Mass of Mysteries: 5 Cards That Multiply the Myriad Chaos in 5 Colors

The Commander and What It Wants

Mass of Mysteries is a strange commander, in the best possible sense. A five-color Elemental with first strike, vigilance, and trample, its key text is that beginning of combat ability: it picks another one of your Elementals and staples myriad onto it for a turn.

Anyone familiar with myriad knows the keyword is already powerful on creatures that do something when they attack — now imagine multiplying those effects for every opponent at the table. Four players at the table? The targeted Elemental attacks three opponents simultaneously with token copies, and each of those copies triggers "on attack" or "on damage" abilities. The math gets interesting very quickly.

The problem is that most players look at Mass of Mysteries, think "I'll just jam a bunch of good Elementals," and end up on EDHRec copying the same list with Omnath, Locus of Rage and Risen Reef. Nothing wrong with that, but they miss some technical interactions that make this deck truly unpredictable.

5 Hidden Gems Worth Trying

1. Spitemare

Spitemare is a 3/3 Elemental for four mana with a delightful ability: whenever it's dealt damage, it deals that same amount of damage to any target. Now imagine giving it myriad.

Tokens created by myriad are copies of the original creature — including its ability. When those copies get blocked (or block poorly), every Spitemare copy that takes combat damage can redirect that damage. In a four-player pod, if even a single copy gets hit by a 4/4, you're dealing 4 damage to whatever target you choose. It's a deterrent no opponent wants to deal with, and it works best in brackets 3–4 where high-powered creatures are plentiful.

2. Woodvine Elemental

Woodvine Elemental is worth a second look. It's a 4/4 that grants vigilance and trample to all attacking creatures as long as you have at least two creatures attacking. Sounds innocuous until you remember that Mass of Mysteries is your commander, already has vigilance and trample built in, and your strategy revolves around sending waves of creatures into combat.

With myriad, the chosen Elemental creates tokens that attack — tokens that therefore satisfy Woodvine's condition. Suddenly all of your creatures gain trample and vigilance for that combat step. The synergy multiplier here is about volume: the more you attack in parallel, the more Woodvine delivers. Ideal context: bracket 3, aggro-stall tables where opponents are holding up defensive creatures.

3. Magmatic Force

Magmatic Force costs eight mana and deals 3 damage to a random target at the beginning of each combat phase — not just yours. That means in a normal game, it's already pinging three times across three opponents' turns before it comes back to you.

With myriad? Each token copy of Magmatic Force that exists during an opponent's combat will trigger its ability separately. The myriad copies last until end of combat, but the original Elemental's beginning of combat trigger — if it survives — keeps stacking up. The passive damage this card generates is brutal in long games. Works best in brackets 3–4 where games go long and chip damage matters.

4. Thryx, the Sudden Storm

Thryx, the Sudden Storm is a technical gem that few people associate with Mass of Mysteries. This five-mana Elemental gives flash to all your spells with CMC 5 or greater and makes them uncounterable as long as you have five or more mana.

In a five-color deck playing expensive Elementals (and Mass of Mysteries itself is CMC five), having flash on your big pieces radically changes how you play around opposing counterspells. It isn't a direct synergy with myriad, but it's synergy with the deck's architecture: it protects your pieces, lets you play at the end of an opponent's turn, and gives Mass of Mysteries itself the advantage of being able to enter the battlefield when your opponent is tapped out. Performs best in brackets 3–4 where blue-heavy tables are common.

5. Eloise, Nephalia Sleuth

Eloise, Nephalia Sleuth might seem out of place — she's a Human, not an Elemental. But read carefully: whenever a token you control leaves the battlefield, Eloise has you surveil 1. Myriad tokens are exiled at end of combat, which counts as leaving the battlefield.

In a four-player pod where myriad creates two or three tokens for each attacking Elemental, Eloise guarantees you two or three surveils per attack. Across multiple turns, you're building a massive card-selection advantage without spending any extra mana. The synergy multiplier depends on how many creatures you can give myriad to in a turn — and with Mass of Mysteries assigning it every beginning of combat, the ceiling is surprisingly high. Ideal in brackets 2–3 where the card advantage race is slower.

What NOT to Add

• Horde of Notions: everyone's first instinct when building a five-color Elemental deck. It's good, but its ability to reanimate Elementals from the graveyard requires that you've already lost valuable pieces — and in a myriad-based strategy, you want your creatures to survive so they can keep attacking. The synergy is superficial.

• Atraxa, Grand Unifier: a generic five-color format staple, not an Elemental, and doesn't interact with myriad. It goes in because it's "generically powerful," not because it supports the deck's game plan.

• Risen Reef: yes, I know, everyone plays it. But Mass of Mysteries doesn't continuously generate Elementals — it assigns myriad to an existing one. Risen Reef performs best in decks that spam Elementals from the library, not in strategies where the quality of individual Elementals matters more than quantity.

Verdict

Mass of Mysteries is a commander that rewards players who build around contextual abilities — creatures that do something nasty when they attack, take damage, or when their tokens disappear. The five gems above cover different axes: redirected damage, universal keywords, curve protection, and passive card advantage. None of them show up in the top twenty cards on EDHRec for this commander, which is exactly the point.