The Terror of Serpent's PassThe Terror of Serpent's Pass | Art by Douzen

Hello there! My name's Ezra, and I'm here to introduce a Commander deck built around a new card from Avatar: The Last Airbender Eternal.

Looking at spoilers from this upcoming set, I was pleasantly surprised by how simple many of the cards are. Between text reminding new players what keyword abilities like flying and vigilance do, straightforward spells, and creatures with no abilities at all ("vanilla"), it has a very "Core Set" feel.

I'm excited to use cards like The Terror of Serpent's PassThe Terror of Serpent's Pass to show beginning players how the game works, whether it's Magic in general or the Commander format.

Slow and Steady

The Terror of Serpent's Pass is a great way to introduce a new player to the slow and steady pace of a more casual Commander game. It's also a good way to introduce one of the big differences between this format and other formats: commander damage.

Commander has an alternative way to win called commander damage, where dealing 21 damage in combat to an opponent with your commander causes that player to lose. The 21 number is because the format originally called Elder Dragon Highlander/EDH only allowed these 7/7 Elder Dragons as commanders, and 21 damage represented exactly three attacks.

21 commander damage is also possible in just three attacks with The Terror; even fewer if it has the right buffs on it!

Hexproof

Because commanders cost more to cast every time they are put into the command zone, and there are a lot of opponents packing removal spells, like Swords to PlowsharesSwords to Plowshares, the Equipment Swiftfoot BootsSwiftfoot Boots and Lightning GreavesLightning Greaves are very popular in this format.

Luckily for us, our commander has hexproof built right in. This means we don't have to worry about popular removal, like Generous GiftGenerous Gift, Deadly RollickDeadly Rollick, Chaos WarpChaos Warp, or Beast WithinBeast Within going after The Terror.

The Gameplan

So we have an expensive but powerful commander and are focusing on cards with a blue color identity, where should we go from here?

Mana That Makes Sense

Mana Rocks

Blue is pretty much all-in on artifacts as a way to accelerate our mana. Especially with a commander as expensive as The Terror of Serpent's Pass, we're going to want to have both a high land count and a high "mana rock" count. It's usually a good idea to customize mana rocks to a deck's commander's mana value (for example, including a lot of two-mana ramp spells to get a four-mana commander out ahead of schedule), but with our commander costing so much mana, we're just going to mix and match rocks with a bunch of different mana values from 1-4 and even throw in Dreamstone HedronDreamstone Hedron for good measure.

Some of these mana rocks also have fun built-in utility, like Sonic ScrewdriverSonic Screwdriver and Ring of the LuciiRing of the Lucii hampering blocking prospects and Stonespeaker CrystalStonespeaker Crystal keeping opponents with graveyard-based decks on their toes.

Utility Lands

EDHREC data for other mono-blue decks with seven-mana commanders show 34-35 lands for three of them and a higher 38 lands for the super land-focused Patron of the MoonPatron of the Moon.

As a reminder from the last beginner deck we made, articles like this one argue 34-35 lands is far too low, pointing out even 36 lands "would translate to 14.5 lands in 40-card decks or 21.8 lands in 60-card decks."

With a seven-mana commander, we're really going to want to make our land drops every turn. Even though The Terror has some built-in protection through hexproof, mass removal, like Wrath of GodWrath of God or FarewellFarewell, will make it start costing or even more mana as the game progresses.

As a starting player, missing land drops and being unable to cast your spells feels really bad, especially in a slow format like casual Commander. For these reasons, let's get the mana count higher in this deck and take advantage of utility lands, like Blighted CataractBlighted Cataract, Castle VantressCastle Vantress, and Memorial to GeniusMemorial to Genius, for more card draw and selection alongside Rogue's PassageRogue's Passage and Secluded StarforgeSecluded Starforge to make our already fearsome commander even more scary.

If you're interested in a more in-depth discussion about how many lands to run in Commander depending on your deck, check out this EDHRECast video!

Card Draw

One of blue's big advantage is in its card draw. It can come in many forms, whether it's a classic creature like MulldrifterMulldrifter, a cheap way to filter through the deck like Thirst for KnowledgeThirst for Knowledge, or a simple but powerful sorcery like Overflowing InsightOverflowing Insight. Over 20% of this deck is devoted to spells that at draw at least two extra cards.

Drawing a lot of cards is great at any portion of the game: early on, it allows us to make all our land drops on time and build out our mana; later on, when other players may have run of of stuff to do, we are able to cast spells like Flow of Ideas and Opportunity to refill our hand and access the kinds of cards we need for any given situation.

Buffing The Terror

It's not just all about playing lands and drawing cards: we have to eventually be prepared to win the game, too. That's where Equipment to enhance our commander come in.

Between evasion from KitesailKitesail and Prowler's HelmProwler's Helm, trample from O-NaginataO-Naginata and Haunted CloakHaunted Cloak, and massive damage increases from FireshriekerFireshrieker and Hedron MatrixHedron Matrix, we'll be able to close out the game in short order.

And don't forget, our commander's built-in hexproof takes a number of answers out of the equation for our opponents, so we'll be able to focus our disruption on the spells that really matter.

Speaking of disruption...

Disrupting Opponents

Commander isn't always just about advancing your own gameplan, but about stopping your opponents from doing what they want to do.

There are two main types of disruption: targeted (which can stop a single thing) and mass (which can stop lots of stuff at once).

Targeted Disruption

Another of blue's strengths as a color is the abundance of efficient counterspells, like CounterspellCounterspell (the actual card), Disdainful StrokeDisdainful Stroke (great in a casual Commander where everyone is slamming big spells), and NegateNegate (flexible answer to most of the stuff that can actually deal with our commander).

Blue also gives us access to interesting and unique ways to blank opposing commanders without putting them into the command zone, like the older Imprisoned in the MoonImprisoned in the Moon and the brand new Observed StasisObserved Stasis.

Mass Disruption

One of blue's most played cards in Commander is Cyclonic RiftCyclonic Rift. While it's not included here (high salt score + more than doubles the price tag of the deck), the concept of returning a bunch of stuff to multiple opponents' hands is prevalent in a lot of other blue cards.

Engulf the ShoreEngulf the Shore and Scourge of FleetsScourge of Fleets are variations on a theme and can buy us time to keep doing what we do best: assembling more mana, more cards in hand, and more ways to make our commander pack an extra punch. Whelming WaveWhelming Wave is a perfect fit for our strategy, because it will reset a lot of the board without affecting The Terror of Serpent's PassThe Terror of Serpent's Pass or a lot of our own big sea monster threats.

If an opponent gets a little too aggressive at us and does an all-out attack, thinking we don't have a lot of blockers available, we can punish them big time with cards like AetherizeAetherize or AetherspoutsAetherspouts.

One advantage of having a lot of mana sources combined with many instant speed spells is our ability to draw more cards, counter spells that harm us, and/or deal with stuff already in play, depending on what the game requires at any given moment. This is a great introduction to what it feels like to be a blue mage.

The Terror of Serpent's Pass Commander Decklist