Wan Shi Tong, LibrarianWan Shi Tong, Librarian | Art By: Andrea Piparo

Hello, everyone! I’m Levi from The Thought Vessel and today I have a commander that combines my two passions in life: owls and Magic: The Gathering-related war crimes. Coming to us from the newest Magic: The Gathering set, Avatar: The Last Airbender, we have Wan Shi Tong, LibrarianWan Shi Tong, Librarian. What does this commander do and why am I so excited to put a list together? Let’s find out.

The Commander

Wan Shi Tong is a 1/1 flying vigilant creature that costs X and two blue mana. When it’s cast, we get to draw half of what we pay into X and put that many +1/+1 counters on it at the same time. If that wasn’t enough, we also get the added ability, “Whenever an opponent searches their library, put a +1/+1 counter on Wan Shi Tong and draw a card.” This can play as a drawing matters commander, a mono-blue +1/+1 counters deck, or simply a really impressive control shell. Since the requirements for this commander are quite low, it gives us more wiggle room in the brewing process.

Comparisons

As far as other commanders go, there really aren’t many good comparisons for this commander. This card is basically a Hydroid KrasisHydroid Krasis and Archivist of OghmaArchivist of Oghma stapled together in a mono-blue shell. It’s interesting to see this kind of card design because we really haven’t gotten an effect like this in the command zone before, which means we’re getting a new branch on the mechanical tree of Magic. But since we’re looking at what this card reminds me of from previous commanders, I would say it has to be Dyadrine, Synthesis AmalgamDyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam and The Cyber-ControllerThe Cyber-Controller. Not necessarily from what the cards do, but from what each of these commanders bring to the table.

For example, Dyadrine and Wan Shi Tong share a feature in which they can use excess mana to produce a massive commander threat with +1/+1 counters. The main difference between the two is that Dyadrine is more prepared with its Selesnya color pairing to actually use Voltron damage as a win condition than Wan Shi Tong is at mono-blue. Because of this, Wan Shi Tong has to be more creative with its gameplan in order to win. As I mentioned earlier, Wan Shi Tong has a lot of wiggle room in deckbuilding since there isn’t a clear path to how it wants to be built. This can lead to a deck that’s trying to do too much or just doesn’t quite have the support it needs.

Wan Shi Tong does have the edge on something that it shares with The Cyber-ControllerThe Cyber-Controller, and that’s being able to be used as a win condition outlet from the command zone. With both Wan Shi Tong and The Cyber-Controller in play, if we’re able to produce an excessive or infinite amount of mana, casting either of these spells results in us winning the game. With Wan Shi Tong, we’ll have a giant commander that can take any player out of the game while also drawing out the entire deck, while The Cyber-Controller can simply mill out the entire table while building a giant Cybermen army in the process. Having a commander that can facilitate a win like that can really help us streamline the rest of the deck.

The Gameplan

When I brew decks around specific commanders, I tend to ask myself two questions: “What do I want to be doing in the game?” and “What do I want my opponents to be doing in the game?” This helps me understand what bracket I should be building around and what types of win conditions I should be targeting. For this commander, I really wanted to get every part of the buffalo (owl) involved as best I could, so I needed my opponents to be tutoring to get extra card draw triggers from my commander. Though there are some cards in mono-blue that can facilitate this (more on those later), there really aren’t enough to build a 100-card deck around, so we need to play in a bracket where people will be tutoring on a regular basis. Because of this, we’re aiming for bracket four, where tutors and fetch lands are played more frequently.

With bracket four as our north star, we’re going to focus on keeping our hand full of interaction and value engines until we can generate infinite mana and cast a Thassa's OracleThassa's Oracle or Jace, Wielder of MysteriesJace, Wielder of Mysteries for the win. If that win condition is off the table, then we’ll simply try to beat down the board with the giant Bird that is Wan Shi Tong.

Notable Cards

A card that I’ve been playing a lot more of lately is Teferi, Temporal PilgrimTeferi, Temporal Pilgrim. In a deck that wants to draw a lot of cards, having a planeswalker that can make Illusions that’ll get a +1/+1 counter each time we draw a card can be really strong. If the board state is slow or the hand is empty, we can simply use the +0 loyalty ability instead and pick up an extra card. Since we have a burst draw spell in our command zone, it’s not impossible to get into a situation where we cast Teferi and get to his ultimate ability on the very next turn, shuffling everyone’s boards into their library with the exception of one permanent that’ll be put into an opponent’s hand. I’ve been using this card in my Sixth DoctorSixth Doctor and Susan ForemanSusan Foreman list as of late and it’s made for some very interesting board states.

PuPu UFOPuPu UFO is in the deck to help with our ramp. Since we’ll be drawing an excessive amount of cards, we’ll likely be in a situation where we have a surplus of lands in our hand since we can only play one each turn. Pupu lets us get an extra land out of our hand each turn while also being a halfway decent blocker as a 0/4. It’s also a tapping effect, so if we’re able to untap our permanents with a card like Dramatic ReversalDramatic Reversal, it can be reused multiple times.

Tidal BarracudaTidal Barracuda might be one of the most sneaky chaos cards a player can play while also being spiky. When the Fish is in play, everyone’s spells can be cast as though they had flash, meaning any time in the rotation can turn into a stack war, which can put a lot of mental strain on our opponents by giving them so many timing options. But the kicker is that no one is allowed to cast spells on our turn, so once we get our combo in hand, it’s lights out for the rest of the table without having to worry about interaction.

We have a good number of counterspells in the deck with twelve to thirteen depending on how you feel about Sink into StuporSink into Stupor, but we want to avoid using them to keep some of our heavier hitters safe from removal. Because of this, we have Hydroelectric SpecimenHydroelectric Specimen and SpellskiteSpellskite to redirect spot removal away from something like Consecrated SphinxConsecrated Sphinx.

Depending on our game, sometimes Thassa's OracleThassa's Oracle isn’t going to be an option. In that case we have Psychosis CrawlerPsychosis Crawler. Every time we draw a card, each opponent loses one life. If we get to the end of the deck without eliminating everyone, we can cast Echo of EonsEcho of Eons to shuffle our entire graveyard and hand into our deck to draw a fresh seven cards. From there we can reset and take the rest of the table out.

If we have to go the Voltron route with our flying vigilant Bird Spirit, we have a personal favorite card of mine, Nerd RageNerd Rage. When this card comes into play, we get to draw two cards, so out of the gate the floor of this card is DivinationDivination. However, if we attack and have ten or more cards in our hand, which is very easy to do in this deck, Wan Shi Tong gets +10/+10 until the end of the turn. This sets up a two-turn clock on an opponent or simply takes a player out with commander damage in one shot.

Chasm SkulkerChasm Skulker is in this deck as board wipe insurance. We’ll be able to build it up with every card we draw and throw it at our opponents to remove blockers in the early to mid game to force them to focus on defense rather than attacking us. If our Chasm SkulkerChasm Skulker bites the dust, we get to make a 1/1 blue Squid with islandwalk for each +1/+1 counter that Chasm SkulkerChasm Skulker was able to collect. If Chasm Skulker gets big enough, one board wipe could give us enough creatures to take out the whole table.

When it comes to stax pieces in Commander, I like to put one or two in my deck to slow a player down, load up on taxing effects, or have a toolbox strategy in place to get the hate bear I need at the moment. It can be hard to navigate a game where you’re constantly drawing cards to shut down mechanics that aren’t going to be seen in that pod. For this deck, we’re sticking with only one stax piece, and that’s Back to BasicsBack to Basics. We do have a good number of utility lands in this deck, but the lion’s share of the mana base is either basic IslandIslands or fetch lands for basic Islands. When we play against commanders with three colors or more that might only have a handful of basic lands in their entire deck, this hurts them a lot more than it hurts us.

We spoke earlier about not having many ways to force our opponent to tutor in mono-blue. If we had black, we could’ve added cards like Scheming SymmetryScheming Symmetry and leaned more into those play patterns, but there is one type of forced tutor we do have access to, and that’s with lands. Demolition FieldDemolition Field, Field of RuinField of Ruin, and Volatile FaultVolatile Fault are each lands that we can sacrifice to destroy a nonbasic land an opponent controls. Typically that player or multiple players will be able to grab a basic land, but if we can get a high-power land, like Field of the DeadField of the Dead or Gaea's CradleGaea's Cradle, off the board while we draw a card and put a +1/+1 counter on our commander, we’ll take that deal every time.

So… How Do We Win?

As I stated in our gameplan section earlier, plan A is to use infinite mana to draw our entire deck and cast Thassa's OracleThassa's Oracle or Jace, Wielder of MysteriesJace, Wielder of Mysteries. As a plan B, we’ll attempt to use Voltron damage with our commander. But how are we going to make infinite mana?

There are two different ways we can do this. The first is by imprinting Dramatic ReversalDramatic Reversal onto Isochron ScepterIsochron Scepter. By putting Dramatic Reversal onto Isochron Scepter, as long as we have at least three mana from nonland sources, we can profit at least one mana every time we tap the Isochron Scepter to untap all our non land permanents. Since this deck is playing ten mana rocks, many of which produce two or more mana, getting to this number shouldn’t be much of a challenge.

The other way we can produce infinite mana is through either Hullbreaker HorrorHullbreaker Horror or Tidespout TyrantTidespout Tyrant. With either of these creatures in play, we can bounce a Sol RingSol Ring and a Mana VaultMana Vault or some combination of cheap artifacts back and forth to produce infinite mana. This also has the bonus of giving us the opportunity to put Wan Shi Tong back into our hand to recast if we played it on an earlier turn.

There are some other lines that we can play with Pili-PalaPili-Pala and Grand ArchitectGrand Architect or Forensic GadgeteerForensic Gadgeteer and Basalt MonolithBasalt Monolith, but the cards on their own aren’t quite right for this particular deck and I wanted to keep the combos for this deck a bit more organic. If we wanted to lean more into artifacts or add additional ways to make infinite mana, there are solid options.

Powering Down

I understand that combos and Thassa's OracleThassa's Oracle aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. Because this gameplan is flexible, it’s easy to focus on a different theme to move this commander into a lower bracket. With cards like Lyla, Holographic AssistantLyla, Holographic Assistant and Toothy, Imaginary FriendToothy, Imaginary Friend, I could see a +1/+1 counter deck where Wan Shi Tong is used to refill our hand or as a vehicle to get more +1/+1 counters into play. This shifts the focus of the deck onto a combat theme that’s easier for opponents to interact with and might be more enjoyable for certain pods to play against.

Wrapping Up

I’m a fan of both Avatar: The Last Airbender and owls, so naturally this commander is right up my alley. Even outside the command zone, I see this card becoming a bit of a staple for casual decks and even possibly seeing some cEDH play in the 99 of decks like Kinnan, Bonder ProdigyKinnan, Bonder Prodigy. I love having the versatility of being a simple early game stax piece that rewards us for opponents tutoring or as a combat threat and hand refiller in the later game. If you want to improve your win rate in commander, getting cards that can win in multiple situations like this can definitely help, but in the meantime, I’m posting my decklist below. Feel free to copy the list to play, use it as a blueprint for your own brew, or simply scrap it for parts. At the end of the day, this list is for you. Until next time, happy brewing.