Treasured Finds: Hakim, Loreweaver

Do any of your Commander decks have a story? Do they have a “why” of their existence?

Part of me wonders if this is something the format has lost since its explosion in popularity. It is not that people cannot have a reason behind their choice of deck, but the tales around them feel far less personal through no fault of the pilot. I started playing Commander in earnest before the proliferation of possible Legends and as a result there were often sideways choices made for the Command Zone. The volume of words written and videos filmed were far less so more information was shared by word of mouth or cards on the battlefield. But this isn’t the story of a deck made in the first half of the 2010s but one far more recent. 

This is the story of my Hakim, Loreweaver deck.

Archetype of Imagination ensnared its namesake from me. I adored the idea of resolving this six drop and winning in one fell swoop. Gravitational Shift would amplify my army while insulating me from attack. Windreader Sphinx would draw me a ton of cards. I could even use Auras like Stratus Walk and Spirit Away to go airborne if other key cards were missing. The piles of possibilities I started to assemble were filled with creatures with one of the oldest keyword abilities and auras that sent them to the clouds. One of these creatures was Hakim, Loreweaver.

I do not remember the exact moment I obtained my copy of Hakim. I have a distinct memory of getting a Mirage Starter Deck for Hannukah one year and I have a feeling that Hakim was in that box. It was a card that was added to my collection – not one I ever sought out to own. The copy I have is nicked at the corners from time spent in various holding cells. The fact that I still have this card is a bit of a miracle, not only because of twenty two years between acquisition and composition. When I moved to graduate school in 2008 I shipped my collection to my new apartment (along with my other belongings that did not fit in the car). Out of all the boxes shipped, one was lost – the one with the majority of my cards as well as most of my CDs – never to be seen again. Some of my old cards made it and thankfully Hakim (and a few other of my Commanders) completed their journey.

But back to 2017 or 2018. I remember looking at the stack of Auras I had accumulated – ways to encourage my opponent’s to send creatures at each other while accruing value via Flight of Fancy and the like – before taking another look at Hakim, Loreweaver’s novel of a text box. Something about the last line of the first ability stuck in my mind – Use this ability only during your upkeep and only if there are no enchantments on Hakim. A quick trip to Scryfall confirmed my suspicion. Alongside the Oracle text there was a ruling from 2004: You only check if he has no Auras when activating the ability. You can use the ability multiple times in response to each other to get multiple Auras on him this way.

I scrapped my blueprint and started anew.

I set aside Aboshan and the vast majority of cards that cared about flying and instead focused on building something else that could subvert expectation. A mono blue deck aura based deck that won through Commander damage. Mono-Blue Aura Voltron. I had plenty of fodder for this as I had pulled apart my Bruna, Light of Alabaster deck a few months prior since it often played out the same game after game. I figured that by removing my access to white I would not only have more variety in my games but I would also have a more challenging puzzle to solve, which is one thing that keeps me excited about Commander.

Figuring out how to make decks work is part of what I enjoy about Commander. Taking a card and building towards it provides guidance while also forcing me to explore the nooks and crannies of card files for things that might just work. One reason I chafe at the newer crop of Legendary creatures is because they just get to do the thing. It’s the reason I pulled apart Bruna in the first place and why I tend towards Uncommons Commanders. The cards do not do the thing on their own but rather need the rest of the 99 to help with the lift. 

I have often described Hakim as my desert island deck. If I had to scale down to a single Commander and solely iterate on it for the rest of time it would be this one. Hakim synthesizes so many of the things I enjoy in Magic. I get to leverage old cards with new additions, I get to crash in for a ton of damage, I get to play with Auras, and pull things out of the graveyard. Sure it might not be in my preferred color identity (Pharika be praised), but it sure as heck plays like a Golgari deck. 

Now normally here is where you might expect to see a list of cards and a reasoning behind them. The deck, however, is already built and battle tested. The choices are there because I want them to be there and I enjoy how they play. That being said I am going to talk about a few styles of cards I look for every time a new set rolls out. 

The most obvious of these are Auras. Hakim cares about them and while blue versions that buff your creatures are not plentiful they do crop up from time to time. Most often these are Curiosity effects but often help with evasion – looking at you Infiltrator’s Magemark – but rarely provide the raw damage output of Auramancer’s Guise. I’m also always on the lookout for Auras that do something interesting on the battlefield (like Illusory Gains) or I can bring back from the graveyard and reuse (Volrath’s Curse). Enchantments that draw cards also are high on my list. 

In the creature department I want early plays that work with the gameplan. The best example of this is Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel. Malcolm is evasive and carries Auras well while also putting cards into the graveyard. Finally, Malcolm can also help me see new cards which is incredibly important. Stormchaser Drake fits this mold as well and I nearly wept tears of joy when Entity Tracker was spoiled.

There are two spell slots I tend to focus on regularly. The first are ways to clear the board. Engulf the Shore and Spectral Deluge are exactly what I want since they can leave my biggest threat behind the vast majority of the time. The other stripe are cheap instants that can keep my Commander alive. Slip Out the Back is ideal since phasing Hakim out takes all the Auras with him instead of forcing me to reinvest mana. Since my Commander is so expensive, anything that lets me save Hakim on the cheap is a welcome addition. 

Finally, lower on the list, are any cards that let me play politics. There is a small theme of messing with my opponent’s creatures with cards like Illusory Gains, Rootwater Matriarch, and the combination of Willbreaker with Shimmering Wings. Anything that lets me do this while remaining on theme at least earns some time in my preorder cart. 

Hakim, Loreweaver is what happens when infatuation takes hold. I had started with one concept but the allure of solving the riddle of this deck was too much to ignore. My favorite decks are those that are never complete and while Hakim might not get new toys with every set the drips I do get from Renton have kept me interested for the better part of a decade. Hakim’s story is well written but not even close to being over. 

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