Hidden Strings - Precursor Golem

Luca Appi • August 8, 2023

Budget Deckbuilding
(Precursor Golem
 | Art by Chippy)

Golem, Golem, Golem...

Hello everyone, and welcome to another installment of Hidden Strings, the article series where we build decks whose commanders merely act as a bridge

between the actual pillars of our strategies.

If you liked the way my last article implicitly rode the line between a card spotlight and an algebra class, then you're in luck!*

Meet today's toy:

*If you didn't, I'm sorry, but doing silly, overcomplicated things is the way I roll in Commander.

When Precursor Golem

first came out, a lot of the online talk revolved around the then recently printed Rite of Replication
. Calculating how many Golem tokens would be generated with a Kicked Rite
 is easy enough, but what about casting a second? Turns out that the answer to that question is...

So, yeah, that's why you won't see Rite of Replication

in this deck.

...Grab Your Copy Token...

What you will see, however, is a vast assortment of single-target, single-copy spells: Mirage Mockery

, March of Progress
, and Replicate
 are our bread and butter, with Cackling Counterpart
 and Fated Intervention
 opening up the possibility of instant-speed shenanigans. We also run the Rite
's little cousin
, which is easier to cast and can build equally absurd board states without requiring a crazy amount of brainpower (I like to call that one "Lite of Replication"... don't worry, I'll see myself out).

Other instances of cloning come in the form of spells that can turn all our creatures into Precursor Golem

s, like Cytoshape
 and Sakashima's Will
, or permanents that can become temporary Precursor
 copies for little to no mana investment, like Mirror of the Forebears
 and Mindlink Mech
. Much in the same vein, a single mana for a Foretold Mystic Reflection
 or a timely Flameshadow Conjuring
 activation can lead to some extremely explosive turns.

Finally, a few situational cards are included that somehow interact with the (number of) Golems in play and can really overperform in the right circumstances: Wake the Reflections

can Populate a Precursor
 token after we've copied the original; animating Guardian Idol
 makes it so that our clone spells double as ramp spells; a Spliced Splicer's Skill
 will add its effect to all of the copies generated by Precursor Golem
(s); lastly, Shields of Velis Vel
 turns an opponent's creatures into Golems, enabling even more spell-copying (just be mindful of the "you control" rider on our clone spells; those we won't be able to copy for our opponents' creatures, regardless of their type).

...Keep the Card Draw Flowin'...

Speaking of spell-copying, now that we have a board full of trigger-happy Golems, what are the instants and sorceries we're hoping to be aiming at them? Well, if there's one thing I've learned from my friend piloting Zada, Hedron Grinder

, it's that awful, one-mana cantrips become insanely powerful once they get replicated for each creature on your side of the field; so, that'll be the first step.

Of course, most of these cards are pretty interchangeable, as we're not really playing them for the micro-advantages they offer alongside the card draw. We do want to ensure, however, that we're mainly running instants, since we ideally want to cast these right before the turn gets back to us, so as not to raise alarms about our potentially winning position until the very last moment.

...Gooo Wiiiiide!

It's now the time for us to convert a crowded board and a stacked hand into a victory. A few of the cards from the previous section can help us achieve this in the most traditional way possible: swinging in for the win. Charge Through

, Aphotic Wisps
, and Leap
 all grant some type of evasion, while casting Shadow Rift
 is almost equivalent to making our whole team unblockable (just double-check that you haven't used Mirrorweave
 or Shields of Velis Vel
 earlier that turn).

Should this not be enough, we have few options for going the burn route: Gruesome Fate

is by far the best here, but Harsh Sustenance
 and Last-Ditch Effort
 can still help us close out the games in which one of the opponents is hiding behind a quadruple-layered pillowfot. Lastly, Ominous Seas
 is the perfect fallback plan for a deck that can easily store a few dozens foreshadow counters until the time is ripe to release the Krakens.

Blue's Brothers

Despite including spells from all colors, this deck is mostly blue, with white and green trailing in the distance. This is reflected in the manabase as well as in the choices made for interaction spells, which lie almost exclusively in the Bant color palette.

A noteworthy interaction is the one involving Phasing spells, which all work as a poor man's Clever Concealment

. Crack Open
 can sometimes function as our Phyrexian Altar
 at home (note that we can cast instants in between the resolution of Precursor
 triggers; or we could just let the Golem die only to then shuffle it back into our library with Feldon's Cane
 and be ready to go again on the following turn thanks to the The Prismatic Bridge
). Lastly, Touch the Spirit Realm
 is one the few effects that can actually blink our secret commander without wiping all our tokens in the process, making it a very flexible card that'll always find an application regardless of the circumstances.

Golemplex

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Creatures (1)

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Potential Upgrades

At the time of writing, this deck would set you back around $55, which may as well translate to less than a dollar per card drawn in the average game. To me, that sounds like an amazing deal.

A few focused inclusions, like Elemental Bond

, Esika's Chariot
, and Flicker
, can already spice up the deck at a contained price, and if you feel like splurging (or own the cards already), Parallel Lives
 and its ilk will probably require you to buy a second playmat and a scientific calculator.*

*Reiterated cloning may induce occasional migraine; reader discretion is advised.

Final Parting

And there you have it! A potentially exponentially explosive experiment that is sure to produce some of the most insane board states you've ever encountered. I know, I know, Scute Swarm

is a thing; fight me!

Do you love it? Do you hate it? Let me know in the comments! And while you're at it, feel free to leave a suggestion for a card you'd want to see as a hidden commander: I'm always up for a deckbuilding challenge.

Until next time!

Luca Appi

Luca Appi

Luca picked up a random Scourge pack in a game store at age 9, and hasn't looked back since. An inventive deckbuilder trapped inside the skin of a competitive player, he resorts to Commander whenever he needs to scratch his creative itch—which is pretty often. When he is not brewing decks in his head, he can be found shoving inefficiently cute synergies into his draft pile and enjoying the satisfying snapping sound of card flicking. Yes, he is a monster.