Part of the fun of Commander is finding ways to maximize Legends that other players have dismissed. With dozens of eligible Commanders being released every set nowadays, tons are getting lost in the woodwork. Osgood, Operation Double is no exception, offering a wide range of fun abilities to craft around. This legend even enables an infinite card draw combo, making it easy to close out games.
MTG Osgood, Operation Double
For a mono-blue Commander, Osgood, Operation Double has a lot going on. While this may make building around the Human Alien Shapeshifter seem like a daunting task, each of its abilities synergizes perfectly with one another. With two Osgoods entering play, all of your abilities will essentially be doubled.
With this in mind, the first step to maximizing Osgood is to incorporate ways to make extra nonlegendary token copies of your Commander. Strionic Resonator and Gogo, Master of Mimicry are good ways to do this, copying Osgood’s cast trigger. You can also use Crystal Shard, Portal of Sanctuary and other repeatable bounce effects to recast Osgood over and over.
Once you’ve built out a threatening Osgood squad, it’s time to get the Clue process started. To start, cards like Future Sight and The Reality Chip can trigger Paradox consistently from the top of your deck. You can also cast cards from your graveyard with Emry, Lurker of the Loch or the soon-to-be-legal Bilbo, Thief in the Night. Even new Secrets of Strixhaven cards, like Harmonized Trio and Echocasting Symposium, can trigger Paradox with ease.
The only downside is that cracking your abundance of Clues requires a lot of mana, but there are ways to circumvent this issue. Activation cost reducers and mana producers like Forensic Gadgeteer and Urza, Lord High Artificer work overtime in this deck. Plus, rather than sacrificing Clues via traditional means, using them alongside Inspiring Statuary or Krark-Clan Ironworks to accelerate big plays also has value. With a big enough Clue surplus, you may even be able to set up lethal with Rise and Shine or Cyberdrive Awakener.
Drawing Your Deck
While Osgood gets plenty of its appeal from being a value engine, it also enables one game-breaking combo. To set things up, all you need to do is get your Commander in play alongside Sensei’s Diving Top and Mm’menom, the Right Hand.
Then, you’ll want to tap Sensei’s Diving Top to put it on top of your library and draw a card. Conveniently, Mm’menom lets you recast it from your library, which triggers Osgood to make a Clue. Thanks to Mm’menom’s final ability, this Clue can tap for blue, recasting Sensei’s Divining Top from the top of your deck.
By repeating this process, you’re able to draw your whole deck. All the while, if you have multiple copies of Osgood in play, you’ll be able to generate tons of extra Clues and mana. Eventually, you’ll be able to win by funneling these Clues into Krark-Clan Ironworks to cast a massive Walking Ballista.
Massively Underplayed Budget Commander
Despite how easy it is to overwhelm your opponent with Osgood’s Clue production, this Commander remains criminally underrated. Showing up as the Commander in only 157 decks according to EDHREC is pretty shocking, all things considered.
Nonetheless, this legend’s lack of respect may be more an indictment on MTG Doctor Who rather than its power level. Some players simply don’t have Doctor Who cards on their radar, and Osgood hasn’t been reprinted elsewhere. The good news, though, is that this Commander’s miniscule demand has kept it quite cheap. With a price tag of $0.29, this mono-colored Commander is a decent budget option that’s well worth picking up.
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