Weekly Sale Commander: Command and Conquer!

Posted on August 11, 2025

Hi folks! Welcome to the Weekly Sale Column! This column will be aimed at showing you some cards on sale that could give you some new ideas for your lists. They will *usually* be Commander lists in Bracket 3 as well so you'll be able to play these in any Bracket 3 (or higher) pods. If you want to play in lower pods, just swap out the Game Changers for other choices and/or add more along with some other competitive combos if you want to compete with Bracket 4 and 5 pods!

Remember that the weekly sale ends on Sunday night at 11:59 PM EST, so you have until then to get your cards ordered!

We finally get a nice little break from Green decks (sorry, Green friends) and get to step over to the Blue side of Magic! This week's sale is the Command and Conquer Sale. Our list is going to feature something that a couple buddies of mine used to do in their decks: Copy and Control! Our Commander for this is going to be Keiga, the Tide Star! Keiga is a great choice for this deck because Keiga's ability triggers on death and allows us to take control of a creature. We will be cloning Keiga (and our opponent's creatures as well) in order to trigger Keiga just from the Legend Rule, along with playing other cards that take Control of our opponent's cards. Welcome to Layer 1, Layer 2! Let's get into it!

Layer 1: Copy!

If you know anything about Magic's layer system (the interaction of continuous effects), then you know that Layer 1 is the Copy Layer. This section is going to focus on cards that create a copy effect of some kind! Copy effects are great with Keiga because of the Legend Rule. When you copy Keiga, you then get to choose whether the copy or the original dies. Either way, you're getting a Keiga trigger. Considering Keiga costs 6 mana and most copy effects average around 4 mana (think Sakashima's Student, Rite of Replication, Spark Double/Stunt Double), you're almost always getting a discounted Keiga trigger. That, on top of getting to keep one in play, and the value is always there!

We also play a lot of cheaper clones. Flesh Duplicate and Phantasmal Image, despite being fragile clones, are great when you don't mind your clones dying! These pair well with Keiga, but also just any good trigger that happens on death, like your own Aura Thief or your opponents' cards that die (hoping for Ashen Rider, Wurmcoil Engine, and Academy Rector!). Mirror Mockery is also a nice card to use when your opponent is attacking with a cool enters-the-battlefield trigger, like Solemn Simulacrum or Coiling Oracle!

We also play a plethora of clones that only copy creatures you control, but get to cost lower. These are also great for Keiga and also shine later once you've already copied one of your opponent's cards. We've got Glasspool Mimic // Glasspool Shore, Mirror Image, and Cackling Counterpart, the last one getting the benefit of Flashback later on once our board is more filled!

We copy more than just creatures in Layer 1! Phyrexian Metamorph has been known to copy some wild artifacts before, like your opponents' Gilded Lotus or Caged Sun! Clever Impersonator can copy any nonland permanent, even your opponents' cards too. Narset's Reversal is a sweet little copy spell that also doubles as a pseudo-counterspell, since it sends it back to your opponent's hand after giving you a copy of an instant or sorcery. Copy Land and Relm's Sketching are this deck's award winners for coolest ramp spells, each giving you access to the sweetest lands in play, like their Gaea's Cradles or even your own Mirrorpool. Estrid's Invocation is what happens when you make Copy Enchantment cooler, and Sublime Epiphany is the throw-something-until-it-sticks of instants in this deck!

Layer 2: Control!

Welcome to the Control Layer! This layer is all about effects that change control of an object, whether it's a spell or a permanent! This is also where the weekly sale really shines, as we've got some absolute bangers in the sale for control. Starting off, we have our cards that can take control of our opponent's spells: Aethersnatch and Commandeer! Aethersnatch is a good catch-all, take-control kinda spell. Commandeer is nice in a Mono-Blue deck early game, and can help you yoink things like someone's Cultivate or their Demonic Tutor.

Outside of the sale, we also have a few other instants that are similar in nature to Aethersnatch and Commandeer: Desertion, Spelljack, and Gather Specimens. These are closer to counterspells, but they all have the same vibe: counter your thing and it's now my thing.

Next we have a few cards that are plain and simple, take control cards! Mass Manipulation is great in the late game when there are multiple threats that we want and we have an excess of mana. Mind Flayer and Sower of Temptation are as simple as they come, they come in and yoink! The yoink lasts as long as they do, so be sure to protect them if you can! Tempted by the Oriq and Archmage's Charm are useful in the early game to take someone's mana dork, their Sol Ring, or even their Teferi, Time Raveler!

Agent of Treachery is one of my favorite cards of all time (anyone who's ever played Winota, Joiner of Forces will agree!) and really shines here, giving you card draw for a relatively easy requirement in this deck.

To round out Layer 2, we've added some personal favorites in Bribery, Treachery, and Vedalken Shackles. Bribery is technically a different crime than theft, but fits the vibe here well, letting you yoink straight from your opponent's deck. Treachery is a nice little free-ish spell, that works well with Estrid's Invocation if you have both. Vedalken Shackles gets better as the game goes on, and is harder to get rid of than Sower of Temptation/Mind Flayer, so it earns the spot as well!

Change the Game with... Pickles?

Let's talk about Game Changers here. If you look at the list, you'll notice we only play one! Bracket 3 decks can play up to 3, but only need 1 to be in the bracket. If you wanna drop down to 2, then feel free to drop it, but I think it shines well here. Expropriate (also on sale!), arguably one of the most powerful of the Time Walks in Magic, almost always reads: "Take an extra turn and gain control of one permanent from each of your opponents." It's powerful, it takes control, and it does everything we want in Layer 1 Layer 2! It can be a bit polarizing, so I do understand if you don't want to play it within your playgroup, but I highly recommend it.

If you want to add two more, I recommend the two Blue permanents: Rhystic Study and Consecrated Sphinx. As they are not Legendary, copying them won't hurt you and will just help you draw your way to your cards faster! If you want to drop Expropriate for anything, I recommend just good ol' classic Control Magic, the original control spell, or Corrupted Conscience, if you wanna try out a fun alternate win condition.

If you want to beef up even more and add a combo, the Pickles Lock will save you. Older players will hear these and get excited and newer players will always wonder how this lock even existed and did well. Brine Elemental is a fun little morph card that flips up and takes away your opponents' untap steps. Vesuvan Shapeshifter is a reusable morph that copies something in play. If you copy a face-up Brine Elemental, then that new Brine Elemental will see that it just flipped face up and trigger, continuing to yoink untap steps. It's definitely a bit of a setup, but if you pull it off, your opponents will never untap, which essentially locks the game for you!

Here's the list, make sure you don't lose all your friends playing this!