It probably won't surprise you to hear that
Derevi is one of the cards that's sparked debate
about the subset of cards intentionally designed
for EDH/Commander. Her activated ability that
puts her directly into play circumvents not only
the commander tax but the chance to respond with
something like Desertion, which is either a
unique trick or a cheat, depending on your point
of view. The tapping and untapping ability is
slightly more vanilla and is often respectably
used as a way to give all your creatures a form
of vigilance, but I imagine there's a combo out
there somewhere involving flickering effects
(well, there are more than 10,000 unique cards,
after all!).
Today's card of the day is Derevi, Empyrial
Tactician which is a three mana Green, White,
and Blue 2/3 legendary with Flying, whenever it
enters the battlefield or a creature you control
deals damage to a player you may tap or untap
target permanent, and for four mana you may put
it into play from the command zone. The
primary value in this is in bypassing the
cumulative plus two mana cost imposed on other
commanders and combined with the tap effect is a
consistent thorn in an opponent's side.
For a Bant deck this is a reasonable and low
cost evasive commander that works well with a
tap theme to keep an opponent from fully
utilizing their forces. Overall a solid support
commander that while not having raw power offers
a more midrange and control option.
