Into the Vault: Vannifar Deck Tech
Written by Christian Gil Portugalisa
Hi All. Welcome to Into the Vault. This will be our official deck tech article. This is to show aspiring commander players how I build decks and with the hopes of helping them become a better deck builder, ultimately become a better overall Magic the Gathering player. Now that Ravnica Allegiance is out, I’d like to do a deck tech on one of best legendary commander of the set. Let me introduce the Simic Commander: Prime Speaker Vannifar.
The Commander
Let’s get the obvious thing out first. It is basically Birthing Pod on a stick. Just like Birthing Pod, Vannifar needs to sacrifice a creature to ‘cheat’ out another creature whose CMC is 1 more than the sacrificed creatures CMC. Cheating creatures out is a very powerful effect. This is the reason why Birthing Pod is banned in Modern. It’s just an all powerful card. However, there are a few critical points that are different.
You can immediately activate Birthing Pod the moment you cast it and it only requires 
to activate. Vannifar does not require mana to activate however, it does require you to pass your turn and go for a rotation before you can activate her. Once you are able to safely get back to your turn, that’s when all of the fun starts.
Game Plan
When deck building, I always ask myself, “What’s the goal of the deck?” Since we know that Prime Speaker Vannifar wants to sacrifice creatures to bring out creatures with converted mana cost equal to 1 plus the sacrificed creature’s converted mana cost,, we need to make sure we have enough creatures whose casting cost has an incremental value of 1. This means we can have two (2) different paths we can take. A more toolbox approach or a fast combo finish.
In this deck tech we will take the combo route. The great thing about this commander is that even if you choose the toolbox approach, there will be hidden synergies within the deck that once you play the deck enough, you will simply find them. So how do you abuse her ability?
Untap Shenanigans
If we can untap her multiple times a turn, we can basically summon creatures until we get the creature we want. There are so many cards that have been printed over the years that we can use to untap her. After going over the multitude of untapping target creature or permanent, here are the top ones I think we might consider to be in our deck (please comment below if there are some creatures I may have missed and you think should be added).
1CMC: Quirion Ranger, Teardrop Kami, Trickster Mage, Wirewood Symbiote
;2CMC: Initiate’s Companion, Aphetto Alchemist, Kiora’s Follower, Scryb Ranger
Artifact and Combo: Thornbite Staff, Isochron Scepter with Dramatic Reversal
3CMC: Bounding Krasis, Deceiver Exarch, Pestermite, Vizier of Tumbling Sands
Enchantment: Intruder Alarm, Retreat to Coralhelm
Artifact: Staff of Domination, Thousand-Year Elixir
4CMC: Breaching Hippocamp, Fatestitcher, Merfolk Skyscout
Artifact: Birthing Pod
5CMC: Disciple of the Ring, Chakram Retriever
Now that’s a lot of cards. Isochron Scepter and Dramatic Reversal are two of the most played cards in competitive commander. They allow non-land cards to untap which includes our commander and Isochron Scepter. We can then activate her ability and Isochron Scepter until we win. Intruder Alarm also has this same interaction. Whenever a creature enters the battlefield, Intruder Alarm untaps all creatures.
Win Condition
Now that we have ways of untapping her, the next question is “How do we win?” Since we have already decided to go for the more combo approach, why don’t we go for the fastest route. I’m talking about Laboratory Maniac, Hermit Druid and Hapless Researcher. We can get these two out by using one of the best two card combos: Flash and Protean Hulk. And if that doesn’t work, we can also go for the time tested Craterhoof Behemoth and Triumph of the horde to pound our way in or use Walking Ballista and shoot our way through.
Most people would say “Laboratory Maniac? Infinite Mana? Infinite Turns? Very original.” Commander is an open format and there are so many ways you can build this or any other deck. Although it is nice to see something different, something creative, at the end of the day it’s all about the journey. Personally, I like to build decks that are efficient and functions in a cohesive manner.
Protection Suite
Our opponents won’t just let us combo off. We need to make sure we protect ourselves especially during our combo turn. How do we do that? Since we play blue, we can use counter magic and other protection suites. Here are some protection suites you might want to use.
Counter Magic and Protection Suite: Swan Song, Counterspell, Autumn Veil, Invasive Surgery, Arcane Denial, Counterspell, Delay, Deprive, Mana Leak, Memory Lapse, Miscalculation, Muddle the Mixture, Negate, Cancel, Disallow, Dissipate, Faerie Trickery, Forbid, Hinder, Unwind, Cryptic Command, Swiftfoot Boots, Heroic Intervention
Expensive Counterspell Effects: Pact of Negation, Force of Will, Flusterstorm, Mana Drain
Mana Ramp
The deck revolves around our commander. We want to cast our commander as fast as possible and as many times as possible in case it dies to removal. Plus we are running a lot of high costed spells, so we need to ramp fast. We also want to use a variety of card types to make it harder for our opponents to remove them all.
Draw Spells: Brainstorm, Ponder, Gitaxian Probe, Preordain, Serum Visions, Pull from Tomorrow, See Beyond, Cryptic Command, Sensei’s Divining Top, Fact or Fiction
Returning permanents: Learn from the Past, Eternal Witness
Other options: Time Twister, Windfall, Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy, Baral, Chief of Compliance
The Final Decklist
So how does the final decklist look like? Check it out. I’ve kept some hidden tech within the deck. Playtest the deck and see if you can find all of the fun interactions.
The Final Decklist
(30) Land
1 Wirewood Lodge
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Breeding Pool
1 Forbidden Orchard
1 Flooded Grove
1 Command Tower
1 Lumbering Falls
2 Island
6 Forest
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Treetop Village
1 Khalni Garden
1 Tolaria West
1 Deserted Temple
1 Hall of Bandit Lord
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Yavimaya Hollow
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Windswept Heath
1 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Flooded Strand
(32) Creature
1 Protean Hulk
1 Patron of the Orochi
1 Ezuri, Claw of Progress
1 Sage of Hours
1 Memnite
1 Phyrexian Marauder
1 Phyrexian Walker
1 Shifting Wall
1 Ornithopter
1 Hermit Druid
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Hapless Researcher
1 Quirion Ranger
1 Wirewood Symbiote
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Kiora' Follower
1 Bounding Krasis
1 Pestermite
1 Deceiver Exart
1 Breaching Hippocamp
1 Fatestitcher
1 Disciple of the Ring
1 Chakram Retriever
1 Woodland Bellower
1 Ulvenwald Hydra
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Eternal Witness
1 Reclamation Sage
(12) Artifact
1 Thornbite Staff
1 Isochron Scepter
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Simic Signet
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Thousand-Year Elixir
1 Birthing Pod
1 Scroll Rack
1 Sensei's Divining Top
(3) Enchantment
1 Intruder Alarm
1 Concordant Crossroads
1 Sylvan Library
(19) Instants
1 Flash
1 Dramatic Reversal
1 Retract
1 Crop Rotation
1 Brainstorm
1 Beast Within
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Time Warp
1 Nature's Claim
1 Arcane Denial
1 Negate
1 Swan Song
1 Force of Will
1 Pact of Negation
1 Counterspell
1 Cryptic Command
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Heroic Intervention
1 Simic Charm
(3) Sorcery
1 Ponder
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Preordain
The decklist above might be a little bit too comboey for you and it might not be to your liking. What I like about this Commander is it’s versatility. Here’s a more toolbox approach that you might want to consider instead.
Toolbox Commander
(30) Land
1 Wirewood Lodge
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Breeding Pool
1 Forbidden Orchard
1 Flooded Grove
1 Command Tower
1 Lumbering Falls
2 Island
6 Forest
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Treetop Village
1 Khalni Garden
1 Tolaria West
1 Deserted Temple
1 Hall of Bandit Lord
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Yavimaya Hollow
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Windswept Heath
1 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Flooded Strand
(34) Creature
1 Protean Hulk
1 Quirion Ranger
1 Wirewood Symbiote
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Kiora' Follower
1 Bounding Krasis
1 Pestermite
1 Deceiver Exart
1 Breaching Hippocamp
1 Fatestitcher
1 Disciple of the Ring
1 Chakram Retriever
1 Woodland Bellower
1 Ulvenwald Hydra
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Eternal Witness
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Acidic Slime
1 Elvish Visionary
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Clever Impersonator
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Mulldrifter
1 Woodland Primus
1 Progenitor Mimic
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Genesis
(10) Artifact
1 Thornbite Staff
1 Isochron Scepter
1 Sol Ring
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Simic Signet
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Thousand-Year Elixir
1 Birthing Pod
1 Staff of Domination
1 Sensei's Divining Top
(4) Enchantment
1 Intruder Alarm
1 Concordant Crossroads
1 Retreat to Coralhelm
1 Song of the Dryad
(18) Instants
1 Flash
1 Dramatic Reversal
1 Crop Rotation
1 Brainstorm
1 Beast Within
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Voidslime
1 Nature's Claim
1 Arcane Denial
1 Negate
1 Swan Song
1 Force of Will
1 Pact of Negation
1 Counterspell
1 Cryptic Command
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Heroic Intervention
1 Simic Charm
(3) Sorcery
1 Ponder
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Preordain
Now, I want to hear from you. How would you build this awesome Commander? Would you go for a more toolbox approach or would you go for a more combo centric fast game? Either way, what matters most is that you enjoy the deck and that others should also enjoy the game. Happy brewing.