(Nashi, Searcher in the Dark | Art by Johan Grenier)

Dimir Legendary Voltron?

Welcome to Too-Specific Top 10, where if there isn’t a category to rank our pet card at the top of, we’ll just make one up! (Did you know that Excalibur, Sword of Eden is the only legendary Equipment that can give a creature +10/+10?)

Rat Ninja Wizard... Warrior?

Nashi was made to swing in as a commander. As a two mana 2/2 with menace, it's going to be multiple turns of free swings before anyone has a board that will block him, and by then he'll be so huge that he might not die when they do. My question is, how can we help that second scenario along?

Top 10 Legendary Dimir Equipment

Simple! Rather than wait on measly +1/+1 counters, why don't we instead use his mill ability to grab legendary Equipment off the top that we can then attach to him? After all, there are now 46 different legendary Equipment in the game, so it should be easy enough to find some that will make him lethal, right?

Well, let's pare those numbers down some, because with Wizards' current trend toward colored artifacts, there are actually only 37 within the Dimir color identity. Which is a shame, because some of those other options are insane.

Top 10 Non-Dimir Legendary Equipment

1. The Reaver Cleaver
2. Embercleave
3. Sword of the Realms
4. Toralf's HammerToralf, God of Fury
5. Caduceus, Staff of Hermes
6. Godsend
7. The Spear of Leonidas
8. Drach'Nyen
9. Unscythe, Killer of Kings

As for the cards we're actually here to look at, though? I don't really see a need to narrow it down any more, as we're probably going to use most of these top 10 plus quite a few more of the available 37. So let's just see what they are, shall we?

Criteria: Legendary Equipment within the Dimir color identity. As is tradition, all results are ordered by EDHREC score.

10. Tarrian's Soulcleaver

(44,171 Inclusions, 2% of 2,772,234 Decks)

The recent trend toward cheap, impactful, legendary Equipment has been noted, and as much as it makes no flavor sense whatsoever, there's also no question that it feels great on curve. Tarrian's Soulcleaver can come down on turn one, wait for Nashi on turn two, and then equip with a mana left over on turn three so you can both swing in and block.

As nice as that sounds, though, Tarrian's Soulcleaver can arrive late and be just as good, as it doesn't really get rolling until the mid- and late-game. That's when creatures and Treasures start heading to the graveyard on the regular, which is going to make Nashi huge with a Soulcleaver attached to him.

9. Sting, the Glinting Dagger

(44,551 Inclusions, 1% of 3,516,554 Decks)

Apparently we'd really like Nashi to be able to block, in addition to swinging in for his daily compensation. Seems like making him work overtime to me, but I'm also not mad about it. I also don't see the mid- and late-game upside here that I did with Tarrian's Soulcleaver.

Sure, it will be nice to recast Nashi after he gets killed and immediately equip Sting to him to swing in with haste, but we're talking six mana to do that. What's more likely is that with all the cards we'll be drawing with Nashi, we'll have other threats in hand that we can equip Sting to to restart the gameplan, which sounds a lot more enticing.

After all, let's not forget that we can also grab legends and enchantments with his ability, which probably includes quite a few of the new good enchantment creatures from Duskmourne.

8. Kaldra Compleat

(53,676 Inclusions, 1% of 4,598,873 Decks)

My initial response to this card compared to what we've seen so far was a "can we just skip this?" Thinking further on the "Nashi is going to get killed a lot" lines, however, Kaldra Compleat will be a nice late-game threat for when the inevitable happens, not to mention how genuinely frightening it will be when you do get it on our little Rat Ninja Wizard Warrior.

7. Hammer of Nazahn

(78,679 Inclusions, 2% of 4,598,873 Decks)

The core of every Equipment deck, Hammer of Nazahn is no different here. While we'll also be playing other free equip shenanigans like Brass Squire and Armory Automaton, those are the extent of the list in Dimir, and happen to be a lot worse than Hammer of Nazahn is.

Throw in the fact that you can't draw them off of Nashi's ability, and it becomes quite clear how happy we're going to be to see this thing come off the top.

6. The Reality Chip

(Helms 1,333 Decks, Rank #863; 89,489 Inclusions, 4% of 2,259,540 Decks)

We've already discussed quite a bit how much we're going to need other bodies for the practically assured deaths of Nashi, and technically, The Reality Chip fits that bill! Sure, we'll have to be pretty hard up to be wanting to use a 0/4 Jellyfish for offense, but the option is there.

The real reason we're excited about The Reality Chip, however, is for the top-deck manipulation it provides in concert with Nashi. Looking at the top card will often let us know whether it's worth swinging in even though it might be dangerous, or will let us plan a crazy turn with post-combat value.

Even better, when we spend the big bucks to equip The Reality Chip, we'll be able to grab lands and spells that don't work with Nashi's ability off the top before combat, making it more likely that we hit. In other words, this is an all-star of a Jellyfish.

5. Helm of the Host

(149,024 Inclusions, 3% of 4,598,873 Decks)

Helm of the Host, aside from being a combo machine, is one other thing: Expensive. That is a feature that I'm not sure plays well with Nashi, who wants to come down early and start swinging in, at which point he starts drawing you so many cards that you're not going to have time to be spending nine mana to play and equip this.

Not only that, but once you get it attached, what do you actually get?

A 2/2 that looks at the top two? When I can give Nashi +10/+10 and vigilance with Excalibur, Sword of Eden for probably less mana, Helm of the Host just pales in comparison.

4. Shadowspear

(163,425 Inclusions, 4% of 4,598,873 Decks)

Shadowspear is everything you could ever want out of a cheap Equipment (at least, until they make a better, more efficient one): It comes down early, gets attached easily on the turn you're going to swing in with Nashi, and gives relevant keywords alongside a power and toughness boost.

The entire "remove hexproof and indestructible" thing is just gravy on a card we'd already consider one of the best cards in our deck. Only, it's some really good gravy. Smother those potatoes.

3. Mithril Coat

(165,921 Inclusions, 5% of 3,520,331 Decks)

I've always been a bit out on Mithril Coat, but not this time around. Nashi is going to be a constant target, especially once tables figure out how difficult he is to block and just how many cards you're going to draw off of him.

Having an ace in the hole that can give him indestructible at instant speed will be well worth the investment, period.

2. Blackblade Reforged

(191,407 Inclusions, 4% of 4,598,873 Decks)

We all knew this was going to be here, but that doesn't make it any less good. Five mana to give your commander +3/+3 wouldn't be the worst, but that's also worst-case scenario. In most cases, you're playing this in the late game, and our numbers get much bigger. In other words, this is the finisher you're digging for all game, or the card that's going to have you drawing four cards a turn if folks let you get away with it early. Either way, welcome to the best card in your deck.

1. Sword of the Animist

(217,520 Inclusions, 5% of 4,598,873 Decks)

With that said, we've built a mana-hungry beast in mana-light colors here. Nashi will already be keeping your hand full, while you're paying equip costs instead of playing down new cards out of your hand. In other words, the more ramp you can get down, the more of your overflowing hand you'll be able to get down on the table to keep on drawing more cards.

Enter Sword of the Animist, which can grab you a land every turn. It's technically overcosted, at four mana to play and equip, but an early Sword of the Animist will absolutely outpace the Krosan Reclamation we're comparing it to over a full game. Given that we can't play the green cards that would search up two lands for four mana anyhow, this is just one of the best options available in Dimir, even before we consider that it checks every box for our deck. Well, now we've considered it, and we're playing it. No surprise there!

Honorable Mentions

With 37 legendary Equipment to choose from, our top ten is barely scratching the surface of things to abuse with Nashi. Let's go over some of the stuff further down that we'd love to see flipped off the top.

Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus is everything we were talking about with Sword of the Animist, but is also another body to equip things to after Nashi gets too expensive. It is expensive to equip, but we're honestly fine if we never get around to it. There will be other options to throw on the Rat.

Umezawa's Jitte is usually more infamous than it actually deserves, courtesy of it ruling an entire standard for multiple years. In commander, however, it usually just doesn't do enough. Having to wait for successful combat damage before you get any benefit is a rough restriction, even with the eventual benefit being so good.

Throw all that out the window when it comes to Nashi, though. Even an eventual +4/+4 is absolutely crushing on a creature that already has menace, but throwing in the option to remove blockers is just nuts. Throw this thing on early and often, and the table won't ever be blocking him.

Now, Wand of Orcus is expensive. Six mana to play and equip, for not much immediate benefit. Don't get me wrong, deathtouch on a creature with menace is frightening, but let's be honest: If you're not actually making it through, Wand of Orcus is going to make the feel bads.

When you do get through with a Voltron creature, however, then nothing short of a board wipe is going to solve you. Hordes of deathtouching Zombies, alongside your huge commander? That's just a game-ending development, right there.

Excalibur, Sword of Eden was made for this deck. It might still end up being a bit pricey in the mid-game, but +10/+10 is just worth the price of admission at pretty much anywhere short of 10 mana.

Lost Jitte might actually be better with Nashi than the original. While one charge counter instead of two is well, half the amount, you're also paying half the cost.

The options are also even better than the original, however, with permanent +1/+1 counters instead of temporary +2/+2's, and the ability to make creatures not block, rather than just being able to ping little utility creatures or tokens. Best of all in our mana-hungry situation, though, is the ability to untap lands.

Don't get me wrong, we want to make Nashi huge, and we want him to be routinely getting through, but the temptation to grab an extra mana will probably overcome all of that fairly routinely.

If I haven't stressed enough that Nashi will be keeping our hand full, I'd like to do that now. I'm thinking of writing a Max article on him to see just how good he'd be at full power, because I can tell you from goldfishing this deck that I'm constantly discarding to hand size.

In other words, you can expect Hand of Vecna to constantly be giving ridiculous boosts to power, and it comes down on curve the turn you're going to swing in with Nashi for the first time. No matter how you swing it, this thing is scary.

Don't take my word for it, though: Throw the decklist into goldfish mode and see for yourself!

Let's not mince words: There's enchantment versions of Nashi that are absolutely a better deck. Which is not to say we're not taking advantage of some of those packages here.

If you're looking to just make Nashi huge and to draw 10 cards a turn, however, then this version is for you. Give it a try, you won't be disappointed.

Nuts and Bolts

There always seems to be a bit of interest in how these lists are made (this seems like a good time to stress once again that they are based on EDHREC score, NOT my personal opinion…), and people are often surprised that I’m not using any special data or .json from EDHREC, but rather just muddling my way through with some Scryfall knowledge! For your enjoyment/research, here is this week’s Scryfall search.

What Do You Think?

There's an obvious line I've ignored here, and I wanted to at least note that I am aware of it. Nashi doesn't just look for legendaries, he also looks for enchantments, which means that if you're going to build him as Voltron, Auras are another more-than-viable option. I was tempted to include them in the honorable mentions, but honestly the top 10 was less than compelling.

Still, if you dug further down, there's no question that you could make a super scary build of Nashi that would be a bit more of a glass cannon, but would also be a lot more efficient.

And finally, what is your favorite legendary Equipment? Would it be good with Nashi, and if so, are you pulling the trigger on it?

Let us know in the comments, and we'll see you at the custom engraved table. Don't worry about water marks, I've got three more out back.

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DougY

Doug has been an avid Magic player since Fallen Empires, when his older brother traded him some epic blue Homarids for all of his Islands. As for Commander, he's been playing since 2010, when he started off by making a two-player oriented G/R Land Destruction deck. Nailed it. In his spare time when he's not playing Magic, writing about Magic or doing his day job, he runs a YouTube channel or two, keeps up a College Football Computer Poll, and is attempting to gif every scene of the Star Wars prequels.