$0.10 Outlaws of Thunder Junction Legend Creates Infinite Damage and Draw Combos

As much as Commander is the most open and creative MTG format around, sadly, it’s often very expensive. The game’s growing popularity has only pushed prices of staples up, making new decks a real investment. Thankfully, there are a fair few Commanders that can still work wonders on a budget, like Taii Wakeen, Perfect Shot.

Beyond being able to pick up this entire deck for under $80, Taii Wakeen supports a genuinely interesting Commander strategy. Fusing burn and group hug together into a bizarre yet powerful brew, this legend has some serious potential.

MTG Taii Wakeen, Perfect Shot

Thanks to rewarding you for kill shots and supercharging your non-combat damage, Taii Wakeen, Perfect Shot is an insane value engine. With just a little extra mana, you can turn spells like Blazing Volley into board wipes that’ll draw you tons of cards. You can even use Zirda, the Dawbreaker, to reduce Taii Wakeen’s ability cost, further amplifying your damage.

Speaking of damage, Taii Wakeen does a lot more than board wipes, as there are tons of direct damage sources. Between Coruscation Mage, Electrostatic Field, and Thermo-Alchemist, just casting a spell can pack a serious punch. Thanks to cards like Firesong and Sunspeaker, the spells you cast can heal you too, while hybrid spells like Lightning Helix dish out even more damage.

If anything, the only trouble with Taii Wakeen, Perfect Shot is that it’s too good at removal. While this is usually the opposite of a problem, if your opponents run out of creatures, you run out of gas. To combat this, running cards like Akroan Horse, Varchild’s War-Riders, and Genesis Chamber can work wonders.

Similarly, since Taii Wakeen doesn’t care whose creatures are being killed, you can run plenty of weak creatures and token makers yourself. Empty the Warrens, Mad Ratter, and even Twinflame can give you a huge expendable board to turn into card draw. If you want to keep your creatures around, however, Unbreakable Formation and Your Temple Is Under Attack will give everything Indestructible.

Speaking of Indestructible, Darksteel Mutation is a godsend in this deck. Not only does it nullify an opponent’s creature, but you also get a consistent target to draw off. Technically, Deathless Angel can facilitate the same thing, although this card is more of a combo engine.

Infinite Damage and Draw

If you can give a damage-redirecting card, like Boros Reckoner, Indestructible, then Taii Wakeen, Perfect Shot can draw your entire deck. Just deal three damage to Boros Reckoner with something like Lightning BoltLightning BoltLightning Bolt deals 3 damage to any target., and keep redirecting the damage to itself infinitely. Notably, you can easily stop this combo whenever you want, too, making it fairly trivial to win.

If you want to make a win guaranteed, however, adding Chains of Plasma into the combo lets you deal infinite damage. So long as you have a spare card in hand, you can discard it to copy Chains of Plasma when targeting Boros Reckoner. Since Taii Wakeen will replace the discarded card, you can do this infinitely, while Reckoner redirects the damage wherever you want.

While this combo is a bit flashy and all-or-nothing, it does have a fair bit of redundancy. Both Spitemare and Truefire Captain can work in place of Boros Reckoner. While this can make winning fairly reliable, even without a combo, you can just Storm off on your own.

Upgrades People, Upgrades

Admittedly, Storming off on your own is rather difficult, as the vast majority of mana generators are very expensive. In the default 99, we’ve only got Runaway Steam-Kin, which only really works with cheap spells. Even with Taii Wakeen handling the card draw, realistically popping off with a GrapeshotGrapeshotGrapeshot deals 1 damage to any target.
Storm (When you cast this spell, copy it for each spell cast before it this turn. You may choose new targets for the copies.) isn’t guaranteed, but it’s not impossible.

Realistically, if you do want to go for a full Storm win, you’re going to need to upgrade your Taii Wakeen, Perfect Shot deck. If you are going down the upgrade path, Urabrask, Seething SongSeething SongAdd {R}{R}{R}{R}{R}., and Mana Geyser are all natural auto-includes. You’ll also get to run generally more powerful cards, too, like Gut Shot, Repercussion, and Spiteful BanditrySpiteful BanditryWhen this enchantment enters, it deals X damage to each creature.
Whenever one or more creatures your opponents control die, you create a Treasure token. This ability triggers only once each turn.. Even Game Changers like Jeska’s Will and Smothering TitheSmothering TitheWhenever an opponent draws a card, that player may pay {2}. If the player doesn't, you create a Treasure token. (It's an artifact with "{T}, Sacrifice this token: Add one mana of any color.") become strong inclusions to push things further.

Should you really want to go all out, you can even cut the creature-gifting side of Taii Wakeen, Perfect Shot, for a more focused Storm/Burn list. At the very least, this allows you to get a lot of variety out of Taii Wakeen, which is really a steal at $0.10. Even if the rest of your deck isn’t as budget-friendly, this Commander can seriously pull its weight.

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