MTG Commander - General Insanity - Alhammarret, High Arbiter EDH

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

Alhammarret has a pretty awesome Archive, but despite how good his Legendary Artifact might be, the High Arbiter himself is a bit underwhelming when it comes to big Blue Legendary Creatures. Therefore, it very easily can be considered General Insanity to try and build a deck with he at the helm. There are several ways we could go with this, so for flavor purposes, let’s take a look at his effect:

As Alhammarret, High Arbiter enters the battlefield, each opponent reveals his or her hand. You choose the name of a nonland card revealed this way. Your opponents can't cast spells with the chosen name (as long as this creature is on the battlefield).

On a 5/5 flyer for 7 mana, that’s not a very exciting effect. You only get to choose one card that your opponent’s can’t cast. Sure, you get to know your opponent’s hands and what you may have to play around. But it’s sort of like a worse Meddling Mage, a blue/white creature that has had its day in Constructed. How can you build around a card like that?

What sort of cards can you play alongside the massive Sphinx? Let’s take a look at the Archive to see what sort of deck we’re looking for.

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If you would gain life, you gain twice that much life instead. If you would draw a card except the first one you draw in each of your draw steps, draw two cards instead.

On a 5 cost artifact, that’s plenty good. Heck, it’s seeing play in Constructed in Sphinx’s Tutelage decks. So let’s see, we get information about opponent’s hands, gain life, and draw lots of cards? Blue does two of those things quite well. The lifegain… not so much. Basically, get card advantage, stop your opponent’s from doing anything, and incidentally gain life somehow. Those all seem like things you’d want to do.

As the only mono-Blue Sphinx Commander, why not go for a mono-Blue Sphinx tribal list? Sharuum the Hegemon is pretty good in white, blue, and black. So can a mono-Blue list work?

Here’s what I’ve come up with:

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Land (37)

1x Academy Ruins
1x Evolving Wilds
1x Faerie Conclave
1x Halimar Depths
26x Island
1x Mage-Ring Network
1x Myriad Landscape
1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Seat of the Synod
1x Temple of the False God
1x Terramorphic Expanse

Academy Ruins gets a ton of artifacts back in this deck. Faerie Conclave is a cute little man-land that can be a 2/1 flyer. Halimar Depths helps you set up draws. Mage-Ring Network is a storage land that helps you cast your Sphinxs. Nykthos is huge in this deck since you will have tons of devotion to Blue. Seat of the Synod is not 100% necessary but gives you another artifact.

Creature (18)

    1x Arbiter of the Ideal
    1x Chancellor of the Spires
    1x Clever Impersonator
    1x Consecrated Sphinx
    1x Conundrum Sphinx
    1x Guardian of Tazeem
    1x Master of Predicaments
    1x Phyrexian Metamorph
    1x Prognostic Sphinx
    1x Solemn Simulacrum
    1x Sphinx Ambassador
    1x Sphinx of Jwar Isle
    1x Sphinx of Lost Truths
    1x Sphinx of the Final Word
    1x Sphinx of Magosi
    1x Sphinx of Uthuun
    1x Thassa, God of the Sea
    1x Windreader Sphinx

The mono-Blue Sphinxes in this deck all do some pretty cool things. In particular, Arbiter of the Ideal will often get you a free Sphinx onto the battlefield with the Inspired ability. Guardian of Tazeem is especially good at keeping opponent's creatures tapped down in a mono-Blue deck. Sphinx of the Final Word makes sure your instants and sorceries go uncountered. The only non-Sphinxes in the deck are Solemn Simulacrum (EDH staple), Thassa, God the Sea (which lets you Scry every turn and can make guys unblockable) Clever Impersonator (a clone that can copy almost anything) and Phyrexian Metamorph (which usually copies your Sphinxes or utility artifacts).

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Sorcery (7)

    1x Bribery
    1x Fabricate
    1x Gitaxian Probe
    1x Mind Spring
    1x Ponder
    1x Preordain
    1x Rite of Replication

There aren’t many Sorceries in this deck, but they all do a bit. Bribery steals one of your opponent’s things. Fabricate gets you an artifact from your deck (usually Alhammarret’s Archive or Venser’s Journal.) Gitaxian Probe is a can-trip that lets you see an opponent’s hand. Ponder and Preordain help set up draws. Mind Spring and Blue Suns’ Zenith (which is included among the instants) can draw you a bunch of cards, especially with the Archive on board. Rite of Replication is especially sweet for making many copies of one of your Sphinxes.

Planeswalker (4)

1x Jace, Architect of Thought
1x Jace Beleren
1x Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
1x Tezzeret the Seeker

Tezzeret is another way to seek out important artifacts. Both versions of Jace help you get valuable cards while the Architect can ultimate you into several bombs. Tamiyo gives you a lot of cards and can make all of your cards reusable.

Artifact (14)

1x Alhammarret's Archive
1x Caged Sun
1x Coat of Arms
1x Cryptic Gateway
1x Expedition Map
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Mindslaver
1x Oblivion Stone
1x Pristine Talisman
1x Sol Ring
1x Swiftfoot Boots
1x Unstable Obelisk
1x Urza's Incubator
1x Venser's Journal

The Archive has to be in here, not merely for the flavor, but to draw you lots of extra cards. Card advantage is huge in this deck as your creatures typically won’t hit the board for awhile, so when they do, you want to have a lot of options. There’s very little lifegain in the deck, but Venser’s Journal is going to gain you a ton, allowing you to often simply outlast opponents. Pristine Talisman is a mana rock, but can also gain you a life here and there just because.

Caged Sun doubles your mana and pumps up your Sphinxes a bit. Coat of Arms is an iconic tribal card that makes your already formidable Sphinxes even more so. Cryptic Gateway helps you tap down two creatures you control to cast another Sphinx for free, essentially. Mindslaver can win you the game with Academy Ruins to get it back. Oblivion Stone can blow up all of the things in case you get behind.

Urza’s Incubator isn’t a card you see all too often, but it’s a really useful tribal card. Reprinted in Commander 2015, it makes your Sphinxes (or whatever creature type you choose when you cast this artifact) cost 2 colorless mana less. to cast them This effect actually helps all players, but besides Consecrated Sphinx, you probably won’t see many other Sphinxes burn you with this card.

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Instant (12)

    1x Blue Sun's Zenith
    1x Brainstorm
    1x Calculated Dismissal
    1x Clash of Wills
    1x Counterspell
    1x Cyclonic Rift
    1x Dissipate
    1x Fact or Fiction
    1x Hinder
    1x Mystical Tutor
    1x Rewind
    1x Spell Crumple

The usual control suite, but with Calculated Dismissal and Clash of Wills from Magic Origins added. You need just a bit more control with the slower speed of this kind of deck.

Enchantment (7)

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• 1x Call to the Kindred
  1x Gravitational Shift
  1x Leyline of Anticipation
  1x Omniscience
  1x Rhystic Study
  1x Soothsaying
  1x Telepathy
  

Gravitational Shift shrinks ground guys and powers up flying guys. Leyline of Anticipation gives your things flash. Vedalken Orrery, an artifact, basically does the same thing and is a bit more affordable so you could replace it with that. Rhystic Study draws you all of the cards. Soothsaying is the budget alternative to Sensei’s Divining Top, so if you have a top it would replace this. Telepathy is a flavor addition and one that actually a lot of Sphinx decks play to begin with.

The key card here is Call to the Kindred, an often forgotten enchantment from Dark Ascension. It’s an Aura that you attach to one of your Sphinxes and at the beginning of each upkeep, you get to dig 5 deep into your deck looking for another Sphinx. If you find one, you put it straight onto the battlefield. The other cards go to the bottom of your deck. Typically you’ll see this played in Zombie tribal, Slivers, and occasionally Horde of Notions and Scion of the Ur-Dragon decks. But it’s mega good in Sphinxes.

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Budget Considerations

This is not exactly a “budget” deck, and the mana curve is a bit steep. But the deck has solid synergies, a strong core, and the ability to simply have insane card advantage and potentially some serious lifegain. It also has the Academy Ruins/Mindslaver recursion combo to win forever.

However, there are some cuts you could make. Bribery is a $15+ card that steals you a creature but isn’t 100% necessary for the strategy. Oblivion Stone is a $30+ card, and you could replace it with another card of your liking, perhaps something like Evacuation to have everyone pick up their cards. Omniscience can make your life a lot easier by making all your spells cast for free, but it is $20 so you can leave it out if you wish.

Coat of Arms is only about $7 but if you play against a lot of tribal decks in your local meta, it’s probably best to leave it out and perhaps choose Obelisk of Urd instead. Overall, you can probably trim the cost of this deck to under $200, but only if you had to buy every card.

Alhammarret makes this deck possible by being the only legendary mono-Blue Sphinx, but obviously using Sharuum the Hegemon or either incarnation of Isperia gives you a lot more options. As this stands, this mono-Blue deck could prove to be pretty powerful.

What other Commanders would you like to see built around that would be considered… Generally Insane?