Karolina Dean, RunawayKarolina Dean, Runaway | Art by Jeff Dekal

Before he wrote the massive hit Saga, Brian K. Vaughan wrote a little series for Marvel called Runaways, starring six children, whose parents were all part of an evil cult. It's a classic of the early 2000s and even got a solid adaptation recently. Those crazy kids and their terrible parents. I read a lot of 'em, so I was pleasantly surprised to see the whole crew included in one of the Jumpstart packs!

Fittingly, they play in space of “casting a spell from anywhere other than your hand”, which is both adjacent to the exile theme and also represents the creative thinking they always had to do. Most of them are mono-red, but one of them has a unique ability to make herself a five-color commander…

What Does Karolina Dean, Runaway Do?

Karolina Dean, Runaway is a 4-mana 3/3 flyer with one potent, albeit strange, ability: "At the beginning of your first main phase, add . This mana can't be used to cast spells from your hand."

This restriction is surprisingly small. That mana can be spent on impulse-drawn cards, activated abilities, spells cast from a graveyard, and many more. There are many roads the Runaway and her friends could rush down — I like the Exile theme, so I went with it. Make no mistake — Karolina can head plenty of decks, from Adventures to Flashback to Equipment.

Let's see what Karolina needs to shine.

Key Cards for Karolina Dean, Runaway

There are three major pieces of this deck: setting up cards to be cast from other zones, payoffs for those cards, and extra uses of Karolina's mana. The first is the widest net: cards with Adventures, Flashback, Foretell, Suspend, prepared spells, or “bottling” effects can all play nicely.

This presents a solid mana advantage turn after turn, getting to use up to five extra mana with consistency. Previous precons have given us the infamous Prosper, Tome-BoundProsper, Tome-Bound and similarly powerful Faldorn, Dread Wolf HeraldFaldorn, Dread Wolf Herald, both of which help churn out extra cards to cast from exile.

Two of Karolina's fellow Runaways fall into this category. Chase can pitch a card we don't need to bottle the top card, while Molly's Power-Up ability (which impulse draws) can be paid for by Karolina.

Karolina's mana boost is reason enough to go for it, but synergy is a powerful throughline and the myriad Paradox and adjacent themes come together very well. The aforementioned precon commanders aside, there are 18 cards in the deck that care about cards being cast from exile or anywhere other than your hand. (The only downside of this deck theme is that you will need to distinguish between the two, as Flashback won't trigger Fire Lord ZukoFire Lord Zuko and a few others like him.) Most of the payoffs are in the form of tokens, counters, or direct damage, so they all help the game close out.

And two more Runaways fill out here. Nico deals direct damage and can turn cards into free casts, while Alex gives Paradox-cast creatures haste and a buff.

Finally, there are two quirks to Karolina's mana and the ways it can be used that this deck takes advantage of. For one, it can be used to activate abilities, namely Equipment and Class cards. Shaving five mana off of Colossus HammerColossus Hammer and equipping it “fairly” is a real possibility here. Second, it is a triggered ability that can be targeted by copy effects, so including four ways to copy it is great. Mister FantasticMister Fantastic can copy it twice even, although you'll have to pay the mana normally to do that. (But who cares– you'll have 15 mana!)

Last addendum: Gert and Old Lace, RunawaysGert and Old Lace, Runaways don't technically interact with the theme, but I still included them here for fun flavor and the basic utility. There are some graveyard synergies available, thanks to all the discard to exile enablers, including the other as-of-yet unmentioned member of the gang: Victor Mancha, RunawayVictor Mancha, Runaway! I do like the little interaction in which Gert and Old Lace can pitch a card to get a basic land, then Victor can get it back.

How Does the Deck Win?

This is a grindy midrange rumblefest. A lot of impulse draw can run pretty cheap, so Karolina Dean, RunawayKarolina Dean, Runaway churning out five mana can go a long way. The mana advantage is going to be pretty key to keeping things going, so Karolina needs back up. Cost reducers and sweet ramp options will accelerate things.

There are a few token makers here and there but the deck still runs 35 creatures, plenty to get on board and start attacking. Some already have solid stats, like Beanstalk GiantBeanstalk Giant, while others can get big over time (Laelia, the Blade ReforgedLaelia, the Blade Reforged). Others may not do so well in the red zone, but the 9 Equipment can help. As mentioned previously, the deck has plenty of ways to ping away when attacking isn't quite getting there.

Matter of fact: Karolina Dean, RunawayKarolina Dean, Runaway has flying and is only kind of small as a 3/3. She can reasonably get into the zone with Sword of the AnimistSword of the Animist or The Reaver CleaverThe Reaver Cleaver, and she makes equipping Colossus HammerColossus Hammer and Belt of Giant StrengthBelt of Giant Strength pretty simple to do.

And with all this bling, this alien is ready to shine!

Karolina Dean, Runaway Commander Deck List

Look now, or you might miss them…

Conclusion

“Cast from exile” or the more general “non-hand” spell archetype has gotten a massive amount of attention, starting in earnest in 2021 with the Adventures in the Forgotten Realms preconstructed deck. Crazy to think it's only been five years, but it's shown up in several color combinations and even has a five-color commander option now. The final weird thing is that, yes, I did choose nine basic Mountains. Untapped lands are great and this deck has a big slant towards red for clear reasons. It'll be fun to see how it shakes out.

What do you think about the “new” archetype and its fast development?