#cycleof5
Thinking of what to do with this blog, I realised that the format really lends itself to exploring interesting cycles as they’re printed. While I’ve been doing that with legendary creatures, I thought the Expertise cycle was interesting enough to be worth an exploration. Which commander works best with which Expertise?
1] Rishkar’s Expertise + Prime Speaker Zegana
My favourite of the cycle, Rishkar wants creatures with huge amounts of power so you can draw a ton of cards. The deck that comes to mind is Prime Speaker Zegana, who wants exactly the same thing. And what’s better than drawing cards? Dropping another big creature for free afterwards!
Card to play for free - Kruphix, God of Horizons. If you’ve drawn 20 cards, you’d better hope you don’t have to discard to handsize. Put Kruphix into play and keep all your ill-gotten gains.
2] Kari Zev’s Expertise + Zada, Hedron Grinder
I didn’t invent this combo, but I do love it. While Kari’s Expertise is the weakest of the cycle in a vacuum, in a Zada deck it can be the fuel you need to really go off. Target Zada with 4-5 creature tokens in play, and not only do they all get haste, but you can cast 5-6 spells that cost 2 or less for free. Zada is already full of spells that cost 1-2, target a single creature and cantrip (draw a card). Each of those copies for each creature and draws that many, which gives you more cards for the next copy of expertise. Add some rituals (Battle Hymn?) and Zada goes nuts.
Card to play for free - Twinflame, copy target creature you control until end of turn. This doubles the effectiveness of your cantrips and creates lethal armies. Fun for all!
3] Yahenni’s Expertise + Doran the Siege Tower
I’m not a huge fan of Yahenni’s Expertise, as it doesn’t kill enough in your average Commander game to be worth it, but if there is any commander who could really take advantage it is the Siege Tower himself. Doran decks have undercosted creatures with high toughness and low power, which both gives them cards to cast off the Expertise and makes most of their creatures invulnerable to the -3 toughness.
Card to play for free - Grizzled Leotau, a vanilla 1/5 for GW. Not the most exciting card, but if you don’t want to smash face with two mana 5/5 you may be playing the wrong commander.
4] Baral’s Expertise + Brago, King Eternal
Baral’s Expertise is extremely powerful, and will, I’m sure, often be used just for straight up value, bouncing three creatures and casting any old spell. But Brago can really abuse this expertise, and turn it into so much more. Not only does Brago really want to bounce flyers so he can get in for combat damage, you can also use one of the targets of the Expertise to aim at your own artifact or creature with CMC 4 or less, and cast it as the Expertise resolves in order to repeat an ETB effect. Imagine bouncing all the blockers and putting Solemn Simulacrum back onto the battlefield.
Card to play for free - Whirler Rogue. Casting the Rogue again gives you two more Thopter tokens that you can immediately tap to make Brago unblockable, allowing him to flicker the rogue for two more Thopters. Thopters for everyone!
5] Sram’s Expertise + Jor Kadeen
While many decks can use 3 tokens for 4 mana, Jor Kadeen really maximises Sram’s Expertise as it gives him instant Metalcraft, automatically making all the servos into 4/1s. Add in Glorious Anthem or another team booster, and you can suddenly threaten a lot of damage from a single spell.
Card to play for free - Tempered Steel. Give all your artifact creatures +2/+2, now your servos are 5/3s. Not bad for 4 mana.
What are your favourite Expertise combos?
Honourable mentions to Scry, Lifelink and Double Strike.
1] Flying - Isperia, the Inscrutable
No one loves flying like baby Isperia, who really wants you to assemble a toolbox of flyers for all situations. Use bounce flyers to make sure Isperia always hits (Mist Raven, Aven Surveyor), then flyers can do almost anything - land? Pilgrim’s Eye. Removal? Hypnotic Siren. Card Draw? Sphinx of Lost Truths. Creature Protection? Dust Elemental. Counter Spell? Silumgar Sorcerer.
Then use all the Flying tribal - Sprite Noble, Warden of Evos Isle, Thunderclap Wyvern, and Gravitational Shift.
Special Tech - Windreader Sphinx, draws a card whenever a creature with flying attacks. Note that this isn’t just your own creatures! Draw all the cards!
2] Deathtouch - Marath, Will of the Wild
There are many ways to build a deathtouch deck, and most of them revolve around pingers aka Tims aka creatures that tap to deal one damage to a target creature. Giving them deathouch can turn your Tims into machine guns. But I wanted a slightly different route and went for the Naya-coloured Marath.
When combined with Nightshade Peddler, Bow of Nylea or an equipment like Gorgon Flail, Marath can use his counters to mow down the opposition. Wasteland Viper is good here, as both a defensive creature or an offensive trick to boost Marath with deathtouch.
Build up a board of deathtouchers, and either give them the ability to ping (Power of Fire, Thornbite Staff) or make your opponent attack their creatures into yours (Bullwhip). Deathtouch also works really well with First Strike and Trample, so suit up with Chariot of Victory or the Sword of Vengeance.
Special Tech - Odric, Lunarch Marshal. Any white deck build around keywords would love the ability to share them all. Have a deathoucher and a trampler to give Marath all the keywords an Elemental could dream of.
3] Prowess - Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest
While it could almost be a Jeskai theme deck, Prowess has slowly begun to spread throughout Magic, allowing for a greater range of possibilities. Use the best of the Prowess (or prowess-like) creatures - Abbot of Keral Keep, Jhessian Thief, Monastery Mentor, Niblis of Frost, Soulblade Djinn.
Then power them up with cheap cantrips or spells that can be cast more than once - Distortion strike and Centre Soul have rebound, Mystic Speculation has buyback, Crown of Flames can be bounced back to hand for a red mana.
Special Tech - Scroll of the Masters. Each spell you cast puts an extra counter on the scroll, to boost whichever creature can get through. With Shu Yun’s ability to grant double strike, you can deal a huge amount of damage.
4] Indestructible - Nin, the Pain Artist
Nin loves to torture people for information, and it turns out there are no better victims than indestructible creatures, who just keep giving you more and more. The darksteel creatures, especially Darksteel Myr, are excellent creatures to shoot over and over, or Nin can shoot herself with Darksteel Plate. Slobad can grant Indestructible to any artifact at the cost of a disposable one, and Soul of New Phyrexia is protection for your whole team.
Follow that up with Red wraths that can’t hurt your team, like Blasphemous Act, and Chain Reaction. To clear the way for indestructible beaters like Colossus of Akros or Ulamog.
Special Tech - Stuffy Doll. Shoot the poor doll in the face, draw that many cards, AND shoot an opponent for that much damage. Good times.
5] Protection - Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts
Protection is one of the most powerful keywords you can have, working both offensively (preventing blocking) and defensively (from damage and targeting). But how to spread it around? Before there was Odric, there was Concerted Effort, that among other keywords will also share Protection abilities.
So which protection abilities do we want? Protection from Creatures comes from Teysa herself, or Beloved Chaplain. Pro CMC 3 or more comes from Mistmeadow Skulk. Elite Inquisitor, Akroma, and Baneslayer Angel each come with a bevy of keywords, as well as some important Protections.
Then make a bunch of tokens and get in with your pro-everything army.
Special Tech - Cairn Wanderer. If your Concerted Effort has been exiled, and your creatures killed, Cairn Wanderer can do a decent impression by sharing all the keywords of your dead creatures. In a pinch it gets the job done.
If you had to build an EDH deck around an evergreen keyword, which would you choose?
