It’s been quite some time since an typal deck was a true competitive powerhouse. For the most part, the deckbuilding restrictions that typal decks force are not worth the payoffs. We are seeing a slight resurgence in Standard Elementals, but even this deck is not a top metagame contender.
While typal decks rarely pop up in the weakest of competitive formats, seeing them in something like cEDH is something else entirely. With all of Magic’s most powerful cards at your disposal, only the likes of early infinite combos can properly make it into this format. Despite this, Inalla, Archmage Ritualist had an impressive top eight finish at a recent cEDH invitational $20K qualifier.
MTG Inalla, Archmage Ritualist
Despite having one of the most broken keywords in all of Commander, Inalla, Archmage Ritualist sees a lot less play than its Vampire and Dragon counterparts in casual Magic. Inalla is still plenty powerful, capable of creating copies of your Wizards from the Command Zone.
Some of the value Inalla can provide when paired with the best Wizards in Magic is completely unrivaled. Doubling up on Valley Floodcaller triggers, for example, can easily create infinite mana sequences. Similarly, doubling up on Scholar of the Ages and Thundertrap Trainer can easily compile tons of card advantage. You can even double up on Thassa’s Oracle, making its ability even harder to counter. Since these are enters effects, cards like Panharmonicon can cause Inalla to trigger multiple times per Wizard, overflowing the board with tokens.
While this is already plenty strong, you do lose your Wizard tokens at the end of your turn. Interestingly, there are a few effects you can use to keep your tokens around. The Master, Multiplied may not be a Wizard, but he will stop the tokens that Inalla creates from vanishing on the end step. You can also use effects like Obeka, Brute Chronologist and Sundial of the Infinite to end your turn early to avoid the sacrifice trigger.
Inalla isn’t really supposed to leave the Command Zone at the cEDH level, but lower bracket decks can take advantage of Inalla’s second ability. Getting up to five Wizards isn’t too difficult when you can copy them, especially when using cards like Mystidian Elder and Lich Lord of Unx that create multiple bodies. Pair this with Faces of the Past and a sacrifice outlet, and you rattle off multiple Inalla, Archmage Ritualist effects per turn. In fact, thanks to Inalla’s ability to create infinite reanimation loops, you can even use Faces of the Past to untap your creatures infinitely. If you want to create copies of cards like Naru Meha, Master Wizard to buff your army, you can use Mirror Box to get around the Legend Rule.
Pulling off a One-Card Infinite
While all this generic value is obviously powerful, there’s one particular Wizard doing a ton of heavy lifting here. Doubling up on Spellseeker allows you to tutor for two cards, which can easily unlock an infinite combo on its own. You can abuse Inalla’s Eminence effect by using tutorable reanimation effects like Reanimate and Unearth, making copies of Spellseeker over and over. When combined with tutorable sacrificial rituals like Culling the Weak, this allows Spellseeker to tutor up any number of smaller instants and sorceries, setting up reanimation loops with Scholar of the Ages. Eventually, you can Entomb your entire deck into your graveyard and reanimate Thassa’s Oracle for the win.
This is hardly the only Wizard-based infinite combo the deck has to offer, either. Ruthless Technomancer and Bloodline Necromancer go infinite alongside Inalla’s Eminence ability, creating an infinite reanimation loop that grants infinite Treasure tokens and Hasty Technomancer tokens. There’s also a series of Dualcaster Mage and Crime Novelist infinites available with Inalla that appear in other successful decklists using the same cards.
Preparing for the Top Tables
Perhaps one of the best things about Inalla’s infinite combo Wizards package is how small it is. The deck only plays 14 Wizard creatures, allowing a majority of the deck to otherwise set itself up with tutors and cheap interaction for common threats.
Tutoring, in particular, is extremely important to help find your Spellseeker. Between traditional tutors like Vampiric and Demonic Tutor and Wizardcycling cards like Step Through and Vedalken Aethermage, there are a grand total of 17 cards that have tutor capabilities in this decklist.
There’s also a series of fast mana cards to make your infinite combos work. Dark Ritual and Rite of Flame can help you pull off your Spellseeker lines from bizarre spots. Pair those with Commander’s best mana rocks like Sol Ring and Mana Vault, and it’s totally possible to pull off your infinite combos as early as turn one.
Outside of a few combo-specific cards like Finale of Promise and Saw in Half, the rest of this cEDH deck is just the usual pieces of cheap interaction and card advantage spells. Force of Will, Flusterstorm, and Pact of Negation, for example, can both protect your combo while stopping opponents. Similarly, Rapid Hybridization and Chain of Vapor can bounce a core card at a key moment, slowing an opponent down just enough to eke out a win.
While this finish is certainly a highlight for Wizard Typal enthusiasts, Inalla, Archmage Ritualist has actually been on a victory streak at Commander’s toughest tables lately. Considering that this Commander doesn’t see nearly as much play as The Ur Dragon and Edgar Markov at lower brackets, this is rather surprising. Either way, if you’ve been hankering to play some Wizard Typal with your local Commander pod, an ideal Commander may have been hiding in plain sight.
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