For this week's #StrippedOut I'm reaching back. Way back. The early Commander decks had a lot of really good material in them, including the original Legendary Creatures in the 99. After a few years the design shifted to the first Planeswalkers as commanders. That was huge and really still is. Since it was such a big shakeup, the back up commanders are largely overlooked. Peer Through Time is no exception. Teferi, Temporal Archmage is a control master while Lorthos, The Tidemaker is largely overlooked. I knew I had a large task in making him stand out as the lead of this deck.
As always, I asked myself “what directions were the deck being pulled in? Its very blue. There a lots of ways to draw cards, though no the mot optimized. The same is true for tap and bounce effects. There are a couple Sphinx cards in the deck, but not enough to call it a sub theme. There were a couple of easy standouts like Assault Suit and Ixidron. With Teferi being a planeswalker, why would I need the Assault Suit in the deck? Or Crown of Doom for that reason? Ixidron acted as more of a soft board wipe. It's still there, but plain now.
I also noticed how much ramp was in the deck There are almost a dozen, which is a lot for a standard precon. I could afford some heavy duty creatures with all that ramp. I don't want to just do sea monster tribal, but there might be a home for a couple of key creatures. Ramp doesn't just mean big spells, it means I can cast lots of spells in a turn. If I can keep my hand full. Luckily the deck already had some ways to draw like Stroke of Genius, Concentrate, and Rush of Knowledge. They're all pricey so I'll need mana after the fact to play all that I just drew.
With all that talk of pricey spells I knew I had to revisit Lorthos. I don't want to fight what he's doing I want to lean into it. That octopus wants to go to fight. With 8 arms, who wouldn't. An 8/8 is nothing to ignore on the battlefield. Even better, I can knock out troublesome blockers to keep my commander safe. After a couple combats the table isn't going to have anything left to stand in my way. Lands, artifacts, creatures, you name it. I can see being political with it, convincing someone to take the attack but they get to choose what gets tapped down. Spread the blame around so its not all on me. This is the angle. Keeping things tapped down. Wilds of Eldraine brought about several tap and frost focused cards and commanders. I'm sticking with the original, and so will you after you see whats next.
Doing all of the tapping in combat would be too slow. I need to speed it up, help it along a little. There are some great creatures that ETB and feed the plan. Frost Lynx is an old favorite that drops early and slows down anyone in the lead. Like wise with Chill Bringer and Icefall Regent. Gulf Squid is my wild card. It doesn't hit creatures but I can deploy if people have a lot of open mana and protect my position. When people smell blood in the water they tend to go after the easy target, so whoever is on my right can expect 3 turns of getting hammered. With these sweet ETBs I decided to mix in Ghostly Flicker and Displace to get some more mileage from the creatures.
I have more options than just creatures for this plan. Sleep is a powerful card and an easy include. Like I said, when people smell blood in the water they go after the target. I can hold this card back and when someone else becomes a threat I can surpress their battle plan. Better yet I can hit that player now that he's open and I can pay to tap stuff other people have. I also threw in a favorite of mine, Wash Out. I'm not going to choose Blue. It's sorcery speed so I can't use it to save myself so I'm going to hammer someone else with it. Hopefully a lot of other people.
With this plan in place I have a nice way to reward myself with Verity Circle. Things are getting tapped down left and right so I might as well profit from it. I threw in Quicksilver Fountain too. It all plays nicely with denying opponents resources but without actually destroying a land. If they wait it out long enough everything goes back to normal.
I can push this further though. Kefnet's Monument further rewards me with a tap for playing creatures. Frozen Aether taps stuff down before it even becomes a threat so I have more time to respond. There's more. Strionic Resonator doubles up my abilities. So once I pay for Lorthos I can double up the number of permanents I lock down. That's a good portion of the board in one turn. Iv'e said that combat is going to be key for this tap plan and it is. I'm not going to resort to anything as unsavory as extra turn spells. I'm already set to make enough enemies with this deck. I plan to pass along the good fortune. That Assault Suit I mentioned earlier made the cut. I'm going to make a couple deals, give someone else the squid and pay to tap stuff down, just not my stuff. If people play nice they get rewarded, as long as they have the 8 mana.
To round this all out I have some powerful blue options for removal and protection. Curse of Swine will clear the board of value creatures and problematic beaters. Pongify stays in as its solid removal. The deck came with Fool's Demise and I'm adding False Demise to protect my commander from removal. But I can also throw it on a troublesome creature so once it dies I gain control of it. I'm not completely done with my sea monsters so Slinn Voda, The Rising Deep, if kicked, will also clear the board for me.
How did the final list turn out? Check it.
Lorthos, The Tidemaker
Defiler of Dreams Counterspell Breaching Leviathin
Kelpie Guide Aetherize Brine Elemental
Gulf Squid Wash Away Frost Titan
Frost Lynx Curse of Swine Assault Suit
Elder Deep-Fiend Wash Out Muldrifter
Icefall Regent Sleep Stroke of Genius
Timin, Youthful Geist Borrowing 100000 Arrows Intelectual Offering
Frost Trickster Kefnet's Monument Call To Mind
Chill Bringer Quicksilver Amulet Compulsive Research
Water Trap Weaver Wayfarer's Bauble Concentrate
Slinn Voda, The Rising Deep Quicksilver Fountain Rush of Knowledge
Thassa, Deep Dwelling Strionic Resonator Fool's Demise
Distorting Wake Imprisoned in The Moon Aether Gale
False Demise Thaumatic Compass//Spires Nevinyrral's Disk
High Tide Verity Circle Tormod's Crypt
Illusionist's Strategy Frozen Aether Dismiss
Displace Ghostly Flicker Domineering Will
Exclude Turn to Frog Into The Roil
Pongify Commander's Sphere Everflowing Chalice
Mind Stone Sky Diamond Thran Dynamo
Unstable Obelisk Ur Golem's Eye Worn Powerstone
Coral Atoll Ghost Quarter Lonely Sandbar
Myriad Landscapes Remote Isle Tectonic Edge
Island x37
Now for the math portion. Of the non land cards from the original deck I kept 29 of 62 for a keep rate of 47%. I'm creeping up that keep rate for sure. I did cut 2 lands from the deck. I have a lot of ramp here so a cut wasn't devestating.
What do you think, how many enemies would I make with this upgrade? I think most people would overlook the deck because of how expensive Lorthos is and how pricey the ability is.
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