Commander Deck Tech: Nashi, Searcher in the Dark

There are many fun, strong Dimir commanders around, like Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow, Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver, and Alela, Cunning Conqueror.

Released in Duskmourn: House of Horror, Nashi, Searcher in the Dark is a great option for anyone who enjoys unusual decks.

In this article, we'll show you two Commander lists with Nashi as your commander. One focuses on enchantments, and the other on legendary permanents.

Nashi is a nezumi from Kamigawa who was adopted by Tamiyo and her husband, Genku, Future Shaper. He has shown up before in the following cards:

After Tamiyo died, Nashi decided to carry on his mother's mission by collecting stories from across the planes using Omenpaths. When the scroll with Tamiyo's memory was stolen, Nashi heard her voice through a door that took him to Duskmourn.

Nashi was also featured in the official trailer for this set:

As a commander, Nashi is a trustworthy creature for Reanimate decks.

He doesn't cost a lot of mana and has menace, which is an important keyword, considering you'll be able to attack with him as early as turn 3.

Many players say your graveyard is an extension of your hand, and Nashi proves this in practice: when he deals combat damage to a player, you mill cards that many cards, and can add any number of enchantments and/or legendary cards from among them to your hand.

If you put no cards in your hand this way, you'll put a +1/+1 counter on Nashi.

Please note that his effect states, "you may", which means, if any of your expensive permanents ends up in your graveyard this way, and you prefer using a Reanimate on it later on, you can do that.

As we mentioned before, our main list focuses on enchantments.

We picked the most interesting enchantments (as well as the most annoying), to buff Nashi and control our opponents' boards.

The entire strategy focuses on attacking with Nashi as fast as possible to deal combat damage and eliminate our opponents, but we also have answers for occasional threats.

Enchantments to Control Enemy Creatures

Usually, if we use an enchantment to disable a creature's abilities (like Kenrith's Transformation, for instance), our opponents will try to remove it as fast as possible. Imagine, then, if we enchanted the creature they created to stop Nashi and made it mostly useless?

This deck gives up recursion to get ahead by being faster than its opponents. So, we added a few enchantments to lock down their creatures, such as:

Among these, Amphibian Downpour stands out the most. This enchantment has storm, an ability that creates a copy of it equal to the number of spells cast that turn. It also has flash.

If your opponent plays an explosive turn and casts three spells, for instance, you can cast this enchantment and create four copies of it (one for each spell cast that turn, considering your opponent's and yours).

Countering Spells

Besides enchantments, we play a few classic counters to handle any threat that gets in Nashi's way.

If you don't have any of these spells in your hand, you can remove whatever is preventing Nashi from dealing damage with:

Sink Into Stupor and Fell the Profane are very fun in Commander, as you can cast them as spells and play them as lands to fix your mana.

Cyclonic Rift is a classic removal that you can use to clear a path before you attack and to defend yourself. It disrupts and delays your opponents' game plans so you can catch up to them.

Aetherize is not a removal, but also "locks down" your opponents and protects you, as it returns your attackers to your hand. As it is an instant, you can cast it during your opponents' combat steps, or even your own to protect your commander from a spot removal.

In emergencies, Waterlogged Teachings will get you any instants and cards with flash from your deck.

Enchanting Our Commander

As Nashi mills cards based on how much damage he dealt to the opponent, we need cards that buff his power and give him evasion to make sure he'll deal damage. So, we got a few enchantments that make this deck look slightly like a Voltron deck:

We added some protections that return our commander to the board, like Kaya's Ghostform, Fungal Fortitude, and cards that can make him extremely threatening, like Nerd Rage and Aqueous Form. After all, no one wants to deal with a commander that can't be blocked.

Corrupted Conscience is another enchantment that can make our commander even deadlier because it gives him infect. However, you can also target your opponents' creatures with it to control them.

Other Relevant Enchantments

Besides the cards we mentioned before, we brought other important enchantments to protect ourselves, disrupt our opponents, and get more advantages throughout the game.

With Leyline of Singularity, all nonland permanents will be legendary, so it's an option to disable decks that focus on creating tokens.

As for Leyline of the Void, it makes all our opponent's Reanimate tools useless because, if it is in play, all cards that would be put into an opponent's graveyard from anywhere will be exiled.

You can only use Grievous Wound to enchant one player, but it makes all their lifegain tools useless, and also forces them to lose half their life whenever they are dealt damage.

Creatures

To support Nashi, we added a few creatures that fit this deck's theme, and, apart from Wonder and Balemurk Leech, they're all enchantments.

With Thassa, God of the Sea's activated ability, Nashi can't be blocked, and, as long as Wonder is in your graveyard, he'll also have flying.

Overlord of the Floodpits and Enduring Curiosity draw us extra cards. Aphemia, the Cacophony swarms the board by creating 2/2 Zombie tokens.

If you enjoy Dimir decks and have always wanted to try a deck that focuses on legendary creatures with this color combination, Nashi is everything you want and more.

This list, which plays more like a regular Reanimate archetype, includes cards that no one wants to face, like Sheoldred, Sheoldred, Whispering One, Syr Konrad, the Grim, and Ertai Resurrected.

Whereas our first list focused on Nashi and his powerful attacks, this one cares more about its other 99 cards, and includes many options to bring back whatever you have in your graveyard to your battlefield.

When you mill cards with Nashi's effect, you'll make him more powerful; then, you'll Reanimate your creatures to build an efficient board and win.

Nashi, Searcher in the Dark is a fun commandeer that can surprise players who are tired of playing the same decks over and over.

You can build relatively powerful lists with him by focusing on his ability, which returns enchantments and/or legendary cards to your hand. This can be as strong or even stronger than drawing extra cards every turn.

What did you think of this list? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below!

We hope you have fun playing Nashi. Thank you for reading, and see you next time!