The Commander
Creatures you control with power 2 or less can't be blocked by creatures with power 3 or greater.
If a triggered ability of a creature you control with power 2 or less triggers, that ability triggers an additional time.
Guide
Gameplan
Flood the board with small (power 2 or less) creatures whose ETB or attack triggers Delney doubles, then turn those repeated triggers into overwhelming card advantage, damage, or combo loops. You curve out cheap value creatures, protect Delney, and either grind opponents out with doubled triggers or assemble a token/aristocrats engine. The evasion clause also lets your small army poke through bigger defenders for incremental or lethal damage.
Strengths
- Doubles a huge range of cheap triggered abilities for explosive value at only 3 mana
- Mono-white access to strong taxes, board wipes, and protection like Teferi's Protection
- Built-in evasion makes wide boards of small creatures hard to block profitably
- Low curve means fast, resilient development and easy recovery after wipes
Weaknesses
- Relies on a fragile 1/3 commander that dies to nearly any removal
- Mono-white struggles with raw card draw and ramp compared to other colors
- Many payoffs are non-functional without Delney on the battlefield
- Token/go-wide plans are vulnerable to sweepers and stax effects
Key Cards
- Welcoming Vampire — Each small creature entering draws a card, and Delney doubles the draws for explosive refueling.
- Skullclamp — Equipping a 1-toughness token triggers two draws under Delney, fueling a relentless card-advantage engine.
- Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim — As a 2-power creature, its drain triggers double, turning every death or ETB into double life swings toward a win.
- Soul Warden — Doubled lifegain on every creature entering stabilizes you and enables drain-style finishes.
- Anointed Procession — Stacks with token-makers so doubled triggers produce overwhelming armies of evasive attackers.
- Mentor of the Meek — Each small creature you play draws two cards under Delney, a premier mono-white engine.
Upgrade Path
Add a removal/protection suite (Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Teferi's Protection, Flawless Maneuver) so Delney survives to matter. Lean into a focused doubled-trigger combo such as Elas il-Kor plus a free sac outlet and recursion, or Pitiless Plunderer-style token loops, to convert value into hard wins. Improve mana with Sol Ring, Smothering Tithe, and white's best taxes to outpace greedier decks.
Core Cards
The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.
Win Conditions
- ▸Wide swarm of evasive small creatures attacking past blockers
- ▸Doubled aristocrat drains (Elas il-Kor, Blood Artist) draining the table
- ▸Skullclamp/Mentor-fueled card advantage burying opponents then alpha strike
- ▸Infinite or near-infinite triggered-ability combos doubled by Delney
Archetypes
- Aristocrats — Delney doubles drain and death triggers from small creatures like Elas il-Kor and Cruel Celebrant for explosive life swings.
- Tokens — Evasion on power-2-or-less tokens plus doubled token-making triggers builds a lethal, unblockable swarm.
- Value/ETB Blink — Doubling ETB triggers from small utility creatures generates enormous card and tempo advantage.
- Combo — Delney doubles loop-enabling triggers to fuel infinite drain or token engines.
Combos
- Derevi, Empyrial Tactician + Bloom Tender + Delney, Streetwise Lookout
→ Infinite LTB, Infinite ETB, Infinite death triggers
- Derevi, Empyrial Tactician + Faeburrow Elder + Delney, Streetwise Lookout
→ Infinite LTB, Infinite ETB, Infinite sacrifice triggers
- Venser, Shaper Savant + Peregrine Drake + Delney, Streetwise Lookout
→ Infinite LTB, Infinite ETB, Infinite storm count
- Pitiless Plunderer + Reassembling Skeleton + Viscera Seer + Delney, Streetwise Lookout
→ Infinite ETB, Infinite sacrifice triggers, Infinite death triggers
- Pitiless Plunderer + Reassembling Skeleton + Delney, Streetwise Lookout + Carrion Feeder
→ Infinite LTB, Infinite ETB, Infinite sacrifice triggers
Combos via Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (W), by popularity.
