I’ll admit it—I’m a filthy combo player. Little excites me more than putting together a Rube Goldberg-esque cascade of activating pieces that culminate in a game win, and seeing that come together in both deck building, then play, is a huge place of reward for me as a player. That being said, combos are contentious, and there are certainly groups or players who outright despise that path to victory, in spite of the outcome being just the same as a Craterhoof Behemoth, or value-jerk aristocrats pinging for 1 thirty-odd times. In that vein, today I want to branch out, and design a deck I could have fun with in spite of it deliberately lacking any form of combo finish. Maester Seymour absolutely delivers. This is a companion piece to my previous coverage of Spider-Man Noir, and because so much of the deck’s philosophy is the same despite being in an entirely different color, I’m covering it here on my shortform series, The Puzzlebox.
This is part of a new shortform series for Goonhammer where I’m covering rapid-fire concepts for Commanders I couldn’t cover in a full Commander Focus, so if you like what you see, certainly let us know!
Spaceships, Clocks, & Boxes
First, let’s quickly cover the conceit of the deck, for those who haven’t read the article on Noir (you’ve come this far; give it a look). Several Commanders care about counters on Creatures, period, and the release of Spacecraft in Edge of Eternities has allowed a number of colors to stack these counters far higher than previously. On top of that, by animating one of a few different Artifacts, the key ones being The Millennium Calendar & Vexing Puzzlebox, we can far exceed the expected number of counters Wizards likely had in designing these Commanders. This is called ‘design context’, and we’re cracking it in half. In Noir’s case (and Felisa, Fang of Silverquill, another great option), the end result is often a path towards a game-ending infinite combo, but Maester Seymour bucks the trend in simply giving you a greater ability to stomp.
Suddenly Seymour
Being in Green has its upsides, however, as in an odd twist of fate it’s perhaps the second-best color when it comes to actually animating the key Artifacts. Cards like Tawnos’s Tinkering & Lifecraft Awakening, from Artifact-centric sets where Wizards still needed to give Green its nature-centric identity, are far better options than the likes of Xenic Poltergeist (A real card we’re playing in Noir). Green also has far better Spacecraft than Black, with Exploration Broodship being one of my favorite cards released recently, on top of being the only Spacecraft tutorable by Tezzeret, Cruel Captain. Green has the lowest curve of any color, when it comes to their Spacecraft, and given we aim to size up our creatures using Seymour’s triggered ability, they also come online far faster, and with a higher Charge Counter ceiling.
Speaking about the deck’s floor, however, it’s honestly not bad for its bracket either! There’s a host of cards which stack counters at the start of Combat, from Innkeeper’s Talent to Ornery Tumblewagg, and due to how these triggers operate, you can ‘bounce’ the power between Seymour and other cards, meaning your aggressive gameplan gets up & running even faster. You don’t need an animate Calendar to spread around 100+ +1/+1 counters, as even a ~6 power Seymour is going to be creating lethal threats turn by turn. There’s even a psuedo-Seymour if he gets removed, in Hydra Trainer, which checks for all your permanents, meaning you don’t even need to animate a Puzzlebox to swing out!
Monster Effect Activation
Unlike Noir or Felisa, Seymour requires a significant cost of {3}{G}{G} to extract value from your animated Artifact existing, and that’s on top of the cost to turn said piece into a Creature! This keeps Seymour firmly in the space of a late-game threat, despite coming out early, whose ability to turn the corner and present lethal is both predictable and clear. Still, the fact you’ve got to buy-in so heavily to his activated ability pushed me to add an entire activated ability package, which funny enough has plenty of crossover with his counter gimmick! Marvin, Murderous Mimic can borrow Maester’s Monstrosity, and placing counters on Cryptic Trilobite is wildly mana-positive, if you have outlets to spend it on. We can likewise pass along abilities with Agatha’s Soul Cauldron, but there’s a good chance our Creatures already possess the necessary counters; this means that here, unlike so many lists with the Cauldron, we’re actively able to duplicate these abilities across a ton of bodies. I have a fondness for these durdley, finicky strategies, and this is far from the first time I’ve built an activated ability package into a deck where it would otherwise be ancillary. If I can justify Pit Automaton, there’s a good chance I’m having fun with that Commander.
Example Decklist: Feed Me, Seymour!
The most noteworthy thing about this list, beyond what’s been stated, is how deep we are on protection for our board. Not only is our constantly-growing board obviously threatening, even to someone extremely new to Commander, but Maester leaves himself open to targeted removal as soon as that Monstrosity ability goes on the stack. So much of the deck hinges on resolving and keeping on the board a Creature with no protection, with a 5-cost, highly telegraphed ability. There’s no sneaky combo, or pieces that matter beyond the board—just chunky Green dudes scaling faster than anyone is prepared for. Tyrant Guard, Silkguard, & Collective Resistance are all solid protection, and of course Green has access to Heroic Intervention. Critically, most of these can protect our entire board, rather than just Seymour, given he receives his value from stacking counters on both himself and a secondary target. If you’re worried about your Calendars or Puzzleboxes being removed when targeted for animation you can, conversely, run cards like Defend the Rider which protect specific permanents.
Decklists are kept updated, and may change with set releases.
The great news is that, if you’re not averse to combos, it’s fairly easy to slot some in here that readily end the game with pieces we’re already playing. Creatures like Gyre Sage & Kami of Whispered Hopes almost immediately tap for 3+ mana, which means we’re one step away from an infinite amount via Umbral Mantle or Sword of the Paruns. This category of ‘Green mana dork that goes infinite with a repeatable untap effect’ is a dime a dozen, and certainly makes for a path towards victory. That being said, our Commander isn’t technically a mana outlet, meaning you’ll need some third piece to actually push to the endgame. This comes down to Monstrosity not only being once-per-Creature, but also Seymour’s ability to spread that power being locked to once per Combat. To some extent, this goes to show why Seymour is arguably better as a combo-free Commander, given as soon as you attempt to evaluate him as such he loses out to other options. In Seymour’s own funny little world of animate Artifacts, however, he’s a Maester of his domain.
Reading the Room
Commander is an inherently social format, and even at its highest level players are beholden to the ‘game within a game’ that is table politics. Beyond that, though, each player arrives to the table with their own conception of how a Commander game ought to go, ideally ending with them as the well-earned victor; these outlooks are inherently competitive, if we assume everyone arrives with at least some intent to win. That being said, the version of Commander one has in their head is going to be different from their neighbor, and where those differences most often manifest is in the acceptable win conditions.
Nearly everyone agrees that combat is a valid path to victory, but oh, if you do it with Infect that might upset some players. Most folks want the game to slow down, but if you’re playing stax or hatebears, you may get grief from opponents. These are broad strokes, but the point I’m trying to make comes down to the need to compromise and find the line of best fit for a given game’s power curve. The Bracket system is imperfect, but what it is exceptional at tackling is bad actors playing combo decks; boxing out 2-card combos at Bracket 2, those before turn 6 in Bracket 3, and limiting some of the most egregious offenders via the Game Changer list are all huge strides towards a more shared format identity. Even so, bringing any combo deck to Bracket 2 remains contentious, in spite of it being explicitly outlined that only 2-card combos are verboten.
Until we receive further correspondence from the Commander Format Panel, it’s up to us as players to self-regulate, and within reason, even the combo players among us ought to have at least one deck whose aims are far fairer. It’s difficult, given the transition to building aggressive strategies to deal with 120 life, from the standard 20, but it’s the difference between a boxing match and putting together a jigsaw puzzle in a hurricane. Unless your opponents are aware you’re a combo deck, and target you accordingly, those wins can feel anticlimactic, and unless everyone has a combo finish to some extent, you become the de-facto punching bag. If either of those become exhausting facets to a game night, it might be time to take my lead, and diversify just a tad. Even the Johnny inside us all can have fun going to combat.
I’ve said my peace on Seymour & the many paths towards fun with counters, so what mechanic or Commander should I cover next on The Puzzlebox? This is a series built on rapid prototyping underutilized mechanics for Commander, and while there’s always more to cover, I’d love to hear ideas from my readers!
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