Magic: The Gathering Puzzlebox - Any Counter Counts, with Felisa & Donatello

The through-line for almost everything I do with Magic is context, and shifting where cards exist within it. Something like Gorex, the Tombshell doesn't seem exciting, until you consider it as the unassuming head of an Ancient Cellarspawn secret Commander. I feel one of my most enduring instances of this came in the form, however, of another Commander that began as a Puzzlebox article: Maester Seymour. This has been one of my most-played paper decks since its inception, managing to please both players looking to duke it out in a battle of stompy, and Johnnies looking to see something weird happen with Spacecraft and animated Millennium Calendars. To that end, I wanted to dedicate another Puzzlebox to the other two Counter-agnostic Commanders not yet talked about, being Felisa, Fang of Silverquill, and the brand-new Donatello, Mutant Mechanic.

While these are doing similar things to the already-covered Seymour & Spider-Man Noir, they manage to feel quite unique, and sate different hungers in spite of a shared core gameplay loop of stacking up and paying off Spacecraft. For those not experienced with the mechanic, Spacecraft build Charge counters based on the Power of a Stationing Creature, as a sort-of slow grow take on Vehicles. The fact we can freely translate the Power on our board, Haste not required, into counters of any type is where things get silly, of course. For Felisa, we're trying to fatten these craft up with ample Charge counters, before gutting our golden geese for dozens of Inklings—ostensibly, she's a go-wide Aristocrats strategy, that looks to surprise opponents by untapping with a massive board of Flying 2/1s. You can see what I mean when I say Counter-Agnostic, in describing these Commanders; Spacecraft are just the most lowest input method of acquiring tons of the things, and Felisa doesn't give a darn what they are. +1/+1 Counters, because they can result directly in more damage (and thus, can end the game) have a higher associated cost, while Charge counters on Spacecraft are Boolean, being either enough, or not, to turn the Artifact into a Creature. The thing that was perhaps not expected was Stationing these starborne juggernauts well beyond the necessary tipping point, and that's the new context we're dropped into with this quartet of Legendary Counter-matters options.

Credit: Wizards of the Coast

So if Felisa & Seymour are fair, respectively aiming to go extremely wide or extremely tall on board, where does that leave Noir & Donatello? Naturally, in the realm of the unfair. Noir has an entire Commander Focus, so I'll be brief, but he attempts to get to a point where you Surveil half or more of your Library on a single attack, before reanimating an Eye of Duskmantle and winning from there. Donatello's a different kind of unfair, though, to such an extent I believe he's best suited to high Bracket 3 and up through B4. See, not only can Donny animate Artifacts on his own (adding both Power with which to Station & Counters to your board) but his ability to 'Baton Pass' those Counters results in some...interesting recontextualization. If you can get to 20 Power, even over a few turns, Darksteel Reactor is a win on a triggered ability (on an Indestructible Permanent). Better yet, you don't need more than 3—the counters Donny places with his {T} ability—to start the shenanigans with Magistrate's Scepter. Given this does result in infinite turns, it's theoretically cordoned off to Bracket 4, but as one of the most compelling outlets for Donatello's ability, that likely justifies moving up a bracket solely to access it.

Credit: Wizards of the Coast

Now that we have the baselines figured out, what else pushes these Commanders ahead? For Felisa, I'd say it comes down to Amulet of Vigor, especially if you're looking to pull off any aristocrats combos. Being able to untap your Inklings means you can immediately funnel their Power into another Spacecraft and do it all over again. Given she's the only Multicolor Commander in this cadre, she has the greatest selection of Spacecraft to choose from, meaning there's a very real world where you chain one into another, into another during your pop-off. In addition, why not look to cards like Enduring Bondwarden & Buzzard-Wasp Colony, as further ways to push your counters to new heights? They can each 'absorb' and pass along the Charge counters from newly-crashed Spacecraft, letting things get sillier, faster. That's not even mentioning newer cards like Moonshadow, or the somewhat recent Nine-Lives Familiar, as cards which get out of hand in Felisa absent even Spacecraft. As for Donny, the sauce comes in the form of freely-sacrificed Charge counter Artifacts. What do I mean by that? I'm referring to things like Golden Urn, and the Shrines from New Phyrexia (Not just the Blue one, potentially all of them). Given there's no loss in value when these sacrifice themselves, they can be freely added to a chain of Artifacts passing along the same Charge counters. Gain 20+ life with the Urn, make as much mana, dig through your Library for exactly what you need with Shrine of Piercing Vision—after receiving a glut of counters from Spacecraft, these normally slow-to-build cards reach a fever pitch. The key word when thinking about boosting these Commanders to new heights is 'Acceleration', doing things far faster and more efficiently than a card was likely designed for. Strap that V8 engine to your jalopy, and re-contextualize the power of these forgotten Artifacts.

Credit: Wizards of the Coast

The conceit of my initial coverage on Seymour & Noir wasn't just Spacecraft, though—that was an ancillary synergy that propped the decks up, and provided a more consistent, lower-ceiling gameplan. Lower ceiling than...what, though? We're talking about popping out 40 power of Inklings, or infinite turns, what could be wilder than that? Well, animating The Millennium Calendar or Vexing Puzzlebox, of course: These can hit 100+ counters on the regular, and every single color has some means of turning non-Creature Artifacts into Creatures. I want to stress, outside of exactly Noir, this is more a flex than the crux of a gameplan, some secondary outcome that makes a playgroup resound with 'ooh' or perhaps 'what the hell, dude'. That said, many of the most accessible enablers for this sidequest, like Karn, the Great Creator, Tezzeret, Cruel Captain, etc [Give more options?] are not only Colorless, but independently competent. You wouldn't look foolish to include them even outside of this pie-in-the-sky dream scenario, making it hit all the harder when you do resolve it. Important to note for Donny though, those are Time counters on the Calendar, not Charges, so you might play only the Puzzlebox for a more consistent endgame. Hey, that's the name of the series!

Jokes aside, I have high hopes for the slow expansion of this odd bunch of Counter-agnostic Commanders, especially with the incoming release of Secrets of Strixhaven. Last time, we saw both Quandrix & especially Silverquill have counters-matter as a component of their identities, and given what's been shown off in the new Commander decks, I imagine that trend continues. Felisa, of course, is from the plane and would make sense to revisit if they're looking for existing characters to slap on new cards. What I'd like to see most, though, is some Red representation in the archetype, given it's the only Color not seen between our current set. Like Infinity—sorry, Terminus—Stones I'd not mind collecting them all. Beyond Strixhaven though (Universes Beyond it, you could say) there's also the Star Trek set later this year. While I tend to be on the cynical side regarding UB, I've had some excitement for the set exclusively given the presumption we'd likely be getting more Spacecraft. If that doesn't pan out, it'll be a disappointment, but Wizards has been clear that Legendary Spacecraft aren't just in the cards, they're in Command Zones (as well as Legendary Vehicles, something I've yet to see in the CZ beyond Shorikai). There's little doubt in my mind we see some disgustingly strong, Multicolor U.S.S. Enterprise or similar, but smaller craft around the ~3 mana mark would have my greatest attention. After all, we're looking to accelerate with Spacecraft, and no single color has more than a few options for the subtype at <4 mana. The future is bright for the counter-agnostic, so why not give them a try yourself?

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