Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Djeru, With Eyes Open!

Djeru is a five mana 4/3 with vigilance and when it enters the battlefield you search for a planeswalker, reveal it, and put it into your hand and if a source would deal damage to a Planeswalker you control you prevent one of that damage.

Super Friends is an archetype that can be very interesting to play with, and while Djeru would definitely be better used as a part of a Super Friends deck, having a mono white Super Friends Commander is definitely an interesting challenge.

So we need to start with what kind of Planewalkers we are going to use.

One of the first priorities for Planeswalkers to look at is what they offer when they get on the field. The ones that I would prioritize first would be ones that make creatures, so Elspeth, Sun’s Champion would be ideal for that because of the plus one ability for making tokens.

When looking at Super Friends in Commander, you cannot be looking at the ultimate ability as the sole way to play, most of the time they will not be able to get to them.

The value comes from their other abilities or their passive abilities and how effective those can be in the long term.

For example, all Gideon’s have the ability to become a creature, either passively or actively, and that can be useful for combat because they also have indestructible and prevent all damage done to them.

A lot of Ajani’s give counters or gain you life, other Elspeth’s either give counters or make tokens, The Wanderer can exile things and so on.

Think of the Planeswalkers as tools that you can use to change the game in your favor, and you will need quick access to them.

We should also make the most of Djeru and include a small blink and flicker package while we are at it. Since Djeru’s ability triggered when they enter the battlefield, we can definitely have as many ways to blink them for a benefit.

Looking around for cards that synergize with Planeswalkers, I found Semester’s end. It’s not a Teferi’s Protection, but it does protect your stuff for at least a turn and can also make your nontoken creatures bigger and reset your Planeswalkers into a better position.

There are also ways to give your Planeswalkers more loyalty without activating their abilities, like Oath of Gideon, which makes two creatures and gives your Planeswalkers an additional loyalty counter when they enter the battlefield.

Gatewatch Beacon is a mana rock that can give your Planeswalkers an additional loyalty counter up to three times, more if you can blink it.

The way we win is going to be slow and grindy, because we have to make sure that we and our Planeswalkers can survive.

Archangel of Tithes is one example of the few cards that are available in white that taxes your opponents when they attack either us or Planewalkers we control.

Other than decks that can generate a large amount of mana, it isn’t hard to imagine that our opponents need to 2 to 3 mana for each creature that attacks us or our Planeswalkers.

Once we accumulate the resources for our Planeswalkers then we can ultimate and then snowball from there.

Ajani, Caller of the Pride can make an army of Cat tokens, Elspeth, Sun’s Champion can make them huge and evasive, and Gideon, Martial Paragon can give those creatures one last boost and we can swing for the game.

It’s going to be slow, but Djeru can most likely pull off a win or two if you can manage your resources effectively. Again, Djeru is probably more effective as a piece to a multicolor Super Friends deck, but you can make the deck work.

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

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual