Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Rilsa Rael, Kingpin!

Rilsa is a five mana 2/5 with deathtouch and when they enter the battlefield you take the initiative and whenever you attack an attacking creature you control gains deathtouch until end of turn and if you’ve completed a dungeon then that creature also gets +5/+0, first strike and menace until end of turn.

Rilsa is an interesting Commander on two fronts, one being an aggressive blue and black Commander and wanting to play with the dungeon mechanics.

While I know that venturing into the dungeon and initiative were not beloved mechanics, I do have a soft spot for them because the first set that I started playing Magic in was Adventures in the Forgotten Realms.

So let’s take a look at making this deck work.

One of the most ideal ways to take advantage of venture into the dungeon (I’ll be using just venture for the rest of this) and initiative is to go through the dungeons as quickly as possible.

That is more difficult for the initiative, but for venture it is much easier because the dungeons are shorter and Rilsa specifies if you’ve completed a dungeon and not just The Undercity from initiative.

It also helps that the cheapest way to interact with the dungeons is through venturing because there are one mana options that allow you to venture in some capacity while all initiative enablers are three mana and higher.

Yuan-Ti Malison is the cheapest creature that can attack and allow us to get through a dungeon, and it is also evasive to boot. There is also Fly, an Aura that gives flying and the ability to venture, meaning if we pair it with Yuan-Ti Malison then we get double triggers.

Next up we need a way to take advantage of all of those dungeons we complete, other than just what we get from the dungeons.

There are a few cards like Rilsa that allow you to gain advantage from completing a dungeon. Something like Ravenloft Adventurer exiles an opponents creature with a hit counter when they die and when it attacks if you’ve completed a dungeon then the opponent loses life for however many cards they control with a hit counter on them.

You also have Safana, Calimport Cutthroat which gives you a Treasure token if you have the initiative and three if you’ve completed a dungeon or Imoen, Mystic Trickster which draws you a card if you have the initiative and a second if you’ve completed a dungeon.

Again, the best part about these cards is that they they only require you to complete a dungeon, which means a card like Precipitous Drop can go from a mediocre Stab into an effective removal spell for indestructible creatures.

So while we will be gaining advantage from going through the dungeons, that will not win us the game. Instead what will win us the game is the sneaky strategies that we will be working with.

Taking a look back at Ravenloft Adventurer it exiles creatures with hit counters, which is a state that will exist throughout the game even if they get removed. They also happen to be a Rogue and Assassin, which Mari, the Killing Quill cares about.

Now Mari also has the same effect of exiling opponents creatures with hit counters, but also gives Rogues, Mercenaries, and Assassins you control deathtouch and allows you to remove hit counters from your opponents things in exchange for drawing cards and getting Treasure tokens when they deal combat damage.

In fact we will have a large number of Rogues, Mercenaries, and Assassins, like Rilsa to be in play while playing a large swath of removal spells in order for our win condition of Etrata, the Silencer to come into play unabated.

Since Etrata can’t be blocked and when they deal combat damage to an opponent with three or more cards with hit counters, they lose the game, that is our primary win condition

It is a sneaky way to win, and one most people won’t expect, though once Etrata takes down one player, you will suddenly become the target for the rest of the table.

This is a fragile way to win no doubt, but it is certainly something that people won’t see coming, especially if you present the deck as a dungeon based deck.

Rilsa is a neat build around, but isn’t particularly powerful on their own. What they do best is provide advantages through initiative and giving a benefit when a dungeon is completed.

A workhorse of a Commander rather than the win condition.

Thank you for reading, see you tomorrow for the next Daily Commander!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual