IzzetLegendary Creature — Goblin SorcererSanar, Innovative First-Year
Mana value4Rank#18,264
The Commander
Vivid — At the beginning of your first main phase, reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal X nonland cards, where X is the number of colors among permanents you control. For each of those colors, you may exile a card of that color from among the revealed cards. Then shuffle. You may cast the exiled cards this turn.
Guide
Gameplan
Sanar turns your upkeep into an extra-card engine: with both blue and red represented among your permanents (the realistic max in Izzet), each first main phase you dig until you find two nonland cards and may exile one of each color to cast that turn. You leverage that constant impulse-draw to fuel a spellslinger or control plan, chaining cheap-to-mid spells while accruing card advantage no one else matches, then close with burn or a value-engine combo.
Strengths
- Repeatable card advantage every turn without spending a card or mana to draw
- Naturally synergizes with cheap interaction and a low curve so exiled cards are castable that turn
- Deck thinning and shuffling smooths draws and combos with top-of-library effects
- Only needs a single blue and single red permanent to hit maximum value
Weaknesses
- Color count caps at two in Izzet, so X is rarely higher than 2
- Exiled cards must be cast that turn or they're wasted, punishing greedy curves
- No built-in protection or evasion—Sanar is a fragile 4-mana value piece
- Vulnerable to graveyard/library-order hate is irrelevant, but stax and tax effects (Rule of Law, taxing the extra casts) sting
- Commander itself doesn't directly win, so the deck leans on supporting payoffs
Key Cards
- Young Pyromancer — Turns the steady stream of cheap spells from Vivid into a growing token army.
- Mizzix's Mastery — Cheats huge spells, but also rewards the engine's high spell density for an explosive turn.
- Archmage Emeritus — Each spell you cast (including the exiled freebies) draws extra cards, snowballing advantage.
- Sentinel Tower — Punishes the high volume of spells you cast each turn with escalating burn damage.
- Underworld Breach — Recasting spells from the yard meshes with a cheap-spell shell and enables combo finishes.
- Aetherflux Reservoir — The huge number of spells cast each turn fuels life gain into a 50-damage kill.
- Swiftfoot Boots — Protects fragile Sanar so the Vivid engine keeps running each turn.
Upgrade Path
Lower your curve and increase spell density so exiled cards are reliably castable the same turn—cheap cantrips, counters, and burn maximize both Vivid and magecraft payoffs. Add fast mana (Mana Crypt, ritual effects) and protection (Swiftfoot Boots, Lightning Greaves) to keep the engine online, then install a tight win package like Underworld Breach + ritual or Aetherflux Reservoir to convert advantage into kills before the value grind stalls.
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
- ▸Burn the table out with Sentinel Tower, Guttersnipe, or Aetherflux Reservoir off your spell volume
- ▸Beat down with prowess/token creatures like Young Pyromancer and Talrand, Sky Summoner
- ▸Storm or Underworld Breach combo into a lethal loop
- ▸Grind incremental card advantage until you out-resource and out-interact every opponent
Archetypes
- Spellslinger — Vivid feeds a steady diet of cheap instants and sorceries that pump magecraft and prowess payoffs.
- Izzet Control — Free impulse-drawn counters and removal let you interact every turn while out-carding the table.
- Combo — Consistent card flow and shuffling find and assemble compact storm/Underworld Breach loops.
- Tokens — Casting many spells each turn powers Young Pyromancer and Talrand into a lethal board.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (RU), by popularity.
