What is the Initiative?
Over the years, Wizards of the Coast has done a great job printing cards into Commander without a care in the world about how it affects Legacy and Vintage players. One of the newest Commander keywords to do this is Initiative, introduced in Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate. The Initiative is basically what happens when you merge the dungeon mechanic from Adventures in the Forgotten Realms with the Monarch mechanic from Conspiracy: Take the Crown.
When you “take the Initiative,” you essentially get to venture into the dungeon, and as long as you have the Initiative, you get to venture again every upkeep. However, if your opponent manages to deal combat damage to you, they take the Initiative, and they will now get to venture on their upkeep until you take it back.
Why is initiative so powerful in Eternal formats like Legacy, Vintage, and Pauper?
When playing a Commander game, you usually have several opponents, which makes abilities like Initiative very fair. Taking the Initiative puts a target on your back, and all of your opponents will be attempting to take it from you, making it hard to keep it. However, in Eternal formats, you only have one opponent. Once you take the Initiative, if your opponent does not immediately take it, you will have the upper hand for the rest of the game (which usually doesn’t last very long).
While abilities like Monarch have also been powerful in Eternal formats, Initiative takes it up a notch by giving you arguably more powerful abilities. When you first enter the dungeon, you get a basic land, which gets you card advantage, thins your deck, and can fix your mana. Next, you usually put two +1/+1 counters on your creature, making it harder to kill and a more deadly threat to your opponent’s life total. Then, you have your opponent lose five life, which is most likely already low due to the creature you pumped on your last turn. Next, you draw a card, and if your opponent isn’t dead by then, you enter the final room of the dungeon, which lets you reveal the top ten cards of your library and put a creature into play with three +1/+1 counters on it, and it gains hexproof. If your opponent still isn’t dead by then, which is extremely unlikely, you just rinse and repeat.
Pauper has already placed four of the seven common Initiative cards on its banlist, and of the three cards still legal, two are five drops, and the third is an equipment. Pauper is exceptionally soft to this ability since all the cards are commons, and the games are usually won by whoever first gained the Initiative.
Legacy and Vintage have yet to ban any Initiative cards, even though it continues to dominate the meta in both formats. As of today, if you go on MTGGoldfish and look at the Legacy meta, you might think it’s not that bad since it says that Izzet Delver is about 17% of the meta and Mono-White Initiative is about 13% of the meta. However, if you look closer, you’ll see that in the top decks, there is also Selesnya Initiative, Naya Initiative, and Boros Initiative, which are all basically Mono-White Initiative with a splash. If you add up all of these decks, it comes to about 22.5%.
This means that just under a fourth of Legacy players are playing Initiative, according to MTGGoldfish. And, while Izzet Delver has always had a high percentage of play, it is even higher than usual because it usually has a decent matchup against Mono-White Initiative. Together, Initiative Decks and Delver decks make up 40% of the meta, meaning that half of the time, you will either be playing Initiative or Delver. This is not healthy for the format. Vintage is a similar story, with about 23% of decks being Initiative, and the second closest is Paradoxical Outcome, with 13%.
The Deck
Specifically, two cards make Mono-White Initiative so powerful in Legacy: Seasoned Dungeoneer and White Plume Adventurer. Seasoned Dungeoneer gives you the Initiative and allows you to attack your opponent freely while giving you extra value by exploring. White Plume Dungeoneer also gives you the Initiative and untaps your creatures, enabling you to be both offensive and defensive, gaining the Initiative and protecting it simultaneously.
Now you might look at these two cards and be unimpressed. One of them is a three-drop, and the other is a four-drop, and while their abilities appear powerful, Legacy is filled with powerful cards. What makes these so different? The answer is fast mana. Mono-White Initiative is full of free, fast mana, such as Chrome Mox, Lotus Petal, Ancient Tomb, and City of Traitors. Being able to cast one of these creatures on turn one is a death sentence for most opponents, as you can accrue more value than they can deal with very quickly.
Not only is Initiative very powerful, but these decks also get to run all of the best white cards in Magic’s history. It can deal with your opponent's creatures with Swords to Plowshares, Solitude, and Palace Jailer. It can attack your opponent’s hand and tax them with Elite Spellbinder and Annointed Peacekeeper. The deck even runs a new card, Touch the Spirit Realm, which has multiple uses. It can exile an artifact or creature by casting it normally, or you can Channel it, which is an uncounterable way of flickering your own creatures to gain back the Initiative or protect them from removal. You can also Channel it to deal with your opponent's pesky tokens, such as Marit Lage. The deck covers all its bases!
The Future of Initiative
While this deck can be fun to play, it is not a healthy addition to Legacy. Everyone thought this might just be a flash in the pan and that Legacy would adapt to it, but so far, it has held its ground, and all that has changed is that more people are playing Izzet Delver or Painter decks to beat it. I believe it’s only a matter of time before Wizards admits to the errors in their ways and bans these cards from Legacy.
However, if you are looking to get in on the action before it ends, there are many spicey lists that you can try. People have tried all different combinations, and based on your budget, you can choose the one that’s right for you. If you want to try the most popular version, it will cost you around $2,500 (although $1,400 is just four City of Traitors). If you are looking for a more budget version, I will be trying out a Death & Taxes build of Initiative that you can find here that was inspired by Thraben University. It has all of the fun of Mono-White Initiative without the hefty price tag.
If you end up trying out a version, please let me know in the comments how you did or what you would change!
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