As every MTG player knows, mana is a crucial part of the game’s balance. Restricting what kind of effects can be played at certain points in the game, mana costs naturally curate Magic’s rate of progression. For this reason, spells without a mana cost constantly cause problems. By naturally bending the game’s core rule, a player can accrue a ridiculous amount of advantage once the need to spend resources on their spells goes away.
With free spells taking over multiple formats at the highest levels, having a way to stop them becomes a necessity. Lavinia, Azorius Renegade does this, and more, on a budget, making her a fantastic option in Commander.
MTG Lavinia, Azorius Renegade
For two mana, Lavinia shuts down any attempts from your opponents to try and cheat large spells into play ahead of schedule. On top of preventing any sort of free spell shenanigans, casting massive noncreature haymakers for a reduced cost is also something Lavinia won’t stand for. Thanks to stopping many of Commander’s strongest cards, like Force of Will and Etali, Primal Conqueror, Lavinia sees a fair bit of play in the 99 of various competitive Commanders.
That said, Lavinia is rarely used as a Commander herself. With only 2919 decks recorded for Lavinia on EDHREC, it seems like this card is severely underplayed, especially considering that she appears in over 40,000 other Commander decks.
Fortunately, it’s not too difficult for Lavinia to become an extremely lethal Commander. Thanks to an extremely powerful endgame, most Lavinia decks run other staxy tools to buy time. All kinds of different cards, from Aven Mindcensor to Archon of Emeria, will put different restrictions on your opponents, making it difficult for them to execute their game plans. Throw in a few key counterspells to stop mass removal like Farewell, and it becomes harder and harder to stop you before you set up a devastating lock.
Thanks to Lavinia’s triggered abilities, you also have an opportunity to take advantage of some cards that would otherwise have devastating downsides. Delay, for example, turns into a two-mana counterspell with Lavinia, thanks to her ability to counter free spells. Similarly, cards like Weftwalking, which usually allow every player to cast one spell for free on their turn, can have their benefits shut off for opponents, while you reap the rewards.
Locking the Game Down
While Lavinia stops many of Commander’s strongest strategies as a card in the 99, having her as a Commander means you’ll have constant and easy access to her. This allows you to put a bunch of lockpieces into your 99 that stop your opponents from playing Magic altogether. While this is incredibly unfun to play against, it is an effective way to stop even the most powerful Commander strategies.
Using Lavinia and Knowledge Pool, for example, will result in Lavinia countering every single spell your opponents cast. Lavinia and Omen Machine create a similar lock, preventing opponents from drawing cards or casting any of the cards that they would otherwise draw. Eye of the Storm can similarly stop instants and sorceries, but is essentially just a worse version of Knowledge Pool. These locks make it extremely difficult to play the game on impact, meaning that there’s a strong chance your opponents won’t be able to find a way out of the puzzle.
These locks are so potent that many Lavinia, the Renegade Commander decks spend a lot of resources trying to assemble the combo. Treasure Mage, Fabricate, and Enlightened Tutor can find and assemble your two-card locks, bringing your gameplan online before your opponents have a chance of outting it.
Once you have this lock in place, your only chance for your opponents to continue playing MTG is either to kill one of the lock pieces or finish you off. Counterspells coupled with common Commander protection like Swiftfoot Boots should protect your board, while attack-based permission effects like Propaganda and Ensnaring Bridge should give you plenty of time.
A Budget Way to Combat Even cEDH Decks
With these lock pieces at your disposal, Lavinia, Azorius Renegade gives you a way to combat Commander’s nastiest decks on the cheap. None of the lock pieces are more than $3, allowing you to get all of Lavinia’s core pieces on a budget. Better yet, Lavinia herself is just $0.27, letting you pick up multiple copies to throw into all of your Commander decks.
With Lavinia being so accessible, it’s a wonder that fewer players keep this Commander as a way to play up to scarier pods. While Rule Zero does prevent this issue a majority of the time, playing with a pod of new players at an LGS sometimes means you’ll want a more powerful Commander to compete in their games. That said, among a group of friends, Lavinia is unlikely to be a Commander you’ll want to play. Watching one player play Magic while others are forced to sit around and watch is not the goal of the format, for most pods, at least.
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