After a bit of an extended holiday vacation, I’m finally back and ready to dive back into writing articles! Kaldheim Top 10 season will be taking up most of my attention soon enough, but before that time comes, I want to take a look at a card I’ve wanted to brew with since I first saw it previewed in Commander Legends. My “New Perspectives” articles usually focus on a specific Oathbreaker, but this week I’ve decided to switch things up a little. Instead of brewing around a particular planeswalker, this article is all about one specific, spicy Signature Spell: Sakashima’s Will!
The Signature Spell
Let’s begin by taking a look at Sakashima’s Will piece-by-piece.
Sakashima’s Will is normally a modal spell, but this type of templating will ensure that we will always get to use both of its modes whenever we cast it as our Signature Spell. The two modes of this card certainly pair well together, though it also isn’t necessary to take advantage of both options in order to get a satisfactory amount of value. Even still, the added level of consistency is certainly comforting to have.
Giving your opponents more choices isn’t typically an appealing idea in MTG; however, in a multiplayer format like Oathbreaker, this type of effect holds plenty of political potential. Do you and an opponent have a common enemy at the table? If so, you can always try to make a deal where you borrow one of their better creatures in order to turn the tables on that common enemy. This type of scenario might not pop up very often in some playgroups, but it’s still a nice little bit of potential trickiness to have access to. And hey, if nothing else, temporarily taking away an opponent’s blocker is still a fine effect on its own.
Now here’s the really fun part of this card. There are plenty of ways to take advantage of this sort of effect, even if it’s just by temporarily turning your whole board into an army of Tectonic Giants and swinging out. It’s true that this effect will only last one turn, but believe me, you can do a lot of damage with this mode in a short amount of time when you build around it. Turning your creatures into a hoard of massive attackers is the most straightforward way to ride this mode to victory, though it’s far from the only option.
Mass polymorph-like effects and creature-stealing isn’t anything new in blue, though Sakashima’s Will does combine these types of abilities in a bit of a unique way, and for only four mana at that. There are many ways—both fair and unfair—to use this spell, which will only make it even more difficult for your opponents to play around. If you see someone running a Signature Spell like Exhume or Thoughtcast, you’re going to have a pretty good idea of what that opponent is up to; Sakashima’s Will, however, is a bit more wonky and unorthodox. This facet of Sakashima’s Will has made it particularly fun for me to brew around as a Signature Spell option.
Build #1: Ashiok Steal & Swap
Decklist: Ashiok’s Will
For this first list I’ve decided to lean a little into the first mode on Sakashima’s Will. Although this deck’s primary goal to steal cards from our opponents, it’s also running some theft cards that are a little more political in nature, similar to Sakashima’s Will. This list doesn’t pack too much in the way of sheer power, but that’s an intentional choice on my part; this deck’s goal is to turn our opponents against each other and use their own strength against them. I’ve chosen to put Ashiok, Nightmare Muse at the head of this deck for a few reasons; 1) they have the ability to temporarily take other Oathbreakers off the board, and 2) out of all the Dimir-colored Oathbreakers, this version of Ashiok is most likely to have the easiest time snatching cards from our opponents.
- Political Tools: Although taking our opponent’s cards is our primary plan, we’re running a number of cards solely for their political potential. Domineering Will and Reins of Power are two wonderful combat tricks that can be used in several different ways in tandem with one of our opponents. Along similar lines, Sudden Substitution can be used to simultaneously take a card away from one opponent and gift it to another. Curse of Disturbance is a bit more of a “generic” political tool, but it does function well as one more way to make more bodies to transform with Sakashima’s Will. Similar to our Signature Spell, Metamorphic Alteration can be used to mess with the power dynamic of the board, albeit through a slightly different scope. Even still, my personal favorite political powerhouse of the bunch is definitely Scheming Symmetry due to its simple, yet elegant, design (not to mention that sick Seb McKinnon art).
- Direct Theft: Many of our theft effects can also function as a form of spot removal since they target specific cards. Thieving Skydiver is an excellent way to acquire the best artifact on-board, and Hostage Taker is even more versatile in its capacity to target artifacts and creatures. We can also borrow an opponent’s creature much more directly through the use of Bribery, targeting the opponent with the best creatures, of course. If we have our eyes on a creature or planeswalker that’s already hit the bin, we can eventually reanimate it for ourselves with the final chapter on The Eldest Reborn. Sower of Temptation will give us control of a creature as long as we keep the sower in play, and Dragonlord Silumgar offers a similar effect that can even be used to target opposing Oathbreakers. Blatant Thievery is even flashier in this regard since it can hypothetically be used to steal every opposing Oathbreaker at once. To top it all off, we can even borrow the use of one of our opponent’s spells by catching them off guard with Narset’s Reversal.
- Other Theft Effects: Telemin Performance will give us a random creature off the top of an opponent’s deck, and Stolen Goods will similarly give us access to a random nonland card. Nightveil Specter will net us whatever the top card of an opponent’s deck happens to be, whereas Thief of Sanity offers us a bit more selection. Similar to the thief, Gonti, Lord of Luxury lets us steal a card to set facedown for later use. Thieving Amalgam is a bit on the ambitious side at a whopping seven mana, but the ceiling on this card in a multiplayer is too sweet to pass up. Thanks to Commander Legends, we can also sweep the rug out from our opponents at instant-speed by flashing in everyone’s favorite Opposition Agent. Last, but certainly not least, is Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver, because of course we’re running them in this list.
Build #2: Saheeli & the Seven Dwarves
Decklist: Saheeli & the Seven Dwarves
It’s not too often one sees the Seven Dwarves show up in Oathbreaker, let alone a deck entirely built around them! Even though you are allowed to run 7 full copies of Seven Dwarves in an Oathbreaker deck, it can still be a bit tricky to consistently get a meaningful number of copies of them into play. Fortunately for this particular list, we don’t actually need to have more than one copy of Seven Dwarves in play; all we need is one copy in play, a bunch of random creature tokens alongside it, and access to Sakashima’s Will. Together, this combination of cards will grant us a dwarven army the likes of which MTG has never seen before, even if only for a single turn. And what better Izzet-colored Oathbreaker to help us fill the board with tokens than good old Saheeli, Sublime Artificer?
- Token Producers: Saheeli will be helping us a bit in this department, but we have access to plenty of other ways to up our creature-token count. Dragon Fodder and Krenko’s Command are two classic token-producing spells that are pretty efficient, as is the more recently-printed Forbidden Friendship. Hordeling Outburst can add even more 1/1s to our board, though we can get the same amount for only one mana with Kuldotha Rebirth. We can always sacrifice one of Saheeli’s servos to fuel that spell, or we can sacrifice our Servo Schematic. Although he can only produce a few tokens, I still believe Tibalt, Rakish Instigator is worth including for the light lifegain hate. If all that isn’t enough, we can even create more tokens through lands like Dwarven Mine and the classic Kher Keep!
- Redundancy & Dwarf Digging: Sakashima’s Will is definitely this list’s primary way of winning the game, but it won’t hurt to have a few other ways to add to our dwarven horde. Cackling Counterpart and Quasiduplicate are two excellent ways to clone our own creatures, as are Mirror Image and Glasspool Mimic. We’re also running a handful of cantrips to help make sure we can consistently find at least one copy of Seven Dwarves; more specifically, we’ve got Brainstorm, Ponder, Preordain and Impulse. Even still, my favorite way to go looking for our dwarves is with Dwarven Recruiter—yup, that’s a MTG card! I didn’t even know this card existed before building this list, but boy am I happy I stumbled upon it.
- Capitalization & Protection: We’re clearly going all-in on Seven Dwarves as our win condition, but we are running a few additional ways to potentially take further advantage our of huge creatures. The lifelink and trample stapled to Shadowspear pairs perfectly with our dwarves, and we can even flash in an Embercleave to absolutely devastate our opponents in combat. Batterskull also looks pretty good on our dwarves, and the germ token it comes with can always briefly become a dwarf as well. Given the sheer number of high-power creatures we’re aiming to have on-board, it shouldn’t be too tricky for us to reduce Volcanic Salvo‘s cost down to two red mana. Since our board can end up being a bit vulnerable to board wipes up until we actually resolve our Signature Spell, I’ve also opted to run a few counterspells like Fierce Guardianship and Negate as a bit of added protection. I also realize that one casting of Sakashima’s Will may not always be enough to end the game on its own, hence why I’m running a number of mana rocks along with Fires of Invention to ensure we have enough mana to cast our Signature Spell multiple times, when necessary.
Build #3: Biovisionary Wombo-Combo
Decklist: Oko’s Will
If you thought that the Seven Dwarves list was going to be the most ambitious build of this article, you were mistaken! We may only be allowed to run a single copy of Biovisionary in this Oathbreaker deck, but that won’t be enough to stop us from achieving this spicy alternate win condition. Since I wanted to make building this deck a bit more of a challenge, I also decided to not run any clone effects outside of our Signature Spell, so it’s all or nothing! Out of all the potential Oathbreakers that I could have paired with this strategy, I ultimately settled on Oko, Thief of Crowns for a couple of reasons: 1) he’s a lost-cost planeswalker with a lot of loyalty, 2) he can help fill out our board to ensure Sakashima’s Will targeting Biovisionary will end the game, and 3) if necessary, he can be used to disrupt our opponents with his +1 and -5 abilities.
- Mana Acceleration: This type of combo is going to require us to cast both Biovisionary and Sakashima’s Will in a single turn, so we’re running a healthy dose of mana ramp to help our game plan along. We’re running a number of classic “mana dorks” such as Arbor Elf, Arboreal Grazer, Birds of Paradise and Gilded Goose. At the two-drop slot we have land-based ramp in the from of Nature’s Lore, Three Visits and Sakura-Tribe Elder, as well as effects like Coiling Oracle and Risen Reef. If all this land ramp somehow weren’t enough on its own, we can use Lotus Cobra to skyrocket ahead. We even have access to a few mana rocks like Simic Signet and Talisman of Curiosity, just in case we need a few extra targets for Oko’s +1 ability.
- Combo Protection: Believe it or not, some of our opponents may not appreciate our attempts at winning the game so suddenly; fortunately for us, Simic colors offer us a variety of ways to avoid any opposing interaction. Fierce Guardianship and Veil of Summer can both shied us from most forms of spot removal and counterspells for a low cost. Heroic Intervention can often be even more effective in this regard since it can shield us from both spells and planeswalker abilities. Vivien, Champion of the Wilds gives us the option of resolving Biovisionary at instant-speed before we untap for our turn, though she also functions as a fine way of digging for our combo piece when needed. Tamiyo, Collector of Tales gives us a bit of protection against opposing discard and edict effects, and she can even “Regrowth” our Biovisionary if it ever hits the bin.
- Card Selection & Advantage: With only one copy of our win condition in our list, we’re going to need a lot of ways to dig deep into our deck. Creatures like Faerie Seer and Augury Owl help us in this way by scrying, and they’ll stick around to later be transformed in additional copies of Biovisionary. Once Upon a Time goes looking even deeper for our win condition, though it can be equally handy as a way to ensure we hit our land drops. As far as actual card advantage, we’re running everyone’s favorite Simic-colored calamity, that being Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath. We can also crack Tireless Tracker‘s clue tokens for extra cards, or we can always keep them around to elk-ify with Oko. I’ve also opted to run a few of green’s instant-speed creature tutoring effects, such as Chord of Calling and Worldly Tutor. To top it all off, this list is the first Oathbreaker deck I’ve built with Collected Company; and yes, every creature in this list costs three or less mana!
Shared Cards
Here’s a quick overview of what notable cards each of the lists share with each other.
- Ashiok & Saheeli: Arcane Signet, Metamorphic Alteration, Ponder and Preordain
- Saheeli & Oko: Servo Schematic, Brainstorm and Fierce Guardianship
And For My Next Trick . . .
It’s not typical for me to write a whole article around a single Signature Spell, but I feel that Sakashima’s Will deserves the added attention. I’ve also never tried building decks around Seven Dwarves or Biovisionary in Oathbreaker before, but I had a lot of fun brewing those two lists in particular. It felt very refreshing to focus on a single Signature Spell since I’m so used to building around specific planeswalkers.
Have you tried building a deck with Sakashima’s Will in Oathbreaker yet? Are there any others way you would want to build around it? Make sure to share your thoughts and brews with me on Reddit or on Twitter!
I’ll be back once Kaldheim previews have come to a close so I can start on the set’s Top 10 series!
About the author: My name is Alex Enders. I am a college student that’s been playing MTG for almost eight years, though I only recently began experimenting with writing content. My personal formats of choice are Oathbreaker, EDH, and draft. My other interests include music, education, and most things nerdy. You can find me on Twitter (@AAAEnders) or email me at aenders2112@gmail.com