Have I mentioned how much I don't like Praetors lately? I am a filthy casual at heart, and while I'm not one to shy away from playing combo, I've never been a fan of making my tablemates miserable. If nothing else, Magic: the Gathering's Praetors are fantastic at creating an oppressive game environment for everyone but the person controlling the Praetor.

Not all Praetors are a headache to play against. Urabrask in all of his incarnations isn't that bad, but nearly all of the others, especially the original versions, are great at restricting what your opponents can do to play the game. I happened to open a few Praetors in collector boosters this past Spring, including a couple of copies of Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, and the new Jin-Gitaxias.

I find that any time I really, really don't like something, it can be helpful to get to know it better. I don't plan on adding cauliflower to my diet, nor do I plan to start binging reality television, but I did decide to take a crack at writing about this shiny Blue monstrosity.

The first really notable thing is that this Jin-Gitaxias doesn't seem that oppressive. It has ward 2 and I'll draw a card every time I cast a noncreature spell with mana value 3 or greater. Card draw is great, and I can play cost reducers to help make it easier to use that ability. The real question is what kind of impact Jin-Gitaxias // The Great Synthesis' activated ability will have. For 3 and a Blue I can exile my commander and return it to the battlefield face-down as The Great Synthesis, a Saga with some interesting abilities.

When The Great Synthesis enters the battlefield, I draw cards equal to the number of cards in my hand and have no maximum hand size for as long as it remains under my control. Chapter II of the Saga has me return all non-Phyrexian creatures to their owners' hands. Chapter III lets me cast any number of cards from my hand without paying their mana costs. After Chapter III it will be exiled and returned to the battlefield face-up as Jin-Gitaxias.

That's a lot to chew on, and aside from the non-Phyrexian Evacuation, it's not all that oppressive. You get to do a lot, but you're not shutting down your tablemates all that much. Bouncing creatures is powerful, but I don't see this turning into a cEDH deck and I'm intrigued by the options we have to choose from. We could play with proliferate, explore the world of mono-Blue Phyrexians, or even try something weird!

Paths Not Taken

There were a bunch of ideas that I bandied about but did not add to the deck. The first was to theme the deck around proliferate effects. I thought about how sweet it would be to proliferate The Great Synthesis (the back side of Jin-Gitaxias), but when I started looking at other things I could proliferate nothing really drew my attention. I could have thrown in a half dozen or more other Blue Sagas or even planeswalkers, but none of them really caught my eye.

I looked at Blue infect / toxic creatures but not enough of them were Phyrexians. If I went after that game plan I would have wanted to flip my commander, bounce all non-Phyrexians and be able to swing out on an empty field. Blighted Agent and Viral Drake are sweet creatures with infect, but they aren't Phyrexian.

I didn't even think about building a Lab Man deck because I've just done that with Heliod, the Radiant Dawn, which I've recently built in paper. It's explosive and fun and I don't want to build and play another deck right away that drives at the same basic wincon.

I did know that I wanted to build a control deck and I knew I wanted to try something I haven't played around with very much. Looking at Jin-Gitaxias and its ability to transform into The Great Synthesis, I realized I might be onto something. I'd have to have 7 cards or more in hand and when it transforms I would draw cards equal to the number of cards in my hand. Seven could become 14, and fourteen is achingly close to another number.

The Magic Number

I've long had 13 as one of my own lucky numbers, so being able to jump from seven to 14 so easily made this deck's wincon an easy choice.

This nutty little Wizard gives you no maximum hand size and at the beginning of my upkeep, if I have exactly 13 cards in my hand I'll win the game. In addition, I can draw a card for three and a Blue as many times as I can afford to pay for the activations.

The decision to build around Triskaidekaphile means a number of things. The first is that I likely won't be winning a ton of games. This isn't the kind of slam dunk that a card like Thassa's Oracle gives you. It's a lot of work and it's pretty fragile. That work, that fragility, and the fact that Blue doesn't easily tutor for creatures dictates a few card choices.

If I want to try to win this way I've got to go get Triskaidekaphile. Step Through is a removal spell that can be cycled for two mana to tutor up a Wizard. I'm also running the counterspell Muddle the Mixture, which can trasmuted for three mana, two of which must be Blue. Transmute lets me discard the card and tutor up another card with the same mana cost, which in this case is two. If that isn't enough, I'm also running Spellseeker, which can tutor up Merchant Scroll, which can tutor up Long Term Plans, which can be used to put Triskaidekaphile under the top two cards of my library. Is that a lot of work? Maybe, but if I want to hit this wincon I've got to be willing to get creative!

To protect her, I'm running Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots and Mask of Avacyn. I'm also running Swan Song, Counterspell, Arcane Denial, Cryptic Command, Rewind and Insidious Will in the hope that I'll be able to thwart at least one removal spell on my unlikely path to victory.

Last but not least, this deck has a lot of cards that can either draw or discard to try to get me to that magic number of 13. Fact or Fiction is a fun example, as I'll be guaranteed to go down one card when I cast it, but I'll get anywhere from 0 to 5, depending upon what kinds of piles I get to choose from. I'm also running weirder options. Thalakos Drifters lets me discard a card to give it shadow until end of turn, letting me go from a higher number of cards in hand down to 13 for my upkeep trigger. Temple Bell is also in the mix, letting me draw everyone a card by tapping it. I'm sure there are more and better options for hand-sculpting. This first draft has a few and could probably use more.

Jin-Triskaidekitaxias

This build is a big, warm, Blue shell of control, interaction and card draw staples wrapped around a rather odd little wincon. I've got Maskwood Nexus, Arcane Adaptation and Xenograft in the mix so I can bounce non-Phrexians and keep my board, but that board might not be that impressive. This isn't the sort of deck that's going to build a huge army and swing for the fences. I think it'll be fun to hang out, try to stay alive and see if I can position myself to try for that alternative wincon.

Jin-Gitaxias XIII | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Jin-Gitaxias

• Creatures (14)
• 1 Arcanis the Omnipotent
• 1 Body Double
• 1 Consecrated Sphinx
• 1 Dreamscape Artist
• 1 Faerie Mastermind
• 1 Hullbreaker Horror
• 1 Ledger Shredder
• 1 Mulldrifter
• 1 Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Spellseeker
• 1 Spellskite
• 1 Thalakos Drifters
• 1 Triskaidekaphile

• Spells (26)
• 1 Aetherize
• 1 Aetherspouts
• 1 Arcane Denial
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Cryptic Command
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Drown in Dreams
• 1 Fact or Fiction
• 1 Frantic Search
• 1 High Tide
• 1 Insidious Will
• 1 Long-Term Plans
• 1 Muddle the Mixture
• 1 Pongify
• 1 Pull from Tomorrow
• 1 Rapid Hybridization
• 1 Rewind
• 1 Snap
• 1 Stroke of Genius
• 1 Swan Song
• 1 Thirst for Discovery
• 1 Thirst for Knowledge
• 1 Wrong Turn
• 1 Aether Gale
• 1 Merchant Scroll
• 1 Step Through

• Enchantments (8)
• 1 Arcane Adaptation
• 1 Archmage Ascension
• 1 Dissipation Field
• 1 Ominous Seas
• 1 Propaganda
• 1 Rhystic Study
• 1 Shark Typhoon
• 1 Xenograft

• Artifacts (14)
• 1 Aether Spellbomb
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Chromatic Lantern
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Extraplanar Lens
• 1 Howling Mine
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Mask of Avacyn
• 1 Maskwood Nexus
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Sapphire Medallion
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Temple Bell

• Lands (37)
• 33 Island
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Inventors' Fair
• 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1 Reliquary Tower

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I expect this deck will struggle if Triskaidekaphile is removed, but that's not surprising when a list is centered around this kind of strategy. I have Body Double in the mix in case it gets put into the graveyard, but Blue isn't exactly awash in ways to bring creatures back from the grave.

Early Results

I was able to play this list in Tabletop Simulator on one of our Thursday night games. It ended up being a three-player match, which is never ideal. I was up against Jolrael, Voice of Zhalfir and Samut, Vizier of Naktamun.

It wasn't a long game, at least not for me.

I saw Triskaidekaphile, Solemn Simulacrum and Consecrated Sphinx and three Islands in my opening hand and decided to go for it. I held my wincon back, hit my land drops and played Swiftfoot Boots on turn 2, Commander's Sphere on turn 3 and sad robot on turn 4. The Jolrael player was ramping like crazy and the Samut player got an early Primal Forcemage, meaning that if he played creatures with haste they'd get +3/+3 until end of turn and of course be able to swing immediately.

One of the harder things about three player games is that there's nowhere to hide. Less combat-oriented decks aren't able to fly under the radar and that was exactly what my deck wanted to do.

I hadn't taken much damage, but Jolrael was going to be sending a flying land at us every turn, so I played out my Consecrated Sphinx. I soon found myself drawing both attacks and cards, but I figured it was worth it. The Samut player and the Jolrael player were going at each other, but the Samut player played Disrupt Decorum on their turn, goading all of our creatures.

I did the math and thought I might have had a chance to go for the win. I played my Triskaidekaphile, equipped Swiftfoot Boots and passed the turn after swinging with my Sphinx. By my math, I'd be drawing enough cards to be able to win on my next upkeep if I survived that long.

I had a dozen cards in hand, open mana, and a lot of options. Unfortunately, I was still trying to figure out what I had in my hand when the Jolrael player turned all their lands into 2/2 creatures. Distracted by all my cards, I let the spell resolve before I realized that I could have - and probably should have countered it. That was my fault, but my mistakes didn't stop there.

When the Jolrael player went to combat I used a Rapid Hybridization to remove his commander so he wouldn't be drawing a ton of cards by doing combat damage with all of those lands. My mistake was that I should have removed his commander before combat damage, but after blockers were declared. Shame on me - I should have known better, and for my intransigence he (rightly) decided to swing everything at me. I had the win on my upkeep so it was what he should have done in the first place, but he had been planning to split the attack between me and the Samut player.

I didn't die, but I took 22 damage and was now at 14 and feeling much less sure of myself. The Samut player cast a 4/4 that would end up hitting me for 7 damage thanks to Primal Forcemage. Seeing the writing on the wall, I was able to counter that threat, but he followed it up with a 4/4 Goldspan Dragon and swung everything at me to kill me. The remaining two players duked it out with the Jolrael player turning his lands into creatures again to eventually get the win.

I was sloppy and distracted and could have won if I had been a little more careful. The funny thing about the game other than my own misplays is that I never cast my commander. I didn't need to, though it does make for a less helpful story if you're interested in evaluating Jin-Gitaxias.

I'm not sure if holding my wincon back for a few more turns would have made much of a difference. Drawing into mass removal might have helped, but the fact that I was able to get so close to landing the win was a real surprise to me. I figured it was a long shot at best.

Final Thoughts

Even though I never played my commander, I still feel that Jin-Gitaxias is less oppressive than many of the original praetors. The mass-bounce is probably the most annoying thing you can do, and in a mono-Blue deck it's not likely to be as impactful as something like an overloaded Cyclonic Rift.

I don't think I'm going to be building this in paper, but that's in part because I've been throwing a lot of decks together lately and I'm already gearing up to build Rona, Herald of Invasion. I do think a Triskaidekaphile build of Jin-Gitaxias makes sense and would be a fun deck to add to your collection. You could easily pivot to a more combat oriented deck built around turning your creatures into Phyrexians if your meta is more suited to decks that want to win the game in the trenches.

Have I learned to love Praetors? I'm not sure I would go that far, but I'm warming up to this recent batch and may need to look at them all a little closer. Maybe some of these new ones could make for some fun, casual, non-oppressive games and are worth trying out.

In other news, for our monthly EDH league I've thrown together Heliod, The Radiant Dawn in paper. The deck is fairly close to the list I shared with you in a column a few weeks ago and it's every bit as explosive as I thought it would be. I've played it a few times and it's been winning games.

I suspect Flip-Heliod is going to be another of those decks that is not fast enough for cEDH and is a little too powerful for casual play. Having everyone draw 7, and then drawing 21 or more cards to your hand for a few Blue mana makes it very easy to win games, and that's basically what this deck wants to do. With the addition of Approach of the Second Sun and the Dramatic Scepter combo, the list has a number of ways to win but also lots of ways to draw your tablemates into the cards they need to stop you. It's an interesting little conundrum to be sure, and I'm looking forward to playing it this month.

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