<h6 style="text-align: right;"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Alibou, Ancient Witness" href="#" target="_blank">Alibou, Ancient Witness</a> | <a href="https://www.matthew-stewart.com/">Art by Matt Stewart</a></h6>
Edge of Eternities – combining classic artifact synergies with new Planets and Spacecraft – encourages us to take a closer look at past commanders that might have new relevance. <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Alibou, Ancient Witness" href="#" target="_blank">Alibou, Ancient Witness</a>, who cares both about artifact creatures and having tapped stuff, appears to be a perfect candidate for a reimagining. It's also included in the <a href="https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/announcements/edge-of-eternities-commander-decklists#BlueRedWhite">Counter Intelligence</a> precon, so I'm guessing more copies will be floating into players' collections, just ready to be brewed with!
<h2>What does Alibou, Ancient Witness Do?</h2>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Alibou, Ancient Witness"></div></div>
Alibou has two main abilities. The first one is simple: your other artifact creatures now have haste. This means a) that we're incentivized to include as many artifact creatures as possible in this deck, and b) that ones with activated abilities that and/or abilities that trigger when they attack are more valuable than usual.
Alibou's second ability has a bit more going on:
<blockquote>Whenever one or more artifact creatures you control attack, Alibou deals X damage to any target and you scry X, where X is the number of tapped artifacts you control.</blockquote>
So we care about:
<ol>
<li>At least one artifact creature attacking (including Alibou itself)</li>
<li>Maxing out on tapped artifacts (both creature and noncreature).</li>
</ol>
The result: we have the ability to repeatedly take out the largest threat at the table or deal hunks of damage to an opponent we're particularly worried about. Additionally, Alibou's second ability enables us to do a lot of scrying. This is great because is typically one of the worst color combinations for card draw and card selection.
<h2>What did this deck look like before Edge of Eternities?</h2>
Let's use EDHREC's helpful Average Deck feature to get a sense of how other brewers built a deck around Alibou.
<div class="edhrecp__deck mtgh"><span class="edhrecp__deck-s" name="Alibou, Ancient Witness Average Deck" site="edhrec" archidekt_link="" cards="[Commander]
*1 Alibou, Ancient Witness
[/Commander]
[Creatures]
*1 Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon
*1 Bronze Guardian
*1 Combustible Gearhulk
*1 Digsite Engineer
*1 Esper Sentinel
*1 Ethersworn Canonist
*1 Foundry Inspector
*1 Goblin Welder
*1 Gold Myr
*1 Hellkite Tyrant
*1 Illustrious Wanderglyph
*1 Iron Myr
*1 Jhoira&#039;s Familiar
*1 Liberator, Urza&#039;s Battlethopter
*1 Lodestone Myr
*1 Losheel, Clockwork Scholar
*1 Loyal Apprentice
*1 Myr Battlesphere
*1 Myr Retriever
*1 Myrsmith
*1 Ornithopter of Paradise
*1 Osgir, the Reconstructor
*1 Palladium Myr
*1 Scrap Trawler
*1 Shimmer Myr
*1 Solemn Simulacrum
*1 Steel Overseer
[/Creatures]
[Artifacts]
*1 Arcane Signet
*1 Boros Signet
*1 Clock of Omens
*1 Commander&#039;s Sphere
*1 Cursed Mirror
*1 Darksteel Forge
*1 Fellwar Stone
*1 Hedron Archive
*1 Lightning Greaves
*1 Liquimetal Torque
*1 Mind Stone
*1 Mycosynth Lattice
*1 Mystic Forge
*1 Sculpting Steel
*1 Skyclave Relic
*1 Sol Ring
*1 Strionic Resonator
*1 Talisman of Conviction
*1 Thousand Moons Smithy // Barracks of the Thousand
*1 Thran Dynamo
*1 Unwinding Clock
[/Artifacts]
[Instants]
*1 Boros Charm
*1 Chaos Warp
*1 Dispatch
*1 Generous Gift
*1 Path to Exile
*1 Swords to Plowshares
*1 Wear // Tear
[/Instants]
[Sorceries]
*1 Blasphemous Act
*1 Faithless Looting
*1 Organic Extinction
*1 Saheeli&#039;s Directive
*1 Vandalblast
*1 Wake the Past
[/Sorceries]
[Planeswalkers]
*1 Daretti, Scrap Savant
[/Planeswalkers]
[Enchantments]
*1 Ghirapur Aether Grid
*1 Smothering Tithe
*1 Tempered Steel
[/Enchantments]
[Lands]
*1 Ancient Den
*1 Battlefield Forge
*1 Boros Garrison
*1 Buried Ruin
*1 Clifftop Retreat
*1 Command Tower
*1 Darksteel Citadel
*1 Great Furnace
*1 Inventors&#039; Fair
*8 Mountain
*9 Plains
*1 Power Depot
*1 Rogue&#039;s Passage
*1 Rustvale Bridge
*1 Sacred Foundry
*1 Spectator Seating
*1 Sundown Pass
*1 Temple of Triumph
*1 Treasure Vault
[/Lands]"></div>
Let's go through this decklist and discuss the important card categories for this strategy.
<h2>Artifact Mana</h2>
Having a strong mana base is a good place to start for any deck in this format. Because Alibou's second ability cares about any tapped artifact at all, artifact lands, like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Ancient Den" href="#" target="_blank">Ancient Den</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rustvale Bridge" href="#" target="_blank">Rustvale Bridge</a>, and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Treasure Vault" href="#" target="_blank">Treasure Vault</a>, are at a premium. You were probably already going to put them in any Commander deck, but it's worth noting that the classic <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Sol Ring" href="#" target="_blank">Sol Ring</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Arcane Signet" href="#" target="_blank">Arcane Signet</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Boros Signet" href="#" target="_blank">Boros Signet</a>, etc. also have additional utility when combined with our commander. An exciting new card from Edge of Eternities is <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="The Eternity Elevator" href="#" target="_blank">The Eternity Elevator</a>, representing both a powerful mana rock and the ability to maximize tapped artifact creatures (for Alibou's second ability) without risking them in combat. It's also an immediately tap outlet for our non-hasty commander.
<div>
<h2>Artifact Creature Tokens</h2>
In the Average Deck, creatures like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon" href="#" target="_blank">Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Digsite Engineer" href="#" target="_blank">Digsite Engineer</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Loyal Apprentice" href="#" target="_blank">Loyal Apprentice</a>, and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Myrsmith" href="#" target="_blank">Myrsmith</a> increase the deck's artifact creature board presence, which makes a lot of sense because both of Alibou's ability have great synergy with creature tokens that are artifacts.
So far, the most exciting artifact token-producers I've seen from Edge of Eternities are the two on-color Planets for this deck: <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Adagia, Windswept Bastion" href="#" target="_blank">Adagia, Windswept Bastion</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kavaron, Memorial World" href="#" target="_blank">Kavaron, Memorial World</a>. These lands are absolutely perfect for Alibou, as they represent a tap outlet and additional artifact tokens without even taking up space in the deck's nonland cards.
<h2>Tap/Untap Synergies</h2>
The Average Deck has a slight nod to allowing artifact to tap and untap at will, with cards like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Lodestone Myr" href="#" target="_blank">Lodestone Myr</a>, a <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Clock of Omens" href="#" target="_blank">pair</a> of <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Unwinding Clock" href="#" target="_blank">clocks</a>, and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Ghirapur Aether Grid" href="#" target="_blank">Ghirapur Aether Grid</a>. There are also a small number of <a href="https://edhrec.com/average-decks/alibou-ancient-witness/vehicles">Alibou decks with a Vehicle theme</a>.
Edge of Eternities presents a new card subtype that allows us to tap creatures without risking them in combat: Spacecraft. Let's test out <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="The Seriema" href="#" target="_blank">The Seriema</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Warmaker Gunship" href="#" target="_blank">Warmaker Gunship</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Dawnsire, Sunstar Dreadnought" href="#" target="_blank">Dawnsire, Sunstar Dreadnought</a>, and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Extinguisher Battleship" href="#" target="_blank">Extinguisher Battleship</a> in this initial re-build.
<h2>Targeted and Mass Disruption</h2>
Looking at the Average Deck, we see the usual suspects when it comes to disruption in colors: cards like <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Swords to Plowshares" href="#" target="_blank">Swords to Plowshares</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Chaos Warp" href="#" target="_blank">Chaos Warp</a>, <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Vandalblast" href="#" target="_blank">Vandalblast</a>, and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Blasphemous Act" href="#" target="_blank">Blasphemous Act</a>. Does Edge of Eternities have anything new to offer that might be able to frustrate our opponents' plans?
The new mass removal spell <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Beyond the Quiet" href="#" target="_blank">Beyond the Quiet</a> will probably end up harming us more than our opponents, but <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Emergency Eject" href="#" target="_blank">Emergency Eject</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Invasive Maneuvers" href="#" target="_blank">Invasive Maneuvers</a> are great on-theme options for targeted removal. We'll have to keep an eye out for other fitting mass disruption options as more cards from the new set are previewed.
</div>
<h2>Adding New Spice</h2>
This rebuilt deck leans into each of the different parts of our commander, including <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Windcrag Siege" href="#" target="_blank">attacking synergies</a>, doubling up on <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Gratuitous Violence" href="#" target="_blank">damage</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Full Throttle" href="#" target="_blank">attack steps</a>, a mini-combo with <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Dawnsire, Sunstar Dreadnought" href="#" target="_blank">Dawnsire</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Stuffy Doll" href="#" target="_blank">Stuffy Doll</a> or <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Blazing Sunsteel" href="#" target="_blank">Blazing Sunsteel</a>, and lots of <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Idol of Oblivion" href="#" target="_blank">cantrip</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Forgotten Cave" href="#" target="_blank">cycling</a> effects to make the best use of our big scries each turn.
<div class="edhrecp__deck mtgh"><span class="edhrecp__deck-s" name="Rebuilding Alibou, Ancient Witness" site="edhrec" archidekt_link="" cards="[Commander]
*1 Alibou, Ancient Witness
[/Commander]
[Creatures]
*1 Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon
*1 Arabella, Abandoned Doll
*1 Bronze Guardian
*1 Chiss-Goria, Forge Tyrant
*1 Digsite Engineer
*1 Fear of Missing Out
*1 Foundry Inspector
*1 Gold Myr
*1 Great Desert Prospector
*1 Haliya, Guided by Light
*1 Hangarback Walker
*1 Iron Myr
*1 Leonin Abunas
*1 Losheel, Clockwork Scholar
*1 Loyal Apprentice
*1 Myrsmith
*1 Ornithopter of Paradise
*1 Pia Nalaar
*1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
*1 Quicksmith Genius
*1 Stridehangar Automaton
*1 Stuffy Doll
*1 Voyager Quickwelder
[/Creatures]
[Artifacts]
*1 Arcane Signet
*1 Basilisk Collar
*1 Blazing Sunsteel
*1 Boros Signet
*1 Clock of Omens
*1 Commander&#039;s Sphere
*1 Cursed Mirror
*1 Dawnsire, Sunstar Dreadnought
*1 Extinguisher Battleship
*1 Fellwar Stone
*1 Idol of Oblivion
*1 Liquimetal Torque
*1 Mind Stone
*1 Perilous Snare
*1 Salvation Engine
*1 Smuggler&#039;s Copter
*1 Sol Ring
*1 Talisman of Conviction
*1 The Eternity Elevator
*1 The Seriema
*1 Thousand Moons Smithy // Barracks of the Thousand
*1 Throne of the God-Pharaoh
*1 Warmaker Gunship
[/Artifacts]
[Instants]
*1 Boros Charm
*1 Chaos Warp
*1 Dispatch
*1 Emergency Eject
*1 Invasive Maneuvers
*1 Swords to Plowshares
*1 Wear // Tear
[/Instants]
[Sorceries]
*1 Blasphemous Act
*1 Faithless Looting
*1 Full Throttle
*1 Organic Extinction
*1 Sundering Eruption // Volcanic Fissure
*1 Vandalblast
[/Sorceries]
[Enchantments]
*1 Gratuitous Violence
*1 The Rollercrusher Ride
*1 Windcrag Siege
[/Enchantments]
[Lands]
*1 Adagia, Windswept Bastion
*1 Ancient Den
*1 Battlefield Forge
*1 Buried Ruin
*1 Clifftop Retreat
*1 Command Tower
*1 Darksteel Citadel
*1 Forgotten Cave
*1 Glittering Massif
*1 Great Furnace
*1 Kavaron, Memorial World
*9 Mountain
*9 Plains
*1 Power Depot
*1 Rustvale Bridge
*1 Scene of the Crime
*1 Secluded Steppe
*1 Spire of Industry
*1 Sunbaked Canyon
*1 Treasure Vault
*1 Witch&#039;s Clinic
[/Lands]"></div>
<div>
<h2>Deck Checklist</h2>
<ul>
<li>55 mana sources (37 lands, 13 mana rocks, 2 cost-reducers, 1 MDFC, 2 misc.)</li>
<li>13 cards that create artifact tokens</li>
<li>11 card draw/selection/recursion</li>
<li>8 targeted disruption</li>
<li>9 mass disruption</li>
<li>11 previewed cards from Edge of Eternities and EOE Commander</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
If you're looking for an underplayed Boros commander as a break from the other often-played artifact, Equipment, and token strategies, Alibou, Ancient Witness might just do the trick! I'm excited to go big with Planets and Spacecraft when Edge of Eternities comes out, and it seems like this commander is a great leader to start trying some of them out. What do you think about this strategy? Let the EDHREC community know in the comments below. Until next time!
</div>

planet

Rebuilding Alibou, Ancient Witness with Edge of Eternities