The three-drop slot is, to me, where a casual Commander deck really starts to hum. Serious utility starts to show up in cards like Eternal Witness. Mana Rocks do more than just tap for mana thanks to Commander's Sphere, the Lockets, and the Bobbleheads. Kill spells get more lethal with cards like Murder and Oblivion Ring.

So often, though, those three-drop cards are incredible support for whatever huge thing we intend to do. Eternal Witness gets back a key combo piece we dumped into the Graveyard. Those rocks ramp us into larger spells ahead of time. The removal clears the path for our big guys.

Living That Three-Drop Life

But what happens when everything is a three-drop? It makes for an interesting deck-building challenge, that's what. A deck can't run on utility alone - it needs to have a plan, or at least some guiderails, so we have some idea of what we're trying to do. Ramping only works if we do something with the mana, for example.

Today's Commander helps us turn our utility role-players into something... a bit more.

I love these multi-faceted Commanders. We have two disparate effects here: a 3/3 in Mardu () for three mana is fine, but we have Outlaw Kindred energy (because Outlaws, the keyword for all Creatures with the types Assassin, Mercenary, Pirate, Rogue, and Warlock, gain Vigilance and Haste when Vihaan is on the 'field), and we have Treasure synergy (because he lets us turn our Treasures into 3/3 Assassins... which are Outlaws.).

We can lean into one or the other and get value either way. Here's what I came up with.

Vihaan's Three-Drops | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Vihaan, Goldwaker

• Creatures (24)
• 1 Academy Manufactor
• 1 Breeches, Eager Pillager
• 1 Captain Lannery Storm
• 1 Crime Novelist
• 1 Fain, the Broker
• 1 Ingenious Artillerist
• 1 Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter
• 1 Kambal, Profiteering Mayor
• 1 Kellogg, Dangerous Mind
• 1 Locke, Treasure Hunter
• 1 Mahadi, Emporium Master
• 1 Mari, the Killing Quill
• 1 Mastermind Plum
• 1 Mayhem Devil
• 1 Morbid Opportunist
• 1 Nadier's Nightblade
• 1 Plundering Pirate
• 1 Professional Face-Breaker
• 1 Prosperous Bandit
• 1 Ruthless Knave
• 1 Swashbuckler Extraordinaire
• 1 Undercity Scrounger
• 1 Warren Soultrader
• 1 Xorn

• Instants (7)
• 1 Anguished Unmaking
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Crackling Doom
• 1 Flawless Maneuver
• 1 Generous Gift
• 1 Stroke of Midnight
• 1 Wear // Tear

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 Back in Town
• 1 Painful Truths
• 1 Seize the Spoils
• 1 Seize the Spotlight
• 1 Toxic Deluge

• Enchantments (17)
• 1 Agent of the Iron Throne
• 1 Aggravated Assault
• 1 At Knifepoint
• 1 Bastion of Remembrance
• 1 Black Market Connections
• 1 Caretaker's Talent
• 1 Dark Prophecy
• 1 Descent into Avernus
• 1 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
• 1 Monologue Tax
• 1 Phyrexian Arena
• 1 Prosperous Partnership
• 1 Rakish Crew
• 1 Shared Animosity
• 1 Shiny Impetus
• 1 Smuggler's Share
• 1 Tempered Steel

• Artifacts (6)
• 1 Careening Mine Cart
• 1 Inspiring Statuary
• 1 Monument to Endurance
• 1 Sword of Wealth and Power
• 1 The Reaver Cleaver
• 1 Treasure Chest

• Lands (40)
• 4 Plains
• 4 Mountain
• 4 Swamp
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Canyon Slough
• 1 Clifftop Retreat
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Desolate Mire
• 1 Dragonskull Summit
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Fetid Heath
• 1 Fountainport
• 1 Isolated Chapel
• 1 Mines of Moria
• 1 Nomad Outpost
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Rugged Prairie
• 1 Savai Triome
• 1 Shadowblood Ridge
• 1 Shattered Landscape
• 1 Smoldering Marsh
• 1 Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
• 1 Temple of Malice
• 1 Temple of Silence
• 1 Temple of Triumph
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 The Gold Saucer
• 1 Treasure Vault
• 1 Vault of the Archangel
• 1 Volatile Fault

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Mana

The hypergeometric formula I've been using has finally gotten us up to my standard of 40 Lands; with 40 and a free mulligan, we have an above-90% chance having three Lands in our first nine cards. That should get us rocking and rolling; it's nice to get up to six so we can cast two spells in a single turn, but with all the Treasures we shouldn't have trouble with mana.

Most of the Lands in the deck are self-explanatory, but I want to highlight a couple. Fountainport is a great example of the kind of Land a deck like this wants. We can use it to turn a Treasure into a card, extra mana into another Treasure, or even create a last-minute blocker, all for a Land slot in our deck. The Gold Saucer, too, lets us use our extra mana. Then there's Treasure Vault, which can lead to a rather large turn; crack it to make a few Treasures and Attack that turn thanks to the Haste our Commander gives.

Draw

I know I sound like an old man when I say this, but we did not have it as good as we do now back when I first started playing Commander, over 18 years ago now. We had Phyrexian Arena and Sign in Blood. Now? Riches, I tell you! Seize the Spotlight either gives us a Threaten or a Treasure and a card for each opponent? Seize the Spoils, meanwhile, may be card-neutral since it discards, but it digs us two deeper and leaves us with an extra Treasure. And Painful Truths is basically always a three-mana draw-three, since we draw (and lose life) equal to the number of colors we use to cast the spell.

Smuggler's Share tells us to draw a card when an opponent draws more than two in a turn, and also lets us make Treasures when someone is cheating on Lands. Dark Prophesy is wonderful for us, because we can turn all our Treasures into Creatures then sac them for mana, and everyone time we have a Creature die we draw. Morbid Opportunist does the same thing, except it only triggers once per turn, but it cares about any Creature dying, and it happens to be an Outlaw. Riches of card draw, I tell you.

Threats

At the end of the day, we're most likely going to win with a whole bunch of attacking Treasures. They'll have Vigilance and Haste, thanks to Vihaan, and if we can get enough of them we should be able to push through some decent damage. Combine that with the fact we should be ahead of everyone on damage (since we'll be attacking early - our deck is nothing but three-drops) and hopefully we won't identify ourselves as the threat immediately.

There is also an Aristocrats feel to our deck. Just because we turn our Treasures into Creatures at the beginning of Combat doesn't mean we need to attack with them. Because they sacrifice themselves, it's easy to trigger something like Nadier's Nightblade. Keep your eyes on life totals and how many Treasures you've got; sometimes you can sneak in a win in a surprising way.

Answers

At the very least, three mana gives us solid answer options. We even have a destroy-the-table option in Toxic Deluge. Anguished Unmaking is a great catch-all, since it'll Exile anything we want, and Crackling Doom is a really fun card since it forces all your opponents to sacrifice their biggest Creature. It's even an Instant. Wear // Tear is Mana Value three, and Stroke of Midnight and Generous Gift are both solid choices.

Synergy

Back in Town, despite it being an X spell and my desire to avoid those to get around the restriction, is just too strong. For , we get to return X Outlaw Creature cards from our Graveyard to the Battlefield. This is a powerful mid-to-late-game play for us, especially since so many of our Creatures have great Enters abilities.

Academy Manufactor gives us Clues and Food every time we make a Treasure, which helps us draw even more cards. Plus it gives us extra Tokens to sacrifice for Nadier's Nightblade or Kambal, Profiteering Mayor, who works opposite the Nightblade - it hits our opponents when the Tokens Enter.

It should stand to reason we make a lot of Treasure tokens, but we have more Aristocrats-style effects with Mayhem Devil and Agent of the Iron Throne. We can also turn our Treasures into other things: Ruthless Knave lets us sacrifice them to draw cards, Professional Face-Breaker lets us Exile the top card of our Library and cast it this turn (we know how much it will cost, of course), and Kellogg, Dangerous Mind lets us sacrifice five to steal control of an opponent's Creature.

Final Thoughts

This is an interactive deck. You need to be paying attention to the board state, use strong threat assessment, and deploy your forces carefully. Don't overextend without a backup plan, because a Wrath of God can really ruin your day... unless you're prepared to sacrifice everything in response and wreck them back. Watch your triggers and make sure you count your Treasures carefully.

The cool thing is, though, decks like this are the kind that make us grow as players. If you lose your focus, you'll lose. If you don't, you might win. Either way, you'll come out the other side a stronger player.

Thanks for reading.