Hello and welcome to another edition of A Seat at the Table where I pick a commander and talk about what I’d include in the 99. Today, in keeping with the trend of my last articles wherein I discussed the backup commanders from Warhammer 40k, here is another!

Magus Lucea Kane is the Human Tyranid Wizard backup singer of The Swarmlord and she’s going to be a pretty fun build-around ability. Let’s take a look at this 1/1 for 1GUR a little closer. Here’s a textbox:

“Spiritual Leader — At the beginning of combat on your turn, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.  

Psychic Stimulus — {T}: Add {C}{C}. When you next cast a spell with {X} in its mana cost or activate an ability with {X} in its activation cost this turn, copy that spell or ability. You may choose new targets for the copy. (A copy of a permanent spell becomes a token.)”  

What a strange mana dork. A Luminarch Aspirant / Sol Ring hybrid isn’t crazy in Commander, but leave her alone too long and you’ll regret it. This commander living in the zone means that your opponents know they can expect 6 or 7 drops like crazy. But with that X cost doubler, it means we’re looking at a direction this deck kind of takes itself.

I won’t mince words here – a lot of great cards that belong in any good Magus Lucea Kane deck are supplied with the Warhammer 40k Commander precon she is printed in. That being said, here are some of my favourite inclusions.

Unbound Flourishing

If your commander is unique save for an enchantment that does something similar, you bet your butt you should pop it in the 99 for redundancy. The difference is that the permanent spell does not get copied by Flourishing but rather its X gets doubled. However, with Magus Lucea Kane out, you’ll be copying doubles. Snake eyes, baby! Not to mention if you cast something like (#4 on this list) you’ll copy it twice and that means you’ll get its effect three times. That’s a spicy meatball.

Animar, Soul of Elements

Animar is a longtime format boogieman. One of the most ridiculous commanders to come up against when you’re sitting down against it for the very first time.

Want to use removal on it? Good luck Orzhov players. Whoops! Bedevil is black, too! How about that. The cost reduction for all of your X creatures means that as you continue to cast and copy creatures, you’re going to make things a lot cheaper over time.

Don’t have a creature to cast or need one more mana taken care of? No problem, Magus Lucea Kane can give Animar another +1/+1 counter and bring down the cost of all creatures you cast. A fantastic inclusion in this deck that I will groan at constantly.

Thousand-Year Elixir

Thousand-Year Elixir is here because your commander costs four and gives you two mana back if you can tap her right away. Hell, tap her to float two, use one to tap the Elixir to untap Magus Kane again, and you’ve got three mana and your commander effectively cost one! Untap effects are very strong in this deck. Fatestitcher and Kelpie Guide, maybe ever Intruder Alarm can make a big difference.

I also would like to draw your attention to the fact that this mana does not need to be used toward the X spell or ability to be copied by Magus Lucea Kane. She says “when you next cast a spell […] or activate an ability with X”, which means you tapping your commander to untap herself with Thousand-Year Elixir and then playing a Sol Ring, and then casting an Altered Ego with other mana still means you’ll get that copy. You don’t even need to pay into the X to get the effect!

Electrodominance

I teased this one because I love it so. Electrodominance is the card that got me a clean 3-0 at prerelease and I’ll never forget it. Even paying two mana into the X on this spell and copying it means that Sol Ring or Talismans or Signets coming down at instant speed while you’re sniping an Oracle of Mul Daya. Unfortunately, you can’t tap Magus in response to casting the card from Electrodominance because casting it is part of the resolution. But getting to pop down two cards from your hand while dealing double the damage is just an ode to all the burn players of the world.

Twinning Staff

Come on, it’s Twinning Staff! The name says it all! Automatically, when Magus Lucea Kane copies a single spell, you get another copy. That is some serious value. Spending seven mana to copy an instant or sorcery spell twice is steep, but your commander can pay into this pretty well, especially if you listened to section #3.

It’s a value card that draws hate and will either get dealt with, keeping attention off of other pieces, or get to stick around. At three mana, it also perfectly curves into your commander and asks – nay, tells the table who came to play!

Honorable Mention: Kalamax, the Stormier

Kalamax is a popular Temur commander who doubles the first instant you cast each turn as long as he’s tapped. The big dino is already leading a ton of decks and I could bet you good money that a few of those are X spells matters decks. Pop Kalamax in the 99 and give him a whirl with stuff like Storm King’s Thunder. Just don’t forget to pack your Magecraft all-stars Archmage Emeritus and Storm-Kiln Artist.

That does it for me in this edition of A Seat at the Table. Find me on Twitter @mikecarrozza and let me know what commander you’d like me to write up  next. I appreciate you reading and I’ll see you soon!

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