Papalymo Totolymo | Illustrated by Immanuela Crovius

Welcome back to Plot Twist, the series where we build a Commander deck that looks like it's going to tell one kind of story only to throw out a twist for our opponents mid-game. This series has officially moved over to EDHREC, and I'm excited to be here! I'd encourage you to check out the previous articles in the series to get a sense of the type of stories we're looking to tell.

Last time on Plot Twist, we built a Zack FairZack Fair deck that looked to repeatedly sacrifice Zack for value. Along the way, we used Zack's ability to move around Equipment like Conformer ShurikenConformer Shuriken and Cloudsteel KirinCloudsteel Kirin while netting some extra value off of The OzolithThe Ozolith and Cathars' CrusadeCathars' Crusade as we went. It was a very Jund take on mono-white and full of unexpected cards.

This week, we're taking probably our last look at the legendary creatures from Final Fantasy since Edge of Eternities spoiler season has begun with a rather adorable two-drop: Papalymo TotolymoPapalymo Totolymo. Papalymo blends the lines between the pingers and aristocrats archetypes, almost like Ghyrson Starn, KelermorphGhyrson Starn, Kelermorph and Elas il-Kor, Sadistic PilgrimElas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim had a kid. Definitely seems ripe for some interesting Plot Twist shenanigans.

How Does Papalymo Totolymo Work?

Papalymo TotolymoPapalymo Totolymo's first ability is straightforward: dealing one damage to each opponent and gaining us one life whenever we cast a noncreature spell. While we normally don't love trigger-heavy decks on Plot Twist (the triggers are just so much to keep track of and tend to take up a large chunk of the game's time equity), Papalymo has a distinctive color combination for this effect (there are only 67 Orzhov pingers decks on EDHREC at the time of writing).

Papalymo's second effect, ", , Sacrifice Papalymo Totolymo: Each opponent who lost life this turn sacrifices a creature with the greatest power among creatures they control," inspired this week's particular brew. It acts as a bit of board control in the vein of Crackling DoomCrackling Doom that we can activate when it's most opportunistic for us.

Over on Papalymo Totolymo's EDHREC Page, we can see that brewers are leaning into the spellslinger and lifegain archetypes, at least based on the 100+ decks that have been registered at time of writing. Cards like Monastery MentorMonastery Mentor, Sedgemoor WitchSedgemoor Witch, and Starscape ClericStarscape Cleric showing up in his High Synergy cards section.

But this is Plot Twist where we don't want to do the expected, I promise you that's not a scam...

Doing the Twist

...except this week we're actually going to be building a scam deck. Popularized by a Modern deck archetype, frequently in Rakdos colors, you can learn more about Scam decks in here. The gist of scam decks is that you play undercosted creatures, ones that often sacrifice themselves, like GriefGrief or FuryFury, with good enters effects and then cheat them back into play with effects like Undying EvilUndying Evil.

Scam as an archetype doesn't translate over well to Commander since one-for-one effects, like GriefGrief and Undying EvilUndying Evil, are worse when you have three opponents instead of one, so instead we'll be leveraging effects that allow us to sacrifice multiple creatures at once, like Phyrexian AltarPhyrexian Altar and Yawgmoth, Thran PhysicianYawgmoth, Thran Physician, before returning creatures en masse with cards like Faith's RewardFaith's Reward and Second SunriseSecond Sunrise.

At its core, this is still a scam deck that cares about creatures with strong enters effects that we can cheat back into play, but it relies on a healthy dose of aristocrats effects in order to keep up with a pod of four players.

Creatures with Enters Effects

The core of our deck is going to revolve around creatures with strong enters effects. Since Commander is a four-player format, we'll need effects that either affect all of our opponents equally or are strong enough by themselves to impact the game. That generally means we'll want to rely on effects like Refurbished FamiliarRefurbished Familiar instead of GriefGrief because they keep us on parity, even though Grief's targeted hand disruption is stronger.

This week's list is the first Plot Twist decklist to lean in on discard effects like Intellect DevourerIntellect Devourer, Refurbished FamiliarRefurbished Familiar, and Virus BeetleVirus Beetle. There are probably a dozen other creatures with enters abilities that could make the deck if we wanted to lean further into this effect, but we're not a dedicated discard deck so they're mostly here as a way to occasionally put pressure on our opponents' hands.

We'll also lean on creatures with enters effects to round out our interaction suite. Faceless ButcherFaceless Butcher, Fiend HunterFiend Hunter, SolitudeSolitude, Vile MutilatorVile Mutilator, and friends let us interact with our opponents' creatures, while Leonin Relic-WarderLeonin Relic-Warder, WispmareWispmare, and Witch EnchanterWitch Enchanter let us interact with noncreature permanents.

While a lot of these effects are rather mediocre if we can only get them once, being able to recur them repeatedly will help us get an edge.

Sacrificing for Fun and Profit

Unlike the Rakdos Scam decks that inspired this deck, most of our creatures don't naturally sacrifice themselves. We have a few evoke Elementals, like Night IncarnateNight Incarnate, ShriekmawShriekmaw, and SolitudeSolitude, that are exceptions to that rule, but there are only so many we can run in a singleton format like Commander.

We can solve part of this issue by adding some aristocrats effects into our deck to sacrifice our creatures for more mana and cards. Phyrexian AltarPhyrexian Altar, Warren SoultraderWarren Soultrader, and Ashnod's AltarAshnod's Altar turn our creatures into mana immediately, while Pawn of UlamogPawn of Ulamog and Pitiless PlundererPitiless Plunderer will allow us to store additional mana whenever our creatures die for later use.

Braids, Arisen NightmareBraids, Arisen Nightmare, Grim HaruspexGrim Haruspex, and Midnight ReaperMidnight Reaper provide us plenty of card advantage as we sacrifice our creatures, while Plumb the ForbiddenPlumb the Forbidden and SkullclampSkullclamp let us kill our creatures immediately and turn them into cards. These effects will often draw out our opponents' removal, so we'll need to do our best to protect them to keep the cards rolling in.

These creatures will help us generate extra mana or cards depending on what we need at the time and give the deck a way to non-infinitely 'combo' off at times.

Mass 'Return-to-Battlefield' Effects

Tying all of our enters and sacrifice effects together is a suite of spells that will let us return a whole bunch of creatures that died this turn back to the battlefield. Faith's RewardFaith's Reward, Cosmic InterventionCosmic Intervention, and Second SunriseSecond Sunrise lead the way since they'll return all the creatures we sacrificed this turn without too many limitations, but we've got other versions of this effect in cards like Brought BackBrought Back, RevivifyRevivify, and even Athreos, God of PassageAthreos, God of Passage.

The key to making these effects work for us is that we'll want to sacrifice as many creatures as we can before casting them. We can use Phyrexian AltarPhyrexian Altar or Ashnod's AltarAshnod's Altar to make mana to pay for these return-to-battlefield effects or use something like Yawgmoth, Thran PhysicianYawgmoth, Thran Physician to dig for more cards depending on what we need.

A lot of these effects are also instants, so we can use them to recover from an opponent's Wrath of GodWrath of God and also trigger our enters effects again. We'll need to be careful about some of the more niche versions, like Athreos and Luminous BroodmothLuminous Broodmoth, that don't guarantee we'll get our creatures back.

One extra benefit of all these 'return-to-battlefield' effects is that we can sacrifice Papalymo TotolymoPapalymo Totolymo to his own ability as a form of removal and then bring him right back into play. While this is a rather expensive 'loop', it should help us keep the biggest threats off the board as long as we can keep doing some amount of damage or life loss to our opponents.

Winning the Game

Of course, there's no point in repeatedly sacrificing our creatures and returning them to the battlefield if we can't actually win the game. That's why we're running aristocrats staples, like Cruel CelebrantCruel Celebrant, Marionette ApprenticeMarionette Apprentice, and Zulaport CutthroatZulaport Cutthroat, to drain our opponents as our creatures die repeatedly. That sort of loop can end up being a little slow and repetitive, though, so we'll need ways to win quickly on occasion.

Teysa KarlovTeysa Karlov and Drivnod, Carnage DominusDrivnod, Carnage Dominus will double up any of our effects that trigger on our creatures dying, allowing us to win twice as fast, but Fandaniel, Telophoroi AscianFandaniel, Telophoroi Ascian might be the sneakiest way to win in this deck. We aren't running many instants or sorceries, but two life for each one in our graveyard is nothing to sneer at, especially when our commander helps us keep our opponents' creature counts rather low.

We also have the old reliable package of DreadhoundDreadhound and Syr Konrad, the GrimSyr Konrad, the Grim to whittle down our opponents' life totals when creatures move in and out of graveyards. We used these two to great effect in Plot Twist #8 and #4 if you want to see just how powerful they can be in the right deck.

Our overall gameplan is slow and grindy, but it's also extremely resilient to removal and puts a ton of blockers in the way of our opponents.

A Few Additional Twists for Good Measure

Like usual, the Scryfall searches for this week's decklist uncovered a few unusual gems worth highlighting. Sudden SalvationSudden Salvation and Brought BackBrought Back are interesting effects that can only bring back two or three creatures, which is still good at their low mana value, while Sudden Salvation can also be used as a political tool to help out an opponent.

While Crowded CryptCrowded Crypt has certainly been in consideration for a Plot Twist list before, it's never found a home quite as good as this week's deck. It pivots between ramp in the early game and serious threat in the late game.

Meanwhile, Bone DevourerBone Devourer and Fandaniel, Telophoroi AscianFandaniel, Telophoroi Ascian are both too new to really be 'sleeper' cards, but both seem like strong effects that fit really well into graveyard decks of different varieties. Fandaniel could merit building an entire mono-black spellslinger deck around him and I'd love to see your list if you have one!

Papalymo Totolymo Commander Decklist

Here's the full decklist for you to peruse:

Roll the Credits

I hope you enjoyed reading the latest edition of Plot Twist featuring Papalymo TotolymoPapalymo Totolymo. Next time you sit down for a game of Commander, see what sort of plot twists you can add to take the game's narrative in a new direction. I'd love to hear your thoughts on today's deck and what cards could find a home in it in the comments below or on Archidekt. The Maybeboards of my decklists are always filled with cards I thought could work but didn't make the final decklist.

You can check out my other articles here or see what decks I'm currently playing here. I recently put together  deck from Plot Twist #21, and it's been an absolute blast to play in paper. I've also started dabbling in cEDH with a relatively stock Tymna & Thrasios list, so let me know if the comments below if you'd like to see a Plot Twist deck that's designed for more competitive pods.

Stay tuned to see what other twists and turns are headed your way in the next edition of Plot Twist.