Magic: The Gathering - Niko, Light Of Hope Commander Deck Guide

Among the many legendary creatures included in Magic: The Gathering's Duskmourn set is Niko, Light of Hope. Niko Aris was originally a planeswalker in their debut in Kaldheim but was a part of the many that were desparked and "downgraded" to creature status. Thanks to Niko's desparking, you can now use them as a commander, something previously impossible.

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Niko, Light of Hope is a unique blink commander, caring about creatures with enter-the-battlefield triggers as well as triggers that activate whenever a creature attacks. This Azorius (white/blue) is a new take on blink and one that can make for a more aggressive deck over traditional blink builds.

Decklist

Commander: Niko, Light of Hope

Niko Aris

Archaeomancer

Auton Soldier

Azure Beastbinder

Bane of Bala Ged

Battle Angels of Tyr

Charming Prince

Cityscape Leveler

Cloudblazer

Dour Port-Mage

Dream Trawler

Leonin Warleader

Mulldrifter

Myr Battlesphere

Nesting Dovehawk

Oltec Matterweaver

Overlord of the Mistmoors

Preston, the Vanisher

Silverwing Squadron

Sludge Monster

Solemn Simulacrum

Soulherder

Spark Double

Spirited Companion

Sun Titan

Thassa, Deep-Dwelling

The Flood of Mars

Wall of Omens

Another Round

Approach of the Second Sun

Echo Storm

Gift of Estates

Irenicus's Vile Duplication

Mirage Mockery

Replication Technique

Rite of Replication

Season of Weaving

Supreme Verdict

Wake the Reflections

Wrath of God

Cloudshift

Eerie Interlude

Ephemerate

Essence Flux

Generous Gift

Ghostly Flicker

Momentary Blink

Parting Gust

Path to Exile

Swords to Plowshares

Arcane Signet

Azoirus Signet

Conjurer's Closet

Mind Stone

Panharmanonicon

Sol Ring

Talisman of Progress

Wayfarer's Bauble

Worldwalker Helm

Court of Vantress

Extravagant Replication

Mechanized Production

Song of the Worldsoul

Teleportation Circle

Virtue of Knowledge

Adarkar Wastes

Command Tower

Deserted Beach

Glacial Fortress

x13 Island

Mystic Sanctuary

Nimbus Maze

x13 Plains

Prairie Stream

Seachrome Coast

The decklist contains one planeswalker, 27 creatures, 12 sorceries, ten instants, nine artifacts, six enchantments, and 34 lands. Since Niko, Light of Hope can blink with its own effect, you can go lighter on proper blink spells, letting you play more impactful creatures.

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Key Cards

Niko, Light Of Hope

Niko, Light of Hope is going to be one of the main ways you'll be blinking other creatures. For two mana, you can make your Shard tokens become a creature, while taking advantage of its enter-the-battlefield triggers. Since it only works on nonlegendary creatures, most of the creatures in the deck fit that criteria.

Since Niko can blink other creatures, Niko is often the best card you can blink. This is because its enter-the-battlefield effect is one of the only consistent ways to create Shard tokens. Shard tokens are the main source of damage, attacking as copies of whatever creature you exile.

Niko Aris

The original Niko card, Niko Aris is a way to create a lot of Shard tokens on one cast. The X you pay will give you that many Shard tokens, allowing you to make even more copies of your best creatures to attack while the original is exiled.

Niko Aris' -1 ability is great as well, letting you create even more Shard tokens. Planeswalkers are at a disadvantage in Commander since there are three other people who can attack them. Luckily, since Niko Aris' isn't the most impactful planeswalker, there's a high chance of your opponents not bothering to attack it.

If you need to give Niko Aris more loyalty with the +1 ability, you can use it on a creature, get in for unblockable damage, then activate Niko, Light of Hope's effect to exile it until the end of the turn so it never returns to the hand, saving you the trouble of having to recast it.

Sludge Monster

Sludge Monster is one of the best creatures to use Niko, Light of Hope's effect on. Putting a slime counter happens both on it attacking and entering the battlefield, letting you potentially trigger it a ton of times.

Sludge Monster shuts down any opponents' creatures so long as it's on the battlefield. This can turn the most problematic creatures into a creature with no effects or abilities. Since the copies remain on the battlefield thanks to the Shard tokens becoming it, even though the original Sludge Monster leaves, its static ability will still be in effect.

Nesting Dovehawk

Nesting Dovehawk is a very unique tech card that Niko, Light of Hope can utilize efficiently. Populate copies any creature token you control, and while this cannot target your Shard tokens, it can target Shard tokens that are copies of what Niko, Light of Hope exiled since they will be creatures.

These copies are permanents of whatever the Shard token was at the time of Nesting Dovehawk's resolution. Populate doesn't occur until the resolution and doesn't need to target a token, so you can activate Niko, Light of Hope with Nesting Dovehawk's effect on the stack to ensure there is a token to copy.

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How To Play The Deck

Niko, Light of Hopes is an aggressive deck, blinking cards to gain card advantage through card draw while chipping away with powerful creatures that your Shard tokens become. You'll get two Shard tokens wheneverNiko, Light of Hope enters, so even if it ever gets removed, you'll at least be able to get Shard tokens out of the exchange when you recast it.

There are a lot of great targets for Niko, Light of Hope's effect to make for efficient attackers. Azure Beastbinder can make a creature into a 2/2 with no abilities (and can shut down artifacts and planeswalkers as well) when it attacks, Cityscape Leveler can destroy any nonland permanent on the battlefield on attack, and Silverwing Squadron gives you 2/2 Knight tokens for each opponent you have to help build a large board state.

While Niko, Light of Hope is best used offensively, in the early game, it should instead be used to start getting card advantage. There are a lot of cards that easily draw you cards, and with Niko blinking them, they can draw you a ton. The best cards to blink at the early stages include Mulldrifter, Wall of Omens, and Cloudblazer.

While Mulldrifter costs five mana to cast normally, you can instead evoke it for three mana, and with its sacrifice trigger on the stack, activate Niko, Light of Hope to blink it. When Mulldrifter returns at the end step, you won't have to sacrifice it, and you'll get another enter-the-battlefield trigger to draw you a total of four cards for the same price as casting it normally (which only gives you two).

Shard tokens are the most important tokens to have. While only Niko Aris cards can create Shard tokens, there are a lot of ways to make copies of them. Worldwalker Helm can tap to create a copy of the Shard, Mechanized Production can enchant one to make a new one each upkeep, Oltec Matterweaver can copy one when you cast a creature spell, and Echo Stormhas the potential to create a lot if you've cast your commander a lot in the game.

There are a few win conditions of the deck. The most likely one is winning through combat damage, with Shard tokens becoming copies of your best attackers. When there is an army of cards like Dream Trawler and Bane of Bala Ged, it can be very hard to come back from.

The biggest weakness of the deck is that it takes a while to set up. Early on in the game, there is not a lot you can do to make an impact on the game state. Once you have multiple creatures down that Niko, Light of Hope can utilize, it can start to snowball. However, you have to make an effort to amass a lot of Shard tokens, which can take a while.

Alternatively, there are a few alternate win conditions in the decklist. Since you will be drawing a lot of cards, casting Approach of the Second Sun twice is fairly easy and will automatically win you the game. Since you can create a lot of Shard tokens, Mechanized Production is another way, automatically winning on your upkeep if you control eight artifacts with the same name as whatever you enchanted with it.

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