#yahennis expertise
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?
