While there are plenty of answers to most problems in Magic’s Commander format, dealing with other Commanders themselves tends to be a tricky proposition. By virtue of the command zone, all Commanders are at least partially removal-resistant. Some, like Derevi, Empyrial Tactician, even have abilities that remove the usual Commander tax downside in these scenarios.
Fortunately, outs to enemy Commanders do exist, they just tend to be a bit under-the-radar for the most part. This week, one such out, the powerful Nevermore from way back in Innistrad, is back in the MTG spotlight.
Nevermore MTG
A new video from content creator Chillcanmagic has brought Nevermore into the conversation this week, as an underused anti-Commander option. Since it prevents any named card from being cast, you can simply name a Commander that hasn’t hit the board yet, and it’ll be locked out of the game for good.
Unless your opponent can remove Nevermore, or use a niche piece like Command Beacon or Netherborn Altar to get their Commander out of the command zone, it’s not coming down at all. This is great against the majority of decks, but particularly those that are heavily Commander-dependent, like Fire Lord Azula. For this reason, it’s at its best in a metagame where you know your opponents’ decks well, and can leverage that information to make the best Nevermore pick possible.
Speaking of information, Nevermore can also expand its reach far beyond just Commanders if you have enough of it. In new pods, cards that reveal information, like Telepathy and Seer’s Vision, let you essentially ‘snipe’ key cards from opponents’ hands with Nevermore.
Because Nevermore is an enchantment, you can even bounce it back to your hand with cards like Sunpearl Kirin, or blink it with The Mind Stone, to switch targets when needed. It works particularly well with enchantment Clone
CloneYou may have this creature enter as a copy of any creature on the battlefield. effects, like Calix, Guided by Fate and Estrid’s Invocation, since those let you keep multiple cards locked out at once. Heck, with enough ramp you can do this early and lock out all other Commanders for the entire game.
No Spells, No Problems
Nevermore has plenty of utility as a fair card, but it also forms part of one of the most absurd combos Commander has ever seen. If you pair it up with Myojin of Cryptic Dreams, Deepglow Skate, and a Flash granter like High Fae Trickster, you can use Nevermore to prevent any spells from being cast in the future.
To pull this off, you’ll need to first get Myojin and Trickster into play, and Proliferate a second Indestructible counter onto Myojin with something like Thrummingbird. Next, you’ll want to cast Nevermore and, holding priority, cast Deepglow Skate on top of it. Remove one of Myojin’s Indestructible counters, and you can copy Skate three times. Let these copies resolve, each targeting Myojin, and it’ll end up with eight Indestructible counters in total.
Since the original Deepglow Skate is still on the stack at this point, you can remove seven Indestructible counters from Myojin to create 21 copies of it on the stack, then repeat infinitely. This will give you infinite Skates, and infinite counters on Myojin. Once you reach this point, you can remove the counters to copy Nevermore, which is still on the stack as well, infinite times. As each enters, you can name a different card, thus locking out every spell in Magic.
From here, your opponents will only be able to attack or use abilities, making your victory all but assured given your infinite army of 3/3s. While this is definitely a mana-intensive combo, costing a whopping 20 mana to pull off all in one turn, you can space things out by playing Myojin and Trickster on earlier turns. This combo can also be pulled off entirely at instant speed, if you drop Trickster first, which means it fits well in decks running Seedborn Muse and such.
A Long-Forgotten Gem
Given how powerful some modern Commanders are, with new additions like Vivi Ornitier
Vivi Ornitier{0}: Add X mana in any combination of {U} and/or {R}, where X is Vivi Ornitier's power. Activate only during your turn and only once each turn.
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, put a +1/+1 counter on Vivi Ornitier and it deals 1 damage to each opponent. and Y’shtola, Night’s Blessed dominating the EDHREC charts, you’d expect Commander hate like Nevermore to be quite widely-played. This is especially true in Nevermore’s case, since it’s probably the best option in its category, surpassing Meddling Mage in resilience and Gideon’s Intervention in efficiency. That said, the card actually sees very little play in Commander overall, only showing up in 5,540 decks by EDHREC numbers.
This puts Nevermore firmly into the hidden gem category, which, fortunately, gives it a price tag to match. Despite being a single-printing rare from 15 years ago, you can grab near-mint copies of Nevermore on TCGplayer for just $1 right now. At this price point it’s an easy pickup for any kind of more controlling white deck, and a fun way to troll your entire table if you want to pursue the wild combo line above.
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