Illusions don’t often get a lot of the spotlight in Magic. There have been some higher-profile illusions over the years – principally clones like Phantasmal Image and Spark Double – but even without a huge number of powerful Illusions, it’s still possible to build a powerful Illusion-based EDH deck.
That’s in no small part due to Minn, Wily Illusionist, who is a little three-drop commander that can churn out a ton of 1/1 Illusions, all of whom get stronger for each Illusion you already have. And all you need to do is draw extra cards – in a mono-blue deck. Not a difficult hurdle to clear, as hitechredneck1590 shows us with this list!
Minn, Wily Illusionist EDH by hitechredneck1590
Commander
Creature (22)
Sorcery (1)
Instant (10)
Artifact (26)
Enchantment (4)
Land (36)
The Illusion creature suite isn’t particularly robust. There are some good ones – Draining Whelk, Toothy, Imaginary Friend and, er, well, that’s about out. Still, cards like Oneirophage will get huge with all the extra cards we’re drawing, and Krovikan Mist will get even bigger with all the tokens we’ll make. Plus, there’s Lord of the Unreal to juice up the entire team – always a welcome thing in a deck making lots of little tokens.
But how are we drawing those extra cards to make those tokens? Thirst for Knowledge, Thirst for Discovery and Hieroglyphic Illumination will do it, but there are easy, repeatable ways for when it’s our turn. Cards like Endless Atlas and Bag of Holding will trigger Minn on our own turn, and then there’s stuff like Teferi’s Ageless Insight and Alhammarret’s Archive to double our draws and trigger Minn on opponents’ turns. Perhaps the sweetest way to trigger Minn, however, is with Illusory Ambusher, which will generally trigger both her abilities after being flashed in during combat.
And Minn’s second ability can really come in handy here and there, and there are a couple of sacrifice outlets to recycle our illusions into something new. These are particularly useful on the “phantasmal” creatures, as they can be sacrificed in response to their own triggers for a bit of extra value. Things like Jalira, Master Polymorphist or Relic Vial will help trigger Minn’s second ability and go some way in mitigating opposing removal.
In addition, there are a few cards that temporarily benefit your creatures before making you sacrifice them – Junkyo Bell, Stitcher’s Graft and Grafted Wargear can all significantly power up an Illusion token before killing it – but with Minn out, at least you get to put a land into play when the illusion is finally sacrificed!
There’s also the typical suite of blue interaction – counterspells and the like – with Summoner’s Bane even making an Illusion as it counters your opponents’ spells. But the really exciting part comes once you’ve built up a huge team of X/1s, all juicing each other up – as long as you’ve got a counterspell for their sweepers, your team will quickly dominate the battlefield!
