(Baral, Chief of ComplianceBaral, Chief of Compliance | Art by Wesley Burt)

Technically Playable - Baral, Chief of ComplianceBaral, Chief of Compliance

Welcome to Technically Playable, where our mission statement is "Every commander is Technically playable" (the best kind of playable). The way this works is every article will have a commander generated using EDHREC's random button, I'll talk through the card and then write about how we can build around it!

This week's random commander is

Baral is one of the all-time most classic "Fun Police" mono-blue decks with an emphasis on countering spells and drawing cards built into their abilities.

Slingin' Spells...

If soldier tokens are white's thing and big monsters are green's then spells are definitely blue's bread and butter. Baral makes an amazing spellslinger deck by allowing you to make your spells cheaper while turning blue's best "removal" (counterspells) into card selection by allowing you to draw and discard when you counter a spell.

The most common and most popular blue decks tend to focus on countering as many spells as possible and returning any creatures that resolve to their controllers hand to protect themselves until they reach their endgame (where they always have a full hand of cards and can slowly grind out a win).

Personally, I like to attack with creatures so I'm much happier when my spells give me bodies on the board to keep me alive.

For mono-blue alot of these cards create tokens that have flying, giving you some strong evasion and the ability to block your opponent's fliers.

Of these cards, probably the best are Talrand, Sky SummonerTalrand, Sky Summoner and Docent of PerfectionDocent of Perfection. These cards both create a consistent stream of reasonably statted creatures that either have flying or that can gain it very easily in the case of Docent of PerfectionDocent of Perfection.

But tokens aren't the only way to benefit from the discard and cost reduction that Baral offers. By making spells extremely cheap we can constantly be casting them for some kind of advantage while also fueling our graveyard for creatures like Haughty DjinnHaughty Djinn.

On top of simply casting spells we can also discard any spells that aren't useful in the moment with Baral's ability as well as cards like Frantic SearchFrantic Search and Careful StudyCareful Study to make our Djinn's power constantly grow.

The main issue here is the number of cards in mono-blue that have this ability, as most of them are blue and red. There are alternatives though, Octavia, Living ThesisOctavia, Living Thesis is a huge creature with a powerful Ward ability that you can cast extremely cheaply while also making all of our tokens into giant 8/8 monsters too.

This works especially well with the flying tokens from earlier to create a board that can easily knock an opponent out.

But spellslinger decks aren't just about casting a bunch of spells, because there are only so many spells you can actually run in your deck without making yourself really weak to creatures.

Cards like Kitsa, Otterball EliteKitsa, Otterball Elite and Ojer Pakpatiq, Deepest EpochOjer Pakpatiq, Deepest Epoch both give our deck easy ways to get multiple used out of each of our spells, either further fueling our graveyard or helping us to find the counterspell or bounce spell we need to stay alive.

We can also use Thunderclap DrakeThunderclap Drake and Echo StormEcho Storm are also great in this deck thanks to Baral's low cost. These allow us to copy powerful spells or artifacts to help close out games or to keep us alive.

Using Echo StormEcho Storm on something like a Gilded LotusGilded Lotus or even a Sol RingSol Ring can often provide enough mana to keep up with the green decks and allow you some breathing room to reach the end game.

... And Drawin' Cards

The other side of blue decks is the sheer amount of card draw that they bring to the table. Card draw decks can range hugely in power level with decks like Niv-Mizzet, ParunNiv-Mizzet, Parun even being cEDH viable.

For me, I feel like Baral fits squarely in the middle of that power spectrum not being incredibly powerful but also making very low power level pods suffer in the fun department.

For Baral the focus is on countering spells as that is how he allows you to draw cards. If you use cards like DismissDismiss and RefuteRefute you can double up on the card draw for countering spells and with Archmage EmeritusArchmage Emeritus and Archmage of RunesArchmage of Runes you can draw even more for casting spells. With a combination of these you can get a solid two to three cards for every spell that you counter.

You also want some more consistent draw. I'm a big fan of Howling MineHowling Mine and Font of MythosFont of Mythos in control-focused decks as they give you some political leeway to keep yourself alive as it allows other players to benefit.

One of the best options for this is Well of IdeasWell of Ideas because of its asymmetry giving you a small advantage that can very quickly snowball.

If you're looking for something to synergise with Baral's discard you can also use The Magic MirrorThe Magic Mirror which scales the earlier you play it giving you card draw that can very easily help you to run away with the game.

In terms of payoffs there are a range of ways to win the game. The obvious ones are of course Thassa's OracleThassa's Oracle, Laboratory ManiacLaboratory Maniac or Jace, Wielder of MysteriesJace, Wielder of Mysteries. These give you a way to make sure you can close out the game in an instant where needed.

These work really well with cards like Azami, Lady of ScrollsAzami, Lady of Scrolls who lets Baral and Docent of PerfectionDocent of Perfection draw you even more cards.

Another one-two punch can also be Psychosis CrawlerPsychosis Crawler. If you're focusing in drawing cards it's quite easy to play Psychosis CrawlerPsychosis Crawler into a card like WindfallWindfall with a huge hand of cards to drain everyone.

The other "win the game" card that can be quite good in this deck is TriskaidekaphileTriskaidekaphile. While it does win you the game instantly you need some kind of way to control the number of cards in your hand like Mind Over MatterMind Over Matter to be able to discard when you have too many cards.

Alternatively you can also go down the token route, like the spellslinger version of the deck. Chasm SkulkerChasm Skulker is a great option if your pod has a number of blue players as the islandwalk can be a game changer against other creature-based blue decks like Minn, Wily IllusionistMinn, Wily Illusionist.

There are also some other cards that can benefit drawing two cards per turn, something easily achievable with Teferi's Ageless InsightTeferi's Ageless Insight in play.

Homunculus HordeHomunculus Horde and Mischievous MysticMischievous Mystic from the newest set are both great examples of this with Homunculus HordeHomunculus Horde doing a very good blue Scute SwarmScute Swarm impression.

At the bottom end of the power level scale for this type of effect is Ominous SeasOminous Seas. While a bit weaker and needing you to draw eight cards before any payoff it is a very cheap and efficient permanent that you can play early and can start to build up quickly.

In this article I looked at a couple of different ways to play Baral, of course you can play him as a storm deck with High TideHigh Tide and Brain FreezeBrain Freeze and the usual offenders, but I wanted to look at a couple of other interesting decks you can build with this commander.

If you like the idea of a deck that casts a bunch of spells, makes a ton of tokens and draws all of the cards you will probably also like my last article as well as this one.

As with all Technically Playable articles, this was a very quick look at Baral, Chief of ComplianceBaral, Chief of Compliance as a commander, and a few of the cards that can really make a deck with Baral, Chief of Compliance as the commander tick.

Let me know in the comments below if you play Baral, Chief of ComplianceBaral, Chief of Compliance, if you want to build a Baral, Chief of ComplianceBaral, Chief of Compliance deck, or even if you just enjoyed this article!

Paul Palmer

Hey there, I'm Paul. I've been writing about magic for a really long time. I love to write about obscure commanders (one of my really early articles back in 2015 was about Skeleton Ship) and how you can make decks around them work, no matter how unplayable they are. I love Gruul, I love Mountains and I love casting Lightning Bolt.