Is this your idea of fun, Mav?

Commander / EDH Mono-Blue Spellslinger Tokens

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Instant (21)

• 1x Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1x Cryptic Command
• 1x Dramatic Reversal
• 1x Foil
• 1x Gift of Tusks
• 1x High Tide
• 1x Keep Safe
• 1x Long-Term Plans
• 1x Mission Briefing
• 1x Mizzium Skin
• 1x Mystic Confluence
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Overwhelming Denial
• 1x Quicken
• 1x Rapid Hybridization
• 1x Redirect
• 1x Scour from Existence
• 1x Spell Swindle
• 1x Supreme Will
• 1x Unified Will
• 1x Unwind

Artifact (10)

• 1x Isochron Scepter
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Neurok Stealthsuit
• 1x Primal Amulet  ^Flip
• 1x Runechanter's Pike
• 1x Sentinel Tower
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x The Magic Mirror
• 1x Veilstone Amulet
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

Creature (13)

• 1x Archaeomancer
• 1x Baral, Chief of Compliance
• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Curious Homunculus  ^Flip
• 1x Diluvian Primordial
• 1x Elite Arcanist
• 1x God-Eternal Kefnet
• 1x Lunar Mystic
• 1x Murmuring Mystic
• 1x Niblis of Frost
• 1x Silver Myr
• 1x Sphinx of the Final Word
• 1x Vodalian Arcanist

Sorcery (10)

• 1x Call to Mind
• 1x Curse of the Swine
• 1x Energy Tap
• 1x Flow of Ideas
• 1x Inundate
• 1x Mass Polymorph
• 1x Merchant Scroll
• 1x Mystic Speculation
• 1x Pull from the Deep
• 1x Spelltwine

Enchantment (6)

• 1x As Foretold
• 1x Favorable Winds
• 1x Jace's Sanctum
• 1x Metallurgic Summonings
• 1x Swarm Intelligence
• 1x Trail of Evidence

Commander (1)

Land (38)

• 1x Castle Vantress
• 1x Faerie Conclave
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 26x Island
• 1x Lonely Sandbar
• 1x Memorial to Genius
• 1x Mirrorpool
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Mystic Sanctuary
• 1x Nephalia Academy
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Tectonic Edge
• 1x Terrain Generator

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Narset, Parter of Veils

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Maybeboard

Sorcery (15)

• 1x Ancestral Vision
• 1x Blatant Thievery
• 1x Distorting Wake
• 1x Enter the Infinite
• 1x Fade Away
• 1x Mass Manipulation
• 1x Mind's Desire
• 1x Polymorph
• 1x Quiet Speculation
• 1x Runic Repetition
• 1x Shared Discovery
• 1x Sleep
• 1x Stolen Identity
• 1x Temporal Fissure
• 1x Walk the Aeons

Artifact (5)

• 1x Corrupted Grafstone
• 1x Druidic Satchel
• 1x Heraldic Banner
• 1x Idol of Oblivion
• 1x Spellbinder

Instant (13)

• 1x AEtherize
• 1x Blustersquall
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Capsize
• 1x Clockspinning
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Forbid
• 1x Gather Specimens
• 1x Hour of Need
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Spelljack
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Tale's End

Enchantment (6)

• 1x AEther Storm
• 1x Archmage Ascension
• 1x Cast Through Time
• 1x Day of the Dragons
• 1x Drake Haven
• 1x Puppet Master

Creature (13)

• 1x Battlefield Thaumaturge
• 1x Docent of Perfection  ^Flip
• 1x Gadwick, the Wizened
• 1x Kaho, Minamo Historian
• 1x Naiad of Hidden Coves
• 1x Rayne, Academy Chancellor
• 1x Soulblade Djinn
• 1x Stormtide Leviathan
• 1x Surrakar Spellblade
• 1x Tidal Force
• 1x Tidespout Tyrant
• 1x Wavebreak Hippocamp
• 1x Windreader Sphinx

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Will Kenrith

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A lot of my decks focus on casting and interacting with creatures, but I do like the idea of instants and sorceries being the focus in a deck. In the multiplayer-heavy format of Commander, instants and sorceries often have to do something significant, like wipe the board or draw tons of cards, to justify their inclusion. With Talrand, Sky Summoner, stapling a 2/2 flyer on each of those spells makes them a lot better, and gives you a free army just for playing blue! So that's the goal of this deck: slap down some spells, load up a drake army, and swing for the fences.

Win Condition

Let's start with how the deck wins, to keep it in mind when viewing subsequent sections. The goal is to get Talrand onto the battlefield as quickly as possible, then generate a token army and card advantage through shooting spells that draw cards, counter spells, interact with permanents, return other spells, and more. These cards help out:

• Murmuring Mystic creates more tokens, accelerating or sustaining an army if Talrand is unavailable.

• Sphinx of the Final Word is a hefty spell, but vital protection for spells.

• Swarm Intelligence doubles the output of spells, though you don't technically cast the copies, so no extra token from it.

• Metallurgic Summonings grants even more tokens except they don't fly, and can get all of your spells back for another round.

• As Foretold is a nice effect, allowing you to cast free spells on each turn, not just your own.

• There is debate if Cryptic Command or Mystic Confluence is superior, but both are good enough that they should both be in the deck.

• Mass Polymorph seems counterintuitive, but with enough tokens out, it replaces them with every creature in the deck.

• I really like Mystic Speculation in this deck. It's basically a repeatable Wind Drake with Scry 3, which is significant card selection.

• Though not instants or sorceries, Favorable Winds, Runechanter's Pike, and Sentinel Tower significantly increase damage output.

Acceleration

Ramp takes a few forms in this deck. I'm not sure if it's considered "ramp," but reducing costs should be. A permanent that makes spells less to cast is like saying it taps for and then untaps when you cast a spell.

• First are the classics. Burnished Hart and Wayfarer's Bauble get you Islands, Sol Ring gets you , and Silver Myr gets you .

• Next are spell-specific cards and cost reducers. Primal Amulet   is excellent, allowing you to copy spells later in the game. Vodalian Arcanist and Curious Homunculus   are mana dorks, with the latter providing cost reduction and a beat stick. Baral, Chief of Compliance and Jace's Sanctum reduce costs right away, and provide bonuses for casting them.

• Lastly, there are the super rare instants and sorceries that provide temporary mana, which are High Tide and Energy Tap. The best, though, is Spell Swindle.

• Let's get into card draw, other than the aforementioned. Blue Sun's Zenith, Flow of Ideas, and The Magic Mirror are the big draw spells for immediate returns. Quicken and Keep Safe are good spells in a pinch that replace themselves, and provide a 2/2 flyer. Lunar Mystic can replace cost reduction with card draw.

• More unique forms of card draw include Mystical Tutor and Merchant Scroll, which tutor for spells, Trail of Evidence, which is like Lunar Mystic but lets you draw the card later, and Lonely Sandbar and Memorial to Genius, which are lands you can pitch in a pinch. Long-Term Plans is as close as blue gets to Demonic Tutor.

Removal

I count counterspells as a form of removal, as they are certainly ways to deal with threats.

• Counters like Unwind and Overwhelming Denial are solid, but I think Unified Will and Redirect are interesting and worth trying out. There is also Foil, which is that one free counterspell you absolutely need in a pinch, and one I consider to be a budget version of Force of Will.

• As for dealing with creatures, Rapid Hybridization is solid spot removal. A similar one is Gift of Tusks, which doesn't outright remove the creature, but it's handy in combat, and can cut it down to size for someone else to remove. Curse of the Swine gets rid of multiple problematic creatures, and Inundate gets rid of everything that isn't blue, so you'll be safe. Niblis of Frost can lock down multiple threats, too.

• To answer any permanent, there's Scour from Existence. Not a sexy card, but it is an instant that can have its cost reduced and give you a Drake token, so frankly it's the best option currently available.

Recursion

Instants are sorceries are made much better by multiple uses, so a big portion of this deck has ways to bring back spells you need when you need them, all the while increasing your Drake army.

• Call to Mind, Pull from the Deep, and Mystic Sanctuary grab specific spells you need again later.

• Archaeomancer is the budget-friendly Snapcaster Mage, but if you have the money, it's worth running both.

• Speaking of Snapcaster, Mission Briefing is very similar, arguably better because it creates a Drake token, it can get you a spell from the top 2 cards of the deck, and it can be brought back/copied by other spells.

• Diluvian Primordial and Spelltwine are big spells that make a big splash late in the game.

Protection

When counterspells aren't handy, hopefully these cards keep Talrand and his army safe.

• Mizzium Skin deflects spot removal on one or all of your creatures for pretty cheap.

• Lightning Greaves is a classic equipment for Talrand, but this deck can also utilize Neurok Stealthsuit quite well.

• One unique card is Veilstone Amulet. As long as you've got instants handy, you can protect your creatures while adding more Drakes.

• Narset, Parter of Veils is more like oppression than protection, in the sense that it prevents opponents from drawing too quickly. The -2 ability is pretty likely to hit a card, too.

Mana Base

26 Islands because mono-blue. As for other lands...

• Castle Vantress and Faerie Conclave provide decent enough upside to include instead of more Islands.

• Myriad Landscape and Terrain Generator provide ramp, as well.

• Ghost Quarter and Tectonic Edge are cards that might make players cringe, and I'm not the kind of guy who blows up lands frequently, but I've got no mercy on a problematic land that needs to go.

• Mirrorpool, Nephalia Academy, and Reliquary Tower provide good value in a deck that uses lots of spells by copying them, protecting them, and keeping a handful of them.

Random Notes

Just things about the maybeboard or funny things.

• It's tempting to run Coax from the Blind Eternities just for the lulz. You can cast it, you're not forced to get an Eldrazi card from outside the game (which you normally can't, because Commander doesn't have a sideboard), so you just get a Drake token. That said, if your play group allows you to go get an Eldrazi, then consider Deepfathom Skulker.

• I thought about including extra turn cards, as many of them are sorceries, but I guess it depends on the competitiveness of your meta. I would imagine casual playgroups aren't so fond of extra turns (and neither is your wallet).

• How could I forget Isochron Scepter? Shame on me.

• I'm thinking about trying Kaho, Minamo Historian and Elite Arcanist, these are nice ways to augment instants.

• Does Spellbinder have a home here? Putting Mystic Confluence, Opportunity, or Scour from Existence on this sounds pretty fun.

• Call to Mind combos with itself, but since that doesn't really matter in Commander, you could run Deja Vu or Relearn and repeatedly return the spells back and forth to make drakes. That explains why more recent effects that return spells are either on permanents or exile themselves.

Date added	3 years
Last updated	3 years
Exclude colors	WBRG
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 26 - 0 Rares 26 - 0 Uncommons 16 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.29
Tokens	Bird Illusion 1/1 U, Boar 2/2 G, Clue, Construct X/X C, Copy Clone, Drake 2/2 U, Frog Lizard 3/3 G, Treasure