Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Masako the Humorless!

Masako is a three mana 2/1 that has flash and tapped creatures you control may block as if they were untapped.

This is very much a one of a kind ability, with the only other card that I can find that has a similar ability is a playtest card. Why Wizards of the Coast hasn’t played with this ability more is beyond me.

In any case, this helps takes one of the downsides that creatures have and makes it partially negligible, which means that any abilities that require us to tap creatures isn’t as much of an issue any more.

Convoke is a great mechanic to help us save on mana, but the inherent issue of tapping our creatures can leave us defenseless in most circumstances.

The Wandering Rescuer is a great creature to have because not only does she cast for Convoke and has flash and double strike, she helps protect our tapped creatures, which means we can Convoke more freely.

Venerated Loxodon and Knight-Errant of Eos were staples in the other Constructed decks for growing our creatures and digging deeper into our deck, so including them is a must.

We have access to some removal in Cut Short and Devouring Light, along with a number of combat tricks and protections spells like Aerial Boost and Ephemeral Shields.

There are even ways to give our spells Convoke if they don’t have them, like Wand of the Worldsoul for our next spell and Dazzling Theater for creatures, with Dazzling Theater also having Prop Room to untap our creatures if we so need it.

As far as non-Convoke ways to tap our creatures, there are other ways where we can tap our creatures to gain value.

Saddle creatures and Vehicles are some of the ways we can get that value, Bounding Felidar being a way to give our other creatures +1/+1 counters to help block any attacks and give us a bigger life buffer.

Parhelion II and Skysovereign, Consul Flagship are Vehicles that make more tokens we can use and clear the board of smaller creatures respectively while we can also use Smuggler’s Copter in the early game to help generate card advantage.

There are also other spells that have the ability to tap creatures for extra value. Battle Screech and Prismatic Strands can create tokens and prevent damage and be cast with a Flashback cost of tapping a certain number of creatures.

Creatures that have Outlast can give +1/+1 counters to themselves by tapping themselves, and some like Abzan Falconer and Ainok Bond-Kin give abilities to creatures with +1/+1 counters, flying and first strike respectivelly.

The way we win the game is via a slow, attrition style game plan, in which we make the most out of tapping our own creatures.

Devout Invocation is a way to help generate a huge number of creatures in the late game as we slowly accumulate creatures, and we should ideally get two to three Angels, but hopefully more if we have a wide enough board.

Creatures with Survival are also ways we can generate some value, with picks like Glimmer Seeker to make a Glimmer creature token and then draw cards while we control a Glimmer, Veteran Survivor to act as graveyard removal, and Reluctant Role Model to slowly grow itself and move the counters when they die.

Thunderhawk Gunship comes into play with some Astartes Warrior tokens and gives our attacking creatures flying when it attacks, so any of our creatures that do attack can be more evasive.

Split Up is a board wipe that we can use to destroy our opponents unatapped creatures, Dragonscale General can Bolster our weaker creatures, and Throne of the God Pharaoh has our opponents lose life equal to the number of tapped creatures we control.

Masako presents the opportunity to play a grindy midrange deck that has us be a bit more risky with tapping out with our creatures. We can protect ourselves a little more effectively, but that does make Masako a prime target if we are too far ahead.

It is still one of the most unique playstyles for a Commander due to Masako’s one of a kind ability.

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

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual