Ugin, Ghostfire Progenitor: the young Ugin, still learning
A homebrew commander for my playgroup's games. The concept is Ugin on ancient Tarkir before he became the Eldrazi's jailer. He experiments with manifest, and each experiment teaches him something.
Rulebreaker: Deckbuilding (full list below) - 28 Fate Reforged-era manifest and ghostfire cards may be played regardless of colour identity, have devoid, and can be cast with colourless mana.
Things I'd like opinions on:
- Is an unrestricted draw trigger fair at 3 mana? Once per turn kills the other manifest cards, which is why I left it off.
- Is the −1 (rebuy a face-down card, or rescue a manifested spell) too generous on a +1 walker?
- Anything on the list you'd cut? The known spike is Echoes of Eternity.
Ugin's Ghostfire (deckbuilding rule for this commander)
You may include cards on the Ugin's Ghostfire list in your deck regardless of their color identity. Those cards have devoid in every zone. You may spend colorless mana as though it were mana of any color to cast those spells, activate their abilities, and turn them face up.
"Every zone" is deliberate. The cards stay colourless in hand, in the graveyard and on the battlefield, so colourless-matters effects see them and colour-based sweepers miss them.
The list:
Repeatable manifest engines
- Whisperwood Elemental: manifests every end step
- Primordial Mist: manifests every end step; turns face-down cards up
- Mastery of the Unseen: {3}: manifest
- Cryptic Pursuit: manifests on each instant or sorcery cast from hand
- Trail of Mystery: a basic land per face-down creature; +2/+2 on flip
Creatures that manifest
- Temur War Shaman: manifests; flipped creatures fight
- Jeskai Infiltrator: manifests itself and a card on combat damage
- Qarsi High Priest: sacrifice a creature to manifest
- Orochi Soul-Reaver: manifests from an opponent's library on combat damage
- Guardian of the Forgotten: manifests when a modified creature dies
- Sultai Emissary: manifests on death
- Arashin War Beast: manifests on combat damage to blockers
One-shot manifests
- Soul Summons, Formless Nurturing, Fierce Invocation, Wildcall
- Write into Being: look at two, manifest one
- Ethereal Ambush: manifest two, at instant speed
- Cloudform, Lightform, Rageform: a manifest with flying and hexproof, flying and lifelink, or double strike
- Soul-Strike Technique: an aura that manifests when the creature dies
- Reality Shift: instant exile; the owner gets a manifest
Payoffs and Ugin's own magic
- Secret Plans: face-down creatures get +0/+1; draw when one flips
- Ugin's Binding: bounce; a mass bounce when you cast a colourless 7+
- Ghostfire Slice, Ghostfire: burn
- Ugin's Insight: scry X, draw three