Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Ivora, Insatiable Heir!

Ivora is a two mana 1/1 with trample, whenever they enter and deal combat damage to a player you make a Blood token and whenever you discard a card you put a +1/+1 counter on Ivora.

Discard matters is a fun theme to play with because there are a couple of directions we can go with it. We can play with cards from the graveyard, the actual discarded cards being important, and cards on the board caring about whenever a card is discarded.

The plan for this deck is more so to be a general showcase in the power of a discard deck by playing into a bunch of the major synergies in order to get Ivora big and some Blood on the battlefield.

Let’s start the deck with looking at cards that care about being discarded, which usually entails cards with Madness.

Blazing Rootwalla is an incredibly efficient creature that can be cast with Madness of 0 because not only can we discard at instant speed using a Blood token, but we can get a decent blocker as well. Being able to give itself a boost only once each turn is a bit rough, but we can still use it defensively for a solid blocker.

While it doesn’t get cheaper to cast if we discard it, Stensia Masquerade can be a strong piece to synergize with Ivora because she is a Vampire that has trample and wants to deal combat damage to make more Blood tokens, so giving her first strike when she is attacking can be a strong piece to play with.

Distemper the Blood is normally a subpar combat trick, but since Madness effectively any card with it an instant, it can become a surprise combat trick if we use a Blood token for it for essentially the same mana cost, and we actually even out in cards because of the draw from the Blood token.

In order to help facilitate our discard game plan, we should also look to include Anje’s Ravager, which must attack if able and whenever it attacks we discard our hand and draw three cards, which means we can continuously fuel Ivora by discarding something during combat to help ensure she gets bigger.

The next thing we should look at are ways we can have value from cards in the graveyard.

Past in Flames is an excellent card in this regard because it gives every instant and sorcery in our graveyard flashback equal to its mana cost, while itself also having flashback. This turns a Burning Inquiry into everyone draws and discards six cards cards for two mana, Seething Song becomes a six mana ritual for ten mana, or we get a second use of a Blasphemous Act if the board gets out of hand.

We should also keep in mind of other cards that have flashback, rather than just relying on one card to give out instants and sorceries flashback, Electric Revelation being one of these options in order to get an additional discard outlet to draw two cards twice.

Bulk Up can be used as a way to make Ivora into an even larger threat, and it becomes a surprise at two mana, and a threat in the later game because of its flashback cost.

Unearth is also a mechanic to take a look at because it allows us to have a creature on board for a turn, and having something like Cityscape Leveler come in to destroy a nonland permanent when it is cast or attacks means we have two opportunities to do so, and one allows it to make a big swing at an opponent since Unearth gives the creature haste.

There is also the new mechanic from Tarkir: Dragonstorm called Harmonize, which allows us to play a card from the graveyard for its Harmonize cost if we tap a creature to help pay for the generic cost using that creatures power, and if we have a sufficiently large Ivora, we can make use of Zenith Festival to get a ton of card advantage for only two mana.

Now we take a look at the cards in play that care about cards being discarded, and there are plenty of them.

Glint-Horn Buccaneer is an excellent way to get value from all of the discarding that we are doin by dealing 1 damage to each opponent whenever we discard a card, which means discarding forty cards could potentially win us the game. This sounds like a once in a lifetime win, but if we discard as much as we plan then this should be easier to get to then one would think.

There are also plenty of other creatures that get bigger whenever we discard a card like Marauding Mako, Surly Badgersaur, and Brallin, Skyshark Rider and they all have their own other benefits.

Marauding Mako is one mana and can start getting bigger early while also able to cycle itself if necessary, Surly Badgersaur gets a variety of value depending on the kind of cards you discard, and Barllin also deals 1 damage to each opponent whenever you discard a card.

Speaking of dealing damage, Magmakin Artillerist can become outright insane since it deals damage to each opponent equal to the number of cards you discard, which means if we cast something like a Change of Fortune to discard a small hand to draw a massive hand and then play something like Shattered Perception, then we just deal a huge chunk of damage.

If we just want steady incremental value, Monument to Endurance becomes great for the early game in order for us to draw some cards, make some Treasure, and then have each opponent lose three life, and if we can consistently discard, then it means we get all three effects of the Monument each turn.

Ivora is an easy Commander to build around due to all of the synergies that discarding cards has received over the years. The weakness of the deck is that it doesn’t have a lot of ways to protect Ivora, but the strategy itself should be able to survive her getting removed a couple of times, but of course that only lasts so long.

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

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual