Taigam, Master Opportunist is a card introduced inMagic: The Gathering’sTarkir: Dragonstorm set. Taigam played an important role in the Dragonstorm story, enticing the former planeswalker Sarkhan to use corrupted magic to turn into a dragon form once more.
As a card, Taigam, Master Opportunist is all about slinging spells and re-casting them later. Since Taigam is mono blue, you’re locked into only colorless and blue spells in your deck. Luckily, blue has a ton of cheap spells to cast, letting you consistently trigger Taigam. If you’re a fan of casting multiple spells every turn, Taigam is exactly what you’re looking for.
x28 Island
Terrain Generator
War Room
The decklistcontains 25 creatures, seven sorceries, 17 instants, 12 artifacts, four enchantments,and34 lands. The mana curve is extremely low to ensure you can always cast two spells every turn.
Key Cards
Taigam, Master Opportunist
The commander of the deck, Taigam, Master Opportunistcan easily create copies of all your best spells. The second spell you cast is copied while the original is exiled with four time counters, letting you recast it later.
If Taigam copies a creature spell, it will create a token copy. This is often the best use of Taigam’s ability, so you’re able to double up on your best creatures.
Taigam’s effect plays into itself, asonce the fourth time counter is removed, the spell is cast for free. This allows you to cast any other spell to trigger Taigam while only paying for one spell.
All Of History, All At Once
All of History, All at Once is a very simple card.It hasstormand time travel, which essentially translates toremoving time counters from suspended cards equal to the number of spells you had cast the turn to cast All of History, All At Once.
Since the deck naturally plays so many cheap spells, youcan easily have a storm count high enough to remove time counters from all your suspended cards. The maximum number of time counters is often four, so removing them all in one go is common.
Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant
Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant doesn’t copy your creature or enchantment spells, but it will copy the rest of them. Jin-Gitaxiashelps to copy your first spell, while Taigam copies your second one. This helps to rapidly push your advantage with a ton of copied spells.
The copy that Jin-Gitaxias makes isn’t cast, meaning it will not trigger Taigam, Master Oppertunist’s effect.
While Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant helps you a lot, it also hampers your opponents. Itcounters their first artifact, instant, or sorcery spellcast. Thisincludes spells they cast on your turn, making it harder for them to counter or remove any of your cards.
Ojer Pakpatiq, Deepest Epoc // Temple of Cyclical Time
Ojer Pakpatiq, Deepest Epoc is one of the easiest ways to ensure you’re able to cast two spells on your turn. Itgives instant spells in your hand rebound, which will exile them and let you cast them at the start of your next turn for free. This gives you a free first spell to cast, so that you only need to cast one more for Taigam.
Ojer Pakpatiq is very hard to remove, as when it dies, it returns as a land. While the land doesn’t do anything special,it only needs three time counters to be removed from it. It can do this simply by tapping for mana, or with cards that have the time travel effect to get Ojer Pakpatiq back on the battlefield quickly.
Eluge, The Shoreless Sea
Eluge, the Shoreless Sea isthe best way to discount your instant and sorcery spells. Once you have just one flood counter on a land you control, you can cast most of them for free, since the majority in the decklist only cost one blue mana.
Eluge’s power and toughness will likely always be high, as since you’re mono blue, the majority of your lands are Islands. As such,it’s best to put flood counters on the lands that aren’t Islandsso that Eluge has the highest stats possible.
How To Play The Deck
A Taigam, Master Opportunist Commander deckis going to constantly be casting spells every turn. Since Taigam’s effect triggers on your second spell castevery turn, instants are especially strong since they allow you to trigger Taigam during your opponents' turns.
You want to have a full hand all the time, so you always have spells to cast. While many spells are cantrips (spells that cost one mana and draw a card), other permanents that draw cards like Archmage Emeritus and Archmage of Runes help to draw even more.
The deckis built around casting at least two spells every turn. As such, permanents that let you cast spells for free are vital to the strategy. As Foretold lets you cast a spell for free, as do cards that untap lands when you cast them, like Snap and Frantic Search.Eluge, the Shoreless Seagives you discounts that can be made free if you have enough flood counters on lands.
There are a few “secondary” commanders in the deck that let you copy your second spell (although only Taigam lets you recast the original later).Storm of Saruman and Tomb of Horrors Adventurer both copy your second spell, with Storm making the copy nonlegendary if it was, and Tomb copying the spell twice if you’ve completed a dungeon.
Theprimary win condition of the deck is winning through combat. There are a lot of permanents that create creature tokens from drawing or casting spells, letting you quickly flood the battlefield with them. you may close out games withAetherflux Reservoir, but only if one opponent is left in the game (unless you manage to get up to 151 life).
Thebiggest weakness of the deck is its low floor. While the deck can amass scary board states, getting to that point can be a struggle if your draws aren’t working with you.Your key cards are vital for the strategy to work, and without them, you’re casting spells that aren’t doing much on their own but drawing you cards.Use your counterspells to ensure your key cards stick around, rather than trying to stop your opponents (unless that is necessary to not lose the game).
