The Complete Commander's Guide to MTG Adventure (Updated)

Since Temur Adventures appeared seemingly out of nowhere to dethrone Azorius Control in Theros Beyond Death Standard, I’ve fallen in love with the MTG Adventure archetype. Each Adventure creature comes with both an instant or sorcery half and a creature half. You can send your creatures ‘on an Adventure’ by casting the MTG Adventure spell in your hand. The creature will get exiled, and you can cast its creature half whenever you want!

Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate introduced Commanders for a ton of unsupported archetypes. Gorion, Wise Mentor gives Adventures its first powerful legendary creature! Alongside Gorion, a wave of powerful new support was created for the archetype. This allows us to fill out our Adventure deck with cards that have decent abilities on both sides instead of stuffing some of the less impressive Throne of Eldraine commons to fill out the MTG Adventure package. Here’s where we are with Gorion, Wise Mentor in EDH.

Core Card

Lucky Clover and Gorion have the same ability; they both want to copy your Adventure spells. Why bounce one of your opponent’s cards with Petty Theft when you can bounce two? Copying a counterspell can be even more powerful. If everyone’s throwing cards at a win condition and the owner has an out, counter both the out and the win condition. Since copying Adventure spells will be at the core of our deck, Lucky Clover Lucky Clover Whenever you cast an Adventure instant or sorcery spell, copy it. You may choose new targets for the copy. is a must-have that may not even run you a dollar.

Primal Amulet Primal Amulet Instant and sorcery spells you cast cost {1} less to cast.
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, put a charge counter on this artifact. Then if there are four or more charge counters on it, you may remove those counters and transform it. may look slightly different, but don’t let it fool you! This is another Lucky Clover Lucky Clover Whenever you cast an Adventure instant or sorcery spell, copy it. You may choose new targets for the copy. that needs a little investment to start copying more spells. Once you cast four instants or sorceries, Primal Amulet can flip into Primal Wellspring Primal Wellspring Instant and sorcery spells you cast cost {1} less to cast.
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, put a charge counter on this artifact. Then if there are four or more charge counters on it, you may remove those counters and transform it. ; a land that copies spells when mana from it is spent on an instant or sorcery spell. It will only copy a spell once per turn once it’s up and going, but it’ll reduce other MTG Adventure costs in the meantime.

As the deck slowly evolved, Primal Amulet has become a utility piece that does not always want to be flipped. Combined with Jadzi, Oracle of Arcavios and some Adventure copy effects, this can create an insane Storm sequence that casts your entire library in one turn.

Find the Clover

Lucky Clover Lucky Clover Whenever you cast an Adventure instant or sorcery spell, copy it. You may choose new targets for the copy. is so important for this archetype that we will want to go out of our way to find it. Tribute Mage Tribute Mage When this creature enters, you may search your library for an artifact card with mana value 2, reveal that card, put it into your hand, then shuffle. is another inexpensive option that will find your equally inexpensive clover. Three mana for cheaper tutor effects is pretty standard, and the body that you get on Tribute Mage is a nice little bonus. Spoiler alert: this deck wants to bounce your own creatures. This gives you an opportunity to get even more value out of Tribute Mage.

Fabricate Fabricate Search your library for an artifact card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle. does the same thing as Tribute Mage Tribute Mage When this creature enters, you may search your library for an artifact card with mana value 2, reveal that card, put it into your hand, then shuffle. , but with fewer restrictions. There are other core artifact cards to search for in Gorion Adventures, so if you’ve already found your clover, there are other options here.

The point of showing so many different tutors to find Lucky Clover Lucky Clover Whenever you cast an Adventure instant or sorcery spell, copy it. You may choose new targets for the copy. is to hammer home just how important it is to the deck. Anyone who’s played Adventures in constructed knows how powerful of a boost you get after sticking one clover on board. Lucky Clover turns a mediocre creature deck into a tempo nightmare.

There are more expensive tutoring options available, but I want to highlight cards that can fit into every player’s budget. For players who want to go all-in on a Gorion deck, there will be a list of expensive upgrades later on in the article.

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Cash in on Your Value

Both Gorion and Lucky Clover Lucky Clover Whenever you cast an Adventure instant or sorcery spell, copy it. You may choose new targets for the copy. will be copying spells, so having ways to copy your copied spells gets you up to the value level needed to win games of Commander. There’s no extra investment required – Twinning Staff Twinning Staff If you would copy a spell one or more times, instead copy it that many times plus an additional time. You may choose new targets for the additional copy.
{7}, {T}: Copy target instant or sorcery spell you control. You may choose new targets for the copy. acts as an extra Lucky Clover whenever you’re casting Adventure spells already getting copied by Gorion or Clover itself. The payoff can be a lot larger, however, if you have multiple copy effects out. With just Gorion, Twinning Staff essentially functions as an additional copy. With both Clover and Gorion out, Twinning Staff functions as two additional copies of any Adventure spell!

Errant Street Artist Errant Street Artist Flash
Defender, haste
{1}{U}, {T}: Copy target spell you control that wasn't cast. You may choose new targets for the copy. is a recent New Capenna release that plays better in this deck than it does with any of the cards from its own set. Like Twinning Staff Twinning Staff If you would copy a spell one or more times, instead copy it that many times plus an additional time. You may choose new targets for the additional copy.
{7}, {T}: Copy target instant or sorcery spell you control. You may choose new targets for the copy. , getting a payoff with this card will be easy in Gorion Adventures.

As the deck slowly found its place, Errant Street Artist took a bow out. This copy effect ends up being expensive to use in comparison to the other options that this deck has, and was later replaced for cards that create a ton of value with the final gameplan that was landed on.

A slightly different approach, Clever Impersonator Clever Impersonator You may have this creature enter as a copy of any nonland permanent on the battlefield. can enter the battlefield as a copy of your Lucky Clover instead of copying stuff from it.

Copying your Commander is equally as good! Ensure that the cards you copy Gorion with avoid the legendary rule. Spark Double Spark Double You may have this creature enter as a copy of a creature or planeswalker you control, except it enters with an additional +1/+1 counter on it if it's a creature, it enters with an additional loyalty counter on it if it's a planeswalker, and it isn't legendary. and Sakashima the Imposter are other cards that fill the same role.

Retrieve the Clover

Once your pod has played against Gorion a few times, Lucky Clover will likely end up as a target. Run a few things like Eternal Witness Eternal Witness When this creature enters, you may return target card from your graveyard to your hand. and Bala Ged Recovery Bala Ged Recovery Return target card from your graveyard to your hand. that can retrieve a lost Lucky Clover Lucky Clover Whenever you cast an Adventure instant or sorcery spell, copy it. You may choose new targets for the copy. . Eternal Witness, in particular, has some incredible synergies with the other themes in this deck.

This aspect of the deck ended up aging really well. As we will get into later into this article, self-mill looks to be the most unique win condition that has a lot of Adventure support. Once your gameplan gets rolling, cards like Eternal Witness start to feel more like tutors.

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The Adventure Spells

Baldur’s Gate introduced a plethora of different MTG Adventure creatures. They aren’t all good, but most are pretty powerful in comparison to what we did have. I sincerely hope you will play more Adventure creatures than the ones I highlight here, as these will only be the core ones you want to play. For more ideas, there will be a sample deck list at the bottom of the article.

The only expensive Adventure card financially, Brazen Borrower Brazen Borrower Flash
Flying
This creature can block only creatures with flying. is a little worse in Commander than constructed. That doesn’t stop it from being ludicrous when your game plan is buying back your creatures to cast them again. Brazen Borrower is worth the investment with the procedure set up. Imagine bouncing everything your opponents are getting out on board, just to bounce Brazen Borrower and bounce all their stuff again.

Its pretty easy for this deck to start creating five copies of each Adventure spell once the setup has been achieved, and bouncing five permanents for just two mana is absolutely devastating. You get to slowly develop your gameplan while your opponents are stuck recasting the same cards over and over.

A newly introduced MTG Adventure card from the Exit from Exile Commander precon, this is the single most crucial Adventure spell to bring in your 99. Both the Adventure spell and the creature on this card generate massive value. Use Retrieve Prey Retrieve Prey Trample
Once each turn, you may pay {0} rather than pay the mana cost for a creature spell you cast from exile. to recover other fallen Adventure creatures and replay them. Then, cast Tlincalli Hunter Tlincalli Hunter Trample
Once each turn, you may pay {0} rather than pay the mana cost for a creature spell you cast from exile. to start casting your Adventure creatures for free!

A few copies of Fertile Footsteps Fertile Footsteps Beanstalk Giant's power and toughness are each equal to the number of lands you control. turns Beanstalk Giant Beanstalk Giant Beanstalk Giant's power and toughness are each equal to the number of lands you control. into the most broken ramp card of all time. Beanstalk Giant pays for itself once you have a few copy permanents. Since the basic lands he finds come in untapped, Fertile Footsteps won’t cost you any resources and will set you up for something big in the turns to come.

Artifacts and enchantments are powerful in Commander, so getting a themed removal spell from Baldur’s Gate makes me feel warm inside. It may not seem like much, but this helps our other themes to keep producing value without using these slots on random pieces of removal.

Counter your opponent’s spells, then play a giant dumb dragon that helps you find more awesome stuff. I can’t think of anything that better embodies the casual format of Commander.

Another card that falls into the category of filling a slot that would generally be something else, Realm-Cloaked Giant Realm-Cloaked Giant Vigilance , is a board wipe Adventure card. Copying the Adventure won’t amount to anything, but it’s still a board wipe that synergizes with your value engines.

Bounce Your Creatures Back

Ready to take your value to the next level? Bouncing your Adventure creatures back to hand allows you to cast their copied MTG Adventure spells all over again. Generally you can get some additional value when you do this. These aren’t all of the cards that fit into this synergistic category, but they are the best.

The number of cards that Paradoxical Outcome Paradoxical Outcome Return any number of target nonland, nontoken permanents you control to their owners' hands. Draw a card for each card returned to your hand this way. will produce in this deck is nonsensical. Not only do you draw cards equal to the permanents that you return, but any MTG Adventure creatures that come back also get to recycle their spells halves all over again.

A cute little Counterspell Counterspell Counter target spell. that gets you some value too. A straight counterspell is usually better, but the extra value produced by Familiar’s Ruse Familiar’s Ruse As an additional cost to cast this spell, return a creature you control to its owner's hand.
Counter target spell. is worth going for. Another bonus, this card is very cheap!

Here is a permanent that can buy some value every turn! Imagine casting Fertile Footsteps Fertile Footsteps Beanstalk Giant's power and toughness are each equal to the number of lands you control. with a few copy permanents kicking around every single turn. This also allows you to have some instant speed answers to your opponent’s plays if your Adventure creatures double as removal.

There are many more cards that fit this niche of the deck, like Erratic Portal Erratic Portal {1}, {T}: Return target creature to its owner's hand unless its controller pays {1}. , but the point is to understand where we’re trying to go with this deck. Just flood your opponents with Adventure value!

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Draw Engines/Win Conditions

Since our game plan is to drown the opponent with value, our draw engines become our win conditions through the other cards we play. No need to speed things along; your Adventure creatures will beat everyone up eventually.

The Great Henge The Great Henge This spell costs {X} less to cast, where X is the greatest power among creatures you control.
{T}: Add {G}{G}. You gain 2 life.
Whenever a nontoken creature you control enters, put a +1/+1 counter on it and draw a card. will boost the strength of your Gorion Adventures deck to another level. This card has it all; draw cards, grow your creatures, and spend mana to cast them. Since there’s a subtheme of bouncing your creatures to create additional value, The Great Henge becomes even more ridiculous than it already is. Throw it in your EDH deck if you have one. If you don’t its a fantastic addition to your EDH collection.

Archmage Emeritus is already good in a deck that doesn’t copy spells. Since Magecraft cares about copied spells, Archmage Emeritus Archmage Emeritus Magecraft — Whenever you cast or copy an instant or sorcery spell, draw a card. becomes an ally that can refill your hand in a couple of spells. There’s a potential here for Archmage Emeritus to draw too many cards, but that’s never a bad thing… right?

You should be playing creatures consistently enough that Guardian Project Guardian Project Whenever a nontoken creature you control enters, if it doesn't have the same name as another creature you control or a creature card in your graveyard, draw a card. becomes a straight win condition. Its strictly worse than The Great Henge The Great Henge This spell costs {X} less to cast, where X is the greatest power among creatures you control.
{T}: Add {G}{G}. You gain 2 life.
Whenever a nontoken creature you control enters, put a +1/+1 counter on it and draw a card. , but cards like these are premier targets for removal. Since opponents will kill these things on sight, its good to have multiple cards that can do the same thing.

Other Draw Engines

Adventure’s own draw engine! Edgewall Innkeeper Edgewall Innkeeper Whenever you cast a creature spell that has an Adventure, draw a card. (It doesn't need to have gone on the adventure first.) is a creature that enters play and immediately begs to be on the other end of a Path to Exile Path to Exile Exile target creature. Its controller may search their library for a basic land card, put that card onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle. . As a cautionary note, unless you’re in dire need of cards, only play Edgewall Innkeeper out when you know it will replace itself. It will likely die after that.

Chulane, Teller of Tales Chulane, Teller of Tales Vigilance
Whenever you cast a creature spell, draw a card, then you may put a land card from your hand onto the battlefield.
{3}, {T}: Return target creature you control to its owner's hand. is a flavor win and a win condition for your Adventures deck. Chulane has accumulated a lot of hate in the Commander community, so follow the same rule as Edgewall Innkeeper Edgewall Innkeeper Whenever you cast a creature spell that has an Adventure, draw a card. (It doesn't need to have gone on the adventure first.) when playing it. Make sure you can get some value because it will die very quickly. If Chulane survives, you should be in an excellent position to win the game.

Vega, the Watcher Vega, the Watcher Flying
Whenever you cast a spell from anywhere other than your hand, draw a card. is an easy card to forget, hence its mention. Vega will draw you a card whenever you cast a spell from anywhere other than your hand. Generally, you’ll be casting MTG Adventure spells from exile, making this a good draw engine.

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UPDATE: Self-Mill Theme

After building this deck myself and playing a good amount of EDH games with it, I found the version of this deck that doesn’t have a hard win condition to be difficult. Any deck with a decisive win condition threatens to make our game plan irrelevant. To address this, I wanted to add a win condition that wasn’t too powerful but rewards our Lucky Clover copy setup more frequently. Some adventure cards in this article were overlooked because they milled too many cards from our Library when copied. However, this can be turned into a strength by including a Jace, Wielder of Mysteries Jace, Wielder of Mysteries If you would draw a card while your library has no cards in it, you win the game instead.
+1: Target player mills two cards. Draw a card.
−8: Draw seven cards. Then if your library has no cards in it, you win the game. , and a Thassa’s Oracle in the 99. This win condition is not at all robust and usually occurs around turns 15-20 depending on your setup and how much disruption you see. However, it gives your deck a consistent game plan should your efforts on board fail.

So, you got a bunch of copy effects lined up for your adventure spells… but you don’t have any adventure spells to pull ahead with. This was the most common issue I ran into with the other versions of this deck. Turning your win condition into self-mill, however, gives us access to some powerful spells. Zoological Study, in particular, quickly becomes the most powerful card in the entire deck. The book side is sometimes relevant, especially when converting to your janky infinite mana and storm wins via Hullbreaker Horror and Jadzi, Oracle of Arcaivos, but in my experience, you’re more interested in bouncing the book back to your hand than actually using it.

Not only will this mill a bunch of cards from your library, but it will also refill your hand with more adventure effects! The snowball nature intended for this deck shines when you get multiple copies of Zoological Study. To top things off, if you’ve found your Clover effects with all your artifact search, you can use them to instead search for Monster Manual Monster Manual {1}{G}, {T}: You may put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield. to get a payoff.

This common seems silly and is totally not worth your time if you’re not playing self-mill win conditions. When you do, however, Dig Deep can get you closer to your game win while amassing a powerful board that your opponents are forced to deal with.

Another silly adventure common that gets much better when you want to mill yourself. I find myself using this only when going for the win, but I have used it to get nasty cards that recur out of opponent’s decks like God-Eternal Rhonas God-Eternal Rhonas Deathtouch
When God-Eternal Rhonas enters, double the power of each other creature you control until end of turn. Those creatures gain vigilance until end of turn.
When God-Eternal Rhonas dies or is put into exile from the battlefield, you may put it into its owner's library third from the top. . You don’t need this card for the self-mill theme to work, but it does help, and its not even worth a dollar.

Crystal Dragon gets much better when you use a self-mill theme. You should still play this in a normal version of adventures to have access to a way to get your Lucky Clover Lucky Clover Whenever you cast an Adventure instant or sorcery spell, copy it. You may choose new targets for the copy. back. Still, Crystal Dragon’s ability to also recur Jace, Wielder of Mysteries Jace, Wielder of Mysteries If you would draw a card while your library has no cards in it, you win the game instead.
+1: Target player mills two cards. Draw a card.
−8: Draw seven cards. Then if your library has no cards in it, you win the game. , and other artifacts make it a mainstay. There are situations, however, where Crystal Dragon Crystal Dragon Flying, vigilance is not great. Should you play the self-mill version of the deck, however, this will recur some strong cards more often than not.

The most important part of a self-mill plan is to include the win conditions. There are enough recursion effects with Monster Manual Monster Manual {1}{G}, {T}: You may put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield. , Tlincalli Hunter Tlincalli Hunter Trample
Once each turn, you may pay {0} rather than pay the mana cost for a creature spell you cast from exile. , Crystal Dragon Crystal Dragon Flying, vigilance , and Eternal Witness Eternal Witness When this creature enters, you may return target card from your graveyard to your hand. to ensure that you can get them back in the very likely event that you mill these.

It’s not an adventure spell, but Uro is fantastic when your strategy is self-mill. I’m interested in trying some more Escape filler effects because of how consistently I can access Uro for free value. While Uro is the only Escape card I currently play, there is definitely room for more.

UPDATE: Ramp is Really Important

One resounding truth when trying to win with the self-mill version of this deck is that you need a ton of mana to execute your winning sequences. Before you ‘go for it’ this deck plays more of a permission or policing strategy, keeping peace at the table by not letting anyone get out of control.

In my experience, you don’t need to go overkill with your ramp options, though. The Commander staples of Cultivate and Kodama’s Reach are both fantastic cards that further your gameplan. These should be swapped out for more efficient cards if you’re playing at a stronger table, but these get the job done otherwise.

On the topic of more efficient ramp, cards like Growth Spiral and Explore are perfectly reasonable includes for this deck. You need like ten mana before your bigger plays become easier to pull off, so getting there faster, while drawing a card, is a very good use of your early turns.

UPDATE: Using Your Graveyard for Value

If the self-mill route is the one you decide to explore, grabbing a few cards that return cards from your graveyard can go a long way. Your copy pieces like Lucky Clover will start to get targeted once your opponents know what you are up to, and having ways to re-set up are really important.

As such, one fantastic new inclusion from March of the Machine has been Invasion of Shandalar. This Battle recurs the three best permanent cards in your graveyard, and threatens to turn into an enchantment that can get your game-winning eight mana spell onto the board for free!

Other graveyard recursion, like Eternal Witness, Rob the Hoard, and more help turn your mill spells into value ones as well. This is really important for the sake of consistency for your deck, and helps give more context to the weaker cards in your deck.

Alternate Win Conditions

While I like the idea of drawing cards, outvaluing your opponent, and winning with Adventure creatures, that won’t be enough for a more powerful pod of players. Craterhoof Behemoth Craterhoof Behemoth Haste
When this creature enters, creatures you control gain trample and get +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of creatures you control. and Finale of Devastation Finale of Devastation Search your library and/or graveyard for a creature card with mana value X or less and put it onto the battlefield. If you search your library this way, shuffle. If X is 10 or more, creatures you control get +X/+X and gain haste until end of turn. represent more direct win conditions that will take out multiple opponents on the spot.

Jadzi has become one of the win conditions in the self-mill version of this deck since it can churn through your entire library with ease. Some number of copy spells are needed for this card to start going off, and an unflipped Primal Amulet almost guarantees that you will be casting most of your library. The only problem with this win, besides it being undeterministic, which is on purpose, is the sequence of actions it creates can be pretty tough to follow.

Jadzi has Magecraft which cares about instants and sorceries that are both casted and copied by you. This means, should you have Gorion and Lucky Clover in play, each Adventure spell will trigger Jadzi three times. Each of these triggers will reveal the top card of your library. If its a land, you play it. If its not, you can cast it for one generic mana.

Since this is an Adventure-themed deck, its not difficult to believe that an Adventure spell can be flipped with Jadzi. Casting this will, once again, result in triggering Jadzi multiple times. Rinse and repeat, and, with enough mana, it is very easy to cast your entire library.

Should you have Primal Amulet unflipped, things get a lot easier. That’s because, instead of casting one, instants and sorceries cast with Jadzi will be free!

Unlike Jadzi, Hullbreaker Horror is a well-known Commander menace. Able to control the board with its activated ability, the initial idea behind including this card was to bounce Adventure creatures and re-use them. After a lot of reps with the deck, Hullbreaker Horror’s other aspect of creating infinite mana easily has also become a lategame win condition.

The only positive mana rock in the deck I currently run is Sol Ring. This, alongside a mana neutral rock like The Great Henge, can create infinite colorless mana. Once you get here, adding another mana rock that can generate any color of mana, like Arcane Signet, gets you into the realm of infinite mana of any color.

UPDATE: How to Power up Gorion Adventures

The self-mill version of this deck that I currently run has a razor-sharp gameplan, but executes everything at a relatively slow speed. The early turns need to be used ramping up to bigger plays, which gives stronger decks with faster mana an opportunity to get under you and execute a quick infinite combo win. As such, my iteration of this deck can compete with other streamlined strategies, but will generally lose to anything trying to win early – which is where I want to be with it.

If you want to power up this deck idea and make it more competitive, you need to speed up your mana. Adding mana rocks like Mana Crypt and Mana Vault will help speed up the initial ramping turns that are needed for this deck to start copying a ton of Adventure spells and bury your opponent in value. Should you speed these turns up rather consistently, Gorion Adventures should turn into a relatively high-powered deck.

You may also want to upgrade some of your interaction with more efficient, but expensive pieces. The current version of this list instead wants to recur heavy value by going into your graveyard to keep up with a slower level of play, but this can be too slow if your opponents are trying to win while you’re still durdling around with value cards.

Expensive Upgrades

For those willing to dive all-in on their Gorion decks, here are some more expensive EDH cards that will do fantastically in the deck.

If the name of the game is to find Lucky Clover Lucky Clover Whenever you cast an Adventure instant or sorcery spell, copy it. You may choose new targets for the copy. , Enlightened Tutor Enlightened Tutor Search your library for an artifact or enchantment card, reveal it, then shuffle and put that card on top. is a great way to do it. If you already have Lucky Clover, Enlightened Tutor can find another artifact that amplifies your payoffs, like Twinning Staff Twinning Staff If you would copy a spell one or more times, instead copy it that many times plus an additional time. You may choose new targets for the additional copy.
{7}, {T}: Copy target instant or sorcery spell you control. You may choose new targets for the copy. .

Here is another way to copy Lucky Clover Lucky Clover Whenever you cast an Adventure instant or sorcery spell, copy it. You may choose new targets for the copy. . Sadly, this one is not budget-friendly. If you are a Commander fanatic with a growing collection, you will likely pick up one of these at some point.

This one’s a no-brainer. A free counterspell that protects your Commander is almost always the optimal pick for a Commander deck – as long as your wallet can take it.

There are more upgrades out there than just the ones mentioned here, but this is a good place to start.

The Sample Decklist (Non-Mill)

With this, I’ve covered the game plan for Gorion Adventures. Have fun creating value by copying your Adventure spells, buying back your creatures, and drawing a bunch of cards. Here is a sample deck list if you do not know where to go from here. Note that the lands in this list are all suggestions and not mandatory. You will need to have some basic lands in the deck for Fertile Footsteps Fertile Footsteps Beanstalk Giant's power and toughness are each equal to the number of lands you control. , even though none are in the sample list.

As for the self-mill variant of the Adventures deck, most of the core cards have been shown off here. Past that point, cards that interact with your graveyard make for great filler. Have fun making your opponent lose their minds with all the spells you’ll be casting with Gorion Adventures!