Thalia, the SurvivorThalia, the Survivor | Art by Ryan Pancoast

The mirrored pairs in Reality Fracture are one of the biggest design home runs in recent memory, and the most elegant pairing revealed so far is Thalia, the SurvivorThalia, the Survivor and Geist of Saint ThaliaGeist of Saint Thalia. Mechanically, these two are just perfect. Thalia, Guardian of ThrabenThalia, Guardian of Thraben is one of Magic's most iconic creatures, and it makes sense to borrow from her abilities for the main universe Thalia. In the Echoverse, it makes total sense that she'd do the opposite, reducing noncreature spells cost rather than increasing them. In this deck tech, I'm going to take a crack at Thalia, the Survivor, my favorite legend from this mirrored pair.

What Does Thalia, the Survivor Do?

Thalia, the Survivor is 3/4 Human Soldier with lifelink for . Much like her predecessorher predecessor from Dark Ascension, she's a stax piece that increases the cost of noncreature spells by . Unlike Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, this Thalia's effect isn't symmetrical. This is where the justification for running one Thalia over the other comes into play. My build of Thalia, the Survivor will frequently land itself in scenarios where it wants to play multiple noncreature spells in a turn. The asymmetry of the new Thalia's tax effect comes up very frequently, and rarely would I want to trade her in for the older model.

Thalia gives herself to an aggressive beat down deck with an affinity for other stax creatures. My build is going to be ramp-lite, focusing on deploying as many creatures as possible in the early game and setting up a snowballing advantage that culminates in a win through combat damage. Normally, the pace of a Commander game is unfriendly to this gameplay, and that's where the other stax creatures come in. Rather than speeding up to match other deck's pace, Thalia would rather kneecap the opponents and watch them flail around attempting to keep pace. The biggest roadblock for this strategy are board wipes and other creature decks that can put larger creatures on the board, like a Dinosaur or Dragon deck, and even those aren't insurmountable problems.

Key Cards for Thalia

First up are the disruptive creatures that come out before Thalia, the SurvivorThalia, the Survivor. To maximize Thalia, she needs to be at the top of a curve of other stax pieces that hopefully prevent the game from spiraling out of control faster than the deck can handle. One of the most common play patterns in modern-day Commander is casting a ramp spell on turn two and curving that into a four-mana commander or value engine on turn three. Disrupting that curve for multiple players all at once is comparable to casting a Time WalkTime Walk! That's where Drannith MagistrateDrannith Magistrate, Aven MindcensorAven Mindcensor, and Clarion ConquerorClarion Conqueror come in. Anything that stops a Nature's LoreNature's Lore or renders an opposing Arcane SignetArcane Signet inert can buy precious time for this deck to dig its heels in and find opportunities to chip away at opposing life totals before the game has even started for most other decks.

Then, there are "soft stax" pieces, like Esper SentinelEsper Sentinel, Deep Gnome TerramancerDeep Gnome Terramancer, and Archivist of OghmaArchivist of Oghma, that disincentivize opponents from taking certain actions rather than stopping them entirely. The threat these cards pose is simply giving me some upside for relatively mundane actions, like searching the library or casting a noncreature spell. Both sides of these cards are valuable, as an opponent waiting for an opportunity to skirt these effects is beneficial because it indirectly places me ahead of them in tempo. Flagrantly ignoring these effect and jamming cards into them will give me a significant resource advantage that will either keep me from falling behind or put me firmly ahead of the rest of the table going into the middle and late stages of a game.

Next are value engines. White is really good at deploying creatures with powerful enters triggers and blinking them for additional value. Phelia, Exuberant ShepherdPhelia, Exuberant Shepherd is the centerpiece of this deck's removal engine. Whether it's blinking creatures like Palace JailerPalace Jailer and SolitudeSolitude or combining it with Containment PriestContainment Priest to lock opposing creatures in exile, Phelia is an all-star.

Recruiter of the GuardRecruiter of the Guard and Thalia's LancersThalia's Lancers are the one-card combos that set all of the blink shenanigans into motion, as they immediately grab Phelia, then Phelia blinks them to find more good creatures to blink later. Crafting these toolboxes is the most fun part of building any deck, and the end result is always a window into the builder's playgroup. For example, Aven InterrupterAven Interrupter is specifically a nod to how frequently I wind up playing against Pantlaza, Sun-FavoredPantlaza, Sun-Favored and Trumpeting CarnosaurTrumpeting Carnosaur in particular.

I can't resist putting Stoneforge MysticStoneforge Mystic and Cloud, Midgar MercenaryCloud, Midgar Mercenary into my white decks that care about combat. The package keeps getting better as new Equipment are released! Sword of Feast and FamineSword of Feast and Famine and Sword of Fire and IceSword of Fire and Ice are important for two reasons: the advantage gained when a creature holding one connects, and reach. Reach isn't just a keyword on Spiders, it's also the concept of "how does this deck finish an opponent off?" Protection is great for that, creating a creature that's virtually unblockable and immune to certain flavors of removal can be the final puzzle piece in a grindy game.

Both Stoneforge Mystic and Cloud have different strengths, and the Equipment suite is tailored to both of them. SkullclampSkullclamp is rarely a card Stoneforge Mystic will go searching for. On the other hand, Cloud can find it and use it to draw four cards. Of course, Skullclamp also intersects with Ocelot PrideOcelot Pride, easily one of this deck's strongest one-drops. Meanwhile, Cloud simply isn't designed to wield Meteor SwordMeteor Sword without Stoneforge Mystic's ability to circumvent a pricey Equipment's mana cost.

Winning With Thalia, the Survivor

The big play that wins games with this deck is an asymmetrical board wipe. Achieving that is fairly straightforward: either cast a protection spell, like Clever ConcealmentClever Concealment or Flare of FortitudeFlare of Fortitude, in response to someone else's board wipe, or make the same play by casting your own, like Vanquish the HordeVanquish the Horde, and responding to it with said protection spell. Mass CalcifyMass Calcify and Split UpSplit Up break away from that formula by having natural asymmetry.

After flooding the board with cheap creatures, it'll sometimes be necessary to give those creatures a bit of a boost to close out a game. Akroma's WillAkroma's Will, Invasion of GobakhanInvasion of Gobakhan, and Virtue of LoyaltyVirtue of Loyalty do just that. Even better, two of those three double as protection spells to ensure they're almost never dead cards.

Notable Exclusions

It is the nature of a stax deck to play cards that even slow down their own game plan. Being selective about where that tension is and isn't allowed to exist is a huge part of deck-building. Sometimes causing yourself a little discomfort is worth it simply because that discomfort is tripled for your hapless opponents. I ultimately cut Thalia, Guardian of ThrabenThalia, Guardian of Thraben after encountering curve outs where having my noncreature spells taxed caused issues.

There's tension with the protection spells and board wipes that comprise the deck's plan to win the game, and tension with the Equipment spells that Stoneforge MysticStoneforge Mystic and CloudCloud tutor up. I found that casting Thalia would sometimes put me at the mercy of my opponents' removal spells to unlock some of the cards in my hand, and that juice wasn't worth the squeeze. It's worth noting that this same tension exists between some creatures that I left in, like Clarion ConquerorClarion Conqueror or Spirit of the LabyrinthSpirit of the Labyrinth, but it's been my experience that those creatures also draw out the opponents' removal a little faster.

A key feature of stax in Commander is Rule of LawRule of Law effects. I gave some of the more powerful ones, like Archon of EmeriaArchon of Emeria, a shot but ultimately wound up cutting them. They simply don't play well in games where Thalia, the SurvivorThalia, the Survivor is doing her thing. Increasing the cost of casting noncreature spells naturally keeps the table limiting themselves to one spell per turn on most turns, and limiting myself to one spell per turn is a huge impairment. My deck full of cheap creatures is often looking to deploy more than one in a turn.

Smothering TitheSmothering Tithe and Trouble in PairsTrouble in Pairs are both generically good white cards. In fact, they're among the best white cards in Commander. Why not play with them? Both of them sit on the same spot in the curve as Thalia. More importantly, they aren't creatures that apply pressure. Turn four is too pivotal to spend casting a removal magnet that can't even block. Smothering Tithe would also have to kick Mana VaultMana Vault out as the third Game Changer, and I'd much rather see a Mana VaultMana Vault in my opening hand.

The Deck List

Conclusion

This build of Thalia, the SurvivorThalia, the Survivor falls into Bracket 3 (Upgraded). I aimed for Bracket 3 with this deck specifically because this heavily disruptive strategy actually holds up better against more tuned decks, and the pool of cards commonly played in each bracket gets narrower with each rung up the ladder you go. Bracket 2 (Core) games will be subject to much higher variance with less guarantee that the stax pieces the deck relies on will have any effect on a given opponent's game plan.

It isn't often that, when presented with two options, I'm more interested in a set's non-blue offering. Thalia, the Survivor just spoke to me in a way that Geist of Saint ThaliaGeist of Saint Thalia didn't. That came as a surprise even to me as Geist of Saint TraftGeist of Saint Traft is one of my favorite legends of all time.

Which of the two do you prefer? Would your build of Thalia, the Survivor differ from mine? Let me know in the comments!