Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Nymris, Oona’s Trickster!

Nymris is a five mana 1/6 with flash, flying, and whenever you cast your first spell during each opponent’s turn you look at the top two cards if your library and you put one of those cards into your hand and the other into your graveyard.

Nymris wants us to play a much slower and more reactive playstyle while we fill up our hand with spells we want to cast soon and our graveyard with spells we want to cast later, so we are going to be hanging back a lot more than with other decks.

We are going to be aiming for a more control style with us building our board while denying our opponents the things that they want during their turns, which also means that we need ways to make sure we can cast our spells as well, all the while working to a point where we win via attrition.

The first thing that we need are instants or spells with flash that we can cast to help us set up for what we want to do.

Waterlogged Teachings is great in this regard because it is a tutor that lets us look for an instant or card with flash, reveal it, and put it into our hand, while it can also be a land as Inundated Archive if we want a land in the early turns or if we have what we need already.

Mystical Teachings is also a great way for us to tutor for what we need since it does the same thing as Waterlogged Teachings, but also has a Flashback cost, meaning that we can get a double use from it, or if we happen to have Nymris in play already and don’t need Mystical Teachings immediately, we can have it go to the graveyard and get the other card we need so we can cast it late.

Being on the more reactive side, some of the other instants that we need are going to primarily be counter spells like Unravel which counters a spell and if the mana spent on that spell was less than its mana value we get to draw a card to prevent some mana cheating, Unwind to counter a noncreature spell and untap up to three lands, and Rewind for a regular counter spell but we get to untap up to four lands.

Since we are playing on our opponents turns, creatures with flash are going to be a necessity so something like Slitherwisp will come in handy since itself has flash and whenever we cast another spell with flash we draw a card and each opponent lose 1 life, which will be massively helpful.

Brineborn Cutthroat gets bigger whenever we cast a spell on an opponent’s turn, Stinging Lionfish to tap or untap a nonland permanent whenever we cast our first spell on an opponent’s turn, and Tishana’s Tidebinder counters an activated or triggered ability and if it came from an artifact, creature, or Planeswalker then it loses all abilities as long as they are on the battlefield.

The next thing that we need are ways to make sure that we are able to cats our spells, and since we have limited access to ramp our next best bet is spell discounting.

Cunning Nightbonder is great for us because not only is it another flash creature, but they also discount spells with flash we cast by one less and to make it even better, they also make it so those spells can’t be countered, which is really helpful since our Commander also happens to be on the higher mana value side.

Naiad of the Hidden Coves and Geyser Drake discount spells we cast not on our turn by 1, Archmage of Runes give our instants and sorceries a one man discount while also drawing us a card whenever we cast an instant or sorcery, and Haughty Djinn discounts our instants and sorceries by one and gets bigger for each instant and sorcery in our graveyard.

If we also want to make sure we can slow down our opponents even more, then we can also use Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir who has flash and gives creature cards we own that aren’t on the battlefield flash and more importantly makes each opponent only able to cast spells any time they could cast a sorcery.

Nimble Obstructionist is a solid card that we can cycle to counter an activated or triggered ability we don’t control, Dress Down to have all creatures lose all abilities until the end of the turn, and Omen of the Dead to return a creature card from our graveyard to our hand as solid pieces of utility.

Since we are also going to having several cards in our graveyard, we should also be able to cast them from the graveyard if they can’t already be cast. Counterpoint is a counter spell that let’s us cast a creature, instant, sorcery, or Planeswalker from our graveyard with a mana value less than or equal to the mana value of the countered spell.

While there are plenty of ways for us to cast one spell from the graveyard, if we want to cast a bunch of spells from the graveyard then Magus of the Will is one of better ways to do it since it let’s us play lands and cast spells from the graveyard, exiling cards that would go to our graveyard.

Our game plan is a slow, attrition based control that plays on our opponent’s turn and denies them of resources, so we should be able to slowly build up to massive pay offs.

Teferi, Master of Time is a great way to have a Planeswalker threat always active since we can activate his abilities any time that we could cast an instant on any player’s turn, and it can have us draw a card and then discard a card, phase a creature we don’t control, and ideally be able to take two extra turns after the current turn in order to fully develop our board state.

If we or our opponents manage to cast a lot of spells at once during a turn, then we can also play Amphibian Downpour, which is an Aura with Storm and flash which enchants a creature and makes them lose all abilities, and makes them a Frog creature with base power and toughness 1/1 to stop our opponents creatures from attacking or having their utility.

Since we are going got the slow, control game plan the something like Faerie Tauntings can also go a long way since it has it so where whenever we play a spell during an opponent’s turn we may have each opponent lose 1 life, which will slowly add up the more spells we cast on their turns.

When talking about Game Changers, Notion Thief is one of the most effective ways to deny our opponents of any extra draws, Mystical Tutor can definitely help us get to the instant or sorcery we want, and to help us against losing from milling ourselves out we also can use Thassa’s Oracle as a potential win condition.

The best way to help us last through the long game, in my opinion, would to actually use something like Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver who can exile the top three cards of an opponent’s library, put an exiled creature with mana value X exiled by Ashiok into play under our control as a Nightmare in addition to their other types, and can ultimate to exile our opponent’s hands and graveyards, which should help as way to make sure we can get through what we need to win.

Nymris is an engine and value Commander, in that the best way for the deck to function is to have them in play, while also gaining us a ton of advantage for all the cards in hand and in our graveyard to help us get what we need.

The most difficult thing about Nymris is that they are a higher mana value Commander, and if we don’t get our discounters or mana rocks in play then we will have a much harder time in getting Nymris out to get the value we want.

Another difficult aspect comes from the fact that since Nymris has flash, our opponents will see it coming and may hold removal for Nymris to prevent us from gaining any sort of advantage, and we can save our counter spells to protect Nymris, but that can only last so long.

We need to be patient and not immediately cast Nymris when we can because if we don’t have the mana to protect Nymris, we are going to end up paying more to cast them again. We need to be observant and make sure we are clear to cast Nymris in order to get ourselves set for the long haul.

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

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual