Syr Vondam, the LucentSyr Vondam, the Lucent | Art by Cristi Balanescu

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.

Last time, we built a Sami, Ship's Engineer deck that cared about tapping our creatures for extra value and then untapping them on our opponents' turns. This week, we're continuing to explore Edge of Eternities with Syr Vondam, the LucentSyr Vondam, the Lucent, a commander that buffs our team and gives them deathtouch too.

How Does Syr Vondam, the Lucent Work?

As a five-mana 4/4 with deathtouch and lifelink, Syr Vondam is the sort of limited bomb that probably saw a ton of play during EoE prerelease weekend but might quickly fall into your pile of draft chaff afterwards. Fortunately for us, Syr Vondam also gives our creatures +1/+0 and deathtouch until the end of turn whenever it enters or attacks.

We're immediately incentivized to play a go-wide, aggressive strategy with Syr Vondam, the LucentSyr Vondam, the Lucent since the +1/+0 bonus gets better for every creature we have. Since our creatures also gain deathtouch, our opponents are put in a tough position of choosing between taking extra damage or losing their blockers to our (presumably) much smaller attackers. Take that Wall of FrostWall of Frost!

In taking a quick look at Syr Vondam's EDHREC page, we can see that brewers (of which there are a whopping 12 at the time of writing) so far are leaning into blink effects like CloudshiftCloudshift and EphemerateEphemerate to trigger Syr Vondam and other ETB creatures like Moonshaker CavalryMoonshaker Cavalry, Loran of the Third PathLoran of the Third Path, or Solemn SimulacrumSolemn Simulacrum multiple times in one turn.

If that's your jam, check out Plot Twist #30 where we did something quite similar to that, also in Orzhov () colors, with Ketramose, the New DawnKetramose, the New Dawn. It was quite fun to blink and exile multiple single targets turn after tun, but on Plot Twist we like to do something unexpected with our brews...

Doing the Twist

That's why we're leaning into what Syr Vondam, the LucentSyr Vondam, the Lucent does best: making our opponent choose between a rock and a hard place.

That's right, we'll be looking to make our creatures extra lethal for blockers by combining cards like Company CommanderCompany Commander and Archetype of CourageArchetype of Courage, while also running plenty of effects that trigger when they deal combat damage to our opponents, like Unstoppable SlasherUnstoppable Slasher and Vorpal SwordVorpal Sword.

While that's a good starting point, it seems like a strategy that'll fold easily to board wipes, so we're running a robust set of creatures to grant ourselves the monarchy and the initiative, like Archon of CoronationArchon of Coronation, Custodi LichCustodi Lich, and White Plume AdventurerWhite Plume Adventurer. These creatures play well with all of the attacking we're planning to do, while also generating value for us even on an empty board.

All told, we have a fairly aggressive, creature-based deck that presents difficult choices to our opponents when it comes to blocking and hopefully has enough card advantage to survive a Wrath of GodWrath of God or two. We're packing a handful of cards like Akroma's WillAkroma's Will, Duty Beyond DeathDuty Beyond Death, and Boromir, Warden of the TowerBoromir, Warden of the Tower to keep us in games or close them out.

As an added bonus, this deck is running zero Game Changers and should feel right at home in a Bracket 2 (Core) pod. You could always cut some of the more efficient lands if you wanted to power it down just a smidge more though.

Let's dive into this week's list!

Reasons Why Our Opponents Shouldn't Block

Leaning heavily into Syr Vondam, the LucentSyr Vondam, the Lucent's ability allows us to get through extra damage because nearly any blocker (save the odd Stuffy DollStuffy Doll) will die to all of our deathtouch creatures. We'll want to lean into that effect in order to chip away at our opponents' life totals early and force them to make difficult blocks later in the game.

Beyond casting or triggering our commander's ability to give our creatures deathtouch, we can also give them deathtouch with Company CommanderCompany Commander and Odric, Lunarch MarshalOdric, Lunarch Marshal.

This gets particularly brutal in combination with all the effects in our deck that grant first strike, like Angelic SkirmisherAngelic Skirmisher, Archetype of CourageArchetype of Courage, and Eagles of the NorthEagles of the North since we'll deal damage during first strike that will allow most blockers to die to deathtouch before they ever get to do any damage.

Two of the real MVPs of our deck are Concerted EffortConcerted Effort and Odric, Lunarch MarshalOdric, Lunarch Marshal, since they'll give each of our creatures a whole lot of keyword abilities of every other creature we control on every combat step (technically upkeep in Concerted Effort's case, but you get the gist).

These two turn our creatures into lethal attackers real quick in combination with Akroma, Vision of IxidorAkroma, Vision of Ixidor too.

Reasons Why Our Opponents Shouldn't Take Damage

If we're really going to put our opponents in a vise (not a Black ViseBlack Vise this week, though), then we need to make them pay a little bit extra for not blocking too.

Summon: Primal OdinSummon: Primal Odin from Final Fantasy is probably the best of these because its second saga ability will cause a player to lose the game if they're dealt damage. Hard to beat that!

Hypnotic SpecterHypnotic Specter and Scythe SpecterScythe Specter will cause our opponents to discard cards when they take damage. Normally, these sort of effects aren't terribly great in Commander, but they do allow us to attack our opponents from a unique angle, so they made our deck this week. You could certainly swap them out for more drain life effects though if they feel weak when you actually sit down to play.

Gix, Yawgmoth PraetorGix, Yawgmoth Praetor does what it does best and refills our hand when one of our deathtouch-ing attackers slips through and deals damage, and Wand of OrcusWand of Orcus can turn any of our creatures into an army-in-a-can if we're ever able to connect with it.

We don't need too many of these effects to really start applying the squeeze on our opponents.

The Initiative and the Monarch

Both the initiative and the monarch help us more than usual in our decklist this week. We'll still gain a little bit of value out of both of them like normal, and they'll encourage combat around the board. While we might not want to get hit for massive amounts of damage when an opponent takes the monarchy from us, the other two players then have even more reason to attack our mutual enemy.

Archon of CoronationArchon of Coronation and White Plume AdventurerWhite Plume Adventurer both introduce the monarch or initiative and give us a bit of extra defense too, making it harder for our opponents to take it from us in the first place. Meanwhile, Court of AmbitionCourt of Ambition and Custodi LichCustodi Lich can help us eke out a little extra card advantage over our opponents in addition to granting us the monarch.

Meanwhile, Champions of Minas TirithChampions of Minas Tirith, Palace JailerPalace Jailer, and Ravenloft AdventurerRavenloft Adventurer all introduce the monarch or the initiative and act as a form of interaction for us.

While Palace Jailer isn't as good as it is in, say, Legacy Cube, it'll still allow us to remove a problematic permanent for a turn and give us an extra card. Champions of Minas Tirith and Ravenloft Adventurer put less of a target on themselves immediately, but can generate lots of value just by staying on the board.

Overall, we'll be happy to introduce either the initiative or the monarch (ideally both) to get a little extra advantage and encourage our opponents to attack. With all the deathtouch-ing attackers we can throw around, it shouldn't be hard for us to take them back on our next turn.

Winning the Game with Syr Vondam, the LucentSyr Vondam, the Lucent

Our primary way of winning the game will be combat damage, which feels right for a Bracket 2 list. But that doesn't mean we don't have a few ways to help it along: mostly cards that double the a mount of life our opponents lose (reminder that damage counts as loss of life) and cards that will drain our opponents when creatures die.

Our Aristocrats effects (Blood ArtistBlood Artist; Syr Konrad, the GrimSyr Konrad, the Grim; Vein RipperVein Ripper; and friends) will do a nice job of draining a little bit of extra life from our opponents when their creatures die blocking ours, or just in general.

The lower our opponents life totals go, the more inclined they'll be to block, triggering our aristocrats again and again. It's a vicious cycle.

Much more interesting are Astarion, the DecadentAstarion, the Decadent; Bloodletter of AclazotzBloodletter of Aclazotz; and Wound ReflectionWound Reflection, which double the amount of life our opponents lose. Since they care about life lost, not damage dealt like red's damage doublers, we can still trigger them even with something like Blood ArtistBlood Artist.

These effects combine so nicely to slowly but surely help us close out the game from a variety of angles. Our opponents will need something like FarewellFarewell to clean up enough of our stuff to stop us.

A Few Additional Twists for Good Measure

As always, the Scryfall searches for our deck this week yielded some really interesting cards.

Hooded BlightfangHooded Blightfang is the kind of rare you'd normally be disappointed to open in a booster pack, but in this deck it seems like a great way to put extra pressure on our opponents' life totals. Admittedly, it's not as good as Commissar Severina RaineCommissar Severina Raine, which we're also running, but having multiples of this type of effect seems great.

We ended up with two Transformers cards in our list this week, Blitzwing, Cruel TormentorBlitzwing, Cruel Tormentor and Starscream, Power HungryStarscream, Power Hungry, neither of which I've seen played yet. Both seem great in our deck since they apply extra pressure to our opponents' life totals and make me want to revisit all of the Transformers cards to see if there are any other hidden gems among them.

Safana, Calimport CutthroatSafana, Calimport Cutthroat might not give us the initiative, but she'll help ramp us if we have it. With plenty of ways for us to gain the initiative, and lots of attackers to take it back too, this seems poised to put in a lot of work for us.

Ravenloft AdventurerRavenloft Adventurer is another initiative card that seems stronger than it looks on first glance since it adds the initiative and exiles graveyards without us having to do much else.

Last, but not least, it's really exciting that we've got a deck that seems genuinely good for Bladegriff PrototypeBladegriff Prototype. I first stumbled across Bladegriff Prototype while building my Gandalf, Westward Voyager // Keruga, the Macrosage deck and it seems like a perfect fit for what we're doing with our Syr Vondam, the LucentSyr Vondam, the Lucent list this week!

Syr Vondam, the Lucent Commander Deck List

Here's the full deck list for you to peruse:

Roll Credits

I hope you enjoyed reading the latest edition of Plot Twist featuring Syr Vondam, the LucentSyr Vondam, the Lucent. 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 deck lists 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 the 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 in 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.

More Edge: