<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Commander Eesha" href="#" target="_blank">Commander Eesha</a> | Art by <a href="http://www.rebeccaguay.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rebecca Guay</a>
Welcome to Technically Playable, where our mission statement is "Every commander is Technically playable" (the best kind of playable). The way this works is every article will have a commander generated using EDHREC's random button, I'll talk through the card and then write about how we can build around it.
This week's random commander is <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Commander Eesha" href="#" target="_blank">Commander Eesha</a>.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Commander Eesha"></div></div>
Eesha is one of those cards that feels like it was made for Technically Playable. An inefficient mana cost to effect ratio alongside a very niche ability that can be built around. Our absolute bread and butter.
Rebecca Guay is also one of my all-time favorite artists, so I'm always happy to turn any "bad" card she has done art for into a powerhouse.
<h2>Protecting the Bird</h2>
Protection from creatures is an amazing ability that allows us to not only avoid any creature-based targeted abilities and get through any blockers with no worries, but it also means Eesha ignores any damage that would be dealt to it from creatures.
Enter: <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Pariah" href="#" target="_blank">Pariah</a>. One of my favorite personal decks is my <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Wayta, Trainer Prodigy" href="#" target="_blank">Wayta, Trainer Prodigy</a> deck that plays around <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Brash Taunter" href="#" target="_blank">Brash Taunter</a> and cards like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Pariah" href="#" target="_blank">Pariah</a>. We can take a lot of inspiration from that deck here and build a deck that keeps us alive, pretty much forever.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Pariah"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="The Wanderer"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Vexilus Praetor"></div></div>
With Eesha, this gets dialed up to 11 with every card that redirects creature damage to <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Commander Eesha" href="#" target="_blank">Commander Eesha</a> being an effective <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Fog" href="#" target="_blank">Fog</a>. The permanents that do this obviously give us the most value. I've already mentioned <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Pariah" href="#" target="_blank">Pariah</a>, but the downside with that is that if Eesha is removed, you lose the Aura forever.
Enter: <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Pariah&#039;s Shield" href="#" target="_blank">Pariah&#039;s Shield</a>. For a higher upfront cost, we instead get a repeatable Pariah that we can put onto any creature we play.
But we can't just rely on Pariah-style effects forever; <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Swords to Plowshares" href="#" target="_blank">Swords to Plowshares</a> is legal in the format. We need to make sure that Eesha sticks around to take all of the damage.
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Blasphemous Act" href="#" target="_blank">Blasphemous Act</a> is one of the most popular board wipes in the format (in fact, it's the 10th most played card, overall). <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="The Wanderer" href="#" target="_blank">The Wanderer</a> does double duty in this deck by providing noncombat damage protection and also being able to remove any troublesome threats we might otherwise not be able to deal with.
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Vexilus Praetor" href="#" target="_blank">Vexilus Praetor</a> is another one that works really well to protect Eesha, acting as a great partner to <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Bastion Protector" href="#" target="_blank">Bastion Protector</a> to ensure our commander lives.
<h2>Blocking the Boards</h2>
Redirecting damage isn't the only way we can protect ourselves, though; there's always good old-fashioned blocking. Well, kind of "good old-fashioned." Realistically, what we're going to do is abuse effects that let us block additional creatures to make the most of our protection from creatures.
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Entangler" href="#" target="_blank">Entangler</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Brave the Sands" href="#" target="_blank">Brave the Sands</a> are always my go-to cards for this. Entangler lets you block as many as you want, while Brave the Sands lets you play aggressively at the same time, allowing you to protect yourself while still being able to play with a defensive mindset.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Entangler"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Hundred-Handed One"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Shaman en-Kor"></div></div>
We can also run some creatures that have similar effects. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Hundred-Handed One" href="#" target="_blank">Hundred-Handed One</a> (a little bit of bias from me since it was one of the first rares I ever opened) as well as <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Guardian of the Gateless" href="#" target="_blank">Guardian of the Gateless</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Wall of Glare" href="#" target="_blank">Wall of Glare</a> are all great options of creatures that don't need Entangler to block an entire board.
The unfortunate thing is that neither of these has any kind of protection, so they will need something like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Darksteel Plate" href="#" target="_blank">Darksteel Plate</a> or <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Avacyn, Angel of Hope" href="#" target="_blank">Avacyn, Angel of Hope</a> to effectively block lots of creatures.
We can also use the en-Kor cards, like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Nomads en-Kor" href="#" target="_blank">Nomads en-Kor</a>, or my personal favorite <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Shaman en-Kor" href="#" target="_blank">Shaman en-Kor</a>. All of these en-Kor creatures have the same zero mana ability that allows us to redirect damage from them to another creature. This means we can block any size of creature with our extremely cheap blockers and redirect all of that damage to <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Commander Eesha" href="#" target="_blank">Commander Eesha</a>.
We can also run <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Cho-Manno, Revolutionary" href="#" target="_blank">Cho-Manno, Revolutionary</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Dawn Elemental" href="#" target="_blank">Dawn Elemental</a> as other backup Eeshas that we can also redirect damage from noncreature sources to.
I really like Shaman en-Kor because it allows you to not only redirect damage from itself to another creature, but from other creatures to it. This means we can save Eesha from noncreature damage like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Blasphemous Act" href="#" target="_blank">Blasphemous Act</a> for the low, low cost of two mana.
<h2>Winning the Game With Commander Eesha</h2>
As always, I like to make sure that there is some way that these commanders can actually win games. I'm all for playing durdley decks that do nothing most of the time (I have an <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Angus Mackenzie" href="#" target="_blank">Angus Mackenzie</a> deck...), but it's important that those decks aren't just slowing everyone else down, and are actually working towards some kind of goal.
As I mentioned above, this deck will rely a lot on <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Commander Eesha" href="#" target="_blank">Commander Eesha</a>'s inability to be blocked as our main pathway to victory. Cards like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Inquisitor&#039;s Flail" href="#" target="_blank">Inquisitor&#039;s Flail</a> work particularly well with Eesha, allowing us to deal more damage while having a downside that we simply ignore since we cannot be blocked (and if Eesha blocks, we ignore the damage anyway). But Eesha is pretty small, only a 2/4, so we need some extra heft behind these attacks.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Inquisitor&#039;s Flail"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Strata Scythe"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Colossus Hammer"></div></div>
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Blackblade Reforged" href="#" target="_blank">Blackblade Reforged</a> is normally my go-to since you benefit from just playing the game. But since we are a single-colored deck, we can leverage <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Strata Scythe" href="#" target="_blank">Strata Scythe</a> by exiling a Plains to make sure we get a huge amount of additional power and toughness as the game goes longer.
And of course, we can go with the simple beat sticks to buff Eesha. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Ogre&#039;s Cleaver" href="#" target="_blank">Ogre&#039;s Cleaver</a> is a very simple but elegant way to get Eesha to that key power of seven that allows us to kill our opponents in three attacks while <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Colossus Hammer" href="#" target="_blank">Colossus Hammer</a> makes Eesha a two-shot kill and thanks to our protection from creatures losing flying is basically irrelevant.
We can play a couple of underutilized cards in this deck to really good effect. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Sublime Archangel" href="#" target="_blank">Sublime Archangel</a> turns all of our little utility creatures like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Nomads en-Kor" href="#" target="_blank">Nomads en-Kor</a> or <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Guardian of the Gateless" href="#" target="_blank">Guardian of the Gateless</a> into buffs for Eesha and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rammas Echor, Ancient Shield" href="#" target="_blank">Rammas Echor, Ancient Shield</a>, while not quite as powerful as Sublime Archangel, has the benefit of allowing us to create a board of Walls to help us survive if Eesha is removed. Rammas Echor also lets us run cards like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Wall of Glare" href="#" target="_blank">Wall of Glare</a> or even <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Wall of Omens" href="#" target="_blank">Wall of Omens</a> without the downside of them not actually helping us to win the game.
The way I'd choose to win is an easy one, just like my <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Wayta, Trainer Prodigy" href="#" target="_blank">Wayta, Trainer Prodigy</a> deck: turn my opponents' power against them. While Eesha doesn't have access to <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Brash Taunter" href="#" target="_blank">Brash Taunter</a>, and sadly also doesn't have access to hybrid mana cards like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Boros Reckoner" href="#" target="_blank">Boros Reckoner</a> or <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Spitemare" href="#" target="_blank">Spitemare</a>, Phyrexia: All Will be One has given us something almost as good in the form of <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Phyrexian Vindicator" href="#" target="_blank">Phyrexian Vindicator</a>.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Sublime Archangel"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Rammas Echor, Ancient Shield"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Phyrexian Vindicator"></div></div>
Using cards like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Pariah&#039;s Shield" href="#" target="_blank">Pariah&#039;s Shield</a> or even <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Gideon&#039;s Sacrifice" href="#" target="_blank">Gideon&#039;s Sacrifice</a> or <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="General&#039;s Regalia" href="#" target="_blank">General&#039;s Regalia</a> we can easily turn our opponents' boards against them in a real <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Deflecting Palm" href="#" target="_blank">Deflecting Palm</a> vs <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Emrakul, the Aeons Torn" href="#" target="_blank">Emrakul, the Aeons Torn</a> style moment, allowing us to turn the tables on decks that have access to more powerful creatures than us.
Of course, you can also just run something like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Approach of the Second Sun" href="#" target="_blank">Approach of the Second Sun</a> or <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="The Millennium Calendar" href="#" target="_blank">The Millennium Calendar</a>, but I'll save talking more about those until I get a real pillow fort commander.
As with all Technically Playable articles, this was a very quick look at <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Commander Eesha" href="#" target="_blank">Commander Eesha</a> as a commander, and a few of the cards that can really make a deck with Eesha as the commander tick. Let me know in the comments below if you play Commander Eesha, if you want to build a Commander Eesha deck, or even if you just enjoyed this article!

Dealing Lethal Commander Damage With Commander Eesha

<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kodama of the North Tree" href="#" target="_blank">Kodama of the North Tree</a> | Art by <a href="https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3A%E2%80%9CShishizaru%E2%80%9D&amp;unique=art" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shishizaru</a>
Welcome to Technically Playable, where our mission statement is "Every commander is technically playable" (the best kind of playable). The way this works is every article will have a commander generated using EDHREC's random button, I'll talk through the card, then write about how we can build around it!
This week's random commander is:
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Kodama of the North Tree"></div></div>
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kodama of the North Tree" href="#" target="_blank">Kodama of the North Tree</a> is a really weird commander. With six power, it's fairly clear that you want to be beating down your opponents with commander damage, but at the same time it has shroud, so it can't be targeted by any Auras or Equipment to make it bigger.
<h2>Bringing The Power</h2>
So, without the ability to attach <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kodama of the North Tree" href="#" target="_blank">Kodama of the North Tree</a> with Auras or Equipment, we have to look at some workarounds to make Kodama stronger. The main ways of doing this are anthems and effects that have the word "all" in them.
<h3>Anthems</h3>
An "anthem" is a term originating from <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Glorious Anthem" href="#" target="_blank">Glorious Anthem</a> and effectively relates to any card that buffs all of your creatures' power or toughness. While the majority of these are in white, green does have a few options.
The most typical of these are <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Sylvan Anthem" href="#" target="_blank">Sylvan Anthem</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Gaea&#039;s Anthem" href="#" target="_blank">Gaea&#039;s Anthem</a>, but since we're mono-green, we can run <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kaysa" href="#" target="_blank">Kaysa</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Hall of Triumph" href="#" target="_blank">Hall of Triumph</a>, too. These are what I would consider "traditional" anthems, as close as possible to <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Glorious Anthem" href="#" target="_blank">Glorious Anthem</a> as possible with some minor tweaks. These all work amazingly with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kodama of the North Tree" href="#" target="_blank">Kodama of the North Tree</a>, buffing its power and toughness without needing to target it. In addition, you only need one of these to get to that magic seven power.
But we also have some less typical but arguably more powerful anthems. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Beastmaster Ascension" href="#" target="_blank">Beastmaster Ascension</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Thunderfoot Baloth" href="#" target="_blank">Thunderfoot Baloth</a>, and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Eldrazi Monument" href="#" target="_blank">Eldrazi Monument</a> all fall under this umbrella. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Thunderfoot Baloth" href="#" target="_blank">Thunderfoot Baloth</a> is probably the closest to our <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Gaea&#039;s Anthem" href="#" target="_blank">Gaea&#039;s Anthem</a>-style cards, but with the necessity of having your commander in play to get the benefit (spoiler: we always want our commander in play in this deck). <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Beastmaster Ascension" href="#" target="_blank">Beastmaster Ascension</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Eldrazi Monument" href="#" target="_blank">Eldrazi Monument</a>, on the other hand, are where we start to stray from our typical idea of what an anthem is, with the Ascension not even doing anything until you attack with enough creatures and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Eldrazi Monument" href="#" target="_blank">Eldrazi Monument</a> needing you to sacrifice your own creatures. These both work amazingly well with tokens, an archetype that often works really well with anthems, but I'll talk more about that later.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Sylvan Anthem"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Gaea&#039;s Anthem"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Beastmaster Ascension"></div></div>
<h3>Technically Not "Anthems"</h3>
At the other end of the spectrum, we have board-wide buffs that work amazingly well but that really stray from that idea of what an "anthem" is. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Unnatural Growth" href="#" target="_blank">Unnatural Growth</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus" href="#" target="_blank">Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus</a> are two really good examples of this, cards that buff your whole board immensely but that only work when your creatures are already fairly large. This works well with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kodama of the North Tree" href="#" target="_blank">Kodama of the North Tree</a>'s already sizable stats and only gets better the more other anthems we have (essentially doubling the buffs from our other anthems).
This can also be extended to some of the +1/+1 counter cards that use the word "all". <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Nissa, Voice of Zendikar" href="#" target="_blank">Nissa, Voice of Zendikar</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Loyal Guardian" href="#" target="_blank">Loyal Guardian</a> both give permanent buffs to your board even if they're removed, and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Defiler of Vigor" href="#" target="_blank">Defiler of Vigor</a> both buffs your board while also making your spells cheaper to cast (we've got 40 life, no need to fret about spending a few of it on our spells).
And even further straying from the idea of an anthem are cards like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Ohran Frostfang" href="#" target="_blank">Ohran Frostfang</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Asceticism" href="#" target="_blank">Asceticism</a>. The Frostfang doesn't buff your board's power or toughness but does provide a powerful keyword and card advantage. Both of these effects are amazing with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kodama of the North Tree" href="#" target="_blank">Kodama of the North Tree</a>'s trample ensuring you can get damage through no matter the size of the blocker thanks to the deathtouch and trample combo while also drawing extra cards. In a similar vein, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Asceticism" href="#" target="_blank">Asceticism</a> gives us a way to keep our already hard-to-kill commander alive by allowing us to regenerate through any non-<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Wrath of God" href="#" target="_blank">Wrath of God</a> board wipes.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Unnatural Growth"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Loyal Guardian"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Ohran Frostfang"></div></div>
<h2>Making the Most of Your Buffs</h2>
While our main gameplan is to dump a bunch of buffs and then crash in with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kodama of the North Tree" href="#" target="_blank">Kodama of the North Tree</a> to get to that 21 commander damage threshold, it's always good to have a backup plan for when your Orzhov opponent casts their eighth <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Damnation" href="#" target="_blank">Damnation</a>. As I mentioned above, one of the best ways to leverage the buffs from having a bunch of anthems or other buffs in play is to generate a bunch of tokens and try to go wider than your opponents; luckily, green offers a smorgasbord of ways to make tokens. When you look at the <a href="https://edhrec.com/tags/tokens/mono-green">mono-green tokens page</a> on EDHREC, we are immediately met with the goofy little <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Shroofus Sproutsire" href="#" target="_blank">Shroofus Sproutsire</a>. Now, not only is his name amazingly fun to say, he also synergizes super well with our anthem core, using the buffs to make more tokens, which then also benefit from the board-wide buffs, with trample to top it all off. In terms of other good synergies with our anthems, we can also use <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Tendershoot Dryad" href="#" target="_blank">Tendershoot Dryad</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Verdant Force" href="#" target="_blank">Verdant Force</a> to get tokens in everyone else's turn, too.
If you decide to go down the +1/+1 counter route, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mycoloth" href="#" target="_blank">Mycoloth</a> is a huge player in these kinds of decks, and with cards like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Defiler of Vigor" href="#" target="_blank">Defiler of Vigor</a> or <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Bristly Bill, Spine Sower" href="#" target="_blank">Bristly Bill, Spine Sower</a>, you can easily take over a game. If you decide to do this, I'd definitely focus more on the Saproling archetype and get cards like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Brightcap Badger" href="#" target="_blank">Brightcap Badger</a> to make the most out of each token. For a counter-focused deck <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Aeve, Progenitor Ooze" href="#" target="_blank">Aeve, Progenitor Ooze</a> also does a lot of work by giving you a large threat that you can use at instant speed to get value out of any spellslinger player's big turns, while <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Ruxa, Patient Professor" href="#" target="_blank">Ruxa, Patient Professor</a> takes advantage of the fact that the majority of tokens have no abilities giving you some evasion to get damage through any board stalls that may form.
I could also talk about <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Scute Swarm" href="#" target="_blank">Scute Swarm</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Craterhoof Behemoth" href="#" target="_blank">Craterhoof Behemoth</a> here, but I feel like I don't really need to go into much detail about them. They're obviously very good in token decks, run them.
But buffing a bunch of tokens isn't our only way to take advantage of our buffs. My normal go-to card draw in a deck that buffs like this would be <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Last March of the Ents" href="#" target="_blank">Last March of the Ents</a>, but since <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kodama of the North Tree" href="#" target="_blank">Kodama of the North Tree</a>'s power is quite a lot higher than its toughness, it's actually better to use cards like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rishkar&#039;s Expertise" href="#" target="_blank">Rishkar&#039;s Expertise</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Soul&#039;s Majesty" href="#" target="_blank">Soul&#039;s Majesty</a>. What makes Rishkar's Expertise particularly good is that it allows you not only the draw but also the ability to play almost all of your anthems, with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Thunderfoot Baloth" href="#" target="_blank">Thunderfoot Baloth</a> being the only one that's too expensive. I'm a huge fan of all of these cards that draw you exponentially more cards based on a creature's power, or the number of creatures in play, and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Become the Avalanche" href="#" target="_blank">Become the Avalanche</a> is one that I'll likely look to grab a couple of copies of. In this deck, it acts as a perfect finisher alongside a couple of anthems since they will bring any of your smaller creatures up to the four power needed to draw. In a dream scenario, you'll want to cast this after a <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Soul&#039;s Majesty" href="#" target="_blank">Soul&#039;s Majesty</a>-type effect to really make your board a huge threat.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Shroofus Sproutsire"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Mycoloth"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Become the Avalanche"></div></div>
As with all Technically Playable articles, this was a very quick look at <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kodama of the North Tree" href="#" target="_blank">Kodama of the North Tree</a> as a commander, and a few of the cards that can really make a deck with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kodama of the North Tree" href="#" target="_blank">Kodama of the North Tree</a> as the commander tick. Let me know in the comments below if you play <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kodama of the North Tree" href="#" target="_blank">Kodama of the North Tree</a>, if you want to build a <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kodama of the North Tree" href="#" target="_blank">Kodama of the North Tree</a> deck, or even if you just enjoyed this article!

Technically Playable - Kodama of the North Tree

Event Spotlight - CommandFest UK

The Best Ways to Play Kaheera, the Orphanguard in Commander

Technically Playable - Sauron, the Necromancer

<h6 style="text-align: right;">(<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr" href="#" target="_blank">Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr</a> | Art by <a href="https://www.artstation.com/castaguer">Manuel Castañón</a>)</h6>
<h1>Technically Playable - <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr" href="#" target="_blank">Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr</a></h1>
Welcome to Technically Playable, where our mission statement is "Every commander is Technically playable" (the best kind of playable).
The way this works is every article will have a commander generated using EDHREC's random button, I'll talk through the card and then write about how we can build around it!
This week's random commander is <div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr"></div></div>
This version of Katilda is another one of those Commanders that feels really split between what it wants. On the one hand, you want some Spirit synergies, but on the other, you want to load up on as many enchantments as you can.
And while they both buff Katilda you don't want to split yourself too much on the synergies between them. No one wants a handful of Spirits with only enchantment payoffs.
<h2>In the Spirit of the game</h2>
Spirits are inherently a fairly aggressive creature type. Since a lot of them fly, they get around the issue that some other, lower to the ground, creature types like Goblins and Soldiers struggle with.
Spirits still gain the lords that other types get in the form of <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Drogskol Captain" href="#" target="_blank">Drogskol Captain</a> (which also provides hexproof, completely bonkers) and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Supreme Phantom" href="#" target="_blank">Supreme Phantom</a> while getting cards like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Selfless Spirit" href="#" target="_blank">Selfless Spirit</a> to keep their board healthy and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Shacklegeist" href="#" target="_blank">Shacklegeist</a> which helps to lock down boards that threaten you like Dragons and Demons.
Unfortunately Katilda is only white, so we're not able to run a lot of the good cards in the same way a deck like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Millicent, Restless Revenant" href="#" target="_blank">Millicent, Restless Revenant</a> or <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Ranar the Ever-Watchful" href="#" target="_blank">Ranar the Ever-Watchful</a> might, so we need to find other ways to make our Spirits dangerous in the same way.
Luckily, there are now 6,802 white cards legal in Commander (of which 163 are Spirits), so we have some to work with.
With only 143 decks of their own <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Oyobi, Who Split the Heavens" href="#" target="_blank">Oyobi, Who Split the Heavens</a> may seem like a weak card, being a 3/6 for seven mana, but let's be honest.
In Commander, you often have seven mana by turn four or five, even in white, and Oyobi is incredibly powerful in any deck that cares about Spirits, and doubly so with a card like Katilda that needs as many Spirits as possible.
Effectively, what Oyobi does is make each Spirit you cast double up the power and toughness that it gives to Katilda while also creating a sizeable flying body that can help to keep you alive while you keep the pressure on with Katilda's commander damage.
Mono-white Spirits don't get cheap lords like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Drogskol Captain" href="#" target="_blank">Drogskol Captain</a>, but that doesn't mean they get no lords at all. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Gallows Warden" href="#" target="_blank">Gallows Warden</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Spirit of the Spires" href="#" target="_blank">Spirit of the Spires</a> are both half a lord, only buffing toughness while <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Long-Forgotten Gohei" href="#" target="_blank">Long-Forgotten Gohei</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Celestial Crusader" href="#" target="_blank">Celestial Crusader</a> act as lords closer to the kinds you expect in a kindred deck like this.
Additionally, white also gets <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Drogskol Reinforcements" href="#" target="_blank">Drogskol Reinforcements</a>. While not a traditional lord, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Drogskol Reinforcements" href="#" target="_blank">Drogskol Reinforcements</a> gives all of your Spirits melee, which allows each one to get a max of +3/+3 as long as you are consistently aggressive, something this deck wants to be doing anyway.
And, of course, you need to be able to close out games. Chipping down your opponents with an array of cheap fliers often gets you there, and even though it isn't a Spirit, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Priest of the Blessed Graf" href="#" target="_blank">Priest of the Blessed Graf</a> does give you access to a consistently large board in part thanks to the lack of ramp that often plagues mono-white decks.
Being able to make a lot of flying threats works perfectly with the deck's best finisher (and it's not even really close either) <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Moonshaker Cavalry" href="#" target="_blank">Moonshaker Cavalry</a>.
Often heralded as the mono-white <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Craterhoof Behemoth" href="#" target="_blank">Craterhoof Behemoth</a>, and for good reason. Giving all of your 1/1 fliers +x/+x for each creature you control and also give any non-fliers the evasive keyword as well will very often be enough to close out a game, even against the most resilient board states.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Oyobi, Who Split the Heavens"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Drogskol Reinforcements"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Priest of the Blessed Graf"></div></div>
<h2>An enchanting alternative</h2>
But Katilda doesn't just care about Spirits, it also cares about the number of enchantments that you have. This version of the deck focuses much more on getting an evasive or a hard-to-kill threat, like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Geist of Saint Traft" href="#" target="_blank">Geist of Saint Traft</a>, and using that to close out games.
Katilda is one part of this strategy but you can only enchant its disturb side once it's already died. Instead, we want to use cards like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Ethereal Armor" href="#" target="_blank">Ethereal Armor</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="All That Glitters" href="#" target="_blank">All That Glitters</a> to emulate the effect without the keyword.
The main issue with these Aura style decks is that you can easily run out of gas because they are so cheap to cast, and if you stack them onto one creature that then dies, you quickly lose them all.
To get around this we can use <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mesa Enchantress" href="#" target="_blank">Mesa Enchantress</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Sram, Senior Edificer" href="#" target="_blank">Sram, Senior Edificer</a> and the new(ish) <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Enduring Innocence" href="#" target="_blank">Enduring Innocence</a> to keep our hand full and then you can use <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mantle of the Ancients" href="#" target="_blank">Mantle of the Ancients</a> to return any Auras should your creatures die.
We can also quickly stack up our enchantment count in other ways. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Ondu Spiritdancer" href="#" target="_blank">Ondu Spiritdancer</a> is a really powerful option that allows you to copy the first enchantment you cast each turn.
This can very quickly get out of hand by copying something like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Sigil of the Empty Throne" href="#" target="_blank">Sigil of the Empty Throne</a> to fill the board with angels or <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Soaring Lightbringer" href="#" target="_blank">Soaring Lightbringer</a> to make a ton of enchantment birds every time you attack.
You can also use this defensively by making copies of <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Ghostly Prison" href="#" target="_blank">Ghostly Prison</a> or <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Sphere of Safety" href="#" target="_blank">Sphere of Safety</a> to keep you alive until you can meet the critical mass of enchantments needed to either lock down the board or make Katilda into a one-shot machine.
If you decide to go down the Aura route, you can also run <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Light-Paws, Emperor&#039;s Voice" href="#" target="_blank">Light-Paws, Emperor&#039;s Voice</a>, and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Pearl-Ear, Imperial Advisor" href="#" target="_blank">Pearl-Ear, Imperial Advisor</a>. Both of these cards have amazing synergy with Auras by giving you either card advantage in the form of raw card draw or the ability to search for silver bullet Auras, as well as (in the case of Pearl-Ear) making all of your enchantments cheaper.
This can lead to some really powerful turns by giving you access to cheap versions of <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Eldrazi Conscription" href="#" target="_blank">Eldrazi Conscription</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mammoth Umbra" href="#" target="_blank">Mammoth Umbra</a>, and the new <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Tempest Technique" href="#" target="_blank">Tempest Technique</a> to finish a turn off after casting a ton of cheap Auras.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Ethereal Armor"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Enduring Innocence"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Ondu Spiritdancer"></div></div>
<h2>Por que no los dos?</h2>
But of course, you don't need to just go for one or the other. There are plenty of Spirits and enchantments to go around, and surprisingly, a lot of them synergize really well with each other.
One of the effects that seems to be very prevalent is creating Spirit tokens based on the number of enchantments you have. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Hallowed Haunting" href="#" target="_blank">Hallowed Haunting</a> was one of the earlier cards to do this and remains one of the more powerful.
<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Hallowed Haunting" href="#" target="_blank">Hallowed Haunting</a> plays similarly to <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Sigil of the Empty Throne" href="#" target="_blank">Sigil of the Empty Throne</a> by giving you creatures whenever you play enchantments. The main difference here is that each of these Spirits is a mini <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr" href="#" target="_blank">Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr</a> that grows based on your number of enchantments.
If you can play this on turn four and then play six more enchantments, you end up with six 7/7s, each with flying and vigilance, a board that needs to be wiped.
In a similar vein, Duskmourn gave us <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Ghostly Dancers" href="#" target="_blank">Ghostly Dancers</a> an enchantment specific <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Eternal Witness" href="#" target="_blank">Eternal Witness</a> that also gives you a 3/1 flier every time an enchantment enters the battlefield.
This important part here is that unlike <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Hallowed Haunting" href="#" target="_blank">Hallowed Haunting</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Sigil of the Empty Throne" href="#" target="_blank">Sigil of the Empty Throne</a> it says enters instead of cast  meaning if you run it alongside anything that makes enchantment tokens like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Soaring Lightbringer" href="#" target="_blank">Soaring Lightbringer</a> you can make a huge board very quickly.
There are also some Spirits that double up as enchantments. A lot of the bestow cards are Spirits, this means you can benefit from both the Spirit and enchantment synergies. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Indebted Spirit" href="#" target="_blank">Indebted Spirit</a> gives you a really cheap option to bestow as well as having afterlife, creating another Spirit when it dies.
While it does synergise well <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Indebted Spirit" href="#" target="_blank">Indebted Spirit</a> is, however, pretty low on the power level of these kinds of effects. For this deck in particular, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Eidolon of Countless Battles" href="#" target="_blank">Eidolon of Countless Battles</a> really pulls double duty by effectively being a second Katilda that you can equip to it if needed to halve the number of creatures and enchantments needed to get to that magical 21 commander damage.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Hallowed Haunting"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Ghostly Dancers"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Eidolon of Countless Battles"></div></div>
As with all Technically Playable articles, this was a very quick look at <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr" href="#" target="_blank">Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr</a> as a commander and a few of the cards that can really make a deck with Katilda as the commander tick.
Let me know in the comments below if you play <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr" href="#" target="_blank">Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr</a>, if you want to build a <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr" href="#" target="_blank">Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr</a> deck, or even if you just enjoyed this article!

Technically Playable - Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr

Technically Playable - Henrika Domnathi

<h6 style="text-align: right;">(<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mannichi, the Fevered Dream" href="#" target="_blank">Mannichi, the Fevered Dream</a> | Art by <a href="https://x.com/pilcerova?lang=en">Martina Pilcerova</a>)</h6>
<h1 style="text-align: left;">Technically Playable - <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mannichi, the Fevered Dream" href="#" target="_blank">Mannichi, the Fevered Dream</a></h1>
Welcome to Technically Playable, where our mission statement is "Every commander is Technically playable" (the best kind of playable).
The way this works is every article will have a commander generated using EDHREC's random button, I'll talk through the card and then write about how we can build around it!
This week's random commander is
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Mannichi, the Fevered Dream"></div></div>
When I started playing Magic (what must have been about 10 years ago now) I was very much a mono-white player. Not entirely because I got an <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Elspeth, Sun&#039;s Champion" href="#" target="_blank">Elspeth, Sun&#039;s Champion</a> from one of my early drafts, but it certainly helped.
As I pivoted to playing Standard a little more competitively I was introduced to the glory of mono-red through <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Goblin Rabblemaster" href="#" target="_blank">Goblin Rabblemaster</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Stoke the Flames" href="#" target="_blank">Stoke the Flames</a>.
My all time best event I went 5-0 at a GP main event that I didn't even want to play in before losing three rounds and dropping because I was no longer in the running for day two of the event.
Since those early Rabblemaster-filled days I've been a huge fan of red decks. Mono-Red, Jund, Rakdos Reanimator, I love them all.
It was also around this time that I was introduced to my one true love <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Daretti, Scrap Savant" href="#" target="_blank">Daretti, Scrap Savant</a> and I decided that I was absolutely going to build a deck for every single mono-red commander.
Fast forward to today and sadly between playing the game less often and not being able to keep up with releases, I no longer have that dream, but the endless hours looking at the mono-red EDHREC page have stuck with me. So when I saw <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mannichi, the Fevered Dream" href="#" target="_blank">Mannichi, the Fevered Dream</a> was the commander for this article I was overcome with nostalgia.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Goblin Rabblemaster"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Stoke the Flames"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Daretti, Scrap Savant"></div></div>
<h2>Can't Block This!</h2>
Mannichi's main goal is to make a bunch of creatures have huge toughness, get them through unblocked and then switch their power and toughness for some solid damage.
This would be really easy to do if you were in blue and had access to skulk-enablers and cards like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive" href="#" target="_blank">Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive</a> to ensure you could get your low powered creatures through.
Unfortunately these types of effects are not as common in red, but they do definitely exist.
The best of these is probably <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Break Through the Line" href="#" target="_blank">Break Through the Line</a> as it is repeatable and unlike cards like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Goblin Tunneler" href="#" target="_blank">Goblin Tunneler</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Pathmaker Initiate" href="#" target="_blank">Pathmaker Initiate</a> it doesn't need haste to be usable.
In the same vein <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Subira, Tulzidi Caravanner" href="#" target="_blank">Subira, Tulzidi Caravanner</a>, is also a great fit here and while it is susceptible to a wider range of removal, it also has the upside of an ability that can potentially fill up your hand if you decide not to switch any of your creatures power and toughness after the blocking step has passed.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Break Through the Line"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Subira, Tulzidi Caravanner"></div></div>
<h2>The Best Defense is a Good Offense</h2>
But just getting your creatures through isn't enough. Swapping a <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Wildfire Eternal" href="#" target="_blank">Wildfire Eternal</a>'s power to four is good but it's not enough to win in a game of Commander, so we need to beef up those numbers.
The goal here is to beef the creature's toughness up without getting their power too high so that we can still use our <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Break Through the Line" href="#" target="_blank">Break Through the Line</a> effects to ensure our creatures connect.
Luckily, there's an Equipment (or loads of Equipment) for that. Probably the best option is <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Slagwurm Armor" href="#" target="_blank">Slagwurm Armor</a>, this card effectively gives your creature six extra power while not making it untargetable by the unblockable effects that we are running.
Similarly but with smaller numbers are <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Accorder&#039;s Shield" href="#" target="_blank">Accorder&#039;s Shield</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Cathar&#039;s Shield" href="#" target="_blank">Cathar&#039;s Shield</a>, which are free to cast and give +0/+3 with the downside of being expensive to equip, so you may want to consider something like an <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Armory Automaton" href="#" target="_blank">Armory Automaton</a> or a <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Brass Squire" href="#" target="_blank">Brass Squire</a> to help.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Slagwurm Armor"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Cathar&#039;s Shield"></div></div>
We also have access to some creatures that are great at this by default. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Dancing Scimitar" href="#" target="_blank">Dancing Scimitar</a> becomes an unblockable 5/1 flier that can easily remove planeswalkers, or with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Slagwurm Armor" href="#" target="_blank">Slagwurm Armor</a> can deal 11 damage to a player each time it attacks.
Similarly, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Ensouled Scimitar" href="#" target="_blank">Ensouled Scimitar</a> can become a <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Dancing Scimitar" href="#" target="_blank">Dancing Scimitar</a> or give another creature the +1/+5 buff.
Equipping an Ensouled Scimitar to a Dancing Scimitar gives you an unblockable 2/10 that ends up dealing 10 damage while still remaining a legal target for any of your unblockable buffs.
We can also go a little larger on the scale with creatures like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Earth Servant" href="#" target="_blank">Earth Servant</a> who can deal huge amounts of damage thanks to being in a mono-red deck but trade off the ability to be unblockable for that raw power.
The Modern Horizons 3 Commander decks have also given us <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Inversion Behemoth" href="#" target="_blank">Inversion Behemoth</a>, a back up to Mannichi's ability and a solid beater that can still be made unblockable with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Break Through the Line" href="#" target="_blank">Break Through the Line</a>.
One small benefit of this is that because it says "any number", you can pick and choose the creatures whose power and toughness you want to change at the beginning of combat. This means you'll never accidently punish yourself by forcing all of your own creatures to change before you make them unblockable.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Ensouled Scimitar"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Earth Servant"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Inversion Behemoth"></div></div>
<h2>I Just Think They're Neat</h2>
As well as our hard hitters and our unblockable-enablers there are a lot of small interactions with Mannichi's ability that make a lot of cards you might never think of playing in Commander into real powerhouses.
One of the best ways to play Mannichi is with the wide array of weak power, higher toughness double striking creatures in the game. The way to balance double strike in Draft is to make the creature quite weak but with a reasonable toughness to survive combat. This makes Mannichi great by allowing you to swap the power and toughness around to make them deal a ton of damage.
Cards like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Two-Headed Cerberus" href="#" target="_blank">Two-Headed Cerberus</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Raging Redcap" href="#" target="_blank">Raging Redcap</a> are suddenly viable but the best of the bunch is definitely <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Efreet Flamepainter" href="#" target="_blank">Efreet Flamepainter</a>, a 4/1 after Mannichi's ability that also allows you to play instants and sorceries for free, an absolutely amazing card that probably doesn't get the love it deserves in a format for of 10 mana spells.
This strategy also makes one of my all-time favorite underrated cards, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Prophetic Flamespeaker" href="#" target="_blank">Prophetic Flamespeaker</a> playable as well. The big benefit of the Flamespeaker is access to trample, this means that if you are blocked you can still swap its power and toughness to try to get damage through to be able to trigger its effect.
This in conjunction with the first strike part of double strike means you can potentially kill an opponent's creature and trample over on both of the strikes giving you a swing on the board and in card advantage.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Raging Redcap"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Efreet Flamepainter"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Prophetic Flamespeaker"></div></div>
There are also some really powerful cards that can quickly win you the game, as long as you're willing to put some effort in. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Ogre Menial" href="#" target="_blank">Ogre Menial</a> is an incredibly powerful creature that with some of the Equipment I talked about above, can easily one-shot an opponent. The issue is ensuring you get its power above zero to ensure it doesn't die when you activate Mannichi.
I've already mentioned <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Efreet Flamepainter" href="#" target="_blank">Efreet Flamepainter</a> above but <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Wildfire Eternal" href="#" target="_blank">Wildfire Eternal</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Dreadhorde Arcanist" href="#" target="_blank">Dreadhorde Arcanist</a> also work extremely well at getting instants and sorceries out of your hand for free.
Being able to make <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Wildfire Eternal" href="#" target="_blank">Wildfire Eternal</a> unblockable and then playing something like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Soulfire Eruption" href="#" target="_blank">Soulfire Eruption</a> or even something like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Chandra&#039;s Ignition" href="#" target="_blank">Chandra&#039;s Ignition</a> can quickly close out a game that's stalled.
Lastly is <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Baeloth Barrityl, Entertainer" href="#" target="_blank">Baeloth Barrityl, Entertainer</a>, for two mana Baeloth lets you goad everything that isn't a huge beater, giving you some instant speed protection from those pesky tempo decks that may be able to kill you before you can get set up.
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Ogre Menial"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Wildfire Eternal"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Baeloth Barrityl, Entertainer"></div></div>
I've really enjoyed this nostalgic walk down memory lane, looking at some of the sweet new cards that are great with Mannichi as well as reminders of the old but gold ones from when I've brewed this deck in the past. I have loved writing this article so I hope you enjoy it just as much.
As with all Technically Playable articles, this was a very quick look at <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mannichi, the Fevered Dream" href="#" target="_blank">Mannichi, the Fevered Dream</a> as a commander, and a few of the cards that can really make a deck with Mannichi as the commander tick.
Let me know in the comments below if you play <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mannichi, the Fevered Dream" href="#" target="_blank">Mannichi, the Fevered Dream</a>, if you want to build a <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mannichi, the Fevered Dream" href="#" target="_blank">Mannichi, the Fevered Dream</a> deck, or even if you just enjoyed this article!

Paul Palmer