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Mendicant Core, Guidelight is a legendary creature featured in the Aetherdrift set of Magic: The Gathering. This Azorius (white/blue) commander focuses solely on artifacts and greatly emphasizes their use. The goal of the deck is to flood the battlefield with artifacts, making non-artifact cards simply support for your main strategy of dominating with artifacts.
The Mendicant Core, Guidelight deck thrives on having as many artifacts as possible, encouraging you to duplicate these artifacts to create even more. The aim is to overwhelm your opponents by filling the battlefield with an unstoppable wave of artifacts. Fortunately, Azorius offers access to some of the best artifact cards available.
Decklist
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Commander: Mendicant Core, Guidelight |
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Bronze Guardian ADVERTISEMENT |
Cyberdrive Awakener |
Cyberman Patrol |
Cybermen Squadron |
Digsite Engineer |
Etherium Sculptor |
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Ethersworn Sphinx ADVERTISEMENT |
Foundry Inspector |
Gold Myr |
Guidelight Synergist |
Illustrious Wanderglyph |
Jhoira’s Familiar |
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Kappa Cannoneer |
Karn, Legacy Reforged |
Losheel, Clockwork Scholar |
Master of Etherium |
Master Transmuter |
Mycosynth Golem |
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Nesting Bot |
Oltec Matterweaver |
Ornithopter of Paradise |
Padeem, Consul of Innovation |
Phyrexian Metamorph |
Research Thief |
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Sai, Master Thopterist |
Silver Myr |
Solemn Simulacrum |
Steel Overseer |
Thought Monitor |
Urza, Lord High Artificer |
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Urza, Prince of Kroog |
Vedalken Archmage |
Voyager Quickwelder |
Brilliant Restoration |
Fabricate |
Gift of Estates |
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March of Progress |
Organic Extinction |
Supreme Verdict |
Thoughtcast |
Vanquish the Horde |
Voyage Home |
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Desynchronization |
Dispatch |
Generous Gift |
Path to Exile |
Swords to Plowshares |
Whir of Invention |
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Arcane Signet |
Azorius Signet |
Commander’s Sphere |
Fellwar Stone |
Mind Stone |
Salvation Engine |
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Sculpting Steel |
Simulacrum Synthesizer |
Sol Ring |
Talisman of Progress |
Twinning Staff |
Unwinding Clock |
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Worldwalker Helm |
Artificer Class |
Mechanized Production |
Tempered Steel |
Thopter Spy Network |
Academy Ruins |
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Adarkar Wastes |
Amonkhet Raceway |
Ancient Den |
Archway of Innovation |
Avishkar Raceway |
Buried Ruin |
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Command Tower |
Darksteel Citadel |
Deserted Beach |
Glacial Fortress |
Inventors’ Fair |
x7 Island Monumental Henge |
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Muraganda Raceway |
Mystic Gate |
Nimbus Maze |
x5 Plains |
Power Depot |
Prairie Stream |
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Razortide Bridge |
Seat of the Synod |
Spire of Industry |
The Mycosynth Gardens |
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The deck includes a total of 33 creatures, nine sorceries, six instants, 13 artifacts, four enchantments, and 34 lands. Most creatures are artifact-based, while the non-permanent cards primarily serve as removal or support for artifacts.
Key Cards
Mendicant Core, Guidelight
The commander Mendicant Core, Guidelight aims for you to maximize speed as quickly as possible. After achieving maximum speed, you can begin duplicating all artifact spells you cast for just one mana. This allows you to multiply most of the permanents in your deck, as they are primarily artifacts.
The power of Mendicant Core is governed by the number of artifacts you have in play. Fortunately, you can easily fill the board with artifacts, significantly enhancing Mendicant’s power. One caveat is that Mendicant Core starts with a toughness of just three. However, other cards can increase its toughness through counters.
Cybermen Squadron
Most of your artifact creatures are non-legendary, making Cybermen Squadron one of the best options. It grants all non-legendary artifacts myriad, allowing you to attack all opponents rather than just one.
The tokens generated through myriad remain artifact creatures, enabling you to enhance the stats of various creatures, including Mendicant itself. While these tokens are sacrificed at the end of combat, they significantly speed up your chances of closing out games.
If you find ways to copy a token generated through myriad, the copied token will not be sacrificed at the end of the turn. This can be an effective tactic to duplicate your best artifact creatures and utilize multiple variations of their effects simultaneously.
Karn, Legacy Reforged
Karn, Legacy Reforged makes casting your artifact spells much simpler. Because you’ll be playing many artifacts, the colorless mana that Karn generates becomes incredibly valuable. However, keep in mind that this colorless mana can only be used for artifact spells.
The mana produced by Karn can also be used to activate abilities. The only limitation is that it cannot be used for nonartifact spells, but other functions are open to use.
Karn can become quite powerful, with its stats increasing alongside the number of artifacts you control. Unlike Mendicant, Karn’s toughness can also scale, making it a significant offensive and defensive asset.
Worldwalker Helm
With Worldwalker Helm, your aim is to have as many artifacts in play as possible. This card allows any artifact tokens created to generate a Map token as well (which is also an artifact). You can activate this with Worldwalker Helm’s effect; once you have one artifact token, you gain more each turn.
Ideally, you want to copy tokens of artifact creatures. The most effective token copies come from the myriad tokens generated by Cybermen Squadron. All copied spells generated by Mendicant appear as artifact tokens, providing yet another opportunity for duplication with Worldwalker Helm.
How to Best Play the Deck
The Mendicant Core, Guidelight Commander deck is all about quickly filling the battlefield with artifacts after reaching maximum speed. While you are encouraged to cast spells freely, it’s wise to wait until you achieve maximum speed to deploy your best artifacts. This way, you can copy them effectively.
The Azorius color combination may struggle with ramping, but plenty of options exist for discounting artifact spells. Cards like Etherium Sculptor, Foundry Inspector, and Voyager Quickwelder all contribute to this effort, while Artificer Class can offer discounts and allows for token copies once leveled up.
With most creatures being artifacts, boosting their power is essential for turning them into legitimate combat threats. Tempered Steel provides a universal +1/+1 boost, Steel Overseer allows for counters on all artifact creatures, and Illustrious Wanderglyph boosts them +2/+2 when you have the city’s blessing.
You will gain the city’s blessing once you control ten or more permanents with a permanent that has ascend on the battlefield.
The deck’s primary win condition is combat victories. You can effectively create a massive army through your copying strategies. All the boosts to artifact creature stats ensure your army is a serious threat, allowing you to overcome blockers easily. If Unwinding Clock is on the board, you can even untap creatures during every player’s untap step, maintaining defense for your opponents’ turns even after attacking.
The biggest vulnerability lies in board wipes. While building a significant army, it makes you an enticing target for an opponent’s board wipe. If this happens, recovering can be challenging. Your maximum speed would remain at four, so if you re-cast Mendicant Core, you can immediately start copying artifacts again. This facilitates rebuilding after such an event, though you might lose key artifact creatures in the process.
However, you also have cards that generate creature tokens, which are usually safer from common board wipes like Thopter Spy Network and Simulacrum Synthesizer. Ideally, you want to avoid having your battlefield decimated, but rebuilding can often leave your defenses vulnerable.
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