Table of Contents
It all started with Time Walk. One of the famed Power 9, the card’s floor is another cycle of drawing a card and playing a land, but its ceiling is that your opponent never gets another turn. At just 1U, Time Walk is insanely undercosted and wide open for recursion, which is why it rightfully belongs in a pantheon that includes Black Lotus and the 5 Moxen.
Taking an extra turn in Commander is arguably even more powerful than doing so in one-on-one formats because it denies three opponents their turns with one spell. Of course, in this format, abusing extra turns is the goal – whether you’re going to cast several extra turn spells in a row until you find your win condition or deal enough damage to kill your opponents, or you’re pulling off a combo to take infinite turns for the same outcome.
However, if you’re interested in this archetype, be warned – it’s widely considered to be an “un-fun” strategy, particularly if your deck’s plan is to cast extra turn spells in succession. This is referred to as chaining extra turns, which is mentioned in the updated Commander Brackets as not recommended for games on Bracket 3 or lower. A combo that lets you take infinite turns is one thing, but forcing three players to watch you play solitaire as you slowly beat them down to death could be a painful experience that might get you booted out of your pod.
For those who still want to learn more about the Extra Turns archetype, read on to find out everything that you need to know about this controversial but highly effective strategy.
Top Cards
With Time Walk banned in Commander, Time Warp is the poster child for extra turns in the format. The difference in cost (1U vs 3UU) just shows how broken Time Walk is, especially sinceTime Warp is still considered a very powerful spell at a mana value of 5. Temporal Manipulation and Capture of Jingzhou used to be hard-to-find functional reprints of
There are many other alternatives for extra turn spells, though some of them are exiled upon resolution, and a few go into your library. You won’t be able to recur them, but you need a critical mass for the purpose of chaining extra turns. There are also other types of effects that are tacked onto extra turn spells, so you’ll have to choose those that match your Commander and your game plan.
Extra turn spells:
Extra turn spells that exile themselves:
Extra turn spells that go into your library
- Beacon of Tomorrows
- Nexus of Fate
Extra turns is primarily part of the blue section of the color pie, but there’s a handful of cards in the red section that also give you an extra turn for much cheaper mana costs – at the expense of losing the game at the end of that extra turn. This “all-in” strategy definitely fits in red.
While these cards are often seen in CEDH lists as an extra turn with a Bracket 5 list is often more than enough to present a win, there are ways to circumvent the drawback in more casual versions of Commander.
Extra turn spells with lose the game effects:
Lastly, there are several permanents that provide extra turns at the cost of a hefty investment, and the most popular options, of course, are the cards that are part of combos that will let you take infinite turns.
Permanents that provide extra turns:
These are just the cards that provide extra turns – building your deck around them requires a clear game plan on how you’ll maximize the value of these spells and permanents. It begins with your choice of Commander and colors, and here are the most popular options and strategies with this archetype.
Chaining Extra Turns
The Commander Brackets system specifically calls out chaining extra turns as a strategy that shouldn’t be used in Bracket 3 or lower. This means you should be aiming for a Bracket 4 deck with this plan, as it’s not one that can usually hang with Bracket 5 decks.
If there’s any Commander deck that chains extra turns with a chance of stealing games against Bracket 5 decks, it’s Narset, Enlightened Master. The game plan is simple – ramp hard to get Narset out ASAP, swing, and hope that you hit either an extra turn spell or an extra combat phase spell among the top four cards of your library. Hexproof gives Narset protection against targeted removal, and First Strike will help her survive as she attacks against opponents who have creatures on their board. Narset also runs all of the best countermagic and ramp spells in the format, because getting Narset countered or removed even just once sets the deck back a lot, not to mention the chance of whiffing with nothing good to cast from the top four cards of your library.
Sample decklist for Narset (Bracket 4):
Commander
Instants (21)
Sorceries (23)
Artifacts (20)
Enchantments (7)
Lands (25)
100 Cards
$2304.4
Edric, Spymaster of Trest is another solid Commander for chaining extra turns. Instead of relying on a single attacking creature, you’ll be aiming to flood the board with cheap, evasive creatures like Triton Shorestalker and Faerie Seer, cast Edric, swing to draw lots of cards, and cast an extra turn spell from among them to keep going until you hit a win condition to speed up your opponents’ deaths like Beastmaster Ascension or Triumph of the Hordes.
Recurring Extra Turn Spells
Unlike decks that aim to chain extra turns, decks that seek to recur infinite turn spells are not as maligned in Bracket 3 and below, especially if you’re going infinite with this plan and can present a win condition on the board. Brago, King Eternal is one of the options for this strategy, as he will be able to keep blinking creatures that can return extra turn spells from your graveyard such as Archaeomancer and Mnemonic Wall. You can keep swinging with Brago and your other creatures until your opponents are dead, and if one of your opponents has any flying blockers, you’ll probably be able to draw into all the removal spells that you need.
Sample decklist for Brago (Bracket 3):
Creatures (28)
Instants (14)
Sorceries (5)
Artifacts (20)
Lands (29)
99 Cards
$1058.83
There are lots of other blink Commanders that can use the same gameplan as Brago, such as Roon of the Hidden Realm for access to Eternal Witness, among many other cards that Green can offer to the strategy, or Thassa, Deep-Dwelling if you want to stay in Mono-Blue. You can also go with God-Eternal Kefnet if you want a different approach – instead of re-using extra turn spells from your graveyard, you’ll need to keep placing the spell back on the top of your library to draw and copy with Kefnet through cards like Jace, Mind Sculptor, Scroll Rack, and Brainstorm on an Isochron Scepter.
Taking Infinite Turns
Another path to go with extra turns is to take infinite turns, which is a win condition by itself. Mizzix of the Izmagnus is one of my pet decks because of its simple and extremely elegant plan – cast Intuition to grab an extra turn spell, Mystic Retrieval, and Runic Repetition. No matter which card they give you, with enough experience counters on Mizzix, you can cast the extra turn spell, recur it with Mystic Retrieval, recur Runic Repetition with Mystic Retrieval, and return the exiled Mystic Retrieval to your hand with Runic Repetition, for infinite turns for just UUUUR. You can keep taking extra turns until you dig into another infinite combo to actually win the game such as Reiterate + Seething Song for infinite mana with Mizzix, then infinite Reiterates on Lightning Bolt.
Sample decklist for Mizzix (Bracket 4):
Commander
Creatures (5)
Instants (39)
Sorceries (14)
Artifacts (11)
Lands (29)
100 Cards
$1626.58
Other options for infinite turns decks include Obeka, Brute Chronologist, which aims to stick Final Fortune-like cards onto an Isochron Scepter or Panoptic Mirror, then using Obeka’s ability to clear the stack when the “lose the game” clause triggers. Inspirit, Flagship Vessel is a recently released Commander that easily goes infinite with Magistrate’s Scepter, as you’ll only need an initial charge counter and one of the many other cards that can proliferate every turn to take all the turns.
Infinite Turns in CEDH
If you want to take the infinite turns strategy to CEDH, your best choice would be Tivit, Seller of Secrets. What’s a six-mana Commander going to do in CEDH, you ask? Esper colors provide an extremely solid control shell with Stax elements to keep turbo decks at bay, then it goes infinite by itself with Time Sieve as when it enters the battlefield or attacks, you’ll be making five artifact tokens no matter what. With access to all of the best countermagic and removal spells, the Thassa’s Oracle combos, and a one-card win condition with the Commander, Tivit isn’t in any danger of losing its spot as one of the top choices for CEDH in Esper colors any time soon.
Sample decklist for Tivit (Bracket 5):
Commander
Creatures (20)
Instants (23)
Artifacts (19)
Enchantments (5)
Lands (28)
100 Cards
$6452.03
Weaknesses of Extra Turns
Whether you’re planning to chain extra turns or take infinite turns, one of the glaring weaknesses of this archetype is the high mana costs involved. Whether you’re casting extra turn spells or permanents that support the strategy, you’re looking at pretty significant mana investments. It’s 5 mana to cast Time Warp, when for certain strategies, spending 5 mana is already going for the win.
Additionally, there’s always a counter to any plan of attack, so if you’re on Edric and flooding the board with small evasive creatures, you should be on the lookout for sweepers, and if you’re on Roon and planning to trigger ETB effects of creatures to return extra turn spells from your graveyard to your hand, you should be wary of graveyard hate. Determining the weaknesses of your approach to extra turns should help you fill your deck with ways to plug the holes.
There are very specific cards that attack the extra turns strategy – Gerrard’s Hourglass Pendant, Stranglehold, Trouble in Pairs, and Ugin’s Nexus. The most widely played among these four is Trouble in Pairs, but the rest show up from time to time – Stranglehold in Stax decks and Ugin’s Nexus in artifact decks, which ironically can use it for their own infinite turn combo. You’re supposed to run a healthy amount of removal in any deck any way, so you should have answers if you see any of these in your opponents’ boards.
Conclusion
Extra turns is a powerful archetype, but if it’s your chosen strategy for your next deck, you need to be aware that it may ruffle some feathers in lower Brackets. Fortunately, the Commander Brackets system exists particularly to prevent such awkwardness during pre-match discussions. However, if you’re always playing in Bracket 4 or above, then there’s nothing to worry about – build that deck and take control of time.
