Commander Deck Tech: Tasha, the Witch Queen

Tasha, one of the most iconic characters in Dungeons and Dragons history, couldn't be left out of Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate, being represented in Magic: the Gathering as a mythic planeswalker, who can be used as a commander.

Part of Dungeons & Dragons' lore since its first issue being created by Gary Gygax and developed over four decades, Tasha, the Witch Queen, is known by numerous names and titles, she also illustrates the cover of the book Tasha's Cauldron of Everything and carries epic events in her stories.

Tasha, the Witch Queen has a fair mana cost of for a planeswalker with two abilities, one activated and one triggered, which in the first moment may seem fragile. However, it's a false impression.

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Its passive ability creates 3/3 demon tokens whenever you cast a spell that isn't yours — which is very interesting, since many spells and effects in her color identity allow you to play cards from your opponent's hand, graveyard, and library.

+1: Draw a Card. For each opponent, exile up to one target instant or sorcery spell from that player's graveyard and put a counter on it.

Her positive ability is a graveyard removal that grants an extra draw. Its main quirks are the counters on exiled spells, which ensure that even if Tasha, the Witch Queen has been removed from the battlefield, she can play these cards.

-3: You may cast a spell exiled with counters without paying their mana cost.

The perception during the games is that, to balance the card, its main mechanism has been postponed — making its immediate use impossible.

However, when we play Tasha, the Witch Queen over and over again, that perception disappears. Especially when we have many exiled spells or efficient ways to activate her abilities repeatedly.

Tasha, the Witch Queen has powerful control traits, archetype common to / decks. So, when building and playing her, we have to keep that in mind. The Stealing line is complementary to her passive ability; another sub-theme present for optimizing her abilities is to use mill to reanimate stuff and cast spells from graveyards.

In versions with greater optimization, we can move to a Combo-Control alternating between proactive and reactive postures. But, in this article, we will stick to the Aggro-Control with the lowest possible budget and Combo-Control in the optimized version.

Thief Control

In a Tasha, the Witch Queen deck, we need to play our opponents' cards to take advantage of the commander's full potential, a fact that sets her apart from typical Dimir decks that steal and copy our opponents' permanents and spells.

Many creatures allow you to take cards from opponents through combat, and others when they enter the battlefield. Here are some options compatible with our objective:

The use of other spells for the same purpose should also be explored, whether in the form of permanents such as the excellent Rogue Class and Cunning Rhetoric, following even to different planeswalkers such as Ashiok, Nightmare Muse and Jace, Architect of Thought.

As for artifacts, Chaos Wand and Whispersteel Dagger are consistent alternatives. Among the non-permanents, we highlight Siphon Insight, which in its effect resembles Gonti and costs only two mana and has flashback, in addition to the recent Xander's Pact, with which we can create an immense advantage by sacrificing the tokens generated by Tasha, the Witch Queen to generate copies which in turn will generate more tokens.

Optimized Version

In this version, we have a high-power deck bordering on cEDH that has several combo lines, an optimized manabase and a significant number of tutors. The vast number of interactions brings strong control elements by observing the speed of Power Level 8+ decks, and we still have a restricted pool, reducing the amount of cards present in the Reserved List.

Our main lines are Thassa's Oracle and Demonic Consultation, Jace, Wielder of Mysteries and Tainted Pact, and we can switch to Doomsday stacks.

The super cute Displacer Kitten creates interesting interactions with the commander, very reminiscent of the Copycat (Saheeli Rai + Felidar Guardian).

Demonic Consultation + Thassa's Oracle

Cast Thassa's Oracle and when its ability triggers, retain priority and respond by casting Demonic Consultation naming a card that is not in your library. With the library exiled, Thassa's Oracle resolves and wins the game.

This combo features variations using Tainted Pact instead of Demonic Consultation. However, this change requires that there are no cards with the same name in the deck, including lands.

We can replace Oracle with Jace, Wielder of Mysteries and win using Jace's ability.

Psychic Corrosion + Peer into the Abyss

With Psychic Corrosion in play, play Peer into the Abyss targeting yourself. Draw half of your deck, and your opponents will mill two cards for every card drawn this way.

Although a bit dangerous, this line allows you to use the full potential of Tasha, the Witch Queen, granting access to all spells in opponents' decks.

Tasha, the Witch Queen + Displacer Kitten

What would a good mage be without a remarkable familiar? Our queen Tasha, the Witch Queen will receive in Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate a companion of her kind: Displacer Kitten.

The kitten lets you exile a permanent and return it to the battlefield each time we cast a noncreature spell. That is, each time we activate our commander's -3 ability, we can exile and play Tasha, the Witch Queen again, being able to use the ability again, creating tokens as long as there are exiled spells.

However, we need many cards for this to be relevant, so we have one more element in the equation: The Chain Veil. When its ability is activated once, we have infinite interaction. Each time Tasha returns from exile, she can activate her abilities once more, even allowing her to loop a spell and draw our entire deck.

Budget Version

Here we opted for a version that uses creatures as a value engine, and we advance in the game using opponents' cards as resources to lead us to victory.

Our commander's strength can be seen mid-game, as playing Tasha, the Witch Queen in the opening turns underutilizes her abilities. So, we have to consider the deck to be an Aggro-Control, known to many as “Tempo” — that is, the longer the turns with our creatures in play, the greater the threat they pose.

The interaction between Tasha, the Witch Queen, Chaos Wand and Stinging Lionfish allows you to create a large number of demon spells and tokens in successive turns. Alternatively, we have some combo lines using Coveted Jewel for infinite draw and mana.

Archaeomancer + Ghostly Flicker + Coveted Jewel

Our goal is: to play Coveted Jewel over and over again using Ghostly Flicker, making successive draws until you find and cast Nightscape Familiar, generating infinite mana.

We can create a loop by playing Clear the Mind or Psychic Spiral, recovering the cards from the graveyard by shuffling them back into the library.

Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate brought a new cycle of extremely balanced commander planeswalkers with fascinating stories. Planeswalkers as commanders are challenging, given the difficult task of maintaining their presence on the battlefield, a fact that is offset by their great abilities.

Tasha, the Witch Queen is one of the most important characters in the D&D universe, along with other great legends that expand the Magic: the Gathering universe richly.

I appreciate the possibility of her in a "Super Friends" Esper deck using her BFF, Ashiok, in its different versions, having Aminatou, the Fateshifter as commander, in addition to participating in this proposal the planeswalkers Venser, the Sojourner, Narset Transcendent and Jace, Architect of Thought.

In a version having access to Grixis , Tasha, the Witch Queen is extremely synergistic with Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh and Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God, those being just a few examples. Using creatures as commanders, I strongly believe in the proposal of Steal decks like Xanathar, Guild Kingpin or control like Sen Triplets.

Please let me know in the comments below if you or your friends have different versions, or any curious suggestions.

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Thanks for reading and good games!

Any questions, I'm available in the comments!