Secrets of Strixhaven spoiler season is finally over, and it’s safe to say that this set is a big win for Commander players. Between the wealth of new Commanders featured in the five precons, as well as the cycle of Elder Dragon legends from the main set, there are plenty of elite options to craft a deck around.
Despite how much hype the set is receiving, however, there are still some Commanders that deserve more praise. Sanar, Unfinished Genius is a great example of a legend with powerful applications that have flown under the radar. Don’t let this Goblin Sorcerer’s uncommon rarity fool you; there are plenty of ways to get your money’s worth with him in the command zone.
MTG Sanar, Unfinished Genius
As a two-mana creature, Sanar, Unfinished Genius provides a ton of upside. In a deck with lots of cantrips and other cheap instants and sorceries, consistently making Treasures turn after turn is easy. This ability becomes more threatening with support cards like Xorn and Goldspan Dragon, doubling up on your mana. Add cards like Ioreth of the Healing House and Vizier of Tumbling Sands that can untap Sanar, and you can create multiple Treasures per turn.
Once you have enough mana, Sanar offers a stapled tutor effect as an outlet. While this search effect is admittedly a bit clunky, it ensures you’ll always have something to spend your excess Treasure on. Being able to reliably grab Mizzix’s Mastery, Call Forth the Tempest, and other game-breaking bombs is hugely beneficial in the late game. Sadly, since Sanar isn’t easy to reprepare, meaning that you can generally only use Wild Idea once. That said blink effects like Displacer Kitten and Deadeye Navigator can reset this card repeatedly, even setting up some infinite combos.
Different Combo Routes
Once you can blink Sanar and Prepare him repetitively, this little Commander can pull off some wacky infinite combos. For example, by combining the power of Sanar and Displacer Kitten, you may be able to set up a window where you take infinite turns. You do admittedly need access to 12 mana each turn to keep chaining turns together, but the payoff is worth it.
Once you have enough mana at your disposal, you’ll want to kick things off by tutoring for Nexus of Fate with Wild Idea. Then, by casting Nexus of Fate, you’ll trigger Displacer Kitten, which lets you blink Sanar. Now that Sanar is prepared once more and Nexus of Fate shuffles back into your library, you’re free to cast Wild Idea during your extra turn to tutor Nexus all over again. Eventually, finding a way to win should be trivial.
Obviously, the hard part about setting up this combo is getting access to 12 permanent sources of mana, but Sanar can get there quickly via some infinite mana combos. The simplest way to do this is to enchant Sanar with Freed from the Real or Pemmin’s Aura, then stick Xorn.
With these cards in play, casting any instant or sorcery will allow you to tap Sanar and create two Treasure tokens. This gives you the mana to activate your Aura and untap Sanar while still having a Treasure left over. You can then repeat this process infinitely, netting a Treasure each time. If you add Reckless Fireweaver into the equation, you’ll get to deal infinite damage to your opponents as well.
With everything considered, Sanar, Unfinished Genius can make for an interestingly powerful Commander. Between accelerating your mana and tutoring up cards infinitely, the game plan can become surprisingly refined, allowing you to surprise opponents out of nowhere.
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