{"ops":[{"insert":"Hello there, I'm here with a spicy brew for the June 2025 deckbuilding competition, Taking a look at "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Cloud, Midgar Mercenary"}},{"insert":" and how it can be used to double anything!\n\nCloud is very unusual, trigger doublers are becoming common nowadays, but "},{"attributes":{"link":"https://tagger.scryfall.com/tags/card/trigger-doubler"},"insert":"most of them"},{"insert":" care about a specific type of trigger (like Etbs), rather than a quality of the card (I can only think of the recent "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Mirror Room // Fractured Realm"}},{"insert":" )\n\nIt's limited to equipments and effects given to cloud, but changing things into equipment is doable when you add Red ("},{"insert":{"card-link":"Bludgeon Brawl"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Dan Lewis"}},{"insert":"), with that idea set, it was time to find a way to access cloud and protect him, as a secret commander.\n\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Why this deck? "},{"insert":"\n\n**You may like this deck if you:**\n* Like decks that do their gameplan consistently.\n* Like your deck relying on a secret commander.\n* Exclusively play commanders with below 100 decks on EDHREC. (20 decks at the time of writing)\n\n**You may dislike this deck if you:**\n* Hate decks with very specific play sequences (this deck first 4 turns will generally play the same, gotta set-up the engine you know).\n* can't imagine a deck without "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Sol Ring"}},{"insert":".\n\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Power Level and Budget."},{"insert":"\n\nThe deck is very consistent at setting up the engine, and the power level is fine it's a lot of big artifact token beaters, I made sure the deck played well without Cloud, just in case a hater in your playgroup decided to swords to plowshares it directly after it came into play.\n\nThe deck is fairly expensive in comparison to my other brews, turns out, the best triggered abilities that aren't Etbs are very good and tend to be expensive (hi "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Simulacrum Synthesizer"}},{"insert":" ), but there are cheaper payoffs that are probably fine, I just wanted to ensure the deck was able to do powerful enough stuff within the constraints of the choice of strategy\n\n\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"The Deck"},{"insert":"\n\n**1) The Commander(s)**\n\nI knew I wanted Dan Lewis in the command zone, the other half required to make cloud copy anything\nLuckily for me, the fine people in GamesfreakSA (long may he reign) discord made me realize that "},{"insert":{"card-link":"The First Doctor"}},{"insert":" came with a way to cascade in the command zone "},{"insert":{"card-link":"TARDIS"}},{"insert":" , for the simple price of removing anything 2 mana and below, I could have both pieces at the ready every game, perfect.\n\n**2) Protection**\n\nWho says secret commander says \"protection and recursion\" so I packed the deck with a ton of cards able to do just that, a lot of them are equipments, because Cloud can search one of them to make sure after coming into play, it's sticking around!\nWhile the deck contains the regulars like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Mithril Coat"}},{"insert":" , My favorite is "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Assimilation Aegis"}},{"insert":" the perfect way to add a exile proof layer of protection over Cloud.\nThe deck contains a second kind of protection, a few cards that phase out "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Clever Concealment"}},{"insert":", they make cloud disappear alongside ANYTHING equipped to it, crazy good to dodge boardwipes with more or less everything you own.\n\n**3) Payoffs**\n\nSo, what do we do with Cloud? We double stuff, basically any artifact with a trigger that isn't an etb is fair game, I went with stuff making golems, constructs and more "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Thousand Moons Smithy // Barracks of the Thousand"}},{"insert":" (the backside is an artifact) "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Midnight Clock"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Simulacrum Synthesizer"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Chimil, the Inner Sun"}},{"insert":" , this part is pretty free form, I picked what I thought were the best ones!\n\n**4) Artifact and Equipment Matter**\n\nThe deck has to function without Cloud, so I made it a pretty competent Artifact deck, with a few cards that work incredibly well with dan lewis like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Kemba, Kha Regent"}},{"insert":" or just want you to drop artifacts into play every turn like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Digsite Engineer"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Sai, Master Thopterist"}},{"insert":" \nThe deck is very centered around cmc 3 (required for cloud cascade shenanigans) and 4, which allow for Tardis to be used some more after the Cloud Search.\n\n**5) The Veggies**\n\nRamp, Draw and Removals, like the rest, it has to follow the one rule: 3 mana and up, we are playing the usual "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Generous Gift"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Chaos Warp"}},{"insert":" and a healthy serving of boardwipes.\nI play a lot of mana rocks at 3 mana, they allow me to jump from 3 mana to 6 really quickly, a very important thing to be able to \"catch up\" with the table (you are usually kinda wasting your first few turns)\n\n\n**6) You said double anything right? **\n\nI allowed myself to go a bit deeper into the combo with a single card, as a treat. "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Captain Rex Nebula"}},{"insert":" can change any card into a vehicle, making it an artifact and NOT a creature, the perfect typeline to equip for a turn any enchantment or creature with a cool trigger such as "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Firion, Wild Rose Warrior"}},{"insert":" or "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain"}},{"insert":" it's more or less useless without cloud, so I didn't push harder in that direction with "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Mycosynth Lattice"}},{"insert":" and co, but I figured I would at least add one ! :p\n\n\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Tips to play the deck"},{"insert":"\n\nThis deck takes a few games to appreciate the tempo of the first few turns correctly, so I will give a few tips to play it better\n\n1) Is anyone else playing white?\nCloud being exiled can be annoying for the deck, and a key factor in when to cascade into cloud and what to search with it should be seeing if someone is playing white and has mana untapped at the table\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Assimilation Aegis"}},{"insert":" is very good to protect cloud from a swords to plowshares later in the game, against other colors "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Mithril Coat"}},{"insert":" will cost you less mana overall to keep the commander around.\n\n2) What starting hand to keep ?\nGenerally, you want your starting hand to contain 3 lands and a mana rock, you will likely play said rock on turn 3 and the first doctor + tardis on turn 4\n \n3) Turn 2 Dan Lewis or not turn 2 Dan Lewis?\nplaying the \"other half\" of the combo early in the game might be wrong, a few deciding factors can be \"how likely it is for a early boardwipe to happen\" and \"how much mana can I generate by turn 5\"\n\n4) When to cascade into Cloud?\n\nRunning Cloud out as soon as possible can be a mistake, you want cloud to do stuff as soon as it enters, that means you want to be able to equip it with other stuff right away.\nyou also never want to play it without being able to play the defensive tool it searched on ETB.\n\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"The End"},{"insert":"\n\nAnd Here it is, secret commander Cloud, ready to make your opponents scratch their head and whisper faintly \"Why?\".\n\nFeel free to drop a like on the decklist if you enjoyed the deck and a comment if you have a recommendation it, I would really appreciate it! :)\n"}]}