Ah, Talrand. My pride and joy. Talrand is usually the budget choice for mono blue players. Often, people move on to another commander like Azami, Baral, JvP as their collection and budget grows. I am a die hard Talrand player. It was my first EDH deck many years ago and I love the playstyle so much. I have made it my goal to use the usual monoblue core and make the best Talrand deck I can. Will this deck win every game? No. Will it beat cEDH decks? Probably not. Is it fun and can hold its own at any table? Absolutely!
How the Deck Works
This is a midrange value deck with a combo backup. The goal is to grind out value from spells, Talrand drakes and careful tempo plays stopping the biggest threats. You can either win by swinging out with drakes coupled with an extra turn spell or via palinchron based combos. The curve is deliberately kept low to keep churning out spells. Keep casting cantrips to move through the deck, react accordingly and tutor as needed.
Seriously, why Talrand?
There is no other effect like it among mono blue commanders. The deck is fun to play, even if you don’t win. You get to cast some of the most fun spells in magic, draw cards, interact with the table and your commander plays an active role. EDH is first and foremost about fun. Try the deck and you might end up agreeing with me. This deck plays more like a midrange reactive deck than hard control and having a combo backup allows wins to come easier. Attacking with 2/2 drakes really cannot take down a whole pod by itself and while this deck can have some huge turns with High Tide and Time Spiral, this is NOT a storm deck.
The Mana
We run 25 basic islands because we have back to basics, high tide, extraplanar lens and gauntlet of power. Tolaria West is mostly for transmute. Strip mine is an out against annoying lands like cradle or coffers. Boseiju is great for forcing through a big spell like Time Warp or Time Spiral. Mystic Sanctuary is just so good, we run all 4 blue fetches so we can grab it.
Chrome mox and mana crypt help offset the low land count and provide fast mana. Vault and monolith enable explosive turns. Sol ring is sol ring. The doublers work very well with palinchron and any doubler is infinite mana.
The Hate
The enchantments are to slow down the game a little while we try to grind value. Back to basics is backbreaking against some decks. Remora and rhystic are fun to use and abuse even if they are salty. Opposition is spicy. In a 1v1 game, opposition and drakes is a windmill slam to lock down an opponent. In a pod, save it for later when it can be most effective. Narset is so broken, she goes in every blue deck.
The Spells to Sling
All the spells synergize with Talrand. We play a mix of reactive cards like counterspells, bounce spells and removal spells. Flexible cards are your best friend. Archmage’s charm, narset’s reversal, and cryptic command can do basically whatever you need at the time. Our counterspells are a mix of hard, conditional and soft. We have a limited amount so they must be used to stop only huge threats. Again, out main goal is to stay alive long enough so that we build enough value or find the combo.
The Combos
Palinchron + DEN + Archaeomancer = infinite mana and infinite graveyard recursion
Mass Polymorph + 3 Creatures in play while the creature cards are in deck = above
Mass polymorph is a potential 1 card combo that can be tutored.
Palinchron + High Tide/Gauntlet of Power/Extraplanar lens = infinite mana
BSZ is a great mana sink and win condition with infinite mana
Final Thoughts:
This is a super fun good stuff deck stacked with the best color and best spells in magic. It is optimal? No, talrand is not the optimal blue commander. But this deck is hella fun and the opposite of what people expect when they see Talrand. Usually you expect cancel not mana drain! XD
