Flavor of the Month: Ambrosia (Circe, feat. Amalia Benavides Aguirre)

When I was born, the name for what I was did not exist

Welcome to Flavor of the Month, where we build decks flavor first! 

I'm Brandon Amico, proprietor of this here column, and if you haven't heard from me in a bit, it's because, well, things have been nuts. In short: I live in Asheville NC, which got devastated by Hurricane Helene at the end of September.

I spent much of the next month and a half helping to rebuild Asheville's LGS (successful in huge part because of the huge amount of support from the Magic community both locally and across the country!).

Turns out a natural disaster can easily throw a semi-truck-sized wrench in the normal flow of your life. But I'm back as long as my editors will keep allowing me to occasionally build some silly or artsy or highly themed decks, so let's get to it!

Today, we're building a Commander deck based on the terrific retelling of Greek myth in the novel Circe, by Madeline Miller. 

Circe, the character, is most famous for her depiction in The Odyssey. She transforms Odysseus's crew into pigs by drugging their wine with her herbs and incanting a spell after they've imbibed. Odysseus manages to avoid her curse thanks to intervention by the god Hermes, and he then takes Circe as his lover. She then reverses her spell and allows them to stay on her island in relative luxury for a year.

More about her lineage and story can be found in other ancient Greek texts, notably Ovid's Metamorphoses, but most people probably haven't cracked open either of those tomes since high school. (Though the new translation of The Odyssey by Emily Wilson is fantastic and I wholly recommend it). 

Circe, the powerful witch crossing paths with the storm-swept war hero, she of Titan blood who can transform the world and create animal familiars that obey her whim,was a popular subject for artists for many centuries.

I'm particularly a fan of Wright Barker and John Waterhouse's paintings of Circe. They depict her as the source of incredible, but also occasionally fragile, power, an active participant in shaping the world around her, though the two examples above vastly differ in their tone and how she exercises that power. (See more depictions of Circe in this photo essay on Miller's website.)

Miller's Circe eschews the more common depiction of the titular character that we've come to expect from traditional Greek myths, namely when she's largely just one of a series of obstacles on Odysseus's journey home, and hones in on the finer details of a complex and powerful individual caught between humanity and the divine. This daughter of a Titan is powerful, flawed, ambitious, thoughtful, capable, and all of the things a fully rounded character should be.

We spend most of the novel with Circe on a previously uninhabited island, Aeaea, where she was banished after her magic abilities of transformation were discovered; even in a world of Gods and Titans, witchcraft was a powerful, little-understood, and scary thing.

One thing I love so much about Miller's interpretation of Circe is how she never fades into the background; she is in command of her story, even when she's not in command of a situation presented to her. When we reach the section of the book when Odysseus arrives at the island, that famous part of the myth we all know, she does not take a back seat. She does not simply yield to Odysseus as she does in many other retellings: she allows herself, divine and all, to meet him between their two stations where they can appreciate one another.

Even with men as headstrong and self-important as Odysseus on her doorstep, with the world she knows ruled by Gods and Titans of immense power compared to her relatively meager abilities, she is not a background character: she is the master of her craft and her island. 

The themes of feeling isolated by your society, feeling that others don't understand you, and that you don't want to willingly go along with their madness, is one many of us can relate to today, and in our world that increasingly isolates us and grows more bewildering by the day, we can all take a little instruction from Circe's dedication to her craft and self-reliance.

Back in July, I had the idea to commission an artist proof (AP), which are blank-backed cards given by Wizards of the Coast to their artists, some of which have become valuable collector pieces. The idea was to have one of the famous paintings of Circe reproduced on that blank back, and I happened to find the perfect Magic character for that, along with an artist who was game to try their hand at getting Circe on such a small canvas.

This artist proof of Amalia Benavides Aguirre

Look how faithful it is to the original, yet instilled with an additional layer of verve; the fact that she managed to capture details down to the exact expression on Circe's face during this pivotal moment in her story is astounding, especially considering the canvas was so small: the back of a Magic card! Incredible work by Alix, and I couldn't be happier. (This just came in the mail the day before I'm writing this, so I'm still a little giddy if you can't tell!)

But why Amalia? Because she IS Circe: a witch banished to an island for being too powerful. Or in Magic terms, a creature banned from a format... for being too powerful. I love the card, how it slowly accrues advantage for the player, smoothing out draws or hitting land drops, even when it's played "fairly." Of course, it isn't always played fairly: Amalia was banned from Pioneer due to her interaction with Wildgrowth Walker

So let's cast the characters (and some key moments/themes) of Circe, and for those who haven't yet read the novel, you should have no trouble following along: most of the characters are plenty well known from many other Greek myths!

Ingredients

We'll go one at a time through these characters and references; as anyone who's read this column before well knows, usually we'll see a theme start to develop that we can then tie together to make the deck work. And since we already have a commander, we know what we want to do (gain life and prepare for a self-induced board wipe), that'll help!

Odysseus - Charismatic Conqueror

Brutal, clever, and effective; if you haven't read The Odyssey or The Iliad lately, it's easy to forget the role Odysseus played in the brutal realities of war and conquering. His charisma and cleverness was his unique skill, but he was no hero that used his wits to avoid the killing bits. He did that too, just more effectively thanks to his wiles. Charismatic Conqueror brings along plenty of crewmates for Odysseus, and they have lifelink: perfect for our Commander.

Helios - Heliod, Sun-Crowned

This one is more or less a layup, since they named Heliod within one letter of the actual sun god in Greek myth. Ironically, I actually think Heliod was designed more to be a Therosian parallel for Apollo, but since Apollo barely figures in Circe, we'll go with Helios for Heliod.

We definitely want this card: we can see the value of many small lifegain triggers with Amalia rather than one big one, and Heliod wants the same thing. And if you're targeting Amalia with his +1/+1 counters, we can race her to 20. Plus, we have Heliod's Halls as the underground chamber of Helios where Circe and her Titan brethren live, which will be useful since it lets us use Amalia's exploring to put some enchantments in the graveyard and still have access to them.

Penelope - Tymna the Weaver

and Apothecary White

I gave Penelope two cards to show off multiple aspects of this multifaceted character. The Apothecary White version of her is the part of her story we most commonly remember: playing host to her suitors, feeding them (and the card even makes more Humans when you get more Food, perfect for the swarming would-be-kings). Meanwhile, Tymna is the parts of Penelope we see when she arrives on Circe's island and that we hear about when Odysseus tells stories about her to Circe. She is described as his equal in cunning, a master strategist even if she doesn't lift a blade herself,perfect for Tymna and her high power ceiling. Plus, she's a weaver, and Penelope famously used her weaving to buy time against the suitors back on Ithaca.

Circe's Siblings - Elenda, the Dusk Rose

, Chainer, Dementia Master

, and Vona, Butcher of Magan

Aeëtes is Chainer, due to both the turn his character takes as well as his penchant for animating an army to do his bidding, and though we don't see a lot of Perses in the novel, and most of what we know of him is stuff happening off-screen, Vona will stand in for him. I like another Vampire as Circe's sibling to try and keep them mechanically close. Also, Vona just wrecks stuff, fitting for Perses: the latter's name comes from the Greek perthō, to ravage or destroy.

One more Vampire: we have Pasiphae as Elenda, the Dusk Rose. Once again, fitting the theme, and those who know about what Pasiphae did to her husband Minos when he would, er, consort with others (something I don't think my editors will let me type out) will get a kick out of the choice--just picture her making Snake tokens instead of Vamps.

Minos and the Minotaur - Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

and K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth

Speaking of Minos, Yawgmoth led a people (of a kind), and his spawn was also a right prick of a monster (of a kind), at least at certain tables. Yawgmoth finds a use for the little Vampire tokens we're making, and K'rrik helps us play big spells ahead of schedule; we'll have the life to spare, after all.

Daedalus - Wernog, Rider's Chaplain

I thought about Oswald Fiddlebender

Glaucos - Mikaeus, the Unhallowed

And then there's this little sh*t. Formerly a human, then when he gains the power of godhood he turns his back on Circe and humanity pretty much immediately. 

Hermes - Fain, the Broker

Speaking of little sh*ts, the trickster god Hermes traffics in rumors and favors and delights in petty squabbles, somewhere between a thorn in Circe's side and a lifeline to the outside world for the otherwise isolated witch. This role is perfect for Fain, who can dole out small boons at many a juncture, notably boosting Amalia's counters or taking one off. The last one is relevant, since her board-wipe ability only triggers when she hits 20 power from her explore effect. If you put the eighteenth counter on her to make her a 20/20 another way, you'll need to get of those one off with Fain to try again.

Prometheus - Eternal Isolation

Look, they made the perfect card for Prometheus(it's even in white!) in Chained to the Rocks

Telemachus - Kytheon, Hero of Akros

There's the Telemachus we know of back as a boy in Ithaca--helping his mom Penelope keep the suitors at bay--and the man we see on Circe's island, assured and capable, even if he's now haunted by what he's seen and what his father became. With Kytheon, we see the child on the front and the man he turns into on the backside (I'm not sure why his named changed to Gideon, but maybe some Vorthos fans out there can tell me in the comments). And fittingly, Gideon is one of the few cards that will remain on the battlefield after Amalia hits 20 power. Awww #spoilers

Telegonus - Sigrid, God-Favored

Circe and Odysseus's son. Protection from God creatures is a nice nod to Telegonus's protectiveness of his mother as he grows up, as is the exiling ability. And the name here is perfect, as well: "God-Favored." Telegonus has the favor of the same patron God his father did...now, who was that again?....

Athena - Akroma, Angel of Wrath

Oh, right. Athena, the blood-spattered goddess of war and wisdom. I've seen versions of the Odyssey or Greek myth put on camera where Athena was waifish, meek, and preached wisdom over fighting, and let me tell you: that ain't it. There's a reason Odysseus was her favorite: cunning can be quite the tool in promoting even more brutal slaughter and conquering. In Circe, Miller's depiction of Pallas Athena is fittingly terrifying, a white-hot blade of vengeance and purpose. Which, to anyone who's ever seen Akroma hit a battlefield and do her thing, will sound very familar.

Others

With Shadowspear

Phage the Untouchable

Of course, I wanted something to represent the herbs Circe uses as part of her witchcraft and her healing draughts despite being undoubtedly the worst of the Alpha cycle of "one-mana, get 3 of X" spells (it's hard to compete with Ancestral Recall

Kokusho, the Evening Star is the sea monster Scylla: yes, ships can get by her (your opponents can destroy it), but they're going to lose some of their crew (a chunk of life) when they do so. Legion's Landing makes more lifelinking Vampires for our deck and represents the many sailors alighting on Aeaea's shores over the years. Of course, most crews outside of Odysseus's are then quickly turned into pigs by Circe's magic, so we have Transmogrifying Wand. Ox tokens, sure, but so far Wizards hasn't responded to any of my emails or carrier pigeons requesting a card that turns opposing creatures into pigs. (Cowards.) At its core, transformation is the essence of Circe's magical abilities, so it's nice to have something to represent that here.

Preparation

As we "cast" the deck's characters, a very clear image for how this deck can function took shape. We want lots of small lifegain triggers rather than a few large ones, and that can be enabled by a lot of Vampire tokens with lifelink (remember, each instance of lifegain triggers separately; hit an opponent with three of these tokens and you've gained 1 life three times, causing Amalia to trigger thrice).

But what happens when she does hit 20 power and, for lack of a better term, blows up? We could let the rest of the board clear and one-shot our opponents with commander damage three turns in a row, but that's not reliable, especially when they see it coming from a mile away, so we're running a lot of effects that protect our board from the explosion. Selfless Glyphweaver, Flare of Fortitude, and Dawn's Truce all make our board indestructible, but we can also just bring everything back after we blow it up, either right away with Cosmic Intervention (the Deus ex Machina of classic Greek plays) or later with Rise of the Dark Realms. And hey, Unbreakable Formation is a nice representation of the protective barrier Circe casts around her island. 

Important to this deck is that we are in control of when Amalia explores her way to 20 power. That's also why we don't run a lot of Blood Artist effects. We have some, because they're reliable and they add up, but usually ours will only trigger on our own creatures. We want our opponents to have little opportunity to trigger her if we're not ready, say by sending one of their creatures to a purposeful death.

Of course, sometimes it's hard to put all the pieces in place, or Amalia keeps getting removed (in a 40-life format, her ward cost might as well be flavor text), so we have a plan B: the classic Exquisite Blood/Sanguine Bond combo. We've gotten several pieces of redundancy lately for that combo, like Enduring Tenacity, Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose, and most recently Bloodthirsty Conqueror, so it's easier than ever to drop both halves of that combo on the field and watch opponents have a "nobody move" moment.

Yield

Here's the final decklist!

I have a mortal's voice, let me have the rest.

That's it for me today! Hope you enjoyed. Drop me a line in the comments if there's anything else--a book, a video game, a movie--you'd like to see get the next theme deck treatment! Until next time: support your local library, or your local artist, or your non-local artist--just keep the beauty in the world moving from person to person.