While Spellslinger is one of the most powerful, and popular, archetypes in Commander, it does often suffer from being quite samey. Between cantrips, cost reducers, and payoffs, most lists are built, and played, the same way. There are some MTG Commanders that totally change up how the archetype is played, however, such as Hinata, Dawn-Crowned.
Hinata, Dawn-Crowned MTG
For four mana, Hinata gives you one of the most unique lines of text Magic has ever seen. Reducing the cost of your spells for each target is a massive deal, and encourages you to play a lot of X spells that are typically too inefficient to be worth running. For most of these, Hinata essentially makes it free to add additional targets, after all.
This works particularly well with cards that have a definitive effect on their targets, no matter how much mana you sink into the spell. You can turn any number of creatures into vanilla 2/2s with
Curse of the Swine
Curse of the Swine
Exile X target creatures. For each creature exiled this way, its controller creates a 2/2 green Boar creature token.
, for example, or deal four damage to any number of creatures with
Meteor Blast
Meteor Blast
Meteor Blast deals 4 damage to each of X targets.
. This makes multi-target protection tools much better, too, letting you cover your entire board with cards like
March of Swirling Mist
March of Swirling Mist
As an additional cost to cast this spell, you may exile any number of blue cards from your hand. This spell costs {2} less to cast for each card exiled this way.
Up to X target creatures phase out. (While they're phased out, they're treated as though they don't exist. Each one phases in before its controller untaps during their next untap step.)
and
Prismatic Boon
Prismatic Boon
Choose a color. X target creatures gain protection from the chosen color until end of turn.
.
While not quite as effective, multi-target burn spells like
Comet Storm
Comet Storm
Multikicker {1} (You may pay an additional {1} any number of times as you cast this spell.)
Choose any target, then choose another target for each time this spell was kicked. Comet Storm deals X damage to each of them.
and
Aurelia’s Fury
Aurelia’s Fury
Aurelia's Fury deals X damage divided as you choose among any number of targets. Tap each creature dealt damage this way. Players dealt damage this way can't cast noncreature spells this turn.
are also great with Hinata. You’ll always get to deal at least one damage to every possible target with these in play, and you’ll typically be able to leverage additional mana to turn them into one-sided board wipes. To make cards like these even more potent, other cost reducers like
Goblin Electromancer
Goblin Electromancer
Instant and sorcery spells you cast cost {1} less to cast.
can stack with Hinata’s ability for even more damage.
While you’re casting all these X spells for cheap, you can stack up a ton of value by leveraging payoffs that reward you for multi-targeting.
Willbreaker
Willbreaker
Whenever a creature an opponent controls becomes the target of a spell or ability you control, gain control of that creature for as long as you control this creature.
is by far the biggest hitter here, letting you seize control of every creature your opponents have for cheap. You can also draw a ton of cards with
Voracious Bibliophile
Voracious Bibliophile
Flying, vigilance
Whenever you cast a spell with one or more targets, draw that many cards.
, and bounce your opponents’ creatures en masse with
Cowardice
Cowardice
Whenever a creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, return that creature to its owner's hand. (It won't be affected by the spell or ability.)
, both of which can be game-ending from one good spell.
An interesting thing to note with Hinata is that, while its ability means you’ll pay very little for your X spells, their mana value remains the same as it would were you paying full price. This lets you reap the benefits from big spell payoffs like
Zaffai, Thunder Conductor
Zaffai, Thunder Conductor
Magecraft — Whenever you cast or copy an instant or sorcery spell, scry 1. If that spell's mana value is 5 or greater, create a 4/4 blue and red Elemental creature token. If that spell's mana value is 10 or greater, Zaffai deals 10 damage to an opponent chosen at random.
and
Shark Typhoon
Shark Typhoon
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, create an X/X blue Shark creature token with flying, where X is that spell's mana value.
Cycling {X}{1}{U} ({X}{1}{U}, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
When you cycle this card, create an X/X blue Shark creature token with flying.
. Cards like
Erratic Cyclops
Erratic Cyclops
Trample
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, this creature gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is that spell's mana value.
and
Livaan, Cultist of Tiamat
Livaan, Cultist of Tiamat
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, target creature gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is that spell's mana value.
Choose a Background (You can have a Background as a second commander.)
are great here, too, serving as explosive finishers out of nowhere alongside the right X spells.
Total Destruction
Hinata, Dawn-Crowned is a fairly devastating MTG Commander when played normally, but it gets downright silly when you start tapping into its combo lines. Alongside
Mycosynth Lattice
Mycosynth Lattice
All permanents are artifacts in addition to their other types.
All cards that aren't on the battlefield, spells, and permanents are colorless.
Players may spend mana as though it were mana of any color.
and
Heliod’s Intervention
Heliod’s Intervention
Choose one —
• Destroy X target artifacts and/or enchantments.
• Target player gains twice X life.
, for example, it lets you destroy literally every permanent your opponents control.
With Lattice making everything an artifact, and Hinata letting you target it all, even the lands, for just two mana with Intervention, this combo should end most games on the spot. There’s even a good amount of redundancy available for this one, with
By Force
By Force
Destroy X target artifacts.
and
Red Sun’s Twilight
Red Sun’s Twilight
Destroy up to X target artifacts. If X is 5 or more, for each artifact destroyed this way, create a token that's a copy of it. Those tokens gain haste. Exile them at the beginning of the next end step.
subbing in for Intervention, and
Enchanted Evening
Enchanted Evening
All permanents are enchantments in addition to their other types.
subbing in for Lattice. This is technically mass land destruction, mind you, so this is one to save for bracket 4 pods and above.
If you’d rather make infinite mana instead, Hinata lets you do that as well when paired with
Reality Spasm
Reality Spasm
Choose one —
• Tap X target permanents.
• Untap X target permanents.
and
Soulfire Grand Master
Soulfire Grand Master
Lifelink
Instant and sorcery spells you control have lifelink.
{2}{U/R}{U/R}: The next time you cast an instant or sorcery spell from your hand this turn, put that card into your hand instead of into your graveyard as it resolves.
. As long as your lands can tap for at least seven mana, you can cast Spasm for two, untapping them all, and use Grand Master’s ability to put it back in your hand. Rinse and repeat for enough mana to win via any of your X-mana burn spells. If you need time to find one, you can also use this combo on your opponents’ upkeeps, using Spasm to tap all their permanents to essentially skip their turns.
Hinata also combos nicely with
Ghostly Flicker
Ghostly Flicker
Exile two target artifacts, creatures, and/or lands you control, then return those cards to the battlefield under your control.
and spell recursion creatures like
Archaeomancer
Archaeomancer
When this creature enters, return target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand.
. Flicker can be cast on two of your permanents for just one mana with Hinata out, blinking any untapped blue land and your recursion creature. You’ll then be able to grab Flicker out of the graveyard, and tap your refreshed land for blue mana, allowing for infinite Magecraft and Landfall triggers. By itself this doesn’t achieve much, but throw in a pinger like
Vivi Ornitier
Vivi Ornitier
{0}: Add X mana in any combination of {U} and/or {R}, where X is Vivi Ornitier's power. Activate only during your turn and only once each turn.
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, put a +1/+1 counter on Vivi Ornitier and it deals 1 damage to each opponent.
and you’ve got a very cheap instant win.
Cheap and Cheerful
While it certainly plays in the same space as other popular Spellslinger Commanders, Hinata’s focus on X spells makes it a unique, and powerful, option for the archetype. Despite this, it’s not quite as popular as you’d expect, with only around 7,031 players running it in the command zone according to EDHREC. It fares even worse in the 99, appearing in only 5,520 decks there, meaning it really doesn’t have the audience its power warrants just yet.
Unfortunate as this is, it does mean Hinata is a cheap card to pick up right now, even if you’re on a tight budget. Near-mint copies of the base version can be had for just $0.24 on TCGplayer right now, and the Showcase version is only a little more at $0.64. Given how cheap the majority of Hinata’s best support pieces also are, owing to their inefficiency elsewhere, this is a fantastic budget Commander deck to build, and one that can deliver real results.
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