Minn, Wily IllusionistMinn, Wily Illusionist | art by Dmitry Burmak

It was all an Illusion…

Hello hello! Welcome once again to Archetypes of Imagination, a series where I build decks based on popular Commander archetypes. I'll be using Scryfall's tagging system and EDHREC's Tag pages to build around a new theme each week.

Scryfall has a really cool way of categorizing cards, where each card has specific labels attached to it for later reference.

For example, ShockShock has the burn tag and Into the NorthInto the North has the ramp tag. EDHREC's tag system is really cool too, letting users see popular cards associated with a given strategy.

For example, Ramunap ExcavatorRamunap Excavator is great in lands decks and All That GlittersAll That Glitters is great in Aura decks.

These tagging systems are great ways to get inspiration for certain deck archetypes, and I often start there when it's time for me to build a new deck!

This week, we'll be building a deck that cares about card draw. But, to be a little more specific than that, we'll be focused on drawing exactly two cards every turn, spreading our card advantage over a full turn rotation around the table.

To that end, this deck has tons of ways to draw cards at instant speed, and payoffs for drawing those cards. I'd like to introduce one such payoff and this deck's commander… Minn, Wily IllusionistMinn, Wily Illusionist!

MinnMinn has long been one of my favorite monocolor commanders, and I'm stoked to talk about her here.

Whenever we draw our second card in a turn MinnMinn creates Illusion tokens that get bigger for each Illusion we control, creating a ghostly army to kill our opponents with.

And, whenever an Illusion we control dies, we get to sneak a permanent with mana value less than its power onto the board. At the low end, this means we get an extra land drop.

At the high end, though, we could be cheating 6+ mana-value permanents onto the board.

MinnMinn asks us to have a few key pieces in her 99. She wants ways to draw two cards per turn, she wants ways to sacrifice our Illusions, and she wants high cost permanents to cheat out. There's a lot of ground to cover here, so let's get going!

Draw-Draw-Go

This deck is chock full of ways to draw cards, but I want to start with the permanents that provide card advantage.

In any deck that has disposable creatures, SkullclampSkullclamp is fantastic. It'll usually kill one of our Illusions, draw us two cards, and let us cheat out something with a slightly higher mana value (thanks to the +1/-1) it provides) all for a one-mana equip cost.

And, Teferi, Master of TimeTeferi, Master of Time is great too. He'll provide us with a double draw on our turn and a single draw on all other turns, making MinnMinn triggers easy to get.

This four-mana planeswalker can also protect us from an opponent's best creature and eventually even let us take some extra turns. I'm also a big fan of looters like Kitsa, Otterball EliteKitsa, Otterball Elite.

Cards that provide us with an extra piece of card draw when we need it, ensuring that we keep triggering our commander, are super strong.

KitsaKitsa is one of the best looters ever printed, and provides a ton of utility outside of her useful card selection.

There's also a few spells that can immediately trigger our commander. Frantic SearchFrantic Search is a fantastic fit here, letting us draw two cards at any time AND making sure that we're able to make good use of the cards we draw.

Because it refunds the mana we spent, this card is basically free to cast. On the other end of the mana cost spectrum, there's Archmage's CharmArchmage's Charm with a strict casting cost.

But, this modal spell can either steal someone's Sol RingSol Ring, draw two cards, or counter a spell.

That kind of utility is hard to pass up! Faerie MastermindFaerie Mastermind is here too, ensuring our opponents' card advantage gets spread to us too.

How nice is that! I could've included Rhystic StudyRhystic Study and Mystic RemoraMystic Remora in the deck too, but I think that would've pushed the power level beyond what I'd like for this series.

Lastly, should we find ourselves with a ton of extra mana on hand, there's some lands that provide card advantage too.

Geier Reach SanitariumGeier Reach Sanitarium and Mikokoro, Center of the SeaMikokoro, Center of the Sea both let everyone at the table draw a card, but we'll usually be getting the most advantage out of that draw trigger.

War RoomWar Room lets just us (not our opponents) draw, at the cost of one life and one more mana.

And, lastly, FountainportFountainport is an all-star here. It asks us to sacrifice a token (which we really, really don't mind doing) and draw a card for our troubles.

True success requires sacrifice

Although I talked about a few sacrifice outlets already, there's a whole bunch more here. One of my personal favorites is Anchor to RealityAnchor to Reality, even if it isn't the best one in the deck.

We can sacrifice an Illusion to go get one of our best sacrifice outlets directly onto the battlefield.

Some of the best ways to sacrifice creatures in this deck are Equipment, like SkullclampSkullclamp, so fetching one directly onto the battlefield AND sacrificing an illusion is a pretty sweet deal for just four mana.

Speaking of powerful equipment, Grafted WargearGrafted Wargear and Lotus RingLotus Ring both pull their weight well. Both of them are (at least essentially) free to equip, and give a big power boost to our Illusions before they die.

This means that MinnMinn sees them as having died with +3 to whatever their power was before, and we can put an even bigger permanent onto the board.

There's also a small group of spells that sacrifice creatures too. AbjureAbjure is a one-mana unconditional counterspell, which is really cool, and we can sacrifice an Illusion to cover its additional cost.

Read the RunesRead the Runes and Perilous ResearchPerilous Research are both card advantage spells and sacrifice outlets, letting us make more illusions with MinnMinn while we sacrifice others.

Sneak AttackSneak Attack but it's blue, and it's not an activated ability, and you don't sacrifice the permanent, and…

With some successful turns, and a few triggers from MinnMinn, we'll have some relatively large Illusion tokens on the board.

What're the best things we can cheat onto the battlefield when those tokens die?

Well, there's a few good ones. Kairi, the Swirling SkyKairi, the Swirling Sky is a sweet 6/6 flying threat that also lets us rebuy some spells or do a mini-board wipe when he dies. Because of the density of sac outlets in this deck, we'll be able to control the timing of the Dragon Spirit's death easily.

Speaking of board wipes, Scourge of FleetsScourge of Fleets is here too, as a one-sided board wipe on a well-statted creature.

If we can have this hit the board with a few big Illusion tokens on our side, we can easily start taking out the other players.

And, for some big bursts of card advantage, Pol Jamaar, IllusionistPol Jamaar, Illusionist and Titan of LittjaraTitan of Littjara are great.

Both of these creatures are actually Illusions themselves, which doesn't change a ton about their effectiveness but is quite funny.

Here's the full decklist:

Fade AwayFade Away

That's it for this week! Before you go, I wanted to touch on a few creatures in the deck that are Illusions themselves, meaning that they'll count towards our tokens' power/toughness and trigger our commander's ability when they die.

Illusory AmbusherIllusory Ambusher is a super interesting card, providing a huge burst of card advantage, and possibly taking out an opponent's best attacker when it dies.

I don't think I need to explain why Phantasmal ImagePhantasmal Image is a good card. Notably, though, it's also an Illusion after it clones something.

So, our opponent's are in a no-win situation with this card: either they let us copy their best creature for just two mana, or they target it with a spell or ability and we get to sacrifice it.

Lastly, Toothy, Imaginary FriendToothy, Imaginary Friend is kind of the perfect card for this deck. He gets bigger when we draw cards, and triggers our commander in a big way on its way out.

Thanks again for reading! I'll see you all next week, for a deck built around flickering our permanents.