Conditions Allow - Madame Vastra and Jenny Flint EDH
(Madame Vastra | Art by Syd Mills)
Investigative Duo
Hello, and welcome back to Conditions Allow. In this article series, I take a legendary creature with a drawback and build a deck to turn it into a strength. This time I'm excited to take an early dive into the world of Doctor Who with the new partner duo Madame Vastra and Jenny Flint. They may look underwhelming at first, but I think they pack more of a punch than you might expect.
As befits a crime-fighting, sword-wielding, married couple Madame Vastra and Jenny Flint work best together. Madame Vastra kills creatures to generate the Food and Clue tokens that Jenny Flint needs to increase Madame Vastra's power. In turn, whenever the two attack together, Madame Vastra ensures Jenny gets better through training. Madame Vastra also attracts blocks, so Jenny Flint is more likely to slip by while enemy creatures are distracted. Unfortunately, they both start out rather small, especially compared to other three- and four-drop creatures popular in Commander. We'll need to make sure our two investigators survive their first few attacks in order to get the ball rolling.
Tools of the Trade
When it comes to keeping your attacking creatures alive, there's nothing better than Dolmen Gate. A permanent, one-sided Fog is exactly what this deck wants so Madame Vastra can keep a steady supply of Food and Clue tokens. Vastra does actually have to kill creatures to make those tokens, though, so I like General Marhault Elsdragon even better for this deck. Getting a power boost is invaluable for those first few attacks to make sure you actually take out the creature blocking you. Along with these two cards, I'm also including Mithril Coat to give Madame Vastra indestructible.
Madame Vastra doesn't have to deal combat damage for her effect to work, either. She can kill a creature in a fight and still get a Clue and Food. Ulvenwald Tracker is a great repeatable fight effect, and one of very few that lets Madame Vastra fight your own creatures. Spare 1/1 tokens from Ethereal Investigator become tasty snacks, along with small utility creatures across the table. I'm also including a small selection of punch spells, more as creature removal than a the main plan of the deck. Madame Vastra making it harder to block your other creatures is a big part of how we're going to force damage through.
Independent Investigators
Another option for growing your commanders early on is to use Clues from other sources. Jenny Flint doesn't care where the tokens come from, just that you sacrifice them. Gilded Goose lets you build up a small stash of Food ahead of time, then makes extra mana to help crack your Clues once your commanders are fully online. Lonis, Cryptozoologist and Tireless Tracker are both steady sources of Clues that come down early and help you amass +1/+1 counters with Jenny Flint's effect quickly. I'll also supplement those Clues with Food from Peregrin Took.
Even one-time effects are enough to help Madame Vastra and Jenny Flint become self-sufficient. Wavesifter is a great turn two play for this deck. I'm also including a few other Doctor Who cards in Martha Jones, Duggan, Private Detective, and The Third Doctor. Duggan and The Third Doctor are excellent secondary threats, and Martha Jones ensures at least one creature can't be blocked. I'm also excited to get to put The Goose Mother in a deck. At its roots, this deck is a +1/+1 counter deck so you only need to put one or two mana into X.
More Than One
Getting a +1/+1 counter on each of your commanders every turn is great, but not likely to win you the game. Turn that up to two or three counters a turn, however, and you become a real threat. Hardened Scales and Pir, Imaginative Rascal are staples of +1/+1 counter decks for a reason. I'm also including Branching Evolution. In conjunction with a Hardened Scales effect it turns every one counter you get into four. Add a Defiler of Vigor or Evolution Sage and things get out of hand very quickly.
Having a few independent sources of +1/+1 counters is always a good idea, too. Defiler of Vigor makes your whole team very large, very quickly. Even the incidental Spirit tokens created by Ethereal Investigator become a very real threat after you cast a few green permanent spells. Those tokens also help you keep the monarchy, so Court of Garenbrig can double your counters every turn.
Closing the Deal
Of course, all the +1/+1 counters in the world don't matter if you get blocked. Trample is a vital keyword for big aggro decks, and we've got three cards that give it while synergizing with +1/+1 counters. Tuskguard Captain is the simplest, followed by Kodama of the West Tree. This deck wants as much mana as possible to cast spells and crack Clues, so getting an extra land for every augmented creature that attacks is a huge bonus. Finally, Surrak and Goreclaw give not only trample, but haste and a free +1/+1 counter to every creature that you cast. They're a great pair to get you back into the game if your commanders get removed, and help close things out when you're already ahead.
I knew Madame Vastra and Jenny Flint would be fun when I read them, and they turned out to be a solid midrange option. Clues aren't the most efficient source of card advantage, but if you keep your curve low, they get the job done. But what do you think of this detective duo? There's a lot of different directions to take them, and plenty of niche cards they make very good. I ended up having to cut Infiltration Lens and Barrow-Blade. I also considered Street Urchin and Basilisk Collar as a combo for Madame Vastra, but decided they'd fit into a different version of the deck better. Let me know how you'd build these commanders, and thanks for reading!
