Hello and welcome to Commander Bites!

Today we are going to be taking a look at Mageta the Lion!

Mageta is a five mana 3/3 that for two and two white, tap, and discard two cards from your hand you can destroy all creatures except for Mageta and those creatures cannot be regenerated.

Game Plan

The idea of Spellshapers is really interesting, in that you essentially have a spell that you can cast that is attached to a creature that needs the additional cost of discarding cards and paying mana to cast a spell.

There is very much a mixed opinion on how well Spellshapers are received, and that very much relies on how strong the effect is and what can you do with the cards you discard. Mageta essentially has a Wrath of Gad stapled to it and white has a lot of solid reanimation, especially for small creatures so I think we have something to work with.

Support

Since our focus is primarily going to be on small creatures, we need to have as much utility to them as possible, and ideally for something within the range of three mana or lower.

Loyal Warhound is a good example of a solid utility creature that when it enters and an opponent controls more lands than we do, then we can search our library for a basic Plains and put it onto the battlefield tapped.

Loran of the Third Path is also solid for utility because when they enter we can destroy up to one target artifact or enchantment and has further value in that we can tap her in order for us and one target opponent to draw a card.

Spirited Companion draws a card when it enters, Cathar Commando can flash in and can destroy an artifact or enchantment, and Esper Sentinel can draw us a card when an opponent casts their first noncreature spell unless they pay X where X is its power.

We can also make use of having certain cards in our graveyard, like Valor which as long as it is in our graveyard and we control a Plains, then creatures we control have first strike. Glory has a three mana activated ability that gives creatures we control protection from a color we choose until end of turn as long as it is in the graveyard.

There are plenty of ways we can bring those small value creatures back after Mageta blows up the board, Court of Ardenvale being one of the better options. When it enters we become the monarch and at the beginning of our upkeep we return a permanent with mana value three or less from our graveyard to our hand or if we are the monarch we can return to the battlefield instead.

Season of the Burrow works as a modal spell that let’s us choose up to five paw prints of modes, with a one paw print being to make a 1/1 Rabbit creature token, two paw prints to exile target nonland permanent and its controller draws a card, or for three paw prints we can return a permanent with mana value 3 or less from our graveyard to the battlefield with an indestructible counter on it.

Since Mageta only destroys creatures, we can use other permanents as ways to generate value like Ajani, Outland Chaperone who has a +1 to make a 1/1 Kithkin creature token, a -2 to deal 4 damage to target tapped creature, and if we manage to hit the -8 then we can look at the top X cards of our library where X is our life total and put any number of nonland permanent cards with mana value 3 or less from among them onto the battlefield.

These can include cards like Monologue Tax which gets us a Treasure token whenever an opponent casts their second spell each turn, Crackdown to have nonwhite creatures with power 3 or greater unable to untap during their controllers’ untap steps, or even Oketra’s Monument which makes our white creature spells cost one mana less and makes us a 1/1 Warrior creature token with vigilance whenever we cast a creature spell.

Setbacks

Mageta being a board wipe on a body can be problematic against some tables, especially if we do it repeatedly.

We can easily become the target of everyone’s ire and frustration if we constantly wipe the board, even if there are only a scant few number of creatures in play. People will cast removal on Mageta because they don’t want their board cleared of creatures, and while we do have access to some protection we won’t be able to use it if our opponents keep spending their removal on Mageta.

Since we are also a graveyard based deck, any exile based removal or way preventing our creatures from entering the graveyard definitely keeps us from doing our ideal game plan. Since our creatures are small we should be able to deal with it better than usual, but it still isn’t ideal.

There are also times when we would like to wipe the board, but are unable to do so because we either don’t have enough cards in hand or have cards that we don’t want to discard but need to discard in order to do so.

The major conundrum with Spellshapers is that while they may have a beneficial effect attached to them, do you get more value from discarding cards from your hand to get that effect. If the token player has a massive board of creatures and is threatening to win, then yes clear the board at all costs.

But if there are only say six creatures total in play and only one of them is slowly generating value, is it worth four mana and two cards to clear the board? Some may say yes, some will say no, and others will need more context on how that card is generating value.

That’s why Spellshapers are tricky to evaluate because they are context dependent, and for a Commander that has a board wipe stapled to it we are in a much more narrow box because our function is to keep the board state in check, but there may be times where it is inefficient to do so but necessary because of what’s in play.

Bracket Rating: Mid 2 to Low 3

Mageta is kind of a difficult Commander to evaluate in a vacuum, purely because board wipes can be very context dependent and situational.

Ideally you use Mageta as a way to threaten the board wipe while gaining favor from your opponents while you slowly build up resources to set better recuperate from a Mageta board wipe, clearing the board only as necessary.

However, if you pack the deck with board wipe after board wipe, essentially having Mageta as a board wipe Commander, then that really isn’t a fun deck to play and doesn’t win you the game.

Where Mageta works best is a way to slowly accumulate value with small creatures and permanents that don’t get destroyed by Mageta’s effect and either do a mass reanimation spell or bring your creatures back slowly in a much more efficient way that still outpaces your opponents.

Thank you for reading, see you all tomorrow!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual