Another One | Building Your Isshin, Two Heavens as One Commander Deck

There are commanders that grind.

There are commanders that combo.

And then there’s Isshin, Two Heavens as One.

Isshin doesn’t want subtle value engines or long political games. He wants you declaring attackers every single turn and watching triggers stack like crazy.

If you enjoy combat math getting out of hand quickly, this is one of the cleanest Mardu commanders you can build.

Let’s talk about how to build your Isshin, Two Heavens as One Commander Deck the right way.

What He Does

Isshin doubles attack triggers.

Not damage.

Not extra combats.

Not ETBs.

If something says “Whenever this creature attacks…” it triggers twice. If something says “Whenever a creature you control attacks…” that also triggers twice.

That means token production doubles. Treasure production doubles. Life drain doubles. Combat buffs double.

Isshin turns incremental pressure into explosive momentum.

Why He’s Awesome

Isshin makes fair cards feel broken.

A reasonable token maker becomes overwhelming.

A modest combat trigger becomes lethal pressure.

A value creature suddenly carries the entire board.

He rewards sequencing and aggressive timing. You can see the snowball happening in real time, and if your table doesn’t stop it, it runs them over.

He wins through combat, which means games feel interactive and dramatic instead of “assemble combo, shuffle up.”

And when Isshin survives a full turn cycle? Things escalate quickly.

Early Game Strategy: Set Up the Engine

Your early turns are about infrastructure.

You want to ramp and deploy creatures that already have attack triggers so that when Isshin lands, you are ready to go immediately.

Mana rocks like Arcane Signet and Talisman of Conviction help you land Isshin on curve. The earlier he hits, the more dangerous your board becomes.

Creatures like Adeline, Resplendent Cathar and Professional Face-Breaker are perfect early drops. They generate tokens or Treasures on attack, and once Isshin is online, those triggers double.

You are not the archenemy yet. You are positioning yourself.

Do not overextend into a wipe. Get value creatures down, ramp cleanly, and prepare for the midgame explosion.

Mid Game Strategy: Multiply the Pressure

This is where the deck comes alive.

Once Isshin sticks, your goal is simple: attack every turn and stack triggers.

Cards like Hammers of Moradin become brutal here. Doubling its attack trigger can tap down multiple blockers and force awkward combat decisions across the table.

Hero of Bladehold is another classic all-star. She creates two attacking tokens. With Isshin? She creates four. Suddenly, your board doubles in size every combat.

Global attack-trigger effects also shine here. Something like Raid Bombardment turns your token swarm into consistent chip damage that scales fast.

This phase is about snowballing. Even if you are not killing anyone yet, you are building an overwhelming board presence that demands answers.

Protect Isshin here if you can. A simple Boros Charm can be the difference between maintaining pressure and rebuilding from scratch.

Late Game Strategy: Close With Authority

Isshin is not meant to grind forever. He is a closer.

By the late game, you should have a wide board and multiple value engines active. Now you convert that into lethal.

Aurelia, the Warleader is absurd here. Extra combat steps mean double triggers again. If you were making four tokens before, now you’re doing it twice.

Adriana, Captain of the Guard can turn your entire board into a lethal swing thanks to melee scaling across opponents.

Even something like Impact Tremors or Purphoros, God of the Forge can finish games when your double attack triggers are producing massive token waves.

The key is decisiveness. Once you sense weakness at the table, go for it. Isshin decks punish hesitation.

5 Must-Include Cards for Isshin

Dolmen Gate

Dolmen Gate is one of the most important protection pieces in the entire deck. Isshin wants you to attack constantly and often into boards that would normally trade your creatures away.

Dolmen Gate prevents all combat damage that would be dealt to attacking creatures you control. That means you can swing aggressively without losing your army in combat.

It turns risky attacks into calculated pressure and lets you keep your board intact while everyone else is forced to make bad blocks.

Adeline, Resplendent Cathar

Adeline, Resplendent Cathar is exactly the kind of threat Isshin was built to abuse. Whenever you attack, she creates a 1/1 white Human token for each opponent that’s tapped and attacking.

With Isshin on the battlefield, that trigger happens twice. In a four-player pod, that means six attacking tokens every combat step.

On top of that, Adeline’s power scales with the number of creatures you control. She doesn’t just build the army, she becomes one of the biggest threats on the battlefield.

Etali, Primal Storm

Etali, Primal Storm turns combat into chaos in the best possible way. When Etali attacks, you exile the top card of each player’s library and may cast any number of those spells without paying their mana costs.

Isshin doubles that trigger. Instead of flipping four spells in your 4-playerpod, you’re flipping eight.

That’s absurd value and often game-breaking momentum. One clean attack with Etali can completely swing a pod in your favor.

Windcrag Siege

Windcrag Siege feels like it was printed specifically for Isshin. When it enters, you choose Mardu or Jeskai, and in this deck, Mardu is usually the easy choice.

If a creature attacking causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time. That stacks with Isshin’s ability.

In practical terms, your attack triggers can effectively triple. It pushes your combat engine into overdrive and turns every swing into an avalanche of value.

Aurelia, the Warleader

Aurelia, the Warleader gives Isshin decks the most dangerous thing in Commander: extra combat steps. When she attacks for the first time each turn, she untaps all your creatures and gives you an additional combat phase.

More combats mean more double attack triggers. And more doubled triggers mean games end quickly.

Aurelia helps you end the game before opponents can stabilize.

Is Isshin, Two Heavens as One the Commander for You?

Isshin, Two Heavens as One is one of the most satisfying combat commanders in Mardu.

He rewards focused deckbuilding, attacking every turn, and punishes passive tables.

Build around attack triggers.

Protect your commander.

Know when to explode.

And once you move to combat with Isshin on the field, don’t apologize.