While it has a mixed reputation these days, not every implementation of Magic’s Partner mechanic has been unbalanced. The specific named Partner pairs, for instance, were fun, flavorful options that didn’t take over the upper Commander brackets like their open-ended peers.
Unfortunately, this lower power level has led many of these pairs to become lost to time, seeing little play in the current format. In the case of MTG Pir, Imaginative Rascal and Toothy, Imaginary Friend, this is a crying shame. Not only does this duo provide strong value individually and together, but it also unlocks some stellar combo lines, too.
Pir, Imaginative Rascal & Toothy, Imaginary Friend MTG
Serving as a counter doubler out of the command zone, Pir, Imaginative Rascal is undoubtedly the more exciting member of this MTG duo. Pir is actually more flexible than most effects in this space, like Hardened Scales, since it works on all permanents. This makes it great as a +1/+1 counter Commander, but equally potent at the head of a Superfriends brew.
That said, you’ll definitely want to focus mainly on +1/+1 counters for the benefit of Toothy, Imaginary Friend. The more counters you can stack on this Illusion, the more cards you’ll eventually get to draw. It’ll build up its own as you draw cards, but cards like Agatha’s Soul Cauldron and Proliferaters like Evolution Sage help speed things along.
Naturally, this pair is at its best when it’s in play together, since every draw will translate into two extra counters on Toothy. With efficient draw spells like Brainstorm, you can easily build Toothy into a threat big enough to land commander damage wins. Alternatively, you can stack a few at a time, then blink Toothy with something like Planar Incision for a burst of draw, powering a more traditional Aggro game plan.
Whichever direction you choose to take Pir and Toothy in, you’ll definitely want to stock up on Commander protection pieces. Both Partners are incredibly vulnerable and understatted at first, so keeping them around can be a challenge. Cards like Lightning Greaves are more crucial than ever here, and you may want to invest in cheap counter placement effects, like TMNT’s Mutagen tokens, to shore up Pir against board wipes.
Partners In Crime
Pir and Toothy are excellent as “fair” +1/+1 counter Commanders, but they shine even brighter when you start exploring their joint combo potential. Both Partners here have their own combo lines to offer, which gives them a sizable arsenal when run together.
Pir, Imaginative Rascal, as you’d expect from an MTG counter doubler, enables the lion’s share of these. With Vigor in play, you can remove a counter from Walking Ballista to ping itself, generating two extra counters due to Pir. Repeat this infinitely, and you can build up enough counters to ping the whole pod to death. Rite of Passage and Strength of Will can sub in for Vigor here, and are great buffs for Toothy outside of the combo.
Since Pir also works with non-creature permanents, you can pull off some unexpected artifact combos, too. With Magistrate’s Scepter and Contagion Engine, for example, you can build up enough charge counters to take an extra turn every single turn. You can also make infinite mana with a Gemstone Array, or Iceberg, and Doubling Season. While there’s a fair bit of redundancy for Pir in Walking Ballista combos, these lines are more unique to the Commander.
While its combo suite is less impressive, Toothy still has some tricks up its sleeve. Perhaps the best of these is letting you draw your whole deck with Mind Over Matter and O’aka, Traveling Merchant. O’aka can tap to remove one of Toothy’s counters to draw you a card, which will then replace the removed counter. You can then discard the newly-drawn card to Mind Over Matter to untap O’aka, then repeat the process. This can easily enable a win with Thassa’s Oracle or Laboratory Maniac.
A Worthy Investment?
Whether you push for massive bodies on board or quick-win combos, Pir and Toothy is a highly effective Partner combination. It’s also great to have the general Partner advantages, more options in the command zone and a guaranteed mana curve, but without relying on the more busted combos like Tymna, the Weaver and Kraum, Ludevic’s Opus.
Despite all of these benefits, Pir and Toothy actually don’t see a ton of play in current Commander. According to EHREC data, just 2,922 decks run them at the helm, which is low for such a potent duo. That said, the price of the pair may factor into this somewhat. Near-mint copies of Pir will set you back around $4.20 right now, and Toothy is even pricier at around $8.20. There aren’t any cheaper options available, either, since both have only been reprinted in much more expensive Secret Lair versions.
While these prices do put Pir and Toothy outside of budget territory for the most part, they’re still well worth investing in if you want to give Partner a try for your next Commander project. To this day, the duo remains one of the best, yet most balanced, examples of the mechanic in Magic.
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