Nostalgic MTG Mystery Booster Commander Can Steal 40+ Cards At Once

Following another rapid-fire sellout last Monday, Mystery Booster: Commander Edition is now, finally, out in the wild. This means that all the sweet new Commanders from the set, from the funky combo enablers to the stellar typal payoffs, are now fair game, provided you can track down copies.

Of this new batch of MTG legends, few are better suited to the command zone than The Madcap Jester. Not only is this card a fantastic flavor deep cut, but it packs abilities that could propel it as high as cEDH.

The Madcap Jester MTG

Long-time MTG players will immediately recognize The Madcap Jester from Jester’s Cap, one of the game’s most iconic artifacts. While this card is a bit dubious in the current game, The Madcap Jester is far from it, offering a unique, flexible take on a Theft Commander. Thanks to its second ability, you essentially impulse draw every card you exile from your opponents’ decks, which opens up a ton of highly unusual lines.

For starters, any kind of repeatable library exile effect essentially becomes a draw engine in this deck. Cards like Scrib Nibblers and Psychic Surgery, normally unplayable, are absolutely fantastic here. You can also lean into burst exile effects like Memory Vessel and Ensign Pavel Chekov as huge draw spells, too.

If you’re feeling particularly funky, you can turn both mill and wheel effects into major extra draw with The Madcap Jester by bringing in other key pieces. With something like Leyline of the VoidLeyline of the VoidIf this card is in your opening hand, you may begin the game with it on the battlefield.
If a card would be put into an opponent's graveyard from anywhere, exile it instead. in play, mill effects like Traumatize can draw you a huge number of cards in one go. In a similar vein, pairing cards like Wheel of FortuneWheel of FortuneEach player discards their hand, then draws seven cards. or Memory Jar with Uba Mask will give you full access to everything your opponents should’ve drawn. Notably, your opponents will still be able to play their own cards exiled this way at instant speed, so be sure to lay out disruption like Defense Grid to prevent that.

Of course, The Madcap Jester can also enable its own ability by attacking, which gives you a reliable source of ‘draw’ even when other options fail. To maximize this, running plenty of Haste granters like Lightning GreavesLightning GreavesEquipped creature has haste and shroud. (It can't be the target of spells or abilities.)
Equip {0} and Samut, Hazoret’s Champion is a must. You’ll also want to consider ways of making Jester unblockable, like Brotherhood RegaliaBrotherhood RegaliaEquipped creature has ward {2}, is an Assassin in addition to its other types, and can't be blocked.
Equip legendary creature {1}
Equip {3} ({3}: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.) or the new Transwarp Hub, since a vanilla 3/2 won’t have clear openings for long in most games.

Once you’ve exiled a nice extra hand for yourself, you can start tapping into ‘cast from exile’ synergies to get even more out of The Madcap Jester. Cards like Passionate Archaeologist and Flaming Tyrannosaurus can get you bonus damage each time, for example, while Nalfeshnee and Spider-Verse add a ton of extra value. You can also cast these spells cheaply, with Bilbo, Thief in the NightBilbo, Thief in the NightSpells you cast from anywhere other than your hand cost {1} less to cast.
Whenever Bilbo attacks, you may cast an artifact, instant, or sorcery spell from your graveyard. If an instant or sorcery spell cast this way would be put into your graveyard, exile it instead. and Dragon’s Smile offering easy discounts on them.

A Shot at the Big Time?

While The Madcap Jester seems solid for brackets two to four, it could have legs in cEDH, too. Players have been discussing the card’s viability in the format since it was first revealed, which largely comes down to its synergy with ‘exile tutors.’ Praetor’s Grasp is already played regularly in cEDH, as a way to poach common combo pieces, and The Madcap Jester turns other cards like Extract into comparable effects. Heck, with cards like Sadistic Sacrament and Jester’s Cap, you can steal a full combo in one move.

Factor in how devastating Tasha’s Hideous Laughter can be on cEDH’s incredibly low curves, and The Madcap Jester becomes a serious draw engine in the command zone. Thanks to its Grixis color identity, it can also run all the best combos in the format in its own 99. Whether you want to go for Demonic Consultation and 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 Underworld BreachUnderworld BreachEach nonland card in your graveyard has escape. The escape cost is equal to the card's mana cost plus exile three other cards from your graveyard. (You may cast cards from your graveyard for their escape cost.)
At the beginning of the end step, sacrifice this enchantment. and Brain Freeze, Grixis has you covered. With how common these lines are in other decks, you’ve got a good chance of grabbing a piece with your exile effects, too.

The Madcap Jester also stands out for its synergy with Hoarding Broodlord, another widely played cEDH combo card. Casting Broodlord gives you access to the usual Saw in Half instant-win chains, but it also lets you mix in any of your opponents’ exiled cards, since they’ll also gain Convoke.

This makes Broodlord lines much more interesting, and potentially more resilient, as well, since you can use any countermagic you hit to protect your own line. This does require you to run more creatures than you might normally in cEDH, but there are plenty of strong, synergistic picks here, including Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer and Dauthi Voidwalker.

While the card certainly has potential, The Madcap Jester is far from a sure thing in cEDH. Grixis is a great color combination, but it’s also crowded, with powerful Commanders like Kefka, Court Mage and several well-established Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh Partner decks. Compared to these decks, Jester is fairly fragile given its lack of immediate impact. It also forces you to play support cards that aren’t great on their own, which isn’t ideal in a format where consistency is king.

That said, The Madcap Jester being considered for cEDH at all is fairly exciting and a strong sign the card should be more than good enough to make a mark in the lower brackets. Once the ridiculous early pricing on Mystery Booster: Commander Edition cools down, this should be a great legend to pick up at any level.

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