Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Katilda and Lier!

Katilda and Lier are a three mana 3/3 that whenever you cast a Human spell, target instant or sorcery in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn, with the flashback cost being the mana cost of the card.

Turning all of the Human spells in your deck into Snapcaster Mages is a pretty interesting way to build a deck, though you do need to contend with the fact that you are playing a worse version of Snapcaster Mage.

However, with a bit of creative thinking then we can find ways to turn our Humans into legitimate Snapcaster Mages, and adding the additional colors does make the instant and sorcery suite into a much more interesting set of cards we can play.

The first thing we need to do is find ways to cast our Humans at instant speed in order to emulate Snapcaster Mage’s ability to flash in.

Progenitor’s Icon is a mana rock that also happens to also tap to give creature spells you cast this turn the ability to be cast if they had flash. This gives you a bit of flexibility in when you want to cast a Human spell to do this.

One of the more “reliable” ways to get this effect into play is with something like Leyline of Anticipation, which if you have in your opening hand then you can start with it in play and it gives all spells you cast the ability to be cast as if they have flash. It’s better to have multiple ways to give your spells access to flash since you can not draw the Leyline or it gets destroyed early in the game.

Ideally we want to cast our Humans at instant speed, which Vivian, Champion of the Wilds allows you to cast creature spells as if they had flash as a passive ability while being able to give one of your creatures vigilance as a plus ability and a minus ability to dig through your deck to find a creature you can cast as a surprise since it is exiled face down.

If you don’t mind spending a bit of money, then Aluren is a way to get your cheap low to the ground Humans of mana value three or less without paying their mana cost and for free, but keep in mind that you are also giving your opponents the ability to do the same, which can work well against certain decks and terrible against others.

One of the better ways to give your creatures flash while also giving your opponents a detrimental effect is with Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, who not only gives your creature spells flash but also forces your opponents to cast spells at sorcery speed only.

Now that we should have reliable ways to give our Humans flash, the next thing we need are the Humans to cast.

We are going to want a combination of Humans that have a solid utility when they enter and/or synergize well with our other Humans, and Thalia’s Lieutenant is an example of both. When it enters it puts a +1/+1 counter on each Human you control and whenever another Human you control enters it gets a +1/+1 counter.

If we want some more utility creatures than Quandrix Apprentice allows us to make use of whenever we cast or copy an instant or sorcery spell for letting us dig for some lands, Witch Enchanter to destroy an artifact or enchantment, and Katilda Dawnhart Prime to let Humans you control tap fro mana while also being able to put +1/+1 counters on your creatures.

Other Human synergies include cards like Coppercoat Vanguard can buff our Humans while also giving them ward 1, Torens, Fist of Angels to create a Human Soldier creature token with training whenever you cast a creature spell, and Adeline, Resplendent Cathar to help you get more Humans in play that happen to enter tapped and attacking whenever you attack.

Now we can also cast Humans that also happen to have flash, such as Cemetery Protector, which exiles a card from the graveyard and if we happen to cast a spell or play a land that happens to share a card type with the exiled card, then we make a Human token.

Cathar Commando can destroy an artifact or enchantment, Heron’s Grace Champion can buff your creatures while also giving them lifelink to help you recover some life, Containment Priest to help exile nontoken creatures from coming into play if they weren’t cast, and Venser, Shaper Savant to return a spell or permanent to its owner’s hand.

As we get Humans into play by casting them, now we should have an excellent suite of instants and sorceries to cast.

Our deck is leaning towards a more midrange to control type of strategy, and if we manage to get a massive amount of Humans in play, then something like Mass Appeal is excellent for us to cast as the game goes long because it allows us to draw cards equal to the number of Humans we control.

We can definitely lean into a solid series of cheap removal spells like Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile as a way to remove some problematic creatures in play, Three Visits and Nature’s Lore to help us ramp quickly to be able to cast more spells, and Brainstorm and Opt to get a ton of early card draw multiple times.

Ideally we want to play more onto the instant side of the effect since Flashback requires us to follow timing restrictions, but there are some sorceries that we can play to allow us to clear the board like Everything Comes to Dust or Windfall to help us get back to a full grip of cards while being able to get cards into the graveyard that we can still Flashback if necessary.

Katilda and Lier act more like an engine Commander in that they supply a game plan to allow us to get additional use out of our instants and sorceries. This, however, means that graveyard interaction can be problematic as well as if Katilda and Lier consistently get removed, since our engine relies on them being in play.

It can be a fun deck to play if the plan goes correctly, but frustrating if you can’t get Katilda and Lier to stick. I still think it is a deck worth playing around with to get some surprise Snapcaster Mage effects. Heck, if you play Snapcaster Mage then you can double dip on the flashback effects.

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

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual