Commander Deck Tech - Ian Malcolm, Chaotician

Lately, many resources were released to the Exile archetype, more specifically in Red, which made some ideas even more viable. But Magic players can't live off consistency alone, so we'll surrender ourselves to a Chaos deck with Ian Malcolm, Chaotician from the Jurassic World set!

Ian Malcolm, Chaotician has a quite literal name considering the themes in the deck we built. It is a deck focused on drawing cards to trigger the commander's ability and Exile the top card in our deck, consequently making us use spells that interact with Exile as a mechanic.

The Izzet color combination has great card draw tools in Blue and great Chaos cards in Red. Like so, we'll have the best of both worlds with this Jurassic World commander.

Just so we can say for certain this deck isn't a complete mess, we have a few win conditions to end the game at once. Usually, the problem in Chaos archetype decks is they just bother the opponent forever and never win, so we'll correct that by adding finishers to actually end the game.

Accelerators

We'll use just a few mana rocks, and only the absolute necessary. They are: Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Izzet Signet, Talisman of Creativity and Thought Vessel, to avoid possibly discarding a card.

Using Our Opponents' Cards

Besides our commander, we have other ways to use cards in our opponents' decks. Such as, for instance, the artifacts Chaos Wand, Wand of Wonder and River Song's Diary, and you can even use the first two cards as answers to a spell.

Share the Spoils also fills this role a bit more consistently, with the key difference that our opponents can also use this card. To make the game a bit more democratic, we have Perplexing Chimera, which wreaks the havoc it promises to after it enters the battlefield, forcing each opponent to choose what they'll cast very carefully.

Finally, as Chaos Warp's cousin, we also use Chaos Mutation, which brings the possibility of targeting many targets in case of an emergency, or just to bring another creature to the board.

Drawing Cards and Interactions

We have all the cards that bring card draw and some interactions with this mechanic for us and our opponents as well. Starting with the artifacts that force everyone to draw cards, be it because of a triggered effect or activated effect, we have Howling Mine, Temple Bell, Otherworld Atlas, Font of Mythos, Teferi's Puzzle Box and Folio of Fancies, which, besides forcing everyone to draw cards, can be a possible win condition, bringing you the victory as your opponents lose through deck out.

The enchantments we use are Dictate of Kruphix, Fevered Visions and Forced Fruition, which can also be a win condition, forcing your opponents to lose through deck out because of the countless cards they'll have to draw. It's worth stressing that you need to analyze when you should play this type of card, because opponents that are playing a combo deck can take more advantage of it than you, so be careful.

As for creatures that draw us cards directly, we have Kami of the Crescent Moon, Faerie Mastermind (also interacting with your opponent's draws), Noggle Ransacker, Humble Defector and Lore Broker.

The way Humble Defector works with Homeward Path is very interesting, only letting you draw cards with it.

We use a few Wheel spells - not all of them, considering it isn't this deck's focus. Windfall and Molten Psyche, which, by the way, can trigger your Metalcraft, are more than enough. To only draw cards, we use Prosperity, Words of Wisdom, Vision Skeins and the very annoying Burning Inquiry.

As said before, this deck needs to end the game somehow. Considering this and the number of cards we draw, we have, as win condition, Psychosis Crawler, The Locust God tokens, and the Dragon combo, Niv-Mizzet, Parun or Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind with Curiosity or Ophidian Eye.

This deck isn't completely centered around our combo, so much so that the cards we've shown work independently of our combo, but it is good to have some back up anyway.

Finally, to create tokens, we have Ominous Seas and Zurzoth, Chaos Rider, which also interacts with our opponents if they draw cards.

Interacting with Exile

Doctor Who gave us a few Paradox presents; Iraxxa, Empress of Mars creating tokens, Flaming Tyrannosaurus, which can even be a win condition depending on the power it has when it dies, and Memory Worm, to deal damage and force an opponent to draw a card, hence being able to trigger Ian Malcolm this way.

Also regarding interacting with what comes from the Exile, we use several cards that bring support to it - Nalfeshnee and Mizzix, Replica Rider to copy our spells, The Lost and the Damned to create more tokens, Passionate Archaeologist and Keeper of Secrets to deal damage to our opponents directly, and, to indeed make these spells happen from the Exile, we have Etali, Primal Storm and Plargg and Nassari. Finally, to create more value from these spells, Wild-Magic Sorcerer helps us by giving Cascade to the first spell coming from the Exile.

Defensive Resources

Chaos isn't the only thing the player needs. For this reason, we need cards that help us stay in the game - Chaos decks tend to be focused after a while, so it is good we have answers in case this happens.

Thinking of counters, we use Arcane Denial, Counterspell, An Offer You Can't Refuse and Dream Fracture to draw a card as well. As really defensive resources, we have Propaganda, Aetherize and Cyclonic Rift to defend ourselves from eventual attacks.

Brand and Homeward Path can be very interesting plays and quite surprising if an opponent attacks with something that is yours, consequently getting that resource back and avoiding taking damage.

Finally, we have a few target removals: Rapid Hybridization, Pongify, Wild Magic Surge, Chaos Warp and Resculpt, and a Blasphemous Act as a global removal.

This is our budget list. We've kept a few win conditions we mentioned previously and the same Chaos theme. The changes are quite clear, but it is possible to play a game with the same goal as the other list by using this list.

Chaos is by far one of the archetypes I like piloting and playing against the least, precisely because of what I mentioned before; sometimes it doesn't have a very clear win condition. By refining something here and there, I was able to bring a cool deck for this archetype, which is also somewhat consistent when it is played, to make it fun to pilot too.

Did you like this deck? Would you focus on the Exile mechanic only? Or only on drawing cards? Share your point of view!