Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Spider-Man 2099!

Spider-Man 2099 is a two mana 2/3 that can’t be cast during the first, second, or third turns of the game, double strike, vigilance, and at the beginning of your end step and if you’ve played a land or cast a spell this turn from anywhere other than your hand, then Spider-Man 2099 deals damage equal to his power to any target.

While there has not been the most positive reaction to the Spider-Man cards, I think for the most part that they are fine and can work well to introduce new and younger players into the game. Spider-Man 2099, being my personal favorite iteration of the character, has a play from exile and burn strategy that’s pretty easy to build around.

The game plan is to get our resources built up to make sure that when we play 2099 we can start taking advantage from cards that can be played from exile, cards that get our own cards into exile, as well as ways to get 2099’s power higher and higher so that we can deal a good amount of burn damage.

The first thing to look for are consistent ways to get cards into exile so that we have something to play for when 2099 comes into play.

Count on Luck is perfect for this because it exiles the top card of our library at the beginning of our upkeep and let’s us play that card this turn, which effectively becomes an additional draw and can turn a land drop or a random spell into additional burn damage.

The Reality Chip is also a great card to include in the deck because it allows us to look at the top card of your library at any time and can Reconfigure onto a creature and as long as it is attached to a creature then we can play lands and cast spells from the top of our library, which can be another way to play cards not in our hand.

Foretell and Plot also become great cards for us, with something as simple as Behold the Multiverse which has Foretell and scries 2 and then we draw two cards to help us better fix our next exile draws or even something like Brimstone Roundup which after we cast our second spell each turn makes a 1/1 Mercenary that can give a creature +1/+0 until end of turn.

Strike It Rich makes a Treasure token and has Flashback so we can cast it from the graveyard, Ancestral Visions has Suspend 4 and draws us three cards, Faithless Savaging has us discard a card to draw a card and has Rebound, or Circular Logic which counters target spell unless its controller pays one mana for each card in our graveyard and has Madness there are a plethora of ways to cast spells from places other than our hand.

The next thing we need is to get 2099 stronger so that he can deal more burn damage and for other ways to gain benefit from playing cards from exile.

Clout of the Dominus is a solid and cheap to cast Aura for 2099 because as long as the creature is blue it gains +1/+1 and shroud and as long as it’s red then it gets +1/+1 and haste, which means that 2099 becomes a 4/5 with double strike and can potentially deal 4 burn damage.

If we just want pure power, then Wrecking Ball Arm is also pretty good because it gives the equipped creature base power and toughness 7/7 and the creature can’t be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less, and while it can normally Equip for seven mana, if it’s going for a legendary creature then the Equip cost is only three mana.

Tenza, Godo’s Maul does a great job in also helping 2099 get damage through because it would normally give the equipped creature +1/+1, but if equipped to a legendary creature then it gets an additional +1/+1, and as long as the creature is red then it gains trample for only an Equip of one mana as well.

We also need ways to gain additional benefits from playing cards from other places, and Iraxxa, Empress of Mars does this well because whenever we cast a spell from anywhere other than our hand then we can make a 2/2 Alien Warrior creature token and the Empress also happens to have Battle Cry to help get a bit more damage through.

The Lost and the Damned also helps us get some bodies in play because whenever a land enters the battlefield under our control from anywhere other than our hand or we cast a spell from anywhere other than our hand then we make a 3/3 Spawn creature token.

There is also a way we can make it easier to cast spells from places other than our hand with Sage of the Beyond, which itself also having Foretell also helps but it makes spells we cast from places other than our hand cost two mana less, which can really help if we exile multiple cards from the top of our library with something like Light Up the Stage.

The last thing we need is a way to win, and ideally what we do is a lot of burn damage, either with 2099 or some other ways.

Gogo, Master of Mimicry is excellent in this regard because while 2099’s ability is a single target burn effect, with Gogo we can copy that burn effect X times where X can’t be zero, and this can help us spread the damage out, or focus in on an opponent that is very nearly finished.

One time copy abilities like Return the Favor also work because it can copy a whole host of things such as an instant, sorcery, activated ability, or triggered ability while also giving us the option of paying an additional mana to change the target of a spell or ability with a single target, meaning we can protect 2099 from some removal while also copying their ability if needed.

We can also rely on additional burn damage to help supplement 2099’s burn with something like Flaming Tyrannosaurus. Whenever we cast a spell from anywhere other than our hand then the Tyrannosaurus deals 3 damage to any target and gets a +1/+1 counter and when it dies it deals damage equal to its power to each opponent.

Combine all of this burn with something like Fiery Emancipation which if a source we control would deal damage to a permanent or player then it deals triple that damage, then we can potentially start doing a good bit of lethal damage, even with just 2099 attacking our opponents.

2099 is an engine Commander, in that we play our deck best when 2099 is out in play and benefiting us whenever we play a card not from our hand and from other places, while also being able to burn our opponents when we do or to deal with problematic utility creatures and Planeswalkers.

The trouble with 2099 is that we are delayed in playing him because of his first ability, which on one side is good because it helps us set things up for when we do play him, but it also means that our set up can be removed by our opponents if we aren’t careful.

2099 being a cheap to cast Commander is great, and ideally we should have a decent amount of ways to also generate mana, but that can also mean that 2099 gets targeted quickly if we bring him out at our earliest opportunity, which can slowly build up if we aren’t careful.

That being said, 2099 is a neat Commander that have a plethora of cards that work well with him and can be built along a curve of power, meaning that there is potential for building him for a good number of the brackets, though I’m not sure how well he would fare as a cEDH Commander since I am woefully undereducated on the format.

2099 is a fun Commander in my opinion, and whether you play it as Spider-Man 2099 or proxy the Through the Omenpaths version of Uharis, the Stormspinner, you will have a fun time.

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

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual