The Wandering MinstrelThe Wandering Minstrel | Art by Thanh Tuan

Friendly greetings and welcome to an Exhibition (Bracket 1) deck tech for The Wandering MinstrelThe Wandering Minstrel! I'm John Sherwood, and I bear tidings of low-power, five-color fun.

I love set mechanics, and this deck is full of them. Instead of foraging for pieces to support a single set mechanic, I built a deck that snatches the set mechanic picnic basket.

What Does The Wandering Minstrel Do?

The Wandering Minstrel hits a trifecta with static, triggered, and activated abilities. First, the static ability causes your lands to enter untapped, which is fantastic for a budget five-color mana base.

Next, the triggered ability makes a token creature as a payoff for controlling five or more Towns. Of the 23 new Town lands, 17 always enter tapped. In other words, The Wandering Minstrel overules the Towns' primary downside, then rewards having the Towns with incremental value.

Then there's the activated ability. The Wandering Minstrel is an invoker, with an activation cost of eight mana. Three generic plus WUBRG is a lot for an activation, but the payoff is a hearty +X/+X to the whole team.

Immediately after reading this card, I felt an urge to build a deck that's been simmering on my backburner. Truth be told, Sealed is my favorite way to play Magic, and one pillar of limited play is the Bear with Set's MechanicBear with Set's Mechanic.

The bears (2/2s for two mana) that inspired my favorite meme card appear in every Magic set to support limited deck archetypes. As a two-drop that cares about a Final Fantasy set mechanic, The Wandering Minstrel is two-thirds of the way to singing the bear necessities. Sadly, the Wandering Minstrel is not a 2/2, so the commander can't fully commit to the bear bit.

Bear Necessities

I committed to including every Town in the deck, to capitalize on The Wandering Minstrel's triggered and activated abilities. With the 23 Towns from Final Fantasy, plus Thespian's StageThespian's Stage and Planar NexusPlanar Nexus, over a quarter of the deck supports the commander just by making land drops. With the bulk of the mana base solved, I moved on to creatures.

There are hundreds of bears to choose from. Of the creatures that made the final cut, these are some of the ones I consider essential to the deck:

Two of Ravnica's three Guildmage cycles are in the list, but Conclave GuildmageConclave Guildmage and Skarrg GuildmageSkarrg Guildmage are key. They grant trample, pairing with The Wandering Minstrel's power/toughness boost for a build-a-bear overrun. Other bears grant evasion, but these are the most efficient.

Grenzo, Dungeon WardenGrenzo, Dungeon Warden's activated ability is an odd sort of card advantage in this deck. Conveniently, there's no need to pay anything into Grenzo's X cost because every creature in the deck is power 2. With the number of creatures that made the final cut, Grenzo will hit frequently.

Picnic Baskets

Initially, I picked about 80 bears with set mechanics, intending to find synergies and work out a secondary theme for the deck. As I curated that list of creatures, I connected five dots that led me in a new direction.

1. Bears have a mana value of two.
2. Many bears have different mana symbols in their casting cost.
3. All bears are creatures.
4. Two is an even number.
5. Plenty of bears have activated abilities.

Spelled out another way:

1. Lurrus of the Dream-DenLurrus of the Dream-Den
2. Jegantha, the WellspringJegantha, the Wellspring
3. Umori, the CollectorUmori, the Collector
4. Gyruda, Doom of DepthsGyruda, Doom of Depths
5. Zirda, the DawnwakerZirda, the Dawnwaker

My name might be John, but I'm not cut out to be a ranger. I'm Yogi in this over-played metaphor, and I'm not listening to Boo-Boo.

When I say I'm getting a picnic basket, I mean the final version of this deck meets the building restrictions for five different companions. Paying three mana to put a companion in hand fits neatly into the mana curve of a deck with no three-drops. I think it would be fun to embrace variety and pick a different companion at random every time.

Depending on the chosen companion, the deck pivots into very different play patterns. My top picks would be Zirda, Lurrus, or Jegantha, in that order.

The six-mana investment to play Zirda, the DawnwakerZirda, the Dawnwaker will quickly pay for itself with the discount on activated abilities. Lurrus of the Dream-DenLurrus of the Dream-Den is a nice insurance policy, and there are some sacrifice outlets in the deck to develop a reanimator engine.

Jegantha, the WellspringJegantha, the Wellspring practically guarantees enough mana to activate The Wandering Minstrel's pump ability.

How Does The Wandering Minstrel Win?

The primary game plan is go wide to go tall. The commander should always be out on turn two, helping to smooth the tempo before producing creature tokens.

Casting other creatures is a priority until there's enough mana to leverage activated abilities in combat. The best-case scenario is overrunning opponents with multiple pumped creatures. However, decks with this many activated abilities can adapt.

An evasionless, one-power creature is not a a realistic commander damage threat. Fortunately, there are enough combat trick abilities in this deck to make The Wandering Minstrel a sneaky combatant. Many of the deck's creatures either make target creature bigger, grant evasion, or both, like Korozda GuildmageKorozda Guildmage.

Three mana is a poor rate for a temporary +1/+1; that cost is too high for Voltron to be a primary game plan. However, this deck's curve is really low. There should be plenty of mana available to chain activated abilities together, or play a key ability on repeat.

When the life totals are low and the win is on the line, a little threat of activation makes a big difference.

As much as I love the combat phase, there are some edge cases in the deck to watch out for. Some of the activated abilities may occasionally tip the scales toward victory. There are eight cards in the deck with non-combat methods of reducing opponents' life totals.

Rix Maadi Guildmage might be creature or player removal if needed. Eliminating a player with a card like this is a fun achievement to unlock.

The Wandering Minstrel Commander Deck List

I'll keep hoping for the bear commander of my dreams, but I could see myself sleeving this up in the mean time.

The Berenstain Bard

The moral of this story is versatility. The Wandering Minstrel isn't just another set mechanic commander. The Town mana base takes up a mere quarter of the deck, leaving seventy-five cards that could be anything. The Wandering Minstrel isn't a mainstage headliner like Golos, Tireless PilgrimGolos, Tireless Pilgrim (RIP), but they jam to the same music.

If smooth mana production and open ended brewing potential are on your playlist, then give The Wandering Minstrel a chance. Tell us about your Minstrel brews in the comments below.