Commander Collection: Phantom's Revenge

Commander / EDH Bracket 4 Control RUW (Jeskai, America) Spellslinger Value Engine

Jurrane

Land (38)

• 1x Adarkar Wastes
• 1x Battlefield Forge
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Clifftop Retreat
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Deserted Beach
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Fiery Islet
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Inspiring Vantage
• 5x Island
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Otawara, Soaring City
• 2x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prairie Stream
• 1x Raugrin Triome
• 1x Riverpyre Verge
• 1x Rugged Prairie
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Sea of Clouds
• 1x Shivan Reef
• 1x Skycloud Expanse
• 1x Spirebluff Canal
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Stormcarved Coast
• 1x Sulfur Falls
• 1x Sunbillow Verge
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Useful Multi-Target Spells (3)

• 1x Legerdemain
• 1x Mass Mutiny
• 1x Reins of Power

X-Spells (14)

• 1x Aurelia's Fury
• 1x By Force
• 1x Comet Storm
• 1x Curse of the Swine
• 1x Disorder in the Court
• 1x Distorting Wake
• 1x Glimpse the Sun God
• 1x Gridlock
• 1x Heliod's Intervention
• 1x Icy Blast
• 1x March of Swirling Mist
• 1x Meteor Blast
• 1x Prismatic Boon
• 1x Reality Spasm

Card Draw (8)

• 1x Archmage Emeritus
• 1x Archmage of Runes
• 1x Esper Sentinel P
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Rhystic StudyGC
• 1x Voracious Bibliophile
• 1x Wavebreak Hippocamp
• 1x Whirlwind of Thought

Protection (5)

• 1x Collective Restraint
• 1x Ghostly Prison
• 1x Propaganda
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Teferi's Protection PGC

Other Supporting Creatures (4)

• 1x Battlefield Thaumaturge
• 1x Feather, the Redeemed
• 1x Soulfire Grand Master
• 1x Willbreaker

Token Generators (4)

• 1x Chrome Host Seedshark
• 1x Kykar, Wind's Fury
• 1x Metallurgic Summonings
• 1x Shark Typhoon

Commander (1)

Removal (10)

• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Cyclonic RiftGC
• 1x Day of Judgment
• 1x Excise the Imperfect
• 1x Generous Gift
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Stroke of Midnight
• 1x Supreme Verdict
• 1x Swords to Plowshares

Countermagic (8)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Disdainful Stroke
• 1x Fierce GuardianshipGC
• 1x Force of Negation P
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mystic Confluence
• 1x Negate

Ramp (4)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Smothering Tithe PGC
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Vivi Ornitier P

Recursion (1)

• 1x Underworld BreachGC

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{W}{U}{R} Introduction: Honey, I Shrunk the Casting Cost {W}{U}{R}

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Welcome to my primer for "Phantom's Revenge", a Jeskai control deck for EDH, with Hinata, Dawn-Crowned as its Commander.

While Hinata is undoubtably a powerful Commander, I've been struggling to find the right home for her. The previous iteration of this list was a Spirits tribal build but I didn't really enjoy playing it and it didn't feel different enough from some of the other tempo-oriented decks in my collection. Because of that, I've now reworked it to be a more controlling version, removing most of the creatures and playing to Hinata's strengths as an excellent card advantage engine. We also run lots of ways to gain huge amounts of value from her static ability that reduces the casting cost of spells by {1} for each target.

Having tried out control-focused build you see here, I'm really glad I persisted with it. If you can keep Hinata on the board (which can be a big "if" - to some groups, she's a kill-on-sight Commander), she works well as the centrepiece of a versatile, toolbox-style control build, with enough answers to deal with pretty much anything that hits the board and the raw power to end games later on. While her true strength is reducing the cost of X spells (see "The X-Factor" below), she also makes single-target spells much more efficient, while slowing down opponents by taxing their targetted stuff. She also makes spells that are normally slightly overcosted, like Reconstruct History, Mystic Confluence and Mass Mutiny far more efficient, leading to some potentially busted board states.

The X-Factor

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Where Hinata really shines is her ability to X-spells that allow for multiple targets into game-changing (and potentially game-ending) threats. We seek to maximise this by running a bunch of different X-spells that become turbo powered thanks to her cost reduction ability. Here’s how many of our instants and sorceries become turbo-charged if she’s on the board:

• Aurelia's Fury: Spreads a minimum of 1 damage across any number of targets we like for just {W}{R}, tapping creatures or stopping opponents casting noncreature spells. Put more mana into it and it becomes even stronger.
• By Force: Destroys as many artifacts as we want for only {R}.
• Comet Storm: For this spell, Hinata basically pays for the multikicker. So Comet Storm turns into {X}{R}{R}, deal {X} damage to any number of targets.
• Curse of the Swine: Exiles all opposing creatures for {U}{U}, replacing them all with 2/2 Boar tokens.
• Disorder in the Court: Temporarily exiles as many creatures as we want (useful for offence or defence) and creates a Clue token for each creature exiled, all for the cost of {W}{U}.
• Distorting Wake: Acts as a pseudo-Cyclonic RiftGC by returning as many non-land permanents as we want to their owners’ hands for {U}{U}{U}.
• Glimpse the Sun God: Taps all opposing creatures for {W}.
• Gridlock // Icy Blast: Taps all our opponents’ permanents for {U}. If we're doing it with Icy Blast when Hinata's in play, no-one's stuff will untap in their next uptap phase either.
• Heliod's Intervention: Destroys all opposing artifacts and enchantments for the cost of {W}{W}.
• March of Swirling Mist: Phases out all our creatures a la Teferi's ProtectionGC for {U}, or phases out all our opponents’ creatures, allowing us to attack unimpeded.
• Meteor Blast: Does 4 damage to as many targets as we like for {R}{R}{R}.
• Prismatic Boon: Gives all any number of creatures protection from a single colour for {W}{U}.
• Reality Spasm: A more versatile Glimpse the Sun God that taps or untaps any number of permanents for {U}{U}.

Win Conditions

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Here are the main ways we can win the game. If you're looking for quick victories out of nowhere, this isn't really that sort of deck, as our play style is far more controlling and attritional. Our goal is to slowly turn the screw in the early/mid turns and then pivot from defence to attack later on.

Tokens
Our main finishers are token generaters - Metallurgic Summonings, Shark Typhoon and Chrome Host Seedshark - each powered by the discounted X spells we cast. Although Hinata reduces the casting cost of these spells, she doesn't change their mana value when they're on the stack. If our spells have {X} in their converted mana cost, we calculate how much mana went into that {X}, regardless of whether we had to pay any of that mana. The result can often be some absolutely enormous Construct/Shark/Phyrexian tokens that we can use to beat down our enemies.

Theft
We also have the option of using our opponents' creatures against them, thanks to cards like Reins of Power, Mass Mutiny, Legerdemain and Willbreaker. Obviously the use of these is situation dependent, as we only really want to be stealing other players' biggest, nastiest threats. Reins of Power and Willbreaker however can be particularly explosive as we can go from an empty board to a huge horde of attackers, especially if we use an X spell like Reality Spasm on all opposing creatures while Willbreaker's in play.

Direct Damage
Sometimes we can get the job done with our direct damage spells like Comet Storm, Meteor Blast or Aurelia's Fury. We're not a big mana or a burn deck, so this won't happen very often, but occassionally we can go to the dome if life totals are low enough. More frequently we'll be using these spells as one-sided board wipes instead.

Commander Damage
Sometimes we'll go all the way with Hinata, Dawn-Crowned and sail through unopposed with Commander damage if the coast is clear. Again, this won't happen very often but 4 flying damage each turn is still worthwhile, especially as we have a wealth of removal and disruption cards to take care of enemy blockers.

Supporting Creatures

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As we're a control deck, we're not running a high density of creatures. The few that have been included are there to support Hinata's game plan. These are as follows:

• Archmage Emeritus: One of our basic sources of card draw, triggering whenever we cast or copy an instant or sorcery spell. Nothing too flashy but important for this deck.
• Archmage of Runes: Same principle as Archmage Emeritus but the extra mana also buys us a cost reduction for our instants and sorceries.
• Battlefield Thaumaturge: Our secret second commander. Does a decent impression of Hinata, albeit without the keywords, powered up stats and tax effect. Its hexproof ability is definitely useful though.
• Chrome Host Seedshark: One of our win conditions. Probably the weakest of the three main token generators we run but a 2/4 flying body is often handy to have.
• Feather, the Redeemed: An amazing source of recursion. If we include Feather as one of the targets in our (non-lethal) X spells, we get to return that spell to our hand at the end of the turn. This means we can tap down opposing lands or creatures pretty much indefinitely with Reality Spasm, Glimpse the Sun God etc and lock them out of the game.
• Voracious Bibliophile: One of my new favourite cards. Capable of drawing us lots of cards with all the multi-target spells we have at our disposal. A flying vigilant 3/3 body isn't bad either.
• Kykar, Wind's Fury: Has just replaced Storm-Kiln Artist. I've gone with Kykar as he creates flying chump blockers, has better stats and a relevant keyword. The main drawback is sacrificing our Spirits only adds {R} instead of mana of any colour from Treasure tokens, but we can work round that. He also triggers on any noncreature spell while Storm-Kiln Artist is only instants and sorceries.
• Soulfire Grand Master: We don't run many relevant instants or sorceries for its lifelink ability (although it's hilarious with Blasphemous Act or Meteor Blast) but the real value here is its ability to pay {2}{UR}{UR} to put instants or sorceries back in our hand when we cast them, ready to be played again. Very useful in this list.
• Wavebreak Hippocamp: Another useful card draw creature. We'll be casting plenty of spells in our opponents' turns so it will trigger frequently.
• Willbreaker: Absolutely broken card in this deck. Capable of some huge blowout plays if we target all opposing creatures with multi-target spells. Protect him at all costs if he's on the battlefield.

Other Card Categories

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Here are the other categories of cards that have been chosen, with short explanations about why they've been included.

Ramp
I've reduced the number of mana rocks we run in the deck and instead gone up to 38 lands. We still have Sol Ring and Arcane Signet to help us ramp a bit. Because we're such a mana hungry deck, we're prioritising rocks at 2MV and under. Sometimes they're dead draws later on but that's the risk we take. Smothering TitheGC is a game-changer card for reason and we can make good use of it here. I've also added a proxied version of Vivi Ornitier (I already have a real one in another deck) as it's insanely good in this list.

Lands
Our current land count is now 38, which seems about right with an average CMC of 2.91 and some mana rocks. We run as many of the relevant coloured fetch lands as we can (Arid Mesa and Misty Rainforest are still to be added), with the goal of finding Raugrin Triome and our shocklands in the early turns. We need to fix for Jeskai colours pretty quickly and run relatively few basics, so our nonbasic land count is very high. Sometimes we'll get blown out by Price of Progress and the like, but that's the chance we take. It's why we have counterspells.

Card Draw
As a control deck, we seek to generate card advantage as much as we can. We run blue staples like Rhystic StudyGC and Mystic Remora alongside Whirlwind of Thought, Voracious Bibliophile, Archmage Emeritus, Archmage of Runes and Wavebreak Hippocamp, with a handful of modal or burst spells as one-shot deals. The general principle here is the more instants and sorceries we cast, the more cards we can draw.

Removal
I've prioritised removal that's as versatile and efficient as possible. Most of our single-target removal spells have a mana value of three but we usually only pay a maximum of two for them when Hinata is in play. We have Chaos Warp, Generous Gift, Stroke of Midnight and Excise the Imperfect to take care of pretty much any permanent, as well as Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile for creatures. We have plenty of boardwipes too: Blasphemous Act, Cyclonic RiftGC, Supreme Verdict and Day of Judgment.

Countermagic
Our counterspell package includes Fierce GuardianshipGC, Force of Negation, Arcane Denial, Mana Drain, Mystic Confluence and good old Counterspell. I find they are best used for protecting Hinata, preventing game-winning plays from our opponents, or enabling gane-winning plays of our own. Personally I wouldn't even think if playing Hinata unless we have at least one castable way of protecting her.

Protection
While our counterspells double as general board protection, we have access to a bunch of other protective effects to keep our permanents in play for as long as possible. Teferi's ProtectionGC is the gold standard but we also have Disorder in the Court, March of Swirling Mist and Prismatic Boon to save our stuff from destruction. We also have Swiftfoot Boots for Hinata (or other important creatures), which are preferred over other Equipment that give shroud (we specifically want hexproof so we can still target our creatures when needed). Pillowfort staples Propaganda, Collective Restraint and Ghostly Prison discourage (and sometimes prevent) attacks against us.

Play Style

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If you're looking for a deck to play a quick game at the end of a night, this isn't the list you're looking for. Games with this deck will often be a long, hard slog as we grind and outlast our way past opponents. While we're able to make some utterly degenerate, game-breaking plays, we're not usually able to do so in the early turns and seek to slowly, attritionally control pods until we're eventually able to executive our win. As a control deck, none of this should be a surprise but we lack the insta-win conditions of some of the other control builds in my collection.

What I particularly like about Hinata in a control-oriented deck is how she gets round one of the control archetype's inherent weakenesses in Commander. In 60-card formats, control decks thrive when they use efficient removal to at least one-for-one opposing threats and draw more cards than their (single) opponent. In Commander, these things are much harder to do because we usually have three other players and three times the number of threats to deal with. Card advantage is therefore more difficult to generate. However Hinata changes all that, as she allows us to play cards with massively scalable effects and that hit multiple targets with no additional investment. This removes the inherent disadvantage that many control decks have and enables to compete on a more equal footing.

The challenge we have is that Hinata is a kill-on-sight Commander for some players, as they rightly recognise her potential strength if she sticks around. As noted elsewhere in this primer, I find myself only casting her if I can protect her, either through counterspells, other interaction or with cards like Swiftfoot Boots. As a four mana Commander, her commander tax soon adds up and there are only so many times we can re-cast her before she becomes unviable.

Because of that, patience is key when playing this deck. It's wise to use the early turns to ramp as fast as possible and not to land too many threats of our own. Other players will pull ahead but we can regain parity extremely quickly with Hinata and our X spells. Don't be afraid to use early boardwipes to reset the board if things are getting out of hand. In true control deck style, the longer the game goes, the more favoured we are.

Power Level

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I categorise decks in my collection according to four tiers of power, from 1 (most powerful) to 4 (least powerful):

Tier 1: Higher powered decks with fast mana, free spells, and infinite combos or instant wins that are searchable with tutors.
Tier 2: Well tuned decks which may have infinite combos or instant wins that are searchable with tutors, but not many fast mana sources and/or free spells.
Tier 3: Reasonably well tuned casual decks that are capable of powerful plays. May occasionally have infinite combos or instant wins but don't generally use tutors to find them.
Tier 4: Lower powered or linear decks, weak enough to play against other casual decks.

I would classify this as one of my Tier 3 decks. It doesn't run any infinite combos or instant win conditions but is capable of making some explosive plays that can be game-breaking under the right circumstances. With the exception of free/fast mana, it's about as well optimised as it can get, with premium card choices in most categories (particularly the counterspell package).

In terms of WotC's new power bracket system for EDH, this is now a Bracket 4 list as the list of game changer cards has grown. It now has Rhystic StudyGC, Cyclonic RiftGC, Smothering TitheGC, Teferi's ProtectionGC and Fierce GuardianshipGC as its GCs and is on the optimised - but not high powered- side of casual play.

Budget

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The average price for this deck on Card Kingdom is just over $450. It started life as a budget build but over time I've added some more expensive cards like Rhystic StudyGC, Cyclonic RiftGC and Fierce GuardianshipGC. Other than those, the rest of the deck is relatively cheap so if you're on the lookout for a budget version, it's absolutely viable to build Hinata control deck with minimal investment. Although we're a three colour mana base, most of the lands are fairly cheap, especially if you can make do without shocks or fetches. The main thing I'd advise for a budget version is not to use lands that ETB as they'll result a bit of a tempo loss, which this deck doesn't want.

Summary & Next Steps

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This has been one of the hardest decks in my collection to get right but it's finally at a stage where I'm happy with it. A control shell seems to suit Hinata very well and I'm really glad I persisted with it. I'm not looking to make any other changes at moment but, were I to upgrade it, it would be to add more of the relevant game changer cards, with Esper Sentinel, Smothering TitheGC and Underworld BreachGC being my top targets. However, I quite like it as a mid-power casual deck and probably won't make those changes for a while (if at all).

Thanks for checking out this primer!

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All My EDH Decks

{W} Giada, Font of Hope {W}
S(i)erra Sidewinder: Mono-White Angel Tribal

{U} Orvar, the All-Form {U}
Clone Zone: Mono-Blue Shapeshifters Combo

{B} Sidisi, Undead Vizier {B}
Swamp Thing: Mono-Black Midrange Combo

{B} Ayara, First of Locthwain {B}
Black Diamond: Mono-Black Aristocrats Combo

{R} Torbran, Thane of Red Fell {R}
Red Force: Mono-Red Group Slug

{R} Rionya, Fire Dancer {R}
Firebird: Mono-Red Storm/Tokens

{G} Titania, Protector of Argoth {G}
Timber Terror: Mono-Green Land Sacrifice

{W}{U} Grand Arbiter Augustin IVGC {W}{U}
Control Freak: Azorius Control

{W}{U} Elminster {W}{U}
Crystal Wing: Azorius Skies & Scry

{U}{B} Oona, Queen of the Fae {U}{B}
Dreamcatcher: Dimir Faeries Tribal

{U}{B} Narfi, Betrayer King {U}{B}
Ice Breaker: Dimir Snow/Zombies

{U}{B} Lord of the Nazgul {U}{B}
The Black Gate Opens: Dimir Spellslinger

{B}{R} Rakdos, Lord of Riots {B}{R}
Steamin’ Demon: Rakdos Life Loss

{B}{R} Juri, Master of the Revue {B}{R}
Pandemonium: Rakdos Sacrifice

{R}{G} Wort, the Raidmother {R}{G}
Barnstormer: Gruul Conspire

{W}{G} Sigarda, Font of Blessings {W}{G}
Stampida: Selesnya Humans Tribal

{W}{G} Captain Sisay {W}{G}
Legendia: Selesnya Legendary

{W}{G} Sythis, Harvest's Hand {W}{G}
Diamondback: Selesnya Enchantress

{W}{B} Daxos the Returned {W}{B}
Curse of Novgorod: Orzhov Constellation

{W}{B} Kambal, Consul of Allocation {W}{B}
Oblivion: Orzhov Lifegain & Lifedrain

{W}{B} Eriette of the Charmed Apple {W}{B}
Flight of the Wicked Witch: Orzhov Auras

{U}{R} Firkraag, Cunning Instigator {U}{R}
Dragon’s Fury: Izzet Dragons/Goad

{B}{G} Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons {B}{G}
Scorpion Express: Golgari Deathtouch

{B}{G} Nath of the Gilt-Leaf {B}{G}
Outlaw Run: Golgari Elves/Discard

{W}{R} Bruenor Battlehammer {W}{R}
Steel Force: Boros Equipment

{W}{R} General Ferrous Rokiric {W}{R}
Gatekeeper: Boros Multicoloured

{U}{G} Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres {U}{G}
Toxic Garden: Simic Infect

{W}{U}{B} Tivit, Seller of Secrets {W}{U}{B}
Steel Vengeance: Esper Artifacts

{W}{U}{B} Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign {W}{U}{B}
Riddler’s Revenge: Esper Topdeck

{U}{B}{R} Marchesa, the Black Rose {U}{B}{R}
Revenge of the Mummy: Grixis Dethrone/Combo

{B}{R}{G} Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire {B}{R}{G}
Dragon Wagon: Jund Dragons Tribal

{W}{R}{G} Pantlaza, Sun-Favored {W}{R}{G}
Raptor Attack: Naya Dinosaurs Tribal

{W}{U}{G} Galadriel, Light of Valinor {W}{U}{G}
Vapour Trail: Bant Flicker

{W}{B}{G} Karador, Ghost Chieftain {W}{B}{G}
Hair Raiser: Abzan Reanimator

{W}{B}{G} Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant {W}{B}{G}
A Long-Expected Party: Abzan Lifegain/Combo

{W}{U}{R} Kykar, Wind's Fury {W}{U}{R}
Storm Runner: Jeskai Tokens

{W}{U}{R} Hinata, Dawn-Crowned {W}{U}{R}
Phantom’s Revenge: Jeskai Control

{U}{B}{G} Yarok, the Desecrated {U}{B}{G}
Boomerang: Sultai ETB Triggers

{W}{B}{R} Kaalia of the Vast {W}{B}{R}
Abyssus: Mardu Angels & Demons

{U}{R}{G} Omnath, Locus of the Roil {U}{R}{G}
Boulder Dash: Temur Landfall

{U}{R}{G} Eshki, Temur's Roar {U}{R}{G}
Thunder Striker: Temur Power Matters

Date added	3 years
Last updated	5 hours
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 62 - 0 Rares 15 - 0 Uncommons 8 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.87
Tokens	Boar 2/2 G, Clue, Construct */* C, Elephant 3-3 G, Human 1/1 W, Incubator, Phyrexian 0/0 C, Shark X/X U, Spirit 1/1 W, Treasure
Folders	EDH