There’s little more exciting in Magic: The Gathering than free spells. Whether you’re dumping a bunch of zero-mana accelerants to get your payoffs out quicker or using an effect to generate some massive value, it’s tough to go wrong when you get to ignore the mana system altogether.
In the right context, a new MTG Avatar Mythic can pump out a whole bunch of free spells in short order. So much so, in fact, that Planetarium of Wan Shi Tong might be what an emerging Commander archetype needs to finally break out.
Planetarium of Wan Shi Tong MTG
For six mana, Planetary of Wan Shi Tong is a free spell engine that rewards you for gaining knowledge. Scrying and Surveiling can set up Planetarium of Wan Shi Tong’s triggered ability, allowing you to stack the top of your library with a powerful spell to cheat into play for free. The built-in Scry trigger allows Planetarium of Wan Shi Tong to cheat out spells on its own, making it powerful enough to see play across all kinds of different Commander strategies.
Any deck ramp deck that wants to drop massive spells can easily afford to play this. Seven mana isn’t the hardest to reach in Commander, and doing so immediately allows you to start fixing your deck and play other massive spells for free. At the very least, this should keep you drawing the right cards to play, rather than getting stuck on more, now redundant, ramp.
Thankfully, even if you can’t scry your way out of bad cards, free spells are still free spells. Due to this, it’s hard to scoff at the value this card provides, even if it is limited by a once-per-turn clause. Notably, even this limit is still abuseable since it’s easy to Scry or Surveil on your opponent’s turn. This makes getting four free spells per turn cycle surprisingly achievable.
Maximizing Scry
Since Planetarium of Wan Shi Tong has a once-per-turn restriction, we’ll need a way to make sure this artifact can trigger every turn. Using cheap cantrip spells like Opt and Consider is the easiest way to do this, but repeatable Scry outlets are the best bet for repeat and consistent value.
If you’re playing Planetarium of Wan Shi Tong in a spellslinger deck, Jace’s Sanctum can make a good partner in crime. This will give all of your instants and sorceries Scry effects that trigger your Planetarium, making scrying on an opponent’s turn trivial. Both Zaffai, Thunder Conductor and Fandaniel, Telophoroi Ascian will also do the same thing, while providing extra utility on top.
Conversely, if you’re running Planetarium of Wan Shi Tong in a ramp deck, Retreat to Coralhelm is all you’ll need to trigger Planetarium of Wan Shi Tong over and over again. The card offers a Scry effect on Landfall, turning all of your Evolving Wilds into extra free spells.
Of course, you can also Scry every turn by untapping Planetarium of Wan Shi Tong itself. Due to this, Unwinding Clock and Seedborn Muse can let you cast a free spell on each player’s turn, so long as you have the mana available to activate the Planetarium’s ability.
As far as a generic outlet that can Scry or Surveil on each player’s turn goes, there’s surprisingly little choice. Hedron Alignment is bizarrely the most efficient, offering a three mana enchantment with Hexproof that can Scry one for two mana. The win condition portion of the card is useless in Commander, so Hedron Alignment really only makes sense in a deck that’s all in on Scrying synergies.
The Archetype is Getting Lots of Support
It seems like each Universes Beyond crossover is sprinkling a few powerful pieces of support for the secret Scry/Surveil archetype. Between River Song and Matoya, Archon Elder, a Scry and Surveil Commander deck is now extremely easy to do. Heck, The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth even had an entire Draft archetype focused around the mechanic.
Whether Scrying is a core part of your game plan or not, all kinds of Commander decks should find a new tool in Planetarium of Wan Shi Tong. The card could even see some constructed play if you can ramp out the Planetarium quickly enough. Maybe Badgermole Cub will be enough to get there, but who knows for sure.
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