MTG Star Trek’s Dathon Turns Sagas into a Serious Commander Strategy

Now that we’ve had time to fully look over and appreciate the set, it’s clear that MTG Star Trek is absolutely packed with great new Commanders. One of the best legends in this lineup is undoubtedly Dathon, His Heart Open, which takes a classic MTG archetype in a bold new direction.

Whether you’re a fan of old-school Enchantress brews or modern Saga shenanigans, your boy Dathon here has something to offer. Factor in a low cost and great color identity, and this banger has some cool Commander potential.

Dathon, His Heart Open MTG

Long-time MTG fans will immediately recognize Dathon’s first ability from powerhouse engines like Argothian Enchantress and friends. Drawing a card every time you cast an enchantment is a proven good time in Magic, and getting access to this effect in the command zone makes it even better.

This is an easy ability to abuse even if you’re playing fairly, working well with good-on-rate enchantments like Utopia Sprawl and Rhystic StudyRhystic StudyWhenever an opponent casts a spell, you may draw a card unless that player pays {1}.. It works with enchantment creatures, too, so you can develop your board using threats like Fear of Missing Out while still generating advantage.

With a bit of extra support, you can easily take Dathon’s draw ability from good to great. Your best option here is cheap enchantments like Crown of Flames and Whip Silk, which you can cast and bounce back for repeated draw. Add in other payoffs, like Vivi OrnitierVivi 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 Entity TrackerEntity TrackerFlash
Eerie — Whenever an enchantment you control enters and whenever you fully unlock a Room, draw a card., and this gets real scary fast.

Rancor is another great card in this category, and it unlocks a tasty infinite combo with Dathon. Alongside Third Path Iconoclast and Phyrexian Altar, you can recast Rancor infinitely to draw your whole deck. This lets you easily close things out with something like Thassa’s OracleThassa’s OracleWhen this creature enters, look at the top X cards of your library, where X is your devotion to blue. Put up to one of them on top of your library and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. If X is greater than or equal to the number of cards in your library, you win the game. (Each {U} in the mana costs of permanents you control counts toward your devotion to blue.) or Laboratory Maniac.

On top of the traditional Enchantress effect, Dathon also offers a nice Shock for each opponent if the enchantments you’re casting are Sagas. Though there are far fewer of these than regular enchantments, this ability still has plenty of juice if you know how to squeeze.

First and foremost, this ability goes nuts with any kind of Curiosity effect, of which there are several in Temur colors. You have the OG itself, as well as Keen Sense, Ophidian Eye, and Snake UmbraSnake UmbraEnchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has "Whenever this creature deals damage to an opponent, you may draw a card."
Umbra armor (If enchanted creature would be destroyed, instead remove all damage from it and destroy this Aura.). Add in Pia, Aether Ascetic to tutor them up, and you can easily set up Dathon to draw three extra cards per Saga.

Another great way to milk this ability is to grant Dathon keywords, with Lifelink from ShadowspearShadowspearEquipped creature gets +1/+1 and has trample and lifelink.
{1}: Permanents your opponents control lose hexproof and indestructible until end of turn.
Equip {2} being a particularly good example. For the less scrupulous Saga-slingers among you, slapping a Grafted Exoskeleton on Dathon will let you land speedy Infect wins as well.

In both cases, you’ll want to run the cheapest Sagas possible to access your synergies early and often. Kumano Faces KakkazanKumano Faces Kakkazan(As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter.)
I — This Saga deals 1 damage to each opponent and each planeswalker they control.
II — When you next cast a creature spell this turn, that creature enters with an additional +1/+1 counter on it.
III — Exile this Saga, then return it to the battlefield transformed under your control. and Long List of the Ents are probably the best options here on rate alone. You can also pair them with self-bounce effects, like Cloudstone Curio, to keep your engine running deep into the game.

The Saga Continues

You could probably build a pretty strong deck around Dathon’s first ability alone, but it’s only half the story. You also get a spicy activated ability that lets you add counters to enchantments for two mana apiece, which opens up a ton of interesting avenues.

The obvious, and obviously intended, use case is adding lore counters to Sagas, which Dathon encourages you to play anyway. This works well with Sagas that deliver most of their value at the end, like There and Back Again and Kiora Bests the Sea God. It’s also just good with Sagas in general, speeding up the likes of Urza’s SagaUrza’s Saga(As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter. Sacrifice after III.)
I — This Saga gains "{T}: Add {C}."
II — This Saga gains "{2}, {T}: Create a 0/0 colorless Construct artifact creature token with 'This token gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control.'"
III — Search your library for an artifact card with mana cost {0} or {1}, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle. when you really need to.

An interesting use case with this ability is running it alongside cards that can remove counters, such as O’aka, Traveling Merchant. This combination effectively lets you re-use any non-final Saga ability you’d like, which is pretty tasty with heavy hitters like Summon: Bahamut.

Setting Sagas aside, Dathon’s ability can add counters to any enchantment that already has them. This makes it fantastic with quest counter enchantments like Archmage Ascension and Anthropological MissionAnthropological MissionWhenever you cast a noncreature spell, put a quest counter on this enchantment. Draw a card. Then discard a card unless this enchantment has three or more quest counters on it..

If that kind of grindy value plan is too slow for you, Dathon can also help accelerate notable alternate win conditions, such as Simic Ascendancy and Helix Pinnacle. Since these need a lot of counters to win, running counter doublers like Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider and Doubling SeasonDoubling SeasonIf an effect would create one or more tokens under your control, it creates twice that many of those tokens instead.
If an effect would put one or more counters on a permanent you control, it puts twice that many of those counters on that permanent instead. can make the ability worth it.

However you decide to use Dathon’s ability, a few key inclusions can make it much more efficient overall. Ability cost reducers, specifically Training GroundsTraining GroundsActivated abilities of creatures you control cost {2} less to activate. This effect can't reduce the mana in that cost to less than one mana. and Agatha of the Vile Cauldron, will let you fire Dathon’s ability off at a 50% discount, for a start. Add Illusionist’s Bracers for extra activations, and you can quickly get a lot more out of this ability.

With a ton of interesting avenues to pursue, Dathon, His Heart Open is a wonderfully flexible new MTG Star Trek Commander to try out. It could have serious high-bracket potential, too.

Getting a draw engine in the command zone, plus a bunch of funky extras, is powerful in itself, and Temur is a fine color combination to be in.

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