Valki, God of Lies // Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor

Published January 18th, 2021

With Kaldheim comes a dream that many have had since Innistrad, the ability to have Tibalt as your Commander. Tibalt comes to us as Valki, God of Lies the Magic: The Gathering multiverse version of Loki from Norse mythology. The Gods of Kaldheim are also part of a continuing new standardization of Modal Double Face Cards (MDFC) within the game with one side as Legendary Creatures and the other side, something else. Even though Valki is the front side this is completely a Tibalt deck and we’re going to take things apart one exiled card at a time.

Commander (1)

Valki, God of Lies // Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor

Lands (36)

Mountain x4
Swamp x8
Ancient Tomb
Arid Mesa
Bloodstained Mire
Bojuka Bog
Cabal Coffers
Command Tower
Dragonskull Summit
Graven Cairns
Karn’s Bastion
Marsh Flats
Nesting Grounds
Path of Ancestry
Polluted Delta
Sanctum of Eternity
Scalding Tarn
Verdant Catacombs
Wooded Foothills
Witch’s Cottage
Badlands
Blood Crypt
Canyon Slough
Phyrexian Tower
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Volrath’s Stronghold

Artifacts (18)

Aetherflux Reservoir
Arcane Signet
Basalt Monolith
Ensnaring Bridge
Expedition Map
Jeweled Lotus
Mana Crypt
Mana Vault
Pyxis of Pandemonium
Rakdos Signet
Rings of Brighthearth
Scroll Rack
Sensei’s Divining Top
Sol Ring
Talisman of Indulgence
Skullclamp
Bolas’s Citadel
Whip of Erebos

Enchantments (10)

Blood Moon
Necromancy
Necropotence
Phyrexian Arena
Stranglehold
Underworld Breach
Animate Dead
The Eldest Reborn
Oath of Liliana
Bitterblossom

Instants (10)

Bedevil
Electrodominance
Dark Ritual
Deflecting Swat
Force of Despair
Kolaghan’s Command
Liliana’s Triumph
Thrill of Possibility
Vampiric Tutor
Valakut Awakening // Valakut Stoneforge

Sorceries (11)

Command the Dreadhorde
Damnation
Dark Petition
Demonic Tutor
Faithless Looting
Fiery Confluence
Jokulhaups
Reanimate
Scheming Symmetry
Toxic Deluge
Wheel of Fortune

Planeswalkers (6)

Angrath, the Flame-Chained
Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Daretti, Scrap Savant
Liliana Vess
Liliana, Dreadhorde General
Ugin, the Ineffable

//Creatures (8)

Thieving Amalgam
Dockside Extortionist
Opposition Agent
Doom Whisperer
Treasonous Ogre
Bloodghast
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire

Synergies

Sanctum of Eternity: A useful and personal favorite land for what it enables. Besides being able to retrieve your Commander if stolen or bounce/recast your Commander. Perhaps an casting Valki, God of Lies to probe your opponents hands and knowing the way is clear for playing Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor. Maybe Tibalts Loyalty is at 1 and you want to get back up by recasting. This is a neat land that doesn’t take much to play and pays off quite well.

Electrodominance: The thing about the MDFC is once you have permission to cast one without paying their mana cost you can cast either the front or back side. There wasn’t many ways to encapsulate this method within the deck but I have a soft spot for Electrodominance as both a way to cast things at instant speed and a X spell to sink infinite mana into and finish off opponents. In short with x = 2 you can cast “Valki” and drop in Tibalt if he’s in your hand.

Ensnaring Bridge: This deck is much closer to a midrange resource control rather than an aggro damage strategy as noted by the lighter creature count. To protect Tibalt and the other planeswalkers, hindering your opponents ability to attack stops one of the most common ways to deal with them. With Tibalts resources coming from exile and Rakdos not being well known for large hand sizes Ensnaring Bridge is more than likely going to prevent a lot of combat damage.

Top Deck

Pyxis of Pandemonium: This artifact is the littlest embodiment of chaos. Exiling cards face down on repeat as early as turn one. This Pandora’s Box slowly increases your chances of failing to find when tutoring. It can inadvertently break your combos and causes a huge sense of unease. Don’t try to tap a Sensei’s divining Top when this is around and never expect it to be anything but an annoying piece of disruption.

Thieving Amalgam: The other best 7 drop way to take resources from the top of your opponents deck constantly besides Commander Tibalt. Manifesting the top card of your opponents deck on each of their upkeeps, possibly being able to turn it face up, and a build in bit of life drain. The best part is again they won’t know what the card you manifested is.

Scroll Rack: It’s not just the top of our opponents decks we need to manipulate. A staple deck stacking card, whether to put what you want on top or to throw away your whole hand digging for answers. Scroll Rack is just way to versatile with such a low activation cost.

Combo Endgames

Aetherflux Reservoir + Bolas’s Citadel + Sensei’s Divining Top: Running both Citadel and Top in this deck as staples are unsurprising choices. In a multitude of decks this is huge card advantage and a win condition if necessary. The addition of Aetherflux Reservoir doesn’t always make the list but for increasing life gain and a finisher in a deck about casting spells both yours and your opponents it makes the cut quite well.

Rings of Brighthearth + Basalt Monolith: Infinite colourles mana is more of a side effect to this combo. Rings is effective to double any fetch land, planeswalker, and other activated abilities within the deck. By copying Monoliths untap ability you can generate infinite mana which thanks to Tibalts emblem you can use to cast stolen cards as if they’re any colour.

Summary

The debate to add Lantern of Insight took awhile but in the end it just doesn’t have the same impact in Commander. The fun of disrupting your opponents top deck can still be had as pointed out with Pyxis of Pandemonium, Thieving Amalgam, and of course Tibalt himself. This deck may be rushing towards playing Tibalt and does it’s best to gain as much value as possible to make up for the resources that the Rakdos colour combination can have.

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This is a deck that is increasingly powerful in a multiplayer setting. As the emblem states you can play any cards exiled which means not only top deck but exiled creatures, artifacts, and graveyards. Leave it to Tibalt to take every Sol Ring on the table. Tibalt is an expensive spell to case at 7 mana which can be increasingly difficult with Commander tax. He doesn’t have a win the game style ultimate ability but can slowly chip away at your opponents in search of one.

While not the strongest creature as Valki and not the best Planeswalker as Tibalt this deck is nonetheless fun and gives the Tibalt fans something to play with. The MDFC attributes of the Gods of Kaldheim opens doors to other possibilities but we will have to see if any are as fun. If you do pull one give it a try, might find it entertaining for you and irritating for your opponents. Til next time happy shuffling.

Article by Cascade.Cascade

The editor-in-chief and creator of Command Beacon. They started playing Magic during the Scars of Mirrodin block and hasn’t been able to stop since.

4 Comments


RHBunHeWluDQjnsarM

I don’t play commander but I think I may try it

that aetherflux reservoir kinda dirty but fun 🙂

ive also got a good idea what to build rakdos-wise

(@asianboi._.squishy)

This article gave me some great ideas for the tibalt deck I’m building, probing opponents with valki and bouncing him is a great idea that didn’t occur to me at all. Thanks! Instagram cardinalohio600

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