Trelane, Squire of GothosTrelane, Squire of Gothos | Art by Joel Chaim Holtzman

Hello, everyone, my name's Jonathan and today I'll be talking about an interesting new card from the upcoming Star Trek Commander set: Trelane, Squire of GothosTrelane, Squire of Gothos. On the surface, this mono-blue commander may seem like a nothing-burger: just a bunch of keywords on a body. But, with a bit of attention, we can actually build an interesting deck around it. So, without further ado, let's see what this Q creature has in store for us.

The Main Concept

One thing I truly appreciate about this commander is how relaxing it is to read. Nowadays, every card seems to have an overly convoluted textbox crowded with triggers and mechanics. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of Magic evolving and exploring new design spaces, and I love building around niche interactions. Nonetheless, from time to time it's refreshing to see a simple, to-the-point card without any additional layers.

And that's precisely what today's commander offers. For six mana we get an unblockable 4/5 with vigilance and ward . That's it: as we say in Italian, niente fronzoli.

At the same time, TrelaneTrelane turns out to be sneakily strong as a Voltron commander. Just to be clear, by "Voltron" I mean a strategy that revolves around piling up Auras and/or Equipment onto a creature in order to create a one-man army. What makes this creature a good recipient for stat-buffing spells are precisely its keywords. Unblockable means we can count on a guaranteed hit (I'm looking at you, Jujutsu Kaisen fans) during each of our combat steps. Additionally, vigilance makes sure we're never open to other players' attacks after we've swung at them. Lastly, ward helps with this strategy's biggest weakness, defending us from removal that sets Voltron decks back so much.

The Spice

When building this deck, I wanted to do something different. Mono-blue Voltron is not a common theme by any means, but I also thought I could go the extra mile for something even more exotic.

First, I wanted Trelane, Squire of GothosTrelane, Squire of Gothos to be the only creature in the deck. I don't really have a reason to justify this decision other than wanting to stick to the bit as much as possible.

All in all, if we want only one creature to be as big as possible, what do we need other creatures for? Jokes aside, this decision comes with multiple consequences attached. First, we're a bit weaker to removal, as they'll all be targeted to our only body on the board; we won't be able to present alternative threats, as we fully rely on our commander. At the same time, not having to spread our buffs means our creature will quickly grow into a serious menace to our opponents.

Then, I couldn't really decide between playing Auras, Equipment or both. So I decided not to decide. What I mean is I divided the deck into three sections.

First, an 80-card core comprising mana sources, interactions, protection spells and Trelane itself. These cards will always be present in the deck and function as the backbone of the strategy. Then, I created two 20-card pools: one for Equipment and one for Auras. In this way, before each game, you can decide to play either complementary deck depending on your mood, the other decks at the table, or you can let fate choose for you and pick at random. Actually, you could also shuffle the two side-decks together into a pile and pick twenty random cards out of it!

The Core of the Deck (and Its List)

The first goal of the bulk of our deck is accumulating mana. Our commander costs six mana, which is not a low cost at all, and then we also want to cast a bunch of Auras/Equipment to suit it up. So, considering how mana-hungry the deck is, we run fifteen mana rocks.

Other than the usual suspects, I wanted to highlight two cards. First, Cloud KeyCloud Key, which is an awesome flexible inclusion that can fit perfectly both our Enchantment and our Artifact plan. Then, Extraplanar LensExtraplanar Lens, which is hardly worth it (even in monocolor builds), but here it can shine and give us tons of mana we'll gladly accept.

We also want to run quite a lot of interaction. Our deck is on the slower side, so we want to control the board before we start smacking everyone. At the same time, we also want to pack a lot of spells that can protect our commander and make sure all of our investment doesn't go to waste. For this reason, I included CounterspellCounterspell in the list, but also more specific variants specifically designed to defend our general, like Turn AsideTurn Aside.

Similarly, cards like Slip Out the BackSlip Out the Back or Shore UpShore Up are more than welcome, as they're cheap ways to keep Trelane, Squire of GothosTrelane, Squire of Gothos safe.

The Deck List

The Auras

The first possible alternative to complete the deck is with Auras. The main benefit of this strategy is that they only have an upfront cost: once cast, they stick on our commander forever. Of course, the main downside is that we'll lose them all if our creature gets destroyed.

Trelane, Squire of GothosTrelane, Squire of Gothos synergizes particularly well with Auras with a triggered ability upon dealing combat damage to a player, because they're sure to activate thanks to the unblockability clause. Cards like CuriosityCuriosity, Curious ObsessionCurious Obsession or Combat ResearchCombat Research are especially good, as they'll keep our engine going turn after turn.

Then, we also want to get some protection for our Enchantments. As mentioned before, removals tend to heavily hinder a Voltron deck's game plan, especially when it's centered around Auras. For this reason, having access to cards like VanishingVanishing, Diplomatic ImmunityDiplomatic Immunity and Eel UmbraEel Umbra (on top of the built-in protection our commander can count on) helps us feel safer about buffing Trelane, Squire of GothosTrelane, Squire of Gothos even further.

Lastly, we also want to be able to pack a punch and take out players when needed. In this department, look no further than Eldrazi ConscriptionEldrazi Conscription, an oldie (but also a goodie) at finishing off games. Additionally, we can use Corrupted ConscienceCorrupted Conscience (which pairs very well with an unblockable creature) to immediately threaten game-ending attacks. And if this isn't enough, Super StateSuper State will take care of the rest, multiplying our damage significantly.

The Equipment

Equipment come with a big upside compared to Auras: even if our commander gets removed, they stick on the battlefield. Sure, we'd have to pay the equip cost again, but that's way better than losing our cards altogether. At the same time, equip costs are also the big downside for these cards. In other words, not only do Equipment have an upfront cost, they also have a delayed one, and at times it can be tricky to get all the mana we need.

A core part of this strategy is Hammer of NazahnHammer of Nazahn, which makes us ignore equip costs and grants an incredible layer of protection to Trelane, Squire of GothosTrelane, Squire of Gothos. This card is one of our top priorities when casting something like a FabricateFabricate.

In this case as well, we get access to a cheeky player-deleting button thanks to Grafted ExoskeletonGrafted Exoskeleton. What's even nicer is that we can ignore its downside completely, since we won't ever equip it to any creature other than our commander.

But the true king of finishing blows is Excalibur, Sword of EdenExcalibur, Sword of Eden. It can easily be free to cast thanks to its built-in cost reduction; it's clearly designed to be held by legendary creatures and the +10 buff to power is very close to a death sentence via commander damage.

Conclusion

Trelane, Squire of GothosTrelane, Squire of Gothos turned out to be a very fun commander to build around. Sure, it's a bit expensive for what it offers, but it's the perfect canvas to paint a beautiful Voltron portrait on. It can attack and defend very well, and it also has a first layer of protection: basically everything you want from a creature loaded with buffs. And this is precisely the reason why I chose not to include any other creature in the deck list: the whole show is about our commander and our commander only.

Regarding the three-decks structure, I chose to go down this route because it granted the maximum degree of flexibility. It almost felt like building a sideboard for a 60-card deck. The decks I'm presenting are anything but definitive lists: you are more than free and welcome to personalize them and create your own pool of Auras/Equipment based on your local meta and the decks you most often face (or even just the cards you like to play!)

Additionally, you could go even further, creating even deeper pools of cards from which you'd select twenty before every game. They could be two separated decks (as in my example) or only one with both card types mixed together. In the end, the most important thing at a Commander table is having fun and experimenting, and Trelane, Squire of GothosTrelane, Squire of Gothos feels to me like a perfect leader to support your ingenuity and creativity!

This is all from me for now, let me know in the comments below what you think of this build and how you'd play this commander!