Many mono-blue commanders have . . . reputations. Reputations of unfairness. Reputations of being annoying. Reputations of deserving first death. There are many cool things I wanted to do in blue, but I couldn’t do them if I picked a commander that sent me home early.

Enter Soramaro, First to Dream. Soramaro is a flyer, is reasonably capable of killing via commander damage, and draws cards. Flying, commander damage, and card-draw are all valuable in Commander (in fact, I’ve heard a rumor that commander damage is straight-up useless outside the format). It seemed prudent to put them together.

What's that blue thing doing here? It’s owning the face, like so:

Kinda-Sora

• Commander (0)

• The Mana (39)
• 36 Island
• 1 Pristine Talisman
• 1 Chronatog Totem
• 1 Iceberg

• Bounce and Its Combos (6)
• 1 Sunken Hope
• 1 Iron Maiden
• 1 Evacuation
• 1 Inundate
• 1 Noetic Scales
• 1 Temporal Cascade

• Drawing Cards (8)
• 1 Ponder
• 1 Howling Mine
• 1 Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1 Foresee
• 1 Jace's Ingenuity
• 1 Fathom Trawl
• 1 Jace, Memory Adept
• 1 Thought Reflection

• Wizards of a Coast (8)
• 1 Willbender
• 1 Vedalken Aethermage
• 1 Apprentice Wizard
• 1 Serendib Sorcerer
• 1 Sea Gate Oracle
• 1 Raven Guild Master
• 1 Azami, Lady of Scrolls
• 1 Beguiler of Wills

• Stealing Things (8)
• 1 Control Magic
• 1 Mind Control
• 1 Confiscate
• 1 Volition Reins
• 1 Vedalken Shackles
• 1 Steal Artifact
• 1 Dominate
• 1 Spelljack

• Other Creatures (19)
• 1 Ludevic's Test Subject
• 1 Shape Stealer
• 1 Drift of Phantasms
• 1 Tidewalker
• 1 Floodgate
• 1 Clone
• 1 Viseling
• 1 Air Servant
• 1 Mnemonic Wall
• 1 Chromeshell Crab
• 1 Sturmgeist
• 1 Frost Titan
• 1 Draining Whelk
• 1 Harbor Serpent
• 1 Sphinx of Uthuun
• 1 Patron of the Moon
• 1 Phyrexian Ingester
• 1 Chancellor of the Spires
• 1 Kederekt Leviathan

• Other Noncreatures (11)
• 1 Back to Basics
• 1 Quicksilver Fountain
• 1 Strata Scythe
• 1 Fool's Demise
• 1 Druidic Satchel
• 1 Gigadrowse
• 1 Sleep
• 1 Mnemonic Nexus
• 1 Negate
• 1 Cancel
• 1 Mindbreak Trap

Buy This Deck

So, what’s going on under the hood? Plenty. And it starts with . . .

The Mana

The relevant part of the mana base is the abundance of Islands. Several cards key off Islands: Tidewalker, Floodgate, Vedalken Shackles, and Strata Scythe. Quicksilver Fountain and Back to Basics fight expensive decks’ mana bases while leaving yours alone. Since Islands made with Quicksilver Fountain stay Islands if the Fountain leaves the battlefield, it has to be removed early or else it will take over opposing mana bases. Floodgate is annoying from a different perspective: blue board wipe. Mono-blue probably shouldn’t have a one-sided, damage-based sweeper, but it does. Plus, Floodgate’s worded to allow several tricks, all of which are fun for me at least. The biggest one is . . .

Bounce and Its Combos

But bounce is only stalling unless you leverage it. Iron Maiden and Viseling punish players for an excessively large hand. If I happen to have given those players such hands through bounce (or occasionally Blue Sun's Zenith), so much the better. Noetic Scales is a form of bounce that has no intention of hitting my commander (since it will never be larger than the cards in my hand absent help); although it can burn me if my opponents return good enters-the-battlefield creatures, the Scales generally keep hands large. Since I control Noetic Scales and Iron Maiden/Viseling triggers, I get to choose their order, which is obviously optimal.

While I’m punishing everyone for their hands, I might as well be . . .

Drawing Cards

Jace, Memory Adept gives me the mill option in a long game and the threat of dealing lethal damage with Jace’s ultimate (I haven’t pulled this off, but it seems amazing—everybody draws twenty cards, after which I play Iron Maiden and Viseling).

There’s also Azami, Lady of Scrolls as part of my . . .

Wizards of a Coast

There will be those wonderful times, however, when it’s right to find Beguiler of Wills. For a blue deck, I’m running a fair number of creatures, so the Beguiler sometimes takes over a game. It’s complemented by all my ways of . . .

Stealing Things

It’s not as though you didn’t know stealing in Commander is a good idea. I just happen to have a lot of it. It’s all part of a blue deck’s . . .

Basic Utility

In the noncreature utility category, Druidic Satchel gives three potential outcomes, all of them useful. Sleep allows everyone to swing at the toughest opponent; it’s deadly if the table is so minded. Gigadrowse offers a similar surprise: It looks underpowered for Commander, but it’s saved my bacon several times while offering the same surprise vulnerability as Sleep. Mnemonic Nexus backs up Temporal Cascade as a graveyard hoser and Mnemonic Wall as an alphabet soup. Negate, Cancel, and Mindbreak Trap are straightforward, as is Draining Whelk. If opponents are going to fear open blue mana, you need to flash counterspells just enough for them to respect the possibility; four counterspells should do that.

Summary

With several paths to victory—big creatures, stolen creatures, Iron Maiden plus bounce—Soramaro’s one of my more competitive decks. There’s enough card-draw to keep pace with anyone while punishing whoever else is drawing cards. The core principles make the deck cheap to build as well; take out Vedalken Shackles, and you’re looking at around sixty dollars, primarily because the land base has a reason to be all Islands. In general, basic-lands-matter themes in Commander save you money and open up several cards that normally don’t matter, and this deck takes full advantage of them. To the extent that I have a griefer streak, this is where most of it comes out in Commander. I have loads of fun playing this deck. You might, too.