Hello and welcome to Commander Bites!

Today we are going to be talking about Hugh, First of Many!

Hugh is a four mana 3/4 that gives artifact spells you cast have replicate for two generic and one blue.

Game Plan

Hugh is pretty simple to understand as a Commander and there is a lot that we can do to make a lot of use out of that ability. If we are able to get a good number of ways to reduce the cost of artifacts we control along with a good number of artifacts that can control the battlefield, then we gain a lot of value.

Not only that, but we can also get even more benefits from affinity creatures, especially if we can already cast them for free and get an additional discount to the replicate cost because those sort of cost reductions do count for replicate.

Support

Ideally we should have ways to get some solid utility artifacts as well as some artifacts that help control the board.

We can go to the standard artifact cost reducers here with Etherium Sculptor, Foundry Inspector, and Voyager Quickwelder which make all artifact spells we cast cost one mana less, and getting additional copies of them will be incredibly useful.

Ambulatory Reactor is an interesting card to be used in conjunction with the mana reducers because it gives artifact creatures we control the ability to tap for colorless mana that can only be used to cast artifact spells and activate abilities from artifact sources, which is incredibly useful.

Speaking of mana production, being able to replicate mana rocks can also be a solid start to accumulate a ton of mana. One of the more interesting mana rocks that you can copy are the Bobbleheads, like say an additional Luck Bobblehead to get some more Treasure tokens and have a very rare random win, or Agility Bobblehead to make some of your more potent artifact creatures have haste and can only be blocked by other creatures with haste.

Semblance Anvil is also an amazing card for the deck since when it enters we can exile a nonland card from our hand and have spells we cast that share a card type with the exiled card cost two less to cast. Replicating it even once nets us a four mana discount for our artifacts, which again can count towards the replicate cost.

Since we are looking to get a ton of artifacts in play, Kappa Cannoneer is going to be a solid include because whenever it or another artifact we control enters we put a +1/+1 counter on it and it can’t be blocked, and we can even save mana by tapping non-mana producing artifacts to help pay for it’s improvise cost and possibly get another one to get even more big damage in.

Once we do have a lot of artifacts in play, then we can use cards that have an affinity for artifacts to an even greater advantage to get a big number of copies into play. Mycosynth Golem is the biggest gain from all of this because it has affinity for artifacts and it gives artifact creature spells we play have affinity for artifacts, which can massively increase the number of artifacts in play.

Refurbished Familiar also is a solid card for us to get multiple copies out of because it also have affinity for artifacts and when it enters each opponent discards a card and for each opponent who can’t we draw a card, so it is decently likely that we can rip our opponents entire hands and draw a couple of cards as a result.

And if we really want to make use of all the replicated tokens, we can always make use of the Replicator, which enters with a Food token but we can pay two mana and tap it to create a tapped token that’s a copy of a token we control, which can get pretty nasty with a Blightsteel Colossus token to help us win the game.

Setbacks

Since we are an artifact deck, of course anyway to massively destroy our artifacts will be a massive detriment to the deck.

This is especially bad for us because we will be spending a lot of mana to get a bunch of replicated copies so having spent all of our mana for a bunch of copies that get removed all at once is never an ideal feeling.

There is also the issue with concerns of mana, because while we are expecting the ideal scenario where we can copy all the mana rocks and cost reducers, more than likely we will have some of them in play before we have Hugh out so we do lose out on a bit of value there.

What’s more, we are playing a lot more into the value pile aspect of Hugh, which is great to get some of the big expensive artifacts in play, but can be troublesome when we don’t draw them or they are countered.

It also doesn’t help that while we are spending mana to get more and more value artifacts, we also lose out on mana that can be used for more interaction. We have access to three very interactive colors with one sided removal options, but we may not always have the mana to cast those spells.

We also run into the usual issue of card type specific decks in which we need to run nonartifact cards in the deck in order to have some interaction and support pieces, but Hugh can’t replicate them which means that the benefits of something like a Vedalken Archmage only get one time uses.

Even more of an issue than that, a lot of artifact synergy cards do rely on us casting artifacts rather than artifacts entering the battlefield, meaning while we do have a solid amount of value from getting more artifacts in play, we really only get one benefit from casting them because replicate copies the spell.

Bracket Rating: 3

I think that Hugh can be a well used artifact value Commander.

While the deck is very susceptible to board wipes that are artifact specific, especially when it comes to bounce effects, Hugh can generate a ton of value from replicating a bunch of artifacts that can generate mana, reduce the costs of our artifacts, or even get some massive threats on board.

Thank you for reading, see you all tomorrow!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual