Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Falco Spara, Pactweaver!

Falco Spara is a four mana 3/3 with flying. trample, who also enters with a shield counter, let’s you look at the top card of your library and you may cast spells from the top of your library by removing a counter from a creature you control in addition to paying their other costs.

While looking at the top card of your library and being able to play it is not something new, what Falco Spara does in letting you play that spell does make you able to conceal some information from your opponents.

Now getting counters on things we control is not that hard, in fact there are some interesting ways we can get that effect to benefit us, so we lean into that while having some control pieces on the top of our library to help us maintain a dominant position and we have ourselves a game plan.

The first thing we need are ways to get counters onto creatures, which can be +1/+1 counters but can also be from other sources.

Since all Falco Spara needs for us to cast spells from the top of our library is to remove a counter from a creature, we can take advantage of the Summon creatures from Final Fantasy to keep them in play while also getting a triggered effect that we can get repeatedly.

Summon: Fenrir is a solid example of what we are looking for because we can repeated uses of its ability to put a +1/+1 counter on a creature we cast, or we can even get a little greedy and remove all lore counters from it to repeatedly get some ramping in. Remember, Sagas don’t inherently sacrifice themselves if they have zero lore counters, and we can take full advantage of that fact.

This means that if we have access to something like Summon: Knights of Round, we can continuously get three 2/2 white Knight creature tokens, and once we feel like we have enough of them, let Knights of Round trigger its final ability to give all of our creatures +2/+2 until end of turn and an indestructible counter.

We can use Summon: Good King Mog XII to get a bunch of Moogle tokens with lifelink, create a bunch of token copies of non-Saga tokens, and if we have had enough use from it then we can put two +1/+1 counters on each other Moogle we control, which we can remove to cast even more spells from the top of our library.

There are still plenty of +1/+1 counter staples we can include like Hardened Scales, Kami of Whispered Hopes, Tribute to the World Tree, and Ozolith, Shattered Spire to get a ton of +1/+1 counters since they are the easiest counters to get, but I wanted to highlight that there are other ways to get counters onto creatures.

The next thing we need to consider are what spells to include that we can cast from the top of our library.

Snakeskin Veil is a great example of a spell that is great to have in hand and also one that can help replace itself when cast from the library, since not only does it protect a creature by giving it hexproof, but it also gives that creature a +1/+1 counter, which can replace whatever sort of counter was removed in the first place.

Boon of Safety is also an interesting card to include, since not only does it provide protection in the form of a shield counter, but also provides a bit of utility in letting us scry 1 to get any lands on top of our library out of the way if we don’t need them.

If we are looking to manipulate the top of our library, then Brainstorm becomes a better include than in some other decks because not only do we get to draw three cards, we can put two cards on top of our library that we still can get access to if we need them via Falco Spara.

We should also look into cards that, while it may set us back by not replacing itself, will help us since Falco Spara effectively gives us an additional card in “hand” to use as we need. We can gain access to uncounterable counter spells like Dovin’s Veto, card draw and ramp in Growth Spiral, and protection in Unbreakable Formation, which can give creatures we control +1/+1 counters and vigilance if we cast it on our main phase, but having emergency indestructible is always useful.

There are also some Planeswalkers we can consider, one to get value in casting them from the relative safety of the top of our library, but also making use of their loyalty counters to help us cast more cards from the top our library. One of the better options in my opinion is Nissa, Steward of Elements which enters with X loyalty counters, can scry 2, tutor a creature or land from the top of our library to the battlefield, or turn two lands we control into 5/5 Elementals with flying and haste.

Our goal is to dominate the board while making sure our opponents are kept on the back foot.

Board wipes can become very important in our game plan, Supreme Verdict being an amazing one since it can’t be countered, especailly if we have set up ways to keep our creatures from being killed via things like indestructible counters or shield counters.

We can proliferate counters via something like Ripples of Potential, which also protect our creatures by phasing the ones who had counters added, bounce things our opponents control if they don’t have +1/+1 counters with Wave Goodbye, and use Protection Magic in a pinch to put a shield counter on up to three creatures.

If we happen to have Leyline of Anticipation in play, which isn’t an impossibility if we have it in our opening hand, then we can cast a spell at any time meaning we can get something like Aven Courier in play as a surprise to start spreading counters around, or cast Contentious Plan to proliferate and draw a card, or Overload a Fangs of Kalonia at the end step of our opponent’s turn so we have full access to our mana on our turn to protect our things and cast a bunch of spells if we need it.

Falco Spara is an engine Commander combined with a value Commander in that we can get a ton of use out of him being in play while he serves as a way to gain card advantage by letting us play from the top of our library.

His shield counter does provide some form of protection, but it is temporary while Falco Spara is in play, and unless we can get more shield counters on him, he is a sitting duck.

Still, he does provide a great midrange to control type of game plan that can be customized to your preferences, provided you have the counters to pay to make full use of his abilities.

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

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual