When I picked today's deck list to write about, I was interested in the mechanics on the card more than anything else. I normally care about lore and want to make interesting, thematic decks, but I'm not exactly well-versed in Marvel lore. I've been following the Marvel Cinematic Universe but I haven't read all the comics-despite spending hours and hours every week in a comics shop for the better part of the last decade.

Who is Immortus in the MCU?

I could tell you from reading Marvel fan sites that Nathaniel Richards was from Earth-6311, a reality where humans never went through the Dark Ages. Another Nathaniel Richards from Earth-616 then brought peace to 6311's wartorn landscape. He managed to time travel to ancient Egypt, was known as Pharaoh Rama-Tut, was later known as the Scarlet Centurion, and also took on the moniker of Kang the Conqueror. ¬¬

I recognized that last reference, but the bottom line is that this is one complicated character. He lived a long time, had lots of adventures, and went by many different names. He's human, but he's also one of only a half dozen Creatures with a type line of Human Hero Villain.

Immortus, Master of Eternity is a 2/2 Human Hero Villain with a really interesting pair of abilities. He can tap to add a Blue mana for each card I've drawn this turn, but I can only use that mana to cast noncreature spells. That means I'll need to keep track of my Immortus mana separate from regular mana to make sure I don't accidentally use his to cast a Creature spell.

Things get really interesting with Immortus' power-up ability. For a whopping seven mana I can have each player shuffle their hand and graveyard into their library and then draw seven cards. Then I'll put a +1/+1 counter on Immortus. If that sounds familiar, that's basically Timetwister with an additional +1/+1 counter as an added bonus. Power-up abilities can only be activated once, and that cost is reduced by their mana value if you activate the ability on the same turn the Creature entered play.

My interest was piqued when I started thinking about ways to abuse Immortus' tap ability, but once I started brewing I realized it would be even more fun to see if I could figure out a way to also abuse his power-up ability. The power-up limitation of only being able to be used once is more restrictive than a once-per-turn limitation, but it only applies to a single instance of Immortus. If I were able to Blink him, I'd be able to use it again as it would be a new Immortus with no game memory of having used the ability.

Let's Do the Twist

Actually, first let's draw some cards. This list is chock full of ways to draw cards. We obviously include the one mana staples like Ponder, Preordain, and Consider. In addition to that, I included Faerie Mastermind, Mulldrifter, Windfall, and Intellectual Offering. I'm setting up for lots of extra card draw. I'm doing that to try to maximize the amount of mana Immortus, Master of Eternity can generate when he taps. Tapping him once in a single turn is nice, but I'm hoping to get more out of him than just a single tap.

Freed From the Real and Pemmin's Aura are the kind of cards I play when I'm up to no good. I'll almost never play them just for a single untap. I want to twist the enchanted Creature back and forth so much that it would make Chubby Checker blush. Freed From the Real lets you tap or untap enchanted Creature for . Pemmin's Aura lets you untap enchanted Creature for , and you can also give it Flying, Shroud, or either +1/-1 or -1/+1 until end of turn. That last ability costs just one colorless mana, but the other activations require a single Blue mana.

Chakram Retriever is an Elemental Hound with one heck of an ability. Whenever I cast a spell during my turn, I'll untap target Creature. It partners with the Red Chakram Slinger, but I've never needed anything more than Retriever. He's a very good boy, and he can work wonders with any Creature with a tap ability.

While my stated goal is to be able to untap Immortus, Master of Eternity as many times as possible, I've got a second Legend in this list who likes to twist and shout... and more importantly, draw cards. Arcanis the Omnipotent will tap to draw me three cards, and I can return him to my hand for . If I have a Haste enabler and infinite mana, that lets me draw my deck, but I'm mostly hoping to just use him to dig deeper into my library.

Why Not Both Abilties?

Abusing both Immortus' tap ability and power-up ability is my real goal for this deck. It'll be a challenge to make it happen, but with the right setup I think he can do it.

Displacer Kitten will let me Bink a Creature when I cast a spell, so I can exile and return Immortus to the battlefield. I'm running a slew of Haste enablers including Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Haunted Cloak, and Lavaspur Boots, along with Thousand-Year Elixir, which can let me use a Creature's tap ability as if it has Haste. Elixir can also untap a Creature, which is perfect for this deck.

Making a ton of mana that can only be used for noncreature spells isn't going to help me use Immortus' power-up ability, but all of my card draw might just dig me to one of my -costed card draw spells. Stroke of Genius and Blue Sun's Zenith won't just draw me X cards, they'll do so at Instant speed. If I can draw a ton of cards on the end step before my turn, I'm much more likely to be able to push for a win on my next turn.

One of the ways that can happen is through making infinite mana. This is where my power-up combo becomes a possibility.

Mana Rocks for Immortus, Master of Eternity

I've got a bunch of mana rocks, including Everflowing Chalice, which has Multikicker so I can use big mana from Immortus to make that mana rock able to tap for a bunch of mana. A heavy reliance on mana rocks pushes me towards running one of my favorite mana combos, Dramatic Scepter. Isochron Scepter and Dramatic Reversal can combo with enough mana rocks to make as much mana as I want.

How To Win With Immortus

If I've got a ton of mana that can be used on more than just noncreature spells, and I've got Displacer Kitten in play, I can use Immortus' power-up ability to draw seven cards, cast a spell, Blink Immortus, use his power-up ability again to get a fresh hand of seven cards, and hopefully cast another spell to just keep going.

The point is to draw into and play Laboratory Maniac or Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, and then keep going until I hit one of my card draw spells so I can draw into a "Lab Man" win.

Alternately, if I'm looking at an arbitrarily large amount of mana and the ability to churn through my deck as many times as I want, I can always just use Stroke of Genius or Blue Sun's Zenith to make each opponent draw a zillion cards and lose. Stroke of Genius will go to the graveyard but Immortus will let me put my graveyard and hand back into my library so it'll be waiting for me to draw into it again. Blue Sun's Zenith conveniently gets shuffled right back into my library for me to try to draw it again.

Continually using Immortus' Timetwister ability will let me churn through my deck to try to win, but it will also have my opponents churn through their decks. They may well have open mana, and if they do, I'll also be risking having them draw into an answer. To some extent that's part of the fun of this wincon. It's not guaranteed. I'm not really trying to play cEDH here, but if I wanted to lock my tablemates out of using their interaction I could always throw in a Conqueror's Flail or a Glen Elendra Archmage to help my chances of being able to avoid their removal.

Mastering Eternity

I've brewed up a few lists recently with the Dramatic Scepter combo, so I'll be the first to admit that this brew felt a little familiar. In mono Blue when you're heavily incentivized to play noncreature spells, it's hard to just pivot to running a deck loaded up with Sphinxes, Sea Monsters, or some other Creature that can fill up your side of the battlefield. The bottom line is that mana rocks are great in mono Blue EDH and it's an easy upgrade to run that combo as a way to win games.

I do think an Immortus deck focused much more heavily on Instants and Sorceries could be a lot of fun. You'd want to run support cards like Murmuring Mystic, Talrand, Sky Summoner and Docent of Perfection. You could even run big mana Blue spells like extra turn spells along with bangers like Rite of Replication and lean away from combo lines entirely.

Immortus, Master of Eternity | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Immortus, Master of Eternity

• Creatures (19)
• 1 Arcanis the Omnipotent
• 1 Archaeomancer
• 1 Archmage Emeritus
• 1 Archmage of Runes
• 1 Chakram Retriever
• 1 Displacer Kitten
• 1 Faerie Mastermind
• 1 Gadwick, the Wizened
• 1 Hullbreaker Horror
• 1 Laboratory Maniac
• 1 Ledger Shredder
• 1 Lier, Disciple of the Drowned
• 1 Mnemonic Wall
• 1 Mulldrifter
• 1 Psychosis Crawler
• 1 Spellseeker
• 1 The Vision
• 1 Valeria Richards, Precocious
• 1 Wan Shi Tong, Librarian

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Jace, Wielder of Mysteries

• Instants (15)
• 1 Aetherize
• 1 Aetherspouts
• 1 Arcane Denial
• 1 Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1 Brainstorm
• 1 Consider
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Cryptic Command
• 1 Dramatic Reversal
• 1 Intellectual Offering
• 1 Mystic Confluence
• 1 Pongify
• 1 Rapid Hybridization
• 1 Stroke of Genius
• 1 Swan Song

• Sorceries (7)
• 1 Fabricate
• 1 Ponder
• 1 Preordain
• 1 Serum Visions
• 1 Stolen by the Fae
• 1 Treasure Cruise
• 1 Windfall

• Enchantments (5)
• 1 Freed from the Real
• 1 Imprisoned in the Moon
• 1 Kasmina's Transmutation
• 1 Mystic Remora
• 1 Pemmin's Aura

• Artifacts (15)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Decanter of Endless Water
• 1 Everflowing Chalice
• 1 Gilded Lotus
• 1 Haunted Cloak
• 1 Isochron Scepter
• 1 Lavaspur Boots
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Sapphire Medallion
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Super Suit
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 The Water Crystal
• 1 Thought Vessel
• 1 Thousand-Year Elixir

• Lands (37)
• 33 Island
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Emergence Zone
• 1 Otawara, Soaring City
• 1 Reliquary Tower

Buy This Deck Export text

If you wanted to lower this deck's power level you'd start by dropping out the untappers and the combo pieces. You might consider running cards that play into more of a hug style like Temple Bell and Howling Mine. Having everyone draw cards in lower powered games is significantly less risky as you're unlikely to just draw an opponent into a combo win. Helping your tablemates draw cards is also a great way to help make sure nobody has a "non game" by missing too many land drops.

To power this list up, you'd probably start by running a few Game Changers like Rhystic Study, Cyclonic Rift, and Consecrated Sphinx. You might also run more tutors and a better package of counterspells. I don't know if it's worth pushing up into Bracket 4 but you could certainly throw in Force of Will and Fierce Guardianship along with High Tide, Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant, and Thassa's Oracle. I don't think Immortus has the chops to play in cEDH but I certainly could be wrong about that. He's powerful, but I don't think he's cEDH-level busted.

Final Thoughts

For the second week in a row I wasn't able to get this list into a game, but it can be hard to playtest each of these brews before submitting a column. I would remind you to look at any list I share here as a starting point from which you should make the deck your own.

Throw in your own pet cards, lean into your favorite strategies, and drop out whatever doesn't work for you. Every deckbuilder has their own quirks and no deck is ever really finished. There's always something you can do to make it a better fit for you, your playgroup, and your playstyle.

I may take a break from building in Blue for a few weeks. I recently put together an Oona, Queen of the Fae list for someone who has just started getting into the format, so I feel like I've been building around the same themes a lot lately. I don't often build and give away decks, and it was a real challenge to try to build it to be a budget list, as I didn't have or couldn't reasonably include a lot of the cards I rely upon heavily when I'm building for myself.

If you ever have the chance to build a deck for someone, I definitely encourage you to do so. They may not wind up getting into Commander, but it's such a fun format, and casual multiplayer is such a breath of fresh air compared to more competitive 1v1 formats that it's worth trying to lure them in.

At worst, they'll dip their toes into the deep waters of EDH and decide it isn't for them. At best, they'll get a chance to experience some of the unique and delightful madness that comes from playing Commander. It can be a real trip, and it's much more fun when you have friends to join you on it.

That's all I've got for today. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!