The best upgrades for the MTG Obscura Operation deck will allow you to sneak up and crush enemies with this Streets of New Capenna Commander deck using politics or conniving creatures. This is a very fun looking list, and so let’s look at the top upgrades for this deck if you’re looking to pick it up!
The Leaders
The face commander is Kamiz, Obscura Oculus, with Tivit, Seller of Secrets as a back up. The overall theme of the deck with Kamiz is utilizing small creatures to connive, and punch in with a bunch of small damage with interesting attack / damage triggers. Tivit, on the other hand, takes advantage of the voting mechanic, which is a bit of a polar opposite.
10. Brago, King Eternal
Kicking off the list, we have
Brago, King Eternal
Brago, King Eternal
Flying
Whenever Brago deals combat damage to a player, exile any number of target nonland permanents you control, then return those cards to the battlefield under their owner's control.
. Brago is a fantastic creature to leverage Kamiz’s abilities to make unblockable. This will allow us blink our other attacking creatures to have as blockers, as well as potentially reset some of our mana rocks.
9. Nightveil Specter
Similarly to
Thief of Sanity
Thief of Sanity
Flying
Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, look at the top three cards of that player's library, exile one of them face down, then put the rest into their graveyard. You may cast that card for as long as it remains exiled, and mana of any type can be spent to cast that spell.
,
Nightveil Specter
Nightveil Specter
Flying
Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, that player exiles the top card of their library.
You may play lands and cast spells from among cards exiled with this creature.
is a great damage trigger that can steal cards from our opponents. What’s also great here is that you can play lands off this as well, which can help you cast other spells that you steal.
8. Coastal Piracy
Since we’re a blue deck, we definitely want to be drawing cards, and
Coastal Piracy
Coastal Piracy
Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to an opponent, you may draw a card.
lines up very nicely with Kamiz’s abilities. We’re going to be getting some creatures in the red zone and drawing cards while doing some damage is always a plus.
7. Dromar, the Banisher
What better edition to make in this deck than the OG,
Dromar, the Banisher
Dromar, the Banisher
Flying
Whenever Dromar deals combat damage to a player, you may pay {2}{U}. If you do, choose a color, then return all creatures of that color to their owners' hands.
. Dromar is an incredible creature to force a connection in, as it can quickly reset our opponent’s board. Plus it’s a big creature so we can leverage Kamiz’s Double strike ability with more creatures in our deck.
6. Raffine, Scheming Seer
Raffine, Scheming Seer
Raffine, Scheming Seer
Flying, ward {1}
Whenever you attack, target attacking creature connives X, where X is the number of attacking creatures. (Draw X cards, then discard X cards. Put a +1/+1 counter on that creature for each nonland card discarded this way.)
is our number 6 pick here. Raffine is the head of the Obscura family, and as such it’s abilities really fit the deck incredibly well. We can pump up either the unblockable creature or the double striking creature to put some hurt on, and we can dig pretty deep into our deck if we have a lot of creatures.
5. Blade of Selves
Blade of Selves
Blade of Selves
Equipped creature has myriad. (Whenever it attacks, for each opponent other than defending player, you may create a token copy that's tapped and attacking that player or a planeswalker they control. Exile the tokens at end of combat.)
Equip {4}
is one of the most powerful artifacts introduced in the commander products. We’re already taking advantage of creatures with powerful damage triggers, so creating copies of them to nearly guarantee hits is a great choice.
4. Will of the Council
Council’s Judgment
Council’s Judgment
Will of the council — Starting with you, each player votes for a nonland permanent you don't control. Exile each permanent with the most votes or tied for most votes.
is our first Vote card. It’s a generally powerful removal spell as it doesn’t target, so it can get around various effects like Hexproof. With Tivit in play we can take advantage of swaying the vote in our favor.
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3. Coercive Portal
Coercive Portal
Coercive Portal
Will of the council — At the beginning of your upkeep, starting with you, each player votes for carnage or homage. If carnage gets more votes, sacrifice this artifact and destroy all nonland permanents. If homage gets more votes or the vote is tied, draw a card.
is a fantastic source of card advantage. You can generally get Homage a lot of the time, and if someone gets out of hand, you can politics your way into a Carnage situation. Generally a very good card to have in the back pocket.
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2. Plea for Power
Number 2 is
Plea for Power
Plea for Power
Will of the council — Starting with you, each player votes for time or knowledge. If time gets more votes, take an extra turn after this one. If knowledge gets more votes or the vote is tied, draw three cards.
. Generally speaking, taking an extra turn is a powerful effect and we can use that extra turn to great effect with our attacks. But if we end up drawing 3 cards, that’s still pretty darn good.
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1. Expropriate
The biggest and baddest vote spell out there is
Expropriate
Expropriate
Council's dilemma — Starting with you, each player votes for time or money. For each time vote, take an extra turn after this one. For each money vote, choose a permanent owned by the voter and gain control of it. Exile Expropriate.
. Unlike Plea for Power and it’s Will of the Council ability, Council’s dilemma is FAR more powerful. Rather than trying to line up votes for an specific effect, we take all votes and apply the effect for each. So we’re taking extra turns and stealing our opponent’s stuff, and since we get an extra vote with Tivit, this card is a quick way to swing a game.
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