Star Trek preview season is still in full swing, with yesterday giving us the full reveal of the We Are The Borg Commander precon. This is an incredibly exciting new deck for Esper Artifacts fans, packed with potent new legends and 99 staples alike.
One of the deck’s most intriguing new cards, for both purposes, is Jurati, Cordial Queen. With a unique take on a powerful established ability, this legend is set to make a big impact when the deck drops next month.
Jurati, Cordial Queen MTG
Like an unholy union of Tymna the Weaver and Worldwalker Helm, Jurati is an incredibly efficient way to copy your artifact tokens in the command zone. At a base level, this is great with all the Treasures, Clues, and Food running around in Commander these days, thanks to staples like Gleaming Splendor and Academy Manufactor
Academy ManufactorIf you would create a Clue, Food, or Treasure token, instead create one of each.. Since Jurati triggers once per opponent per turn, you can get up to three extra tokens this way, which is a stellar rate.
As good as extra Treasures can be, this is pretty much the tamest thing you can do with Jurati. Powerful artifact creature tokens, like the Karnstructs created by Urza’s Saga
Urza’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. and friends, get out of hand quickly when replicated en masse like this. Other solid hitters, like the tokens created on death by Wurmcoil Engine and Ancient Stone Idol, will help Jurati build you a terrifying army, too.
To take things even further, Jurati can actually make copies of any artifact, provided you can make a token copy of it first. This is trivial to do these days, with cards like Donatello, Gadget Master and Ultron, Artificial Malevolence
Ultron, Artificial MalevolenceWhenever another nontoken artifact you control enters, you may pay {2}. If you do, create a token that's a copy of it. If the token isn't a creature, it becomes a 2/2 Robot Villain creature in addition to its other types. in the mix. There are ways to do this regularly every turn, too, with Artificer Class and Mechanized Production letting you repeatedly copy the best thing going. Artifact Clone
CloneYou may have this creature enter as a copy of any creature on the battlefield.s, like Phyrexian Metamorph and Auton Soldier, will even let you springboard off these cards to make copiable versions of any creature in play, too.
With this added flexibility, Jurati starts to get really silly. Suddenly a single combat can create three extra copies of Simulacrum Synthesizer
Simulacrum SynthesizerWhen this artifact enters, scry 2.
Whenever another artifact you control with mana value 3 or greater enters, create a 0/0 colorless Construct artifact creature token with "This token gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control.", resulting in nine total Karnstruct tokens and a ton of free Scrying. You can also draw six cards with Thought Monitor, set up an absurd lethal attack force with Cybermen Squadron, or sweep the board repeatedly with Portal to Phyrexia. The sky really is the limit here, and you can include other artifact token copiers like Replicator and Oltec Matterweaver to push your chosen synergies even harder.
While Jurati’s ability is incredibly powerful, it also requires you to be consistently getting in with creatures to function at all. To this end, you’ll want to run a bunch of cheap, evasive artifact creatures, like Fugitive Droid and Gingerbrute, to get things going early. Go-wide artifact token generators, like Illustrious Wanderglyph and Antagonist Incorporator, are also great for getting in through sheer volume of attackers. If you go down this route, cards like Reconnaissance
Reconnaissance{0}: Remove target attacking creature you control from combat and untap it. (If you activate during end of combat, the creature will untap after it deals combat damage.) and Nivea, Beloved Battlemage are great adds to keep your blocked creatures around.
Since Jurati’s ability is a triggered ability, there are plenty of ways to get extra value out of every hit. Trigger doublers, like Roaming Throne and Wizard’s Staff, will let you make up to six copies a turn, which should likely be enough to end the game if it happens even once. In a similar vein, cards that grant your creatures Double Strike, like Primary Unimatrix Adjunct and Akroma’s Will, will let you get an extra trigger per player each turn, too. Of course, token doublers like Anointed Procession and Mondrak, Glory Dominus can do something similar.
Time On Your Side
As you’d expect from a legend with so much explosive potential, Jurati has a sweet infinite combo line it can pull off as well. To do this, you’ll need a Mirror Box
Mirror BoxThe "legend rule" doesn't apply to permanents you control.
Each legendary creature you control gets +1/+1.
Each nontoken creature you control gets +1/+1 for each other creature you control with the same name as that creature. in play, then you’ll want to copy Gonti’s Aether Heart with something like Ultron, Artificial MalevolenceUltron, Artificial MalevolenceWhenever another nontoken artifact you control enters, you may pay {2}. If you do, create a token that's a copy of it. If the token isn't a creature, it becomes a 2/2 Robot Villain creature in addition to its other types., so you have a token copy of it in play.
Next, get through with three creatures while Jurati is out, and you can then make three extra copies of Aether Heart. Each copy nets you 10 energy on entry, so you can immediately exile one to take an extra turn. Rinse and repeat to take infinite turns, chip the table down via combat, or draw into all manner of other wins. While this combo is a little clunky, the individual pieces are solid in the deck anyway, so it’s no trouble to include them in case you pull it off.
On top of being a first-rate Artifact Commander, Jurati also looks like a stellar addition to the 99 of plenty of other decks. It blends perfectly into lists like Mendicant Core, Guidelight and Urza, Chief Artificer, for example, since both care about combat and pushing out powerful artifact tokens. It’s also a great way to create extra sacrifice fodder in Breya, Etherium Shaper, or a bigger army in Brenard, Ginger Sculptor, so there’s no shortage of homes here.
While we still have three more MTG Star Trek Commander precons to see, Jurati, Cordial Queen already feels like a highlight of the set. With a ton of applications in both the command zone and the 99, you can expect to see her a lot once these decks drop next month.
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