The Initiative is a mechanic introduced in Magic: The Gathering’s Baldur's Gate set. It’s a powerful ability that provides significant value, much like the Monarch mechanic, where other players can take the Initiative by dealing combat damage. Despite being strong enough to see play in Legacy, it hasn’t gained much popularity due to its complexity. To make tracking this mechanic easier, I designed a playmat featuring all the Forgotten Realms dungeons and a clear display of the Initiative, so players can follow it more easily. You can check it out here and as a thank you for purchasing, I’m offering a discount on my products.

If you are interested in having a commander revolved around the Initative here are my 3 suggestions.

#1 Sefris of the Hidden Ways

Sefris is a great commander for a lot of deceptive reasons. For starters it is an enabler of the Initiative its first triggered ability can be triggered every turn if we build our deck around cycling our even just instants such as frantic search. It is also cheap at 3 mana, additionally it gives us a great payoff in reanimating a creature. Sefris is probably the most straight forward brew you could have for a dungeon delving deck.

#2 Obeka Splitter of Seconds

Obeka is much more open ended than Sefris but that doesnt mean she cant be a wonderful initiative commander. Initative automatically progresses on our upkeep as long as we have it. With Obeka giving us multiple upkeeps we get to complete the initative for every 5 damage obeka does. This will give us plenty of value in an indestructible emblem in contrast to an enchantment such as court of ambition. The flexibility of the Initiative is my favorite part of this deck as I can choose the route I go down as I trigger Obeka

#3 Imoen Mystic Trickster/Dungeon Delver

One of my biggest problems with the initative is the lack of creatures that support it. You may think that it becomes an even bigger problem since this commander background pairing is mono blue but that gives us access to clones. Imoen and dungeon delver is the perfect mono blue deck if you love value. We can flicker those clones to get more triggers. Blue’s access to unblockable creatures and bounce spells also helps reclaim the initiative when needed, making it difficult for opponents to keep you from progressing. While most initiative decks rely on aggressive creatures or removal-heavy strategies, this mono-blue build thrives on trickery, tempo plays, and sheer card advantage.

 

Now I do have 1 more commander that I really enjoy using the initiative with, I actually built the deck for a white elephant deck swap. I dont want him to find out what it is yet so if you are interested, sign up for my email list and ill let you know!