Sharae of Numbing DepthsSharae of Numbing Depths | Art by Evyn Fong

Welcome back to Archtypes of Imagination, a series where we bring Commander archetypes found via  Scryfall's tagging system and EDHREC's Tag pages to life. This time around, I'm taking on tapping your opponents' stuff.

Here's the Scryfall tag page for the theme. Pretty big list, but, we can narrow it down in a few ways.

First off, you can bring the tag into Scryfall's main search with the little box next to the tag's name. From there, I used the string "otag:tapper t:legendary game:paper" to find a potential commander. EDHREC also has a "tap/untap" tag page which will help as well.

It looks like Azorius, Simic and Bant are the three popular color combinations for this archetype. Going back to Scryfall, I wanted to see how much material I have to work with in each color. Using the string "oracle:"tap target game:paper otag:tapper ," using the checklist view and sorting by color, I can see the vast majority of cards I'd want to play are white and blue.

Stun counters are also a nice new addition to a strategy like this, so "game:paper otag:tapper o:stun" is a string I used to see what options I had with those as well.

My commander decision really came down to two creatures: the very popular Hylda of the Icy CrownHylda of the Icy Crown and her Wilds of Eldraine counterpart, Sharae of Numbing DepthsSharae of Numbing Depths.

This strategy got a lot better with Wilds of Eldraine!

And honestly, I think Sharae might actually be the better choice.

Why Sharae Over Hylda?

So before you accuse me of being a contrarian for the sake of it, hear me out. Hylda has a lot going for her. She's a very powerful payoff for a tapping strategy and offers a lot of value. She also lets you run less payoffs and more ways to tap stuff.

But Sharae does a few things better. First, Sharae is a payoff and an enabler. Basically, she gives you something for tapping things down, and also taps things herself!

Second, she provides a few additional deckbuilding avenues, like using blink effects on her. Her ability also wants us to be tapping things each turn, which gives some deckbuilding direction.

Sharae also does something upon entering and doesn't cost any additional mana each turn like Hylda does. So while in raw power Hylda is an obvious choice, Sharae gives us more efficiency, options, and guaranteed benefit. I think she's the right call! And hey, we can (and will) still play Hylda in the 99.

Tips for Building and Playing Sharae of Numbing Depths

1. This is a very flexible deck as it can be built to suit almost any budget, or any level of competitiveness. Such is the nature of playing blue-white sometimes. What’s important to get right is having enough ways to tap things and not just payoffs for tapping things. Sharae can’t control an entire table by herself. 
2. Remember: Sharae triggers once every turn. If you can find ways to maximize your tapping on other turns, you’ll be drawing a lot of cards. That’s a great place for this deck to be. 
3. Generally speaking, it’s best to save your counterspells and removal like [[Generous Gift]] for noncreature permanents. This deck has plenty of options for taking care of bothersome creatures. The exception to this is token producers like [[Avenger of Zendikar]] or something, as this deck can struggle playing defense against go-wide strategies.
4. The biggest trick for playing Sharae is not getting under the skin of everyone at the table. If you’re constantly tapping down everything all the time, people will catch on that you’re a problem quite quickly. Likely the best way to be strategic with your tapping is to set up advantageous attacking situations for others by getting blockers out of the way.
5. That said, it’s easy to appear somewhat innocent as this deck doesn’t run many individually-scary creatures (6/6 flyers are about as big as this gets). While Sharae won’t finish a game in a hurry, this is a great deck for outlasting the table as life totals slowly whittle away.

Important Cards for Sharae of Numbing Depths

Tap Effects

We have no shortage of ways to tap things, so I can't list them all here. But hey, we're going to be a menace, right? Might as well own it.

I'm opting for effects that can tap repeatedly or on ETB (enters the battlefield) to take advantage of blink effects, rather than one-shot instants or sorceries. I'm also leaning more towards effects that place stun counters, as that gives us some options for controlling the board through proliferate effects.

Blink Effects

Since creatures' ETB effects continue to get better, blink spells are a welcome addition to many decks - this one in particular.

EphemerateEphemerate is a classic, Displacer KittenDisplacer Kitten is the blink MVP, and Kykar, Zephyr AwakenerKykar, Zephyr Awakener does the kitty one better (which I guess makes it the MVP now). It's nice to have some redundancy on such an awesome creature, in any case.

Last, Gossip's TalentGossip's Talent is quite good here, providing card selection, evasion, and eventually some repeatable blink as well.

Tapping Payoffs

Tapping is cool and all, but let's up the value a bit. As mentioned earlier, we can't leave Hylda of the Icy Crown out! Fear of Sleep Paralysis does it all, but its big payoff is keeping stunned creatures stunned. Being a 6/6 flyer doesn't hurt, either.

Verity Circle is going to draw a lot of cards as well, which never hurts in Commander.

Interaction

Tapping things means we can play interaction that deals with tapped creatures, which can often be pretty efficient and budget-friendly.

Runic ShotRunic Shot is worth pointing out as it probably doesn't have a home in too many other decks. It's great here, though. Lulu, Stern GuardianLulu, Stern Guardian is a brand new addition that doesn't necessarily tap anything, but she will place stun counters if something manages to attack us. More likely than not, she'll cause people to leave us alone which is even better. Oh, she proliferates too.

And if the board ends up flooded with creatures with triggered abilities that we can't handle, SunfallSunfall is about as good of a reset as anything. Cloud's Limit BreakCloud's Limit Break is also a solid piece of removal, and hey, its fun trying out new cards.

Card Draw

I already mentioned some card draw in the Payoffs section, but it's worth noting a few other pieces. MulldrifterMulldrifter is a classic blink target (I'm choosing to run it over CloudblazerCloudblazer for the cost flexibility as we have a lot of five-drops). Borrowing 100,000 ArrowsBorrowing 100,000 Arrows is our burst draw effect of choice. Azor, the LawbringerAzor, the Lawbringer can be that too, if pricey, but Sphinx's RevelationSphinx's Revelation on a 6/6 flying body seems at least trying.

Compliment these with some strong planeswalkers like Tamiyo, the Moon SageTamiyo, the Moon Sage and The Eternal WandererThe Eternal Wanderer, some mana rocks, counterspells, and an affordable mana base, and folks, we have ourselves a menace of a deck for less than $100!

Sharae of Numbing Depths Commander Deck List

Sharae is a powerful and fun budget commander that's a great leader for a tapper deck. She's flexible and offers a controlling game plan that is just oppressive enough without being boring to play. Hopefully your friends understand 🙂

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