When you’re putting together an MTG Commander deck for mid-to-high bracket play, it’s a good idea to include some “silver bullet” cards. These are cards that serve as surgical answers to specific archetypes, giving you an easy out if someone happens to rock up with one. While many cards in this category are very well-known, and expensive as a result, there are some hidden gems to be found if you dig deep enough. Today, we’ve gathered some excellent disruptive enchantments, sure to catch the players in your MTG Commander pod off-guard.
Ice Cave
Ice Cave is truly one of the more bizarre global enchantments that Magic has to offer. While it’s out, any spell can be countered so long as a player is willing to pay its exact mana cost in exchange.
Since its ability can be harnessed by anyone at the table, Ice Cave is a fine addition to any blue deck looking for an out to low-cost, low-color archetypes. It’s at its very best in five-color strategies with a ramp element, mind you. Having lots of mana, of every color, at your disposal will maximize your opportunities to counter spells with it,. Grindy Commanders like Kenrith, the Returned King and Terra, Magical Adept are great fits here. Esika, God of the Tree is also an ideal place for the card, due to the added multicolored ramp.
If you want to run Ice Cave in a lower-color deck, cards like Chromatic Lantern and “rainbow” lands like City of Brass and Mana Confluence are great inclusions to counter cards outside of your colors. If you’re in Simic, Ice Cave is particularly nasty with land untappers like Seedborn Muse and Wilderness Reclamation, to ensure you always have some shields up. You can also break the symmetry on the card by running it alongside “can’t be countered” effects, like Hexing Squelcher or Vexing Shusher.
Death Match
Board wipes are universally considered a must-have in Commander, but they’re also limited by their one-time-use nature. Death Match, on the other hand, is a board wipe effect that provides continuous value throughout a game. Every creature that enters while Death Match is around gives its controller a pretty nasty removal spell to work with. Against Aggro decks, or Ramp decks that rely heavily on mana dorks, this is a death sentence. While the effect here is optional, nobody is going to pass up free removal when it’s offered.
As with all symmetrical effects, there are ways to break Death Match in your favor. Running it in a Token deck, like Chatterfang, Squirrel General, will give you a lot more removal triggers than your opponents. Conversely, avoiding small creatures and running it in something like a Karador, Ghost Chieftain Reanimator deck is also a good play.
Widespread Panic
Even with the introduction of the bracket system solving the issue to an extent, tutors remain some of the most controversial cards in Commander. Grabbing any card you want is huge in a singleton format, so it’s no surprise that most tutors see heavy play at higher brackets. If you’re sick of opponents using tutors to pop off consistently in MTG Commander, then Widespread Panic could be the disruptive enchantment for you.
This card’s forced shuffle effect is decent against card-neutral tutors like Demonic Tutor and Diabolic Intent. Against top-deck tutors like Vampiric Tutor, however, it’s downright brutal, since it actually puts them down in terms of card advantage. The same is true for Fetchlands and ramp like Farseek, which gives the card a lot of incidental hits.
For the most part, you don’t really need to build around Widespread Panic to make great use of it. That said, if you do want to lean into its quirks, there are some fun ways to do so. Forcing opponents to shuffle repeatedly with Soldier of Fortune can whittle away their hands with ease. You also get a lot of extra mileage out of cards that grant opponents land searches as a downside, like Path to Exile and Ghost Quarter.
Titania’s Song
If you’re having trouble with artifact decks in your pod, then Titania’s Song is an incredible addition to your arsenal. Not only does it strip every artifact in play of its abilities, but it also turns them into creatures, making them extra-vulnerable to removal. Song also serves as a board wipe for artifact tokens, since they’ll become 0/0 creatures when Song enters.
Generally, you’ll want to avoid running Titania’s Song in decks that run a lot of artifacts themselves. That said, the card can be used as a kind of ‘surprise army’ in such decks, provided the artifacts you’re running are well-costed. It’s an ideal addition to Bello, Bard of the Brambles, for example, since it adds a chunky enchantment while also animating your artifacts in your Commander’s absence. In decks focused on artifact creatures, like Urtet, Remnant of Memnarch, it can also provide a nice backup force if your tokens are wiped.
In more general terms, Titania’s Song is great alongside other disruptive artifacts. Cards like Icy Manipulator and Winter Orb can keep your opponents locked down, before Song turns them into creatures that can swing for the win. It’s also a nice way to turn off your own Stax pieces before you make a key play. Use a Trinisphere to shut off opposing combo attempts, for example, then drop Song and pull off your own combo uninhibited.
Martyr’s Bond
Martyr’s Bond is a terrifying example of a ‘rattlesnake’ card for MTG Commander. While it’s in play, your opponents can’t target any of your permanents with removal without making a sacrifice on their part, a la Grave Pact. Unlike Grave Pact, however, Martyr’s Bond affects all permanent types, which gives it much broader scope.
Defensively, this is a great way to discourage Control players from gunning for you with their spells. Where things get really interesting with it, however, is in its proactive applications. The obvious use case here is sacrificing your creatures to outlets like Altar of Dementia to keep enemy boards clear.
Self-sacrificing artifacts and enchantments, like Mishra’s Bauble and Seal of Cleansing, are also ideal here. You can even set up degenerate land destruction loops using Fetchlands and Crucible of Worlds. With huge applications both offensive and defensive available, Martyr’s Bond is a bargain at its current price of $0.67.
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