Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Will, Scion of Peace!

Will is a three mana 2/4 with vigilance and can tap to make spells we cast this turn that are white and/or blue cost X less to cast where X is the amount of life you gained this turn that can only be done as a sorcery.

We return to interesting play style combinations in white and blue by combining life gain with big spells, and there are a lot of expensive white and/or blue spells that would normally see niche play in a couple decks that we can use for our deck.

The game plan is going to lean more towards a control plan, using some consistent life gain in order to get our more expensive spells online cheaper so we can manage a way to get more resources consistently and quicker than what would normally be the case.

The first thing that we need to look for are consistent ways for us to gain life, ideally on our turn so we can get our big permanents into play.

Fountain of Renewal is a great option in this case because at the beginning of our upkeep we gain 1 life, and if we need to we can pay three mana and sacrifice it to draw a card. While we want the life gain, sometimes we need a card, and besides we are going to be adding more sources of similar life gain.

Ajani’s Mantra gains us 1 life at the beginning of our upkeep, Nyx-Fleece Ram gains us 1 life at the beginning of our upkeep while being a 0/5 creature, and Spiritual Sanctuary has any player that controls a Plains gain 1 life.

Venser’s Journal is a fun way for us to incentivize some card draw in our deck, because at the beginning of our upkeep we gain life equal to the number of cards in our hand, which even if we have two cards in hand then that turns a four drop into a potential two drop.

We can also supplement all of this life gain with cares like The Wind Crystal, which also makes our white spells cheaper but also let’s us gain twice as much life if we would gain life and for six mana can give our creatures flying and lifelink for a turn, or cards like Cleric Class which would gain us 1 additional life when we would gain life, can level up to give a creature we control a +1/+1 counter when we gain life, or reanimate a creature from our graveyard and gain life equal to its toughness at level 3.

If we want a burst of life gain, the Sunspring Expedition can be used extremely effectively because it gains quest counters whenever we play a land, and if we remove three quest counters from it and sacrifice it, then we gain 8 life, which for a big spell we can definitely hold on to.

The next thing that we are looking to play are big spells that gain us advantage over time, ideally enchantments that we would normally not be able to cast consistently.

One with the Mutiverse is a solid choice because it gives us a lot of options, the first letting us look at the top of our library at any time, letting us cast spells and play lands from the top, and once during each of our turns we can cast a spell from our hand or from the top of our library without paying its mana cost.

Leaning more into the control plan, we can play Decree of Silence, which whenever an opponent casts a spell, that spell is countered and we put a depletion counter on it and if there are three or more depletion counters on it, we sacrifice it. It also happens to have the ability to cycle for six mana, which also counters a spell when it is cycled.

Curse of Unbinding does a combination of milling an opponent while also stealing creatures from their libraries, Extravagant Replication to get more copies of nonland permanents we control, and Shark Typhoon to be able to make flying Shark tokens with power and toughness equal to the mana value of noncreature spells we cast.

We can also make use of X spells with Will’s ability, and if we manage a lot of consistent life gain then we can use some massive X spells. Finale of Revelation is a great example of this because we draw X cards with it, but if X is 10 or more then we shuffle our graveyard into our library, draw X cards, and untap up to five lands and have no maximum hand size for the rest of the game.

Now that we have gained a lot of life and have a way to make our spells extremely cheap, we need ways to win.

Storm Herd is a great example of this because it is an expensive spell that makes X 1/1 Pegasus tokens with flying where X is our life total, which with the amount of life gain that we have can make a seriously huge number of tokens that could overwhelm an opponent.

We can also go for a high powered control win with the classic combination of Overwhelming Splendor to make all creatures an opponent controls into 1/1’s and make them unable to activate abilities that are mana abilities or Planeswalker abilities and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite to boost our creatures by +2/+2 and weaken our opponents creatures by giving them -2/-2.

If we want some “safe” ways to win, then we can use Felidar Sovereign or Test of Endurance to win us the game at the beginning of our upkeep if we have 40 or more life in the case of Felidar Sovereign or 50 life in the case of Test of Endurance.

There is nothing wrong with using those to win, I would personally prefer something a little more flashy.

If we want to go in that direction, then we can get Omniscience onto the field and start casting spells like mad, drawing cards with things like Windfall for everyone to wheel their hand or Emergency Powers to shuffle everyone’s graveyard and hand to their library to then draw seven cards, and if we cast it during our main phase then we can put a permanent with seven mana value or less from our hand onto the battlefield.

Once we start casting tons and tons of spells, we can then go for a Storm win with Brain Freeze to mill an opponent three cards, Tempest Technique to make Will massive to win via Commander Damage, or a pseudo-Storm card in Murmuration to make a ton of Storm Crow tokens for each spell we cast this turn.

Will is a Commander that takes a bit of work in order to be used effectively, and can make for some massive plays, but is hindered by the fact that in order for us to get to that point, we need to make sure Will stays alive. Him having vigilance is helpful for us to tap him for his ability and attack, but since our ways to win are a bit slow, we need to make sure that he stays in play.

Playing a big mana spells deck is fun when you have access to a lot of mana or ways to cheat them into play, but are hampered when you have one primary way of making your spells incredibly cheap tied to a creature. Still, Will’s condition of making our spells cheaper by how much life we gain is not the hardest condition to fulfill, and can lead to some great plays if we play correctly.

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

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual