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We could all use some rescuing these days, and that’s certainly true inMagic: The Gathering. Whether it’s a black mage coming in with a kill spell, a red mage looking to incinerate your commander, or a green mage trying to turn your enchantress into a wild beast, every card you play could use its own personal insurance policy.
Enter The Wandering Rescuer. This noble heroine arrives just in time to save your vulnerable creatures with her twin swords, offering two times the damage (courtesy of double strike) while protecting your team from adverse effects. The Wandering Rescuer might be your next Commander deck if you’re looking for a hero.
The Commander: The Wandering Rescuer
She might not be a planeswalker anymore, butThe Wandering Rescuer is still a force to be reckoned with. A three-power, four-toughness body with double strike and flash is already going to threaten weaker creatures away, but the real draw comes from The Rescuer’s convoke and hexproof.
With the right early-game creature crops, The Wandering Rescuer can arrive as early as turn three, which is often soon enough to start bullying the table. In addition,every one of your tapped creatures gains hexproof so long as The Wandering Rescuer is around, preventing them from being targeted by enemy effects.
This means two things:your attacking creatures can’t be easily removed, andcreatures that help convokeThe Wandering Rescuer into play can get instant-speed protectionfrom spells and abilities. This can really stymie opponents who rely on removal to secure their board positions.
The Wandering Rescuer can be great in the early game, but she cansometimes be even better as a protective threat. Keep her in your Command Zone to discourage idle attacks or to counter spells that try to mess with your creatures.
That convoke cost also gives The Wandering Rescuer a long-game option.Generate enough tokens, and it won’t matter how many times The Wandering Rescuer has died; you’ll always be able to bring her back from the Command Zone. Plus, you’ll have a token army that can win you the game.
You’ll note that The Wandering Rescuer is also a Human, which meanswe can lean into a Human kindred subthemeto generate synergistic potency with our mono-white commander.
Building Your The Wandering Rescuer Commander Deck
You’re mono-white, which providesplenty of great removal spells, board wipes, and tons of token generators to help convoke The Wandering Rescuerinto play. You’ve also got access to lots of powerful Humans as well as enchantments and artifacts that buff your humans into real threats.
The suggested deck then ismono-white aggro with a focus on token generation and a Human-typal subtheme. It’s pretty simple, but with The Wandering Rescuer to protect you, it’s also pretty effective.
Token Generators
A staple of most Commander tables,tokens offer both a great offense and a great defense. They’re expendable, so they can be sacrificed to protect you or to get that little bit of extra damage to finish off an opponent. And with The Wandering Rescuer’s convoke cost, they can also keep bringing her back into play.
You have no shortage of options here.Adeline, Resplendent Cathar,Keeper of the Accord,Jacked Rabbit,Defiler of Faith, several of The Wanderer’s Planeswalker iterations,Oketra’s Monument, andHorn of Gondorall generate tokens.
Human tokens are preferred, as several other cards like to work with Humans (more on that in a minute), but the deck will take whatever type of token army that it can get.
Human Helpers
Since The Wandering Rescuer is a Human, we’re going to throw ina bunch of cards that get better the more Humans there are. Greymond, Avacyn’s Stalwart is your biggest Human advocate, offering big buffs so long as there are four or more Humans in plan.
Coppercoat Vanguard provides a smaller but no less impactful Human-wide buff. Champion of the Parish also gets bigger with every Human that arrives.
On the artifact side, Patchwork Banner and Obelisk of Urd can buff any creature type, but Humans are likely to be your preferred choice.Everything Comes to Dust can also be a one-sided board sweeperso long as your opponents aren’t also playing with a lot of Humans.
Good White Stuff
There areloads of good white cardsthat fit perfectly well into a deck featuring The Wandering Rescuer.
Starting from the bottom end of the mana scale,Soul Warden, Lunarch Veteran, and Guide of Souls also provide life gain, while Mother of Runes protects friendly creatures. Weathered Wayfarer, Knight of the White Orchid, Land Tax, and Smothering Tithe all ensure you’ve got just as many lands as your opponents.
Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares, Generous Gift, Stroke of Midnight, and Cut Short provide an excellent suite of removal. Farewell, Split Up, Everything Comes to Dust, and Final Showdown are all great board sweepers with some extra utility thrown in.
Dawn’s Truce, Akroma’s Will, and Everybody Lives! provide additional protection when The Wandering Rescuer is unavailable.Flowering of the White Tree and Divine Visitation vastly improve your token army, and Hourglass of the Lost provides you with a late-game resurgence.
Finally, if your token army doesn’t do the job on its own,Moonshaker Cavalry and Avacyn, Angel of Hope are there to win you the game.
Card Draw
One of the few things thatamono-white deck needs help with is refilling your hand. To keep The Wandering Rescuer from running out of cards to play, we’ll throw in a number of good card drawers.
Mentor of the Meek, Welcoming Vampire, and Bennie Bracks, Zoologistall love it when a token enters play andrewards you with an extra card. Loran of the Third Path and Cut a Deal give you cards and also one of your opponents, so choose which opponent you want to help out.
Mangara, the Diplomat and Esper Sentinel both put a price on your opponent’s actions (namely you drawing cards), andSkullclamp remains the best way to turn a creature token into two cards. Glimmer Seeker is also a token generator but mostly draws you cards starting on its second turn.
The Wandering Rescuer Deck List
With all those previous suggestions in mind,here’s a recommended decklistfor The Wandering Rescuer.
Champion of the Parish
Mentor of the Meek
Keeper of the Accord
Wand of the Worldsoul
Hourglass of the Lost
Plains (27)
Budget Substitutions
There’s no denying there are a lot of expensive cards in this deck.Here are some substitutionsfor those who don’t want to break their budget on a casual multiplayer game night.
Felidar Retreat, Rabble Rousing
Land Tax
Sheltered by Ghosts, Legion’s Landing, Skrelv’s Hive, Blind Obedience, Charitable Levy
