Commander

Damia

Introduction

My name is Logan and this is my first article for ManaDeprived. I am happy to join the ManaDeprived team. I am primarily a Commander player, it’s the format I fell for. Although Commander is my passion, I do have my fingers in several other cookie jars including Standard, Modern, and I currently am working on a Legacy Burn list (we will see how that goes). Besides playing Magic I am on my way to becoming a judge.

So why is Commander my format of choice? I am head over heels for this format because when you play you can have so many interactions. With multiple players we just don’t quite get that anywhere else. Everyone builds their deck their own way, besides a few cards like Sol Ring. Being a casual format, there is no pressure to win every time, winning is just a perk. I enjoy the political aspect of the format, in a tournament setting we don’t get to say, ‘hey I won’t board wipe right now if you leave me alone and help me take out the dude with the Avacyn, Angel of Hope on the board!’. It’s this part of the the game that makes me stick with the format. You know your deck is powerful when you’re the key threat at the table and still able to take out the other players.

Today we are going to talk about one of my favorite decks that I have built and why I made it the way I did. The deck of choice for this article is my BUG deck. There are only 5 BUG legendary creatures in existence. For Commanders I had my choice of Damia, Sage of Stone; Vorosh, the Hunter; The Mimeoplasm, Sidisi, Brood Tyrant and Tasigur, the Golden Fang. The only one of these creatures that truly stood out to me was Damia, Sage of Stone.

The reason that I picked Damia over the other Commanders is that she offers sheer card advantage and is not a linear build. Now what I mean when I say, “linear build”, is that Mimeoplasm leans towards lots of graveyard manipulations, Tasigur focuses on reusing used spells and getting extra value out of them, Sidisi utilizes milling yourself and Vorosh is just an underwhelming Commander. Where Damia comes in handy is that no matter what, if she is in play, you’re drawing up to 7 cards on your upkeep. This provides sheer card advantage, and unlike the other Commanders if she is out it doesn’t really matter, because she is not key to the deck. Essentially, she is a ‘win more’ effect.

The Build

Now how did I build her? The first order of business was to make sure that my deck contained various spells designed to protect Damia. When she is first cast she costs 7 mana, 4(U)(B)(G), which is not cheap, so I need her to stay on the board. The protection that I have in the deck is Pact of Negation, Lightning Greaves, and Sultai Charm. I am trying to find a slot for a Darksteel Plate as an additional safeguard.

[deck]
[Commander]
1 Damia, Sage of Stone
[/Commander]
[Lands]
1 Bayou
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Breeding Pool
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Command Tower
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Flooded Strand
5 Forest
1 Hinterland Harbor
5 Island
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Opulent Palace
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Polluted Delta
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Sunken Hollow
2 Swamp
1 Temple of the False God
1 Tropical Island
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Watery Grave
1 Windswept Heath
[/Lands]
[Spells]
1 Altar of Dementia
1 Altar of the Brood
1 Beacon of Tomorrows
1 Bribery
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Collective Voyage
1 Counterspell
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Deathrender
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Exploration
1 Freed from the Real
1 Future Sight
1 Gemstone Array
1 Insidious Dreams
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
1 Krosan Grip
1 Leyline of the Void
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Living Death
1 Lotus Bloom
1 Lotus Petal
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Mana Reflection
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
1 Pact of Negation
1 Personal Tutor
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Regrowth
1 Silence the Believers
1 Sol Ring
1 Song of the Dryads
1 Sultai Charm
1 Sword of the Animist
1 Sylvan Library
1 Tempt with Discovery
1 Tooth and Nail
1 Treasured Find
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
[/Spells]
[Creatures]
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Consuming Aberration
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Eternal Witness
1 Gravedigger
1 Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Orochi Leafcaller
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Seedborn Muse
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
1 Sire of Stagnation
1 Sylvan Caryatid
1 The Mimeoplasm
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
1 Warren Pilferers
[/Creatures]
[/deck]

What I find unique about my deck, is because of the nature of Damia, being that there is no one way to build her, I was able to add some interesting interactions into the deck, including 2 infinite combos. Let’s take a look at them right here:

[sbplan]
1 Orochi Leafcaller
1 Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro
1 Freed from the Real
[/sbplan]

Now this combo is relatively straight forward, and is not in itself a win condition. What these three cards together allow me to do is generate infinite mana. How it works is Sachi’s 2nd ability allows it and Orochi Leafcaller to tap for (G)(G). Where this goes infinite is when Freed from the Real is added to one of the shamans. What happens is you tap whichever shaman is enchanted for 2 green mana, then filter the 2 mana through Orochi Leafcaller’s ability, making 1 blue mana and one of any mana, using the blue mana to use Freed from the Real’s untap ability to untap the shaman you then rinse and repeat. Now what makes this good for my deck and how I make use of the infinite mana is through Villainous Wealth.

[display]
1 Villainous Wealth
[/display]

I use my tutor suite to abuse this interaction, recurring Villainous Wealth with Regrowth, Treasured Find, and Yawgmoth’s Will in order to exile each opponent’s entire library. This usually works quite well. The other way I abuse this mana production is to exile as many creatures as I can with Silence the Believers.

Now on to my second combo:
[sbplan]
1 Gravedigger
1 Warren Pilferers
1 Altar of Dementia
1 Deathrender
[/sbplan]

This is my favorite synergy in the deck, yes it’s an infinite mill combo, but it needs 4 pieces to be fully assembled. So how the combination works; you have to have 3 pieces on board and one in your hand. Altar of Dementia and Deathrender need to be on the battlefield since these are the 2 pieces that make the combo mill. What happens is you equip Deathrender to one of the creatures, sacrifice the creature to the Altar of Dementia, target opponent mills, Deathrender allows you to put a creature from your hand onto the battlefield, and equip the Deathrender to it, then the creature you put into play, (either Gravedigger or Warren Pilferers), puts the other creature into your hand. It becomes an infinite and vicious cycle.

Beyond the 2 infinite combos, what makes the deck any good? The Tutor suite. This gives the deck considerable consistency. We get to tutor for anything with Insidious Dreams, Demonic Tutor, and Vampiric Tutor. Need an Instant or Sorcery? Personal Tutor and Mystical Tutor will grab them for you. Finally, Tooth and Nail grants me the ability to search for whatever creatures I see fit, and put them directly into play.

Now, “how do I win?” you ask. Well usually I just try to be faster than the rest of the players with some minor ramp spells, including Tempt with Discovery, and Collective Voyage, as well as some mana rocks, (Sol Ring, Lotus Petal, Lotus Bloom, etc.). If one of my combos do not go off the way I wish them to I’ll take a couple extra turns with Beacon of Discovery and set up my Praetors: Vorinclex, Sheoldred and Jin-Gitaxias. From there I just beat people down with them.

The final aspect of the deck that I think ALL Damia decks should run is the tutoring card I mentioned with the others.
[display]
1 Insidious Dreams
[/display]

This is quite possibly the BEST tutor in Damia. With Damia on the battle field you cast Insidious Dreams at your opponents end step, ditch 4-5 cards, and tutor them to the top of your library. On your turn you draw up to 7 cards with Damia and thus a combo is born.

So that’s me, what I do, and one of my favorite decks!

Until next time,
Logan

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