Of all the many mechanics in Magic’s storied history, Day/Night is up there as one of the most reviled. While it’s certainly flavorful, the mechanic is simply a nightmare to track, especially in four-player games. For this reason, a lot of great cards using the mechanic, like Vadrik, Astral Archmage, have been largely neglected by the MTG community. This is a crying shame, as, beneath its Day/Night exterior, Vadrik is a genuinely exciting Spellslinger Commander.
Vadrik, Astral Archmage MTG
Vadrik is all about his middle ability, which offers a scaling instant and sorcery discount based on his power. This can get out of hand quickly, particularly with +1/+1 counter placers like Lyla, Holographic Assistant and Proft’s Eidetic Memory. Equipment that offer scaling buffs for Spellslinger decks, like Runechanter’s Pike and Glamdring, are also ideal picks here.
Once Vadrik is nice and buff, you can start enjoying a serious discount on your spells. Normally inaccessible bombs like Enter the Infinite and Time Stretch suddenly become very playable, allowing for big swing turns. You can also make great use of X spells like Comet Storm and Finale of Revelation. When leaning into big spells like this, payoffs like Manaform Hellkite and Shark Typhoon can help you take things to the next level.
Alternatively, you can pair Vadrik with mana generators like Big Score and Frantic Search, to effectively build your own rituals. With a few of these and some cheap draw, you can run Vadrik like an Izzet Storm deck, leveraging finishers like Grapeshot to close games. You can also build in more sustainable value with payoffs like Talrand, Sky Summoner, to avoid putting all your eggs in one basket.
To Infinity And Beyond!
As you’d expect from a scaling discount effect, Vadrik also enables a solid suite of infinite combos. These rely exclusively on cards with the Buyback mechanic, which Vadrik can loop with ease with enough counters.
Get Vadrik’s power to four, for example, and you can cast and Buyback Searing Touch for just one red mana. Throw in Storm-Kiln Artist or Birgi, God of Storytelling to refund the red, and you can loop Pain infinitely to burn down the table. The same loop is also possible with Haze of Rage, though you’ll need to use Urabrask as your mana generator here to get the win, since it doesn’t deal damage itself.
For a funkier combo, you can pair Vadrik with Ashling’s Command and Reiterate for infinite mill. With Vadrik’s power at four, you can cast Command and copy it with a bought-back Reiterate for UURR. Choose the ‘make two Treasures’ mode on Command, and you’ll be able to pay to copy the original over and over again. If you also pick the ‘draw two cards’ option, you can force your opponents to deck out.
While this combo is theoretically an instant win, it’s also highly risky since you’re giving your opponents a ton of cards. For this reason, setting up protection like Defense Grid and Hexing Squelcher first is advised.
A New Day Will Come
Despite its ample potential in both fair decks and combo piles, Vadrik, Astral Archmage doesn’t see as much play in MTG Commander as you’d expect. In fact, according to EDHREC, just 3,428 players run him in the command zone.
Vadrik fares a little better in the 99, showing up in around 5,430 lists there, but for a discount piece of this magnitude, that still feels low. The good news about this play rate is that Vadrik is incredibly affordable, with prices starting at $0.15. At this price point, Vadrik, Astral Archmage is definitely worth considering for your next budget Spellslinger brew.
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