The Commander
Flying, haste
Whenever you cast your second spell each turn, investigate. (Create a Clue token. It's an artifact with "
, Sacrifice this token: Draw a card.")
Guide
Gameplan
Cast a low cost commander turn 2, then chain cheap spells to trigger Malcolm's second-spell investigate every turn, building a growing pile of Clue tokens that fuel card advantage and artifact synergies. You leverage that engine to fill the board, dig to combo or value pieces, and close with token swarms, big draw-into-burn, or an artifact-based payoff.
Strengths
- Relentless card advantage from Clues with very little deckbuilding cost—just play two spells a turn
- Cheap, evasive haste commander that pressures life totals and supports Voltron lines
- Clues feed sacrifice, artifact, and treasure-style payoffs in Izzet
- Low mana value makes recasting after removal easy
Weaknesses
- Clues are slow card advantage— per draw can clog mana
- Two colors limits access to broad sweepers and recursion
- Vulnerable to artifact hate that wipes your Clue stockpile
- Investigate only triggers once per turn, so it isn't explosive on its own
- Squishy 1/1-style body dies to nearly any removal or chump trade
Key Cards
- Sai, Master Thopterist — Turns your Clues and other artifacts into a Thopter army and extra card draw.
- Reckless Fireweaver — Each Clue and artifact entering pings every opponent, converting your engine into reach and a win condition.
- Academy Manufactor — Doubles your investigate into Clues, Treasures, and Food, supercharging the artifact engine.
- Krark-Clan Ironworks — Sacrifices Clues and artifacts for mana to power explosive storm and combo turns.
- Mechanized Production — Copies your stockpiled Clues into an alternate-win condition each upkeep.
- Brass's Bounty — Floods the board with Treasures that cheaply enable double-spell turns and artifact payoffs.
Upgrade Path
Tighten the curve with more sub-two-mana cantrips (Opt, Consider, Mishra's Bauble) so you reliably hit your second spell, and add fast mana like Sol Ring and Mana Crypt. Lean into a clear payoff package—Reckless Fireweaver/Marionette Master plus sacrifice outlets, or a Krark-Clan Ironworks combo line—so the Clues translate into a deterministic kill rather than slow value. Upgrade the manabase with duals and Treasure rocks to support back-to-back spell-heavy turns.
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
- ▸Artifact pingers like Reckless Fireweaver or Disciple of the Vault draining the table
- ▸Token swarm (Thopters from Sai) plus Malcolm's evasive beats
- ▸Mechanized Production or other artifact-count alternate wins
- ▸Storm/combo finishes powered by Clue and Treasure mana
Archetypes
- Spellslinger — Malcolm rewards casting two spells a turn, slotting perfectly into instant/sorcery-heavy Izzet shells.
- Artifacts — Clue generation fuels affinity, improvise, and artifact-matters payoffs.
- Aristocrats/Sacrifice — Clues are free fodder for sacrifice outlets and death-trigger pingers.
- Combo — Cheap spells and Clue mana support storm and artifact-sacrifice loops to win in one turn.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (RU), by popularity.
