Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes!

Minsc is a Planeswalker with 3 starting loyalty that when he enters the battlefield or at the beginning of your upkeep you may make Boo, a legendary 1/1 red Hamster creature token with trample and haste, his +1 puts three +1/+1 counters on a creature with trample or haste, and his -2 sacrifices a creature and he deals X damage to any target where X was that creatures power and if it was a Hamster then you draw X cards.

Minsc can go a couple of interesting ways, but the way I think it would be interesting to build would be as a fling Commander, i.e. a Commander that sacrifices creatures to deal damage to our opponents.

While we will have a consistent creature we can throw to our our opponents and a consistent way to make that happen, we should have ways to make our creatures bigger to deal more damage to our opponents, as well as redundant ways to fling our creatures.

The first thing we need to do is find ways to make our creatures bigger and give them either haste or trample so Minsc can have additional targets for his +1.

Halana and Alena, Partners are a great way to get exactly what we need because they give another creature +1/+1 counters equal to their power and gives them haste as well, which means that while we can’t give them more power during combat, we can buff them post combat to make them bigger for Minsc’s fling ability later.

We can also use Rhythm of the Wild as a way to make our creatures unable to be countered, and gives nontoken creatures we control riot, which can either give a +1/+1 counter or haste when they enter, which if we cheat a big creature we can attack and then fling to take out an opponent.

Xenagos, God of Revels can boost a creature by giving them +X/+X where X is their power and gives them haste, Anger to give all of our creatures haste if it is in the graveyard, Loyal Guardian to give all of our creatures +1/+1 counters at the beginning of combat if we control our Commander, and Railway Brawler to give a creature X +1/+1 counters when they enter the battlefield where X is that creature’s power.

The next thing we need to consider are additional ways to fling our creatures at our opponents.

While we can use Fling as an instant speed option, the cheapest way we can fling a creature is Thud, which is a sorcery, but it is also one mana and many other similar effects are done at a higher cost.

Kazuul’s Fury is a fling that can be a land if necessary, Bloodfire Infusion is an Aura that can give the creature a way to deal damage to all creatures for one red mana, and Pyrrhic Blast is a fling that draws us a card, and Grab the Reins can either steal a creature an opponent controls or fling a creature or we can Entwine for both effects.

There are also creature options to fling our creatures, with one of the better options in my opinion being Voldaren Thrillseeker, who has Backup 2, which gives a creature you control two +1/+1 counters and the ability for 1 mana to fling themselves.

Flame Elemental and Ghitu Fire-Eater can fling themselves, Heartfire Immolator has prowess to make itself bigger and for a red mana can fling itself, Freyalise Supplicant can sacrifice a red or green creature to fling for half of that creature’s power, and Surtland Flinger can fling another creature when it attacks and if that creature was a Giant then it deals double damage instead.

When it comes to how we win, we can do a combination of an all out attack to get our opponents to a low life total and a fling finish.

Unnatural Growth is a way we can consistently have big creatures on the board at the beginning of each combat, which means that if an opponent is brought to a low life total on another opponent’s turn and we can fling at instant speed, we have the option to do so at the end of any combat.

If we have a bunch of big creatures at our disposal and it is the end of a combat then we can use Soulblast, which sacrifices all creatures we control to deal damage equal to the total power of all creatures sacrificed, which can be a way to win the game.

Additionally if you happen to be able to get one or don’t mind making a proxy, then there is Sword of the Ages, which exiles itself and any number of creatures you control and deals damage to any target equal to the total exiled power.

If you just want a bunch of creatures on board to enable either of these options, then you can use Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant to cheat a bunch of creatures onto the board so you can sacrifice all of them to win the game.

Minsc can be a flexible Commander depending on how you build him, but if you decide to go with the fling strategy then you are going to be attempting a very volatile strategy that will be difficult to win consistently. It is an interesting deck building challenge, but keep in mind it is not the most ideal way to win.

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

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual