Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Black Waltz No. 3!

Black Waltz is a four mana 2/2 with flying, deathtouch, and whenever you cast a noncreature spell, Black Waltz deals 2 damage to each opponent.

Black Waltz is a very simple Commander to understand, so naturally that means that I want to do something a bit off kilter with it. The trouble is finding something that was a bit different in what it was looking to do rather than just spell slinger and burn.

Looking around I realized that because of how Black Waltz is worded, there is a particular strategy that would work really well with how Black Waltz interacted with casting noncreature spells, and it does mean that we could potentially have a much shorter game than people expect if we manage to plan for it.

Since Black Waltz is doing the damage, we can take advantage of that by making a Black Waltz infect deck.

Phyresis is going to be one of the best ways to give Black Waltz infect since it is a two mana Aura whose sole purpose is to give a creature infect. Glistening Oil is also an Aura that gives the enchanted creature infect, but it also happens to give the enchanted creature a -1/-1 counter and when Glistening Oil is sent to the graveyard from the battlefield it comes back to our hand.

If we just need a temporary way to give infect to Black Waltz, either to start setting up a couple of counters for some proliferate shenanigans or we can cast enough spells for infect to win us the game, we can also use Tainted Strike which gives a creature +1/+0 and infect until the end of turn.

We can also start getting the poison ball rolling pretty early by using something like Infectious Inquiry, which allows us to draw two cards and lose 2 life, but also happens to give each opponent a poison counter, which may give away the plan early, but it can be a nice contingency to fall back on.

Grafted Exoskeleton is an Equipment that gives the equipped creature +2/+2 and infect, where if it becomes unattached to the permanent, we sacrifice that permanent, and while it may seem that it can be a bit underwhelming, giving a +2/+2 bonus to a flying creature that also happens to have deathtouch can be a much more deadly combination than people may be expecting.

Since Black Waltz triggers on any noncreature spells we cast, we need to start looking for cheap noncreature spells we can cast.

Spellbook is a very simple zero mana artifact that gives us no maximum hand size, and while it can be a popular card for Storm based decks, we aren’t going for any sort of Storm win in the deck and are relying on poison to win us the game.

With that being the case, other zero mana artifacts become viable targets for us. Tormod’s Crypt is a zero mana way for us to exile an opponent’s graveyard,, Mishra’s Bauble let’s us look at the top card of any library and draw a card at the beginning of the next turn’s upkeep, and Bonesaw is a zero mana Equipment that gives a creature +1/+0.

We can also make use of cheap modal bits of interaction like Red Elemental Blast which can either counter a blue spell or destroy a blue permanent, Abrade can deal 3 damage to a creature or destroy an artifact, and Professor’s Warning which can either put a +1/+1 counter on a creature or give a creature indestructible until the end of turn.

There are also cards that we can cast for cheap or for virtually free, Call to the Netherworld being a card that can return a black creature card from the graveyard to the hand but also can be cast for zero when cast for Madness.

We can also use cards like Flare of Malice, which we can cast by sacrificing a nontoken black creature rather than pay the mana cost, and have each opponent sacrifice a creature or Planeswalker they control with the highest mana value from among them.

Luckily for us Snuff Out has seen a couple of recent reprintings because it is a great way for us to destroy a nonblack creature and make it so it can’t be regenerated and if we happen to control a Swamp, we can pay 4 life to cast Snuff Out rather than pay for it.

Of course if we have access to Deadly Rollick, which exiles a creature, or Deflecting Swat, which redirects a spell or ability to new targets, then I would play those since those spells can be played without paying their mana cost if we happen to control our Commander, which we should be able to.

Since we happen to be playing poison, and we can end the game quicker than what would be expected, we could aim for this deck to be a higher power level.

Underworld Breach would also solidify this deck being a fairly strong deck because it gives each nonland card in our graveyard escape, with the escape cost being equal to the cards mana cost plus exiling three cards from the graveyard, sacrificing itself at the beginning of the end step.

If we happen to have a couple of cards in the graveyard, or used cards like Faithless Looting, which draws us two cards and has us discard two (twice with Flashback taken to consideration) we can have a decent number of cards in the graveyard for us to exile for any escape costs.

This also lets us take advantage of having more spells to cast for Black Waltz to deal damage when it has infect like say a Aphotic Wisps which turns a creature black and gives it fear until end of turn while drawing a card or Crimson Wisps which turns a creature red and gives a creature haste until end of turn while also drawing a card.

We can also use cheap proliferate cards like Whisper of the Dross to give a creature -1/-1 until end of turn and then proliferate, or Drown in Ichor which gives a creature -4/-4 until end of turn while also then proliferating, or even a Volt Charge which deals 3 damage to any target and the proliferating.

Cheap cantrips and draw engines become a win condition for us so Cathartic Reunion lets us get more cards into the graveyard to exile for an escape cost while also drawing us three new cards and Warlord’s Fury to give creatures we control first strike until end of turn while also drawing a card.

Black Waltz could very easily be made into a spell slinger Commander, as was probably the intent and the easiest way to build the deck. However, me being me, finding a way to use the way the rules work and how a card works is one of my favorite ways to build decks in general.

It can be an extremely fragile deck, not taking well to going up against exile based removal decks and ways to destroy Black Waltz while it is play not via combat, like something like a fight spell.

I also know that people can be a bit hesitant going up against poison decks, especially one that can deal poison fairly quickly, but the beauty of it comes from the fact that the strategy is not very reliable but can be an enticing way to win the game if you managed to cast at minimum five noncreature spells while Black Waltz is in play.

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

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual