Last updated on August 3, 2026
If you're a commander player, you've probably never thought about cards that care about deck size. There was just no way to make them work. Whtz, the Bibliophile is a new Azorius commander from Mystery Booster Commander Edition that allows you to build a Commander deck with no maximum deck size. This is a first for Commander, which unlike other constructed formats, enforces a strict 100-card deck size.
It's activated ability is also incredibly powerful providing a card draw and bit of lifegain for free if you have at least 200 or more cards in your starting deck.
Now… why should you care?
Battle of Wits
Battle of Wits is an obvious first choice of card that really takes advantage of Whtz, the Bibliophile. 200 cards in your library isn't nearly as big of an ask in Commander than normal 60-card constructed.
However, be careful: Battle of Wits specifically looks for 200 cards in your library at that moment, not at the start of the game. To be safe, you'll probably want at least 220, and that's assuming you're going to try and tutor out Battle of Wits. If you're just throwing it into your deck for fun, maybe as an interesting alternative win condition for an Azorius control deck, 250 is a much safer number.
Yorion, Sky Nomad (As a Companion!)
Yorion, Sky Nomad isn't banned in Commander as a companion, but you couldn't ever take advantage of it until now. Wizards no doubt had this in mind when putting Whtz into Azorius.
Flicker and ETB is also well-supported in Azorius. It's a personal favorite archetype of mine, and having easy access to Yorion is great. Just at a glance, you've got extra value out of any ETB creature or permanent. There's basically no end to these in WU, which is great since you're running probably close to 150 nonland cards. When that sort of volume is required, cheap value creatures like Mulldrifter, Spirited Companion, and Archaeomancer become even better.
Gain 200 Life, thanks.
Invincible Hymn is pretty underplayed in EDH, for good reasons. It's only in a few thousand decks because most of the time it'll be just “gain 60 life” and you can get much more life out of 8 mana in white.
However, gaining 200 life is much, much funnier. It's also usually going to be enough to let you instantly blast people with Aetherflux Reservoir. Much more of a pet card than the previous two, but hey, you probably want at least 150 playables…
How Do You Shuffle 250 Cards?
This is the biggest unanswered question I have. I have pretty large hands and can easily shuffle 100 double-sleeved, but 200 single sleeved, let alone 250? No way you can do that by hand very effectively.
If you think you know a good way to do this that doesn't waste an incredible amount of time, please let me know in the comments. And to be frank, if you have a contraption that can shuffle 250 cards easily, please comment that too. I'll probably be desperate enough by then.
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