(Combat Research | Art by Justine Cruz)

Blast from the Past

Good day, friends! Welcome back to Commander Fusion, the series where we scratch that ol’ Simic Biomancer itch and see if we can combine two random commanders into one (semi)coherent deck, using EDHREC data! Today’s challenge is to combine the play styles of two classic Magic characters into one totally new deck that takes inspiration from both: Hurkyl, Master Wizard and Dakkon Blackblade! Can we make it happen? Well, we can certainly give it a shot!

Witchcraft and Wizardry

Our first commander on the fusion block today, Hurkyl, first appeared in her own card just a few years ago in 2022’s The Brothers’ War. This Master Wizard seems to be very patient, as her story appearances go all the back to 1994! Looks like good things do come to those who wait. Hurkyl helped to found the College of Lat-Nam and the Union of the Third Path back in Urza times, alongside her husband Drafna. Her talent with magic expresses itself within her play style, which cares an awful lot about casting noncreature spells. Instants, sorceries, enchantments, artifacts, even planeswalkers are fair game with Hurkyl. Cast as many different types of those spells during your turn, and Hurkyl rewards you with a peek into the top five of your library, letting you snag a card of each type cast to replenish your hand. Here are the most synergistic cards you can play in a Hurkyl deck, straight from her EDHREC page:

1. Preordain
2. Shark Typhoon
3. Serum Visions
4. Ponder
5. Eaten by Piranhas
6. Witness Protection
7. Narset, Parter of Veils
8. One with the Multiverse
9. Brainsurge
10. Desynchronization

Lots of good noncreature representation here. Preordain, Serum Visions, and Ponder all give you solid card advantage and help you to make sure you know what’s coming up in your library to get the most advantage out of Hurkyl’s ability. Shark Typhoon, one of my favorite cards, helps your board presence by rewarding you with a flying Shark token (the best kind of token) for all the noncreature spells you’ll be casting, and Eaten by Piranhas and Witness Protection give you extra removal that’s not just an instant or sorcery to maximize the card types you’re playing with. Narset, One with the Multiverse, and Brainsurge all offer additional top-o’-the-library tactics that aren’t creature-based, and Desynchronization can help clear the board while keeping Hurkyl online.

Evidence indicates, however, that Commander players aren’t too interested in taking Hurkyl’s classes. Leading only 301 decks at the time of writing this article, that’s almost equivalent to a two-star review on Rate My Professor. Why is that? It would seem, in this case, that the student has surpassed the teacher. Hurkyl is seen much more often in the 99 of The Archimandrite, where she can provide some excellent card advantage on a relevant creature type (in addition to just being a very flavorful inclusion). Looks like someone paid attention during lectures.

Back in Black

It's a curious contrast we have between our commanders today. While Hurkyl waited almost 20 years to finally get a card of her own, our second commander has the opposite problem. Dakkon Blackblade is one of THE original legendary creatures in Magic, first appearing in the eponymous set Legends where the idea was introduced. Despite his uniqueness and enduring popularity, however, the only other Dakkon that has ever been printed is a planeswalker which, unfortunately, can’t be run as a commander.

So who is this guy, anyway? Dakkon is an ancient warrior who forged his namesake sword, the Blackblade, at the request/challenge of the planeswalker Dihada in exchange for the ignition of his own planeswalker spark. But please, if you learn ONE thing from this series, it is to NOT make pacts with demons or demon-adjacent spookies like Dihada, as Dakkon was rewarded with a spark…and trapped into eternal service to Dihada, forced to do her bidding. We can see why Dihada wants this guy so badly, too: Dakkon cares about filling up your board with lands, as the more lands you have, the stronger he gets. Pretty standard stuff, right? Except he's in Esper colors ()… No green in sight. What cards are Dakkon players using to make their non-green lands deck work? Let’s see below:

1. Blackblade Reforged
2. Iridescent Vinelasher
3. Dakkon, Shadow Slayer
4. Sword of the Animist
5. Walking Atlas
6. Burnished Hart
7. Wayfarer's Bauble
8. Kor Cartographer
9. Solemn Simulacrum
10. Sword of Hearth and Home

No Dakkon list would be complete without his sword, Blackblade Reforged, which in this deck will always double your commander’s power. As a blacksmith, it’s only natural for Dakkon to synergize well with other Equipment; Sword of the Animist and Sword of Hearth and Home will continue to buff Dakkon’s power while also finding more lands, thus increasing his power even more. Walking Atlas, Burnished Hart, Wayfarer’s Bauble, Kor Cartographer, and Solemn Simulacrum all offer us non-green options to ramp up our land count, while Iridescent Vinelasher drains our opponents for each land coming into play. Dakkon, Shadow Slayer can also enter with a large amount of loyalty if your land count is good, allowing you lots of flexibility with his abilities.

Dakkon remains a solid commander in terms of popularity decades after his printing, with 1314 decks to his name at this time. The novelty of an Esper deck that cares about lands, along with the Voltron (suiting up one creature with lots of Equipment or Auras) playstyle make him a fun and novel choice to bring to the Commander table.

Sword and Sorcery

Here comes the part we’re all looking forward to! What kind of deck can we build that is not identical to, but takes inspiration from, the cards and playstyles of both Hurkyl and Dakkon? We have access to white, blue, and black mana, so let’s take a look at which Esper commanders (excluding Dakkon himself, of course; we want something new) can best do the job? Taking a look at Hurkyl and Dakkon’s synergistic cards, here are some Esper commanders that share these cards in common:

1. Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign
2. Aminatou, Veil Piercer
3. Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist // Silas Renn, Seeker Adept
4. Chromium

This looks like a fun design space to play around with! Yennett has an impressive keyword collection, and cares about manipulating the top of your library similar to Hurkyl in order to cast spells for free. I’m excited to see the new Duskmourn: House of Horror face commander Aminatou, Veil Piercer here too; she also wants to make sure she knows what’s on top of the library, making sure it’s an enchantment you can cast for a miraculously-reduced cost. Ardenn/Silas Renn and Chromium both make an appearance here because they like being suited up with Equipment, similar to Dakkon’s playstyle. I’m getting a picture of this deck: manipulating our libraries to cast Equipment and Auras off the top to suit up our super-hard-to-block Sphinx commander? Oh yeah, I’m in. Yennett it is.

"He who wishes to start a fire must first light the flame."

Yennett, probably

Ridiculous Riddles are Rampant

Yennett seems to be a fantastic choice to suit up for a Voltron deck. For starters, the fact that she comes with flying, vigilance, AND menace means there will be few situations in which Yennett will be able to be blocked, and her toughness will always be relevant as a blocker. Additionally, Yennett is already incentivized to attack, meaning charging her up with power buffs and more keywords will only make her gameplan easier. On top of that, her “odd matters” ability gives us a fun restriction to play around with, as we’ll be mostly looking for one-, three-, and five-mana Auras and Equipment to include. This certainly helps us narrow down our list of possible inclusions, as Esper has no shortage of options for Auras and Equipment. I should know; my commanders have been increasingly coming home bloodied and bruised since my friend built Arna Kennerüd, Skycaptain this summer; Arna also makes an appearance in this list, creating token copies of each Equipment and Aura attached to Yennett whenever she attacks for double the fun.

In addition to Dakkon, Arna, and Aminatou, there is another Esper legend I think warrants inclusion here. Alela, Artful Provocateur gives Yennett a nice power boost, in addition to getting us a Faerie token each time we cast an Aura or Equipment; a nice start to a go-wide back-up plan if our go-tall plan should fail.

A crucial piece of any Voltron deck is protection. If you count on winning the game through commander damage, you better make sure your commander can’t be Swords'ed too easily. Whispersilk Cloak and Mithril Coat provide shroud and indestructible, respectively, while the low-mana-value-but-not-low-real-money-value Commander’s Plate just lets Yennett say “nah, no thanks” to anything red or green; no Beast Within or Chaos Warp can ruin our fun. Lavaspur Boots gives some good protection for a low price as well.

On the Aura side, Timely Ward and Shielded by Faith provide indestructible to Yennett, and Unquestioned Authority means even the Tadeas player at the table can’t block Yennett with a board full of Reach-y creatures (which, as a Tadeas player, also makes me a little sad inside.) Should the worst happen and Yennett fall in battle, Gift of Immortality and Kaya’s Ghostform can bring Yennett back to the battlefield to suit up and start again, without worrying about commander tax.

Now, let’s talk about the top of that library. This is where the action will be for us, so we want to make sure we have plenty of ways to interact with it. We’ve already talked about Ponder, Preordain, and Serum Visions today, and they will be putting in effort in this list. Hurkyl makes her appearance here, helping us refill our hands with more Auras and Equipment at our end step and clearing out some chaff from the library top. In terms of pure card draw, we have access to Combat Research, Curiosity, and Ophidian Eye to keep our hands full, while Mask of Riddles gives us cards AND makes Yennett even harder to block by giving her fear.

This section is also where I allow for some exceptions to our odd mana value rule, just to make sure we can manipulate our top cards as much as can be. The Reality Chip helps us take a gander at the top card so we know what’s coming, and can even help us get our lands out of the way so we can cast more free spells with Yennett. Speaking of free spells, how about The Key to the Vault? Equipping that to Yennett lets us get another free spell off the top, and gives us more selection to boot. Songbirds’ Blessing will allow us to cycle through our deck until we hit an Aura every time Yennett connects.

We’ve got plenty of removal and ramp to boot, too. We’re running zero instants in this deck, believe it or not, mainly because we have access to plenty of Aura-based removal like Imprisoned in the Moon, Witness Protection, and Swift Reconfiguration. Winds of Rath should clear the board while leaving Yennett unharmed. In terms of ramp, we have access to Sol Ring and whatever three-mana rocks you like; I picked Chromatic Lantern and Obelisk of Esper. Explorer’s Scope also lets us manipulate the top of our library, putting a land on field if we find one on attack.

To finish out a game, you’re likely going to be dealing lethal commander damage with a nigh-unblockable Yennett. Colossus Hammer makes Yennett lose flying, but a 13/15 commander with vigilance and menace still sounds pretty scary (looking at you, Abomination of Llanowar.) Add on a Holy Avenger for some double-strike with a Nettlecyst on the side and you’re good to go. If you’ve got the mana, though, my favorite finisher for this deck is Vorpal Sword, which will have your opponents running for the hills in no time…like the hills could save them.

You Sphinx You Know a Guy!

That’s it for this fusion! As always, if you leave today feeling refreshed and inspired in your own deck building process, I’ll consider this a job well done. Share your thoughts down below, and remember, if you find yourself stuck in a riddle game with a Sphinx, just give ‘em the ol’ “what do I have in my pocket?” That always seems to turn out well. I can’t wait to join you all again for our next Commander Fusion!

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