Commander Deck Tech: Jodah, the Unifier - Toolbox

Among the sets named Dominaria, we have one that will be released next January: the beautiful Dominaria Remastered(2023). These releases are always marked by a lot of nostalgia and the greatest legends of Magic: the Gathering.

With each set which takes place in Dominaria, we relive the eras of the plane that is the stage for memorable feats of wizards, fighters and planeswalkers, and few of them have a history as rich and connected to the events celebrating these 30 years of Magic as that of Jodah, Archmage Eternal.

Jodah's Lore has been expanded over the years into the sets Planar Chaos, Dominaria, Dominaria United, and The Brothers' War.

Being honored in Time of Ice, events deeply described in the trilogy of The Ice Age Cycle* books, released between 1999 and 2001.

In this article, we will present the newest version of the archmage Jodah, the Unifier, with proposals for building decks based on his ability, responsible for a high generation of value and immense card advantage.

Belonging to the bloodline of the Brothers Urza and Mishra, Jodah possesses extensive powers, which have graced us with powerful cards with prismatic color identity .

His most recent version represents his leadership and diplomatic abilities, responsible for unifying Dominaria against the threat of New Phyrexia.

Its static ability grants a boost in power and toughness based on the number of legendary creatures on its controller's field, making its default stats 6/6, which is already quite relevant, surviving Dismember, Languish, and major damage-based removals that typically deal up to 4 points of damage.

Another important aspect is that minor Legends like Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, Tymna the Weaver, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben can generate a fast "clock" if not resolved soon.

Jodah, the Unifier's triggered ability mimics Cascade with the restriction of affecting and triggering exclusively on legendary non-land cards, doubling the value of all legends played and creating a significant card advantage, in addition to developing threats and speeding up the game in a possible storm.

This makes him viable in strategies based on Brain Freeze, Birgi, God of Storytelling and Chulane, Teller of Tales. Another possible use is to speed up powerful interactions in Midranges by increasing board presence in tribal decks like Humans, Shrines, Gods, etc.

This is a casual deck that aims to utilize a wide diversity of creatures in a celebratory build and its main motivation is fun. We chose 40 legendary creatures to compose our list.

Knowing this, we have a reduced number of direct interactions and removals. Due to the high adaptability of Jodah, the Unifier, you can have a lot of freedom to adapt the deck to the reality of your playgroup by adding or removing parts.

Toolbox are decks built to play according to the table where they are inserted, shaping it up to have an advantage in each situation. High card draws and use of tutors are encouraged to locate the tools needed in each situation.

Jodah, the Unifier has a static ability that amplifies the power of legends, replicating the legendary artifact Heroes' Podium, except that it counts towards the +X value. This increase in power already guarantees enough strength to win by combat.

Although we don't have central combos, we have some important synergies capable of generating a situation where opponents are unlikely to leave.

The imposing Ramos, Dragon Engine allows you to generate dizzying amounts of mana quickly. When added to Jodah, the Unifier, we arrive at an important mana synergy, since the creatures played without cost are cast, thus triggering a sequence of considerable value.

Most matchups can be won some other way, by dealing damage with effects until you reduce opponents' life to 0. In that sense, your main wincondition is Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord.

We can use Jarad's ability multiple times during a turn, dealing lethal damage by sacrificing our legends to do so. Another Legend capable of dealing massive damage is Captain Ripley Vance when augmented with our Commander's ability

Ramp

The 5-Color deck has a delicate mana curve among its particularities, and Jodah, the Unifier corresponds greatly in mana cost . The same can be said for your creatures and spells, as we see in the statistics:

To correct this very delicate curve, we use a vast package of Ramp in the form of mana rocks, land search and mana dorks.

Highlights

The standout when it comes to playing our commander quickly undoubtedly is Jenson Carthalion, Druid Exile, he could share the position with Jegantha, the Wellspring, however the druid gains the upper hand thanks to his ability to create tokens. After all, speeding up the commander and creating an Angel Token as a gift is a great way to start off the game.

Draws

Relying on a quick resourcefulness in building the initial board, we suffer from the possibility of drying our hand quickly.

Maintaining gas is especially important in decks that have a low number of answers. No cards in hand means no cascade, so we need to keep our hand full. Among the main tools for this, we have a whole group of cards with a function similar to Reki, the History of Kamigawa.

Highlights

Nin, the Pain Artist takes advantage of the boost granted by the commander to deal great damage to our creatures without losing them in the process, a clever way to take advantage of the extra mana at instant speed.

Shanna, Purifying Blade in its default configuration already speeds up the game, but combined with our commander it allows you to fill your hand every turn.

Removals

We opted for a small removal package with powerful cards that could be activated more than once. The giants Kogla, the Titan Ape and Kaervek the Merciless are among the options alongside faster creatures like Captain Ripley Vance and Linvala, Shield of Sea Gate.

Highlights

It makes me pleased when a card that was added for testing purposes generates good results, as in this case, it is Lagrella, the Magpie. There are few cards similar to Oblivion Ring that I consider good in format, but removing even one creature from each player makes it a powerful tool.

Venser, Shaper Savant is one of my favorites for control decks, however Ertai Resurrected is an interesting version for decks that don't have many interactions and removals, so it's featured here.

Keywords

Some creatures in Magic belonged to a special and now obsolete category called Lords, which added power and toughness to certain creatures and sometimes added abilities.

With the development of the game, this category ceased to exist, although many players still use the term in allusion to creatures that perform this function.

Highlights

Shanid, Sleepers' Scourge is the standout, draws cards consistently, adds evasion to most creatures in the deck, has high toughness, plus impeccable design at a fair cost.

We can add Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage to the highlights like adding Flash to our historic spells (Artifacts, Legendary cards, and Sagas are historic spells.) in a Legends tribal is a powerful ability.

In this version, we bring the upgrade to a list with the best options in a Staxball footprint, aiming for victory consistently. We use Jodah to double the value of our spells as we make our opponents have a hard time playing their cards.

I hope you've found some interesting ideas to improve your deck and celebrate these 30 years of the Magic universe.

Thanks for reading and good games!

If you have any questions or suggestions, please let me know in the comments.