(Blood Artist | Art by Johannes Voss)

Art You Ready?

The title of the article pretty much says it all. If you want to build a deck that's both beautiful and maddening, "proxying" up a deck using only officially released Art Series cards might be the apotheosis.

As it turns out, the inimitable Jake Browne has already done just this, designing, buying, and playing the Art Series version of cards in a Jodah deck:

Here's a quick video on my Frankenstein's monster: WORLD'S FIRST AND ONLY all art card commander deck. I think it was, all in, around $17.

Jodah, the Jerk: pic.twitter.com/evG8UXyIKc

— Jake Browne (@fakejakebrowne) December 29, 2022

(I'm not sure the embedded Tweet is working, but you should definitely click through. The video is inspiring!)

You should know what you're getting into, of course: this will be a nightmare to play, doubly so for your opponents. Arguably such a deck will be more of a work of art than a playable thing, but with that caveat noted, let's begin.

There are 919 unique cards that have gotten the Art Series treatment. Some cards, mostly lands, have multiple versions, so you might have some aesthetic flexibility.

I went through and found all of the commanders who themselves have an Art Series representation, and then for each of those, I found the cards that composed their decks on EDHREC, and the frequencies with which those cards are run.

I somewhat arbitrarily decided that if a commander had at least 90 unique Art-Series-available cards in any of their EDHREC decks, they were potentially viable. From there, I further filtered down to the commanders for whom more than 10% of their EDHREC inclusions were featured in the Art Series. This gets us down to 63 options, which I list below, along with their 20 most-decked Art Series cards:+

(The EDHREC shortcode for card image and card hover won't let me specify the Art Series cards, so you'll mostly have to take my word for the fact that the cards listed do have Art Series versions.)

There are a couple of clear patterns. First, five-color commanders are well-represented: as you increase the number of colors, there are just more options to be found in the Art Series. The other theme is Dragons. Dragons tend to be high-profile cards, more likely to be featured in the Art Series, and so Dragon-heavy decks in all colors are accessible to the Art Series enthusiast.

If you like rolling dice and have an infinite capacity for memorizing results tables, you are in luck! Farideh, Devil's Chosen is the single commander whose components are most-widely represented by Art Series cards.

I think a more-palatable option might be one of the high-color-count Dragon decks, lead by Tiamat, but don't let me tell you what to do! The commanders listed above are plausibly the easiest to build, but here is a list of every commander who appears on an Art Series card and also has at least 90 cards (played in at least one of their decks on EDHREC) in the Art Series:

Column 1 (47) Minsc, Beloved Ranger Livaan, Cultist of Tiamat Lae'zel, Vlaakith's Champion Edgar, Charmed Groom Katilda, Dawnhart Prime Giada, Font of Hope Piru, the Volatile Firja, Judge of Valor Baeloth Barrityl, Entertainer Liesa, Forgotten Archangel Kianne, Dean of Substance Alaundo the Seer Volo, Itinerant Scholar Mahadi, Emporium Master Koll, the Forgemaster Ludevic, Necrogenius Lulu, Loyal Hollyphant Velomachus Lorehold Koma, Cosmos Serpent Birgi, God of Storytelling Henzie Toolbox Torre Tatsunari, Toad Rider Tameshi, Reality Architect Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar Satsuki, the Living Lore Sarevok, Deathbringer Yusri, Fortune's Flame Xanathar, Guild Kingpin The Beamtown Bullies Extus, Oriq Overlord Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes Delina, Wild Mage Beledros Witherbloom Rem Karolus, Stalwart Slayer Zabaz, the Glimmerwasp Valki, God of Lies Akiri, Fearless Voyager Drizzt Do'Urden Rafiq of the Many Sivriss, Nightmare Speaker Plargg, Dean of Chaos Anowon, the Ruin Thief Blex, Vexing Pest Alrund, God of the Cosmos Carth the Lion Hidetsugu, Devouring Chaos Mr Orfeo, the Boulder Column 2 (42) Valentin, Dean of the Vein Tanazir Quandrix Wilson, Refined Grizzly Shadrix Silverquill Gluntch, the Bestower Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant Shaile, Dean of Radiance Maja, Bretagard Protector General Ferrous Rokiric Runo Stromkirk Mila, Crafty Companion Astarion, the Decadent Yasharn, Implacable Earth Sarulf, Realm Eater Linvala, Shield of Sea Gate Tovolar, Dire Overlord Kardur, Doomscourge Jon Irenicus, Shattered One Grolnok, the Omnivore Dina, Soul Steeper Grist, the Hunger Tide Grakmaw, Skyclave Ravager Old Stickfingers Cosima, God of the Voyage Killian, Ink Duelist Svella, Ice Shaper Urza, Lord High Artificer Gisa, Glorious Resurrector Lier, Disciple of the Drowned Toralf, God of Fury Fynn, the Fangbearer Narfi, Betrayer King Tergrid, God of Fright Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis Sythis, Harvest's Hand Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire Toski, Bearer of Secrets Svyelun of Sea and Sky Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider Orvar, the All-Form Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

Much respect if you opt to build a mono-color deck!

I 've been wanting to build Tazri, Beacon of Unity, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to do just that. Here's what I came up with:

Tazri Art Series

View on Archidekt

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Commander (1) 1 Tazri, Beacon of Unity Creatures (40) 1 Akiri, Fearless Voyager 1 Angel of Destiny 1 Anowon, the Ruin Thief 1 Arcus Acolyte 1 Blackbloom Rogue 1 Drana, the Last Bloodchief 1 Dream Devourer 1 Esika, God of the Tree 1 Firja, Judge of Valor 1 Fynn, the Fangbearer 1 Garth One-Eye 1 Gisa, Glorious Resurrector 1 Kamiz, Obscura Oculus 1 Kor Celebrant 1 Linvala, Shield of Sea Gate 1 Mage's Attendant 1 Magmatic Channeler 1 Maja, Bretagard Protector 1 Malakir Blood-Priest 1 Masked Vandal 1 Mistwalker 1 Moraug, Fury of Akoum 1 Morophon, the Boundless 1 Nighthawk Scavenger 1 Orah, Skyclave Hierophant 1 Orvar, the All-Form 1 Righteous Valkyrie 1 Rumor Gatherer 1 Sea Gate Banneret 1 Sea Gate Stormcaller 1 Selfless Glyphweaver 1 Svella, Ice Shaper 1 Taborax, Hope's Demise 1 Tazeem Roilmage 1 Tivit, Seller of Secrets 1 Umara Wizard // Umara Skyfalls 1 Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire 1 Volo, Itinerant Scholar 1 Yawgmoth, Thran Physician 1 Zimone, Quandrix Prodigy Instants (9) 1 Abrade 1 Behold the Multiverse 1 Brainstorm 1 Ephemerate 1 Lightning Bolt 1 Negate 1 Power Word Kill 1 Soul Shatter 1 You Find the Villains' Lair Artifacts (6) 1 Bag of Holding 1 Blackblade Reforged 1 Chromatic Lantern 1 Decanter of Endless Water 1 Mox Amber 1 Sword of Hearth and Home Sorceries (7) 1 Cultivate 1 Damn 1 Reclaim the Wastes 1 Sea Gate Restoration 1 Thwart the Grave 1 Winds of Abandon 1 You Meet in a Tavern Enchantments (1) 1 Kindred Discovery Lands (36) 1 Brightclimb Pathway 1 Cave of the Frost Dragon 1 Clearwater Pathway 1 Den of the Bugbear 1 Deserted Beach 1 Field of Ruin 1 Flooded Strand 1 Forest 1 Hall of Storm Giants 1 Haunted Ridge 1 Hive of the Eye Tyrant 2 Island 1 Jetmir's Garden 1 Lair of the Hydra 1 Morphic Pool 1 Mountain 1 Needleverge Pathway 1 Overgrown Farmland 4 Plains 1 Prismatic Vista 1 Shipwreck Marsh 1 Spara's Headquarters 1 Sundown Pass 5 Swamp 1 The World Tree 1 Windswept Heath 1 Yavimaya Coast 1 Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth

Some folks seem to want to build Tazri as a D&D theme deck, but I cut all of the dungeon-related cards, focusing almost entirely on playing creatures with relevant types and whatever spells I could get my hands on. This is not a strong deck, and Archidekt estimates that it would cost almost $500 to buy, but it has at least two things going for it: (1) buying the Art Series version can't cost more than $20-30, and (2) recalling my previous article here, it is certifiably hip:

Thoughts? Questions? Critiques? Suggestions?

Let me hear them! Please tell me if you actually attempt this stunt, I want to see pictures! Can you build anything that's actually playable? If you have an excellent memory and a tolerant playgroup, tell me about it at @mtg_ds on Twitter.

MtGDS

MtGDS (AKA Magic Data Science) is pretty new to the game, but is trying to understand it as best he can through data. He loves making graphs and finding new ways to measure things. You can read his non-Commander articles at http://mtgds.wordpress.com, and he's worth a follow on Twitter @MtG_DS.