Hello and welcome to Commander Bites!

Today we are going to be taking a look at Felix Five-Boots!

Felix is a five mana 5/4 with menace and ward 2 and if a creature you control dealing combat damage to a player causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time.

Game Plan

Panharmonicon sort of effects are incredibly popular for a wide variety of reasons, and Felix does so with regards to combat damage. Felix wants our creatures to do combat damage in order to get additional triggers of abilities from those creatures.

There are plenty of creatures that can make use of this ability and plenty of ways we ensure that our creatures can do that combat damage, so we can go for more of a toolbox approach when making this deck.

Support

The first thing we need of course are solid creatures that have abilities that trigger off our opponents being dealt combat damage.

Ayara’s Oathsworn is an interesting card because when they deal combat damage to a player and if it has fewer than four +1/+1 counters then we put a +1/+1 counter on it then if it has exactly four counters on it we can search our library for a card to put into our hand. Being a two mana creature with menace that can eventually become a double tutor is actually really solid, especially if we go for the toolbox plan.

Toski, Bearer of Secrets is also a great card for us because it is a creature that can’t be countered, is indestructible and must attack each combat if able but more importantly has it so that whenever a creature we control deals combat damage to a player we draw a card, which then becomes draw two cards.

Ninjutsu is a popular way to make use of Felix because a lot of Ninja’s have abilities that work well with it, like Fallen Shinobi which when it deals combat damage to a player that player exiles the top two cards of their library and until end of turn we may play those cards without paying their mana costs.

Prosperous Thief also works really well with us because whenever one or more Ninja or Rogue creatures we control deal combat damage to a player we create a Treasure token with a cheap Ninjutsu cost of only two mana being a great rate for us to get some more ramp.

Sneak also fulfills a similar spot to Ninjutsu, like Shark Shredder, Killer Clone which has a slightly more expensive Sneak cost, but has first strike and when it deals combat damage to a player then we can take a creature card from their graveyard and put it onto the battlefield tapped and attacking that player.

There are also noncreature cards that have combat damage triggers like Larceny, which has it so that whenever a creature we control deals combat damage to a player that players discards a card from their hand or Mark of Sakiko which gives the enchanted creature the ability to make an amount of green mana equal to the combat damage they dealt and that mana lasts until the end of the turn.

We even have access to a Planeswalker with Kaito, Cunning Infiltrator who gains a loyalty counter whenever a creature we control deals combat damage to a player. His +1 lets one target creature we control unable to be blocked and we draw and then discard a card, -2 to make a 2/1 Ninja creature token, and a -9 that we have a decent chance at getting to to gain an emblem that makes a 2/1 Ninja token whenever a player casts a spell.

Setbacks

What’s interesting about this deck is that we are more about generating value vs. actually winning by being an aggressive deck.

We expect to gain some sort of value when our creatures deal combat damage, which can be problematic because while we should be dealing combat damage, we are going to be dealing small bits of damage vs. massive swings of damage.

We can win with a Craterhoof Behemoth or Triumph of the Hordes, but that isn’t really what our deck does best. If we lean into the more toolbox route, then we may have a lot of short terms answers and we may even be able to grind an aggressive win, but we may struggle winning games.

What’s more, we also will struggle against decks that prevent us from attacking with a lot of creatures. A Silent Arbiter would be absolutely devastating to us because we would only be allowed to attack with one of our creatures, and if an opponent can block it then we don’t get the trigger from Felix.

While not played as often, Fog effects are also something to keep an eye out for because even though you’ll not see them as often, they are ways that will prevent us from getting damage through to our opponents. This one is easier to get around with something like a Questing Beast, and it is good to have something in the back pocket if a Fog effect would be played.

Felix is the catalyst for the deck to go crazy, this is one of the few times where Felix being in play works more as a way for you to get more benefits and if they weren’t in play you could still be in a decent position.

Bracket Rating: 2

I think that Felix is a Commander that can get you more of what you want out of being a combat focused Commander, but doesn’t necessarily help you win more games.

What Felix does best is facilitate your ability to gain advantage when your creatures deal combat damage, but doesn’t really help you beyond that. Yeah you can draw more cards or steal things from your opponents graveyards, but you would still be able to do so without Felix in play.

Felix can be a fun Commander to build around, but doesn’t do anything special on their own. This is the unfortunate consequence of Panharmonicon style Commanders, they give more value and are fun to play, but don’t necessarily win you more games.

Thank you for reading, see you all tomorrow!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual