Screenshot from Disney's Fantasia (1940). Gishath, Sun's Avatar by Zack Stella.
Today's topic is inspired by the artwork I came up with for this post. For days I had no idea what I was going to write about. I considered writing about old Pirate cards and which ones are worth throwing into your shiny new Pirate Commander deck. I thought about doing a piece on Modern Merfolk and what can be learned from it when building a merfolk Commander deck. I may eventually write about such things, but today I'm in the mood for something a little different.
The header art is from the classic Disney film Fantasia. I took a still from the animation of fight between a Tyrannosaurus Rex and a Stegosaurus and I replaced the T-Rex with Gishath, Sun's Avatar. I tweaked Gishath a bit to try to make it match the style of the film, and layered some raindrops on top so it would fit in nicely.
Fantasia was a feature length film Disney made in 1940 in which animated shorts were created to be accompanied by well known pieces of instrumental (usually classical) music. The composers they picked from are among the greatest in the history of western music, and the animation is memorable and often spectacular. Each section stands alone and together the result is a perfect marriage of sound and motion. It is unlike any other Disney film and nearly any other animated film, Fantasia 2000 and the 1976 Italian film Allegro Non Troppo nonwithstanding. Both Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 are currently available on Netflix in case you haven't seen either one.
For this week's topic I'm going to imagine what kind of deck I might build around each of the stories in Fantasia, and then I'll do it again for Fantasia's sequel, Fantasia 2000. I'm going to skip the first piece in each of the films - Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by J.S. Bach (Fantasia) and Symphony No. 5 by Ludwig van Beethoven (Fantasia 2000) only because they are purely abstract animation sequences. They are impressive in their own right but don't easily lend themselves to being the inspiration for an EDH deck.
Fantasia (1940) The Nutcracker Suite by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
This first piece uses selections from the famous ballet to underscore scenes depicting the changing of the seasons from summer to autumn to winter. A variety of dances are presented with fairies, fish, flowers, mushrooms, and leaves. The depiction of faeries is what I find the most memorable, and I wouldn't be surprised if Disney's interpretation of the faerie character influenced generations of artists in the decades after Fantasia's release.
For the Nutcracker Suite I would build around Oona, Queen of the Fae. While Oona is a very strong deck when built with counterspell support and ways to produce infinite mana, this build would probably be Faerie tribal. The deck would churn out lots and lots of blue and black faeries. Flying blockers are nice to have and throwing in Archetype of Imagination and Archetype of Finality might help give them enough impact to stand up to more aggressive decks. I'd probably throw in a basalt monolith and Rings of Brighthearth just to cover all my bases. A wincon of exiling your opponent's libraries isn't half bad, especially if you're in colors to be able to have counterspell support and lots of removal.
The Sorceror's Apprentice by Paul Dukas
This may be the most famous of the sequences in Fantasia. It stars Mickey Mouse as the apprentice of sorcerer Yen Sid. Mickey uses the Sorceror's magic hat to attempt some of his master's magic tricks, animating his broom to assist in his daily chore of filling a water basin. Poor Mickey doesn't know magic well enough to stop the spell, and things get wildly out of control.
I would build this deck around the magic of making copies of things. Mickey chops up his broomstick in an attempt to stop it from flooding the wizard's home, but the still-enchanted splinters turn into full-sized brooms all devoted to filling the basin. His single out-of-control broom becomes an army of bucket-wielding broomsticks. I would do my best to abuse Avenger of Zendikar, making as many plant tokens as Mickey made broomsticks, if not more. Avenger of Zendikar with Infinite Reflections attached to it sounds pretty fun to me.
The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinski
This is one of the sequences from Fantasia that I remember being the most frightening as a small child, and the the most exhilarating as I got older. In it, Disney's animators depict a visual history of the Earth's beginnings underscored by selected sections of Stravinski's ballet score. The sequence progresses from the planet's formation to the first living creatures, followed by the reign and extinction of the dinosaurs.
While the piece depicts far more than just dinosaurs, that is the part that everyone seems to remember. For that reason, and because there aren't many magic cards depicting single and multi-celled organisms, my Rite of Spring deck would be built around dinosaurs. It would probably just be Naya goodstuff with as many playable dinos as I could get my hands on, and lots and lots of ramp. While the dinosaur tribe has an awful lot of neat creatures thanks to the release of Ixalan, I wouldn't expect this deck to be anything more than a fun, strong mid-range aggro deck with lots of big dumb creatures and a plan to just attack and stomp my opponents into paste.
The Pastoral Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven
The next sequence of Fantasia takes us to a mythical Greco-Roman world of colorful centaurs, cherubs, fauns, unicorns and other figures from classical mythology. The creatures gather for a festival to honor Bacchus, the god of wine, but they are interrupted by Zeus, who creates a storm and directs Vulcan to forge Lightning Bolts for him to throw at the attendees.
I was going to originally suggest that this be a Xenagos deck but I realized that I need Pegasus represented in the decklist and those are all in white. That pushes me into Naya, so I think I would build this around Gahiji, Honored One. Clearly Gahiji isn't at home in a Greco-Roman setting but his ability serves to encourage our opponents to attack anyone but us, and that fits in nicely with our desire to have a peaceful, festive bacchanal. We would of course run lots of centaurs and Pegasi along with a Prized Unicorn and probably an unhealthy number of Satyrs. For gods, I would run Xenagos, God of Revels and of course Purphoros in case I'm lucky enough to find myself looking down at a Storm Herd in my hand. Seems fun, though again - not an ideal build for any of these cards. I think that's going to be recurring theme today. Theme decks are rarely optimal builds.
Dance of the Hours by Amilcare Ponchielli
This odd sequence is a comic ballet in four sections: Madame Upanova and her ostriches (Morning); Hyacinth Hippo and her servants (Afternoon); Elephanchine and her bubble-blowing elephant troupe (Evening); and Ben Ali Gator and his troop of alligators (Night). The finale finds all of the characters dancing together until their palace collapses. There seems to be no rhyme or reason behind the choice of the characters or their motivations - they are just performing a very weird ballet for our enjoyment and unsurprisingly, that is enough to make it a joy to watch.
While I was unable to find any Ostriches in all of Magic the Gathering's long history, it's easy to pick a commander for this deck. Phelddagrif would take the helm and we'd load up on Elephants, Hippos, Crocodiles and other token creature generators. We have no real plan other than to flood the board with big dumb creatures and have at it. For any serious table, that would a terrible plan, but at a casual table with other players playing "bad" decks, it might just be a lot of fun.
Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky and Ave Maria by Franz Schubert
If I found Rite of Spring scary as a small child, I found this final sequence utterly terrifying. As I got older it got less scary, and I eventually was able to see this final chapter of Fantasia as a perfect pairing of the scary and the sublime. It begins at midnight with a demon awakening from the peak of a dark and forbidding mountaintop. It summons an army of evil spirits and restless souls from their graves to the top of Bald Mountain to dance and fly through the air for its amusement. As the action reaches a crescendo, the sound of an church bell signals the end of the revelry and night fades into dawn. A choir is heard singing Ave Maria as a line of robed figures is depicted walking with lighted torches through a forest and into the ruins of a cathedral. It is the perfect ending to what might be a perfect film.
While I would suggest that this deck be built around a demon, that would ignore the final part of the piece. As a way to allow us to fully explore this sequence, I think I'd build around Kaalia of the Vast instead. Our demon would be Ob Nixilis, as I find it matches the look of the demon on Bald Mountain quite closely. We would use the red in Kaalia's color identity as a way to pull in lots of devil token generators to represent the many little devils that are summoned. We might add spirits and spirit tokens as well, making white a key color for this build. To represent the final sequence of the film we would include some angels, including Linvala, Keeper of the Silence.
That rounds out every sequence from Fantasia, but I'm also going to look at Fantasia 2000. Both are definitely worth watching, and while I am fonder of the original, there are sequences in the sequel that are just breathtaking.
Fantasia 2000 Pines of Rome by Ottorino Respighi
The first sequence of Fantasia 2000 features a family of humpback whales that are somehow able to fly. This is never explained, but is also beside the point. It's majestic and beautiful and is a fantastic way to begin the film. The sequence tells the story of a calf that is separated from his parents and becomes trapped in an iceberg. Eventually he finds his way out and the family joins a larger pod of whales who fly and frolic through the clouds. The music matches the mood, pacing and action in the story beatifully, and the ending is just majestic.
For this build I would choose Tibor and Lumia as a way to make flying whales. Of course, lots of Magic the Gathering whales already fly for some reason, but it'd be nice to have an easy way to make that happen. We can also throw in Archetype of Imagination to help our dudes get through our opponents' defenses. Since we have red in our commander's color identity we might as well throw in some burn spells and ways to do damage to non-flying creatures. Magmaquake and Earthquake are the sort of thing we'll be looking for to do that. The animated sequence also features lots of what look like seagulls, but for the purposes of this deck I think we'll just have to run Storm Crow. How can we not?
Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin
This next sequence features one of my favorite musical pieces of all time - Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. It is set in New York City in the 1930s, and is illustrated in the art style of cariacaturist Al Hirschfeld. The story follows four individuals, who are all struggling through their day and wishing for a better life. The segment ends with all four getting their wish. Their stories interact with each other's without any of them knowing. The overall piece is fun, moving, well paced and a wonderful pairing of art and musical styles.
This might be one of the hardest to build a deck around, as it is decidedly modern and many Magic cards are designed in a medieval fantasy setting. While Rhapsody in Blue might lead me towards mono-blue, I think I would build this deck using Rashmi and going for a Kaladesh cyberpunk theme. I would go with four stars: Rashmi, Padeem, Oviya and someone else - maybe Nimble Innovator to round out the cast. The deck would be focused on churning out servos and constructs and maybe aiming for a Mechanized Production wincon if nothing else seems to be clicking.
Piano Concerto No. 2, Allegro Opus 102 by Dmitri Shostakovich
While I personally favor the cell-drawn animation style of other pieces in this film and wasn't initially drawn to the CGI feel that this part has, it turns out to be a very solid sequence. It is based on the fairy tale "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" by Hans Christian Andersen, and stars a broken toy soldier who falls in love with a toy ballerina and protects her from an evil jack-in-the-box.
While Tajic isn't likely to suffer a broken leg like the Toy Soldier hero from Fantasia 2000, I would probably choose him as the leader of this deck. I'm not aware of any MTG ballerinas, but I've always been fond of Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. Despite the fact that her ability would affect me too, I think she would be Tajic's love interest in this story-built EDH deck. For the army of toy soldiers I'd load up on token generators and as a stand-in for the jack-in-the-box the card Jester's Cap would do nicely. The villain gets cast into the open mouth of a coal stove, so Krark-Clan Ironworks would find a place in the deck as well. I'm not exactly blown away by this one, but that's probably how I'd go about building a deck for it.
The Carnival of Animals, Finale by Camille Saint-Saens
This shortest of sequences is a slapstick affair that features a goofy flamingo with a yo-yo who tries to liven up his flock's daily routine. It is goofy, whimsical, and an awful lot of fun. One might think that it did not rise to the level of beauty, majesty and drama one normally expects from Fantasia. In this movie Disney was not trying to recreate the original. They were breaking new ground and as the silliest piece in either film, this sequence does that nicely.
While there aren't a lot of commanders that make one think of a Flamingo, if I had to build a deck designed to be as crazy and goofy as possible I might well choose Zedruu the Greathearted. I'm very familiar with Zedruu, and would load this deck up with the kinds of cards that make more serious Magic players seriously consider scooping up their cards rather than put up with my shenanigans. It'd be the kind of deck that folks with a sense of humor but no sense of urgency might enjoy playing against just to see what kind of insane boardstate we wind up with.
The Sorceror's Apprentice by Paul Dukas
One of the interesting things about Fantasia is that they had hoped to regularly release new versions with new sequences but also with old sequences thrown into the mix. In Fantasia 2000, the "old" piece they chose was the one starring Mickey Mouse - The Sorceror's Apprentice.
If I had to build a totally different deck around The Sorceror's Apprentice, I'd use Inalla as she makes copies of any Wizard you play. I'd load it up with lots of wizards that copy spells. Now that I think about it, Mickey wasn't copying stuff. He only wound up with an army of Broom golems because he chopped up the first one, but that's what I'd build. Maybe a deck with rats and axes would be more appropriate but I looked and didn't find any broom cards on gatherer, so I'm stretching for ideas at this point...
Pomp and Circumstance - Marches 1, 2, 3 and 4 by Edward Elgar
I'm definitely not someone easily inspired by religious themes, so when I saw that one of the sequences for Fantasia 2000 would be based on the story of Noah's Ark from the Book of Genesis, I was not excited. Donald Duck plays Noah's assistant and Daisy Duck is his sweetheart. Donald is given the task of gathering the animals and bringing them to the Ark. This piece is actually one of my favorites from the movie. It brings humor, beauty, a great story, and some amazing music together into a sequence that stands tall alongside some of the greatest sequences of Disney animation ever made.
While a story about Noah's ark might lead you to think about building a deck around an assortment of animal creature types or possibly creature token generators, my mind went straight to Mikaeus the Unhallowed. While that might seem odd, there's a reason. One of my first attempts to plan out a Mikaeus deck was to assemble a wide assortment of non-human zombies because Mikaeus gives your non-humans +1/+1 and undying. I was literally planning to build a zombie Ark of the damned, led by Mikaeus as zombie-Noah and probably with a Lilliana as his planeswalker sidekick. While I eventually gave up on the idea as being hopelessly impractical and a terrible way to build a Mikaeus deck - I'll always think fondly back on the days when I actually believed a Zombie Noah deck led by Mikaeus was a good idea and might even win games.
Firebird Suite - 1919 Version by Igor Stravinski
In this final sequence from Fantasia 2000. The story starts with an Elk awakening a sprite who in turn accidentally wakes the Firebird, a fiery spirit of destruction in a nearby volcano. The Firebird causes the volcano to erupt and destroys the surrounding wilderness. The sprite seems to have been destroyed but the Elk is able to breathe life back into her. She then brings the blighted land back to life. The execution of this final piece is breathtaking and it is difficult to imagine watching it and not sharing in her joy as she revitalizes the devastated wilderness.
It's hard to imagine building this deck without having it led by Mayael the Anima. While ramping out lands might be more in line with the theme of revitalizing a blighted landscape, the art on Mayael's card so closely matches the way the character in the Firebird Suite sequence is shown that I can't see any other choice. The Ondu Giant, Akoum Firebird and Grazing Gladeheart are all matches for imagery in the movie, but none of them are big enough to get pulled out by Mayael's ability. They have to be in the deck though, so we'll focus on ramp and load up the creature list with whatever "Mayael goodstuff" we feel like. As for the feeling of rebirth and having a fresh start, there's nothing quite like landing Arbiter of Knollridge when one player has shot their life total into the stratosphere and everyone else is at death's door.
Final Thoughts
I guess it's time to admit it - I'm not a "Spike". I'm not sure any self-respecting player devoted to building competitive EDH decks could write a piece like this on the weekend after a new set dropped, but I've been writing both to explore EDH and also for my own pleasure and I did enjoy writing this piece a lot. I don't tend to build "theme decks" any more because the decks I get to play against are just too strong and I always want to feel like I've got some chance of competing for the win. That sort of meta-evolution is normal, but sometimes I do miss the days when I could build a bad or silly theme deck and still compete for the win.
A few months ago, I wrote a series of blog posts exploring the building of a Ramos deck. This weekend marked the last Saturday of our EDH league and my Ramos build managed to emerge victorious! I hadn't won a month since this past February so I really wanted to pick up another one before the year is out. All of my wins were off of Chandra's Ignition and the deck was tuned to be able to win out of nowhere if I had the right boardstate or cards in hand. I'll be moving on to another deck for October - probably Marath Enrage - and will occasionally take Ramos out if I'm in the mood for nasty infect shenanigans. The deck wound up with something close to a 50% winrate in a fairly strong (casual) meta, which for me is fantastic. I couldn't be much happier, though deep down I felt a little bad for not winning the "old fashioned way" - through combat damage.
Next week I expect I'll be back on the Ixalan bandwagon, writing about something relating to the recent tribes and legendary cards that have just come out. For those of you who stuck with this piece all the way to the end, I hope you enjoyed it and thanks for reading!