Pokedecks: Zirda the Vulpix
Spellshifting Every Spell, from A to Zirda!
Last article, we followed up Jiwari Earthquakes with another unusual typal deck: Hamza Elephants. Chucking earthquakes was succeeded by stampeding pachyderms for an incredible 1-2 punch. This week, we'll look at my favorite grossly underrepresented typal deck: Spellshapers! Today's deck salutes a creature type that can do anything, transforming the cards in our hand into limitless possibilities!
The deck makes Spellshapers, one of the coolest creature types out there. Spellshapers specialize in "casting" iconic spells via their activated abilities, in a way that Garth One-Eye evokes. By paying a mana cost, tapping the creature, and discarding a card, you effectively transform that card into a difficult-to-counter version of whatever iconic spell the creature specializes in. Thus, the deck has no dead draws. Even a late-game land holds tons of possibilities!
I love typal decks because they simplify Rule Zero conversations and catch peoples' attention who might not know me, the commander, or even the game of Magic in general. You don't need to know those things to root on a Spellshaper deck; you just need to find what they do cool! I've run typal streams; I have a typal podcast (Quote of Arms), and I've even run a casual 16-person typal tournament, with $20 donated to charity in each podwinner's name, and gifting a Cavern of Souls to the grand champion!
There are plenty of well-known and well-supported typal decks out there: Elves, Dragons, and Goblins are among those typically supported in main sets, with others getting more and more love over the years. There are others, however, where there hasn't been a lot of official support, especially when members of the type are printed sporadically and do not synergize with one another. This is where the challenge comes in: how can the deckbuilder MAKE the flavor of the type come across?
Interestingly enough, the PokeAlter would combine Fox's signature animal, my love of Pokemon, the type of animal Zirda is, and a rarely-used Gen 1 Pokemon move that simulates what Spellshapers do! Vulpix is a fire-type Fox Pokemon, which works with the red in Zirda's identity and the Fox typing that Zirda has. It also learns a move called Mimic in Gen 1, which copies a move, including one the Pokemon usually can't learn. How do we get these pieces to fit together into a cohesive build?
Zirda's Abilities
Zirda is a somewhat strange choice as commander for a Spellshaper deck, as Zirda isn't a Spellshaper, doesn't put cards in hand to shape, and two of the three abilities aren't all that helpful. As a commander, Zirda loses the value of being a Companion, but also loses the restriction. The creature-tapping ability is nice, but it, again, doesn't do anything to work with Spellshapers. What does work with Spellshapers, however, is the cost reduction on activated abilities. This both makes it easier to activate multiple abilities in one turn and to dump mana into some of the more expensive ones.
Heartstone, not to be confused with the Warcraft card game, is an artifact that reduces the cost of activated abilities. Doubling up on the effect adds to the deck's explosiveness and allows the deck to function without its commander.
Fires of Invention functions surprisingly well in the deck, thogh it's not nearly as game-breaking as it was in Standard. Its purpose in the deck is to allow us to cast Spellshapers while still keeping mana up to activate them. Combining explosiveness with flexibility is big game in a deck like this!
Battlemage's Bracers is one of the most intrinsically powerful cards in the deck. Giving haste to creatures that tap to activate their abilities while also doubling those abilities goes a long way towards making a mid-powered creature type able to hang with the big boys that go wide and explode all over the battlefield.
Vulpix's Moves
The first generation of Pokemon was a wild place, with Pokemon able to learn a variety of questionable moves and moves that changed functionality or outright disappeared between generations. One of the moves Vulpix learns in Gen 1 that changes in subsequent Gens is Mimic. In Gen 1, Mimic allows the user to choose a move the opponent knows and use that move, but it has the power points of the Mimic move instead of what it copied. This ability to choose a move and get it to function multiple times instead of once is similar to Spellshapers using the abilities of instants and sorceries, but over and over by discarding cards instead of once and done.
Devout Witness is a Spellshaper that has Disenchant attached. In a given Commander game, there are plenty of solid targets. Enchantments and artifacts have been increasing in popularity and power recently, and being able to repeat the effect is quite powerful. Be careful, though: repeatable removal threatening the table can be seen as a soft lock and can draw some hate.
Latulla, Keldon Overseer is the Spellshaper version of one of my favorite cards: Blaze. Unlike the nonlegendary Spellshapers, the legends typically up the power level, but at the expense of an additional card. Latulla is a game-ender, though, and well worth the extra card. With ways to double the ability, the X is multiplied as well, and the doubling stacks, so it can easily one-shot opponents out of nowhere!
Seismic Mage is the Spellshaper equivalent of Stone Rain. There has been some discourse recently about land destruction in Commander, and Stone Rain is an iconic piece. There are lots of powerful lands being used, and selective Land Destruction is less limiting than mass land destruction. If Ghost Quarter can see play, why not this?
So...we've got repeatable utility spells and a solid way to win the game, but how do we make sure to have the hand size or Power Points needed to use the Spellshapers?
The Perfect Fusion
Spellshapers need to have cards in hand to shape into spells, and it's preferable that those not be spells themselves. As a result, cards that can add numbers to the hand size but not quality cards, as we will be providing the quality by shaping them into spells, are valuable. Thankfully, white's unique brand of pseudo-ramp does the trick!
Land Tax is a powerful deck-thinning tool, adding three basics to our hand a turn, slowly but surely acting as a Mana Severance to ensure we hit relevant spells in our draw step. In the process, however, we load up our hand with...possibilities. All of these excess basics represent material to shape into spells via meta-magic.
Ah, the original Tithe. Less powerful than Smothering Tithe. Less flexible than Mana Tithe, and more expensive than both put together because of the Reserve List. And yet, in this deck, it's the perfect alternative one-drop to Land Tax. One way or another, we make our opponents pay for their greedy land-drop-making.
Gift of Estates is another land-searcher; while it is as expensive mana-wise as Tax and Tithe together, it is much easier on the wallet. Well, OUR wallet. Putting three Plains in hand (including nonbasic) is big game for this deck, as it fixes our mana and provides material for spallshaping!
Zirda, Use Mimic!
Here is the most recent iteration of the deck, which is still one of my favorites.
What are some of your favorite typal decks? And how might you build some underrepresented ones? Also, what instants and sorceries would you like to see attached to a Spellshaper?
