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Sharae of Numbing Depths

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Sharae of Numbing Depths

At a glance

  • Commander: Sharae of Numbing Depths
  • Colors: Azorius
  • Archetype: Azorius stun-lock prison control
  • Power tier: mid

Cards

The real commander (printed oracle text)

When Sharae enters, tap target creature an opponent controls and put a stun counter on it. (If a permanent with a stun counter would become untapped, remove one from it instead.) Whenever you tap one or more untapped creatures your opponents control, draw a card. This ability triggers only once each turn.

The scout’s paraphrase was essentially correct, but the load-bearing line is the second ability, not the ETB. Sharae is not just a stun-machine — she turns every tap-down effect in the deck into a cantrip, once per turn. That reframes the build: the engine is “tap an opponent’s untapped creature each turn, draw a card, and as a bonus often stun-lock it.” The ETB is a one-shot; the static is the grind. commander_oracle_ok = true.

Key rules nuance the build leans on: the draw triggers on tapping untapped creatures your opponents control (so repeatable -tappers like Gideon’s Lawkeeper fire it every turn), and it’s once per turn — so you want a steady drip of one tap per turn cycle, not a single mass-tap blowout.

Gameplan

  1. Early (T1–4): Ramp into Sharae on curve, deploy cheap repeatable tappers (Gideon’s Lawkeeper, Goldmeadow Harrier, Blinding Mage, Benalish Trapper). Hold counters for the scary stuff.
  2. Mid: Sharae’s static now draws you a card every single turn just for tapping the biggest attacker down. Pile stun counters (Tranquilize, Freeze in Place, Stall Out, Procrastinate) on the two or three creatures that actually threaten you — each functions as a multiplayer-scalable, repeatable Pacifism because stun counters eat untap steps instead of resolving once.
  3. Late: The board is locked, you’re up a fistful of cards, and evasive fliers chip the table out while nobody can profitably attack. That’s the inevitability a control deck needs — you win the long game on raw card advantage, not on a single wrath.

Why this wins (inevitability, not draw-go-into-wrath)

WU has no true board wipe at common, so the deck’s inevitability is a card-advantage lock + evasive clock, exactly per the control rubric:

  • Repeatable tappers + Sharae = an engine that nets a card and neutralizes a blocker/attacker every turn. Over a long game this buries opponents in resources.
  • Stun pile keeps the heaviest hitters permanently turned off (each stun spell = 3 untap steps gone), so even a wide board can’t push through.
  • Evasive finishers (Healer’s Hawk, Sungrace Pegasus, Mistral Charger, Welkin Tern, Wind Drake, Silver Raven, Cloudkin Seer + Aqueous Form / Mystic-style unblockable lines) close while the ground is frozen. Lifelink fliers buy the turns; flat fliers do the killing.

Key synergy lines

  • Gideon’s Lawkeeper + Sharae: Each turn, , : tap an untapped opponent creature` → draw a card off Sharae. A one-mana repeatable cantrip-plus-removal-of-an-attacker. Goldmeadow Harrier and Blinding Mage do the same.
  • Dawnglare Invoker: : Tap all creatures target player controls` is the deck’s pseudo-wipe — it taps a whole pod’s worth of untapped creatures, still only drawing one card off Sharae (once-per-turn) but neutering an entire attack step in a pinch.
  • Stun-pile ETB creatures (Snaremaster Sprite, Shipwreck Patrol, Deluge Virtuoso, Gilded Scuttler) double as bodies AND tap+stun triggers — they tap an untapped creature on entry, so they cantrip via Sharae the turn they land.
  • Pressure Point / Rapier Wit / Stall for Time / Inaction Injunction: tap-a-creature-AND-draw spells that also trigger Sharae — double-dip card advantage.
  • Out Cold / Stall Out: tap two creatures (Out Cold) or cantrip via cycling (Stall Out) when you don’t need the lock.

Role breakdown (with counts)

  • Lands — 36: 17 Island, 13 Plains, 6 nonbasic duals (Azorius Guildgate, Tranquil Cove, Meandering River, Razortide Bridge, Abandoned Campground, Azorius Chancery).
  • Ramp — 10: Sol Ring, Azorius Signet, Arcane Signet, Mind Stone, Marble Diamond, Sky Diamond, Guardian Idol, Star Compass, Manalith, Wayfarer’s Bauble.
  • Card advantage — 10: Witching Well, Courier’s Capsule, Font of Fortunes, Mnemonic Sphere, Brainstorm, Cloudkin Seer, Inspiring Overseer, Sky Crier, Silver Raven, Harrier Strix. (Plus Sharae herself + every tapper, which are the real draw engine.)
  • Permission (counters) — 5: Condescend, Syncopate, Arcane Denial, Spell Pierce, Annul.
  • Spot removal / interaction (non-counter) — 6: Journey to Nowhere, Citizen’s Arrest, Crib Swap, Last Breath, Bounce Off, Stern Dismissal. (Total interaction = 11 with counters.)
  • Pseudo-wipe — 1: Dawnglare Invoker (mass tap). No true wipe in WU commons; compensated by 11 interaction pieces + the stun lock as inevitability.
  • Stun/tap payoffs & repeatable tappers — ~17: Tranquilize, Freeze in Place, Impede Momentum, Stall Out, Procrastinate, Out Cold, Meat Locker // Drowned Diner, Snaremaster Sprite, Collector’s Case, Cryogen Relic, Shipwreck Patrol, Deluge Virtuoso, Gilded Scuttler, Fear of Immobility, Inaction Injunction, Lyev Decree, Azorius Arrester + the -tappers (Gideon’s Lawkeeper, Goldmeadow Harrier, Blinding Mage, Benalish Trapper), Pressure Point, Rapier Wit, Stall for Time, Faerie Duelist.
  • Evasive finishers — ~8: Healer’s Hawk, Sungrace Pegasus, Mistral Charger, Welkin Tern, Wind Drake, Silver Raven, Aqueous Form (makes any creature unblockable), Cloudkin Seer.

Curve is overwhelmingly ≤4 MV; the only real top-end is the stun sorceries you can scale.

Pilot notes

  • Lead with the cheap repeatable tappers, not the stun sorceries — you want the once-per-turn draw flowing every turn, and tappers do that for one mana while the sorceries are one-shots.
  • Sequence your tap for value: each turn, tap the most dangerous untapped attacker during the opponent’s combat or your turn — that’s the Sharae draw plus a neutralized threat.
  • Stun counters are for the worst 2–3 creatures, not everything. Spread thin and you waste them; pile on the commander/voltron threat and it’s gone for three untap steps.
  • Hold counters for combo/wrath, use enchantment-removal (Journey, Citizen’s Arrest) and exile (Crib Swap) for resolved problems.
  • Dawnglare Invoker is your “oh no, alpha strike” button once you have 8 mana — tap the whole attacking player out.

Weaknesses

  • No true board wipe. A go-wide token deck that floods faster than you can tap can overwhelm you; lean on Dawnglare Invoker and Fear of Immobility, and race with fliers.
  • Enchantment/artifact-light removal. Annul is your only main counter for those; resolved problematic permanents (other than creatures) are hard to answer.
  • Sharae-dependent draw. If she’s repeatedly removed, the card engine sputters — though the tappers and stun pile still function as a soft lock without her, just without the cantrips.
  • Stun counters don’t remove the creature — a flicker or sac outlet on the opponent’s side resets your investment.

Decklist

⬇ Download as .txt — paste into Moxfield, Archidekt, or MTG Arena.

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