Commander Deck Tech: Aya of Alexandria

Magic: The Gathering's Assassin's Creed set brought us some of the most beloved characters from this game franchise.

We've already reviewed the best cards from Assassin's Creed for Commander and brought you a deck tech for Eivor, Battle Ready, who was the protagonist of one Assassin's Creed game.

Today, we'll explore two decks commanded by general Aya of Alexandria, a Boros Assassin who uses historic creatures to create Assassin tokens. These are our two lists:

- A list that focuses on interesting artifacts (keep in mind artifacts are historic spells!);

- A list that interacts with legendary creatures and buffs the tokens our commander creates.

However, before we go any further, let's get familiar with our commander.

[quote]{The irony of freedom. We are free of each other, yet it brings me no happiness. We must move forward. Remain in our tempest of blood poetry. Despite it all, we dance and they die.}{- Aya's letter to Bayek}

Aya has lifelink and menace, which is incredibly relevant for her ability.

When a historic creature under your control deals damage to a player, she'll create a 1/1 Assassin token. As her text doesn't state "if another historic creature under your control", this ability will trigger if Aya herself deals combat damage to a player.

If you don't know, MTG spells are considered "historic" if they're artifacts, legendary, or sagas.

Here's some trivia for you: in Aya's standard illustration, you can see Bayek of Siwa, her partner, in the background. In turn, you can see Aya's back in Bayek's background, so their illustrations are linked.

As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, our main list focuses on artifacts. The name of the game is attacking your opponents with your artifacts to create as many tokens as you can and destroy their life totals with explosive attacks.

Both this list and our alternative list play two incredibly vital cards for this archetype:

Yes, our commander's partner!

Just like Aya, Bayek interacts with historic creatures. As a result, even your weakest artifact will have double strike as long as it is your turn and Bayek is in play.

For instance, if you attack with a Thopter created by Thopter Engineer, and it deals combat damage to a player, with Aya and Bayek in play, you'll create two new Assassin tokens on your board.

Another incredibly relevant card is Mycosynth Lattice.

This artifact turns all permanents into artifacts. This includes the ones your opponents control and lands, and it will also make spells and permanents that aren't in play colorless.

Unfortunately, this will make your cards vulnerable to cards like Vandalblast or Farewell, but it will also turn all your tokens into historic spells.

Just imagine it: you can deal damage with five 1/1 Assassin tokens. With your commander, this will give you five new tokens. With this card in play, now your tokens are artifacts, and, as a result, are historic.

If Bayek is also in play... Your opponents will certainly go mad!

But those aren't the only tricks our list has.

Tokens

Now that you've seen a bit of what artifact tokens can do in this list, it's time to see the cards that will give you multiple artifact tokens so you can attack your opponents as much as you want.

Out of these cards, Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon definitely stands out. This Soldier gains +1/+1 counters and creates 1/1 Gnome artifact tokens whenever you attack with one or more non-Gnome creatures.

As Gnomes enter play tapped and attacking, you can play around common protection effects like Propaganda and Ghostly Prison with them. Furthermore, when these tokens deal damage to players, you'll get more Assassin tokens.

This list also plays a few other cards that interact with Gnomes, like Illustrious Wanderglyph, which creates a Gnome token at the beginning of every upkeep (this includes your opponents' upkeeps) and buffs your artifact creatures by +2/+2 as long as you have the city's blessing. Considering this deck focuses on tokens, this shouldn't be a problem.

We also have Oltec Matterweaver, which creates a Gnome or a token copy of a target artifact creature you control, and Thousand Moons Smithy.

You can turn this legendary artifact into a land. If you do, whenever you cast a creature or artifact using the mana created by this land, you'll create X Gnome Soldier tokens, where X is the number of artifacts and/or creatures under your control.

This deck also includes two creatures that are very popular in artifact decks and create tokens when they die. We're talking about Triplicate Titan and Wurmcoil Engine, which are such big problems that they'll make your opponents desperate for an exile card.

Osgir works a bit differently than other token generators, and that's why we separated him from the others.

This beloved Strixhaven professor has a fascinating ability: he exiles an artifact card from your graveyard and creates two token copies of it. To activate this ability, you need to pay for the mana cost of the card exiled, and use it only as a sorcery. Nonetheless, it is still a great "recursion" for artifacts you thought you lost.

Burn

There are many interesting Boros cards that interact with burn and artifacts. The ones we added to this list are:

Surtr, Fiery Jötun was also released in the Assassin's Creed set, and interacts with historic spells!

Molten Gatekeeper works like an Impact Tremors, as it deals 1 damage to each opponent whenever another creature enters your battlefield. As this creature is also an artifact, it fits this deck even more.

Giggling Skitterspike is a bit tricky, so read it carefully. Monstrosity 5 gives this Toy five +1/+1 counters, and you can activate this at instant speed. So, you can activate it when it is blocking, when your opponents target it with a spell, or if it is attacking.

When the matter is dealing damage to opponents, this artifact is no joke.

A very funny card in this list is Rolling Hamsphere. When this Vehicle attacks, it creates three 1/1 Hamster tokens, and then deals damage to any target equal to the number of Hamsters under your control. Keep in mind that, when you crew Vehicles, they get the "creature" type and don't lose their other types or abilities, so this card will interact with Aya's effect.

Arabella, Abandoned Doll deals damage to opponents simply by attacking, so it definitely deserves a shoutout. After all, it interacts with creatures with 2 power or less, and, besides the multiple cards in this deck that fit this description, the tokens you'll create also count, as they'll mostly be 1/1s or 2/2s.

Ramp and Mana Rocks

Boros decks are not known for playing ramp. Luckily, with the right artifacts, you can make up for this weakness and accelerate mana with your board.

Recursion

This deck plays a lot of recursion so you can recover that permanent you don't want in your graveyard. That's how you'll recover Mycosynth Lattice and Bayek, which are critical, or powerful cards like Combustible Gearhulk, Cityscape Leveler, Triplicate Titan, and Wurmcoil Engine.

We also need to give a shoutout to Pull from Eternity, as it gets one card from the exile and puts it in your graveyard. This way, you'll be able to use other recursive cards to get that card back.

Our main list might work really well when you create tokens, but it does not focus entirely on this mechanic.

Our alternative list, however, includes cards like Anointed Procession, Mondrak, Glory Dominus, and Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation. They'll make your permanents create even more tokens.

This list also plays a few potential game finishers, like Moonshaker Cavalry and Akroma's Will, besides an alternative win condition - Halo Fountain's third ability.

As this list is more open, it also plays a few incredibly strong legendary creatures that interact with your tokens.

Myrel, Shield of Argive and Boromir, Warden of the Tower are protections that stop your opponents from playing certain things, each in their own way. As for Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, she doubles how much damage you deal to your opponents, which is great with burn like Goblin Bombardment and Impact Tremors.

Aya of Alexandria definitely deserves more love.

Many players pick commanders who have a keyword, and Aya has two great ones.

There are only a few decks with her on EDHRec, but I believe she has a lot of potential and could surprise your tables with different token, artifact, or legendary creature interactions.

Besides all of this, we simply can't ignore Aya's synergy with Bayek (which both our lists play). If they were Partners, with a capital "P", you'd certainly find a deck tech for them here at Cards Realm!

What do you think of Aya? How would you build her? Tell us in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!