Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Memnarch!

Memnarch is a seven mana 4/5 that for one and two blue can turn a permanent into an artifact in addition to its other types and for three and a blue you gain control of target artifact.

Two simple effects that can have devastating combinations if played correctly. The major limiting factor is getting all the mana that we need in order to one cast Memnarch and two activate their abilities with the next major concern is making sure that Memnarch is protected to actually do what we need.

The goal of the deck is to get a ton of mana, make sure Memnarch is protected, and start stealing our opponents things by making sure that they are all artifacts.

The first thing we need are ways to get a bunch of mana to cast Memnarch and to activate their abilities.

This means that a lot of what we are going to play are mana dorks like Palladium Myr which adds two colorless mana and mana rocks like Sol Ring and Hedron Archive, just ways to get a ton of mana.

As far as lands go, since we are playing only Islands we can have a High Tide in the wings to cast our bigger spells since our Islands will be able to make more mana, and in a similar vein we can use Extraplanar Lens as a way to exile an Island to have our Islands produce double mana continuously.

Forsaken Monument makes any of our mana rocks or mana dorks that make colorless mana make an additional mana while making them bigger and gaining us some life in the process as well and we can also make use of Midnight Clock as a mana rock that will eventually allow us to refuel our hand.

We could also use Urza’s Mine, Urza’s Tower, and Urza’s Power Plant as a way to get to seven mana, and using Expedition Map and Urza’s Cave we have ways to search for those lands as we need them, which we’ll need since we can also make use of Urza’s Workshop as a way to get even more colorless mana to use, especially since we will be playing with a lot of artifacts.

As far as being able to use Memnarch’s abilities, we have cards like Omen Hawker which can add mana to be used for activated abilities only and something like Training Grounds to make using Memnarch’s ability cheaper to use, only having a majority blue mana cost.

The next thing that we need to do is make sure that Memnarch is protected as much as possible.

Padeem, Consul of Innovation is a great way for us to not only protect Memnarch, but to also protect our other artifacts from targeted removal and if we happen to control the artifact with the highest mana value or tied for the highest mana value, then we can draw a card on our upkeep.

We also have a neat way of bouncing our opponent’s things with Ugin’s Binding, which we can use to bounce one nonland permanent and whenever we cast a colorless spell with mana value 7 or greater, like Memnarch, we can bounce each nonland permanent we don’t control to their owner’s hand, clearing the board from any potential threats when we cast Memarch.

Stoic Rebuttal becomes Counterspell when we have three or more artifacts in play, Disruption Protocol is either a Negate if we pay one mana or a Counterspell if we tap an artifact or creature, and Desynchronization bounces non-historic permanents to their owner’s hands.

If we want to refuel our hand then we can use Traverse Eternity as a way to draw cards equal to the highest mana value among historic permanents we control, which if we at least control Memnarch means we draw a new hand.

Darksteel Forge is one of the most reliable ways for our artifacts to gain indestructible, but this is more for a personal preference or if you have access to the card since it can be quite pricey.

Now if we want to be more efficient with using Memnarch’s ability, then we can find ways to circumvent the first one.

Liquimetal Coating is a way for us to be able to turn something into an artifact with only two mana to cast it and a tap to activate it, meaning we can avoid using Memnarch’s first ability at least once. However if we combine it with cards like Dramatic Reversal to untap our nonland permanents or Unwinding Clock to untap all of our artifacts at the beginning of each other player’s untap steps, this can mean we get a lot more use of it.

Mycosynth Lattice is the best version of turning other things to artifacts since it makes all permanents into artifacts and all cards that aren’t on the battlefield, spells, and permanents colorless and allows us to spend mana as though it were mana of any color, meaning we can use our colorless mana to activate Memnarch’s ability without worrying about color fixing. We can even tutor it up by using Treasure Mage, though once we grab it we are on a clock since people will see what we are planning to do.

If we want to be really mean then we can also use Karn, the Great Creator afterwards to lock everyone from being able to play once we turn everything into artifacts, but I would advise against having these two in play unless you are in such a dominant position that you are effectively winning and this seals the deal.

Memnarch is very much a feast or famine Commander, in that once you get the ball rolling then you can be unstoppable and steamroll your opponents, but if your opponents manage to keep your pieces off the board then you are stuck in being unable to do anything.

Its an interesting Commander to play with, especially against higher power decks, but it can be oppressive in lower power games unless you remove some of the stronger pieces and don’t mind playing a slower game.

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

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual