Infinite Guideline StationInfinite Guideline Station | Art by Piotr Dura

In space, nobody can hear you talk about how much you love Fire and Ice...

Welcome back to Fire and Ice! This is the data-driven series where I go over cards that are becoming more or less popular for different Commander decks, and talk about why they may be gaining or losing popularity.

I'm Julia, EDHREC's Duchess of Data, and I'm super excited to jump into today's article! If you'd like a closer look at the math behind this series, feel free to take a look at this article.

EDHREC, of course, has a ton of data. We'll draw conclusions from that data about how certain commanders' decks have changed over time, give insight about new cards, and hopefully provide some tech for your favorite commander's list.

Today, we're focusing on Infinite Guideline StationInfinite Guideline Station. This five-color beast was among the first Spacecraft commanders, and meshes artifact and multicolor strategies together beautifully! Let's see what this baby can do, shall we?

Infinite Guideline StationInfinite Guideline Station

What's Hot and What's Not for Infinite Guideline Station?

For , Infinite Guideline Station is a Spacecraft that becomes a 7/15 artifact creature with flying after having 12 charge counters attached to it via its station ability.

We get to create a 2/2 colorless Robot creature token for each multicolored permanent we control when this 'craft enters, and we get to draw a card for each multicolored permanent we control when it attacks.

We'll try to load the board up with multicolored creatures that provide extra mana, have beefy statlines, or both! Then, after rushing our commander onto the field, we can station it and begin drawing tons of cards every single turn.

Our commander is no slouch either; it's a huge, evasive body that can three-tap other players with ease.

Among this Spacecraft's most popular cards are General Ferrous RokiricGeneral Ferrous Rokiric (50% inclusion), Leyline of the GuildpactLeyline of the Guildpact (58% inclusion), and Faeburrow ElderFaeburrow Elder (51% inclusion).

What's Fiery for Infinite Guideline Station Decks?

Scientist Supreme of A.I.M.Scientist Supreme of A.I.M. - Fire Score of 9.67

We can use this Human Scientist Villain to copy either one of our commander's super powerful abilities. That'll allow us to either flood the board with 2/2 Robots or draw more cards than we could ever truly need. Both of those are super, super solid.

We can also use this Scientist to copy the abilities of other powerful artifacts. We can do ridiculous things like copying Dawnsire, Sunstar DreadnoughtDawnsire, Sunstar Dreadnought's trigger to deal 100 damage to something twice or we can do genuinely powerful things like doubling up on the card selection and damage that Alibou, Ancient WitnessAlibou, Ancient Witness provides.

Captain America, Living LegendCaptain America, Living Legend - Fire Score of 9.40

This version of Cap will allow our creatures to tap to station our commander twice. On his own, thanks to his statline, we only need to use Cap to station our commander on two seperate turns to get it fully online.

After we've fully activated the Infinite Guideline Station, though, Captain America remains useful. He'll let Bloom TenderBloom Tender and our other mana dorks add double the amount of mana they usually can and he'll also provide all of our attackers with pseudo-vigilance.

I thought this Human Soldier Hero would be more at home in combo decks, but he's found a great home in this list too.

Tam, Mindful First-YearTam, Mindful First-Year - Fire Score of 6.68

Tam is a wonderful card, especially in a deck that makes use of as many colors as this one. They'll protect most of our creatures from a wide variety of removal, and even provide our five-color commander with hexproof (except from colorless spells). This Gorgon Wizard is a great protection piece.

But, in a deck that cares about colors as much as this one, Tam gets even better. Here, we can use their activated ability to boost our commander's enter and/or attack trigger, while also improving the efficacy of cards like Knight of New AlaraKnight of New Alara and Rienne, Angel of RebirthRienne, Angel of Rebirth.

Tam is a natural fit in this WUBRG list, and deserves a spot in most every Guideline Station's 99.

Together as OneTogether as One - Fire Score of 4.22

Most players who put together five-color decks are willing to spring for at least semi-competent mana bases, allowing converge spells like this one to be super effective.

While is admittedly a big investment, this spell can pay us off in a big way. We'll routinely be able to invest at least three different colors of mana into this spell, which will convert into significant card draw and removal.

It's nice that this sorcery lets us gain life too, but even the maximum value of five life won't make too much of a difference in Commander.

Cauldron of EssenceCauldron of Essence - Fire Score of 2.79

This is an odd inclusion. It's a multicolored artifact, which makes it work well with our commander, but it doesn't synergize directly with many of the things we're doing.

The Robots that the Infinite Guideline Station creates are disposable, and can be used as fodder to bring creatures back from the graveyard, but we're not often going to have many reanimation targets in the bin to begin with.

There's nearly 200 other multicolored artifacts available to this format's players, including some absolute bangers like Brightglass GearhulkBrightglass Gearhulk, making Cauldron of Essence's rising popularity even more of a mystery. If you know why this card is seeing more play recently, drop me a line in the comments.

Don & Leo, Problem SolversDon & Leo, Problem Solvers - Fire Score of 1.91

This is a great way to blink our commander over and over again, providing us with a steady flow of Robot tokens. It stinks that we'll have to re-station the Infinite Guideline Station every time we exile and return it to play, but we should be creating enough creature tokens to negate that downside. Don & Leo are also multicolored, which is neat!

What's Icy for Infinite Guideline Station Decks?

Sami, Ship's EngineerSami, Ship's Engineer - Ice Score of -2.47

It's cute that Sami creates the exact same type of token as our commander, but they're not really providing us with enough value to justify their cost.

For just one mana more, we could cast our commander and create tons of robots instantly (instead of waiting until our end step to create just one 2/2.

We'll often have more than enough tapped creatures to trigger Sami's ability, but the payoff just isn't large enough. There's better ways to make tokens.

Sledge-Class SeedshipSledge-Class Seedship - Ice Score of -2.13

This is certainly a fun Spacecraft, but it's a bit too battle-cruiser-ish. We need to invest and several of our creatures' ability to attack to get this ship's sneak effect.

Then, once we actually manage to station the Sledge-Class Seedship and attack with it, there's no guarantee that we'll have a good creature in hand.

The average Guideline Station deck doesn't run a ton of super powerful top-end creatures, preferring instead to run three- and four-drop value creatures. Combined, these factors make this Spacecraft a bad bet.

Birds of ParadiseBirds of Paradise - Ice Score of -1.95

I was surprised to see Cauldron of Essence gaining popularity, but I'm stunned to see this creature losing popularity. Birds of Paradise should be a shoo-in!

This deck is heavily reliant on having access to all five colors of mana at all stages of the game, as players need to build a board full of multicolored creatures before casting their commander. This Bird can hit the field as early as turn one, and provide easy ramp and fixing for the rest of the game.

It's true that this mana dork isn't multicolored, but you can only commit to a theme so much before you start excluding genuinely good cards in the name of flavor.

Again, if you've got any insight into why this card's popularity is trending down, please do let me know in the comments.

What's in a Infinite Guideline Station Deck?

Here's a deck built around the Infinite Guideline Station, with all of its hot cards included and all of its cold cards excluded.

Conclusion

While Infinite Guideline Station is "just another five-color slop commander," they do add something interesting to the format. They're our first commander that cares about cards being multicolored and consistently outputs artifacts.

This commander is very similar to Jared CarthalionJared Carthalion, but Guideline Station decks lean much heavier into the Robot tokens that their commander creates.

It's lovely that we can play both Breya, Etherium ShaperBreya, Etherium Shaper and Aragorn, the UniterAragorn, the Uniter in this list, and that both are viable. There's really no other commander that melds artifacts and multicolor-matters so well. What's your favorite five-color commander?

EDHREC's data says that it's likely The Ur-DragonThe Ur-Dragon, but I'm curious to hear your thoughts regardless. Let me know in the comments, and I'll be back soon with another Fire and Ice!