The Mighty Thor, Jane Foster is one of the more exciting Commanders in the set. It’s arguably now the best option for an Equipment Commander in blue white. But how do you build it? What are the must-have synergies? Let’s get the low down.
THE MIGHTY THOR, JANE FOSTER
Three mana for a 3/3 Flyer with all of this value is a seriously good deal. It’s a brilliant starting statline for an Equipment deck, and it only gets better from there. First up, The Mighty Thor, Jane Foster lets you flicker a nontoken artifact or creature, then return it to play tapped, when she attacks. This can be used both for value (flickering something with a good EtB effect) or offensively, by temporarily removing a blocking creature.
What’s more, Jane also lets you draw a card whenever an equipment enters. This is a premium effect in equipment decks, and on only a handful of creatures like Puresteel Paladin and Sram, Senior Edificer. Putting this effect in the command zone is very good.
Considering how much value you get for a three drop, how are we building her?
AUTO-EQUIPS ARE KEY
The first consideration should be to play Equipment that auto-equip when they enter. This allows you to flicker them with The Mighty Thor with her attack trigger, and re-equip them elsewhere. Celestial Armor and Mithril Coat are two of the better ones, but beyond those, you have two key piece you need to include.
Hammer of Nazahn and Sigarda’s Aid will allow you to auto-equip any Equipment that enters, meaning you can flicker something with a big equip cost and then enjoy the auto-equip.
FLICKERING LIGHTNING
I don’t know about Love and Thunder, but I’m more about Hearth and Home, if I’m honest. This is probably one of the best equipments in the format, and it shines even more in a deck like this. You can bake in some great EtB creatures, and enjoy having the best of an equipment deck with a flicker sub theme.
While Ephemerate is still far and away one of the best flicker spells in the format, you can branch out here to some that fit the theme a bit better, too. Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd, for example, allows you to flicker equipment when you have a Sigarda’s Aid in play. Against All Odds is a lesser played card that I feel finally has a home – getting to reanimate and flicker an artifact or creature is exactly what this deck wants.
THE GAME WINNING SYNERGY
There’s one interaction that stands out more than any other in this deck, and that’s the tech plays you can do with Assassin Gauntlet.
Because you can keep flickering Assassin Gauntlet with your Commander, you get to tap down a whole section of the battlefield when you attack. This might just be the best card in the deck, and the synergy doesn’t end there.
While The Mighty Thor can’t wield the new Mjölnir, she can use Mjölnir, Storm Hammer from ACR. It’s a good enough include as-is, but when combined with Assasin Gauntlet, you can start pushing through a heck of a lot of damage, too. If you want to lean into this synergy, you can play Greatsword of Tyr or Spider-Woman, Stunning Savior, for example, and build a tap-down sub theme, something UW is already great at.
If you do go that route, you have some fantastic EtBs to rebuy with your flicker: namely, Sunblast Angel and Githzerai Monk. At this point, you can add Split Up as a boardwipe, and go from there.
MORE FLICKER FUN
The deck has a raft of good options to flicker that can fit the theme besides the brilliant Assassin Gauntlet, with one great option being Pre-War Formalwear. Flickering this one allows you to keep reanimating stuff, which is always a great move – even better when it can trigger card draw from your Commander.
The options for flickering are at two ends of a spectrum, really – it could be something innocent like Archeomancer’s Map, which would allow you to get another two Plains to hand, or it could be The One Ring, resetting it. That option is pretty evil, but is gonna be so sweet to do.
Of course, the bread and butter of your flicker targets are going to be the cards you’d already be playing in a deck like this anyways. Stoneforge Mystic and Cloud, Midgar Mercenary are your Equipment tutors that can be re-used to your heart’s content, and Masterwork of Ingenuity gets even better given you can reset it whenever you like.
You also get the benefits of playing the best of the UW flicker package. Aang, Swift Savior is worth it just for the front side, and is a Flyer to boot, holding equipment well. Skyclave Apparition is one of the better flicker targets as far as removal is concerned, and Sun Titan is the sun that never sets. We do love a good Sun Titan.
MARVEL-LOUS CARDS TO INCLUDE
The new Marvel Super Heroes set (and Commander product) offers us some great includes, too. Loki, God of Mischief will trigger when we use Equip abilities, target things with our Commander, or our permanents – like a Teleportation Circle, say. Shuri, Wakandan Inventor reduces the cost of our Artifact spells, and allows us to turn our artifacts into a copy of a second artifact we control until end of turn. Morphing a Clue, Food or Treasure (or even an Ancient Den!) into an extra copy of Sword of Hearth and Home for a turn is sweet. For top end, there’s Iron Man, Bleeding Edge, giving you more than enough extra equipment.
Casting your mind back a few sets, you have Biorganic Carapce, a great draw engine for the deck, from Spider-Man, and The Key to the Vault from Outlaws of Thunder Junction. Go back even further to pick up a copy of Gold-Forged Thopteryx from March of the Machine: Aftermath to help protect your board, and you’re in a good place.
PREPARE TO WARP
Mechanics from recent sets tie in quite nicely to what The Mighty Thor wants to do – the benefit of the cards being released in the same Standard window.
Warp is one such mechanic. Warping something for cheap and then flickering it with The Mighty Thor nets you quite the mana discount. The equipment reanimation of Astelli Reclaimer, and the card draw and body of Quantum Riddler and Starwinder are the big ones here, as they benefit most from the discount. I’d play Starwinder before Riddler, but it’s worth pointing out. If you have enough good EtBs, Starfield Vocalist becomes quite an attractive option.
As you get to enjoy rebuying EtB effects, you can not only get two cards with Starfield Shepherd, but also reset any Prepare creatures. The best two for this deck are definitely going to be Emeritus of Ideation and Skycoach Conductor, but you could run a few more, depending on your needs.
END STEP
The Mighty Thor, Jane Foster might end up being a Commander with longevity than Thor, God of Thunder at this point. She provides a heck of a lot of value, a body to play Voltron with, and enough utility to engage strong and exciting flicker subthemes.
Flickering The One Ring, Portal to Phyrexia and other powerful Artifacts is also a neat approach, but I think the likes of Wedding Ring and Coveted Jewel might yield more benefits than trying to get to nine mana to cast Portal.
Kristen is Card Kingdom’s Head Writer and a member of the Commander Format Panel. Formerly a competitive Pokémon TCG grinder, she has been playing Magic since Shadows Over Innistrad, which in her opinion, was a great set to start with. When she’s not taking names with Equipment and Aggro strategies in Commander, she loves to play any form of Limited.