Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Verazol, the Split Current!

Verazol is an X and two mana 0/0 that enters with a +1/+1 counter for each mana spent to cast it, and whenever you cast a kicked spell you may remove two +1/+1 counters from Verazol to copy that spell, and you can choose new targets for the copies and copies of permanents become tokens.

Kicker has become a ubiquitous mechanic in Magic, with many mechanics often compared to Kicker, so having a Commander dedicated to the mechanic is not surprising.

Being in blue and green, we can make a ton of mana to cast Verazol, who thankfully counts the colored mana in giving counters as well as ways to give Verazol to get a ton of counters to copy a ton of spells.

First we need ways to get as many counters onto Verazol as we can, while also being able to get a bunch of mana.

Kami of Whispered Hopes qualifies in both of these aspects because not only does it give an additional +1/+1 counter, it also adds mana equal to its power.

Tribute to the World Tree is an old reliable in adding +1/+1 counters to our low power creatures, and there are also cards like Vastwood Surge that ramp and add counters to our creatures when we kick it.

There is also Elhame Druid which is a mana dork normally but it can add two green to cast kicked spell, Throne of Makindi that can add two mana of any color to cast kicked spells if you remove a charge counter from it, and Volshe Tideturner which can tap for blue to cast instant, sorceries, or kicked spells.

The next thing we need to do is to start accruing some value over the course of the game via our kicked spells.

Skyclave Relic is perfect for this because of it’s relatively low Kicker cost, and that it makes two more indestructible mana rocks. Copied with Verazol means that we get six of these resilient mana rocks, which can help us as we go on.

We also have Roost of Drakes and Saproling Infestation that makes tokens when we cast a kicked spell, or if any player casts a kicked spell with Saproling Infestation. They are a 2/2 flying Drake and a 1/1 Saproling, but those will slowly add up or can be cheap blockers as we need them.

Lullmage’s Familiar gains us life when we cast a kicked spell, Murasa Sproutling can return spells with Kicker to our hand if kicked, Merfolk Falconer can scry when we cast a kicked spell, and Vine Gecko reduced the cost of our first kicked spell by 1 and gets bigger when we cast a kicked spell.

We should be set in a reasonable position when we start casting bigger and better spells that will win us the game.

Maddening Cacophony is an example of a potential win condition, in being able to mill an opponent half of their library twice. Ideally we have a way to prevent them from interacting with their graveyard as well, but it is still a feasible option.

If we want a more aggro way to win then there is also Cragplate Baloth, which is a 6/6 that gets an additional four +1/+1 counters when kicked, and it already has hexproof and haste so getting two of those immediately will be absurd.

And if we want to go further on that line of thought, then we also have access to Rite of Replication, which when kicked makes five token copies of a creature, so if we can copy it with Verazol then we have two 10/10s and ten 6/6s with hexproof and haste.

If we have a ton of mana then we also have Wolfbriar Elemental to also potentially have a super wide board, because Multikicker counts for kicked spells, and by that same token we can get to having a ton of mana via a card like Everflowing Chalice.

Verazol is an enabler Commander, and the strength of enabler Commanders is that they are very flexible in what they can do, provided you fulfill a particular condition.

Verazol cares about kicked spells, which as far as conditions go is not the hardest condition to fulfill, and so long as we fulfill those conditions then we can take the deck into a few different directions.

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

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual