Victor, Valgavoth's SeneschalVictor, Valgavoth's Seneschal | art by Jeremy Wilson

Welcome back to Bottom of the Barrel! This is a series where we pick a theme from EDHREC and look at the “bottom of the barrel.” This means that we look at the least played color-combinations and pick a commander in those colors to brew a spicy new deck around!

Today's edition focuses on a mechanic that allows an overlooked new commander to shine: sagas. According to EDHREC, the most popular color combination for decks themed around sagas is Abzan (white, black, and green). Thanks to Narci, Fable SingerNarci, Fable Singer coming out with Commander Masters, this stat isn't surprising.

We always look at the "bottom of the barrel" with this series, but I bent the rules a little with this one. The lowest played color for the saga theme is mono-red, with 3 decks listed in the database.

Aside from Abzan and Naya (red, green, and white), most other colors aren't very popular for sagas. Most other color identities are under 100 decks, so it allowed a lot of space for experimentation.

With this in mind, I figured we could highlight an underplayed Duskmourn commander: Victor, Valgavoth's Seneschal. Orzhov (black and white) is at 59 decks in the database, and Victor only has 1 deck themed around sagas on the website, so this seems like the perfect choice!

Category #1A: Messing With Lore Counters

Sagas are an interesting card type because they only stick around for a little while before they are either transformed or sacrificed. With this in mind, it's important to note that we can manipulate their lore counters in order to keep them around for longer. This allows us to control when something is transformed or sacrificed, and that can help us to plan ahead for a massive turn.

Cards that shine in this category are: Ferropede to guarantee we can reset 1 chapter of a saga we control each combat; Power Conduit to pump up a creature we control while letting us reset a chapter; Hex Parasite to let us reset chapters on our sagas multiple times per turn by just paying mana; Scholar of New Horizons to let us remove a counter to search for a land; and Thrull Parasite to act as a one-time activation that can remove a counter from any permanent.

There aren't a lot of cards that let us mess with our sagas like this, but that's why these 5 cards are critical to our gameplan!

Category #1B: Messing With Lore Counters (Differently)

Our next batch of cards to talk about allows us to mess with lore counters, but in a completely different way. If a saga leaves the battlefield and then returns, it restarts at chapter 1. The first card that came to mind when thinking about this idea is Flicker, but since it's a sorcery, we can't respond to a saga reaching its final chapter.

The cards I have chosen for category 1B are cards that let us operate at instant speed (for the most part) when trying to reset our sagas: Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd is only card where the effect is not at instant speed, but its attack trigger is a repeatable way to reset our sagas; Meticulous Excavation comes down early and lets us return sagas to our hand before they have to be sacrificed; Cosmic Intervention can bring back any sagas that get sacrificed during a turn (as well as creatures that die during the same turn); Scrollshift is a single-use flicker effect that also draws us a card; and Aerial Extortionist is not only an amazing piece of removal, but we can also exile our own permanents to cast again later, and trigger its "draw a card" ability while we're at it!

Category #2: Token Creation

Sagas are great and all, but we need a way to win the game eventually. This brings us to a common theme in the sagas and other enchantments chosen for this deck: creating tokens. This category made me realize that I could easily swap Victor out for Daxos the Returned instead, but I felt like Victor still deserved the love.

Let's start with some sagas that create tokens: Firja's Retribution, Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit, Oath of the Grey Host, Genesis of the Daleks, Love Song of Night and Day, Vault 11: Voter's Dilemma, and Three Blind Mice are all token creating sagas each with their own upsides the longer they last in play.

These are all terrific cards in our deck, as we can flicker the sagas or mess with the lore counters to create more and more tokens. Outside of these, we have the standard "enchantment token creators" that are seen in most enchantment decks.

Archon of Sun's Grace creates Pegasus creatures with flying and lifelink (you'd be surprised how relevant that is!); Monastery Mentor gives us Monk tokens with prowess for each noncreature spell we cast; Ghostly Dancers recurs an enchantment from our graveyard and gives us 3/1 flyers when enchantments enter the battlefield; Hallowed Haunting can give us spirits that continue to grow over the course of the game; Daxos the Returned gives us spirits that get bigger over time; and Historian's Boon is an absolute house in this deck, as it gives us tokens when sagas enter AND when their final chapters trigger.

Category #3: Recursion

Considering most sagas sacrifice themselves after their last chapter, recursion is critical to ensuring our deck operates effectively. Two of our best recursion pieces can act as alternate commanders as well, but that will ultimately be your decision in the end.

The best pieces of recursion in this deck are: Carmen, Cruel Skymarcher, who lets us benefit from anyone sacrificing anything and can return sagas directly to play; Neva, Stalked by Nightmares, who lets us return an enchantment to our hand while providing advantage when any of our enchantments leave play; and Norika Yamazaki, the Poet, who lets us cast an artifact or enchantment from our graveyard when a warrior or samurai attacks alone (she's a samurai).

Argivian Find is also a sweet piece of recursion for only a single mana at instant speed!

Category #4A: The First "Secret Spice" Ingredients

Today's deck has two separate sub-categories of "Secret Spice", but it's because they are both separate ways to win the game.

Our first "secret spice" ingredients are the Phyrexian Praetors from March of the Machine: Sheoldred, and Elesh Norn.

Both of these creatures can transform into sagas, and with all of our counter manipulation, we can make extra usage of each chapter. Sheoldred's final chapter is a "rise of the dark realms" style effect, and Elesh Norn's final chapter turns our board into a lethal threat.

Category #4B: The Second "Secret Spice" Ingredients

Our second "secret spice" ingredients are 2 cards that work excellently in this strategy, but can form an infinite combo if played together: Ondu Spiritdancer and Secret Arcade / Dusty Parlor.

In order for this combo to work, when need to have the Secret Arcade in play before we cast Ondu Spiritdancer. When Ondu Spiritdancer enters the battlefield, it will see itself as an enchantment, and create a token copy of itself. This generates an infinite loop where we create an infinite number of Ondu Spiritdancer copies. Funnily enough, this exact combo was in the Aminatou, Veil Piercer precon!

Closing Thoughts

This brings us to the end of our sixth edition of Bottom of the Barrel! I hope you enjoyed exploring a lesser-played color-combination in the world of sagas! As I mentioned before, this deck can just as easily operate with Neva, Stalked by Nightmares, Carmen, Cruel Skymarcher, or Daxos the Returned at the helm, so feel free to experiment!

If you have any thoughts or ideas about this decklist, let me know in the comments below! (I do read them all and greatly appreciate your support!)

Check out my decklist below!

Nick Benstead

Nick is a full-time educator of America's youth, teaching them to love stories, and write for expression. Outside of teaching, his life is steeped in Magic the Gathering, whether it be through playing commander with his wife, or coming up with wacky brews to take to Friday Night Magic at his local game store.