Speculative Siege
- bonzaientertainmen
- May 12
- 9 min read
This Week: I ask what does it really take to be a commander and explore a What If scenarion where Battles with Legendary Creatures on the back side could start in the command zone.
I’m trying something new today, so let’s have some fun. I think the rules of Commander are solid and don’t need changing from where they’re at right now. But what is a Commander, really? Some people think it needs to be a combo piece, others think it needs to provide resources, while others think it needs to be the most powerful option available. At its heart though, it just needs to be a Legendary Creature. That’s not the whole truth though. We have some options that can enter the battlefield that aren’t even Creatures. The Theros Gods will immediately lose their creature status if their Devotion criteria isn’t met. Arixmethes, the Slumbering Isle enters as a land and doesn’t become a creature until all of the Slumber Counters are removed from it.
There are more concrete examples of this with Planeswalkers. There are a handful of Planeswalkers that specifically say that the card “Can Be Your Commander.” These never even become creatures. Shorikai, Genesis Engine is now the owner of the most useless line of text Shorikai "can be your Commander.” That’s because Wizards changed the rules so that all Legendary Vehicles can now be your Commander. Since Wizards is open to changing the rules to allow for more options in the Command Zone, what other cards could make good Commanders? We don’t want to be caught off guard if it happens.
Today, I’ll be looking at the newest card type in the game and see what it offers for the Command Zone. I’m talking about Battles, and specifically ones that have a Legendary Creature on the reverse side. Sorry, Invasion of New Phyrexia/Teferi Akosa of Zhalfir, we’re not changing too many things at once. A quick note on Battles. When you cast a Battle-Siege you get the initial effect on the front side, you may even refer to it as an ETB. You then choose an opponent to protect the card from attack. Once it has received a cumulative amount of damage equal to the number in the bottom right corner you exile the card and cast the back half. This cast from exile stipulation may have some interesting in game interactions with anything like Dranith Magistrate to Storm count. Keep that in mind.
I’m starting with Invasion of Segovia, but only because Caetus, Sea Tyrant of Segovia has the most amusing art to me. It’s supposed to be this giant sea monster, and it’s just wrapped around the foot of a Phyrexian stepping through a tide pool. All kidding aside, this card is good because the front half and back half play off one another. When you cast Invasion of Segovia you get a pair of 1/1 Kraken tokens with Trample. 2 successful attacks from those tokens are enough to defeat the Battle, or even just one attack if you have an anthem effect. The trample can even help with that. What’s more synergistic though is that Caetus gives all your non creature spells Convoke. This Serpent goes even further and untaps 4 of your creatures at the end of your turn. This opens up a big mana strategy.
There are 2 great ways to go about building this deck, and all lead to the same payoff. The most obvious is to play a lot of token producing effects. You can tap out with all these newly made creature and funnel all that mana into a big X spell every turn. The second way is to play creatures with Mana generation abilities that can be tapped on your turn and again later in the turn order to double up on effects and generate lots of mana cumulatively through the turn order, not just on your turn. Hangarback Walker is the best of both worlds here. It has a tap ability to put +1/+1 counters on itself that I can get access to 2 twice in a turn cycle this way. When it dies it makes a number of 1/1 Flying Thopter tokens equal to the number of counters on it. Those thopters can convoke out more big spells. We’ve gone full circle.
Some of the creatures with mana generation abilities I would target are Apprentice Wizard and Omen Hawker. Each nets me 2 mana per tap, which feels like a Sol Ring to me. Dreamscape Artist is another good way to ramp here. Yes, you have to sacrifice a land as part of its effect, but you can put 2 lands into play untapped for the trouble and have access to that mana right away. If you’re worried about the discard cost for the ability, you’ve probably never played Blue before. Just Add in Arcanis the Omnipotent to draw 6 cards between the start of your turn and the start of your next turn. Don’t forget Crashing Drawbridge to give haste to these creatures and get their abilities right away.
What should you do with all this mana? Draw cards. However you choose to make the mana, put it into a Pull from Tomorrow or Blue Sun’s Zenith. With all these cards in hand, you’re going to want Reliquary Tower and Thought Vessel and other cards that increase your maximum hand size like Finale of Revelation. That’s the best of both worlds.
Drawing your deck is great, until it becomes a liability. If the plan is to draw all of the cards, there’s a win con for that. Laboratory Maniac is crucial here, just like Jace, Wielder of Mysteries. Redundancy is good. I these get removed some how, you shouldn’t just give up, there are other ways to win with a lot of cards in hand. My favorite is Soramaro, First to Dream. This Spirit grows with each card you draw, so draw and attack and draw and attack and so on until no one is left standing. Body of Knowledge is even better since it does everything the deck wants. It draws cards, it maximizes your hand size and gets proportionately huge.
The next Battle for your consideration is Invasion of Fiora. It’s arguable the most playable of all the Battles that you can play today. When I first saw this card I immediately though of Crux of Fate. The rate and the choice of which creature category to destroy, it’s a parallel card. Whatever you do, don’t play Changelings with this deck.
You have to make a big change in deckbuilding here from Invasion of Segovia. There’s no direct set up from the front side to the back. You want to clear the board of opposing creatures so you can attack the Battle and flip the card to Marchesa, Resolute Monarch. Marchesa does not bring with her the Monarch ability, but what she does is very reminiscent of that. You need to not be attacked successfully, and you get rewarded with a card. Why not go in that direction? If someone else is the Monarch, it encourages opponents to attack those players and not me, so I’m more likely to draw a card off of Marchesa. If you build your deck to protect your Monarch status, you’ll also be protecting the triggering of Marchesa’s ability.
Black has a mixed bag of Monarch effects. Thorn of the Black Rose is a Human with Deathtouch that makes you the monarch. Court of Locthwain and Court of Ambition not only bring the Monarch to you, but they reward you if you can hold onto the crown. Locthwain provides card advantage, at the expense of your opponents’ libraries, and cost reduction for those cards if you’re wearing the crown. Ambition threatens cards in hand and life totals the same way.
You can go further to protect yourself, and that extra card, by incentivizing opponents to attack one another. Curse of Disturbance rewards anyone for attacking the cursed player. That means you get the 2/2 zombie to protect yourself and that opponent has a 2/2 zombie to knock out that same opponent on a later turn. Goad is another great way to get opponents attacking each other. You should include Ghoulish Impetus for the repeatability and Nettling Nuisance for the tokens it gives out. The nice thing with Goad and Battles is that an opponent will prefer to attack the battle instead of another opponent’s life total, avoid the ill will, and you’re that much closer to flipping the battle over.
If incentivizing or forcing opponents to attack one another isn’t enough to protect your life total you have to punish them if they try to attack you. Revenge of Ravens, Blood Reckoning, and Hissing Miasma all put opponents in an odd place when they attack you. They must ask if it’s worth it to attack you. Will the opponent lose more life than you on a given attack? If yes, is that delta large enough to decrease your odds of winning the game? The final card in this category is Marchesa’s Decree. It protects in the same way as these other 3 cards and makes you the Monarch. This is another full circle moment. Here are the recommendations.
The last battle to look at is Invasion of Theros. This should be an auto include for any Enchantment based deck. It tutors up an Aura, God or Demigod. That alone is worth 3 mana. You can play that card to ensure Ephara, Ever-Sheltering has indestructible when the Battle flips. Or you can cast it after she flips to reward yourself with a card in hand. Cards are great, but not having to recast your commander is quite the flex in a game.
If you choose this as your Commander, it’s going to feel very similar to other enchantress builds. That’s not necessarily a bad thing since the strategy is very powerful. One of the things that make Ephara so powerful is that you’re not limited to one card per turn with her ability. The other strength is that she cares if an Enchantment enters the battlefield, not if it is cast. I have an old Bruna, Light of Alabaster deck that I’m taking inspiration from for this. You should add Bruna and Auratog to this deck. Auratog eats all of your enchantments and grows accordingly. When you go to your attack step Bruna sees all the Auras in the graveyard and attaches them to her. This is repeatable every combat step. You can even improve your threat density with Phantatog.
Don’t get hyper focused on Aura’s for Invasion of Theros, keep those creature types in mind too. Thasa, God of the Sea is a must. The Scry is good for ensuring you draw relevant cards, but the ability to make things unblockable is what you really want. Put Righteous Authority on Ephara, Ever-Sheltering to let her get massive and sneak past any blockers to one shot an opponent. Heliod may be at odds with Ephara in the story, but they work great in the same deck. Heliod, God of the Sun is a great mana sink, producing tokens to equip your Auras to, but he also gives out Vigilance meaning you’re never having to balance attacking over blocking. The real standout is Heliod, the Radiant Dawn/Heliod, the Warped Eclipse. The front is a great way to recur a needed enchantment from your graveyard. The Back deviates from the enchantment plan, but turns your play style into a Draw-Go version. Delaying decisions and cost reductions are great additions to any deck.
After that, there is a ton of “standard good stuff” to add to an enchantress strategy. Some draw you cards, Kor Spiritdancer, Sram, Senior Edificer, and Mesa Enchantress. Some reduce costs, Inquisitive Glimmer, Starnheim Courser, Danitha Capashen, Paragon. It’s easy to load up your deck list with powerful and synergistic effects. So easy, I went ahead and built a whole deck list for this battle.
Entity Tracker | Heliod's Intervention | Open the Armory |
Archon of Sun's Grace | Requisition Raid | Heliod's Pilgrim |
Ghostly Dancers | Valorous Stance | Pearl Medallion |
Gremlin Tamer | March of Otherworldly Light | Saphire Medallion |
Boon of the Spirit Realm | Imprisoned in the Moon | Star Compass |
Hallowed Haunting | Winds of Rath | Thought Vessel |
Solemn Simulacrum | Winds of Abandon | Wayfarer's Bauble |
Blue Sun's Zenith | Swan Song | Azorious Cluestone |
Pull From Tomorrow | Counterspell | Liquimetal Torque |
Deep Analysis | An Offer You Can't Refuse | |
Scavenger Grounds | Tyrite Sanctum | Ghost Quarter |
Temple of Enlightenment | Irrigated Farmland | Glacial Fortress |
Sea of Clouds | Hallowed Fountain | Field of Ruin |
Island x 14 | Plains x13 | Reliquary Tower |
What do you think of the idea? Should Battles be Command Zone eligible? Does the fact your opponents need to protect the front side of the card make them more or less appealing in a 4 player game? This list isn’t even exhaustive of all the Battle-Siege options out there. You can try your hand at Invasion of Ulgrotha/Grandmother Ravi Sengir and Invasion of Ikoria/ Zilortha, Apex of Ikoria. What would you put in them?
Thanks for reading and all the support to date. I have affiliate links with Mana Pool and TCG Player to help fund these off the wall strategies. It's what makes all this possible,
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