Among the many legendary creatures included inMagic: The Gathering’s Duskmourn set is Niko, Light of Hope. Niko Aris was originally a planeswalker in their debut in Kaldheim but was a part of the many that were desparked and “downgraded” to creature status. Thanks to Niko’s desparking, you can now use them as a commander, something previously impossible.
Niko, Light of Hope is a unique blink commander, caring about creatures with enter-the-battlefield triggers as well as triggers that activate whenever a creature attacks. This Azorius (white/blue) is a new take on blink and one that can make for a more aggressive deck over traditional blink builds.
Overlord of the Mistmoors
Song of the Worldsoul
x13 Island
x13 Plains
Prairie Stream
Seachrome Coast
The decklist containsone planeswalker, 27 creatures, 12 sorceries, ten instants, nine artifacts, six enchantments,and34 lands. Since Niko, Light of Hope can blink with its own effect, you can go lighter on proper blink spells, letting you play more impactful creatures.
Key Cards
Niko, Light Of Hope
Niko, Light of Hopeis going to be one of the main ways you’ll be blinking other creatures. For two mana, you canmake your Shard tokens become a creature, while taking advantage of its enter-the-battlefield triggers. Since it only works on nonlegendary creatures, most of the creatures in the deck fit that criteria.
Since Niko can blink other creatures,Niko is often the best cardyou can blink. This is because its enter-the-battlefield effect is one of the only consistent ways to create Shard tokens.Shard tokens are the main source of damage, attacking as copies of whatever creature you exile.
Niko Aris
The original Niko card,Niko Arisis a way to create a lot of Shard tokens on one cast. TheX you pay will give you that many Shard tokens, allowing you to make even more copies of your best creatures to attack while the original is exiled.
Niko Aris' -1 ability is great as well, letting you create even more Shard tokens.Planeswalkers are at a disadvantage in Commander since there are three other people who can attack them. Luckily, since Niko Aris' isn’t the most impactful planeswalker, there’s a high chance of your opponents not bothering to attack it.
If you need to give Niko Aris more loyalty with the +1 ability, you’re able to use it on a creature, get in for unblockable damage, then activate Niko, Light of Hope’s effect to exile it until the end of the turn so it never returns to the hand, saving you the trouble of having to recast it.
Sludge Monster
Sludge Monsteris one of the best creaturesto use Niko, Light of Hope’s effect on. Putting aslime counter happens both on it attacking and entering the battlefield, letting you potentially trigger it a ton of times.
Sludge Monstershuts down any opponents' creatures so long as it’s on the battlefield. This can turn the most problematic creatures into a creature with no effects or abilities. Since the copies remain on the battlefield thanks to the Shard tokens becoming it, even though the original Sludge Monster leaves, its static ability will still be in effect.
Nesting Dovehawk
Nesting Dovehawkis a very unique tech cardthat Niko, Light of Hope can utilize efficiently.Populate copies any creature token you control, and while this cannot target your Shard tokens, itcan target Shard tokens that are copies of what Niko, Light of Hope exiledsince they will be creatures.
Thesecopies are permanents of whatever the Shard token was at the time of Nesting Dovehawk’s resolution. Populate doesn’t occur until the resolution and doesn’t need to target a token, so you may activate Niko, Light of Hope with Nesting Dovehawk’s effect on the stack to ensure there is a token to copy.
How To Play The Deck
Niko, Light of Hopes is anaggressive deck, blinking cards to gain card advantagethrough card draw whilechipping away with powerful creatures that your Shard tokens become. You’llget two Shard tokens wheneverNiko, Light of Hope enters, so even if it ever gets removed, you’ll at least be able to get Shard tokens out of the exchange when you recast it.
There are a lot of great targets for Niko, Light of Hope’s effect to make for efficient attackers.Azure Beastbindercan make a creature into a 2/2 with no abilities (and can shut down artifacts and planeswalkers as well) when it attacks,Cityscape Levelercan destroy any nonland permanent on the battlefield on attack, andSilverwing Squadrongives you 2/2 Knight tokens for each opponent you have to help build a large board state.
WhileNiko, Light of Hope is best used offensively, in the early game, it should instead be used to start getting card advantage. There are a lot of cards that easily draw you cards, and with Niko blinking them, they can draw you a ton. The best cards to blink at the early stages includeMulldrifter, Wall of Omens, andCloudblazer.
While Mulldrifter costs five mana to cast normally, you can instead evoke it for three mana, and with its sacrifice trigger on the stack, activate Niko, Light of Hope to blink it. When Mulldrifter returns at the end step, you won’t have to sacrifice it, and you’ll get another enter-the-battlefield trigger to draw you a total of four cards for the same price as casting it normally (which only gives you two).
Shard tokens are the most important tokens to have. While only Niko Aris cards can create Shard tokens, there are a lot of ways to make copies of them.Worldwalker Helmcan tap to create a copy of the Shard,Mechanized Productioncan enchant one to make a new one each upkeep,Oltec Matterweavercan copy one when you cast a creature spell, andEcho Stormhas the potential to create a lot if you’ve cast your commander a lot in the game.
There are a fewwin conditions of the deck. The most likely one iswinning through combat damage, with Shard tokens becoming copies of your best attackers. When there is an army of cards likeDream TrawlerandBane of Bala Ged, it can be very hard to come back from.
Thebiggest weakness of the deck is that it takes a while to set up. Early on in the game, there is not a lot you can do to make an impact on the game state. Once you have multiple creatures down that Niko, Light of Hope can utilize, it can start to snowball. However,you have to make an effort to amass a lot of Shard tokens, which can take a while.
Alternatively, there are a fewalternate win conditionsin the decklist. Since you will be drawing a lot of cards, castingApproach of the Second Sun twiceis fairly easy and will automatically win you the game. Since you can create a lot of Shard tokens,Mechanized Productionis another way, automatically winning on your upkeep if you control eight artifacts with the same name as whatever you enchanted with it.
