Magic the Gathering is one of my favorite games of all time. I love card games; I started playing Magic in third grade when Yu-Gi-Oh! began airing on Saturday mornings in the U.S. and I was too impatient to wait for its official TCG to release. Magic has grown into a pretty big game over the years, and cards have changed a lot over time. There are multiple formats of play now that have different restrictions on what cards players can use to build their decks in an effort to preserve and promote different gameplay. My favorite format is Commander, a splashy, complex version of the game that lets players build a deck of 99 cards from almost every card ever released, headed up by a legendary creature or planeswalker as its face, or commander. There are a few restrictions on what can be in your deck, but generally the ruleset allows for, I think, some of the most creative deck builds in Magic. Because of how many cards are in the game now, I don’t think Commander is a great entry point for Magic, but with its flexible list restrictions and high power ceiling cards, I can understand how it slowly became that for so many people.

My favorite game with a narrative is The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. There’s a lot of reasons why, from the game’s content to the story of its development, but it’s always had a special place in my heart, cemented by nostalgia. I love its spooky vibe, I love the masks theme, and I really liked what it does with its 3 day time cycle, considering it’s such an old game. I could say more, and probably will sometime, but to the point: I wanted to build a Majora’s Mask themed Commander deck that captured the spirit of the game and revisited some of my favorite moments. This feels like an exercise that will lose its novelty as Wizards of the Coast continues to release more Universes Beyond collaborations, but it ended up being a more daunting task than I thought. Using Scryfall’s artwork tagger, as well as MTG Companion to search for keywords, I put together a list that evokes the game and might even snatch you a victory in your next Commander game.

• Commander
• Board Strategy
• Win Condition 1
• Win Condition 2
• Win Condition 3
• Full Deck List

A Hero Out of Time

The commander of this deck is Estrid, The Masked, and like Kelly Macdonald in Finding Neverland (2004), this adult woman will be playing the role of our boy hero today. This felt like a natural pick for a Majora’s Mask themed commander. Masks play an integral role in the game, and can be used in various ways to help Link in his quest, and we’ll be doing the same thing with this desk. Estrid is actually a quite powerful combo piece thanks to her abilities to enchant any permanent with a totem armor mask token, and untap each enchanted permanent we control. If we can find a way to use Estrid’s planeswalker abilities more than once per turn, the ability to untap permanents like lands and creatures with abilities can quickly spiral out of control for our opponents, and thankfully The Chain Veil is an artifact (a mask, no less!) that lets us do exactly that. Using Estrid’s second ability to enchant The Chain Veil allows her to untap it, and any other enchanted permanents we control, an infinite number of times on our turn. This very powerful two card combo makes Estrid a dangerous piece in competitive games, and by running enchantment auras that target our lands, like Fertile Ground, Wild Growth, and Verdant Haven, we can enable her even faster. We don’t want Estrid’s ability to generate infinite mana with this combo to sweep the table right away though; to showcase the game, I’ve tried to balance these high power cards with cards that represent different moments of Majora’s Mask.

Many of our creatures like Setessan Champion, Timber Paladin, and Eidolon of Countless Battles represent Link’s human form, and synergize well with the many enchantments we’re running in this enchantress-style deck. Tuvasa the Sunlit is a hard hitting Zora Link that gets stronger with each enchantment we play, and will help us find even more. Goron Link is represented by Armadillo Cloak, specifically the Invasion printing, which shows someone curled into a ball bowling over their enemies, just like a Goron. Sanctum Weaver and Rescuer Chwinga were the closest things I could find to Deku Link, but I think Chwinga particularly has an interesting utility, bouncing one of our permanents back to safety at instant speed. Composer of Spring is a nod to the game’s music and returning ocarina mechanic, as well as a great source of ramp for our deck.

Our other creatures represent people or creatures from the game. Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle is included as a reference to The Giant Turtle in Great Bay. Nyxborn Behemoth resembles Goht, the boss of Snowhead temple, and Ellivere of the Wild Court acts as our Happy Mask Salesman, giving role auras to all of our creatures. Ondu Inversion calls back to inverting Stone Tower, Yavimaya Enchantress is the a Great Fairy, and thanks to the new Wilds of Eldraine showcase printing, Greater Auramancy now features a white fairy in its art, perfect for Tatl, Link’s fairy accomplice. (Although honestly the bumblebee sheep may be too cute for me to pass up.) Moritte of the Frost takes the role of Skull Kid, creating a perfect imitation of any permanent we want an extra copy of.

Masks for a Festival

Our board strategy is to play creatures and power them up with enchantment auras. The auras in this deck represent the various masks Link finds throughout his adventure. Many of these auras have effects that get stronger the more enchantments we play like Ancestral Mask and Auramancer’s Guise, so we want to put as many enchantments on the battlefield as we can, and Estrid can help us make more masks too. But why stop there? Imperial Mask enchants us and our opponents with a mask that says we can’t be the target of spells or abilities our opponents control; this deck doesn’t need to target our opponents to win, so we’re comfortable sharing masks with everyone!

With such a scary commander on our side of the board, we’ll have a target on our back, so we need to keep our commander and our life total safe. Sphere of Safety prevents opponents from attacking us or planeswalkers we control unless they pay X for every enchantment we control. Spoiler, we’re going to have a lot of enchantments. We’re also running a lot of thematic removal in the forms of Stroke of Midnight, Time Wipe, and Stall for Time. Out of Time is worth a particular mention because, like the Song of Time, it only temporarily removes creatures, leaving them suspended just off the battlefield, like the ominous moon.

Speaking of the moon, the moon is such an iconic part of Majora’s Mask, it felt a shame to not spotlight it somehow. Decree of Silence can be used to slow our opponents down, or as an inefficient counterspell in a pinch and Imprisoned in the Moon is aura-based spot removal that fits our theme too. The moon also appears on a certain printing of our first win condition.

Win Condition 1: The Moon Falls

Approach of the Second Sun is a fantastic thematic win con for this deck, mechanically playing off the inevitability of the moon falling; our opponents will have to find a way to stop us from casting this a second time, and knowing it’s coming, heralding their inevitable doom, makes it perfect for a Majora’s Mask theme deck. Plus, the Japanese printing features an eclipse, and where there’s an eclipse, there’s a moon. That’s a win baby.

Win Condition 2: The Four Giants

In the original game, Link stops the moon from falling by summoning four giants to catch it. Our deck has four giants too: Sun Titan and Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath help develop our board, while Earthshaker Giant and Nylea’s Colossus can power up our creatures to deliver devastating attacks to end the game. Of course, you’ll need creatures on the battlefield to get the most out of these guys, so use Squirrel Nest and Spawning Ground combined with Estrid’s untap ability to create creature tokens to bolster your attack. You could make infinite tokens with this combo, but where’s the fun in that? With the giants powering up our creatures, we can swing for tons of damage, and finish out the game.

Win Condition 3: The Finished Tower

Over the course of Link’s three-day quest, a team of carpenters is hard at work building a tower at the center of town. We can channel their stubbornness with Helix Pinnacle, pouring our extra mana into this festival decoration. Once we hit 100 counters, we’ll automatically win at the beginning of our next upkeep. Our opponents will each have one turn to stop us from winning… I love that we’re able to convey some of that dread and inevitability that Majora’s Mask first introduced me to in this deck, even if it is a little turtley.

Conclusion

The full deck list can be found here. I had a great time with the mental exercise of building this deck, and I really hope it makes a splash at my next Commander night! Once I’ve played with it a few times, I might post again with an updated list. Evidently, I’m not the only one thinking The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask has a home in Magic the Gathering; I found two alters for Ethereal Armor as the Fierce Deity mask as I was building this list! I didn’t cover the mana base, but it’s fairly standard for the colors we’re running, if tuned slightly down. I can’t overstate how scary Estrid is at a Commander table, so maybe show a little restraint if you’re able to go infinite. Are there any creative choices I made with the theme you disagreed with, or cards that I overlooked that should be in this deck? I’d love to read your thoughts in the comments.

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Something a little different. I’ve always wanted to write a deck-tech article. It was a lot more effort than I thought, but it was fun. I have a few other decks brewing so I may try again sometime.
– S