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Barrin, Master Wizard

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Barrin, Master Wizard

At a glance

  • Commander: Barrin, Master Wizard
  • Colors: Mono-Blue
  • Archetype: Mono-blue tempo/bounce control
  • Power tier: mid-high

Cards

Commander

Barrin, Master Wizard — , Legendary Creature — Human Wizard

, Sacrifice a permanent: Return target creature to its owner’s hand.

That printed ability is the whole deck. Barrin is a repeatable, instant-speed bounce engine: for and any expendable permanent, send any creature (yours or an opponent’s) back to hand. In a mono-blue commons pool that has almost no hard removal, this is our pseudo-removal — and because it can target our own creatures, it doubles as an ETB-recursion loop. The assignment’s paraphrase matches the real card, so I built around the actual text. commander_oracle_ok = true.

Gameplan

Tempo control that wins through inevitability, not a wrath. We can’t wipe the board in mono-blue commons, so we:

  1. Stay alive and grind with one-mana counters, cheap single-target bounce, and Barrin pseudo-removal that resets any threat (and strips Auras/Equipment/counters off it).
  2. Out-card-advantage the table with cantrips, draw spells, and a dense package of ETB-draw flyers (Mulldrifter, Cloudkin Seer, Muse Drake, Sea Gate Oracle, etc.).
  3. Loop ETBs with Barrin: sacrifice spent sac-fodder (Lotus Petal, Chromatic Star/Sphere, a tapped-out rock, an extra token) to bounce our own Mulldrifter / Man-o’-War / Aether Adept / Archaeomancer back, then recast for repeated value and repeated opposing bounce.
  4. Close with evasive flyers and a token swarm from Murmuring Mystic — every cheap instant/bounce spell we cast makes a 1/1 flyer, and we cast a lot of them.

Key synergy lines

  • Barrin + ETB-bounce creatures (Man-o’-War, Aether Adept, Mist Raven, Separatist Voidmage, Aven Surveyor): Bounce a problem creature with the ETB, then later sac a token/rock to Barrin to return the creature to your own hand and re-bounce. A recurring answer to a single key threat (note: this requires Barrin to stay on board and +sac each cycle, so it’s a soft, mana-intensive answer rather than a true lock).
  • Barrin + Archaeomancer / Salvager of Secrets / Mnemonic Wall: Loop these to buy back a Counterspell or a bounce spell. This is strong repeatable card advantage, but not a hard lock — it needs Barrin on board plus repeated +sac each turn and folds if Barrin is removed.
  • Barrin + Shrieking Drake / Dream Stalker: These self-bounce ETBs are free Barrin fodder and let you re-trigger any ETB without even paying Barrin’s sac.
  • Murmuring Mystic + the bounce/cantrip shell: A board of bird tokens appears off Brainstorm, Unsummon, Repeal, counters, etc. The tokens are also Barrin sac fodder in a pinch.
  • Seal of Removal / Aether Spellbomb: Pre-deployed bounce that itself becomes Barrin fodder once cracked.

Role breakdown (with counts)

  • Lands — 36: 31 Island, Ash Barrens, Command Tower, Mystic Sanctuary (recur a counter/bounce), Halimar Depths (smoothing), Lonely Sandbar (late-game cycling).
  • Ramp — 9: Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Mind Stone, Everflowing Chalice, Lotus Petal, Chromatic Star, Chromatic Sphere, Prophetic Prism, Sky Diamond. Most double as Barrin sac fodder / cantrips.
  • Card advantage — 11 dedicated: Brainstorm, Ponder, Preordain, Serum Visions, Anticipate, Impulse, Behold the Multiverse, Divination, Compulsive Research, Deep Analysis, Frantic Search. (Plus ~10 ETB-draw creatures on top of this — Mulldrifter, Cloudkin Seer, Sea Gate Oracle, Muse Drake, Merchant of Secrets, Nimble Innovator, Augury Owl, Omenspeaker, Sage of Epityr, Aven Fisher, Kingfisher, Cloudreader Sphinx.)
  • Spot interaction — bounce (15): Unsummon, Vapor Snag, Into the Roil, Blink of an Eye, Repeal, Select for Inspection, Man-o’-War, Aether Adept, Mist Raven, Separatist Voidmage, Aven Surveyor, Frost Lynx, Frost Trickster, Aether Spellbomb, Seal of Removal — all are reliable single-target bounce (Frost Lynx/Trickster tap-and-freeze rather than bounce, but serve the same tempo role).
  • Counterspells (10): Counterspell, Negate, Essence Scatter, Exclude, Arcane Denial, Condescend, Syncopate, Spell Pierce, Force Spike, Dispel — flexible answers covering creatures, noncreature, and cheap tempo counters. Heavy interaction compensates for the lack of board wipes.
  • Mass/pseudo-wipe — 0 true wipes: Mono-blue commons has none. Compensated with the oversized interaction suite + Barrin’s repeatable single-target reset.
  • Payoffs / wincon: Murmuring Mystic (token engine + primary finisher), backed by a fleet of evasive ETB flyers (Mulldrifter, Cloudkin Seer, Muse Drake, Cloudreader Sphinx, Aven Surveyor, etc.) and the recursion package (Archaeomancer, Salvager of Secrets, Mnemonic Wall) for grind. If Mystic is answered, closing power is thinner and leans on chip damage from the air force.

Win condition

Grind the table out with the Barrin loop + repeatable counters/bounce for sustained card advantage, then win in the air with Murmuring Mystic bird tokens and a fleet of evasive ETB flyers. Murmuring Mystic is the primary token finisher — if it’s countered or killed, fall back on slow chip damage from the evasive flyers (Aven Surveyor, Cloudreader Sphinx, Mulldrifter, etc.) while the recursion package keeps you ahead on cards.

Pilot notes

  • Lead on cantrips and rocks; hold up a cheap counter (Spell Pierce / Force Spike / Force-style) on key turns.
  • Don’t over-sacrifice to Barrin — a spent Lotus Petal, Chromatic Star, or a tapped rock is ideal fuel; don’t feed lands unless flooded.
  • Against a single dominant creature, Barrin + an ETB-bouncer is a recurring answer; against go-wide you must lean on tempo and race in the air.
  • Mystic Sanctuary wants 3+ other Islands untapped — sequence it after a few basics to recur Counterspell.
  • Evoke Mulldrifter, then Barrin it back later for a fresh draw-two.

Weaknesses

  • No board wipes: wide aggro and token decks are the worst matchups; you must answer threats one at a time and stabilize in the air.
  • Enchantment/artifact-based threats that aren’t creatures dodge Barrin (we have Annul/Steel Sabotage effects only marginally — relying on Repeal/Into the Roil/Blink of an Eye for nonland permanents).
  • Fast combo can outrace the grind if we stumble on counters.

Decklist

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

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