Wasp, Shrinking SaviorWasp, Shrinking Savior | Art by Ryan Pancoast

Wasp, Shrinking SaviorWasp, Shrinking Savior is a head-scratcher if I've ever seen one.

She asks us to shrink creatures on the battlefield until they become nothing, and then go one step further. There aren't many stats in the game that can even go below zero, and there has never before been a card that explicitly rewards a player for reducing power below zero.

Sure, there have been a couple oddballoddball creaturescreatures printed with negative power, and savvy players have identified Scourge of the SkyclavesScourge of the Skyclaves plus Nethroi, Apex of DeathNethroi, Apex of Death as a legitimately powerful combination, but Wasp is certainly breaking new ground.

Blue does actually have plenty of effects that synergize with Wasp, from pseudo-removal spells like CryoshatterCryoshatter and Fresh StartFresh Start to mass shrink effects like Bewildering BlizzardBewildering Blizzard and Hysterical BlindnessHysterical Blindness.

One quirk about running these effects is that Wasp triggers when she attacks, and many shrink effects, especially the temporary ones, are most effective when we cast them on other players' turns defensively. Sure, we can use an overloaded DownsizeDownsize as just a card draw spell, but there's got to be more juice we can squeeze out of these cards.

As far as similar commanders go, Plagon, Lord of the BeachPlagon, Lord of the Beach shares some DNA with Wasp. Both are efficient commanders that reward low powers by drawing a bunch of cards, and both can get out of hand quickly. Wasp pushes us in a more interactive direction, however, since she counts creatures our opponents control as well as our own board.

A little more tangentially, Geralf, Visionary StitcherGeralf, Visionary Stitcher could be a good place to look if we want to focus our Wasp deck on walls or other high-toughness creatures, and Tetsuko Umezawa, FugitiveTetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive can help us find cards that will mess with our own creatures' powers at instant speed. But most of the cards that shine in this deck are only for this deck, and that's a big part of the appeal.

Key Cards for Wasp, Shrinking SaviorWasp, Shrinking Savior

Some of the best cards for this deck are the ones that permanently shrink a whole swath of creatures' powers. Unfortunately, these cards are so hard to balance that there aren't a whole lot of them. Dampening PulseDampening Pulse and Cumber StoneCumber Stone are the most reliable, and can put in a good amount of work in fair applications.

Alongside Wasp, they'll only give us extra cards by themselves if our opponents are running creatures with zero power, but our goal is to stack them with other shrinking effects to achieve negative power on a bunch of creatures. Gravitational ShiftGravitational Shift shrinks ground creatures, Amulet of SafekeepingAmulet of Safekeeping shrinks tokens, and Meishin, the Mind CageMeishin, the Mind Cage absolutely warps the game in a deck built around drawing cards, only held back by its mana cost.

Most of the mass shrink effects we can run will be temporary instead, acting as huge card draw spells that can also neutralize blockers or impersonate FogFogs if the situation calls for it. Hysterical BlindnessHysterical Blindness, DownsizeDownsize, and even Turn the TideTurn the Tide are the basic versions, and are genuinely fine cards on rate against opponents who are trying to go wide.

Eliminate the ImpossibleEliminate the Impossible, Hampering SnareHampering Snare, and Beyeen VeilBeyeen Veil all give us a little more value on top of that effect. As long as our opponents aren't all trying to build up huge creatures, these instants should be able to draw us a good grip of cards.

If our opponents do stick some creatures with more than four or so power, we have some tricks up our sleeve to turn them small again. Polymorphist's JestPolymorphist's Jest, FlatlineFlatline, and Amphibian DownpourAmphibian Downpour can turn tons of creatures into 1/1s or 0/1s at instant speed, and Mass DiminishMass Diminish can do so as a sorcery.

Asinine AnticsAsinine Antics ups the ante even more, turning that into a permanent effect. Atomic MicrosizerAtomic Microsizer gives us a mini version of that same ability, while also offering the flexibility of making our commander unblockable. Once every creature is tiny, it will only take a small shrinkage to reduce their power below zero.

In case our commander gets removed or stopped, we're running a handful of effects that can take advantage of our opponents' tiny creatures in a different way. Twisted ImageTwisted Image can kill any creature with power zero or less as a cantripping one drop, and Merfolk ThaumaturgistMerfolk Thaumaturgist can take one down every single turn.

Inversion BehemothInversion Behemoth requires a bit of contortion with our mana base, but it can pick off as many creatures as we can downsize, every turn it sticks around. Reverse the PolarityReverse the Polarity acts as an odd board wipe with additional modes that open up lots of little tricks.

Rounding out our enablers, we get to run a ton of targeted interaction that reduces creatures' powers. Fresh StartFresh Start and Quantum ReductionQuantum Reduction can feel like true removal spells since they remove the creature's abilities as well, but even good old Pin to the EarthPin to the Earth gets the job done.

Spontaneous MutationSpontaneous Mutation, Fear of DeathFear of Death, and Disturbing ConversionDisturbing Conversion can neutralize even some large creatures as the game progresses and card make their way into graveyards. All of these Auras give us serious defensive moves, and can help us in political situations as well.

With all the enchantments we're incidentally running, it's basically free to add in a small Enchantress package. There aren't that many payoffs in mono-blue, but the ones that do exist are strong enough to pull us into the theme. Entity TrackerEntity Tracker is a potent draw engine that we can hold up on opponents' turns with our other tricks.

Fear of Sleep ParalysisFear of Sleep Paralysis is an insane mana curve topper, letting us throw around stun counters and then keep our opponents' creatures stunned until they can remove our huge flyer. (I didn't go this route with this deck, but it also has potential as a Mill deck utilizing the cheap, low-powered creatures like Hedron CrabHedron Crab that can repeatedly mill, and in that build Sage of MysteriesSage of Mysteries and Scrabbling SkullcrabScrabbling Skullcrab are all-stars.)

Winning the Game with Wasp, Shrinking SaviorWasp, Shrinking Savior

This deck does two things extremely well: it draws a ton of cards, and it stops our opponents from killing us through combat. Unfortunately, neither of those things will give us the trophy on their own.

We need a way to convert the advantage we're accumulating into board presence. There are some potent threats that both reward us for card draw and help fuel our game plan. Chasm SkulkerChasm Skulker and Nadir KrakenNadir Kraken grow into huge threats, and can also create small tokens that are easy to shrink in order to draw more cards.

Alandra, Sky DreamerAlandra, Sky Dreamer also spits out little creatures, but can also supercharge our board if we draw our (very attainable) fifth card in a turn. Finally, Ominous SeasOminous Seas can churn our 8/8s in our deck, and it doesn't take too many of those to close out a game.

We also get to run a few effects that can steal our opponents' creatures at discounted rates. SpawnbrokerSpawnbroker and Simic ManipulatorSimic Manipulator can gain control of high-impact threats without having to spend our whole turn tapping out.

Many of our shrinking effects are temporary or only affect our opponents' creatures, so the powered down creatures we steal can return to their original size under our control, letting us leverage them to end the game.

On a slightly different angle of attack, WillbreakerWillbreaker can gain control of multiple creatures with ease alongside all of our Auras. Even Wasp's triggered ability will steal a creature each attack. The game will quickly become all about protecting our 2/3, but if we can do that for just a few turns it won't be hard to win.

Slightly less explosive but also less fragile, Vesuvan DuplimancyVesuvan Duplimancy can let us turn our Auras into CloneClones when we cast them on our creatures. Sure, they'll be shrunk down, but most of our creatures we're playing for the abilities rather than the stats, and they'll still draw us extra cards with Wasp's attack trigger.

The Deck List

I love a blue tempo deck. By building around a core of cheap cards and absurd card advantage, we get to play twice as many spells as anyone else at the table. This strategy gives us the luxury to play some goofier, lower-impact gems like So TinySo Tiny and Fear of DeathFear of Death.

I'll admit I get more pleasure out of a game of Commander the more times my opponents have to read my cards or ask "Wait, what does that do?" Isn't that what the format is really about? It was created to show off the cards that didn't have homes anywhere else, and with the number of new sets coming out these days there are more of those cards than ever.

A lot of creature-based decks will struggle to deal any damage at all against Wasp, Shrinking SaviorWasp, Shrinking Savior. Go-wide token decks will run up against Hysterical BlindnessHysterical Blindness and MindwhiskerMindwhisker, and decks looking to consolidate into one huge creature can fall prey to Fresh StartFresh Start.

These cards are already great in our deck, building towards a powerful card advantage machine, but the fact that they have real utility (even in a format that players often consider "too big" for combat tricks) really ups the trickiness of this strategy.