Myojin of Night’s Reach Deck Guide: Top Cards & Strategies

The Myojin of Night’s Reach is one of the most enigmatic and impactful creatures in the lore of Magic: The Gathering. Unlike many creatures, she had the rare ability to traverse planes even before planeswalkers were a thing, subtly influencing events in both Kamigawa and Dominaria.

Originally conceptualized before the Commander format was established, Myojin of Night’s Reach has a unique ability that complicates her inclusion in decks. To effectively use her, careful planning is essential, but with the right deck strategy, she can become a powerful presence in your games.

Sample Decklist

Black is an excellent color choice for building a mono-colored deck. It offers a diverse array of tools at manageable costs, granting numerous methods for card draw and opportunities to ramp up your mana efficiently.

The Myojin thrives when she is played directly from your hand, so the following decklist is designed with various options to help you draw her from the command zone to ensure maximum impact.

The Commander

Myojin of Night’s Reach is a 5/2 legendary Spirit creature introduced in Champions of Kamigawa. She requires eight mana to cast—five generic and three black.

To balance her steep mana cost, Myojin enters the battlefield with a divinity counter, but only if cast from your hand. This design ensures that players cannot exploit graveyard strategies to bring her into play, introducing an interesting challenge when using her as a commander.

As long as she has a divinity counter, Myojin is indestructible. Additionally, removing the counter allows you to force all opponents to discard their hands.

While it can be limiting to always play Myojin from your hand, there are ways to transition her from the command zone to your hand in the deck.

How to Play the Deck

Although there are stronger attackers within mono-black, Myojin of Night’s Reach excels at making opponents discard their hands when played from your hand.

To facilitate this, the deck includes mechanisms for transferring her from the command zone, options for adding divinity counters while she’s in play, and proliferate effects to make the discard ability repetitive.

While empty hands don’t necessarily guarantee a victory, focusing on punishing opponents for discarding or holding no cards can pivot the game in your favor. Building redundancy into your strategies with various discard effects will also mitigate the risk of your opponents countering or eliminating your commander.

Ramp Strategies

Mono-black excels at land-based ramp with cards like Cabal Coffers and Cabal Stronghold, generating mana based on the number of Swamps controlled. By including Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, all your lands become Swamps, maximizing your mana production capacity.

Draw Mechanics

In order to keep your hand full and maintain strategic options, the deck offers various card-drawing mechanics. Cards such as Tinybones, Trinket Thief offer card draw for each discard action that your opponents take, creating opportunities for significant life drain.

Discard Effects

It’s crucial that your strategy includes more methods for forcing opponents to discard than solely relying on Myojin. Several creatures and spells can provide additional discard elements, ensuring your plans remain flexible and effective, even if Myojin is countered or removed.

This strategic diversity will allow you to exploit your opponents’ weaknesses and leverage your resources to fortify your position in the game. By carefully balancing card draw, ramp, and discard mechanics, you can create a competitive and enjoyable gameplay experience.