Hello and welcome to another edition of A Seat at the Table where I focus on what cards to add to your Commander decks.
This week, I’ll be waxing about the Painbow precon face commander, Jared Carthalion. He’s not just a Naya beater anymore, Jared Carthalion is a planeswalker for all. Costing a full WUBRG and coming in with 5 loyalty, Jared has some interesting directions to go in. Let’s see the textbox.
“+1: Create a 3/3 Kavu creature token with trample that’s all colors.
−3: Choose up to two target creatures. For each of them, put a number of +1/+1 counters on it equal to the number of colors it is.
−6: Return target multicolored card from your graveyard to your hand. If that card was all colors, draw a card and create two Treasure tokens.
Jared Carthalion can be your commander.”
Alright, first thing’s first: all colours means White, Blue, Black, Red, and Green. Unless Magic’s future leads us to a sixth colour, we’re looking at just the five colours of Magic as they currently stand. The +1 ability sets up the -3 pretty nicely, giving you an 8/8 with trample that you can keep buffing. The -6 ability is very disappointing unless you’re targeting something like Niv-Mizzet Reborn. While Ramos, Dragon Engine has WUBRG commander identity, it is a colourless artifact creature.
Here’s a few cards I’ll be swapping into Jared.
Kasmina, Enigma Sage is a planeswalker that gives her abilities to other planeswalkers you control. Usually seen in Superfriends decks helmed by Atraxa, Praetor’s Voice, I haven’t personally found a spot for my copy, yet. Until today, that is.
In Jared Carthalion, Kasmina can scry to keep herself alive, but what a payoff for Jared in that -8. The flexibility of a tutor and a cast and not worrying about the restriction of color. Need a board wipe? Damnation and Wrath of God are in your colours. Need a draw spell? Rush of Knowledge is solid when your commander is 5 mana. How about winning the game against graveyard players? Rise of the Dark Realms ends a game pretty quickly in my experience. If needed, Fractal tokens can come in handy too, but with the Kavu I think we’re set.
This one is pretty simple. Your commander is a planeswalker. Giving this to Jared even at starting loyalty means that it’s a 5/5. -3 takes him to 2/2, but then what’s this? Put five +1/+1 counters on him makes him a 7/7, but those counters are counted by Luxior, so an extra 5. So we’re looking at 12/12 from one activation. If Jared’s got an opening, that’s game over in two attacks for one of your opponents. Just like Jared Carthalion, True Heir, you can kill opponents with commander damage again. All you need is this truly beautiful mythic from Streets of New Capenna.
I love this card. I run it in my Aminatou, the Fateshifter deck and if I decide to go full planeswalker tribal for Jared, this card only has more room to go up. Even with Jared as your only planeswalker, attaching Luxior to one of those Kavu’s you’ve buffed makes them 13/13s.
Makes them 13/13s… for now. Knight of New Alara is a fun little guy who did work in Rienne, Angel of Rebirth, but has a lot more room here. Just making a Kavu with Jared’s +1 ability means you’re making 8/8s that with the -3 become 13/13s again. If you’ve already got Luxior on the Kavu’s with the buffs, they are 18/18 tramplers and while they are vulnerable to removal, they can swing hard. I wonder what other kinds of cards are worth piling into this deck with Knight of New Alara…
Nephilim / Saskia the Unyielding / Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis / Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder / Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice
While Ink-Treader Nephilim can be a bit of a liability, the rest of the Nephilim are weird creatures that have cool abilities and benefit by four +1/+1 counters from Jared’s -3 ability. Yore-Tiller Nephilim hits the battlefield, you downtick Jared, it’s swinging for 6 and brings back a creature from your graveyard tapped and attacking. Maybe Saskia, the Unyielding, picking someone unsuspecting of the assault as her focus. Maybe Yidris, Maelstrom Wanderer for post-combat shenanigans. Maybe Atraxa to pump Jared at the end of turn. Kynaios and Tiro to ramp at the end of turn. Either way, all of these creatures deserve a slot in the 99 here.
Nobody can mess with you when you have the Flail equipped. This used to be nearly $40 with a single printing in C16, but now you can get them for about $7. This equipment attached to Yidris can have him swing in for 10 damage if you control your commander or just a white permanent. Protect your cascading waterfall of spells post-combat, baby! Anything you want to do during your turn cannot be messed with by spells. Abilities are still fair game, look out.
Faeburrow Elder / Bloom Tender / Prismatic Omen / Dryad of the Ilysian Grove
You can’t have a five colour deck without a little mana fixing. Of course, Faeburrow Elder and Bloom Tender only tap for the mana of colours you already control, but once Jared’s out, these two become Timeless Lotuses, tapping for WUBRG. Great mana dorks! Plus Bloom Tender was so expensive and was just reprinted. Be sure to get one before they shoot up again.
Prismatic Omen ain’t a cheap card to buy, but to play it’s pretty great. It gives you Domain instantly. For two mana, you don’t have to worry about a thing. Cabal Coffers is online. Chromatic Orrery and Chromatic Lantern also do a similar thing minus the Domain and Coffers situation, but here’s a card some people might not know!
Dryad of the Ilysian Grove is a ridiculous card that is Exploration and Prismatic Omen on legs. That’s the whole card. It’s an enchantment creature at 2/4, but my god the static abilities are where it’s at.
That does it for Jared! Let me know what you’re playing over the Painbow! If you want me to cover a commander get in touch with me @mikecarrozza and I’ll see what I can do!
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