Commander Deck Guide: The Master of Keys

When Wizards of the Coast releases a new Commander precon, the entire community rejoices.

One of the reasons why is that the exclusive cards included in these precons tend to be quite fun, and great upgrades for the decks we build ourselves. The Master of Keys is definitely one of these cards, as it stood out so much to us that we decided to build two entire decks and write a full article around it.

In this article, we'll explore two lists to show you how versatile this commander is:

- The first one includes many combos and staples, and, as such, is a bit more expensive.

- The second one is a budget list that focuses on useful, fun enchantments that make your commander even stronger.

Which one are you interested in? Let's dive right in and find out!

As soon as this Enchantment Horror enters play, you get to put X counters on it and mill twice (2X) as many cards.

For instance, if your X is 2, you'll put 2 +1/+1 counters on your commander and mill 4 cards.

Keep in mind that, considering the many ways we can Reanimate permanents and creatures in Magic: The Gathering, our graveyard is truly an extension of our hand.

The Master of Keys, as a great Esper commander, is better when you use your graveyard. In fact, its second ability states that, "each enchantment in your graveyard has Escape". To cast a card using its Escape cost, you just need to pay how much mana it costs and exile three other cards from your graveyard.

Considering The Master of Keys' abilities, any combo that creates infinite mana may win the game for you.

As a result, to win with this deck, you'll have to play combos that interact with Thassa's Oracle. We'll explore this idea in detail further on.

This list will show you that, even though Commander precons usually focus on players who have just begun playing Commander, The Master of Keys can completely destroy veteran players.

Mana Rocks

The idea behind this deck is to play combos and finish the game as soon as possible, so mana accelerators are critical. The ones we added to this list are:

Sol Ring, in particular, is a controversial staple in this format. If you don't know what we're talking about, check out our article on Sol Ring and the most recent banlist update. In this article, we discussed the last Commander banlist update with many other players and Commander fans.

You can combine Sol Ring with Hullbreaker Horror and a free card, like Lotus Petal, Mox Opal, or Mox Amber, and effectively create infinite mana.

1. To do that, you need to activate Sol Ring and create ;

2. Then, cast one of the 0-cost permanents in your hand;

3. With Hullbreaker Horror's triggered ability, return Sol Ring to your hand. With the two colorless mana that you created with Sol Ring and didn't use yet, cast it again (it only costs 1 , so you'll still have 1 left).

4. Then, use Hullbreaker's ability again, but this time return your 0-cost permanent to your hand;

5. When you repeat this cycle, you'll always create one 1 colorless mana more than you spend. When you have enough mana, use it with The Master of Keys, add lots of counters to it, and mill even more cards.

Oh, and please be careful! Milling yourself won't cost you the game, but if you can't draw a card on the next draw step, you will lose.

Counters and Protection

Occasionally, the best answer for a removal is countering the spell that is threatening you. Some cards that will protect your board or deal with any problems in your way are:

Combos

This is probably the most popular and famous combo on this list. It works like this:

1. You cast Thassa's Oracle;

2. As an answer to its triggered ability, cast Tainted Pact;

3. When Thassa's Oracle resolves, you'll win the game.

This next combo is a variation of the combo above, but you'll need more pieces to win with Thassa's Oracle and create infinite mana.

1. To play this combo, you'll need Mox Amber, Teferi, and Displacer Kitten in play;

2. Create mana with Mox Amber;

3. Using Teferi's -3 ability, return Mox Amber to your hand and draw a card;

4. Cast Mox Amber again to trigger Displacer Kitten;

5. Repeat this process to draw as many cards as you'd like and create as much mana as you'd like;

6. When your deck is empty, cast Thassa's Oracle.

By the way, Thassa's Oracle is so popular in combos that we listed it and a few of its combos in our article about the most popular combos in Commander. Check it out!

Another combo you can play in this list plays around the interaction between Animate Dead and Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward, which gives you an infinite number of 1/1 Soldier tokens. It works like this:

1. With Abdel in your graveyard, cast Animate Dead and target him;

2. When Abdel enters play, exile your enchantment to create a 1/1 token. When Animate Dead leaves play, sacrifice Abdel;

3. Now that Abdel is in your graveyard again, just target it with Animate Dead and keep this cycle going for as long as you want.

With this interaction, you'll be able to build an army to protect your life points! A few other cards that interact with it are Necromancy and Dance of the Dead.

Card Draw and Recursion

At the beginning of this article, we mentioned that your graveyard is an extension of your hand. However, as there are many cards in Magic: The Gathering that block your access to your graveyard (like the iconic Bojuka Bog), this list also includes card draw, such as:

Besides the cards above, we also have recursion:

If you would rather have fun than win games, The Master of Keys is still an excellent option!

This list includes many fun enchantments and cards that interact with this type of permanent, like Sphere of Safety, which is a very efficient "Propaganda" in decks with this theme.

Besides this card, another card your opponents will dread facing is Doomwake Giant.

As this creature's ability triggers whenever an enchantment enters your battlefield, even your simplest enchantments, like Inquisitive Glimmer, will be a nightmare for your opponents.

To show you why our commander is a true Master of Keys, we also added a few Rooms to this list:

And, to interact with them, we have:

Is your board full of enchantments? Then it's time to cast an All That Glitters or a Boon of the Spirit Realm to buff your commander!

The Master of Keys is a fun, different option for anyone who likes enchantments and doesn't want to play the classic Zur the Enchanter (considering the Esper color combination).

Thanks to Escape, this commander adds a Reanimate sub-theme to this deck, and, as a result, you'll be able to return to your board all the problematic enchantments your opponents tried to remove.

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

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!