Hello and welcome to Commander Bites!

Today we are going to be taking a look at Cid, Timeless Artificer!

Cid is a four mana 4/4 that gives artifact creatures and Heroes you control +1/+1 for each Artificer you control and each Artificer card in your graveyard, a deck can have any number of cards named Cid, Timeless Artificer and cycling for white and blue.

Game Plan

A cute reference to the fact that there is a Cid in almost every Final Fantasy game, the idea of the Cid deck is that you have one copy of all the Cid’s, cycle them to get them into the graveyard so your artifact creatures and Heroes get a decent buff.

We can supplement the deck by having some cheap artifact creatures and Heroes so that our board is filled to the brim with low to the ground creatures that gain a massive buff for all the Cid’s in the deck as well as the other Artificers that the deck will have to supplement our game plan.

Support

What works best in our favor is that there are a good number of artifact creatures that also happen to be Artificers that have a beneficial effect for us.

Etherium Sculptor and Voyager Quickwelder both make it so that artifact spells we cast cost one less to cast, while being artifact creature Artificers with the only major difference being that Etherium Sculptor is one mana cheaper that Voyager Quickwelder.

Master Transmuter is also a solid artifact creature that is also an Artificer that can bounce an artifact we control and then put an artifact from our hand onto the battlefield, which is a great way for us to cheat out some big artifact creature.

While not quite an artifact creature Chief Engineer does make it easier for us to use our ideal wide board of artifact creatures and Heroes as a resource because it gives artifact spells we cast convoke. Combine that with something like Thopter Spy Network which makes a 1/1 Thopter token with flying at the beginning of our upkeep if we control an artifact, then we generate at least one more additional mana each turn.

Speaking of, we need ways to generate some artifact creature tokens so Sai, Master Thopterist is a solid choice because whenever you cast an artifact spell you make a 1/1 flying Thopter and you can pay two mana and sacrifice two artifacts to draw a card.

On the Hero side of things we actually have a decent bit of support not just because of Final Fantasy but because of Spider-Man and Marvel, of which there are an abundance of Heroes to look at for a variety of scenarios.

Shuri, Wakandan Inventor makes artifact spells we cast cost one man less, is an Artificer and a Hero, and for one mana and tap we can have an artifact we control become a copy of another target artifact we control until the end of turn except it isn’t legendary at sorcery speed.

Spider-Woman, Stunning Savior has it so that artifacts and creatures your opponents control enter tapped, Captain America, Super-Soldier enters with a shield counter and so long as he has a shield counter us and Heroes we control have hexproof, and Agent Phil Coulson who taps to put a +1/+1 counter on each other Hero we control.

If you really want to get a lot of Heroes into play then you can play Champions from Beyond which enters with X 1/1 colorless Hero creature tokens and whenever you attack with four or more creatures you scry 2 then draw a card and whenever you attack with eight or more creatures then those creatures get +4/+4 until end of turn.

We also have access to Maskwood Nexus, which is the best of all worlds because creatures we control are every creature type and the same is true for creature spells we control and creature cards we own that aren’t on the battlefield and for three mana can make a 2/2 Shapeshifter token with changeling.

This means that Cid, who would normally not be able to gain the benefit from his own ability, can now gain an increase because he now becomes a Hero and any other creatures in your graveyard that aren’t Artificers now give him an even bigger boost.

Add in a Mirror Gallery or a Mirror Box in order for you to ignore the Legend Rule with Mirror Box also boosting your legendary creatures +1/+1 and nontoken creatures we control getting +1/+1 for each other creature we control with the same name as that creature and Cid is coming in for a lot of damage.

Setbacks

This is a deck that is trying to play favor to three different specific creature types; artifact creatures, Heroes, and Artificers.

Trying to meld the strategies of all three of these creature types can be much more difficult than you would expect, especially since Heroes are still a relatively new creature type and while there is a good number of Heroes, getting a bunch of them into play can be a bit tricky.

Artifact creatures and Artificers happen to work well together, it’s just adding Heroes into the mix does complicate things a bit. While you can focus less of Heroes and more on the other two, that does simplify things but goes against the spirit of the deck, which to me does play a small factor for building a deck.

What is a much larger factor to consider is graveyard removal, which is a lot more of a concern for us because if we happen to go for a big attack and an opponent happens to remove our Artificer’s from our graveyard, then what could have been an alpha strike to win becomes a less then stellar attack that leaves us open for retaliation.

There is also the unfortunate aspect that since artifact creatures happen to be a major part of the deck’s identity, that opens the deck up to more avenues of removal because of how much more likely people will have mass artifact removal.

One thing that I don’t get the chance to talk about often is the ideal number of “deck can have any number” cards, because it’s always a toss up for what the right answer is. You can have the flavor correct number of 15 for each separate art, 30 for a mass amount, or 20 for consistency but not overabundance, or even 8-10 to have room for more ideal cards that help synergize with the deck’s plan.

These sorts of questions always beg the question on what matters most when playing a deck and that is do you want the deck to be more consistent, flavorful, ridiculous, powerful, or whatever metric you prefer.

Bracket Rating: 2

As much as I love the deckbuilding challenges that these sort of cards bring, they often are not as strong as we would like and can lead the deck into fewer directions then we would like.

With the deck building being as narrow as it is, card selection is pretty crucial and while we can potentially get our creatures to be a decent size with the Cid’s in our graveyard, it isn’t likely to be reactive enough for us to be very competetive.

Cid makes for a solid enough lower bracket Commander that can be a solid lord to bring your artifact creatures and Heroes to a big enough number to win through damage and have a fun time while doing so. Plus, you can swap whichever Cid you like to be the face of your deck whenever you like.

Thank you for reading, see you all tomorrow!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual