Lavinia, Foil to Conspiracy Detective Commander Deck Guide

Lavinia, Foil to Conspiracy | Illustration by Chris Rahn

Hey, Magic players! Have you noticed that tokens are taking over the franchise? From Junk tokens featured in the Fallout Magic set to Clue tokens or Role tokens that debuted in Wilds of Eldraine, tokens are becoming more mainstream in Magic: The Gathering.

We all know the most popular ones are Treasure, Food, and Clue tokens. Ravnica: Clue Edition brought many cards with Clue token support, including the playable commander in the EDH format that we’ll be discussing in today's deck guide: Lavinia, Foil to Conspiracy. Bring out your Magnifying Glass and put on your Thinking Cap to get ready to jump into this guide!

The Deck

Novice Inspector | Illustration by Fajareka Setiawan

This Lavinia, Foil to Conspiracy deck is intended for a more casual setting rather than for a cEDH pod. If you’re looking to have the most interaction on your opponents’ turns to generate as many Clue tokens as possible that turn into card draw, this is the deck for you!

The Commander: Lavinia, Foil to Conspiracy

Lavinia, Foil to Conspiracy‘s color identity makes it an Azorious commander that’s best played with primarily low-cost instant spells so that you can create at least one Clue token per player's turn. Leave the general in the command zone until you have accumulated enough instant spells in your hand to cast two per turn and generate a Clue token each time.

This human detective‘s mana ability generates 2 colorless mana and assures you have enough to cast at least two spells per turn for that Clue token. Since you can only create four Clue tokens per turn cycle in a Commander game, it's best to also run some token doublers to generate more per sitting.

This deck also has an interesting alternate wincon that we’ll discuss later.

Detectives

While we aren’t running all the possible detectives in white and blue, we’re sticking with the typal theme of detectives that offer Clue token support and those that benefit from casting instants to align with the commander's abilities. Alquist Proft, Master Sleuth’s activated ability can give you so much more value out of a single Clue token, turning a single Clue into extra card draw and lifegain.

Daring Sleuth transforms into Bearer of Overwhelming Truths, a prowess creature that earns you a Clue token when it deals combat damage to a player.

Detectives such as Novice Inspector, Ezrim, Agency Chief, and Cold Case Cracker can help you investigate to create one or more Clue tokens when they enter the battlefield or die.

Instant Support

When building this deck, I included instant spells that cost 3 or less mana to facilitate casting two instants on every turn in order to investigate with our commander’s triggered ability. Don’t forget that you can tap Lavinia, Foil to Conspiracy when it’s not your turn to get two additional colorless mana to put towards casting instants.

We have Lier, Disciple of the Drowned so that all instant and sorcery spells (removal and card draw) have flashback. Having this creature in play by at least mid-game will help to enhance your Clue token output as the 28 total instants/sorceries in your deck slowly accumulate in the graveyard.

Clue Token Support

As one of the best token doublers in the game, Anointed Procession will duplicate your Clue token output, as well as any token creation from other effects.

Many creature spells in this deck have a low mana value. Bygone Bishop investigates each time you cast a creature spell with mana value 3 or less.

Erdwal Illuminator allows you to investigate an additional time the first time you do so each turn. This means you can get two Clue tokens from Lavinia, Foil to Conspiracy’s triggered ability the first time you investigate each turn.

Some of the instant and sorcery spells in the deck add investigate to another ability. For example, Confirm Suspicions may be a 5-mana counterspell, but it holds value because you can investigate three times to gain three Clue tokens after countering something. Deduce lets you draw a card and investigate. You can pour mana into Disorder in the Court to exile X creatures until the next end step and investigate that many times. That could be one of the most valuable instants in the deck if you wait to cast it when you have more mana available to pour into the X cost.

Senator Peacock makes a creature unblockable each time you sacrifice a Clue token, somewhat like Martha Jones’ triggered ability. You can create a steady stream of Clue tokens with Tamiyo's Journal. This artifact can even lead you to fetching your win condition, which we’ll touch more on below.

The Main Win Condition

The main win condition in this detective deck is Mechanized Production. Since Clue tokens are artifacts, you can enchant Mechanized Production onto one of the Clue tokens that you control. You’ll automatically win the game on your next upkeep as long as you control eight or more Clue tokens.

This alternative win condition is best to cast if you have at least seven Clue tokens already under your control. However, if you know that one or more of your opponents are running heavy artifact destruction or enchantment removal, you may want to have a way to generate back-up Clue tokens and a way to return Mechanized Production from your graveyard to your hand if it happens to get removed. Of course, keeping the mana up for counterspells can also work to protect your Clue tokens and win condition from targeted removal.

Alternatively, if you have Martha Jones on the battlefield long enough, you can win with pure combat damage or commander damage. For each Clue token that you sacrifice, this cleric can make itself and one of your other creatures unblockable until the end of the turn.

The Mana Base

Study is a land card that not only taps for white or blue but also helps you create additional Clue tokens. It has the same activated ability as Magnifying Glass where you can investigate by tapping and paying 4 mana.

Adarkar Wastes, Azorius Guildgate, and Citadel Gate can tap for either blue or white, which is great for mana fixing. Azorius Chancery can tap for both a blue and white mana at the cost of returning any land to your hand.

Five Hundred Year Diary rewards you with more blue mana the more Clue tokens that you control.

As for basic lands, there are 13 Island cards and 10 Plains cards. There are more blue spells than white, so there are more blue basic lands in the build than white.

The Strategy

The strategy is to keep generating Clue tokens as you cast instant spells each turn. You can rev up Clue token production with Anointed Procession and the abilities of other creatures in the deck. Eventually, you can sacrifice the Clue tokens to draw into your win condition, hopefully with Forensic Gadgeteer on board so that you only have to pay 1 mana to sacrifice each Clue instead of 2.

Having Alquist Proft, Master Sleuth during the mid to late-game can help you draw more cards from each Clue token you sacrifice.

Combos and Interactions

While there aren’t really any infinite combos in this deck, there are some key interactions that can accelerate you more quickly to your win condition. Tamiyo's Journal has a tap ability that allows you to sacrifice three Clue tokens to search for any card in your library and place it in your hand. You can fetch Mechanized Production with this artifact’s ability, enchant it onto one of your Clue tokens, and win on your upkeep once you have eight of them under your control.

You can cast Agency Outfitter to search for Thinking Cap and Magnifying Glass from your graveyard, hand, or library to put them both on the battlefield at once. If you draw Outfitter plus another one of these artifacts, it’s best to try and discard the artifact to get full value off the Outfitter when it enters the battlefield. It’s better to put these cards into play from your graveyard or library than it is to put them into play from your hand.

Rule 0 Violations Check

Mechanized Production could cause a Rule 0 violations check because of its “you win the game” ability that kicks in after you have eight copies of an artifact. Some players might not like alternative win conditions, so it’s something to discuss with them before starting a game of Magic.

Budget Options

This Lavinia, Foil to Conspiracy build only needs a few tweaks to become a true budget deck. Many cards in the build are only $8 and under, except for a few.

Consecrated Sphinx is a $24 flying creature that gives you two cards each time an opponent draws a card. One budget option could be to replace Consecrated Sphinx with Howling Mine, even though it benefits your opponents. Other card draw staples that could adequately replace Consecrated Sphinx include Arcanis the Omnipotent or Folio of Fancies.

Cavern of Souls is one of the lands in the mana base that costs $35. While it guarantees that your 10 detectives won’t get countered, it can easily be substituted for other budget land options like Secluded Courtyard and Unclaimed Territory, or another white or blue basic land.

Anointed Procession is the most expensive card in the deck at $53 because doubling tokens for more value is a popular strategy in Magic. It can be replaced with another Clue-generation effect, though that won’t be quite as effective.

Other Builds

If you want to potentially make even more Clue tokens in one sitting, you could substitute one of the creature cards for Mondrak, Glory Dominus ($40). If you have this card and Anointed Procession on the field simultaneously, you can quadruple your Clue token output instead of just doubling it. Be mindful that this scenario wouldn’t contribute to a budget build, but it would generate the most value if you wanted to go the token-doubling route.

Another build possibility could be making this into a self mill deck. Since Clue tokens help you draw cards, you’ll be depleting your library quickly as you continue to draw. You could incorporate mill spells such as Keening Stone and Traumatize that can eventually mill you out. Don’t forget win conditions like Laboratory Maniac or Jace, Wielder of Mysteries so that you can win the game when you go to draw from an empty library.

There’s a potential combo route involving Lier, Disciple of the Drowned. This would require adding Merfolk Secretkeeper, Desecrated Tomb, and Phyrexian Altar to the deck. Mill four cards with Secretkeeper’s adventure, cast Secretkeeper and sac it to the Altar for blue mana. Lier can recast the adventure half of Secretkeeper from the graveyard, which creates a Bat token with Desecrated Tomb. The Bat can be sacrificed for blue mana as well, which lets you loop casting Secretkeeper until each player is milled out. It’s a janky combo, but it’s an option.

What Do You Think, Detectives?

Ezrim, Agency Chief | Illustration by Jason A. Engle

What are your thoughts on this Lavinia, Foil to Conspiracy deck, detectives? Let us know what you think about it in the comments.

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