Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Vadrik, Astral Archmage!

Vadrik is a three mana 1/2 that makes it day if it is neither day or night when he enters, instants and sorceries you cast cost X less where X is Vadrik’s power, and whenever day becomes night or night becomes day, put a +1/+1 counter on Vadrik.

Vadrik is a big spells Commander with the discount coming from his power, and one of the ways to give him a bigger power is by using the day and night mechanic, which is a contentious one to be sure, but one that is much easier to manage than one thinks.

The goal of the deck is to also manipulate the day and night cycle in order to get Vadrik as big as possible, all the while keeping him safe so we can make sure we cast our big spells later.

The first thing that we need to do is to find ways to get day and night going, ideally before we cast Vadrik.

The Celestus is one of the best ways to get this working because it makes it day when it enters the battlefield, is a mana rock for us to use, and can switch whether it is day or night for three mana. Not only that, but whenever it becomes one or the other, we gain a life and may draw a card and then discard a card.

Obsessive Astronomer is the cheapest way for us to get it to become day, and not only that but whenever day becomes night or night becomes day then we can discard up to two cards and draw that many cards, which helps us cycle through our deck even faster. We can also make it night with Into the Night, which also allows us to discard some cards and draw that many cards plus one.

Firmament Sage is a way to get day started and whenever it switches between the two we draw a card, Brimstone Vandal deals 1 damage to each opponent when the switch happens, and Sunstreak Phoenix can become a recursive threat whenever it switches between the two.

Speaking of aggressive, Reckless Stormseeker is a great way to get an aggressive creature to start the day because at the beginning of combat on our turn, we get to give a target creature +1/+0 and haste until end of turn and if it becomes night then it becomes Storm-Charged Slasher which gives +2/+0, trample and haste to a creature until the end of turn, which can be really useful in making Vadrik bigger to cast our spells for cheaper and to potentially get a decent amount of damage through.

We have a decent suite of creatures with Daybound and Nightbound, and one of the better ones is Ill-Tempered Loner, which deals damage to any target when it is dealt damage and can make itself bigger, which becomes Howlpack Avenger who deals damage to any target whenever a permanent you control is dealt damage, while still maintaining the ability to make itself bigger.

Now that we have ways of getting day and night active, we need ways to protect Vadrik, in order to make sure that we get the discounts on our instants and sorceries.

Alexi’s Cloak is a solid way to give have instant speed protection and bluff other spells that you may have because it is an Aura that gives the enchanted creature shroud, which prevents any targeting of our Commander, from both us and our opponents.

Change of Plans works as a way to protect Vadrik and some other creatures from a board wipe because it phases them out, but not before having X number of creatures connive, which helps us get Vadrik bigger and keeps him safe at the same time.

Glint gives a creature +0/+3 and hexproof until end of turn, Lazotep Plating gives us and all of our creatures hexproof until end of turn while also amassing 1, March of Swirling Mists phases X number of creatures, and Slip Out the Back puts a +1/+1 counter on a creature while also phasing them out.

Phasing, hexproof, and shroud are our best ways of protecting Vadrik, and if we want a consistent way to phase him out, we can play Vanishing, an enchantment which for two blue can phase target creature, Shore Up gives a +1/+1 counter and hexproof to a creature while also untapping it, and Neurok Stealthsuit is an equipment that gives a creature shroud and can be attached at instant speed for two blue mana.

Now that we hopefully have a large Vadrik in play that is decently protected, we can start casting big spells for cheap.

One of the first card that came to mind was Apex of Power, which exiles the top seven cards of our library and until end of turn we may cast spells from among them and if we happen to have cast Apex of Power from our hand, then we add ten mana of any one color, and due to the way its worded we exile the cards first and then choose which color of mana to choose to better suit our needs.

If we happen to be going up against a token player or a player that has some creatures that we would want then we can cast Clone Legion, Explosive Welcome to deal 5 damage to one target and 3 damage to another target and add three red mana, and Magma Opus to deal 4 damage to any number of targets, tap two permanent, create a 4/4 Elemental creature token, and draw two cards.

Of course, if we play them quickly, we can play extra turn spells in order to get even more value. The one I would probably choose would be Beacon of Tomorrows because we shuffle it back into the deck when we are done, and since we have a decent amount of ways to churn through our deck, we can potentially find a way to get a bunch of extra turns.

Another way we can take advantage of the cost reduction from Vadrik is for X spells, some I would recommend would be Song of Totentanz to make a massive army of Rats to attack, Rolling Thunder to deal a massive amount of damage divided among any number of targets, and Storm King’s Thunder to copy your next spell X number of times.

Vadrik is a Commander that uses a mechanic that is pretty parasitic for the moment, but once it becomes active can serve for our benefit, so long as we keep Vadrik alive. This is a Commander that needs to be on the battlefield in order to get value, so it will feel like a bit of work to keep Vadrik alive, but once he does stick, then we should be able to get our large spells slinging.

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

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual