Commander Glory in Modern: Izzet Lutri Companion

Note: This article was translated from Chinese by AI and may contain errors. Read the original Chinese version.

Introduction

Hello readers, I’m ZHAN, a casual Commander and Modern player from Taipei, and I’m glad to have the chance to share a deck’s thinking with you.
Last week Magic Star held its 10th Anniversary Modern event, and the champion’s prize was a gorgeous neon foil Cavern of Souls. Attracted by the grand prize, I entered too.
Before this event, I played two MIT#8 qualifiers, both with Izzet Murktide. Izzet Murktide has been a strong deck since MH2 came out. After Lord of the Rings and MH3, although it received a few boosts large and small, its presence in the field has been dwindling (see Mtggoldfish). While preparing for this event, in an article sent to me by my friend faintmama, one deck deeply caught my attention: today’s star, Izzet Lutri Companion. As a casual Commander player, how could I not try such a cool build? So I chose Izzet Lutri Companion for this event.

Build

First, let me introduce this deck’s star, Lutri, the Spellchaser.

Companion — Each nonland card in your starting deck has a different name.
(If this card is your chosen companion, you may put it into your hand from outside the game for {3} as a sorcery.)
Flash
When Lutri, the Spellchaser enters, if you cast it, copy target instant or sorcery spell you control. You may choose new targets for the copy.

To use Lutri, the Spellchaser as a companion, our build can’t contain two copies of the same card. In return, we can pay 3 first to get it from outside the game into our hand, then cast it to copy an instant or sorcery spell we cast.
…And that’s it. Also, since Lutri, the Spellchaser is a legendary creature, we can’t use spells like Twinflame to make a row of creatures and flatten the opponent (of course, if other creatures enter the battlefield, or you do other things through magecraft abilities, that’s another story).
As I said in the introduction, I simply found it cool and stylish, so I chose Izzet Lutri Companion. For the build, after referring to decks shared online, my list ended up as follows:

Players familiar with Modern will notice that the cards chosen are all ones commonly used in Modern Izzet decks, so I’ll just briefly introduce a few I find interesting.

Tishana’s Tidebinder: when it enters, you can counter an activated or triggered ability, and if that ability’s source is an artifact, creature, or planeswalker, that permanent loses all abilities for as long as Tishana’s Tidebinder remains on the battlefield.
Although it’s only soft removal (the countered permanent is still on the battlefield), since we can only run one copy of each spell we still chose to include it, and it’s effective against a flipped Ajani, Nacatl Pariah from Boros Energy (Mardu Energy), as well as the The One Ring that most decks have.

Cast into the Fire: deals 1 damage to each of up to two creatures, or exiles a target artifact. Yes, it’s again for dealing with Boros Energy (Mardu Energy) and The One Ring. Note that it deals only 1 to a single target; you can’t assign both points of damage to the same target.

Mission Briefing: surveil 2, and you may cast an instant or sorcery from your graveyard again. Because of the deck’s construction, our removal is gone once used, so Mission Briefing, which adds back cards from the graveyard of our choice, and Snapcaster Mage are great picks. Besides that, Mission Briefing can fill the graveyard too, giving us a chance to cast Murktide Regent on turn 3 for board pressure, and increasing our flexibility to control later (if we can’t control the board, we can still control the opponent’s life total: kill them first and we win).

Brainsurge: a Brainstorm-like card from Modern Horizons 3. The flexibility of draw 4, put back 2, plus shuffling away unwanted cards with a fetch land. I don’t think it needs more explanation: a card that gets you card advantage is a good card.

Fire // Ice: casting Fire can deal with Boros Energy (Mardu Energy), or kill some small creatures to clear the way for our creatures. If it can’t kill something, we can still tap a creature with Ice to clear the way. If you have it early, you can cast Ice during the opponent’s upkeep to tap one of their lands and stall their tempo for a turn.

Dress Down: makes creatures on the battlefield lose their abilities, which is quite useful against decks relying on creature abilities and can cut off the opponent’s tempo for a turn. Also note that when Dress Down is on the battlefield and our Subtlety enters, it can’t put the opponent’s creature spell back. In extreme cases we can also turn Dress Down around, letting a Subtlety cast through its evoke ability avoid being sacrificed so we can get in some damage.

Vendilion Clique: although I didn’t include it this time (because I don’t own one), against control decks it can flash in on the opponent’s turn to swap their hand, or on our own turn to do what we want (of course, when our hand is bad we can also swap our own hand for extra flexibility).

The lands aren’t restricted by Lutri, the Spellchaser; I just put in the lands I had on hand. Personally I think you want 9 to 10 fetch lands, and 2 surveil lands would be ideal.

The sideboard has the usual graveyard hate, Surgical Extraction, and small sweepers. More unusual is Threads of Disloyalty, which can steal the opponent’s cheap quality creatures, and is excellent for cutting off the opponent’s tempo or simply clearing the way.

Matches

First of all, however you look at it, Izzet Lutri Companion is a control deck (if Yorion, Sky Nomad were still usable, I’d have wanted to build Jeskai Control). Our goal in the game is to trade one card for one card through counters or burn, find openings to gain card advantage with draw spells, and then beat the opponent down with our flying creatures.
Compared with the traditional Izzet Murktide, we lose the chance to make Murktide Regent early, but more card-advantage spells strengthen our late game. And our star Lutri, the Spellchaser can sometimes also serve as the evoke cost for Subtlety, and its enter-the-battlefield effect effectively adds another counter or burn spell to disrupt the opponent’s tempo.
In the topdeck phase (when both sides have run out of resources and it’s a contest of top-of-library cards), we can rebuy Lutri, the Spellchaser as a source of damage. Although the number of times I got Lutri, the Spellchaser into my hand that day can be counted on one hand…
Game 1 of a best-of-three is when we’re weakest, because we can’t know what kind of opening hand to keep to get ahead. My priority order that day was to make Murktide Regent as early as possible > counter and burn package > creature package. Making Murktide Regent early strengthens our board advantage and lets our later counters and burn control things better (of course, when we can’t control the board, it’s time to control the opponent’s life total), while the counter and burn package effectively helps us control the early tempo, and as for the creature package… just control the opponent’s life total as best you can.

I played five rounds that day, and my record was as follows:

Round 1: Boros Energy, 1-1, on the draw
A matchup I really didn’t want to face. In game 1 I almost won but still got blown out by Ajani, Nacatl Pariah. In game 2 I successfully controlled the board, the monkey kept stealing lands, leaving the opponent stuck on three lands unable to cast Phlage, Titan of Fire’s Fury, and I won. Game 3 ran out of time, though I’d probably have lost had we finished.

Round 2: Jeskai Dress Down, 0-2, on the play
Control vs. control. In game 1 I couldn’t find a fourth land and conceded early to save time. In game 2 I was 2 life short of killing the opponent, but they had Phlage, Titan of Fire’s Fury and the lifelink life gain from Solitude; unable to break through for a long time, I got out-carded by The One Ring and lost.

Round 3: Mono-Black, 2-1, on the play
A strange match, won smoothly thanks to an early Murktide Regent.

Round 4: Dimir Mill, 2-1, on the play
In game 1, after the opponent mulliganed twice, two Archive Trap appeared and milled away my creatures that had damage to deal, and I couldn’t kill the opponent and lost. For the next two games I brought in my whole sideboard (except Lutri, the Spellchaser, which still stood there stylishly), and surprisingly both times I slammed Blood Moon right on turn three. The opponent didn’t have enough basic lands, and I slowly won by attacking with creatures.

Round 5: Boros Energy, 1-1, on the draw
In game 1 I flooded out, nothing to be done. In game 2 I survived the early game with small sweepers, Cast into the Fire, and Fire // Ice, and went on to win. Game 3 ran out of time, but we made it into the topdeck phase, and I personally think I had a chance to win.

Takeaways

Izzet Lutri Companion isn’t a powerful deck, but I believe it’s absolutely a deck that can force a 50-50 matchup (of course there are still unfavorable matchups, but after sideboarding I’m confident I can force 50-50). And 50-50 means both sides have a chance; on that premise, grasping the exchange of cards and finding gaps to gain card advantage is the key to winning, making it a very Izzet deck. If you’re tired of the traditional Izzet Murktide and want a change of taste, or want to be a cool, stylish player, I highly recommend Izzet Lutri Companion.
One small regret from this event is that I didn’t face any Golgari decks to verify my force-50-50 theory, and my practice partner played Mardu Energy, so I also knew better how to guard against it in deckbuilding. As for control decks, I still think it can force 50-50 (although right after playing I felt it was 30-70), but I believe that with a bit more homework on the build and sideboard choices, it can become a true force-50-50 deck.
I still have many thoughts on Izzet, but this time’s star is focused on Lutri, the Spellchaser. If there’s a chance in the future, I’ll share my various thoughts on Izzet then!