The Wise MothmanThe Wise Mothman | Art by Sergei Panin

A Rad-ical Perspective

Greetings, and welcome to Commander Makeover! If you're new, a warm welcome to you. Here, we take older commanders and recommend some more recent upgrades to their decks. This week, we're taking a field trip to a post-apocalyptic world, a place where we better start carrying some lamps.

Some very big lamps.

One of the most popular commanders from Fallout, Moth Boy here (not to be confused with in-universe's Valgavoth, Harrower of SoulsValgavoth, Harrower of Souls) wants us to mill everyone to get so big that no lamp can save them. Furthermore, it operates through the unique rad counters found in the set, so we can expect to be proliferating those counters like crazy. Enough rad counters, and we can eclipse every lamp in the Multiverse (and beyond it). With all that being said, what are some new cards we can add?

Expansion AlgorithmExpansion Algorithm

Today, we begin with a banger new card from Secrets of Strixhaven. Yes, this will be a heavy mana investment, but the chance to dump so many rad counters on our opponents is hard to pass up, especially when proliferating only adds one counter to each opponent per trigger. Plus, this being X-costed means we can be flexible with it. Don't be afraid to make X a lower number if we need to. We're trying to ensure our opponents always have rad counters, after all.

Grave ResearcherGrave Researcher

This creature will almost always be prepared. More so than Scar, dare I say it. Hitting the requirement is laughably easy, and the surveil is almost pointless here. That being said, we aren't exactly interested in milling ourselves, so there's that. Casting ReanimateReanimate will ensure we get the best cut from everyone's graveyards. That said, better keep an eye on that life total!

Kitsune's TechniqueKitsune's Technique

For us, this will be a valuable ability to have. Milling half of someone's library will always ensure that either our commander or some other creature will be monstrous. The catch, however, is ensuring we can pay the sneak cost so we can cast this for much cheaper. Not only that, the timing will ensure that we won't get to hit our opponents with an even bigger bug after Technique resolves.

The Ghoul, GunslingerThe Ghoul, Gunslinger

Hailing from the Secret Lair drops that featured Fallout (the TV series) comes another way to make more rad counters. We can dispute whether the show is canon to the games, but what can't be ignored is that we're likely going to be running a lot of creatures that fit what he's looking for. A number of creatures from The Wise MothmanThe Wise Mothman's precon, Mutant Menace, were Zombies, Mutants or both, so there's plenty of opportunity to get The Ghoul's trigger.

Icetill ExplorerIcetill Explorer

Now that's a valuable set of abilities! We can play the lands from our graveyard if we accidentally mill them. In addition, we can mill ourselves should we need to. Also, having that extra land drop ability means that we can get away with emptying our hand and graveyard of lands. Lastly, Icetill having four toughness puts it out of Lightning BoltLightning Bolt range, if that matters.

Singularity RuptureSingularity Rupture

Oh boy, that's going to be a lot of counters. That is, of course, if we get The Wise MothmanThe Wise Mothman to stick around. To ensure its survival, we're going to need to make it indestructible. Remember, the wipe part of the card will resolve first, so by the time we mill, Mothman won't be around to enjoy the benefits. This card feels like a divisive include, so I'll leave this one up to you.

TerrasymbiosisTerrasymbiosis

There's a lot to like about this card: easy to cast, will draw grips of cards, and on each turn as well. It's especially good with rad counters because we'll likely get to put counters via our commander each turn, effectively creating a draw engine. That said, if we plan on milling ourselves, take care that we don't mill out, unless we have a Laboratory ManiacLaboratory Maniac effect or two handy.

Jenova, Ancient CalamityJenova, Ancient Calamity

When The Wise MothmanThe Wise Mothman triggers and puts counters on stuff, Jenova's one of the few creatures for which we should divest counters from Mothman. That way, when Jenova's combat trigger resolves, we get to put those counters back on a creature, turning them into Mutants in the process. On top of that, just like the card above, that's going to be quite a bit of card draw, albeit less of an engine.

The Two Crystals

First, a small pet peeve. I get that it's unsynergistic with our commander, but I'd also be running The Darkness CrystalThe Darkness Crystal, because I'd rather have the full cycle or none at all.

Personal grievances aside, both of these crystals work with The Wise MothmanThe Wise Mothman in different ways. Firstly, The Water CrystalThe Water Crystal will be yet another way to mill our opponents. And I've already elaborated on how good milling half of someone's library is. No further comments.

The Earth CrystalThe Earth Crystal, however, will effectively double all the counters Mothman will distribute, making our board lethal in the right moments. The activated ability is flavor text, unless we're in a pinch.

Sphere GridSphere Grid

This is actually one of the best ways we can give our commander evasion. Reach will be useless here, but trample will certainly not. Too often does a little lamp stop it cold in its tracks. With trample, we can assign a small amount of damage to that pest, then fling the rest at the defending player. Note, too, that this affects our other creatures, so they'll get the benefits too (and reach will actually be useful)!

Counter Dumping!

There's something to be said about having other creatures to put counters on. These effects are valuable, especially if we can get them on each turn, letting us outvalue our opponents like a speeding bullet.

First up is Evolution WitnessEvolution Witness, which lets us recur permanent cards we milled or that got blown up. The adapt ability may as well not be on there, and the best part is that we can do this as many times a turn as we can.

The same can be said for Basking BroodscaleBasking Broodscale, but the difference is that we get tokens that sac themselves for mana instead. Oh, did we want more cards instead? Pensive ProfessorPensive Professor (and the older, dual-colored Fathom MageFathom Mage) is right up our alley.

In a bizarrely opposite vein, Pollywog ProdigyPollywog Prodigy makes us add counters to it, so we can draw cards when opponents cast noncreature spells that cost less mana than its stats. Make it big enough, and we'll have an engine going.

Finally, it's worth noting that Germination PracticumGermination Practicum will trigger all of these cards. I didn't mention it or the Professor earlier because these two deserve to be in this section more.

One Set to Lift Them All!

It's no secret that Modern Horizons sets tend to be high-powered releases, and the third iteration is no different. Both Revitalizing RepastRevitalizing Repast and Sink into StuporSink into Stupor have nice utility attached to a land that we could play instead, but we'd rather have the spells most of the time.

Both SixSix and Ripples of UndeathRipples of Undeath work with our graveyard in different ways. Six will allow us to recast nonland permanents from our graveyard, but only on our turn. We could always attack with it to ensure we mill more, and get a land back to hand.

Next, Ripples of UndeathRipples of Undeath adds more cards to the graveyard, but we can return a card from among them to our hand at the cost of three life and a single mana. Not to mention that it comes down very early, so we can start filling our graveyard right away.

Lastly, Dreamtide WhaleDreamtide Whale ensures we have a way to proliferate, but we need to keep casting two spells to ensure that we do. Opponents will likely do this, too, but may be hesitant about gaining more rad counters. So, in a way, this restricts them from doing too much.

And All the Rest

While Aetherdrift was much maligned, it did give us Riverchurn MonumentRiverchurn Monument, which is a source of mill. On top of that, we can do even more, but the exhaust ability ensures we can only do this once. Definitely an ability we need to use at the right time.

Meanwhile, a few cards from Tarkir Dragonstorm worm their way in here. Both Glacierwood SiegeGlacierwood Siege and Hollowmurk SiegeHollowmurk Siege help the deck in different areas. Glacierwood either lets us play lands from our graveyard, or mills us to fill it. On the other hand, Hollowmurk can either act as a slower TerrasymbiosisTerrasymbiosis, or grant our commander some much-needed evasion.

On top of the aforementioned Pollywog ProdigyPollywog Prodigy, Bloomburrow gave us Innkeeper's TalentInnkeeper's Talent, which puts out counters, shields our stuff with a small ward ability (assuming they have counters), and can double counters on permanents or players, including rad counters.

Lastly, Duskmourn: House of Horror gave us a couple of new toys. First, The MindskinnerThe Mindskinner can't be blocked and will mill opponents for a whole bunch, letting us put multiple counters across our board at once. Second, Hedge ShredderHedge Shredder fills our graveyard on attack and will get huge quickly. The best part is that it'll also put any land card we mill right into play tapped. Especially good if we're milling ourselves for a whole bunch.

No More Lamps

It sort of looked like I was trying something new there at the end, perhaps grouping new cards by sections rather than doing them all individually. Please sound off in the comments if you'd rather I did it that way. Anyway, come back next time, when we return to Precon Remastered, my other series.