Introduction
This is not a Johnny deck. This is 100% pure, unfiltered Timmy. It functions as a ramp deck, using Thada's ability to steal mana rocks from its opponents, then using that mana to cast giant robots, leviathans, and eldritch horrors to beat down with.
Interested? Read on.
Commander Analysis
Mana cost:
At 3 mana, Thada is capable of coming down early and being recast many times, especially if we're able to ramp a bit. Her color identity is monoblue, which has both pros and cons - we get access to the best counterspells and card draw, but we also have some difficulty interacting with resolved permanents.
Type: Legendary Creature - Merfolk Rogue.
As a Merfolk, Thada is capable of benefiting from many tribal support cards. There are also some support cards for Rogues (most notably the Prowl mechanic).
Stats: 2/2
As a 2/2 for 3 mana, Thada Adel qualifies as a Gray Ogre - not particularly impressive statwise. It is difficult for her to knock out opponents via commander damage, and with only two toughness, she can be taken out by most damage-based removal. Fortunately, she is relatively cheap to recase.
Islandwalk
Thada loves islands, and wants to spread that love to the rest of the world. Islandwalk means that if our opponents have islands, then she can't be blocked. This means that Thada is usually going to be able to attack safely. If your opponents don't happen to have Islands, there are ways to fix that...
Whenever Thada Adel, Acquisitor deals combat damage to a player, search that player's library for an artifact card and exile it. Then that player shuffles their library. Until end of turn, you may play that card.
The most important text on Thada, and the main ability the deck is built around. Thada is capable of acquiring our opponents' artifacts and bringing them under our control. This opens up a lot of possibilities, depending on what our opponents are running.
You may enjoy this deck if:
-you like monoblue and want to share that love
-you want all the Sol Rings
-you enjoy beating down with large monsters
-you value having knowledge of your opponents' decks
-you want your deck to play differently from game to game
This deck may not be for you if:
-you hate winning via combat
-your opponents won't let you touch their cards
-you prefer a reactive gameplan
-you're not comfortable losing to Cyclonic Rift
Other Commander Options
Arcum Daggson - another monoblue artifact-based commander. Usually more focused on combo than ramp. His ability allows large noncreature artifacts to be cheated out.
Braids, Conjurer Adept - another good blue Timmy commander, she allows you to cheat out all sorts of large nonsense... at the cost of your opponents also getting that benefit.
Jalira, Master Polymorphist - similar to Braids, she's great at cheating out all sorts of giant creatures.
Muzzio, Visionary Architect - another artifact commander that cheats things out. He actually seems like an excellent alternative for a deck focused primarily on beating down with giant robots, although a bit lacking in the non-metallic beatdown category...
Patron of the Moon - another monoblue ramp commander, although more focused on lands than artifact mana.
Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca - if you want to build merfolk tribal, take a look at him. This deck is not what you're looking for.
Decklist
Using Thada
Whenever Thada Adel, Acquisitor deals combat damage to a player, search that player's library for an artifact card and exile it. Then that player shuffles their library. Until end of turn, you may play that card.
Thada is, in some ways, reliant on our opponents' decks - if our opponents have artifacts that support our gameplan, great! If they don't, then our position will be significantly more awkward. As a result, when you first sit down at the table and see what your opponents are playing, it is a good idea to form a mental model of what your sort of artifacts may be present in your opponents' decks - are they going to have a bunch of mana rocks? Equipment? Perhaps random combo pieces? Once we actually connect with Thada, we will be able to confirm or deny those suspicions (and also form a better understanding of what our opponents' gameplans are), but until then, our opponents are a mystery.
Fortunately, the vast majority of decks run one card in particular: Sol Ring. It is one of the most efficient mana rocks available, and will be the first artifact you plunder in the vast majority of situations - your default opening line for many games will involve casting Thada on turn 3, then stealing a Sol Ring on turn 4 and using it to start accelerating.
There are several other classes of cards to keep an eye out for when looking for artifacts:
Other mana rocks - our curve is fairly high, so taking a Mind Stone or Thran Dynamo is totally reasonable.
Equipment - our commander has evasion, so commander damage is a valid win condition if we can give her enough power from equipment. Alternatively, many of our other creatures enjoy having extra keywords (such as lifelink, double strike, or hexproof). Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots are particularly attractive, since they both protect our creatures and allow Thada to come out swinging if she gets removed.
Colored artifacts - by default, we don't have a ton of ways to produce nonblue mana. If you suspect you may need to steal a colored artifact such as Whip of Erebos or Sphinx of the Steel Wind, then it may be worth preemptively stealing the colored sources necessary for them.
Combo pieces - most combo decks have enough redundancy that taking one or two pieces will just be an annoyance. However, if you suspect an opponent is only capable of winning via something like Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal, feel free to shut them down.
Utility - sometimes, you want card draw from something like Mind's Eye. Sometimes, you want grave hate from something like Relic of Progenitus. Sometimes, you want to nuke the board with something like Oblivion Stone. Keep an eye out for solutions to problems - in a pinch, it can be possible to work together with an opponent if they happen to have an answer somewhere in their deck.
One final note: although we may have claimed these artifacts by right of conquest, these aren't actually ours. This means that cards like Cyclonic Rift are particularly painful, since we both lose the artifact while also granting them to our opponents. Additionally, if most of our board is stolen from an opponent, we are incentivized to keep that opponent around - if that player concedes or gets knocked out, we will also lose all their stuff, which can cause problems. If you have the ability to promote a 'concede only at sorcery speed' house rule, I highly recommend doing so.
Also: make sure to return all cards to their owners at the end of the game! While stealing cards in-game is alright, stealing cards out-of-game is frowned upon.
Card Discussion
- Everflowing Chalice - a flexible mana rock which scales nicely into the lategame.
- Sol Ring - one of the most broken mana rocks ever printed. Also the #1 target for Thada's ability.
- Dowsing Dagger - Thada's islandwalk makes it pretty easy to flip, at which point we have a mana rock that doesn't get hit by artifact removal.
- Fellwar Stone - 2 cost for 1 mana is a fair rate, and this has the incidental upside of allowing us to cast colored artifacts from opponents' decks.
- Mind Stone - ramps early, cycles late.
- Inspiring Statuary - we often have equipment or other random artifacts lying around, and turning them into extra mana rocks is a nice perk.
- Midnight Clock - ramps early, then cashes in for a new hand later. This deck doesn't have many graveyard synergies, so shuffling stuff back is a minor upside.
- Skyclave Relic - a bit expensive to kick, but it can represent a bunch of additional ramp. Indestructible means it lives through most random board wipes.
- Thaumatic Compass - not technically ramp, but hitting all our land drops is good. The flip side is also useful, and allows us to attack with our fatties a bit more safely.
- Hedron Archive - the middle sibling of the Mind Stone triplets. Ramps early, and cycles in a pinch.
- Thran Dynamo - an incredibly dense mana rock. Lets us jump directly into the big stuff.
- Thryx, the Sudden Storm - provides a slight mana discount (and counter protection) for our expensive spells, and also acts as an evasive beater and surprise blocker.
- Oblivion Sower - we don't have that much exile, but this is another source of land-based ramp, which provides more resiliency against artifact removal.
- Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, and other fast mana - totally reasonable options for ramping if you have the budget.
- High Tide - a one-shot effect. This isn't a storm deck, so it isn't as good here as it may be elsewhere, but still worth consideration. You may want to play extra Islands.
- Solemn Simulacrum - a format staple. We don't benefit as much from it as other decks can, but it's still good.
- Omniscience - a mix of ramp and payoff.
- Wayfarer's Bauble - not the most efficient ramp, but getting a land is a significant upside.
- Etherium Sculptor - good if you find yourself casting a lot of cheap artifacts in a single turn.
- Grand Architect - turns your blue creatures into mana dorks. We don't have a ton of small creatures to tap though. Combos with Pili-Pala, if you're into that sort of thing.
- Caged Sun, Extraplanar Lens and Gauntlet of Power - solid mana doublers, and a great payoff for being monocolor.
- Worn Powerstone - another efficient mana rock.
- Dreamstone Hedron - the largest of the Mind Stone triplets. As with the others, it provides mana when we want it, and cycles when we have enough.
- Gilded Lotus - slightly less efficient than Thran Dynamo, but colored mana is nice.
-Does it have evasion? (will we actually be able to win with it when it attacks?)
-Does it have protection? (will it live long enough to attack with it?)
-Does it provide value? (if it dies before it attacks, do we still benefit?)
Ideally, creatures will provide at least two of those three points.
Creatures
- Stormsurge Kraken - hexproof, and occasionally draws us cards.
- All-Seeing Arbiter - draws cards immediately, plus more if it sticks around. It can also provide a bit of disruption to shrink opposing creatures.
- Kairi, the Swirling Sky - somewhat annoying beater for opponents to deal with, and it can provide some nice recursion or disruption if it dies. Great target for Rite of Replication.
- Steel Hellkite - if you have a lot of mana available, Steel Hellkite is a decent mana sink. Also another answer to troublesome permanents.
- Stormtide Leviathan - serves dual-duty here as a beater and a one-sided Moat - a lot of our threats have flying.
- Colossus of Akros - my personal nickname for it is 'The Mailman'. There's something special about swinging with a hasty, trampling, double striking 20/20.
- Metalwork Colossus - often comes down for free, and occasionally recurs itself. In terms of size to mana ratio, it's hard to beat.
- Rite of Replication - good value as long as people are playing good creatures.
- Mind's Dilation - can dominate a game if left unchecked... or you can exile a bunch of lands to feed Oblivion Sower. It's a bit high-variance.
- Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, and other Eldrazi - fantastic inclusions if you have access to them.
- Blightsteel Colossus, Darksteel Colossus, and other giant robots - many of these have indestructible and/or trample, which makes them consistent beaters.
- Expropriate and Time Stretch - blue doesn't get extra combat steps, but extra turns work well with giant beaters.
- Inkwell Leviathan, Lorthos, the Tidemaker, Tromokratis, and other big sea monsters - they're sometimes a bit light on utility, but this is a totally reasonable spot for them. Consider building around them and running stuff like Whelming Wave.
- Sphinx of Magosi, Sphinx Ambassador, Consecrated Sphinx, and other sphinxes - many of these provide card advantage in addition to their evasive bodies, which works well with piles of mana.
- Sphinx of Jwar Isle - shroud is a useful keyword - it's surprisingly difficult to deal with a flier that can't be targeted. We don't get a ton of benefit from the top card ability, but it does work well with shuffle effects.
- Frost Titan - not the flashiest titan, but it also provides a bit of interaction.
- Soul of New Phyrexia - has the upside of protecting our entire board, then doing it again from the graveyard.
- Memnarch - a very slow card, but can dominate a game if it gets left alone. Steal mana rocks, then use the extra mana to steal more mana!
- Artisan of Kozilek - the only Eldrazi currently in my list, but that's mostly due to budget considerations. Reanimating a fatty is good falue.
- Ancient Stone Idol - discount beef that sticks around after a board wipe. Also, you get to announce that your opponents have activated your trap card.
- Mechanized Production - can function as a ramp card to generate more mana rocks, but it's pretty flexible. You'll usually win from the value it generates before the win condition itself becomes relevant.
- Mystic Remora - sometimes it is Ancestral Recall, sometimes it is Divination. The cost adds up if you want to keep it around forever, but it's usually worth doing so at least for a turn cycle or two.
- Jacob Hauken, Inspector // Hauken's Insight - in the early game, Jacob provides a bit of filtering, but he flips into a potent card advantage engine and pseudo-Omniscience.
- Tome of Legends - turns Thada attacks directly into card draw at a reasonable rate.
- Treasure Mage - not technically card draw, but this deck is running a variety of expensive artifacts, which should be capable of solving most problems.
- Tribute Mage - will often grab Lightning Greaves, but there is a solid toolbox for it with card draw and ramp.
- One with the Machine - Often a draw-7, and occasionally even more. One of the best payoffs for playing big artifacts.
- Rush of Knowledge - another payoff for running big things.
- Shimmer Dragon - evasive beater that turns extra artifacts into draw.
- Lord of Change - a large body that is hard to kill and draws cards.
- Nezahal, Primal Tide - a large body that is hard to kill and draws cards.
- Sandstone Oracle - refills your hand after you dump it, and fetchable with Treasure Mage
- Wondrous Crucible - this deck is light on graveyard synergies, but it has a lot of big creatures that are nice to recur for free.
- Finale of Revelation - casting this for full value isn't that difficult. Even if it isn't for 10 or more, still a reasonable draw spell.
- Pull from Tomorrow - a big draw spell to refill in the lategame.
- Blue Sun's Zenith and other X spells - you pay a premium for the scaling, but they're solid mana sinks.
- Dig Through Time and Treasure Cruise - we don't have much ability to fill the graveyard, but we also don't run much recursion, so delving it away is a minimal cost. Better if you're running more cantrips or other cheap spells.
- Ponder, Preordain, and other cantrips - this is a low-synergy deck, which means that digging for specific cards is not quite as valuable. On the other hand, they do make hitting the right combination of ramp spells and payoffs more consistent.
- Fact or Fiction - more efficient card draw, and useful if you want to fill the graveyard.
- Manifold Insights - at many tables, this is a draw three for three mana.
- Staff of Nin - not the most efficient card draw, but it gets fetched by Treasure Mage.
- Into the Story - draws four cards for four mana, assuming sufficient cards in graveyards.
- Thought Monitor - often a discount Mulldrifter, providing a bit of incidental card draw.
- Emry, Lurker of the Loch - a powerful recursion engine if you find yourself with lots of artifacts in the graveyard. Consider fueling her with Mishra's Bauble or other cantrips.
- Sphinx of Uthuun - Sphinx-or-Fiction generates card advantage and fills the graveyard, if that's a thing you care about. Consider Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign as another inclusion if you want to go heavy on sphinxes.
- Thopter Spy Network - Thopter generation is pretty consistent, which means the card draw is usually also consistent. Note that it triggers seperately for each player you hit - if you hit three different opponents, you draw three cards.
- Swan Song - one of the best counterspells available, in terms of cost to effect.
- Counterspell - the original. Cheap and efficient.
- Cyclonic Rift- one of the most powerful tools in blue's arsenal. Note that it is absolutely devastating when played against us (due to it bouncing a bunch of efficient mana rocks to our opponents' hands), which is why this deck has so many counterspells capable of stopping it.
- Dress Down - a flexible piece of interaction that also cantrips. Use it to stifle an ETB effect, counter a combo, or otherwise make things complicated for your opponents.
- Narset's Reversal - can be a tempo play, but stealing a massive Torment of Hailfire is massive style points.
- Negate - being easier to cast than Counterspell isn't that important when we are monoblue, but my experience is that the spells you most want to counter are usually noncreatures.
- Psychic Surgery - a bit of a pet card, but it works well with Thada's ability (which forces our opponents to shuffle). Fantastic if your meta has a lot of cards like Vampiric Tutor, which put things on top of the deck.
- Thieving Skydiver - steals Sol Rings and other artifacts.
- Mirage Mirror - a flexible copy effect that lets you mimic another key permanent for a turn.
- Imprisoned in the Moon - an excellent answer to enemy commanders (and other things too).
- Padeem, Consul of Innovation - giving our artifacts hexproof is nice. If you can get some card draw from her, even better.
- Spectral Deluge - a one-sided mass bounce effect. It won't always hit everything, but it should hit most things. Consider running extra Islands if you want it to be more consistent.
- Ugin, the Ineffable - a flexible card - kills things, provides cost reduction, and generates card advantage.
- Agent of Treachery - steals anything, and draws cards. What's not to love?
- All Is Dust - deals with most problems, while leaving our mana rocks (and some of our fatties) alive. Consider running more colorless threats to make it even more one-sided.
- Blatant Thievery - one of the better interactive spells available, since it's capable of stealing anything.
- Scourge of Fleets - another Spectral Deluge effect.
- Thassa's Intervention - a soft counter, but twice will usually be enough. Can also dig for action if you're looking for something.
- Mana Drain, Force of Will, Mystic Confluence, and other countermagic - there are a lot of options available. This deck often functions by casting one large spell on its own turn, so prioritizing cheaper countermagic is recommended - cheap spells are easier to hold up while still advancing our own board.
- Stoic Rebuttal - requires a bit of setup to be as efficient as Counterspell, but the condition is usually easy to achieve.
- Pongify, Reality Shift, Curse of the Swine, and other spot removal - blue doesn't have access to the most efficient removal, but consider them if you find yourself needing more.
- Vedalken Shackles, Control Magic, and other theft effects - more answers to problem cards. It's definitely possible to build Thada as a theft-based deck.
- Karn Liberated, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, Spine of Ish Sah, and other colorless removal - usually inefficient, but also good at dealing with pretty much anything. We do generate a lot of mana, so it's possible to run some more expensive interation, but try not to let your curve get too high.
- Ixidron - not quite a board wipe, but usually close enough.
- Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir - makes it easier for us to hold up mana on other players' turns, and also shuts down enemy countermagic and interaction.
- Duplicant and Phyrexian Ingester - not the most efficient creature removal, but it gets the job done. Also fetchable with Treasure Mage.
- Arcane Denial - another efficient counterspell, which also cantrips. In a pinch, you can counter one of your own spells for extra draw. We're not a dedicated control deck, so the card disadvantage isn't quite as relevant.
- Archmage's Charm - steals Sol Rings, counters stuff, or draws cards. It provides a lot of flexibility.
- Engulf the Shore - we run a lot of islands, and some very large creatures. There is a good chance that this will be capable of bouncing every creature on the board except one of our fatties, at instant speed.
- Ravenform - it's not quite Swords to Plowshares, but it is a cheap and flexible piece of spot removal.
- Enigma Thief - provides a bit of disruption, and comes down for cheap if you hit someone with Thada first.
- Back to Basics - not a card for everyone, but this deck is pretty good at supporting it - high basic count, and little reliance on nonbasics.
- Crystal Shard - primarily here for bouncing our own stuff to hand to protect it from removal and board wipes, but you can also retrigger ETB effects. Occasionally also useful for bouncing opponents' creatures if they aren't paying attention.
- Lightning Greaves - makes our creatures harder to kill, and lets them attack immediately. Haste is particularly valuable for Thada, since needing to wait an entire turn cycle to steal something is a pain. Needing to cast her first does reduce the number of things we can steal + cast though.
- Swiftfoot Boots - as with Greaves, haste and protection are both very useful.
- The Reality Chip - not really a buff effect, but a Future Sight that can be fetched by Tribute Mage can be a nice source of card advantage.
- Batterskull - monoblue doesn't have much access to lifegain, but throwing Batterskull on something big allows for a lot of of it.
- Mask of Memory - we have an evasive general, which makes saboteur effects particularly attractive.
- Fireshrieker - doubling Thada triggers is great. Letting our giant creatures deal twice as much damage is also fantastic.
- Sword of Fire and Ice, Sword of Feast and Famine, and other Swords of X and Y - all solid choices if you have access to them. Most of them mix together a bit of protection and card advantage, and having an evasive general makes it easier to get hits in.
- Loxodon Warhammer and other keyword-granting equipment - as mentioned previously, you usually want your equipment to work as a multiplier, so keywords are often better than raw stats. Lifelink, double strike, haste, hexproof, and shroud are particularly useful.
- Sword of Vengeance - haste is the main draw here, but vigilance means our large creatures can both attack and block safely.
- Strata Scythe - we run a lot of basic Islands, so it often gives +6/+6 or more, and grows to truly silly numbers if there are multiple other Blue players at the table.
- Blackblade Reforged - makes dealing lethal commander damage with Thada significantly easier, but also goes well with other legendary creatures (or even non-legendary ones, if you have enough mana)
- Aquitect's Will - makes something an island and cantrips (Thada is a merfolk). Pretty much the gold standard.
- Spreading Seas - as above, but it also shuts down problematic lands (such as Maze of Ith or Cabal Coffers).
- Quicksilver Fountain - gives islands to everyone on the table. If it lives long enough, it can really mess with our opponents' manabases, but we're usually happy if it lives a single turn cycle - I've never seen it live long enough for the counters to be removed.
- Island x23 - basics are the gold standard of lands - they tap for colored mana, enter untapped, and aren't vulnerable to nonbasic hate. You can play normal islands for Strata Scythe, or Snow-Covered Islands if you want to use cards like Scrying Sheets and Extraplanar Lens.
- Blighted Cataract - cycles if you find yourself flooding out.
- Buried Ruin - we run a lot of artifacts, so it's occasionally useful to recur one that dies.
- Castle Vantress - generally an Island with upside, providing a bit of filtering in the lategame.
- Exotic Orchard - a bit of fixing for casting colored artifacts.
- Inventors' Fair - incidental lifegain, and tutors if we need something specific.
- Myriad Landscape - a bit of ramp that doesn't get hit by artifact removal.
- Mystic Sanctuary - usually enters untapped, and a bit of recursion.
- Reliquary Tower - it has a bit of a bad reputation, but it's a pretty good fit here - we have a small number of very large card draw spells (we'll often overfill our hand, but not be able to do so consistently), a high curve (getting below the hand size limit takes time), and minimal recursion (if we discard something, it's not coming back).
- Rogue's Passage - we have a commander that cares about dealing combat damage, and the rest of our creatures are big and stompy.
- Shrine of the Forsaken Gods - we have a high curve, and cast a lot of colorless spells.
- Spire of Industry - a bit more fixing for colored artifacts.
- Tectonic Edge - a bit of nonbasic hate. Maze of Ith is particularly annoying, since it shuts down Thada.
- Strip Mine, Wasteland, and other nonbasic hate - there are many annoying nonbasics, so having an easy answer to them is pretty valuable.
- Academy Ruins - we run a wide variety of artifacts, so recursion can be useful.
- Arch of Orazca, Sea Gate Wreckage, and other mana sink lands - we'll usually have something better to spend our mana on, but they're relatively low-cost to include.
- Minamo, School at Water's Edge - untapped blue mana source, so very low cost to include. Can give pseudo-vigilance to legendary creatures, or untap other legendary permanents you may be running (such as Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin).
- Tolaria West - can tutor up other utility lands, or any 0-mana artifacts you may be running.
- more Islands - if you're running Back to Basics and Strata Scythe, having more basics can be useful.
Strategy
Opening Hand
The first thing you want to do when evaluating a hand is to make sure it can cast Thada. Beyond that, look for a bit of ramp or card draw - an ideal hand will usually be 3-4 lands, a piece of ramp, a piece of card draw, and some sort of threat. However, Thada's ability means that we may be able to get some of those things from our opponents' decks, which means that the initial hand can actually be pretty flexible.
Early Game
Your first priority will usually be to get Thada down and start attacking, at which point you can begin accumulating Sol Rings and other ramp. Try to plan out your next few plays - it may be worth using a counterspell on turn 2 on an enemy commander if you think all of your mana will be accounted for in the coming turns.
Mid Game
At this point, you should have around 5-7 mana, ideally after hitting a few times with Thada. Begin deploying threats - not so many that you force an opponent to cast a board wipe, but try to develop enough power that you can start delivering consistent damage to your opponents. Continue hitting people with Thada and acquiring mana rocks.
Late Game
Continue deploying threats, but try to hold up countermagic for any problems - whether they be a mass artifact removal spell, a board wipe, or something else. Cast some card draw spells if you find yourself low on action. Alternatively, use Thada to find some utility artifacts or threats. At this point, your opponents may be running low on artifacts worth stealing, which means your gameplan will be less about connecting with Thada and more about connecting with fatties - hasty 10+ power beaters are capable of closing games pretty fast.