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Main » Articles » Shigeki's Many Uses in Commander

Shigeki's Many Uses in Commander

Mark Wischkaemper
Posted on February 22, 2022
 Reddit

Let's jump right in, shall we?

Shigeki, Jukai Visionary

That's... weird, is what that is. We get a Legendary Snake Druid, who's also an Enchantment. We can pay some mana to tap it and return it to our hand, then mill three cards and put a land in our hand. We can also pay some more mana and discard it to Eternal Witness some nonlegendary cards back to our hand. It makes sense, right? We can hit our land drops every turn, then just buy back all the stuff we mill that we wish we hadn't, skipping right past the chaff.

There's a deck there. Perhaps it's a Mono-Green combo deck, where the focus is on getting Shigeki out and churning through our library, eventually dumping the pieces of the combo we need in the 'yard, then finally Channeling them back to our hand and winning in one fell swoop. If I were going to do that, I'd probably start with these cards with Shigeki, Jukai Visionary as my commander:

Shigeki Combo Module | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

The idea here is to make infinite mana with Wakeroot Elemental and Castle Garenbrig, which can then be used to turn all our lands into 5/5s, then drop Craterhoof Behemoth and alpha strike for the win. Alternately, we can play Kogla, the Titan Ape and use it to return Hyrax Tower Scout, then tap Selvala, Heart of the Wilds to make seven mana, replay the Tower Scout and untap Selvala, going infinite that way, then feed all the mana into Helix Pinnacle and win the game on the next upkeep. In both cases (or any other infinite combo), Shigeki can dig and bin all the pieces, then return them with a single Channel, setting up the win.

But really, I think I'm more interested in running Shigeki as part of the 99. My first thought was as part of a deck built around Titania, Protector of Argoth. Titania's another weird one, but if you're willing to jump through hoops you wind up with a pretty powerful ability making 5/3 Elementals each time you sacrifice a land. Because Shigeki will make sure you keep drawing lands, and any that you throw away can be brought back with Titania, there's some nice synergy there. I think I'd want a way to make sure Titania didn't have to be cast all the time, and I'd want some reliable ways to put lands in my graveyard. A couple more ways to get lands back wouldn't hurt, either. This list is probably a decent place to start.

Shigeki in Titania | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

Conjurer's Closet lets us get back a land every turn with Titania, and Ancient Greenwarden and Ramunap Excavator both let us play the lands we sac along the way so we don't wind up too far behind. World Breaker can EWit itself, Sustenance lets us pump our creatures, and Constant Mists' Buyback means we'll always have a Fog in hand. Arcane Spyglass is a fun one, too, drawing us cards while making us Elementals. And of course, Shigeki keeps finding those lands for us so we never miss a drop, and eventually can get us back a bunch of stuff we may have dumped along the way.

One super fun really horrible thing you could do, if you really want to lose your friends, would be to run Shigeki as an additional Eternal Witness effect in a deck around Jolrael, Empress of Beasts. It's a small bunch of cards, but take a look and then I'll explain how you can make it so no one will ever want to play Magic with you again.

Shigeki in Jolrael | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

The idea here is you can use Jolrael's ability to make someone's lands creatures, then pop Nevinyrral's Disk and destroy all their lands. If we cast Heroic Intervention in response, we won't even lose our stuff, but we can also do this in response to a Wrath effect being cast by an opponent. Since we'll have to discard two cards, we can use Shigeki to Channel them back to our hand and either cast them or just do it again. Eternal Witness can buy back Shigeki, who can turn around and buy back EWit the next time we Channel him. Done correctly, you can Armageddon the entire board except for yours, which again is a really neat terrible thing to do to people.

One more Mono-Green before we look at some other Commanders. There is value in creatures which can be replayed, especially inexpensively, in a deck helmed by Yorvo, Lord of Garenbrig. No, Shigeki isn't big enough to give Yorvo two counters, but still, being able to reliably cast a creature every turn can make sure Yorvo is doing what it wants to do.

Any deck built around Sythis, Harvest's Hand likely wants every creature it can get its hand on which triggers its ability. Plus, the fact it's a blocker that can return itself to hand before damage, getting a land into hand while it's at it, and losing the extra cards to the Graveyard, is a small price to pay.

I'd love to play Shigeki in a deck led by Omnath, Locus of Creation. We want to hit our land drop every turn in a deck like this. Blue lets us leverage those drops into more cards, White gives us access to some recursion without having to Channel Shigeki, and Red throws damage around.

Shigeki in Omnath | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

With Crucible of Worlds-style effects in addition to the above, we've got the beginnings of a deck which moves a lot of cards, and every time it does a lot of things happen. The deck will make tokens, do damage, draw cards, return things from the Graveyard, play lands, and Shigeki helps push that along by filling the 'yard and hitting those drops.

But the truth is, there's only one place I really want to have Shigeki. I don't know why I keep this deck around - my friends hate it, no one wants me to play it, and it's mean every time I bring it out, but what can I say? She calls my name, and Shigeki is exactly the kind of card it wants.

Meren of Clan Nel Toth

The goal with Meren is to make it impossible for my opponents to have creatures. In the meantime, I'm going to be bouncing my creatures in and out of the 'yard, constantly gaining value from each recursion. Take a look at the following starting point:

Shigeki in Meren | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

We want to start with a cheap creature that sacrifices itself; Sakura-Tribe Elder is one of the best examples. We build up our Experience counters and use creatures like Plaguecrafter to keep the board clear, eventually adding effects like Butcher of Malakir's (Grave Pact and Dictate of Erebos work too) to double up. Grave Betrayal will steal all those sacrificed creatures our opponents have, and Sidisi can Exploit itself to get whatever we want every turn. Shigeki does double duty here, coming down early and filling the 'yard with juicy reanimation targets for later and ensuring those land drops, then later getting back any number of things we can't get back with Meren, like, say, Grave Betrayal.

Where would you play Shigeki? Would you twist and turn to make it work at the helm of a deck? Slide it into the 99 of one of these, or another one I didn't mention? Let us know in the comments!

Thanks for reading.

Commander HQ: Decklists and Strategy for Kamigawa Neon Dynasty's Legendary Creatures!

TAGS articles, casual, kamigawa, edh, commander, decklist, mark wischkaemper, neon dynasty, kamigawa neon dynasty, 02222022, shigeki jukai visionary, commander hq

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