In a way, Lier, Disciple of the Drowned, allows you to play Magic with two hands of cards. Your graveyard becomes your “second hand” as Lier gives all your instant and sorceries flashback, allowing you to recast them from your graveyard.
Double-casting your instants and sorceries can grind some serious value, doubling up on card draw, removal, and extra turn spells.
Lier, Disciple of the Drowned
While most blue control decks play tons of countermagic, Lier is the exception. He has an ability that prevents all spells from being countered. While this does limit what cards you can play in the deck, it also devastates any other blue players in your Commander pod by preventing their counterspells.
Despite its lack of access to counterspells, Lier is still a heavy control deck. It plays game-changing sweeper cards and draws cards like no tomorrow.
Take Control of the Battlefield
The following are my two favorite spells in my Lier Commander deck, and what I consider to be must-includes in any Lier deck.
Tempted by the Oriq
Tempted by the Oriq is at its best in Commander where it can take a creature from each of your three opponents. And it’s even better inside the 99 of Lier, Disciple of the Drowned, which can recast it.
This spell can potentially take control of nine mana worth of creatures for just four mana. And for Lier to double up on this effect, swings the game heavily in your favor.
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Consuming Tide
Board wipes are great for control strategies. They’re a hard reset when a game gets out of hand. But at the same time, you don’t want to kill your Commander. Consuming Tide gets around this in that you can keep Lier on the board while returning all other permanents to their owners’ hands.
As if that weren’t enough, this useful board wipe also has the ability up to three draw cards. Flash this spell back with Lier, and you can bounce the entire board twice and draw up to six cards.
Counterspells That Don’t “Counter”
Lier can’t play Counterspell, Force of Will, or any other spell that says “counter target spell”. But there is a way around this.
If you can return a spell to its owner’s hand (bounce) while it is still on the stack, the spell does not resolve. Hullbreaker Horror can do this repeatedly whenever you cast another spell. Narset’s Reversal bounce an opposing spell to its owner’s hand while letting you play a copy of it in the process. And Unsubstantiate adds some versatility to this effect in that it can also bounce creatures on the battlefield.
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Protect Lier
Keeping Lier in play is integral to this deck’s strategy. Cards like the aforementioned Unsubstantiate are excellent at doing this. But there are many more ways to protect Lier.
Chain of Vapor can be used in a pinch to return Lier to your hand before it gets destroyed. In response to a removal spell, Essence Flux can exile Lier and return it to the battlefield. And Mizzium Skin can give all your creatures hexproof for a turn.
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Card Draw
Thanks to Lier, any spell that lets you draw cards in this deck virtually draws you twice as many because you can recast them from your graveyard.
Cantrips
A “cantrip”, in Magic: the Gathering, refers to a spell that draws cards in addition to a minor effect for usually very low mana costs. While cantrips don’t drastically impact the game, Lier can abuse cantrips, double-casting them to really dig through your library.
Thought Scour laces your graveyard with more fuel for Lier. Quicken will catch opponents off-guard when you cast devasting sorcery speed effects out of nowhere. And Serum Visions sets up your library to draw impactful spells.
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More Draw Spells
Unlike most decks, Lier loves it when you discard cards because your graveyard acts as a “second hand”. Purposefully loading up your graveyard with cards like Windfall, Frantic Search, and Tolarian Winds acrews tons of value.
Spellslinger Payoffs
Lier is a spellslinger deck, a deck that primarily plays instants and sorceries. There are many cards that can take advantage of this.
Octavia and Metallurgic Summonings make massive creature tokens whenever you cast an instant or sorcery. And Swarm Intelligence makes copies of your instants and sorceries, giving you double their value (or quadrupal because Lier will recast them)!
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Reduce Casting Costs
Catalyst Stone discounts the cost of all the instant and sorceries you flash back with Lier by two mana , leading to super efficient Consuming Tides and Windfalls.
Primal Amulet discounts all your instants and sorceries when you cast them from your hand or flash them back with Lier. Plus, it transforms into Primal Wellspring, which makes more mana and can make copies of your spells.
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Take Double the Extra Turns
Extra turn spells like Time Warp and Temporal Manipulation basically give you two extra turns because of Lier. Since they go to your graveyard, you can flash them back on your next turn and go again.
Time Stretch is absolutely bonkers with Lier because together, you’ll get four extra turns.
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