful Fist-Year is a two-mana Simic () commander with two abilities. First, she gives each other creature her owner controls hexproof from each of its colors. She can also tap to make target creature become all colors until end of turn.

Alongside all of the vivid cards from Lorwyn Eclipsed, Tam has the potential to make some pretty explosive plays happen.

My plan for this deck is to be a pretty conventional Simic deck with all of the broken ramp and card draw that the color pair is know for, plus all of the best vivid cards splashed in to take full advantage of the commander. This way the deck is functional without the commander, a type of resilience I value highly, while still being able to fully capitalize on her abilities.

Key Cards for Tam, Mindful First-YearTam, Mindful First-Year

Colors Matter!

Bloom TenderBloom Tender is typically an embarrassing card to include in one and two-color decks (unless it's Kinnan, Bonder ProdigyKinnan, Bonder Prodigy), but in this two-color deck, Bloom Tender will typically tap for five mana! This will enable the deck to crank out huge spells as early as turn three or four in the games where Bloom Tender shows up early.

ShinestrikerShinestriker and PrismabasherPrismabasher are perfect examples of what the vivid cards are here to do. Shinestriker's floor is being a really expensive MulldrifterMulldrifter, but the ceiling is a 3/3 flyer that draws five cards.

Similarly, Prismabasher is a less than passable pump spell with only two colors in play, but giving five creatures +5/+5 for six mana is very strong.

The Simic Nonsense^TM

The two cards that really make this deck tick are Up the BeanstalkUp the Beanstalk and Tanufel RimespeakerTanufel Rimespeaker. The green half of the deck makes mana production nearly effortless, so as long as this Tam deck is drawing cards to cast with that mana, the game runs on easy mode.

Up the BeanstalkUp the Beanstalk is a classic engine that's been banned in both Standard and Modern for its ability to interact favorably with free spells or spells with built-in cost reduction, like Quantum RiddlerQuantum Riddler or CommandeerCommandeer. Lorwyn Eclipsed generously provided this deck with a four-mana creature that has a nearly identical effect, Tanufel Rimespeaker.

Tanufel RimespeakerTanufel Rimespeaker obviously suffers from being twice as expensive to cast as Up the BeanstalkUp the Beanstalk, but it also comes with advantages that Up the Beanstalk will struggle to compete with. First, Tanufel Rimspeaker draws a card when its controller cast a spell with mana value four or greater rather than five. There are a handful of free four-mana spells that appreciate this boost, like SubtletySubtlety and Force of VigorForce of Vigor.

The bigger perk of Tanufel Rimespeaker is that it is not only a creature, which allows it to be searched for with Chord of CallingChord of Calling, Formidable SpeakerFormidable Speaker, and Fauna ShamanFauna Shaman, but it's a Wizard! That means that it can be fetched by Vedalken AethermageVedalken Aethermage and Step ThroughStep Through's wizardcycling ability, which offers this deck a massive consistency boost.

This is where the deck really kicks into gear. In one of the first few test runs of my initial version of Tam, I managed to build a board that consisted of Seedborn MuseSeedborn Muse, Alchemist's RefugeAlchemist's Refuge, Bloom TenderBloom Tender, Tam, Mindful First-YearTam, Mindful First-Year, and Tanufel RimespeakerTanufel Rimespeaker. This combination resulted in each opposing turn becoming my turn, parts two, three, and four.

I realized very quickly that it was nearly impossible to lose a game from such a position. Better yet, many of the pieces of this board are either interchangeable with other cards or very easy to search for. I very quickly tore apart the first version of the deck and reassembled Tam, this time with a clearer vision for what I wanted to do.

Bringing the Step Through Package Home

I'd likely still have included Step ThroughStep Through and Vedalken AethermageVedalken Aethermage if the only Wizard they could find was Tanufel RimespeakerTanufel Rimespeaker. But I'm not really one to leave free value on the table! High Fae TricksterHigh Fae Trickster is an additional copy of Alchemist's RefugeAlchemist's Refuge that itself has flash. That's a second critical engine piece to tutor out with the pair of wizardcyclers.

Thrasios, Triton HeroThrasios, Triton Hero is one of the format's best mana sinks. He really shines when Seedborn MuseSeedborn Muse is in play, gaining three additional end steps where open mana would simply go to waste if not for his activated ability. And, look! He's also a Wizard. I actually put Thrasios in far before I remembered that he's a Wizard, but that revelation brought me great joy.

ArchaeomancerArchaeomancer is my favorite card to combine with Step Through, as he can recur Step Through to go find a second Wizard. In scenarios where Ghostly FlickerGhostly Flicker and Mystic SanctuaryMystic Sanctuary get involved, this free bit of value becomes very relevant.

How Does This Tam, Mindful First-YearTam, Mindful First-Year Deck Win the Game?

The primary, and really only, way this Tam, Mindful First-Year deck wins a game is through combat damage. Craterhoof BehemothCraterhoof Behemoth, PrismabasherPrismabasher, and Glister BairnGlister Bairn offer a payoff for slamming an endless barrage of huge creatures.

After spending turn after turn slamming creatures like Void WinnowerVoid Winnower, Vorinclex, Voice of HungerVorinclex, Voice of Hunger, and Nyxbloom AncientNyxbloom Ancient, the simplest way to close a game out is making those creature bigger and turning them sideways.

The flash plan coupled with the robust recovery suite of Ghostly FlickerGhostly Flicker, Mystic SanctuaryMystic Sanctuary, ArchaeomancerArchaeomancer, and Eternal WitnessEternal Witness creates an alternative option to simply killing the table in one shot. Thanks to Obscuring HazeObscuring Haze, this deck's FogFog effect of choice, I often feel very comfortable swinging out to kill one person and then protecting myself from dying to the remaining players by looping Obscuring Haze to wait out their attempts to remove me from the game.

Tam, Mindful First-Year Commander Deck List

Conclusion

This is the first deck I've built in 2026 that I've been thoroughly stricken by. Casting big spells alone doesn't really do anything for me. However, if I get to cast big spells at instant speed and draw lots of cards and probably torture my friends in the process, suddenly my dopamine receptors have been activated!

Jokes aside, I'd definitely check with the table before pulling this deck out. It definitely works as a Bracket 3 (Upgraded) deck. There are no infinite combos, only two Game Changers, and very few cards that the general public would likely consider problematic. However, this build of Tam excels at monopolizing game time, something I'm told is a pretty big turnoff for many players.

And, while I enjoy getting to use the element of surprise against my opponents, I can certainly see someone not being particularly pleased by a Void WinnowerVoid Winnower or Agent of TreacheryAgent of Treachery hitting the table in the middle of their turn.