Casting Spells and Kicking Face | Zethi, Arcane Blademaster Budget Deck Tech

Benjamin Levin • March 29, 2025

Budget Deckbuilding
Zethi, Arcane Blademaster
 | Illustrated by Billy Christian
Consider
 | Illustrated by Zezhou Chen
Monastery Mentor
 | llustrated by Magali Villeneuve
Chun-Li, Countless Kicks
 | Illustrated by Martina Fačková

A few weeks ago I did an article looking at five ally-colored commanders. In that article, I talk about Zethi, Arcane Blademaster

, but I didn't feel like I did that commander justice. First, I read the card wrong, and assumed you got the spells for free; alas, you still need to pay for them. Reading can be hard sometimes. Second, I think she is actually a sweet commander, so I decided to do an impromptu deck tech on her. Don't worry, I'll be making plenty of decks for some of the sweet new Tarkir: Dragonstorm commanders in the coming weeks. 

Now back to, Zethi. I'm not usually a fan of Azorious commanders. This might be a bias from years ago, when there weren't a ton of interesting options. If you look at the top 10 commanders on EDHREC, they all have been printed in the last five years, aside from Grand Arbiter Augustin IV

. But Wizards has done a great job of making fun and unique commanders. Zethi combines the value of the color pair with an ability that gets the brewing juices flowing. 

You could build a Voltron deck, card draw matters, even life gain, if you want to fill the deck with Revitalize

effects. I'd build her as a spells matter commander since I think that is probably the best option. So, without further ado, let's get into it. 

The Big Three

There are three main categories of instants you'll want to include in the deck. 

  1. Draw
  2. Evasion
  3. Ramp

1. Card Draw

For card draw, you're looking for cards like Consider

, Thought Scour
, and Faithful Mending
. They are easy to cast early and great to put kick counters on later, but my favorite card draw spell is Surge of Brilliance
. For two mana, you draw a card for each spell you've cast from anywhere other than your hand, so if you cast three cantrips, you can pay two mana to draw four, since Surge counts itself.

2. Evasion

You'll want cheap evasion spells, such as Shadow Rift

, Leap
, and Water Wings
. Shadow Rift and Leap draw you a card, and Water Wings gives protection. Reverse the Polarity
 is also a fun way to dodge creatures. Zethi doesn't have any built-in protection or evasion, so you might want to include Swiftfoot Boots
, Lightning Greaves
, and or Lavaspur Boots
. Those aren't instants, but I felt like it was right to include them here. 

3. Ramp

Now, ramp might seem like a weird category. After all, we are in Azorius, which aren't exactly colors known for their ability to ramp, but we can use cards like High Tide

, Turnabout
, and Dramatic Reversal
 to double the mana our Island
s produce, untap all of our lands, and reuse our mana rocks. By the way, High Tide is symmetrical; I just felt like I wanted to point that out. I'd also include spells that can untap lands, like Snap
 and Frantic Search
. They're essentially free, and if we cast High Tide before casting either of these, they act as a pseudo ritual. 

The Payoffs

Okay, so we've figured out how to make a million mana, now what? Obviously, Teferi's Protection

could be insane in the deck. But the cheapest printing at the time of recording is $37. Instead, we can use Perch Protection
. It's six mana, but you have to give an opponent an extra turn. However, we get the upside of having all our stuff phase out, our life can't change, and we get protection from everything. Oh, we also get four Birds. 

I'd also want to include some spell payoffs since we are casting the spells. Monastery Mentor

just got another reprint in the Tarkir precons, so that will be a great addition, and the tokens it makes have prowess, so that's a double win. The new Aligned Heart
, which we don't have a price on at the time of recording, but hopefully isn't too expensive, is also a great option. Geralf, the Fleshwright
 can quickly grow a Zombie army. I'd avoid Murmuring Mystic
 and Talrand, Sky Summoner
. I think these cards have been outclassed and are pretty underwhelming now, at least in Commander. 

Storm is another mechanic we can take great advantage of. Astral Steel

is a combat trick with storm that can easily save our commander in combat, or get a sneaky kill. Brain Freeze
 will mill us, filling our graveyard so our commander can exile more spells for later. And not all storm cards need to be instants. A single Mind's Desire
 or Temporal Fissure
 can help close out the game. 

Might Be Good?

The next set of instants I think can be powerful in the deck but might be worth cutting in the long run. 

Bounce spells can be particularly nasty in Zenthi. In general, I don't love cards like Unsummon

, Bounce Off
, or Vapor Snag
 in Commander, but if we can cast them multiple times, I like them a bit more. If you have a particularly nasty Voltron deck at your table, you could try Fumble
 to steal all the Auras and Equipment. 

The same rings true for combat tricks, unless I'm playing a Feather, the Redeemed

deck. A lot of the new combat tricks tend to have some other benefit, like the new Rally the Monastery
 and Lightfoot Technique
. Rally can give you prowess tokens throughout the game, and Lightfoot permanently buffs your commander, but if you were to add a single combat trick, Show of Confidence
 is my pick. It has storm, but only for instants and sorceries. It's also an instant and puts counters on the creature. 

Let's Be Mean

I also have a pretty mean combo idea if you want to win via infect. You can cast Prologue to Phyresis

to give your opponents a poison counter. Then, using Radstorm
, Experimental Augury
, and Ripples of Potential
 to proliferate for a sneaky infect win. Well, it might not be too sneaky, but it could be. 

Upgrades and Game Changers

Finally, let's talk game changers and upgrades. Because you still have to cast the spell, you can overlord a Cyclonic Rift

from exile, which is messed up and mean, but it'll get the job done. Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
 is great at reducing the cost of spells and slowing down opponents. Aetherflux Reservoir
 can easily close out games. I've even thought about building a Zethi lifegain deck using cheap instants that gain life in conjunction with Aetherflux to rocket ahead in life and start blasting. Flawless Maneuver
 is easily one of the best protection spells in the deck. Since you have to attack with your commander to cast the copy from exile, it will always be free. 

I'd love to hear your thoughts on Zethi, Arcane Blademaster

. Do you think she is a fun commander? Did I convince you to build her? Make sure to check out some of my other articles, and be on the lookout for my Tarkir: Dragonstorm fun ranking coming soon! Alrighty, nerds, I'll see you in the next one.

Decklist

Kicking Face and Casting Spells - Zethi, Arcane Blademaster Budget Deck Tech

View on Archidekt
Buy this decklist from Card KingdomBuy this decklist on TCGplayer
Benjamin Levin

Benjamin Levin

Ben has been playing Magic since 2012 and started creating Magic the Gathering content in October of 2022 on YouTube under the name BathroomBrewsMTG (YouTube.com/@BRBMTG). Primarily focusing on budget EDH content. When he isn't thinking or talking about MTG, he is usually playing video games, spending time with his wife or playing with his two cats. You can find him on Twitter @BathroomMTG.