In most Magic: The Gathering formats, Commander included, Auras are seriously risky proposition. Opening yourself up to two-for-ones is risky, meaning Auras have a high bar to clear before they’re playable. This reputation has led to many MTG players avoiding Auras altogether, leaving gems like One with the Kami to languish unplayed. This is a crying shame, given its applications in several major Commander archetypes.
One With The Kami MTG
By creating tokens when your creatures with counters die, One with the Kami is a fantastic addition to +1/+1 Counter decks in Commander. In these lists, it serves a similar role to staples like The Ozolith, letting you maintain your board presence after your countered-up creatures get removed. Throw in cards that spread counters across your board, like Germination Practicum, and you can set up incredibly sticky board states.
One with the Kami is also excellent in Equipment decks like Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER, rewarding their typical focus on going tall with a huge burst of tokens. Said tokens also help boost some popular Equipment pieces, like Embercleave and Bloodforged Battle-Axe. With plenty of protection options like Mithril Coat, running an Aura in a focused equipment deck can be surprisingly safe.
Enchantress decks, like Sythis, Harvest’s Hand, can also make fantastic use of One with the Kami, as both an Aura and a value piece. These decks tend to run recursive Auras like Rancor to repeatedly trigger their synergies, which can net you a ton of tokens over time. It’s particularly nice with cards like Ellivere of the Wild Court, who can Modify your Spirits to get more down the line.
Being an Aura, One with the Kami is naturally fragile, so you’ll want to cover that weakness by running it alongside recursion like Starfield of Nyx or Auramancer. Adding in ways to copy it, like Ondu Spiritdancer and Yenna, Redtooth Regent, can help out a lot too. Board wipes can sneak around these methods, so you’ll also want to run some blanket protection like Heroic Intervention to deal with those.
Spirited Away
While it’s great by itself, One with the Kami also creates several deadly combos, like making infinite tokens alongside Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest and Viscera Seer. Assuming you have a Modified creature to sacrifice, you can stack the triggers so your Spirits enter first, then get Mazirek’s counters. Repeat this to create a lethal Spirit army on board, and Scry through your deck as much as desired.
If you’d rather draw your entire deck instead, One with the Kami can do that too with the help of Skullclamp and Pitiless Plunderer. Equip a Spirit with Skullclamp, and it’ll die immediately, netting you two cards, two Spirit tokens, and a Treasure. You can then repeat this to dig for any kind of win you’d like, or even empty your deck for something like Thassa’s Oracle.
One with the Kami can also get you wins through infinite damage, alongside Shuko and Blasting Station. Since Shuko can equip for free, you can kit out a Spirit and sacrifice it to Station for two more Spirits and one damage. Rinse and repeat to ping the whole table down, and create infinite Spirits in case your opponents somehow survive that.
In a similar vein, One with the Kami is also capable of generating infinite colored mana when combined with Phyrexian Altar and Lightning Greaves. Simply equip a Spirit with Greaves for free, then sacrifice it to Altar for some mana, generating another Spirit to repeat the process. You can then sink your mana into an outlet like Walking Ballista, or the new Gleaming Splendor, for an immediate win.
An Underrated Boon
Despite its wide-ranging applications and potent combo lines, One with the Kami remains fairly underplayed in current Commander. According to EDHREC data, only around 13,200 players run the card in their deck, which feels incredibly low. Though it sees regular play with a couple of Commanders, like Chishiro, the Shattered Blade and Stangg, Echo Warrior, the card still has a ton of latent potential.
On the plus side, this lack of love from the wider community means that One with the Kami is very affordable right now. On TCGplayer, you can pick up near-mint copies of this underrated Aura for just $0.25, with the extended art printing available for the same price. At these prices, the card is an absolute steal, and a must-have for your next Modified deck, budget or otherwise.
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