(Fencing Ace | Art by David Rapoza)

Hit Me Baby One More Time

Hello, and welcome back to Singleton Shmingleton, where I bend the singleton rules of Commander by building decks with as many functional reprints of a certain card as possible. On the docket this week is Fencing Ace, the swaggering two-swords two-drop from Return to Ravnica. For your two mana you get a 1/1 with double strike, and that bargain has captivated the hearts of kitchen-table players for more than a decade now.

At 1/1, the Ace is pretty much as small as he can be, but what we're really paying for is the double strike ability. There are no cards in the game that consistently have double strike at less than two mana, so this is the lowest price we're going to pay for this deal.

Double strike is a powerful ability. It combines with so many effects, from pump spells to counters to Curiosity effects, and it doesn't ask much to be great. My first and favorite double strike combo was in the second deck I ever built, where I enchanted Mirran Crusader with Armored Ascension and then equipped it with Inquisitor's Flail. If I ever drew two pieces of the combo, I would make sure to save them until I drew the third. Ah, to be young again.

There are 11 total two-mana creatures that come with double strike, printed in sets all the way from Ravnica: City of Guilds to Phyrexia: All Will Be One. They are all red and/or white, which gives us some direction in terms of colors. Here they are:

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There's a surprising amount of variation amongst these cards, given how similar they are. Some of the most popular are all played for different reasons and in different decks. Warren Instigator sees play in 10,367 decks, almost all of them Goblin-themed. It's an all-star there, but ironically might be the worst one for us because we'll never use the trigger and double red is hard to hit on turn two. Adorned Pouncer features in 8,558 decks, most of which are Cat or Embalm-themed. Jawbone Duelist slots into every Toxic deck, which so far adds up to 2,616. And somehow Lizard Blades takes the cake away from all of them with 27,680 decks, due to its Equipment synergies (unfortunately, I could not find any Lizard decks with the card).

Even without added themes, the baseline double-striker for two is enough for some decks. The original Boros Swiftblade finds its way into 1,201 decks, and Fencing Ace is in 2,259. Given that, I was surprised at how few decks play Illuminator Virtuoso. It's one of the best creatures for Heroic decks and will be one of our best Aces, and it's only in 1,623 decks. I know it's only been out a year, but that hasn't stopped Jawbone Duelist from getting around! Unsurprisingly, Viashino Slaughtermaster brings up the rear of this list with only 47 decks, as it has a restrictive color identity and little upside.

11 creatures is a good start to a deck, but if we want to consistently have two or three of these guys on the board, we're going to need a few more. Luckily, there are plenty of options for double strikers at three mana to supplement these bodies.

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Double, Double, Toil and Trouble

So how can we turn these creatures into an engine? The most obvious way to abuse creatures with double strike is to pump them up with combat tricks, Auras, and Equipment. This strategy works well in 20-life formats, where counting to 10 and multiplying by two doesn't take much effort, but in Commander, it faces the same difficulties as every other aggressive strategy: too many opponents with too much life. We're going to need to find some value as well.

Anything that triggers when we deal combat damage to a player synergizes well with our Aces. We'll still come out of the gate swinging, but we can try to use these triggers to gain value and snowball rather than being outclassed as the game progresses. Here's a list of cards within Jeskai that can draw us cards when we connect:

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That's already 12 ways to draw cards, which should prevent us from fizzling out after dumping our hand early. Auras come with an inherent risk, but as long as we can draw cards the turn we play them we won't be too out of luck once they're removed. Sea-Dasher Octopus is a little awkward, given how many of our Aces are Humans, but it still has plenty of Mutate targets, and worst case scenario we can just cast it as a creature. Now all we have to do is make sure we can get some attacks through. Luckily, there are a lot of blue cards that can make creatures unblockable on the cheap.

This looks like the start of a real plan! Play a couple cheap double-strikers, get through with them and draw a few cards, then once we develop our board we can go for the kill. But how should we go for said kill? Well, we've got all these cheap, maybe evasive, double-striking creatures lying around, so we might as well use them the old-fashioned way. Mass pump spells, anthem effects, and some spicy surprises can make our creatures threaten lethal quite quickly.

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Some Card Spotlights

Latulla's Orders: A sleeper Aura that will definitely catch opponents by surprise. Because it has flash, it will usually play out like an instant that we're already happy about, but then it will stick around and threaten to give us more value. One of the places where Commander decks tend to get more homogenized is in the general removal spells, so it's extra satisfying to find an underplayed gem that synergizes with our plan so well.

Surge to Victory: This is our spiciest setup for an alpha strike. We're playing a lot of cantrips that target our creatures, so an unexciting use of this card is to draw two for each of our unblocked Aces. We could also target a For the Emperor! or Pack Attack for maximum damage. Our creatures won't be pumped for first strike damage, but then when regular damage rolls around they'll be swole as heck.

Umezawa's Jitte: I know this isn't a hot take, but this card is busted. It's less broken in Commander, but because it triggers whenever equipped creature deals combat damage, it fits perfectly into this deck. We can attack our 1/1 Aces into 4/4s with the Jitte, because we can pump them after first strike but before regular damage and keep them around.

Thunderous Orator: This doesn't technically count as an Ace, but because we have so many redundant creatures with double strike this will attack as an Ace almost all the time. In this case consistency allows for more consistency.

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The Decklist

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Until Next Time

I enjoy playing low-curve decks, and this deck definitely fits that description with 14 one-drops and 24 two-drops. Breaking the rhythm of "land, go" in the early game feels like catching your opponents off guard, and you'll always have things to do with your mana. The struggle with assertive decks is to stay relevant, to keep everyone playing the game at your pace, and that's the kind of battle I love. Don't let anyone go bigger than you; keep them off-balance by going under.

Ach! Hans, run! Next week I'll be highlighting one of my favorite cards and one of my favorite strategies. Get ready for a graveyard deck, and get ready to make some beefy boys, because I'm going to be building "Oops! All Lhurgoyfs".