Octavia, Living ThesisOctavia, Living Thesis | art by Simon Dominic

Octavia & the Unbloctopuses

Hello! Hi! How are you? Welcome back to Archetypes of Imagination, the 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, Dark RitualDark Ritual has the ramp tag, and Beast WithinBeast Within has the removal tag. EDHREC's tag system is really cool, too, letting users see popular cards associated with a given strategy.

For example, Storm-Kiln ArtistStorm-Kiln Artist is great in Spellslinger decks, and Juri, Master of the RevueJuri, Master of the Revue is great in sacrifice 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 focused on unblockable creatures. Magic's combat system can be so complicated sometimes… wouldn't it be nice to not have to worry about any of that?

I think the answer to that question is a resounding yes, so this week, I'll be focusing this week's edition of Archetypes of Imagination on creatures that are hard or impossible for our opponents to block, and then taking advantage of that unblockability. To that end, our commander this week is… Octavia, Living ThesisOctavia, Living Thesis!

“Octavia”“Octavia” is one of my favorite commanders, letting us turn some do-nothing 1/1 creatures into eight power beaters that'll take our opponents down quickly.

A good “Octavia”“Octavia” deck needs a few key ingredients: unblockable creatures, instants and sorceries to ensure those creatures are huge, and ways to fill the graveyard with instants and sorceries (so we can cast “Octavia”“Octavia” for just ). It seems like we've got our work cut out for us, so let's get going with this octo-centric deck!

Slipping through your fingers

We certainly aren't starved for unblockable creature options. There's 108 creatures in our commander's color identity that are unblockable, and even more that have some sort of evasion. But, we're here to take the best evasive creatures and throw them into the 99 of this deck, so let's talk about some of them.

First,there's the evasive creatures that provide some sort of card advantage or card selection. Cards like Ledger ShredderLedger Shredder, a growing evasive flyer that can fill our graveyard with instants and sorceries, Shoreline LooterShoreline Looter, a similar card selection engine that turns into a card advantage engine as the game goes on, and Ghostly PilfererGhostly Pilferer, a card advantage engine, unblockable creature, and discard outlet all-in-one.

There's also other evasive creatures that provide some sort of benefit beyond being hard to block. Siren StormtamerSiren Stormtamer is a neat pseudo-counterspell that protects whatever our best creature on board is, ensuring that we feel safe suiting one of our creatures up with “Octavia”“Octavia”'s 8-power buff. Invisible StalkerInvisible Stalker provides a similar amount of safety to go along with unblockability, ensuring it'll be safe from our opponents' single-target removal.

Lastly, there's Mercurial SpelldancerMercurial Spelldancer. This is one of my favorite cards from Phyrexia: All Will Be One. It can very easily provide copies of noncreature spells, which can combine extremely well with some high-mana-cost spells I'll touch on later in this writeup.

Because so many of our creatures will be punching through for combat damage consistently, I added a few “saboteur” effects to this deck: cards that have an effect when a creature deals combat damage to a player. My personal favorite is Drake HatcherDrake Hatcher.

Although this creature doesn't have much built in evasion, the threat of it becoming an 8/8 (or possibly even larger if we can trigger its prowess ability) is usually enough to let it connect with an opponent. When it does, we get rewarded with 2/2 DrakeDrake tokens.

If my math is correct, this creature will be a 9/9 after we trigger “Octavia”“Octavia”'s Magecraft ability and the Drake HatcherDrake Hatcher's prowess ability, meaning it'll provide us with 3 2/2 tokens after just one combat step. That's a lot of value attached to one creature.

I also really like Silent HallcreeperSilent Hallcreeper. Although it can only use each of its abilities once, those abilities are all really strong. Plus, it's naturally unblockable, meaning it'll always get to deal combat damage to a player.

Rounding out this group are Bident of ThassaBident of Thassa and The IndomitableThe Indomitable. Both of these provide card draw and some other upside (forced combat for the “Bident”“Bident” and a 6/6 trampling body for the “Pirate“Pirate), meaning they'll have some utility beyond extra card advantage.

Mill AND discard

This deck really excels with its commander on the battlefield, as its built around buffing evasive 1/1 creatures into much bigger threats. To get “Octavia”“Octavia” onto the battlefield early, we need lots of ways to fill the graveyard.

Two of my favorites are the pair of Deranged AssistantDeranged Assistant and MillikinMillikin. These are mana rocks (every deck needs ramp), creatures (meaning “Octavia”“Octavia” can turn them into 8/8s), and they mill us one card per turn (meaning they get us that much closer to casting our commander).

I've also included a selection of some of Magic's best looters, like Jace, Vryn's ProdigyJace, Vryn's Prodigy and Kitsa, Otterball EliteKitsa, Otterball Elite. “Jace”“Jace” flips into a powerful planeswalker, while “Kitsa”“Kitsa” can provide copies of our best spells.

Speaking of planeswalkers, Teferi, Master of TimeTeferi, Master of Time works beautifully in this deck. He can fill the graveyard, control our opponents' best threats, and even allow us to take some extra turns should he survive long enough.

There's also a few spells that can fill the graveyard, like Fact or FictionFact or Fiction and Intrude on the MindIntrude on the Mind. I really like Intrude on the MindIntrude on the Mind with “Octavia”“Octavia”, because the ThopterThopter token that the spell makes can be another evasive threat for our commander to buff up.

There's also the normal suite of cantrips (ConsiderConsider, OptOpt, BrainstormBrainstorm, etc.) that can provide some nice card selection while also being cheap enough to cast early and stick around in our graveyard.

Here's the full decklist:

Avenged EIGHTfold

Thanks for reading this week's column, everyone! Before you go, I wanted to talk about a few ways to take advantage of “Octavia”“Octavia”'s super high mana value. Although we'll usually be casting her for just , she still technically costs 10 mana.

Traverse EternityTraverse Eternity, Rush of KnowledgeRush of Knowledge, and Will of the TemurWill of the Temur can each draw us a truly absurd number of cards should they resolve. My favorite among these is Will of the TemurWill of the Temur, partially because I love Tarkir so much but also because it provides utility beyond simple card draw.

Thanks once again for reading! I'll see you all next week, for my next contribution to this series: a group hug deck!