(The Wandering Rescuer| Art by Anna Pavleeva)

Introduction

Duskmourn: House of Horrors may no longer be the newest set in Standard, but we can still look back on it fondly as an expansion that provided us with plenty of terrifying commanders to choose from. Both Valgavoth, Terror Eater and Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls demonstrate their right to rule the plane by being Elder Demons with brutally strong effects. The Mindskinner possesses a formidably frontloaded 10/1 stat line for a cost of only and the less said about The Lord of Pain, the better. With all of these horrifying Demons, Nightmares, and sadistic screen-dwelling entities roaming around, who's there to protect us from being torn apart, if we ever accidentally stumble our way over to Duskmourn? Enter The Wandering Rescuer.

With only 337 decks to her name, The Wandering Rescuer has clearly never wandered her way into the spotlight. That's a dreadful shame, considering that she's a protective commander who can guard your tapped creatures and who rewards you for going wide. That's not to mention that she's a pretty major character in Magic's lore. In today's Under The Radar we'll do our bit to try and rescue The Wandering Rescuer from obscurity.

Wondering about the Wanderer

The Wandering Rescuer debuted in War of the Spark back in 2019. At that time she was simply known as The Wanderer. The playerbase spent years speculating about the identity of this mysterious new planeswalker. Was she secretly Emrakul in disguise? Was she a traveling mystic from Tarkir? Was she several Squirrels stacked on top of one another in a trench coat and samurai armor?

While we never learned The Wanderer's name, in 2022 we did learn her identity. Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty revealed that she is in fact the ruler of Kamigawa on the card The Wandering Emperor. The Wandering Emperor was the lynchpin of many standard control decks in the two years that she was in the format. The card is also pretty great in Commander as well, functioning as an instant speed removal spell and a Planeswalker rolled into one.

In 2023 The Eternal Wanderer made her way over to New Phyexia for the set Phyrexia: All Will Be One. This printing of the character is, arguably, her most viable for the Commander format. The fact that The Eternal Wanderer can only be attacked by one creature in a turn makes her very easy to defend, combatting a typical weakness of planeswalkers in Commander. She produces powerful double striking Samurai tokens, enables blink strategies, and can wipe out most of the creatures in play with her ultimate.

In the aftermath of the war against the Phyrexians, The Wanderer lost her spark. This turned her from a planeswalker into a regular legendary creature, this is why The Wandering Rescuer swaps in her loyalty abilities for a traditional power and toughness stat block. Enough about her backstory though, now let's analyze The Wandering Rescuer herself.

A Wander-ful Strategy

The Wandering Rescuer is a 3/4 for . This may not seem like a great rate at first, but this card has double strike, more than making up for her low seeming power. On top of having double strike, The Wandering Rescuer also has flash and convoke allowing her to jump into play at instant speed. While the element of surprise of this effect is undermined by the fact that The Wandering Rescuer will be sitting out there in the command zone for the world to see, this will also mean that she can act as a deterrent. Your opponents won't want to attack you with anything that they're worried about getting cut down by an angry samurai empress. The Wandering Rescuer also grants all of your tapped creatures, except herself, hexproof while she is in play. This protection effect furthers her effectiveness as a deterrent, since your opponents won't want to target any of your creatures with removal spells, knowing that you'll just be able to tap them down and make them safe by casting The Wandering Rescuer.

There are two things that the The Wandering Rescuer needs in order to work.

1. Lots of creatures in play to convoke her out.
2. Lots of effects that can keep your creatures tapped down so that her effect can grant them hexproof and keep them protected.

This means that to build around her, you can go for a fairly standard mono-white go-wide deck just with a subtheme of cards that can tap your creatures down so that she can protect them. You'll want to include other convoke cards, particularly ones that can be cast at instant speed like The Wandering Rescuer herself so that you can protect your creatures. There are also some other neat ways to get your cards tapped that we'll discuss a bit later on. For now, let's take a look at an average deck list...

Average Deck

Currently, as of 11/22/2024, 337 people have built decks headed by The Wandering Rescuer. EDHREC's average deck features wanders through all of these lists, and then generates a deck containing the most common cards contained in each of them. That list looks like this...

Here we can see a selection of white go-wide staples. There are token generators like Adeline, Resplendent Cathar, Horn of Gondor, and Oketra's Monument. There are cards that reward you for having lots of creatures in play like Flowering of the White Tree, Throne of the God-Pharaoh, and Akroma's Will. Finally, Moonshaker Cavalry is here to act as a decisive finisher once your board is fully loaded up.

There are also lots of cards here that can work with the tapping strategy which The Wandering Rescuer enables. Cards like Reluctant Role Model, Wand of the Worldsoul, Halo Fountain and Glimmer Seeker.

The Wandering Emperor and The Eternal Wanderer are both here as well. While they are probably mostly included for flavor reasons, they both generate tokens and are decently powerful cards in their own right, so honestly if you want to keep them in the deck go ahead.

Given that The Wandering Rescuer is the empress of Kamigawa she must have a massive budget for deck building because this list comes out at $607.45. If your budget isn't quite so big, here are some pricy cards you can cut...

At over $30 each Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Teferi's Protection, Charismatic Conqueror, Trouble in Pairs and Smothering Tithe can all be removed to save you more than $100 right off the bat.

Myrel, Shield of Argive, Esper Sentinel, and Throne of Eldraine all have roughly $20 price tags, so removing them will also trim costs pretty significantly.

Next up: Land Tax, Clever Concealment, Moonshaker Cavalry, Emeria, the Sky Ruin, Akroma's Will, Caretaker's Talent, The Wandering Emperor,Halo Fountain and Archaeomancer's Map all fall into the $10-$19.99 price bracket so it's worth considering removing them as well.

Even with all of the above cards gone, there are still several cards remaining like Adeline, Resplendent Cathar, and Farewell that cost $5+. To save this article from just becoming a list of costly cards, I will end the discussion about prices here. Now let's move on and explore what to keep, what to cut, and what to add to this list.

5 Cards to Keep

Split Up

Currently in 40% of decks.

One-sided board wipes are always awesome and while Split Up won't always be a Plague Wind, you have enough tools in this deck that you can do a pretty good job of curating who gets killed by this effect and who gets spared. Cast Split Up at the start of your turn and choose to wipe out tapped creatures, and you'll be able to keep your board entirely safe while taking down all of the creatures your opponents attacked with on their previous turns. Cast Split Up once you've attacked, or tapped your creatures down using The Wandering Rescuer or a card like Collective Effort, and you'll be able to wipe out your opponents' untapped creatures, letting you hit any massive threats that have just entered play, or powerful utility creatures like Grand Abolisher or Beast Whisperer. Splitting up may not be the best advice during a game of Dungeons and Dragons, but it works pretty well here.

Halo Fountain

Currently in 40% of decks.

This deck wants to go wide and tap your creatures down, Halo Fountain is an alternative-win condition card that rewards both of these things. If you control 15 tapped creatures, and have 5 white mana available, you can use the effect of Halo Fountain to untap all of them and then win the game. Even if you never get to activate this particular effect, Halo Fountain still has plenty to offer. For one white mana, you can untap a single creature to create a 1/1 Citizen token and for two white mana, you can untap two creatures to draw a card. This card's a great include whether you're able to pull off the win with it, or just get little slices of value with it turn after turn.

Knight-Errant of Eos

Currently in 37% of decks.

Knight-Errant of Eos can get your creatures tapped down, in order to keep them protected by your commander, whilst also digging through the top six cards of your deck to help you find new creatures to bring out. This is a great source of card advantage, particularly for a mono-white deck, a decent 4/4 creature in a deck where most of what you have to fight with is much smaller, and just an all-around useful inclusion. Big props to this knight for riding into combat on a lion as well, that can't be easy.

Masako the Humorless

Currently in 60% of decks.

Masako the Humorless is in 60% of The Wandering Rescuer decks for a very good reason. While this commander's protection effect is very useful, being tapped does come with a number of downsides, most notably not being able to block. Masako completely gets around this restriction, enabling your creature to remain both safe and useful. It's always great when you can slot a forgotten card from 20 years ago into a deck, maybe it will finally be enough to give Masako the Humorless a good laugh?

Throne of the God-Pharaoh

Currently in 28% of decks.

The Wandering Rescuer and Nicol Bolas probably wouldn't be best friends if they were to meet up, but that doesn't mean that she can't make use of his throne to deal a massive helping of damage at the end of each of your turns. If there's one thing this deck is good at, it's getting your creatures tapped, Throne of the God-Pharaoh rewards you for this by damaging each opponent equal to the number of tapped creatures you control during each of your end steps. This card is a pay-off for something that your deck will just be doing naturally, and if you can get enough creatures out then the damage that it deals can really pile up.

5 Cards to Cut

Seized from Slumber

Currently in 2% of decks.

Seized from Slumber is a bad removal spell, that's only on this list because it just so happened to come out in the same set as The Wandering Rescuer and so the EDHREC algorithm is promoting it as a new card that synergizes with this commander. There is no reason to ever run a five-mana single target removal spell in Commander. Even when this card's ability discounts it down to a cost of two, Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile remain better options since they are still half the cost and they exile a threat rather than merely destroying it.

This deck also contains Cut Short another pretty mediocre removal spell. That card, however, can be convoked out, meaning that it can be used as a protection effect while your commander is in play. It also earns some flavor points for depicting The Wandering Emperor in its art. Seized from Slumber has none of this going for it, and should just be seized and removed from the deck straight away.

Soul Warden

Currently in 23% of decks.

This deck doesn't have a lifegain theme, or any lifegain payoffs (bar one, which we will be discussing in a moment), so there's no reason to run Soul Warden. Life gain is never a worthwhile reward by itself. No amount of healing can save you from an opponent who's going to win the game with a massive combo, or one who produces an overwhelming board state that you just can't deal with. You can make life gain worthwhile by putting cards like Aetherflux Reservoir, Exemplar of Light, and Felidar Sovereign into your deck, but this deck would need some pretty major retooling for life gain to become a prominent theme.

I would also probably recommend cutting Guide of Souls. Although that card has a little bit more going on, given that it's a self-sufficient energy-generating engine that can buff up your attackers, it still ultimately falls short.

Caduceus, Staff of Hermes

Currently in 25% or decks.

Caduceus, Staff of Hermes is another card that rewards you for gaining life, or rather for having a high life total, that really doesn't belong here. It's easy to see why this staff is appealing. If you hand it to The Wandering Rescuer then she will become an 8/9 lifelinker with double strike that's also very hard to remove. The only issue is that they only get to keep all of the bonuses of the staff while your life total is 30 or more. This card will just cause your opponents to target you to ensure that you're on 29 or less life.

If you want to kit your commander out with a great piece of equipment that's definitely valid. It's good to take advantage of the fact that The Wandering Rescuer has double strike. It's best to go for a piece of equipment that's always great though, rather something that is dependent on your life total. Andúril, Flame of the West and Loxodon Warhammer are two good budget choices if you're interested in going down this road.

We Ride at Dawn

Currently in 34% of decks.

We Ride at Dawn grants all of your legendary creature convoke, but given that this deck only contains seven legendary creatures, outside of the commander, and none of them have a mana value higher than four, that doesn't mean a lot. While they may gain convoke, your other legendaries won't be able to come down at instant speed meaning that, even with The Wandering Rescuer in play, you can't use them to tap your creatures down when they are targeted by removal. This card's ability to generate a 1/1 red Mercenary whenever your commander attacks also isn't very efficient, and there are lots of ways of rushing tokens out much more quickly than this. I recommend riding away from this card at maximum speed.

Mentor of the Meek

Currently in 36% of decks.

White card draw has gotten a lot better since Mentor of the Meek was first printed way back in 2011 and this deck is filled with lots of alternative card draw options already. Esper Sentinel, Trouble in Pairs and Skullclamp are all much card draw options than the mentor here.

Your mileage may vary on whether Mentor of the Meek is a better source of cards than Welcoming Vampire or Enduring Innocence both of whom are also in this deck. Mentor of the Meek can provide more cards per turn than either of these two options, which can only draw you one card each turn, but you need to spend to get cards out of the mentor. This adds up over time and becomes more prohibitive than it might at first appear to be. Welcoming Vampire also has a better statline and flying, whilst Enduring Innocence is incredibly sticky and hard to remove thanks to returning as a non-creature enchantment when it dies.

5 Cards to Add

Horn of Valhalla

Currently in 4% of decks.

I was initially planning on recommending Secure the Wastes here. That card is a classic in any deck that cares about producing tokens, and rightly so given that it's one of the cheapest ways in the game of flooding the board with 1/1s. Instead, I've opted to recommend something a bit more niche. Horn of Valhalla is an artifact from Commander Legends: Battle For Baldur's Gate that both produces tokens and rewards its controller for having a lot of tokens, and other creatures, in play.

As effects that generate tokens go, Ysgard's Call, the left side of Horn of Valhalla, costs marginally more mana than Secure the Wastes but this more than made up for by the card's power as a piece of equipment. Horn of Valhalla grants the creature wielding it +1/+1 for every creature you control. When it's equipped onto a card with double strike like The Wandering Rescuer this becomes a pretty significant buff indeed.

Rabble Rousing

Currently in 16% of decks.

Rabble Rousing not only churns out tokens at an incredible rate, but it also provides you with some curated card selection from the top of your deck. Hideaway 5 lets you examine the top five cards of your deck and tuck one of them underneath Rabble Rousing. The hidden card can then be cast, without paying its mana cost, if you control 10 or more creatures. While that may sound like a rather high number Rabble Rousing provides a lot of help getting you there. This card generates a 1/1 Citizen token for every creature you attack with during each of your turns. That's a lot of tokens and, barring some sort of board wipe, an amount that will just keep climbing and climbing turn after turn as your Citizens will be able to attack and generate more Citizens themselves. Playing this card might rouse a bit of a rabble, but the power it provides means it will be worth it.

Odric, Lunarch Marshal

Currently in 22% of decks.

Odric, Lunarch Marshal possesses the unique talent to grant keyword abilities that exist on one of your creatures to all of your creatures. This means that while you have your commander in play, your entire board will gain double strike. Odric can also give all of your creatures flying while you control Welcoming Vampire and make them all indestructible while you haveBastion Protector in play. Hexproof and indestructible are a very tricky combination of keywords to get around, and with Odric by your side, you can keep all of your creatures safe, and make them all twice as strong to boot.

Divine Visitation

Currently in 7% of decks.

If you're making a lot of small tokens, Divine Visitation turns them from measly 1/1s intro impressive, and evasive, 4/4 Angels with vigilance and flying. Granting the tokens vigilance is more synergistic than it might at first appear to be, as while your angels won't tap and gain hexproof during combat, they will be left free to be tapped down for other beneficial effects like convoking out your commander, or helping cast something powerful when you have Wand of the Worldsoul in play.

Thunderhawk Gunship

Currently in 3% of decks.

If The Wandering Rescuer actually had a Thunderhawk Gunship the story of Duskmourn would have been over in 5 minutes as she would have blown Valgavoth apart from space. This card generates some creature tokens as it comes into play, it's a big flying threat and it grants all of your other attacking creatures flying, enabling them to soar over your opponents' blockers.

The main reason I'm recommending it though is the simple fact that it's a vehicle with crew. Crew enables you to tap down your creatures at instant speed in order to turn Thunderhawk Gunship from an artifact into an artifact creature. This means that you can grant them the protection of The Wandering Rescuer at your leisure and guarantee that they will always be safe from anything nasty that your opponents want to target them with. I've chosen Thunderhawk Gunship here, as it's a very powerful vehicle that synergizes with the other objectives of the deck, but you could just as easily use Smuggler's Copter, Unidentified Hovership or, if you're feeling particularly daring, Parhelion II instead.

Conclusion

So there we have it, we've taken a gander at reviewing The Wandering Rescuer. As go-wide white commanders go, she offers a pretty fun package of defense, thanks to her protection ability, and offense, thanks to possessing decent stats and double strike. Just remember that The Wandering Rescuer only grants your tapped creatures hexproof and not indestructible. She can protect any of your creatures from Deadly Rollick and fromSwords to Plowshares and other effects that target, but she can't stop a Wrath of God or a Sunfall. That doesn't hold her back though. The Wandering Rescuer isn't just a commander, she is Kamigawan royalty, and she's more than capable of keeping all of her subjects safe.

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Ben Macready

Ben is a freelance writer from the UK. He's has been playing Magic since he was 8 years old, back when he thought Enormous Baloth was the best card in the game. You can find more Magic content from him on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2iSANUGoKzdK6XgLyB1qLw