Legends Legends - Princess Lucrezia

We're undoubtedly in the dregs of Legends these days. Our supply of playable commanders is running short, and, if we're ever going to make it to the end, we'll have to spread out those three-color playable rares and bite the bullet and build around one of the, eh, less-favorable legendaries.

Today, our less-favorable legendary is none other than Princess Lucrezia, perhaps the best proof that the designers of Legends had no clue what they were doing when it came to multicolor cards. 

General Thoughts

Princess Lucrezia is a six-mana legendary Human Wizard. She's got a 5/4 body, which isn't half bad for the rate we've become accustomed to in Legends. She also has just about the least useful ability possible for a six-mana 5/4: she can tap to add one blue to your mana pool.

As we all know, Dimir decks are just dying for mana after turn six, and the total advantage you gain from continuing to ramp while everyone else is playing their bombs cannot be understated! I'm being sarcastic, of course. Princess Lucrezia's mana ability isn't anything special, but we'll build around it all the same.

This Princess Lucrezia Commander deck looks to do two things: play our Princess, then use her ability (alongside our other ramp) to cast big X-cost spells. These X spells will either drain our opponents of their vitality, draw out their libraries, or empty our own library so we can win with Laboratory Maniac or Thassa's Oracle.

Ramping in Dimir

Normally, our section on ramp and the mana base would come later, but in this deck those cards are the star of the show (and the only thing holding it together).

Dimir decks aren't known for their ability to ramp aggressively. We could always run Dreamscape Artist for access to a slower, repeatable, blue Harrow, but that really won't cut it. Instead, we're going to ramp ceaselessly with mana rocks and mana-doubler artifacts. I'll try not to spend too much time on the typical suite of mana rocks; suffice to say Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Commander's Sphere, and Talisman of Dominance are all present.

You're probably familiar with Caged Sun and Gauntlet of Power, but I rarely see folks talking about Doubling Cube anymore. These cards are the bread and butter of this deck: the meal just won't taste right without them on the side. They're what take our X-spells, like Exsanguinate, from "mild threat" to "game-ending scenario." 

We want to keep ramping, even after we've hit six or seven mana, so cards like Dreamstone Hedron, Gilded Lotus, and Coveted Jewel will keep hitting the field long after our opponents have cast their Rampant Growths and Cultivates.

In addition, we've got just about every mana dork we could run in these colors, plus Burnished Hart and Solemn Simulacrum.  

A final note on our ramp: I'm including Sapphire Medallion, but excluding Jet Medallion just based on the percentages of our blue spells versus black spells. Blue accounts for over 70% of all mana symbols on spells in this deck, and we want every mana rock we drop to have an impact.

X-Spells

So what do Dimir decks do with all that mana? X-cost spells are some of the best ways to dump a ton of mana all at once, and blue and black's X-cost spells tend to focus on drawing cards or draining life; sometimes both!

Classics Braingeyser and Prosperity are great for giving your opponents too much of a good thing, especially if they don't have their own Reliquary Tower or Thought Vessel on the field. 

Exsanguinate is one of the most common win conditions in Commander, but don't be afraid to use your Damnable Pact offensively to finish off that last opponent. Similarly, Torment of Hailfire will end most games when cast for seven or more mana. 

Finale of Revelation, while it only hits us, is a great way to dig deep into our library and recover any cards we might have lost to a wild Infernal Grasp or Counterspell along the way. It does feel a bit anti-synergistic with our Laboratory Maniac and Thassa's Oracle, but casting the Finale once should pull us far enough ahead that we'll have time to work our way back through our library.

Blue Sun's Zenith and Drown in Dreams will be our most common targets for our instant-tutors (Mystical Tutor and Waterlogged Teachings).

Finally, shout out to Aeon Chronicler and its X-cost suspend effect. This guy's been a personal favorite of mine since Planar Chaos. While he's not the biggest threat on the board, he's still guaranteed to generate advantage and help fill up our hand.

Drawing Upon Your Library

With all that drawing we're doing, we'd best include some triggered effects to go along with it. While these cards aren't necessarily our strongest win condition, they'll create a board presence that's hard to ignore while we dig, dig, dig through the top of our library.

Chasm Skulker and Nadir Kraken are my favorite ways to go both wide and tall at the same time. Don't forget that Chasm Skulker's tokens have islandwalk, making it a great surprise finisher versus the other blue decks at the table.

Alandra, Sky Dreamer is also quickly becoming one of my favorite blue cards. Alandra hones in on what makes this new wave of "draw your second card" effects fun with an additional goal of getting to five card draws at just the right time to maximize the power you add to your army of Drake tokens.

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past few years (I wouldn't blame you, it sounds nice), you've probably heard of Sheoldred, the Apocalypse. Clocking in at $64 for her cheapest printing, this version of the black Praetor can basically seal the deal when it hits the field. With all that extra ramping we did, we might even be able to run out Sheoldred, then drop a Braingeyser where X = 5. That'll be 10 damage to each opponent and 10 life for us! 

We've already hit upon Aeon Chronicler, but we've got one other (and much better) creature whose power and toughness are based on our cards in hand. Body of Knowledge is not only a great creature to threaten the board or block with, it also has a cascading effect where any damage dealt to it causes you to draw that many cards. If your opponents can't deal enough damage all at once to kill it, you'll draw more cards and make it even bigger. It's like a Protean Hydra, but blue!

Combos

There are a few key combos I want to call out. The pieces to these combos will be the most common search targets for our Diabolic Tutor, Demonic Tutor, and Vampiric Tutor. The first, and most fun in my opinion, involves Unctus, Grand Metatect, Princess Lucrezia, and Pemmin's Aura or Freed from the Real. 

Note that you can execute this combo with Silver Myr, as well; we just need access to a blue! 

Next, with Hullbreaker Horror and our Sol Ring, we can create infinite colorless mana, perfect for executing a mega-huge Exsanguinate on the board.

Princess Lucrezia Decklist

Wrap Up

There you have it, possibly the worst-designed legendary creature in the entire Legends set, built to be a somewhat playable and decent enough EDH deck that can hang at mid-power tables. It "does the thing," which is what everyone's concerned with these days, and that oughtta be good enough for us.

Is Princess Lucrezia really that bad? Or will I drive myself crazy trying to find a build for Lord Magnus when we get around to it? Let me know what you think, and who you think I should hit next in our ever-dwindling number of Legends Legends!

Thanks for reading!