Need Help with My Friends' Alela Deck

[Card Slinger J]

I'm needing help with my friends' Alela, Artful Provocateur EDH / Commander deck. After a few games of playtesting I feel as though the deck is missing something though I'm not sure what it is. Most of the expensive cards on this list my friend already has in his personal MTG collection. I feel as though this is the kind of deck that goes off when it wants to and when it doesn't it tends to run out of gas pretty quickly especially when trying to recover from board wipes.

Decklist

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Commander (1)

1 Alela, Artful Provocateur

Lands (30)

4 Plains
4 Island
4 Swamp
1 Arcane Sanctum
1 Azorius Chancery
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Command Tower
1 Coral Atoll
1 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Everglades
1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
1 Godless Shrine
1 Hall of Heliod's Generosity
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Karoo
1 Orzhov Basilica
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Secluded Glen
1 Watery Grave

Creatures (16)

1 Shrieking Drake
1 Cloud of Faeries
1 Spellstutter Sprite
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Pestermite
1 Thieving Sprite
1 Faerie Harbinger
1 Mistbind Clique
1 Rankle, Master of Pranks
1 Restoration Angel
1 Species Specialist
1 Wydwen, the Biting Gale
1 Godhead of Awe
1 Deadeye Navigator
1 Oona, Queen of the Fae
1 Sun Titan

Artifacts (12)

1 Mox Amber
1 Mox Opal
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
1 Azorius Signet
1 Baleful Strix
1 Dimir Signet
1 Empyrial Plate
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Cloudstone Curio
1 Ensnaring Bridge

Enchantments (12)

1 Mystic Remora
1 Bitterblossom
1 Daxos, Blessed by the Sun
1 Underworld Coinsmith
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Propaganda
1 Screams from Within
1 Thassa, God of the Sea
1 Anointed Procession
1 Koskun Falls
1 Smothering Tithe
1 Dire Undercurrents

Instants (12)

1 Cloudshift
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Path to Exile
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Despark
1 Flicker of Fate
1 Ghoul's Feast
1 Momentary Blink
1 Anguished Unmaking
1 Hatred

Sorceries (12)

1 Demonic Tutor
1 Diabolic Intent
1 Dark Deal
1 Flux
1 Idyllic Tutor
1 Vindicate
1 Windfall
1 Notorious Throng
1 Syphon Mind
1 Whispering Madness
1 Time Wipe
1 Vicious Betrayal

Planeswalkers (5)

1 Aminatou, the Fateshifter
1 Ashiok, Dream Render
1 Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
1 Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord
1 Liliana, Dreadhorde General

Approximate Total Cost:

Strategy is to try to Voltron with Alela while sacrificing the Faerie tokens for card advantage. I run a lot of blink effects to help gain more value off of my creatures' ETB and LTB triggers. The Pillowfort cards with Ghostly Prison, Propaganda, and Koskun Falls all seem to have good symmetrical synergy with Smothering Tithe as well as the Rhystic cycle from Prophecy.

There is at least one infinite combo in this deck being Cloud of Faeries with Deadeye Navigator / Blink effect and Dire Undercurrents. I originally had Sadistic Hypnotist over God-Eternal Bontu for hand control however the ability to sacrifice Faeries to draw cards seemed too good to pass up. Mistbind Clique can potentially lock someone out of the game for a turn If things get messy. Any help, advice, and/or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[darrenhabib]

You can check out my list here => http://nxs.wf/np60620

You are missing out on a lot of draw cards. Here is the draw that I run.

• Vampiric Rites
• Mystic Remora
• Military Intelligence
• Rhystic Study
• Necropotence
• Dark Prophecy
• Bident of Thassa
• Coastal Piracy
• Kindred Discovery
• Dire Undercurrents
• Tymna the Weaver
• Sai, Master Thopterist
• Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
• Ephara, God of the Polis
• Erebos, Bleak-Hearted

As you can see prioritizing draw is really important.

Also I like to run mass lifelink effects with Sorin, Solemn Visitor and Odric, Lunarch Marshal to keep my life total high, which I find better than defensive cards only like Koskun Falls, Ghostly Prison, Propaganda, Crawlspace.

Flicker at sorcery speed is horrible. Ephemerate, Justiciar's Portal, Liberate, Long Road Home, Otherworldly Journey, Flicker of Fate, Eerie Interlude are all better options.

The thing about making it voltron is that you put an even bigger fat label on Alela saying "kill me now!". Really you want her to work in the background providing tokens.
I honestly think the deck is just trying to do too many things and thus becomes unfocused on the elements it could do well.

Also rather than just doing board wipes, try introducing using sacrifice enchantments as a way to control the creature game better.
Grave Pact, Dictate of Erebos, Attrition.

I do like the whole potential blink game plans. I imagine setting up Mistbind Clique championing Pestermite with Deadeye Navigator. Pestermite untaps something like Dimir Aqueduct to enable tapping down all your opponents land in the their upkeeps, and you'll always have the mana to do this.
But also the reality is that if Deadeye Navigator hits the board, normally a sneeze will create an infinite loop of some kind.
The once only spells are Cloudshift, Essence Flux, Momentary Blink, and so its not like you have an amazing amount of renewable ETB/LTB.
I feel like you need some renewable ways to get value. Thassa, Deep-Dwelling, Brago, King Eternal, Soulherder are creatures you should consider.

Other Faeries to consider; Glen Elendra Archmage, Faerie Seer, Sower of Temptation.

I like the discard element as well. But you want to shut off big draw cards they might cast to help them get out of it. Narset, Parter of Veils and Notion Thief can do this.
Wydwen, the Biting Gale and Oona, Queen of the Fae seem gimmicky in the deck, so are easy cuts for say these.

If you want help with what exactly I would change then hit me up.

[Card Slinger J]

I'd still like to keep the Voltron theme for this deck when the problem is that it's hard to center the Faerie tokens around a Glorious Anthem theme. I was considering taking Unifying Theory out for Thassa, God of the Sea for the scry and making my Commander unblockable. Also I was thinking instead of board wipes perhaps I should be running more wheel effects that synergize with Smothering Tithe such as Windfall, Dark Deal, Whispering Madness, and Flux.

Vicious Betrayal seems good with Alela to one shot someone similar to casting Hatred on her. It still stays within the Voltron theme while not relying too much on Auras and Equipment to make her look more like a target which is another thing. I'd like to swap Empyrial Plate and Eldrazi Conscription for something else though I'm not sure what at the moment. I did have Wydwen, the Biting Gale in here to combo off of Dire Undercurrents where as Oona, Queen of the Fae is another option to make Faerie tokens.