Hello and welcome to Weekly Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Naomi, Pillar of Order!

Naomi is a five mana 4/4 that when they enter the battlefield or attack, if you control an artifact and an enchantment, create a 2/2 white Samurai creature token with vigilance.

Naomi is an interesting Commander in that she wants both artifacts and enchantments in order for her to get a Samurai token, and while she isn’t the most popular Commander out there, I do think that there is a way to make a decent casual deck with her leading the way.

Now the most obvious thing in order for her to be at her most effective is to make sure that we have both artifacts and enchantments in play, which while we can definitely fill the deck with mana rocks and utility enchantments, I think that there is a direction where we can go where we can actually be at our most effective.

That strategy is a go wide tokens deck with a control base, in that we use artifacts and enchantments to shore up our defenses and act as removal, then we build up our tokens to chip away at our opponents until we strike with a massive army of them

Setting up Defenses

Our deck is going to primarily based on controlling the battlefield and having artifacts and enchantments to protect ourselves, so that is where we should start.

One of the first things that comes to mind in making sure that we can protect ourselves is through Ghostly Prison, which makes it so that creatures can’t attack us unless they pay two mana for each creature that is attacking us, which if we can get early enough can let us have our defenses open just a bit in order for us to continue to set things up.

If we want to delay against opponents that are using creatures that have haste, the Blind Obedience is also great because it makes it so that artifacts and creatures our opponents control enter the battlefield tapped, while also having Extort, which let’s us pay a black or white mana whenever we cast a spell to have each opponent lose 1 life and we gain that much life.

In a similar vein we also have Authority of the Consuls, which while it is only one mana it only has our opponents creatures enter the battlefield tapped, but on the plus side whenever a creature an opponent controls enters, we gain 1 life.

We also have access to artifacts that can act as removal like Tithing Blade, which when it enters it has each opponent sacrifice a creature they control. We can also craft it with a creature in the mid to late game to make Consuming Sepulcher, which has our opponents lose 1 life and we gain 1 life at the beginning of our upkeep.

Another form of removal we have access to is Foreboding Steamboat, which when it enters each player chooses two nontoken, non-Vehicle creatures they control until it leaves the battlefield and when it attacks we put a card exiled with it into it’s owner’s graveyard, circumventing death triggers, and if we do then we investigate, and it only has Crew 2, which means our Samurai can crew it fairly reliably.

Since we are aiming to be lean more into a board control sort of deck, we can use cards like Ethereal Absolution, which gives creatures we control +1/+1 and creatures our opponents control -1/-1 while also having an ability that let’s us exile a card from an opponent’s graveyard and if it was a creature then we make a 1/1 Spirit token with flying.

We can make real good use of Monologue Tax, which is an enchantment that has it so that whenever an opponent casts their second spell each turn, we create a Treasure token, which can potentially delay our opponents for a bit while also being a reliable way to make artifacts from an enchantment that also happens to ramp us.

Unconventional Board Building

Since Naomi’s ability triggers whenever she enters or attacks, we can make use of effects that double those sorts of triggers and take advantage of a blink package as well.

Panharmonicon is of course the most iconic of this sort of effect because if an artifact or creature entering the battlefield causes a triggered ability of a permanent we control to trigger, it triggers an additional time, which does count when our creatures enter and have their own triggered ability to activate, which means we can get extra uses for our artifacts and creatures entering.

While we don’t have too many options for trigger doublers, Gandalf the White is a particularly interesting one because he has flash and can let us cast legendary spells and artifact spells as though they had flash and if a legendary permanent or artifact entering or leaving the battlefield causes a triggered ability of a permanent we control to trigger, it triggers an additional time.

This will come in handy because we are going for a control deck that is going wide, which means the faster we can go wide then the more likely we are to win. This also means we can include some additional legendary creatures with enters or leaves abilities in the deck like Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim, which whenever another creature we control enters then we gain 1 life and whenever another creature we control dies, each opponent loses 1 life.

Again, since we are aiming for the long game, then something like Conjurer’s Closet works really well for us because at the beginning of our end step we can exile a creature we control and have it come back to the battlefield, which we are primarily going to be using with Naomi to get an additional Samurai.

While not an artifact, it is a legendary spell that we can cast with flash with Gandalf the White and that is Far Traveler, which gives Commander creatures we control “At the beginning of your end step, exile up to one target tapped creature you control, then return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control.” which if we attack with Naomi and then blink it, then we get two Samurai each turn.

Of course if we manage to get Naomi in play pretty early on, then we can use cheap blink spells like Ephemerate to get two castings of it, Cloudshift to get another one mana blink spell for a creature at instant speed, and Scrollshift to have access to a blink spell for an artifact, creature, or enchantment at three mana while also letting us draw a card.

On Guard

Now since we are making a decent number of creature tokens, we can use them for value while we make sure that Naomi can stay around for as long as possible.

We have plenty of access to cards that can sacrifice a creature in order to gain some sort of benefit, with Village Rites being a card that let’s us draw two cards after paying the additional cost in sacrificing a creature.

Deadly Precision has us either pay four mana or sacrifice an artifact or creature to destroy target creature, Final Vengeance let’s sacrifice a creature or enchantment as the additional cost in order to exile target creature, Innocent Blood to have each player sacrifice a creature for one mana, Deadly Dispute which let’s us sacrifice a creature or artifact to draw two cards and make a Treasure token, among a plethora of other similar effects.

If we really want to lean more into the control potential of the deck, then we can also use Braids, Cabal Minion which makes it so at the beginning of each player’s upkeep, that player sacrifices an artifact, creature, or land and since we should have a decent number of token creatures we can sacrifice to the effect, we can reap the benefits that Braids provides without getting far behind.

Now since we are going to ideally be generating a decent amount of tokens, at some point our opponents are going to try and stop us be removing Naomi, which is where something like Kaya’s Ghostform would be ideal for us to have because it gives the permanent that it enchants the ability to come back into play if it were to die or be put into exile.

These sorts of effects are going to work amazingly well for us since it gives us an additional enters trigger with Naomi, so we can add a good number of them to our deck in order to keep Naomi making Samurai for us. Feign Death, Supernatural Stamina, Not Dead After All, and Fake Your Own Death are all cheap instants that not only provide a bonus in some capacity, but also have it so that if the target creature dies then it comes back into play, usually tapped.

The number of Game Changers that work really well with Naomi are actually a pretty decent amount, with Smothering Tithe being one of the better options because it makes a Treasure token whenever an opponent draws a card unless they pay two mana to prevent us from doing so.

Enlightened Tutor is also a great way for us to get the right artifact or enchantment onto the top of our library as we need it, Vampiric Tutor to get any card we need to the top of our library, and Teferi’s Protection to make sure that we can keep our board safe from removal, especially exile based removal.

Unleashing the Horde

Since our strategy focuses on us developing a solid board of tokens, it’s only fitting that the way we win the game would be through those tokens.

If we just want a massive board of tokens, then we can use Thalisse, Reverent Medium, which at the beginning of each end step we create X 1/1 Spirit tokens with flying where X is the number of tokens we created this turn. Since this triggers on each end step, we can accumulate a decent number of Spirits, even if we only make one token each turn.

We can even use this as a way to protect ourselves since we also have access to Inkshield, which prevents all combat damage that would be dealt to us this turn, and for each 1 damage that was prevented this was we create a 2/1 Inkling token with flying, which when combined along with Thalisse can give us a massive army of tokens.

Since we have a bunch of tokens entering, we can make use of something like Mirkwood Bats, which makes it so that whenever we create or sacrifice a token, each opponent loses 1 life, which can help us chip away at our opponents until we can get our tokens through to deal damage.

In a similar vein there is also something like Corpse Knight which also has it so that whenever another creature we control then each opponent loses 1 life, Anointer Priest to have it so that whenever a creature token we control enters we gain 1 life, or Securitron Squadron which has it so whenever a creature token we control enters we put a +1/+1 counter on it and we can potentially make more copies of it if we pay the Squad cost.

If we just want pure aggro tokens, then something as simple as Inspiring Leader which gives Commanders we control the ability to give creature tokens we control +2/+2, which makes our Samurai even more effective at dealing chunks of damage.

Archetype of Courage can be used to give creatures we control first strike and makes it so that creatures our opponents control lose first strike and prevents them from gaining first strike can also make it so that we can have much stronger attacks with our tokens.

There are also of course the token doublers like Exalted Sunborn, which if we would make one or more tokens under our control, then we make twice those many tokens instead with a Warp cost of two mana being one of the least expensive options since the other token doublers err over thirty dollars. If you have access to them then this deck would massively benefit from making a ton of tokens.

If you don’t have access to them, then a solid substitute for them would be Renewed Solidarity, which when it enters we choose a creature type and creatures of those type get +1/+0 and at the beginning of our end step for each token we control of the chosen type that entered the battlefield this turn we make a token that’s a copy of it, which is slower but much more budget friendly.

In Conclusion

Naomi as a deck can be a bit tricky to pull off well, but I do think that there is plenty of potential to experiment with her as a Commander. Leaning into the control aspect of the deck can make her potential as a casual tokens Commander can definitely be fine tuned, but there is something there.

The major hurdle to get over is the fact that she needs an artifact and an enchantment to be on the battlefield when she enters or attacks, and while we should be able to pull it off decently consistently, there will still be plenty of times that we aren’t able to pull it off.

There is also the fact that Naomi is five mana, which isn’t the most difficult Commander to cast, especially in a color like black which has ample access to rituals, if she gets removed and we have no way to recur her then that Commander Tax stacks up fairly quickly.

As a casual Commander I do think that Naomi has potential, and with a bit of tinkering can potentially be more of a threat then she seems, provided we can make sure she has what she needs.

Thank you for reading, see you all next time!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual

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