Vnwxt, Verboe Host, on top of being hard to pronounce, is a great commander released in Magic: The Gathering’s Aetherdrift set. This mono blue commander offers a playstyle all about drawing cards and reaching max speed.
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The restriction of being mono blue doesn’t hurt the deck too much, as blue is the color of drawing cards and unblockable creatures. Vnwxt, Verbose Host offers a different take on mono blue with abilities to make it a perfect draw commander. If you love drawing cards and constantly having a hand filled with them, Vnwxt, Verboe Host is the commander you have been looking for.
Decklist
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Commander: Vnwxt, Verbose Host |
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Jace, Wielder of Mysteries |
Alandra, Sky Dreamer |
Body of Knowledge |
Chasm Skulker |
Clinquant Skymage |
Consecrated Sphinx |
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Detective of the Month |
Emrakul’s Messenger |
Enduring Curiosity |
Faerie Vandal |
Forgotten Creation |
Ghostly Pilferer |
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Homunculus Horde |
Invisible Stalker |
Jace’s Archivist |
Laboratory Maniac |
Minn, Wily Illusionist |
Mischievous Mystic |
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Mist-Cloaked Herald |
Mulldrifter |
Nezahal, Primal Tide |
Oneirophage |
Psychosis Crawler |
Shoreline Looter |
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Slither Blade |
Toothy, Imaginary Friend |
Triskaidekaphile |
Triton Shorestalker |
Twenty-Toed Toad |
Wharf Infiltrator |
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Gitaxian Probe |
Ponder |
Preordain |
Treasure Cruise |
Windfall |
An Offer You Can’t Refuse |
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Brainstorm |
Brainsurge |
Counterspell |
Flow of Knowledge |
Frantic Search |
High Tide |
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Negate |
Pongify |
Rapid Hybridization |
Reality Shift |
Tolarian Winds |
Aether Syphon |
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Arcane Signet |
Bident of Thassa |
Commander’s Sphere |
Empyrial Plate |
Mind Stone |
Sapphire Medallion |
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Sol Ring |
Starting Column |
Thopter Fabricator |
Thought Vessel |
Forced Fruition |
Ominous Seas |
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Proft’s Eidetic Memory |
Propaganda |
Teferi’s Ageless Insight |
Wizard Class |
Amonkhet Raceway |
Avishkar Raceway |
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Castle Vantress |
Geier Reach Sanitarium |
x24 Island |
Mikokoro, Center of the Sea |
Muraganda Raceway |
Myriad Landscape |
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Mystic Sanctuary |
Rivendell |
War Room |
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The decklist contains one planeswalker, 29 creatures, five sorceries, 12 instants, 12 artifacts, six enchantments, and 34 lands. Many of the creature suite have effects when you draw a card or draw your second card per turn.
Key Cards
Vnwxt, Verbose Host
The commander of the deck, Vnwxt, Verbose Host is a big power-up to the rest of your deck. Its start your engines ability lets you get your max speed going, which you want to get to four as quickly as possible. This lets Vnwxt draw you an extra card whenever you draw.
Vnwxt will double all cards you draw. So if you play a Brainstorm to draw three cards, you will draw six cards instead if you have max speed.
Vnwxt only costs two mana, letting it hit the battlefield as quickly as possible. You want to cast Vnwxt as quickly as possible so you can start building up speed. If Vnwxt ever does get removed, wait to re-cast it until you have max speed, as there are plenty of other ways to get rid of your hand size limit that are much harder to remove.
Psychosis Crawler
Psychosis Crawler is one of the best creatures in the deck. It’s the only way in mono blue to deal burn damage whenever you draw a card, and you will be doing that a lot over the course of the game (especially once you hit max speed). One Windfall can snowball into massive burn damage when combined with Vnwxt.
If a card requires you to discard your entire hand and draw new cards (such as Windfall), Psychosis Crawler will not die since state-based actions aren’t checked until the spell finishes resolving, and you’ll have a hand of cards once it does, keeping Psychosis Crawler alive.
Its stats are always determined by however many cards are in your hand. If you somehow have no cards in hand, Psychosis Crawler will die from having zero toughness. However, this is almost never going to happen as you draw too many cards to have to worry about that.
Enduring Curiosity
You have a lot of creatures in the deck that can’t be blocked, and Enduring Curiosity turns their attacks into card draw as well. Enduring Curiosity triggers off of every creature that deals combat damage, so if three creatures connect, you’ll be drawing three cards.
Enduring Curiosity has flash, letting you cast it once you know your opponent isn’t blocking anything to gain even more card draw. It’s very resilient, as once Enduring Curiosity dies, it turns into an enchantment, which is harder to get rid of than a creature. This forces your opponents to need two removal spells to get rid of it instead of just one.
Alandra, Sky Dreamer
Alandra, Sky Dreamer is one of your main ways to amass a large battlefield. It triggers whenever you draw your second card in a turn, which includes your opponents’ turns. In the right circumstances, you can create four 2/2 tokens with flying in just one turn cycle.
Once you achieve max speed, drawing five cards in one turn becomes much easier, letting you give all of your tokens gain massive stats since you’ll have a ton of cards in your hand. Alandra both generates a ton of tokens to make your battlefield large and gives you a way to close out games in combat.
How To Play The Deck
A Vnwxt, Verbose Host Commander deck is about reaching max speed and drawing a bunch of cards. Your first step in any game should be to trigger start your engines as fast as possible.
This can be done through Vnwxt itself, or through other cards like the Raceway lands or Aether Syphon. They all have effects that you can use once you’re at max speed, making them great later in the game as well (especially Muraganda Raceway which turns into a land that taps for two mana).
Your speed increases by one every time an opponent(s) loses life. Your speed can only increase by one each turn, and once you have four speed, you achieve max speed permanently. Only a handful of cards can reduce your max speed, but they are too niche for you to ever have to realistically worry about.
Building your max speed is easy, thanks to how many unblockable creatures you have available to you. Triton Shorestalker, Slither Blade, and Mist-Cloaked Herald are just a few, with Shoreline Looter being the best unblockable creature as it’ll give you card draw as well. You can equip these with Empyrial Plate which will give a +1/+1 stat boost to the equipped creature equal to the number of cards in your hand.
The primary win condition of the deck is winning through either combat, or with an alternate win condition. You can draw through your library very quickly, enabling you to win from having an empty library with Jace, Wielder of Mysteries or Laboratory Maniac.
Alternatively, Twnety-Toed Toad and Triskaidekaphile both automatically win the game when you have a specific number of cards in your hand. Many creatures grow with +1/+1 counters when you draw cards, letting you attack with massive creatures to win the game the old-fashioned way.
The biggest downside to the deck is its weakness to board wipes. Mono blue is not a good color for ramping, with High Tide being the only real option (and can only be used once). While a Vnwxt deck can build up a threatening battlefield, it can’t do a ton to replace it once it goes away.
Having max speed helps since Vnwxt will draw you extra cards to help rebuild. Counterspells also help to make sure no board wipes resolve, as otherwise it’ll be an uphill battle for you.
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