Saheeli, the Sun's BrillianceSaheeli, the Sun's Brilliance | Art by Cynthia Sheppard

Hello again, folks! You may remember me from my former series on EDHREC, Rally the Ancestors. I rode off into the sunset around the time Outlaws of Thunder Junction came out, and I'm happy to be back with a new series. Well, sharing a new series: Archetypes of Imagination. This series covers popular Commander archetypes found via  Scryfall's tagging system and EDHREC's Tag pages. This time around, I'm taking on the archetype of copying stuff.

Here's the Scryfall tag page for the theme. First thought: "Whoa, that's a lot of cards." Thankfully, there are tools to narrow down exactly what we want to copy. On Scryfall, some tags will have child tags, as this one does. Click that dropdown and you'll see them.

Scryfall's child tags for copy effects

After some digging around, a few cards caught my eye on the copy artifacts page, including Saheeli, the Sun's BrillianceSaheeli, the Sun's Brilliance. She makes temporary copies, which is great, but then I saw Esoteric DuplicatorEsoteric Duplicator. Hmm, what if they weren't temporary? This sounded like a great starting point. Finding Worldwalker HelmWorldwalker Helm down at the bottom sealed the deal. Let's make a lot of artifacts!

The inspiration I needed

Saheeli's Arti-factory

While EDHREC doesn't have a general "copy" tag, it does have an "artifact" tag which I filtered to Izzet (red and blue), and that led me to Saheeli's page. She's the fifth-ranked Izzet artifacts commander and, at the time of writing this, ranked #835 overall. Not immensely popular, but clearly good enough to garner some attention (if you read any of Rally the Ancestors, you'll know I like my commanders a little niche). I soon learned she has some cEDH street cred because of her combo potential and ability to back it up with blue's counter-magic.

So, while this deck isn't going to be a sweaty one-on-one build, combos and insane value are on the menu. For example, one card in particular plays very nicely with Saheeli: Intruder AlarmIntruder Alarm. Finally, a way to break this enchantment!

Combo pieces!

Atsushi, the Blazing SkyAtsushi, the Blazing Sky is the last piece of the puzzle, as the three Treasures it generates from its death trigger (legend rule kicks in, keep the original) are enough to activate Saheeli again and leave you with one left over. Just like that, you have infinite Treasures/infinite mana. Throw in something like Reckless FireweaverReckless Fireweaver or Terror of the PeaksTerror of the Peaks to burn everyone out, or sink all that mana into BoommobileBoommobile to kill at least one opponent. That is, until you make another Boommobile next turn and do it all again! Thankfully, these finishers are good on their own in this deck too.

Combo finishers!

Oh, and there's also Quicksmith GeniusQuicksmith Genius to help you find one of them. Neat! Hopefully this is convoluted enough that your friends/opponents appreciate the work that went into it rather than hating you for it.

Tips for Building and Playing Saheeli, the Sun's Brilliance

1. Ultimately what we're trying to do is copy our creatures and artifacts, ideally multiple times per turn, to generate value, disrupt our opponents, or pop off with a big combo. You can build Saheeli to be as linear as you like, focusing on pulling off one game-ending infinite combo. You can play super-disruptive, using creatures or artifacts with ETB (enters the battlefield) effects that deal damage or counter spells. You can run more of a sacrifice-for-value game plan as well. There's lots of ways to work with Saheeli. I like variety to make my commander decks more replayable, so this list will be a bit of a mix of all three.
2. Saheeli is our primary source of copying and for generating sacrifice triggers. That said, it's good to have some backups, and finding a balance between cards that fulfill these functions and cards for them to target is one of the challenges when building a deck like this. I like to be able to still win without the commander, so thankfully the tags features on EDHREC and Scryfall provide quite a few options for both. Here's the scryfall query I used for artifact sacrifice outlets in Saheeli's colors. Another quick tip: from the Scryfall tagger, you can click the little "box with an arrow" button next to the tag name to bring the tag into a search query so you can filter further.
3. This deck can be very mana hungry, despite its low curve and cheap commander. Think of this: it's two mana to activate Saheeli, another two mana to use Esoteric DuplicatorEsoteric Duplicator or Worldwalker HelmWorldwalker Helm to copy the token. Or if that token has a sacrifice cost like, say, Traveler's AmuletTraveler's Amulet, it all adds up! (That's why I decided to run Traveler's Amulet over Wayfarer's BaubleWayfarer's Bauble - worse effect but cheaper activation.) In any case, we need land, Treasures, etc. If you're running this build, make sure you keep this in mind when looking at your starting seven. If modifying this one, don't cheap out on lands. I see a lot of decklists getting down to 33-35 lands, and most of the time that simply isn't enough. Call me old school, but 37 lands (including double-sided land/spells) is still my default.
4. While we don't want to wipe the board often, we can handle it when it happens. Saheeli is cheap to replay and generally board wipes focus on creatures. Thankfully, I also find that most players don't run enough artifact and enchantment hate (I'm also guilty of this). So we'll generally come out ok from those. I'm still running Blasphemous ActBlasphemous Act as an emergency measure as well as DesynchronizationDesynchronization. This seemed like a pretty good place to give it a try. Cyclonic RiftCyclonic Rift it is not, but it does a pretty good impression. And honestly, you don’t need me to tell you how good Rift is a this point. Play it if you have one, but this is a nice alternative.

The Deck

Copy Effects

Saheeli might be doing the majority of the copying, but I like having backup plans. The aforementioned Worldwalker HelmWorldwalker Helm and Esoteric DuplicatorEsoteric Duplicator are a big part of this deck's plan, Saheeli or otherwise. Joining them are some flexible one-off copiers like Mirage MockeryMirage Mockery (though it pains me to not play Saheeli's ArtistrySaheeli's Artistry, this is more flexible) and March of ProgressMarch of Progress.

Artificer ClassArtificer Class does a lot work in this deck at any level; it's a must-play. Orthion, Hero of LavabrinkOrthion, Hero of Lavabrink can only copy creatures, but he has a solid “ultimate” ability that can end the game in a hurry - especially if targeting one of our major threats.

Threats

Copying things alone won’t end the game in most cases, unless we’re pulling off one of the big combos mentioned earlier. Good thing we have a suite of powerful threats to close things out, most of which can benefit from being copied as well! Simulacrum SynthesizerSimulacrum Synthesizer is an insanely powerful card in most artifact decks, so it’s right at home here. Threefold ThunderhulkThreefold Thunderhulk and its close relative Myr BattlesphereMyr Battlesphere create armies of their own, and making hasty copies feels really good.

Last, Cyberdrive AwakenerCyberdrive Awakener is a repeatable OverrunOverrun-style effect that can close things out in a hurry. 

Sacrifice Outlets and Payoffs

Initial drafts of this deck leaned into the sacrifice theme a bit harder. With all the tokens that Saheeli makes that immediately die, it seemed reasonable to get some additional value out of it. We still can, but as the deck evolved this became less of a focus. That said, Audacious ReshapersAudacious Reshapers is a really cool card here, and Legion ExtruderLegion Extruder is both something to copy and a great sac outlet. Crime NovelistCrime Novelist and Gleaming GeardrakeGleaming Geardrake start small but can get big in a hurry.

Utility Artifacts to Copy/Sacrifice

Though seemingly insignificant, these little artifacts are a big part of our early game and how our deck generates value. Copy them, sacrifice them, and reap the rewards. Prized StatuePrized Statue ended up being better than Mycosynth WellspringMycosynth Wellspring. This surprised me, but having access to additional mana via Treasures on the same turn ended up being quite nice. Moonsilver KeyMoonsilver Key is also a key (ha!) card in this deck, and I’ve included a package of artifacts with mana abilities that it can find, most notably Midnight ClockMidnight Clock.

Interaction

While this deck certainly has a plan, thwarting our opponents’ plans is still something to consider. In my experience, most Commander decks are lighter on interaction than they should be. And while this one is lighter than I typically would be comfortable with, a lot of the interaction is copyable, so hopefully we’re getting away with it.

Reclusive ArtificerReclusive Artificer is basically a reusable Ravenous ChupacabraRavenous Chupacabra here. Magmatic GalleonMagmatic Galleon is the same, except it makes Treasures too. Fear of ImpostorsFear of Impostors is a copyable counterspell-on-a-stick. Though we're telegraphing things with having it on the board, it'll still make our opponents think about what they're playing.

If you want to lean harder into that theme, Draining WhelkDraining Whelk and Voracious GreatsharkVoracious Greatshark are options too (I opted for the cheaper mana value alternative, with the downside of manifesting dread).

Card Draw, Tutors and Recursion

This overarching category puts cards in our hand, which is always important in Commander. I've run out of gas a few times with this deck in previous iterations, so I ended up including a few more ways to do so. And they’re all copyable with Saheeli, too. Including a Trinket MageTrinket Mage package was a no-brainer, but I figured I’d triple down and include Tribute MageTribute Mage and Trophy MageTrophy Mage too. Many of our key early-game value pieces are small artifacts, so all of these had a home here.

Scrap TrawlerScrap Trawler is just great in artifact-heavy decks and this one is no exception. Last, Coveted JewelCoveted Jewel is a nice burst of card draw and additional mana when copied. Sure, it can be stolen, but by the time we’ve drawn six cards off it, it’s a trade-off I’m fine with.

Wrap that all up in a package with some other interesting pieces, like Sundial of the InfiniteSundial of the Infinite to avoid sacrificing our copies, and some cool utility lands (Fomori VaultFomori Vault and Archway of InnovationArchway of Innovation are especially sweet) and we’re good to go!

This deck is fun, powerful, and an interesting way to lean into a copying game plan. It has lots of interesting lines of play to consider, which gives it a high replay factor. For those of us who love being able to generate a ton of value while still being a timely threat, this could be a deck for you.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more deck archetypes to come.