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Riding the Tides: Best Commander Pairings for Buoyancy's Oceanic Effect
When you slide Buoyancy into a Commander deck, you’re not just playing an enchantment; you’re inviting a little splash of mobility to your battlefield. This {1}{U} Aura from Mercadian Masques is a Flash-friendly way to grant a creature the skies, turning a modest ground creature into a surprising evasive threat. The flavor text—“Saprazzan merfolk become legged on land, but some find it quicker to bring the water with them”—reminds us that the ocean’s reach isn’t limited to shorelines. It’s a nudge toward tempo, protection, and clever reattachment. In multiplayer Commander, where duels can hinge on who can break through a wall of blockers first, Buoyancy gives you a built-in way to tilt the skies in your favor. 🧙🔥💎⚔️
At its core, Buoyancy is a versatile tempo tool. It’s a common aura, so you don’t need to hunt for rare or expensive components to enable a strong flying threat swing. The real magic happens when you pair it with a commander and a suite of blue tools that reward clever spell-slinging, subtle protection, and targeted disruption. Below are some top commander pairings and archetypes that maximize Buoyancy’s oceanic effect without drowning your mana curve. Expect a blend of control, evasion, and some splashy flair—exactly the kind of thing that makes the playgroup grin while you sneak past their blockers. 🧭🎯
1) Brago, King Eternal — Blink for Infinite Elevation
Brago’s archetype is the classic blue-white blink engine: exile your own permanents, then return them to the battlefield with refreshed stats and a new lease on life. Buoyancy is tailor-made for this dance. Enchant your chosen creature with flying, then blink both Buoyancy and the enchanted creature to reattach the aura to a fresh target on future turns. The result is a recurring bolt of tempo: your big flying creature keeps pressure on the board while you tuck away problematic permanents and reset blockers. It’s not just about a single turn win; it’s about steering the late-game flow so you control the skies while your opponents re-evaluate their attack lines. And yes, you’ll look pretty cool doing it while the table watches the water ripple with your tempo. 🧙♂️🪄
In practice, you’ll build around a reliable flying threat that can shoulder the early pressure while you maneuver, then pivot to a late-game win since Buoyancy benefits from Brago’s repeated bounce-and-reattach loop. Don’t forget to protect Buoyancy with counterspells or bounce effects of your own; a single well-timed removal spell can end the moment you’re trying to chain abuses. The payoff is a deck that feels elegant and cruelly efficient, like a tide coming in just when your foes thought they’d stabilized their shorelines.
2) Azami, Lady of Scrolls — Card-Draw Rhythm Keeps the Skies Open
Azami, Lady of Scrolls sits at a storied crossroads in Wizard-focused blue decks. While she’s best known for wizard tribal and card-draw synergies, Buoyancy can slot into a blue-themed control shell where your goal is to stay ahead on card advantage while gradually presenting a flying beater. Enchanting a creature with Buoyancy adds a reliable flying threat that your wizard-powered draws can protect, blink, or copy with other blue tools. The flavor of this pairing is very much about keeping the airspace clear while you grind through your deck for answers and threats. The aura ensures your evasive options aren’t just one-and-done; you can smoothly transition Buoyancy to new targets as the table mutates its board state. 🎨🌀
Practical tips: lean on Azami’s draw engine to keep finding more removal, counterspells, or ways to protect your enchanted creature. A Buoyancy that survives a turn or two becomes a recurring menace that can force unfavorable blocks and buy you the time to deploy your actual win condition. It’s a patient, cerebral approach that rewards careful play and precise timing—the kind of rhythm blue decks excel at when the skies are open to negotiation. ⚡
3) Talrand, Sky Summoner — Flying By Token Pressure
In a Talrand shell, Buoyancy isn’t about making an army of flyers overnight; it’s about turning a single impressive flyer into the lead-in act for a larger, late-game plan. Talrand creates a stream of Drake tokens whenever you cast instants or sorceries, giving you a bank of spells to leverage while your enchanted creature glides over defenses. You can use Buoyancy to ensure that one creature—likely your premier beater or your best blocker—has reliable air superiority, flanking the board as you cast more cantrips and draw into your win condition. The result is a tempo-rich game plan: you support a dominant flying threat while your spell-slinging triggers keep your hand full and your options open. 🧙🏻♀️🎲
Remember that having only a single enchanted creature means you may want to pair this with a couple of backup win conditions—things like value engines or repeatable card-draw to stay ahead in a long game. The art of this pairing is tempo long game: stay ahead on resources, keep the table’s blockers honest, and use Buoyancy’s evasion to push damage through when you’ve got the right number of spells in hand. The ocean’s current here is patient, not reckless, and it rewards precise sequencing. 🏄♂️
4) A Pure UW Blink/Control Approach — Evasion as a Core Strategy
Blue-white control decks have always thrived on tempo and evasion. Buoyancy fits neatly as a modular piece in a broader canopy of protective auras and fly-fast threats. When you enchant a creature and give it flying, you create a win condition that can’t be simply choked by chump blocks. With a strong suite of counterspells, bounce effects, and board wipes on standby, you can present a moving target that’s both difficult to remove and hard to block effectively. The pairing emphasizes timing: you drop Buoyancy on a sturdy creature, you hold back a counterspell for a key moment, and you push damage through when your foes are knee-deep in answers. The result is a deck that feels like a tide turning just when the shore looks safe. 🌊⚓
5) How to Build the Oceanic Theme on a Card-Variance Budget
Because Buoyancy is a common, budget-friendly enchantment, it shines in decks that lean into a flying or blink-centric plan without needing a treasure trove of rare cards. Focus on a core of flying-utility creatures, a handful of evasive threats, and blue's hallmark support suite: Counterspell, معمول counterspells, bounce, and card draw. You’ll often find that the most satisfying Buoyancy moments come from turning a single enchanted creature into a recurring, multi-turn threat via blinking or reattachment, rather than trying to flood the board with multiple auras. The flavor of being able to “bring the water with you” into every combat step is exactly the kind of elegance that makes early Mercadian Masques a fan favorite—nostalgia with a modern, efficient twist. 💧🎨
“Saprazzan merfolk become legged on land, but some find it quicker to bring the water with them.”
Side note for flavor-loving players: Buoyancy’s art by Jeff Miracola captures that classic 90s MTG vibe—blue, silver, and a sense that the sea itself is a willing ally. The card’s rarity is common, but its strategic value in the right list can feel almost priceless when you watch the tide turn in your favor. If you’re looking to dip a toe into a new Commander project, Buoyancy is a breezy entry point that can scale from casual to competitive, depending on how deeply you lean into blink, counter, and draw engines. And if you’re ever in need of a tactile reminder of the ocean’s pull, imagine your table’s reactions as your enchanted creature soars above, unblocked, as a smile spreads across your opponent’s faces. 🧜♂️💙
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