Eligeth, Crossroads AugurEligeth, Crossroads Augur | Art by Yigit Koroglu

Welcome back to Partner Party, where I highlight the near-endless possibilities of brewing around partner commanders by building a deck from a randomly chosen pair each week. This week's pairing puts together two undeniably powerful creatures who each seem to be doing their own thing. Vial Smasher the FierceVial Smasher the Fierce is an efficient commander who rewards us for casting big spells, and Eligeth, Crossroads AugurEligeth, Crossroads Augur is a big Sphinx who wants us to scry a bunch and lets us draw tons of cards.

There's certainly no problem with having two commanders who are both simply powerful by themselves, especially since one applies pressure and the other gives card advantage, but I think we can add some spice to this list.

There are currently thirty-four decks on EDHREC helmed by Eligeth and Vial Smasher, which isn't many, especially considering that Eligeth is in the command zone of 2,850 decks and Vial Smasher helps lead 15,832.

On their EDHREC page together, there are some good recommendations, like Ugin's InsightUgin's Insight, which plays well with both the scrying and high mana value themes, but this is some unexplored territory.

Finding the Intersection Between Eligeth and Vial Smasher

Eligeth, Crossroads AugurEligeth, Crossroads Augur is a fairly straightforward build-around, rewarding us for scrying by letting us draw all the cards we see. He asks us to play a bunch of cheap blue cards that are all good on their own: cards like PreordainPreordain, Serum VisionsSerum Visions, and OptOpt. He also provides a great home for more under-the-radar cards like Mystic SpeculationMystic Speculation.

Once we can cast Eligeth, suddenly we have a deck full of off-brand Ancestral RecallAncestral Recalls, which means we'll never run out of gas.

Vial Smasher the FierceVial Smasher the Fierce rewards us for casting huge spells by dealing damage. She only triggers on the first spell we cast every turn, so instants are especially valuable in order to get multiple triggers per turn cycle. Cards that can reduce their costs, like Treasure CruiseTreasure Cruise, CommandeerCommandeer, and PyrokinesisPyrokinesis, let us deal more damage than the amount of mana we have, bringing the table to the late game ahead of schedule.

CuriosityCuriosity and Ophidian EyeOphidian Eye also combine well with Vial Smasher, since she deals the damage, and can help us recoup value from all of our reactive instants.

So how do these strategies overlap? Eligeth wants us to play lots of cheap spells that can scry, and Vial Smasher wants us to run a ton of high-cost spells. Luckily, there are several cards that lean into both a burn and a topdeck manipulation strategy, and there are enough to be able to find a few every game.

Erratic ExplosionErratic Explosion and Calibrated BlastCalibrated Blast are the basic version, letting us deal a big chunk of damage as long as we have something big on top of our deck, and there are several variations.

Kaboom!Kaboom! does the same thing, but for each opponent. Explosive RevelationExplosive Revelation puts the card in our hand at the end. Riddle of LightningRiddle of Lightning lets us scry first to set up the top (or to draw with Eligeth out). Finally, Yuriko, the Tiger's ShadowYuriko, the Tiger's Shadow and Hidetsugu, Devouring ChaosHidetsugu, Devouring Chaos work similarly when they get going.

All of these cards can deal chunks of damage as big as the big spells we include in our deck.

Notably, this strategy doesn't work perfectly with both of our commanders in play. Eligeth means that scrying won't actually help us plan the top of our library, since all the cards we see go into our hand. Luckily, there are plenty of other ways to manipulate the top of our deck.

Sensei's Divining TopSensei's Divining Top and BrainstormBrainstorm are stone cold classics that powered one of the most resilient Legacy decks of all time.

We can also run some lands that have a very low opportunity cost. Mortuary MireMortuary Mire, Mystic SanctuaryMystic Sanctuary, and Witch's CottageWitch's Cottage put cards from our graveyard back on top of the deck, letting us set up a big burn spell. And if money is no issue, Volrath's StrongholdVolrath's Stronghold can do the same thing repeatedly.

Big Whammies

So now we need to find some expensive cards to put on top of our deck. But since this isn't a big mana deck, we certainly can't include a bunch of ten-drops that we'll need to cast for retail. Delve spells like Treasure CruiseTreasure Cruise and Dig Through TimeDig Through Time are staples, but there are some even higher mana value ones that see a bit less play.

Temporal TrespassTemporal Trespass can be super powerful if we can get it down to three mana, but even at six or seven it can do a lot in this deck. Dead DropDead Drop has the daunting mana value of ten, but should be worth it as long as we can cast it for four mana. There will almost always be someone it can mess up, and it does have a big impact.

In order to add more cards that are both crazy expensive and easily castable, we can turn to split cards. These cards can be cast for one half, but in zones other than the stack their mana value is the total value of all of the cards on them.

Connive // ConcoctConnive // Concoct can nab a small creature, or it can reanimate a card from a graveyard while also playing into our topdeck manipulation theme. Breaking // EnteringBreaking // Entering can set up our graveyard for delve, bring back a big creature, or even do both thanks to fuse. Finally, Commit // MemoryCommit // Memory can act as removal, a counterspell, or as a way to refill on gas.

We need to have at least a couple big creatures to recur with our Mortuary MireMortuary Mire and friends, and these get to be pretty spicy.

Ancient Stone IdolAncient Stone Idol can come out pretty cheaply at instant speed as long as someone's going wide, and is huge on the battlefield as well as on top of the deck.

Deep-Sea KrakenDeep-Sea Kraken is a bit less intimidating in play, but it can come down super early if we suspend it. It's worth noting that when it comes off of suspend, it can trigger Vial Smasher to dome and opponent for ten, and that this will often give us a coveted extra trigger on an opponent's turn because an opponent's spell may cause the last time counter to be removed.

Finally, Shadow of MortalityShadow of Mortality costs a whopping fifteen mana, but will quickly become an under-costed beater once the game progresses. It's our best card to try to recur for our burn spells, and we want to be able to use it as many times as possible

Tying It All Together

Rounding out the deck are a few cards that just make everything hum.

Matoya, Archon ElderMatoya, Archon Elder can act as a backup of Eligeth, Crossroads AugurEligeth, Crossroads Augur by rewarding us for scrying, but in this deck it can sometimes be better, letting us keep some cards on the top of our library for our Erratic ExplosionErratic Explosion-style effects. Note that Matoya doesn't stack with Eligeth, since Eligeth's ability is a replacement effect.

On the other side of the aisle, Zaffai, Thunder ConductorZaffai, Thunder Conductor rewards us for casting instants and sorceries in a similar way to Vial Smasher the FierceVial Smasher the Fierce, giving us better rewards the more expensive they are, all the while throwing in a scry trigger no matter how big the spell is.

Burning ProphetBurning Prophet and Mischievous ChimeraMischievous Chimera back this strategy up, slotting into our plan of casting instants on every player's turn (and the Chimera certainly wears a CuriosityCuriosity well).

Eligeth and Vial Smasher Commander Deck List

This deck is a fun puzzle to play. There are so many little decisions about when to cast spells, and whether cards will be more useful on top of the library or in the hand. We can deal a ton of damage, but because Vial Smasher the FierceVial Smasher the Fierce is random, all our opponents have to play as if their life total were twenty lower than it is.

And no one will be ready for an instant-speed Calibrated BlastCalibrated Blast to deal fifteen off of Shadow of MortalityShadow of Mortality. We get to see so many cards that even this deck's long shot goals are fairly attainable.

The non-bo aspect of Eligeth, Crossroads AugurEligeth, Crossroads Augur plus a bunch of cards that care about us stacking our deck isn't nearly as big a deal as I worried it might be. Eligeth is such a big threat, drawing so many cards and working so well with "pitch spells" like PyrokinesisPyrokinesis and CommandeerCommandeer, that our opponents won't ever let him stick around too long.

It might be more helpful to think of Eligeth as less of an engine and more of a one-time effect that draws between six and ten cards before going away.

Vial Smasher, on the other hand, can fly under the radar for surprisingly long. The words "at random" play subtle tricks on players' minds, making them think the effect is much worse than it actually is.

As always with partner commanders, part of this pairing's hidden strength is what each commander's color identity enables for the other commander. Vial Smasher loves spells like Treasure CruiseTreasure Cruise and Force of WillForce of Will, and Eligeth can't get enough of Zaffai, Thunder ConductorZaffai, Thunder Conductor and Burning ProphetBurning Prophet.

Even when our two commanders' strategies don't overlap enormously, they make each other stronger by loosening one of the tightest deckbuilding restrictions in the format.