Commander Deck Tech - Pia Nalaar, Consul of Revival

We had several new possible commanders in March of the Machine: The Aftermath, and one that caught my attention was the lowest possible cost: Pia Nalaar, Consul of Revival.

A 2 mana 2/3 creature is already a good body, and it is also a token generator that grants Haste to them. However, you have to cast spells or play lands from exile for that to happen, and Pia Naalar doesn't have anything that causes something to be played out of exile on her own.

Thinking about it, this time we brought a Deck Tech with the new Pia Nalaar!

In Commander, the Boros color combination is a bit sad when it comes to drawing cards, and is even deemed by some players as the worst color combination.

Lately, in white, card draws have improved, and in red, there is still a conditional discard for the draws. But this deck's specific mechanics make up for this combination's issue: the interaction with the exile.

Decklist

The list is authorial, and I will explain why the cards were chosen and in what sense they harmonize with the commander and the deck in general.

Exile Mechanics

Exile has been well explored lately, more specifically with cards that exile their top and allow them to be played that or until the next turn. The downside would be that this can be considered an "open draw", providing information to your opponents. But considering you want to cast as many spells as possible from exile, this isn't really a problem.

Cards that do just that, for example, are Commune with Lava, Wrenn's Resolve, Reckless Impulse among other additions.

In this deck, we use this type of ability to trigger Pia Nalaar, Consul of Revival and thus create a powerful army of thopters.

With that in mind, cards that work with artifact creatures or tokens fit well here, such as Intangible Virtue, Inspiring Leader, or Tempered Steel.

Possible Finishers

In addition to combat damage, the deck has some cards that deal damage directly to opponents. We can call these cards possible finishers, as they will lower your opponents' life total as much as possible.

These cards are Hedron Detonator (which deals damage and also works as an exile source), Ingenious Artillerist, Reckless Fireweaver and Impact Tremors.

The deck also features possible damage sources, such as Goblin Bombardment and Outpost Siege, which offers two great recursion options. They are two cards that offer risk by themselves (in the case of choosing Dragons from Outpost Siege), and even more so when you have many creatures in play, since even if they are taken off the battlefield, they will still deal a considerable amount of damage.

Strixhaven Stadium is a ramp with the potential to defeat a single opponent, and considering this deck has some ease at having a full battlefield, it's a great alternative to knocking someone off the table reasonably quickly.

Here we will explain specific groups of cards in the deck and their highlights, with the analysis of the vast majority of them and showing how they harmonize with Pia Nalaar, Consul of Revival.

Ramp

As the deck doesn't have green and consequently doesn't provide access to the ramp spells we'd like, we use here the classic mana rock that almost every Commander deck needs today with their respective colors: Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Talisman of Conviction and Boros Signet.

In addition to these, we have Ornithopter of Paradise, which, if Pia is in play, can generate mana the turn it comes into play, and the aforementioned Strixhaven Stadium.

Aside from mana rocks, Myriad Landscape can be counted as "ramp", as it's a land that only seeks one more. But since the color combination doesn't help that much, that's already a positive thing. Inspiring Statuary is also another pseudo-ramp, as each artifact would in theory generate a generic mana to cast the spell.

And last but not least, Jeska's Will with its absurd potential to generate a lot of mana, in addition to the exile interaction already built into it.

Highlights

Jeska's Will: An absurd card that allows you to cast big costs like Etali, Primal Storm or a flashback of Ignite the Future in early turns, since every opponent's hand will have 6 or more cards most of the time. Even in a mid-game, to increase the number of spells that can be played in the same turn.

Inspiring Statuary also comes into evidence here considering the number of tokens that will be generated, even more so if they have vigilance with Intangible Virtue, which opens up the possibility of an aggressive turn followed by reducing the cost of several spells, or even saving your thopters for blocking and then cast some instant.

Token Interactions

This package shows the cards that interact with the thopter tokens, as they are the deck's main source of damage. Although Pia Nalaar, Consul of Revival has a low cost and can be easily cast again after being removed up to 2 times, after the third it starts to get expensive. After all, a 2 mana commander costing 8 in a Boros deck is a bit tricky.

With that in mind, there are token generators that are independent of Pia Nalaar: Breya's Apprentice, Thopter Shop and Thopter Assembly are great examples of this and offer other features along with our original proposal: exile cards from the top and draw cards, respectively.

While Loyal Apprentice only works best with the commander in play, it still excels at making one thopter per turn when used. But this amount can be even higher with Anointed Procession or Mondrak, Glory Dominus, doubling the number of tokens, and consequently creating an even bigger board.

To buff our 1/1s, we have the aforementioned Intangible Virtue, Tempered Steel and Inspiring Leader that will further enhance the thopters. And when it comes to powering up, Neyali, Suns' Vanguard shines in this deck: in addition to the double strike, the exile synergy is also found in this card.

Highlights

Neyali, Suns' Vanguard is very strong here, considering all the mechanics involved of both boosting damage and creating even more tokens with the commander.

Mondrak, Glory Dominus is also a strong piece, as it can easily become indestructible in this deck and take effect without fear of being removed anytime soon. Intangible Virtue serves to ease our changes between proactive and defensive stances.

Exile Interactions

Obviously, because Pia Nalaar, Consul of Revival doesn't provide playing a card from exile on her own, the deck is built around this interaction.

That's why here we use creatures like Dark-Dweller Oracle, Laelia, the Blade Reforged and mainly Urabrask, Heretic Praetor and Commander Liara Portyr. Respectively, the goblin is almost certain to always make a thopter with Pia, since its text also allows lands to be used in this way. Laelia, the Blade Reforged is a creature that can take full advantage of the deck's theme.

Urabrask, Heretic Praetor gives you an incredible advantage, considering that you are "drawing" two cards per turn, while your opponents "draw" only one as usual, with the difference that this open draw provides information.

Also, if the cost of the card is too high in relation to how much mana the opponent has, it's one less card to deal with. Commander Liara Portyr can make spells cost up to 3 less generic mana considering 3 opponents were attacked, and it also exiles up to 3 cards.

It is important to point out that, in this deck, it is necessary to consider whether to play the land of the hand's turn, or if it is better to play from exile to avoid losing Pia's trigger and also to avoid losing a land for nothing. Eventually, when several cards are exiled and several of them are lands, they will, of course, be lost, but taking as much advantage as possible of the commander is our intention when piloting this deck.

Some spells like the already mentioned Commune with Lava, Wrenn's Resolve, Jeska's Will and other derivatives like Light Up the Stage, Rob the Archives are included to provide even more "draws".

Professional Face-Breaker is another card that can create up to 3 treasures that can help as accelerators or fuel to its ability.

Inspired Tinkering also creates 3 treasures and can be considered a "two mana spell" precisely because of this effect. Remembering that these treasure tokens are also doubled with Mondrak, Glory Dominus or Anointed Procession.

Etali, Primal Storm almost needs no comment, as there are up to 4 casts coming from exile, and as Pia Nalaar, Consul of Revival has no restrictions on the number of spells casts and/or from which exile they came from, up to 4'thopters can be created. Wand of Wonder can work just as well as Etali, and can even be used to search opponents' libraries for answers.

Highlights

Urabrask, Heretic Praetor fulfills its function as a Praetor very well: it provides you with an additional resource while taking away or making it difficult for others. Underrated, it's a card that has found a suitable home.

Commander Liara Portyr for its reduction and card advantage when exiling up to 3 cards and decreasing by the same number is clearly strong in this deck. And finally, Etali, Primal Storm with what was mentioned earlier.

Answers and Recursion

Classic spot removals were chosen here, such as Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares, as well as the recent Generous Gift and Excise the Imperfect.

Chaos Warp is also required for a planeswalker or enchantment. You Find Some Prisoners has two great features, including one that's perfect for answering cards like Vampiric Tutor.

Sweepers are always welcome, as Commander games are full of surprises. Blasphemous Act, Austere Command and Dusk // Dawn are used here, and to save our creatures, Boros Charm and Unbreakable Formation are also on the list.

We also have recursion spells, like Campus Renovation, Elixir of Immortality and Reconstruct History.

Highlights

Boros Charm will almost always be versatile, working both aggressively with a double strike on either your own creature or one of the opponent's, in case it's hitting another. It also protects your permanents from sweepers.

Excise the Imperfect is a particularly great removal on Commander, dealing with absolutely anything that is problematic.

And finally, Blasphemous Act will always be welcome, considering that it will almost always be played for less than 3 mana.

Pia Nalaar Expensive Decklist

Also, here we have an alternative version of the deck with some more expensive upgrades, optimizing our defensive spells, and also with a combo-oriented premise.

Here we have Ashnod's Altar or Krark-Clan Ironworks, Mondrak, Glory Dominus or Anointed Procession and Thopter Squadron, generating infinite thopters, and being able to win with combat damage or with Purphoros, God of the Forge's triggers.

The Boros color combination is quite undervalued in Commander. Creatures need to be strong enough to compensate for the lack of recursion these colors offer, such as cheating creatures on the battlefield like Djeru and Hazoret or Winota, Joiner of Forces.

But lately the combination has become more interesting with new commanders, with different mechanics to be addressed, as is the case for Pia Nalaar, Consul of Revival. Underexplored mechanics will almost always be a lot of fun for those who play them, especially when they find cards that no one would use before, and even build some unusual lists.

Did you like Deck Tech? Would he use Pia as a commander? Would you do it differently, focused on another aspect? Comment!