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    Vivi Ornitier
    Commander Guide

    Vivi Ornitier Commander Deck Guide

    R manaU mana

    Vivi Ornitier turns noncreature spells into +1/+1 counters, damage to every opponent, and a once-per-turn burst of blue and red mana.

    Last updated: October 20262 min read

    What Vivi Ornitier does

    Vivi Ornitier turns noncreature spells into +1/+1 counters, damage to every opponent, and a once-per-turn burst of blue and red mana.

    Every noncreature spell you cast grows Vivi and deals 1 damage to each opponent. That makes your setup spells part of your damage plan rather than a separate job. Consider keeps cards moving, while Curiosity can turn Vivi's damage into more draws. Once Vivi has grown, its zero-cost ability converts its current power into mana for another stretch of casting.

    The interesting decision is when to take that mana. Waiting for more counters gives you a larger payout, but you need enough resources to cast those spells first. You also only get one activation during your turn, so spending it early has a real cost. If you like sequencing spells, balancing setup against interaction, and winning without relying on combat, Vivi gives those decisions a clear payoff.

    How Vivi Ornitier plays

    Early on, develop your mana with Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, or Fellwar Stone. Use Consider to improve your next draw, but don't spend every resource before Vivi arrives.

    In the mid game, cast noncreature spells with Vivi in play and let its triggers resolve before activating its mana ability. Curiosity supplies cards from the damage, while Expressive Iteration and Treasure Cruise help keep your hand stocked. Choose your mana colors around what you intend to cast next.

    Win by accumulating damage across repeated casts. Niv-Mizzet, Parun offers another damage engine, and enchanting it with Curiosity lets successive draws and damage triggers feed each other while your library lasts.

    Build Vivi Ornitier from your collection

    The builder starts with Vivi Ornitier as your commander and fills the 99 from cards you own.

    Build Vivi Ornitier from your collection

    Key staples

    Synergy pieces

    • Consider

      Consider

      Surveils 1 and draws a card, helping line up your next spell while triggering Vivi.

    • Relic of Legends

      Relic of Legends

      Provides mana itself and lets you tap Vivi for another mana without spending Vivi’s once-per-turn activation.

    • Curiosity

      Curiosity

      Enchant Vivi to get a separate optional draw trigger for each opponent it damages.

    • Treasure Cruise

      Treasure Cruise

      Uses cards in your graveyard to pay its generic cost through delve, then draws three cards to keep you casting.

    • Dramatic Reversal

      Dramatic Reversal

      Untaps your nonland permanents for more mana from tapped rocks, but doesn't reset Vivi’s activation limit.

    • Expressive Iteration

      Expressive Iteration

      Selects one card for your hand and another to play from exile this turn, rewarding a turn with mana still available.

    • Expedite

      Expedite

      Gives a creature haste and draws a card; with a legal target, it also gives you another Vivi trigger.

    Staples in these colors

    • Arcane Signet

      Arcane Signet

      Taps for blue or red to help cast Vivi and start your noncreature-spell sequences.

    • Fellwar Stone

      Fellwar Stone

      Adds a color an opponent’s land could produce, so check the table before relying on it for blue or red.

    • Blasphemous Act

      Blasphemous Act

      Gets cheaper as the battlefield fills and deals 13 damage to every creature, including Vivi.

    • Chaos Warp

      Chaos Warp

      Answers a target permanent by shuffling it away, though its owner may get a permanent from the revealed top card.

    • Negate

      Negate

      Counters a noncreature spell while also growing Vivi and triggering its damage.

    Card images and card data courtesy of Scryfall. Magic: The Gathering is © Wizards of the Coast. ManaBuilder is unaffiliated with Wizards of the Coast.

    The numbers

    • 16 Draw
    • 13 Ramp
    • 37 Lands
    • 20 Theme
    • 1 Wipes
    • 12 Removal
    • 1 Commander

    Draw

    Count
    16

    Ramp

    Count
    13

    Lands

    Count
    37

    Theme

    Count
    20

    Wipes

    Count
    1

    Removal

    Count
    12

    Commander

    Count
    1

    Reference build for Vivi Ornitier: 100 cards including the commander.

    Sample decks

    Budget build (~$65)

    For the budget build, start with Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone, or Relic of Legends, then establish Vivi before spending your draw spells in bunches. Consider and Expressive Iteration help find more action; save the latter for a turn when you can use its exiled card. Curiosity is a direct way to turn Vivi’s table-wide damage into a fuller hand. Follow your initial spells with Vivi’s mana activation, then use Treasure Cruise to reload as your graveyard fills. Keep Negate available when protecting that setup matters more than another spell. Blasphemous Act can clear creatures, but plan around potentially losing Vivi too.

    Decklist · 100 cards

    Commander (1)

    • 1 Vivi Ornitier

    Artifacts (8)

    • 1 Arcane Signet
    • 1 Fellwar Stone
    • 1 Mind Stone
    • 1 Wayfarer's Bauble
    • 1 Talisman of Creativity
    • 1 Izzet Signet
    • 1 Relic of Legends
    • 1 Everflowing Chalice

    Creatures (16)

    • 1 Ornithopter of Paradise
    • 1 Archmage Emeritus
    • 1 Goblin Electromancer
    • 1 Stormcatch Mentor
    • 1 Guttersnipe
    • 1 Firebrand Archer
    • 1 Thermo-Alchemist
    • 1 Young Pyromancer
    • 1 Third Path Iconoclast
    • 1 Talrand, Sky Summoner
    • 1 Murmuring Mystic
    • 1 Balmor, Battlemage Captain
    • 1 Thrummingbird
    • 1 Niv-Mizzet, Parun
    • 1 Tandem Lookout
    • 1 Solemn Simulacrum

    Instants (25)

    • 1 Brainstorm
    • 1 Opt
    • 1 Consider
    • 1 Frantic Search
    • 1 Dig Through Time
    • 1 Fact or Fiction
    • 1 Big Score
    • 1 Experimental Augury
    • 1 Expedite
    • 1 Crimson Wisps
    • 1 Fists of Flame
    • 1 Shore Up
    • 1 Lazotep Plating
    • 1 Dramatic Reversal
    • 1 Galvanic Iteration
    • 1 Chaos Warp
    • 1 Abrade
    • 1 Lightning Bolt
    • 1 Rapid Hybridization
    • 1 Reality Shift
    • 1 Resculpt
    • 1 Prismari Command
    • 1 Negate
    • 1 Disallow
    • 1 Aetherize

    Sorceries (9)

    • 1 Preordain
    • 1 Faithless Looting
    • 1 Expressive Iteration
    • 1 Treasure Cruise
    • 1 Tezzeret's Gambit
    • 1 Contentious Plan
    • 1 Grapeshot
    • 1 Blasphemous Act
    • 1 Chain Reaction

    Enchantments (3)

    • 1 Curiosity
    • 1 Fiery Inscription
    • 1 Shark Typhoon

    Planeswalkers (1)

    • 1 Saheeli, Sublime Artificer

    Lands (37)

    • 1 Command Tower
    • 1 Exotic Orchard
    • 1 Path of Ancestry
    • 1 Evolving Wilds
    • 1 Terramorphic Expanse
    • 1 Fabled Passage
    • 1 Sulfur Falls
    • 1 Shivan Reef
    • 1 Cascade Bluffs
    • 1 Temple of Epiphany
    • 1 Frostboil Snarl
    • 1 Izzet Boilerworks
    • 1 Swiftwater Cliffs
    • 1 Silverbluff Bridge
    • 1 Ferrous Lake
    • 1 Desolate Lighthouse
    • 1 Ash Barrens
    • 1 Myriad Landscape
    • 11 Island
    • 8 Mountain
    Build this from your collection

    Upgraded build (~$499)

    For the upgraded build, build your casting turns around Vivi, Curiosity, and the supplied draw spells rather than assuming every named pairing is a complete combo. Relic of Legends and Fellwar Stone give Dramatic Reversal useful permanents to untap; Vivi’s own mana ability still works only once per turn. Use Consider and Expressive Iteration to prepare your hand, grow Vivi, then activate it when that mana can fund your next spells. Treasure Cruise provides another refill, and Negate or Chaos Warp can address interference. The list also includes Isochron Scepter and Underworld Breach, but their roles require oracle text not supplied here.

    Decklist · 100 cards

    Commander (1)

    • 1 Vivi Ornitier

    Creatures (12)

    • 1 Veyran, Voice of Duality
    • 1 Harmonic Prodigy
    • 1 Storm-Kiln Artist
    • 1 Archmage Emeritus
    • 1 Spellseeker
    • 1 Imperial Recruiter
    • 1 Dualcaster Mage
    • 1 Ledger Shredder
    • 1 Pollywog Prodigy
    • 1 Flux Channeler
    • 1 Liberator, Urza's Battlethopter
    • 1 The Reality Chip

    Artifacts (14)

    • 1 Fellwar Stone
    • 1 Talisman of Creativity
    • 1 Izzet Signet
    • 1 Everflowing Chalice
    • 1 Ruby Medallion
    • 1 Sapphire Medallion
    • 1 Relic of Legends
    • 1 Isochron Scepter
    • 1 Thousand-Year Elixir
    • 1 Lightning Greaves
    • 1 Sol Ring
    • 1 Arcane Signet
    • 1 Thought Vessel
    • 1 Swiftfoot Boots

    Enchantments (4)

    • 1 Mystic Remora
    • 1 Curiosity
    • 1 Underworld Breach
    • 1 Propaganda

    Instants (19)

    • 1 Brainstorm
    • 1 Opt
    • 1 Consider
    • 1 Frantic Search
    • 1 Expedite
    • 1 Brain Freeze
    • 1 Dramatic Reversal
    • 1 Muddle the Mixture
    • 1 Counterspell
    • 1 An Offer You Can't Refuse
    • 1 Swan Song
    • 1 Flusterstorm
    • 1 Pyroblast
    • 1 Chaos Warp
    • 1 Pongify
    • 1 Rapid Hybridization
    • 1 Chain of Vapor
    • 1 Arcane Denial
    • 1 Negate

    Sorceries (14)

    • 1 Ponder
    • 1 Preordain
    • 1 Gitaxian Probe
    • 1 Faithless Looting
    • 1 Windfall
    • 1 Expressive Iteration
    • 1 Treasure Cruise
    • 1 Rite of Flame
    • 1 Twinflame
    • 1 Past in Flames
    • 1 Solve the Equation
    • 1 Fabricate
    • 1 Blasphemous Act
    • 1 Vandalblast

    Lands (36)

    • 1 Command Tower
    • 1 Exotic Orchard
    • 1 Steam Vents
    • 1 Sulfur Falls
    • 1 Shivan Reef
    • 1 Training Center
    • 1 Stormcarved Coast
    • 1 Cascade Bluffs
    • 1 Riverglide Pathway // Lavaglide Pathway
    • 1 Fiery Islet
    • 1 Thundering Falls
    • 1 Riverpyre Verge
    • 1 City of Brass
    • 1 Reflecting Pool
    • 1 Plaza of Heroes
    • 1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
    • 1 Arena of Glory
    • 1 Mystic Sanctuary
    • 1 Cephalid Coliseum
    • 1 Flooded Strand
    • 1 Wooded Foothills
    • 1 Fabled Passage
    • 1 Path of Ancestry
    • 1 Temple of Epiphany
    • 1 Frostboil Snarl
    • 1 Silverbluff Bridge
    • 1 Island
    • 1 Mountain
    • 1 Reliquary Tower
    • 1 Rogue's Passage
    • 1 Evolving Wilds
    • 1 Terramorphic Expanse
    • 1 Myriad Landscape
    • 1 Demolition Field
    • 1 Windswept Heath
    • 1 Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth
    Build this from your collection

    Vivi Ornitier FAQ

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Yes. The ability doesn't require tapping, so summoning sickness doesn't stop it. You can activate it only during your turn and only once each turn.
    Usually after you've let some noncreature-spell triggers resolve, since their counters increase its power and therefore the mana you get. Activate earlier if you need that mana to keep playing. You can't take a second payout later that turn.
    It triggers once for each opponent Vivi damages. If Vivi damages three opponents, you get three separate Curiosity triggers and may draw a card for each.
    No. Vivi triggers when you cast a noncreature spell. Flusterstorm's storm ability copies the spell without casting those copies, so the original cast gives you one Vivi trigger.
    No, but it can finish opponents. Enchant Niv-Mizzet with Curiosity, then draw a card: Niv-Mizzet can damage an opponent, Curiosity can draw another card, and that draw triggers more damage. Each Curiosity draw is optional. You need enough cards left in your library and enough damage to finish your opponents.

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