Stenn, Paranoid Partisan

Legendary Creature — Human Wizard

As Stenn, Paranoid Partisan enters the battlefield, choose a card type other than creature or land.

Spells you cast of the chosen type cost {1} less to cast.

{1}{W}{U}: Exile Stenn. Return it to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Pre-release	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Standard	Legal
Standard Brawl	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (6)

eliakimras on Menacing Aura

1 year ago

Hello! May I step in to give you some recommendations? Since you're on a budget, all cards suggested are 2 dollars or less.

Part 1: Ramp

In: You probably want aura ramp and cost reducers over standard land ramp: Wild Growth, Transcendent Envoy, Hero of Iroas, Jukai Naturalist and Stenn, Paranoid Partisan (choosing Enchantment). These will allow you to storm through your deck casting Auras ad nauseam.

Out: Elvish Mystic, Farhaven Elf, Arcane Signet, Nature's Lore and Cultivate are all great ramp cards, but you can do better (and more thematically) with the cards I mentioned above.

Part 2: Card draw

Just as important as ramp is card draw: Galea won't always be available to you.

In: Sage's Reverie, Enchantress's Presence, Satyr Enchanter, Mesa Enchantress.

Out: Coiling Oracle, Curious Obsession (unreliable), Curse of Verbosity (unreliable), Eel Umbra.

Part 3: Removal

Swords to Plowshares is GREAT, no doubt. But, in this kind of deck, you can spice it up with the great Auras that {W} has for removal.

The objective is, then, to use the cheapest Auras that can hit more than one permanent type, with emphasis on "loses its abilities" in the text box.

In: Mortal Obstinacy, Ossification (synergy with your basic land fetchers).

Out: Reclamation Sage, Swords to Plowshares.

Part 4: Boardwipes

In: I believe you should run more boardwipes that leave your board mostly untouched. Austere Command is one such example. You almost always will clean all artifacts and the half of creatures that are more dangerous to you. Curse of the Swine is another selective wipe.

Out: Time Wipe (not one-sided), Plains.

Part 5: Protection and Evasion

In Voltron, tempo is crucial.

• In: Negate and Delay are inconditional and cheap counters mana-wise.
• Out: Calculated Dismissal and Frilled Mystic aren't.

Now to the Auras:

• In: Spirit Mantle, Unquestioned Authority and Mask of Law and Grace are protection and evasion at the same time (protection also means it can't be blocked).
• Out: Favor of the Overbeing, Observant Alseid and Leafcrown Dryad.

Following the same logic as with removal, I'm using auras over instants to protect the Voltron.

• In: Shield of the Oversoul, Alpha Authority, Canopy Cover.
• Out: Benevolent Blessing, Shielding Plax, Karametra's Blessing. (I believe proactive protection goes miles farther than a reactive one.)

Part 6: Tutors

Without Hammer of Nazahn, Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith is just a more expensive Open the Armory.

In: Open the Armory, Heliod's Pilgrim, Moon-Blessed Cleric, Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice and Invasion of Theros  ^Flip (bonus that all those tutors also change your library's top card).

Out: Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith, Celestial Archon, Heliod's Emissary, Hypnotic Siren, Curse of Unbinding (7 mana is a lot for an Aura).

Part 7: Win Conditions

In: Since you're going all-in with auras, All That Glitters and Ethereal Armor do wonders.

Out: Bruna, Light of Alabaster is slow and telegraphed in this build. People won't let her stick to the field. Nissa, Steward of Elements is tough to protect in a Voltron build, while she only offers scry, which your lands can already do.

Part 8: Lands

In:

• You might consider more lands that fix your colors and manipulate the top of your library at will: Terramorphic Expanse, Temple of Plenty, Temple of Enlightenment, Temple of Mystery, Cabaretti Courtyard, Brokers Hideout, Obscura Storefront, Naya Panorama, Esper Panorama.
• Rogue's Passage is great evasion on a land.

Out:

• Thriving Grove, Thriving Heath and Thriving Isle are neat fixing, but the Temples are superior since they play into Galea's strategy.
• Path of Ancestry is great if you're in a 5-color deck or in a tribal-heavy creature deck. This build is neither.
• Lumbering Falls is good for suiting Equipments on, but Auras will just go to the graveyard when this land stops being a creature.
• Azorius Chancery, because you don't run the other two bouncelands.
• Razorverge Thicket. You'll soon realize that the later turns are more important than the early ones in EDH. This land is a beast in Modern, but it is far from worth it in Commander unless you're playing a turn-3 win deck.
• Forest and Forest to give room for the two remaining Panoramas. (With all the land searching above, you're probably more likely now to have a target for Utopia Sprawl than before.)
• Seaside Citadel. I know, I know: tri-lands are great and all, but, in this build, I'm trying to bake the top-of-library manipulation into the manabase so you have more free spell slots for your Auras, similar to what I did with Yennett, Cryptic Oddity (to a great success): each land in it has to either enter untapped somehow or change the top card of the library.

If you read this far, congratulations! Here is the list of the deck with all the suggested alterations, in case you want to test it: Galea, Menacing Aura. Good luck and have fun!

Rhadamanthus on Stenn and Harmonic Prod Interaction

2 years ago

You just choose one type.

Triggered abilities always start with one of the words "when", "whenever", or "at". This is the only kind of ability that Harmonic Prodigy interacts with. The first ability on Stenn, Paranoid Partisan is a static ability that generates a replacement effect modifying how it enters the battlefield.

NPElemental on Stenn and Harmonic Prod Interaction

2 years ago

if I had Harmonic Prodigy on the board and cast Stenn, Paranoid Partisan would I get to reduce the cost of chosen spells by 2 or two different types by 1?

LeechBoy on Sagas

2 years ago

Hey [hiiii] Thanks for the suggestions. I do like Stenn, Paranoid Partisan. I will consider taking him into the deck!

[Jhoria's Familiar] is a little bit too Mana intensive, that's right.

I will take a look and see what the deck could look like

hiiii on Sagas

2 years ago

Stenn, Paranoid Partisan could be cool? At first I was thinking Jhoira's Familiar, but that seems a bit expensive... Stormscape Familiar might also be an option, tho its package is much weaker for the same price. If you want free artifact drops for Urza's Saga, you could always look into artifact lands!

DreadKhan on

2 years ago

It's new, but I wonder if you would be interested in Stenn, Paranoid Partisan? Partisans = people defending their country from invaders. It's not technically an aggressive Commander, it just makes whatever type is convenient cheaper. It's not too pricey to switch it up, and if you have spare mana you might dodge Commander Tax.