Welcome back to another series of articles from CommandBeacon.com. This time we’ll be finishing up the Commander 2020 set with the Partner cycle. This is a cycle of Bonders, which are humans from Ikoria that have established eludha, the mystical bond created with a monster. I am biased and predictable, so we’re starting with our Temur/Ketria partners Pako, Arcane Retriever, and Haldan, Avid Arcanist.
The strength of Partner Commanders is long since proven just for access to an additional card from the start of the game. That would make Partners and Companions a bit of a crazy deck but we’ll think about that another time. The Arcane Maelstrom Commanders all directed towards a very noncreature heavy deck build, and Pako/Haldan is no exception. Haldan will allow you to play cards that you have fetched and exiled with Pako as long as they are noncreature cards. If you swing with Pako a few times then odds are you’ll have access to a pile of cards.
This pair is all about the card advantage and Pako can get really big really fast. Even if he his a creature spell the exile makes for great disruption against combo decks if they take away pieces from your opponent. Of course the build is not reliant on your opponents, so it's set to be light on creatures and leans on a pretty solid backup strategy. Have a look and you can probably figure out what that is.
Yup, it's the superfriends / Planeswalker strategy and there are just as many of them as there are creatures in the deck, more if you don't count your Commanders. This has been an incredibly fun and strong multiplayer deck so far, and with Pako fetching cards from your opponent's decks as well the games have never been linear or repetitive. If you enjoy decks like Gonti, Lord of Luxury, or Sen Triplets where you get to play your opponent's cards, then you may enjoy this more aggressive Temur Partner pair. Take a look at the Pako and Haldan article on Command Beacon for a breakdown of some of the tech choices and we'll see you next time.
