Elenda, the Dusk Rose: The World Ends With You

Kelzam · Post by **Kelzam** » 4 years ago

Section 1.0: Introduction

Who Is Elenda, the Dusk Rose?

Elenda of Garrano was born mortal, a warrior nun charged with her brothers and sisters of faith to guard The Immortal Sun, originally located in the mountains of Torrezon, a continent to the east of Ixalan. When Azor, the Lawbringer came and took The Immortal Sun away during a siege on her monastery, Elenda traveled west, endlessly in search of the relic. While in pursuit of that sacred relic, Elenda turned to dark magic in order to continue hunting for The Immortal Sun, taking on the burden of immortality to ensure she could hunt down the relic and continue her sacred duty. She searched for centuries before returning to Torrezon to teach her rite to the nobles, including Mavren Fein. After teaching her people how to join her in immortality to continue seeking the relic, she was written into history as a Saint, and later the Legion of Dusk formed - now conquistadors who had lost the way of their ancestors.

Little did the the denizens of Torrezon know that Elenda eventually discovered The Immortal Sun, resting in the Golden City of Orazca. Elenda hoped that her people would find her, putting herself into an enchanted slumber within the tomb of the Sun Empire's bat-god, Alclazotz. She laid herself to rest in Orazca, as a sleeping sentinel of The Immortal Sun. When the city of Orazca awakened due to invaders seeking out The Immortal Sun for themselves, so too did Elenda. It didn't take long for her to learn from Vona, Butcher of Magan and Mavrin Fein, Dusk Apostle what her people had become. She was none too happy to see how her people had strayed, so once Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge took The Immortal Sun away, she deemed their ancient duty complete, and set on a journey back to Torrezon to confront the current Queen of Torrezon for the current state of affairs.

What Kind of Elenda Deck Is This? What Does It Do?

If there were a mechanical and thematic "Best Hits" deck for Orzhov, Elenda would be it. This Elenda deck touches and depends on many of the abilities that Orzhov excels at the best: Life gain, creature tokens, sacrifice effects and recursion. Many Orzhov decks focus on certain aspects of the capabilities of the color pairing. Karlov of the Ghost Council typically focuses on controlling game through using life gain. My other Orzhov deck for Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim focuses on recursion to keep recycling powerful "Enters the Battlefield" and "Dies" triggers. Teysa, Orzhov Scion decks build with a strong focus on creating creature tokens and using those to control the boar, trigger drain effects or to buff and overwhelm opponents. Elenda, the Dusk Rose encourages you to do all of these things, and one other uncommon Orzhov strategy, too: Kill opponents via Commander Damage.

Section 2.0: About Me!

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Hey there! I'm Kelzam, formerly known as Xenphire, and I've been playing since roughly Urza's Saga, and eventually even founded MTG Salvation back in 2005! My first real collection came to me when a friend in middle school became disinterested and handed me a pile of 300 or so various :symb: :symr: and :symg: cards he called his deck. It was a pile of random cards from Mercadian Masques and prior, and the visual aspects really pulled me in. I'll always remember Frozen Shade|Fourth Edition, Mind Swords, Death Spark|Alliances, Avatar of Woe|Prophecy, Masticore|Urza's Destiny and in general the artwork from Ice Age through Masques mixed with the aesthetic of the old card frames that really got me attached to the game.

As a matter of fact, my first actual product I bought myself was a Prophecy booster pack that came with a Top Deck magazine at Wal-Mart (sadly my rare was Shrouded Serpent). Apocalypse was really when I dove into the deep end, and if the artwork and story bits I had picked up from the cards I had weren't enough, an Apocalypse preview from InQuest magazine had me hooked forever. I'm a Vorthos and rotate between the three main demographics of Johnny, Timmy and Spike when playing. I have several other EDH/Commander decks including Animar, Soul of Elements, Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons, Selvala, Explorer Returned, Volrath the Fallen, Jhoira of the Ghitu and many others! I enjoy playing Affinity in Modern just as much as I enjoyed playing :symu: :symb: Control during Scars of Mirrodin/Innistrad Standard, and currently play :symw: :symb: Tokens in Modern and Manaless Dredge in Legacy.

My favorite expansion is still Apocalypse to this day, and my favorite color combination is :symw: :symb: . Philosophically I love the duality of the two color philosophies. I first found my way into the Magic community through MTG News when the previews for Torment started and I was searching for it on a search engine in school one day. I've been participating in discussion and active in the community since then, and a few years later I did my best to gather a small group of friends to usher everyone to the then much smaller MTG Salvation forum I had made on a friend's server when the 'News staff walked out on New Years in 2005. The rest is history!

In my personal life I'm an illustrator and graphic designer (some of my work from my old sig shop is still around despite a hiatus due to life!). I love animals, tend to listen to atmospheric music with electronic influence and have been with my partner for nearly 5 years. I met one of my closest friends (IxidorVersionTwo) on MTG News when he was 13 and I was 17, and our friendship transcended these forums and we actually ended up roommates for a year. When I'm not at one of my two local game shops that I frequent, I enjoy writing, playing tabletop games, doing card alters and playing video games.

Section 3.0: So, Why Elenda?

Originally I was quite skeptical of Elenda. As a long time player of Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim, when I looked at Elenda I saw a 2WB 1/1 body that had to be sent to the graveyard for any benefit. It was when I saw a foil in the display case at my LGS that I had to get it - it was one of the prettiest foils I've ever seen. I tend to build a lot of Black decks and had a lot of extra cards from intending to build Teysa, Orzhov Scion as an alternative to my long time Ayli deck. With my first pass at Elenda and playing the deck in testing, what I discovered was something completely unexpected: a Commander deck that is exceedingly resilient, where opponents attempting to handle your board just makes it worse. She enables a trifecta - Go tall, go wide, and suffer well. And best of all, each of this trifecta begets the other.

Below, I'll go into a bit more detail just how Elenda can be resilient, and exactly how opponents attempting to deal with your board states (and each other's) only makes it worse.

Because of how large she can get, she threatens massive Commander Damage in short order. This forces opponents to try to remove her or wipe the board. If they clear your board and you send Elenda to the graveyard, you're left with a wall of lifelink Vampires and have a board state, again. If they try to single target remove her, you still get that small army of lifelink Vampires and probably have several ways to use them. Then, you inevitably get her back from your graveyard - the ways to do so are plentiful in her colors. And, so, it begins again! You cast her. You sacrifice those 1/1 lifelink Vampires for various effects - Elenda gets bigger. You go tall, and if that is answered, suddenly you're going wide, and if that is answered, you go tall again. One out begets the other, resulting in the deck playing in a cyclical nature.

1. While Elenda seems unimpressive as a 1/1 for 4CMC, she easily grows big. Every chump blocker on the board, every threat that opponents remove of one another's grows her power. A 1/1 lifelink quickly turns into a 3/3 or 5/5 lifelink, and you're left with a rattlesnake that people don't know what to do with. Do they destroy her and give you a small army of 1/1 lifelink Vampires? Or do they just chump block as long as possible while you gain large chunks of life from doing so? Elenda quickly puts your opponents between a rock and a hard place.

2. Where board wipes are devastating to normal decks, Elenda always leaves a board state behind. Orzhov specializes in ways to return creatures back from the graveyard, so you never have to worry about sending her to the Command Zone. Each time you send her to the graveyard she replaces herself with useful Creatures to serve as blockers, attackers, sac fodder for aristocrat-style gameplay; OR, a bunch of Creatures that threaten to make Elenda bigger again as soon as you get her back out onto the battlefield. No matter what an opponent does to try to stop Elenda, they are furthering your gameplan.

3. Your game progresses in several ways. The fact that Elenda replaces herself when she dies is fantastic, but her true strength is how so many interactions feed into each other and leave your opponents with nary a good option to keep you under control. She's a 7/7 lifelink thanks to some counters and Sword of Feast and Famine? She's about to hit for a 3rd of the requisite Commander Damage to knock someone out of the game. So they attempt to destroy her or block her for lethal combat damage. But wait! You have Cathars' Crusade, Soul Warden, Krav, the Unredeemed or Mentor of the Meek on the board. Sudden you just made a huge army, or gained a ton of life, or just gave Krav a huge amount of sac fodder, or drew a ton of cards. Then next turn, you find a way to bring her back. Now when they try to deal with the rest of your board, Elenda is growing again.

Section 4.0: You'll Like (or Dislike) Elenda if...

You'll Enjoy Elenda If:

You like playing each game differently.
You enjoy learning a ton of interactions and ways to piece together a win.
You don't mind longer, grindy games.
Setting up long term plans that payoff sound fun.
You enjoy closing games with combos.
You like coming back over, and over, and over, and over, and....

You Won't Enjoy Elenda If:

You don't like decks that heavily depend on your graveyard.
You don't like having your board state blown up over and over.
You play in a Turn 3-4 win meta.
You don't like the pressure of being the Archenemy in a pod.
You don't like winning through combos that can include infinite loops.

Because of how Elenda allows you to constantly have a board presence, there is always something to do. This can lead to games of archenemy where you're constantly the biggest target at the table, because every time your opponents try to keep you down, they're ultimately only helping you get stronger. Most cards in this deck compliment one or more of the trifecta I mentioned above, meaning that there is a lot of decisions and options to keep track of at any given time. To truly take advantage of Elenda's potential, you have to grow familiar with the web of potentialities available to you. Each game will play out differently, though it's also possible you simply close out games with a favorite synergy (one of mine is Elenda + Gift of Immortality and a sac outlet, but more on that later!).

Orzhov is one of the best color pairs at playing out games of attrition. I have a personal philosophy of never giving up and seeing a game through, and you'll be surprised at what outs from tough situations you'll find by simply playing to the synergies and keeping up with your triggers. I also am a fan of the political side of Commander, though that will not be taken into consideration in this thread, as politics and willingness to engage differs from play group to play group.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Many of the reasons listed above to play Elenda are also her strengths. She presents The Trifecta: Go Tall, Go Wide, Suffer Well.

What this means is that as soon as you get Elenda on the battlefield, she will begin to "go tall". That's a way of saying that she becomes a very large Creature. Opponents will inevitably feel the need to deal with this. When she dies, she will leave behind that army of 1/1 lifelink Vampires in her wake. Suddenly your board presence has gone wide - that is to say, you've got a ton of Creatures on your board. With the help of Cathars' Crusade, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and other effects, that army can get quite large, quite fast. "Suffer well" is not a Magic lingo like the other two parts of the trifecta, but a phrase telling of what can happen with those tokens. They can fuel a giant Torment of Hailfire with help from Ashnod's Altar.

Similarly, they can help grow Elenda because you've got her back from the graveyard and she's on the battlefield again. One of my favorite things to do after someone kills Elenda is get her right back out there, then following that up with Dusk//Dawn the next turn. Elenda is huge, and likely going to kill someone while gaining you a massive amount of life. The tokens die and fuel her power in the process, but also trigger Cruel Celebrant and Zulaport Cutthroat while drawing you a ton of cards off of Liliana, Dreadhorde General. And so the cycle begins again, and within each cycle, your opponents only suffer that much more for their meddling!

There are of course weaknesses, however. Elenda is not a cEDH deck and should not be played in pods. Orzhov has a large suite of targeted removal that can help stymie combo decks by surgically removing the linchpins of those strategies. However, those type of decks will always out pace Elenda. In a "75%" setting where there is plentiful room for interaction, Elenda shines at her brightest, even though she is slightly susceptible to graveyard hate. If you're playing against opponents who play cards like Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void, they absolutely must die first, as the replacement effects on those cards will ensure you never see Elenda do her good work. Between tutors and ample card draw potential, it's easy to draw into some spot removal to take care of these Enchantments and effects, but also beware the wayward Bojuka Bog.

One other weakness worth discussing is large board states that materialize on opponent's turns followed by Haste. This is cards like Craterhoof Behemoth or suddenly large armies of Elementals and the sort from Lord Windgrace decks. Ideally your life total will be able to pad you from these onslaughts, but there is only so much Orzhov can do since we don't have the luxury of Cyclonic Rift or Constant Mists. As discussed later, the best option is to keep an Emergence Zone available and a board wipe in hand against decks that can suddenly swing for lethal out of nowhere.

Section 5.0: Similar Commander Considerations

While I've chosen Elenda, the Dusk Rose, there are other options that can provide similar game play, but each with their own unique differences. Below I'll discuss some other Commanders that share a few similarities with Elenda, but that are different in their own regard.

Ghave, Guru of Spores - Ghave can offer very similar strategies as Elenda, but himself is slightly different. He comes out as a 5/5 and grows smaller, rather than larger. Well, until you get Ashnod's Altar and some other shenanigans. While Ghave oscilates between being large and small, those decks never really tend to take advantage of attacking with their Commander. Ghave decks usually focus heavily on the combo potential of the deck. You gain access to Green which can help with generating large creatures and card advantage. The biggest pro of Ghave is that he is his own sac engine.
Teysa, Orzhov Scion - Another similar Commander option is the OG Teysa. She can be a removal machine gun and provide an infinite sac outlet with a few other combo pieces (such as Darkest Hour). Much like Elenda, decks with Teysa at the helm are built to be low to the ground - that is, low costed to make repeatable recursion go the farthest. Teysa focuses more on the token aspect, as she herself is simply a token generator and removal combo piece. She too can punish people who try to remove her by activating her ability in response, but she does not replace herself without some work. Teysa decks also focus much more on creating creature tokens as their primary source of incremental gains. The two offer very similar play styles, but share only one goal with one another.
Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim - Ah, Ayli. Ayli is my other Orzhov deck, and plays quite differently. Both Elenda and Ayli can win a war of attrition and outlast most other decks. But, while Elenda tends to be more proactive, Ayli is very much reactive. Ayli is a great fit for the 99 in Elenda and compliments her well. One advantage Ayli has is being a 2/3 Deathtouch body right out of the Command Zone, deterring early aggressors. She is also her own sac outlet, which is what her deck is based around. Her second ability isn't something I've focused on, but can be considered a perk if you build her that way. Oddly enough, it's easier to gain large swaths of life with Elenda due players being nervous to kill her and leave behind an army of tokens, while Ayli must be built to maintain that life total. Both play some similar combos, such as Reveillark + Karmic Guide, or Sun Titan + Angelic Renewal/Fiend Hunter (both with Blasting Station et al as their sac engines). If you like a more passive approach to incremental gains, Ayli is definitely worth a look!
Edgar Markov - Out of the other Commanders listed here, Edgar is probably the most dissimilar. Both are Vampiers, though Markov is strictly made with Vampire tribal in mind, while Elenda making Vampires is an incidental part of her character and lore. The similarities here are that both at least give you access to the Orzhov colors, and both can make large amounts of tokens. Edgar does so passively with each Vampire you cast, and is like Elenda in that you can swing for large amounts of life with him, as well as large amounts of tokens. Both offer the trifecta mentioned in this post. The biggest pro with Edgar is that Vampire decks that stay low to the ground can come out of nowhere lightning fast, with red to back that up. If you want to focus more on Vampires and intercreature synergy where every creature that enters the battlefield buffs the other or works together, Edgar Markov may be for you!

Section 6.0: The Deck Itself

Decklist

Approximate Total Cost:

Deck By Card Role:

(To be updated)

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Decklist

Commander

1 Elenda, the Dusk Rose

Mana Fixing Lands

1 Fetid Heath

5 Plains

6 Swamp

1 Tainted Field

1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Utility Lands

1 Emergence Zone (flash enabler)

1 Geier Reach Sanitarium (draw+discard)

1 Hall of Heliod's Generosity (recursion)

1 Hall of the Bandit Lord (haste enabler)

1 High Market (sac outlet)

1 Homeward Path (anti-theft)

1 Mistveil Plains (recursion)

1 Phyrexian Tower (sac outlet)

1 Reliquary Tower (no hand size)

1 Temple of Silence (scry)

1 Vault of the Archangel (creature enhancement)

1 Windbrisk Heights (free value/shia surprise)

Mana Fixing & Ramp

1 Land Tax

1 Sol Ring

1 Sword of Feast and Famine (+protection)

Tutors

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Diabolic Intent

1 Enlightened Tutor

1 Entomb

1 Razaketh, the Foulblooded (+ sac outlet)

1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier

Recursion

1 Angelic Renewal (+combo piece)

1 Gift of Immortality (+combo piece)

1 Karmic Guide

1 Living Death (+board wipe)

1 Necromancy

1 Phyrexian Reclamation

1 Reanimate

1 Restoration Specialist

1 Reveillark (+combo piece)

1 Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord (+life padding)

1 Sword of Light and Shadow (+protection)

1 Sun Titan

1 Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed

Sac Outlets

1 Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim (+life gain)

1 Ashnod's Altar (+mana ramp, combo piece)

1 Blasting Station (+damage, combo piece)

1 Hidden Stockpile (+creature generator, scry)

1 Viscera Seer (+scry)

1 Yahenni, Undying Partisan (+beater)

Additional Draw

1 Erebos, God of the Dead (+anti-life gain)

1 Liliana, Dreadhorde General (+removal)

1 Mentor of the Meek

1 Necropotence

1 Skullclamp

1 Tymna the Weaver

Spot Removal

1 Anguished Unmaking

1 Fiend Hunter

1 Swords to Plowshares

1 Utter End

1 Vindicate

Sweepers & Non-Targeted Removal

1 Austere Command

1 Dusk // Dawn (+recursion)

1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion (+sac fodder)

1 Grave Pact

Other Utility Cards

1 Agent of Erebos (graveyard hate)

1 Anointed Procession (livestock multiplier)

1 Bloodghast (repeatable sac fodder)

1 Bitterblossom (sac fodder)

1 Corpse Knight (life drain)

1 Cruel Celebrant (life drain)

1 God-Eternal Oketra (giant threat + threat maker)

1 Ophiomancer (sac fodder)

1 Selfless Spirit (protection)

1 Soul Warden (life padding)

1 Torment of Hailfire (game finisher)

1 Vizkopa Guildmage (life drain)

Approximate Total Cost:

Section 6.1: Playing Stats

Average CMC: 3.11

A low curve is important in the deck for the sake of consistency and keeping up with the rest of the players in a game. There are a lot of options that I've chosen to omit such as Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite or Sheoldred, Whispering One, for this reason. Most Orzhov decks don't have much of a board presence until the mid to late game. Because Elenda offers a trifecta of ways to go about unfolding a game plan, it's ideal to try to play on curve and have something to play every turn. While it's not a big deal to handle opponents who surge ahead, Elenda isn't a deck that wants an empty board. You'll quickly establish yourself as a threat, which means being able to pay the mana cost on a lot of abilities and effects and rebuild a board state are crucial to playing the deck.

Average Cost: $700

Entering the deck into TCGPlayer and optimizing to find the cheapest printing with Moderately Played as the worst quality, the average cost of the deck (as of July 10th, 2019) is around $700. There are certainly budget options available to bring this total down significantly, and those will be discussed at a later time. It is also worth noting that while one can generate an expected average value of a deck, due to the volatile nature of the secondary market thanks to speculators and buyouts, this total value of a deck can unexpectedly spike.

Section 7.0: Playing the Deck

First, Some General Advice

As you've probably gathered by now, the first goal of the game is to get Elenda, the Dusk Rose onto the battlefield as early as possible. Despite what we've talked about so far, the deck can and will function without her, but, it is much easier to achieve victory with her aid. We've talked about The Trifecta, and as soon as you play a list similar to this the logic of Go Big - Go Wide - Suffer Well will become clear very quickly.

The gist of what we're doing here is:

1.) Cast some of the many cards that benefit you when creatures die, or when you have a lot of small creatures (ie. Cruel Celebrant, Zulaport Cutthroat, Skullclamp, Hidden Stockpile)

2.) Grow Elenda into a large threat or hard to kill (ie. Sword of Feast and Famine, Divine Reckoning, Dusk // Dawn, Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Gift of Immortality), put pressure on your opponents by swinging into them, and leave them few choices but to act.

3.) While building pressure, find cards that will progress your game and give you a huge advantage after Elenda dies, or that will be very hard to stop, as well as ways to get Elenda back on the battlefield or to your hand (ie. Anointed Procession, Grave Pact, Liliana, Dreadhorde General, Razaketh, the Foulblooded, Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed, Phyrexian Reclamation, Reveillark, Karmic Guide).

4.) Continue this cycle until the incremental gains become too much to overcome. Synergy and combo pieces become unstoppable. You've got Elenda or Sun Titan enchanted with Gift of Immortality and a sac outlet (Ashnod's Altar, Blasting Station, Viscera Seer, Altar of Dementia) , so you're sacrificing Elenda each turn, getting more Vampires, which is triggering other effects, then bringing her back; or you're looping Sun Titan with a sac outlet this way alongside Cruel Celebrant or Blasting Station as your sac engine. You've assembled Reveillark + Karmic Guide here. Or, Elenda is simply big enough that you're systematically giving each opponent a K.O. via Commander Damage, or even possibly draining the table for massive swaths of life at a time by swinging a giant, Lifelink Elenda with an activated Vizkopa Guildmage.

Truly, you are a force to be reckoned with. With a good sac outlet on the board, you can dodge exile effects left and right only to see those targets return at your convenience, while your opponents are surely suffering in some way for their transgressions against a living, vampiric Saint.

Section 7.1: Playing Your Game

Picking Your Mulligans

The low average CMC of the cards in Elenda lends itself to enabling a wide variety of hands to keep. While an Orzhov Signet or Sol Ring can be great to get Elenda out as early as Turn 2 or 3, you actually want to look more for cards that will let you grow Elenda or gain incremental value. Having a Suture Priest or Soul Warden in your hand is a great start to the game, as the small amount of life gain seems innocuous at first, until opponents realize you somehow climbed to 60-70 life. Bitterblossom and Blind Obedience are great for slowing down more aggressive decks, while serving a dual purpose as the later game goes on. Your Faeries that are blockers in the early game become sac fodder for card advantage as the game goes on, and the Extort trigger on Blind Obedience adds up, as well.

A few cards can make hands near automatic keeps, as long as you have some land. Those cards are:

Gift of Immortality - One of the most powerful cards in the deck in it's ability to keep bringing Elenda back over and over again. There are many sac outlets in the deck. It's only 3 mana, and once you have this and that sac outlet, Elenda can start dodging removal and return to the battlefield, while leaving behind a 1/1 lifelink Vampire each time.

Land Tax - While deck thinning is hard to evaluate, grabbing 3 basic lands almost every turn is pulling dead draws out of the deck in the mid to late game. A Turn 1 Land Tax will set you up for basically the rest of the game to never miss your land drops.

Skullclamp - This is your bread and butter draw engine. The deck has ample ways to generate Creatures that simply die from being equipped by this, and it is easily the best draw engine in the deck.

Bloodghast - Despite only running 34 lands, it is very easy to repeatedly trigger Bloodghast. Almost every sac outlet in the deck benefits you from sacrificing a creature to it, so being able to do so repeatedly from the start of the game is worth pursuing.

Mentor of the Meek - The second best early game draw engine is Mentor of the Meek. The vast majority of the time, paying 1 extra is not a problem, almost every creature that enters the battlefield in this deck will give you the opportunity to draw a card, as well.

Ophiomancer - As soon as your opponent's turn after you play it, you're creating a 1/1 Deathtouch snake that serves as a deterrent and blocker, and replaces itself every time it dies or blocks on an opponent's turn. With Elenda on the battlefield and a sac outlet, you can sacrifice the snake that Ophiomancer makes every single turn. This means Elenda gains four +1/+1 counters each time the turn wheels around. Ophiomancer is an MVP in this deck!

However...

There are some cards worth avoiding in your opening hand. With how low the average CMC of some Creatures are in the deck, is tempting to keep them because they can become pretty powerful. These Creatures end up being removal magnets.

Cruel Celebrant & Zulaport Cutthroat - Unless you have a great hand setup something like Gift of Immortality or Ophiomancer, it isn't worth keeping these in your opening hand. They're known for their power and will be removed as soon as an opponent has the capability, or will make opponents put pressure on you to block with them.

Viscera Seer - Similarly, there is no reason to keep Viscera Seer in an opening hand, unless you have Gift of Immortality or Ophiomancer. As a 1/1 sac outlet, opponents that have any sort of awareness will assume the worst and kill it off ASAP. It's better to play creatures like these when there are other threats that make it hard to justify killing these.

Vizkopa Guildmage - Vizkopa's ability can cause a huge amount of life loss when paired with Elenda, or Elenda dying with a Soul Warden on the battlefield. But when you look at Vizkopa Guildmage, you should look at it as costing 1WWBB, because you want to play it when you can get an activation of it's ability.

Section 7.1.1: The Early Game - Paper Cuts

A lot of what to look for in the early game was just discussed above in how to pick your hands, but let's go ahead and talk about what the early game looks like.

It's very commong to have a Turn 1 play in this deck. Even doing a turn 1 Enlightened Tutor isn't a bad idea. Searching for Smothering Tithe, Land Tax, Hidden Stockpile, Necropotence or Gift of Immortality are great Turn 1 tutor targets. These will all help accelerate you into the deck's midgame. But, usually your Turn 1 or 2 plays will be Soul Warden, Suture Priest, Bitterblossom, Blind Obedience, Bloodghast, or anything that puts a body out and starts gaining you incremental value. That incremental gain is what helps Elenda go into overdrive as soon as she enters the battlefield. You're starting to gain a chunk of life, should have a draw engine on the board of some kind and ideally some spot removal in your hand. While it depends on your playgroup and meta, there usually isn't anything in the early game that warrants using one of your sport removal spells that exiles.

You start to enter the midgame when Elenda herself hits the battlefield, or you drop one of the few 4-drop spells in the deck. Erebos, God of the Dead, Smothering Tithe, Yahenni, Undying Partisan, Tymna the Weaver and Phyrexian Reclamation are cards that herald the start of the mid game, where you have your value engines online and can start ramping up the damage to your opponents board's and life totals.

Section 7.1.2: The Mid Game - Overwhelming Value

Outside of ramp, when Elenda enters the battlefield is effectively the start of the mid game. You should have a sac outlet of some kind on the board or in your hand. Your opponents most likely have card advantage going as well, and will start drawing into removal if they don't already have some in their hand. One of the best ways to enter the mid game is to have either Sword of Feast and Famine or Sword of Light and Shadow in your hand to cast and equip to Elenda. When she dies, she will always at least provide three 1/1 lifelink Vampires, on top of making it harder to kill her outside of your own whims, as well as harder to block. These swords were chosen specifically for their triggered abilities, which become very relevant at this stage.

Overall, the key parts to survive and progress the mid game are:

1.) A threat/threat generator to start putting pressure on opponents (Elenda, God-Eternal Oketra, Yahenni, Undying Partisan, or either Sword of Feast and Famine or Sword of Light and Shadow

2.) A card advantage engine (Hidden Stockpile, Necropotence, Skullclamp, Sidisi, Undead Vizier, Erebos, God of the Dead, Tymna the Weaver)

3.) Recursion effects (Angelic Renewal, Gift of Immortality, Necromancy, Phyrexian Reclamation, Restoration Specialist, Sun Titan, Reveillark, Karmic Guide, Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord, Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed)

4.) Mass removal to grow Elenda (Grave Pact, Dusk // Dawn, Liliana's Triumph, Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Plaguecrafter, Fiend Hunter + any sac outlet)

Some other really beneficial effects to have in this stage of the game would be the deck's go-to graveyard hate, Agent of Erebos; Grave Pact for passive enemy player board control; Anointed Procession to start doubling up on the benefits of sacrificing Elenda or casting creatures with God-Eternal Oketra on the board; as well as having Living Death or Dusk // Dawn in hand available.

As you ready to enter the late game, opponents will usually have spent a lot of resources attempting to deal with Elenda and your board state. The heavy amount of recursion in the deck makes their efforts all for naught. If you have Gift of Immortality on Elenda and they manage to killer her once, then kill her again, then Reveillark or Karmic Guide simply bring her back, while also heralding a combo that each of them represent a part of, themselves. Sun Titan and Restoration Specialist bring back your Necromancy, Gift of Immortality, Blind Obedience and Phyrexian Reclamation.

Once your opponents have spent critical amounts of resources attempting to slow your card advantage and board state down, you're typically entering the late game.

Section 7.1.3: The Late Game - The Blood Feast

At this point, your opponents are likely at 20-25 life. At least one or two opponents probably have a considerable amount of Commander damage marked on them. Most of your win conditions are either in your graveyard awaiting to be reanimated, on the battlefield reaping havoc, or in your hand (if not a tutor away). Your hand is often almost always full between Skullclamp, Necropotence and Liliana, Dreadhorde General. Liliana will have been drawing you cards each time you sacrifice Elenda for more tokens, sacrifice tokens, or opponents have attempted to clear your board. Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord has been gaining you a ton of life off of God-Eternal Oketra's 4/4 Zombie tokens, and Sun Titan has been swinging in for large swaths of life while returning other threats.

The web is almost completely spun. One effect begets another, becoming exceedingly hard to stop. Ideally you've saved your spot removal to stop other people's own combo engines and win conditions or have dealt with them already. There has been so much passive creature removal between board wipes et al that you never have to spend your spot removal spells on their lowly minions. So how do you close out the game?

Bringing the End:

1.) Finish them with Elenda. Even if they removed your swords, you should have a lot of creature tokens or the capability of a making them; or you can blow up the rest of the board, clearing out blockers. You swing in with Elenda and K.O. someone with Commander Damage. In the process, you gain a lot of life. If you didn't K.O. them, then you can use Vizkopa Guildmage's second activated ability to drain the table. The ability is multiplicative, meaning you can stack it by activating it more than once.

2.) Death by swarm. Perhaps serving a round robin of K.O.'s with Elenda isn't possible right now. Someone has Maze of Ith out or the like. If you can swing in with all of those tokens. If they die, no big deal - Vizkopa Guildmage comes in again here, as well as Zulaport Cutthroat and Cruel Celebrant. They have no choice but to block with what creatures they have left not to take the additional damage, but the life drain will still get them. Oh, and you may also have a large amount of 4/4's from God-Eternal Oketra, along with Oketra herself as 3/6 Double Strike (which only gets tastier with one of the Swords!)

3.) Of course, between Land Tax, Mana Tithe and Ashnod's Altar, you have the potential for a massive amount of mana at this stage. Simply raining Torment of Hailfire down upon your opponents is quite easy. You can set this up the turn prior by wiping the board of the most common non-creatures of your choice with Merciless Eviction, or use Dusk // Dawn or Elspeth, Sun's Champion to blow most everything Creature wise beside what is yours. Your opponents usually have few cards left in hand from attempting to deal with you along with any threats posed by the rest of the table. The timing is perfect for a large Torment of Hailfire which opponents will easily succumb to. Or, soften them up with one cast of it, then return it to your hand with Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed for a second round.

4.) Would you like to make that a combo? Well, you can. You've been using Sun Titan to get back all sorts of goodies. Find a way to get Angelic Renewal, Fiend Hunter or Gift of Immortality enchanting Sun Titan on the board with a sac outlet and go infinite. Ashnod's Altar will give you infinite mana; Viscera Seer will let you scry through your entire deck for what you need to finish the combo; Any of these sac outlets while Cruel Celebrant and Zulaport Cutthroat are present will just finish draining your opponents and leave desiccated husks.

There's also Karmic Guide + Reveillark. They do wonders by themselves for getting back your tools of death and despair, but together with a sac outlet the also provide an infinite loop to end the game with a sac outlet.

Saint Elenda the Dusk Rose has risen again, and the world shall tremble in her wake!

Section 7.2: Card Interactions & Synergies

The amount of synergy between the cards employed here is crazy. Even after a full year or more working with a structure similar to whatever the current configuration is, I'm still discovering synergies in the face of adversity. Below are a few key interactions you can look for when playing Elenda that will help you get ahead of opponents, mitigate life loss and aggression, or make board wipes a moot point.

7.2.1 Synergies: Exiling Machine Guns

Exiling Machine Guns: Fiend Hunter + Any Sac Outlet

When Fiend Hunter enters the battlefield, it's first triggered ability goes on the stack. While that ability is still on the stack, you can sacrifice Fiend Hunter in response. His second ability goes on the stack and resolve first, but because the first trigger hasn't resolved yet and nothing has been exiled yet. Thus, Fiend Hunter's target stays exiled forever!

7.2.2 Synergies: Vizkopa Guildmage Cleave

Massive Life Drain: Vizkopa Guildmage + Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim, Elenda, the Dusk Rose, or 1/1 lifelink Vampire Army

As mentioned in discussion about the late game, Vizkopa Guildmage's second activated ability is multiplicative. For each time you activate it, your opponents will lose that much life for every life you gain. If you have a large army of 1/1 lifelink Vampires because sacrificing Elenda to go wide was the best strategy at the time, you can suddenly be draining the table for a massive amount of life. Similarly, you can be doing so when swinging with a very large Elenda. Vizkopa Guildmage can also grant targets lifelink, as well, but the ability goes farther the more mana you have to pump into it's drain ability. Sacrificing a few 4/4 Zombies from God-Eternal Oketra to Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim's ability can be devastating; or, simply sacrificing Elenda herself to Ayli after swinging for a large amount of damage, gaining a lot of life, draining the table for that much life, then sacrificing Elenda to gain life equal to Elenda's toughness, and again draining the table.

7.2.3 Synergies: Gift of Immortality + Elenda

Everlasting Value Engine: Elenda, the Dusk Rose + Gift of Immortality + Any Sac Outlet

Gift of Immortality is one of the best ways to utilize Elenda. You have to send her to your graveyard for her to create the 1/1 lifelink Vampires, as sending her to the Command Zone is a replacement effect. Gift of Immortality makes it extremely difficult for opponents to remove her from the board for more than a turn, as you can simply sacrifice her in response. She'll create that 1/1 lifelink Vampire, return to the battlefield, and unless they can kill her again then Gift of Immortality will return to the battlefield at the end of turn and attach to Elenda, again. With many of the other incremental value effects, this can be a backbreaking interaction for your opponents. Gift of Immortality returns her at the end of the next End Step, meaning you can do it on your opponent's turns at your leisure. Every turn you can be doing this to gain life off of Soul Warden, or cause Grave Pact, Hidden Stockpile and Blasting Station triggers.

7.2.4 Synergies: Skullclamp Draw Bonanza

Absurd Card Draw Engine: Bloodghast + Skullclamp or other Sac Engines

One of the most abusive card draw combos in the deck is Reassembling Skeleton with Skullclamp. Together, they effectively read "2B: Draw two cards". The skeleton is also great with Viscera Seer for large amounts of Scrying, or Blasting Station for some light pinging.

7.2.5 Synergies: Karmic Guide + Reveillark Loops

Lark+Guide Loop: Reveillark + Karmic Guide + Sac Engine (+Finisher)

Reveillark and Karmic Guide create an infinite loop when combined with any sac engine. As long as you have one on the battlefield or in your graveyard and at least one sac outlet, you use Karmic Guide to bring Reveillark back, then sacrifice Karmic Guide, then sacrifice Reveillark to bring back Karmic Guide, targeting Reveillark and repeating. Pay careful attention to your order in case of rules-lawyery players who dislike your combo. It's advisable to practice the movement of your cards, especially when adding some of the combo engines below.

Ways to use this Combo:

Blasting Station - Clear or kill the board.
Ashnod's Altar - Generate infinite mana to kill the board with Exsanguinate, or one player with Profane Command (the second mode being whatever suits you at the time).
Bitter Ordeal - Exile your opponent's libraries.
Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter - Clear the board; infinitely huge creature.
Viscera Seer - Infinite Scry.

The majority of the time you'll be using either Reveillark or Karmic Guide to reanimate other targets, which is convenient for you as that means one piece of the combo are already there.

7.2.6 Synergies: Sun Titan Recursion Loops

Sun Titan Loops: Sun Titan + Angelic Renewal, Gift of Immortality OR Find Hunter + Sac Engine Loop

Have a sac outlet out, Angelic Renewal in your graveyard or on the battlefield, then bring Sun Titan onto the battlefield by whatever means available. Sacrifice the Sun Titan to your outlet, triggering Angelic Renewal. Sacrifice Angelic Renewal, bringing back Sun Titan, using his ETB ability to target Angelic Renewal and repeat. For examples of what you can do with an infinite sac combo, see the Reveillark + Karmic Guide + Sac Engine section above.

Sun Titan also combos with Fiend Hunter and a sac engine for an loop, as well. Target Sun Titan with Fiend Hunter to exile Sun Titan. Then, sacrifice Fiend Hunter to your sac engine. When Sun Titan comes back into play, target the Fiend Hunter to bring it back. Repeat this process!

Lastly, Gift of Immortality has a similar interaction. Enchant Sun Titan with Gift of Immortality. When you sacrifice Sun Titan, Gift of Immortality will trigger and return Sun Titan to the battlefield. Sun Titan's ability will trigger, so you can target Gift of Immortality and return it to the battlefield and attach it to sun Titan.

7.2.7 Synergies: Board Wiping And You

Only Weenies Left Behind: Dusk // Dawn or Elspeth, Sun's Champion + Elenda, the Dusk Rose

The overall size of most creatures in the deck is rather small. 2/2 bodies are the dominant creature size in the deck, meaning that when Elenda is freshly on the battlefield, more often than not you can wipe the board with Dusk // Dawn or Elspeth's -3 ability. Most of the time, this is going to cause several deaths on your opponent's boards, while simulatenously growing Elenda into a huge threat. These board wipes do double work, however, because if you need a large board presence but only have a tall Elenda on the board, they can wipe out your opponent's larger threats and destroy Elenda, leaving you with a small army of 1/1 lifelink Vampires. The Dawn side of Dusk // Dawn is icing on the cake, while Elspeth also continues to make triplicate 1/1 Soldiers.

Section 8.0: The Cards, Exclusions & Retirees

Cards Currently In The Deck

(Coming Soon)
Most of the cards found in this build have been gone over in the sections preceding this point, but because it's impossible to detail every single possible interaction or point of interest in the confines of this thread, below I'll be going over each card in the deck, providing at least a small blurb. This section will be updated as the list continues to be refined and cards enter or fall out of favor.

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Creatures

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Enchantments

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Artifacts

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Instants & Sorceries

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Planeswalkers

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Lands

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Section 8.1: Wishlist & Future Upgrades

All of the cards discusses here aren't the only cards considered for Elenda! There are many that I simply haven't acquired to play them in the deck, or that are under consideration for inclusion. These are a few of those cards!

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Academy Rector - I simply haven't had access one to play with it, but in this deck it feels like it could be extremely powerful. With 14 possible targets with varying uses, Academy Rector truly is a part of the kit that I'd love to add, eventually.
Filth - At one point I used to play a Sidisi, Brood Tyrant deck inspired by DementedKirby's Primer here on MTG Salvation. The end goal was an unstoppable army of Zombies, and one of my favorite combinations was Filth + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. Being able to swing into opponents with impunity is amazingly powerful. I've hesitated on the card with my lack of self mill as there is in a Sidisi deck, and it's really a dead card in your hand. It could help close out games, but that's usually not a problem. It has been a consideration, regardless.
Flagstones of Trokair - Seems like an obvious include in any deck playing :symw: . At one point I excluded this cards from decks simply because it was a very expensive card for very niche situations. Since Ultimate Masters it's price has fallen quite a bit, and I'd like to put one in this deck.
Teferi's Protection - The exclusion of Teferi's Protection is so far simply due to availability. It's a rather expensive card, and I've managed pretty well without it. With that said, however, I've found myself in plenty of occasions against Spellslinger and combo decks where if I could have just peaced out in the middle of them going off, they would have been dead in the water as soon as I came back. This is an upgrade to the deck I'm putting high priority on that is simply waiting for me to be able to acquire it.
Thalia's Lancers - I have been debating on including Thalia's Lancers because of the large amount of targets for them. Being able to fetch any Legendary card and being on a body is a pretty big deal. I've purposefully kept the amount of tutor effects in the deck lower than it could be for the sake of game length and fun. Thalia's Lancers is high on my list of potential updates to the deck in the future if any cards on the list don't feel like they're pulling their weight.
Scrubland - Running duals is pretty self explanatory. Would it be nice? Sure. Does it provide additional function to the deck in a meaningful way that justifies it's price? Absolutely not. Some day I may own my first dual land, but it's at the bottom of my list. The absolute bottom.
Yawgmoth's Will - A deck with such a low average CMC as this that benefits from graveyard recursion surely wants to play Yawgmoth's Will. It is unfortunately outside of my budget range at this time. Some day in the future when I can get one, it will most likely be finding a home here.

Section 8.2: FAQ - Why Arent't You Running...

As with any Commander deck, there are many, many possibilities while we're only limited to 100 cards. Some times cards seem like obvious includes that don't necessarily play out as well as they look on paper. Below is a list of cards - some which are staples, and some that aren't - that I have considered but respectfully declined for one reason or another.

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Imperial Seal, Vampiric Tutor - These are other great tutors to have and with the Judge Promo printings has them both at more reasonable prices than in the past. So far I have I have excluded both of these simply because I wanted to reduce the amount of tutors in the deck and shuffling time. The deck list is very tight at the moment and it's hard to find spots for them, regardless.
Cathars' Crusade, Other Token Support - I ran this Enchantment for a while, and was ultimately unimpressed. It won me maybe two games ever, and immediately ate removal the rest of the time or sat in my hand because of being 5CMC and needing a specific board setup. The effects of most cards in the deck beget one another. Cathars' Crusade is powerful, but as the deck has evolved to be less about the tokens specifically, it's became less and less impressive just as an idea. It does nothing on an empty board and is slow when rebuilding.
Cabal Coffers - Obviously is a powerful land, but suffers outside of Mono- :symb: decks. While I do run Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, you require 4x Swamp to net profit from Cabal Coffers without Urborg. If you draw Cabal Coffers early on in the game without Urborg, it's basically a dead draw. If you make an effort to get both Urborg and Cabal Coffers on the battlefield, you spent effort to find those instead of important utility lands like Maze of Ith and Kor Haven to protect against Commander damage; or Volrath's Stronghold to protect against graveyard hate. Ultimately, by the time Cabal Coffers should be of any value to you in this deck, you should be approaching the point of putting the game away, anyway. In general, Cabal Coffers is just not worth the risk of sitting on your field as a dead land when it could be something else.
Divine Reckoning, Single Combat - This was another card that I ran in the main deck for awhile after inception, but eventually cut due to it's upside mostly never coming into play. Leaving opponents with a Creature of their own on the board still prevents Elenda from connecting for damage. How many +1/+1 counters Elenda gets is very inconsistent, and it tempts you to hold onto it and over extend until the board is set up and prime for growing her the most. Single Combat is better because it gets around Indestructible fields, but doesn't have Flashback which is one of the best parts of Divine Reckoning. I don't foresee these returning to the list.
Emeria, the Sky Ruin - Currenly I run a total of 7 Plains in the deck (including Godless Shrine and Mistveil Plains), so I do not foresee being able to consistently enable this.
Dictate of Erebos - At one time I ran both this and it's predecessor, Grave Pact. The reason I cut down to one was that the Flash on Dictate of Erebos so seldom mattered. I want to keep the average CMC of the deck low to the ground and mana fixing isn't an issue for Grave Pact's 1BBB, so I truly haven't seen the upside. There is enough potential removal in the deck that can get around Hexproof/Shroud and Indestructible that redundancy here also felt wholly unnecessary.
Knight of the White Orchid, Weathered Wayfarer - With a very low average CMC and the fact that we're already running Land Tax, the addition of these would be excessive.
Oblivion Ring, Similar Effects - O-Ring has a tendency to bring back it's targets to haunt us later. When casting Austere Command or Merciless Eviction and really needing to activate the Enchantment removal mode, having an O-Ring removed only to bring back an important something you exiled with it earlier in the game is no good.

Section 8.3: Retirees & Honorable Mentions

(Coming Soon)

Below are cards that were in the main list at one point but were cut due to obsolescence, or cards that have been tested at one time that had potential but weren't quite as good as other available options.

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Section 9.0: Change Log

No changes to announce yet as of posting original thread on 7/10/2019

xeroxedfool · Post by **xeroxedfool** » 4 years ago

This primer is beautiful! Very nice.

You have a broken link to God-Eternal Oketra and Dusk // Dawn in the decklist.

I think you have too many colorless and ETB tapped lands. Personally I wouldn't run Hall of the Bandit Lord, Emergence Zone, Exotic Orchard, Geier Reach Sanitarium, or Westvale Abbey. I also think Homeward Path is a meta call. You have about 18 lands that either ETB tapped, produce colorless mana or only produce B or W under conditions. A little over half the mana base is unreliable and almost a third are never producing colored mana.

Kelzam · Post by **Kelzam** » 4 years ago

xeroxedfool wrote: ↑
4 years ago
This primer is beautiful! Very nice.

You have a broken link to God-Eternal Oketra and Dusk // Dawn in the decklist.

I think you have too many colorless and ETB tapped lands. Personally I wouldn't run Hall of the Bandit Lord, Emergence Zone, Exotic Orchard, Geier Reach Sanitarium, or Westvale Abbey. I also think Homeward Path is a meta call. You have about 18 lands that either ETB tapped, produce colorless mana or only produce B or W under conditions. A little over half the mana base is unreliable and almost a third are never producing colored mana.

Thanks for the feedback! Fixed the God-Eternal Oketra link. I'm going to have to ask them what the syntax for split cards is over here on Nexus. Tried a few different ways of formatting the card name between tags and none of them have worked.

The ability to produce colored mana has actually rarely been a problem for me. I think "unreliable" is an interesting take. It's worth noting that the list here is one I've been curating and playing over a year and is not a theorycrafted list, but what I feel has largely been successful for me in some countless number of games played. But between the amount of card draw I get in a given game, Land Tax, Smothering Tithe and Sword of Feast and Famine triggers, I've never found myself wanting for more colored mana. An important part of why this has worked is because my average CMC is 3.11, which I've purposefully kept low for how the deck functions.

I am however actively working on updating and getting rid of some taplands such as Forsaken Sanctuary, Orzhov Basilica and quite possibly Temple of Silence since the Scry doesn't do much for me. Hall of the Bandit Lord is more than likely going to be replaced sooner than later. It's a left over from the initial build I did last February and truthfully hasn't provided much. It'll actually probably be replaced with another utility land I've been looking to add, though, which would be Boseiju, Who Shelters All. In a lot of games I find myself in a position where I'm the one to answer combos about to go off with targeted removal or untouchable board states with Merciless Eviction, so having those countered can be pretty bad (which is another tapped land, hah).

Once I have the Card Selection section complete, it'll better explain reasoning for many of the utility lands. Until then, here's some notes on the ones you've mentioned:

Emergence Zone - I play this in almost every deck now, because I'd rather have a land that taps for mana than a do-nothing card like Vedalken Orrery, and there have actually been several games where Emergence Zone helped win the game. I'm pretty happy with this card.

Geier Reach Sanitarium - This has let me dump reanimation targets in the grave yard, Dusk // Dawnwhen I only want to cast the Dawn side, and let me turn excess lands from Land Tax into draws. I've really enjoyed this card in the deck, so it most likely won't get cut any time soon.

Westvale Abbey - I've enjoyed having this to make tokens in slow, more controlled games when Bitterblossom gets removed. When I've transformed it with Elenda, the Dusk Rose on the board and suddenly have a 9/7 Flying Lifelink Indestructible Ormendahl, Profane Prince alongside a now 6/6+ Elenda + any other death triggers, it's swung the game lagely in my favor. It is, however, very slow and will be one of the lands I look at cutting for some updates I'm looking to do to the land base. More about those in a few moments.

Homeward Path - For some this is a meta call. I like to use my land base as a tool kit to answer a wide variety of potential archetypes, and this is certainly one example of that. I like playing with new players or people I've never played with when given the chance. This makes voting for Money when facing an Expropriate not as bad, as many times people will try to take Elenda or another combo piece creature. When I see a random Admiral Becket Brass deck or a chaos deck with Confusion in the Ranks, I'm glad that I have Homeward Path in here every time. It's one of those "You'll be glad you have it when you need it" cards.

Exotic Orchard - It's true that it's a bit of a gamble on whether it actually taps for one of my colors, and will be one of the first cut when I get better lands.

Some of the additions/changes I'm looking to add to the deck in the next few months are:

City of Brass
Field of Ruin*
Mana Confluence
Marsh Flats
Silent Clearing
Vesuva

and possibly some off-color fetchlands like Verdant Catacombs or Bloodstained Mire.

Someday, maybe, I'll get that Scrubland. But probably not. I just have such a hard time spending money on a card that realistically just provides so little benefit over other cards I could be looking at.

* Field of Ruin may seem odd over Strip Mine or Ghost Quarter, but an underrated function of Field of Ruin that I've come to like in other decks I run it in is the ability to make people shuffle who have tutored cards to the top of their deck, put Sensei's Divining Top there or lined up their draws in some way at an important turning point. I also heavily engage in the politics of Commander and have used it to make deals with opponents on more than one occasion :D

tarotplz · Post by **tarotplz** » 4 years ago

This is still a deck that I might build some day, it looks super sweet. Unfortunately I'm working on a couple of different decks right now.

Noir · Post by **Noir** » 4 years ago

This deck looks extremely fun and well-built. Love your gorgeous primer as well!

xeroxedfool · Post by **xeroxedfool** » 4 years ago

My point about the lands isn't that they aren't good enough or that they don't have good applications. Also, I don't think your curve is high or that you won't have enough mana. I just think they are going to make it harder to cast cards early in the game or put you in a place where you have to play off curve. You said it works for you so thats good enough for me.

Post by **benjameenbear** » 4 years ago

Another gorgeous Primer, sir. I'm super impressed!

Kelzam · Post by **Kelzam** » 4 years ago

Thank you for the kind words, everyone! Now to work on my next Primer :p

I intend to post some gameplay videos by next weekend!

xeroxedfool wrote: ↑
4 years ago
My point about the lands isn't that they aren't good enough or that they don't have good applications. Also, I don't think your curve is high or that you won't have enough mana. I just think they are going to make it harder to cast cards early in the game or put you in a place where you have to play off curve. You said it works for you so thats good enough for me.

Apologies if I misunderstood what you were saying

It is funny though that you pointed out the land base, because it's definitely my next area to take a look at. I've had this primer in the works for a few months now and after War of the Spark I decided to re-evaluate what I was running in the deck to see if there were any holdovers from the initial build that weren't doing work before I publicized the list. I definitely appreciate you pointing out your concerns about the color mana generation

BroSelvala · Post by **BroSelvala** » 4 years ago

How's the pace of the deck? I love the idea of Orzhov but every time I've tried to play it, it's just so slow I want to claw my eyes out. Now, to be fair, I'm a green wizard primarily and I am spoiled by acceleration.

ConstantMists · Post by **ConstantMists** » 4 years ago

Thought I'd give this a try as it looks fun and I own 99% of the cards. The one card I don't own is Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed and I won't proxy a $90 card that I have no intention of buying. Does anyone have any suggestions for a replacement here?

Thanks

xeroxedfool · Post by **xeroxedfool** » 4 years ago

ConstantMists wrote: ↑
4 years ago
Thought I'd give this a try as it looks fun and I own 99% of the cards. The one card I don't own is Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed and I won't proxy a $90 card that I have no intention of buying. Does anyone have any suggestions for a replacement here?

Thanks

There is no direct replacement to Xiahou Dun that I know of. You can get a judge foil for 55$ ish, but I dont think you need him to run this deck.

tarotplz · Post by **tarotplz** » 4 years ago

xeroxedfool wrote: ↑
4 years ago

ConstantMists wrote: ↑
4 years ago
Thought I'd give this a try as it looks fun and I own 99% of the cards. The one card I don't own is Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed and I won't proxy a $90 card that I have no intention of buying. Does anyone have any suggestions for a replacement here?

Thanks

There is no direct replacement to Xiahou Dun that I know of. You can get a judge foil for 55$ ish, but I dont think you need him to run this deck.

Yeah, there's really nothing like him. At least in black. Ultimately he's just a worse Eternal Witness.

I also don't think he's really necesary for the deck to work, so I guess you should just replace him with something else.

ConstantMists · Post by **ConstantMists** » 4 years ago

tarotplz wrote: ↑
4 years ago

xeroxedfool wrote: ↑
4 years ago

ConstantMists wrote: ↑
4 years ago
Thought I'd give this a try as it looks fun and I own 99% of the cards. The one card I don't own is Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed and I won't proxy a $90 card that I have no intention of buying. Does anyone have any suggestions for a replacement here?

Thanks

There is no direct replacement to Xiahou Dun that I know of. You can get a judge foil for 55$ ish, but I dont think you need him to run this deck.
Yeah, there's really nothing like him. At least in black. Ultimately he's just a worse Eternal Witness.

I also don't think he's really necesary for the deck to work, so I guess you should just replace him with something else.

Yes I looked at a lot of cards for possibilities but I didn't see anything right on point. I ultimately went with Cordial Vampire as Elenda is a vampire and of course so are all the lifelinking tokens she leaves behind. I'm sure I'll find something better in the long run, but I should be playing this tomorrow and wanted to get a card in there.

Thanks for all the replies.

Kelzam · Post by **Kelzam** » 4 years ago

BroSelvala wrote: ↑
4 years ago
How's the pace of the deck? I love the idea of Orzhov but every time I've tried to play it, it's just so slow I want to claw my eyes out. Now, to be fair, I'm a green wizard primarily and I am spoiled by acceleration.

Orzhov is a slower color. I'd say with this deck that I generally have something to do every turn and progress my board state at a reasonable pace. It's nothing close to many decks that play Green, but always having something to do is one reason I really enjoy playing this deck

ConstantMists wrote: ↑
4 years ago

tarotplz wrote: ↑
4 years ago

xeroxedfool wrote: ↑
4 years ago

There is no direct replacement to Xiahou Dun that I know of. You can get a judge foil for 55$ ish, but I dont think you need him to run this deck.
Yeah, there's really nothing like him. At least in black. Ultimately he's just a worse Eternal Witness.

I also don't think he's really necesary for the deck to work, so I guess you should just replace him with something else.
Yes I looked at a lot of cards for possibilities but I didn't see anything right on point. I ultimately went with Cordial Vampire as Elenda is a vampire and of course so are all the lifelinking tokens she leaves behind. I'm sure I'll find something better in the long run, but I should be playing this tomorrow and wanted to get a card in there.

Thanks for all the replies.

Hey there! Had a busy weekend and just getting to check in. As Xeroxedfool said, you can find a Judge copy of Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed for around $50-55, but he certainly isn't 100% necessary. The effect isn't particularly replaceable, but I'd aim towards more recursion, particularly the repeatable variety. Nim Deathmantle and Corpse Dance can be pretty great and get a lot of mileage with Ashnod's Altar

Gavvin · Post by **Gavvin** » 4 years ago

Just thought I should point out that your decklist is missing some cards... Instants say (8) vut ony list 6 and you talk about Planeswalkers that are not in the list.

I thought I would try this out as a change from my Ayli deck (which used to be Blackjack's Ghost Council) and I find myself constantly wishing for more sac outlets...

Kelzam · Post by **Kelzam** » 4 years ago

Gavvin wrote: ↑
4 years ago
Just thought I should point out that your decklist is missing some cards... Instants say (8) vut ony list 6 and you talk about Planeswalkers that are not in the list.

I thought I would try this out as a change from my Ayli deck (which used to be Blackjack's Ghost Council) and I find myself constantly wishing for more sac outlets...

Hey Gavvin, thanks for the heads up! There are only actually 6 Instants - I forgot to countdown the number from an older draft of the thread. The missing Planeswalkers are now in the list

The Ayli thread over on Sally and here is mine that I continued from Blackjack's! I wanted a change in pace so that's why I evolved the deck into being Elenda, myself. There's about 6 sac outlets in the list and it hasn't been a problem for me, but if you want to make room for more, I think Sword of Light and Shadow and God-Eternal Oketra would be my top picks for cuts. Spawning Pit is a nice free sac outlet. I actually recently cut Krav, the Unredeemed because I felt like I had enough sac outlets

Gavvin · Post by **Gavvin** » 4 years ago

Kelzam wrote: ↑
4 years ago
The Ayli thread over on Sally and here is mine that I continued from Blackjack's! I wanted a change in pace so that's why I evolved the deck into being Elenda, myself. There's about 6 sac outlets in the list and it hasn't been a problem for me, but if you want to make room for more, I think Sword of Light and Shadow and God-Eternal Oketra would be my top picks for cuts. Spawning Pit is a nice free sac outlet. I actually recently cut Krav, the Unredeemed because I felt like I had enough sac outlets

I was thinking Phyrexian Altar myself

Suns_Champion · Post by **Suns_Champion** » 4 years ago

I created an account just to comment on this. Lovely deck, always good to see more Elenda players. Been thinking about Blasting Station and Selfless Spirit... have they been good for you?

Also, what do you think about Genesis Chamber? (Not sure how to tag cards)

I'd love it if you checked my list here: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/cortez- ... lenda-edh/

Cheers! One Elenda player to another!

Kelzam · Post by **Kelzam** » 4 years ago

Hey everyone - sorry for any posts I didn't reply to before dropping off the face of the Earth for a bit. I need to do a big update to the list here, but after playing my Elenda deck tonight and wanting somewhere to post about it, I figured there'd be no place better than my own threads here

So without further adieu, a the start of Commander night blog posts for any decks that I play those nights!

March 03/05/2020: You're Walking Through The Woods, There's No One Around, Your Phone Is Dead. Out Of the Corner Of Your Eye You Spot Him. SHIA LABEOUF

SHIA SURPRISE! Is basically how my Wednesday $1 Pod game went tonight. I was playing against Prossh, Skyraider of Kher, Jodah, Archmage Eternal and Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord. Prossh ramped a lot, sacrificed Prossh a lot to re-cast him, etc. The Jodah player cheated out Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, Avacyn, Archangel of Hope and Void Winnower eventually. That was after I had already exiled Defense of the Heart with an Anguished Unmaking. The Golgari player had only been playing for a month and had a weird combination of Constellation effects and +1/+1 counter stuff with Renata, Called to the Hunt, Corpsejack Menace, Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter etc.

I started out Turn 2 with a Blind Obedience that probably saved me from dying a horrible death. Everyone ramped out way harder than I did that game, and it would've been worse were it not for some spot removal on my part. Most of the three of them had super scary board states but I was moving at a slow enough pace that they largely ignored me and attacked each other. My using Ghost Quarter to destroy the Prossh player's Phyrexian Tower so he couldn't keep sacrificing Prossh to re-cast him for even more Kobolds was forgiven due to him concentrating on the threat of the Jodah and Jarad players.

I took a few hits early on due to being open, and it took a while to get to where I got Elenda, the Dusk Rose on the board because of needing to hold open mana for removal. Most of the game I had Doom Foretold sitting in my hand because I didn't have anything I could afford to sacrifice to it on my turn. I'd been testing it out but I'm not happy with it unless I can get more effects like Reassembling Skeleton. I've been meaning to get a Nether Traitor for the deck, so we'll see how that goes.

Eventually I got Elenda on board and she just sat there because a 1/1 didn't seem threatening. I couldn't draw into any of my draw or a sac outlet, so I attempted to use Fiend Hunter to keep Void Winnower off of the board, but that only lasted until my turn as the Jodah player cast Magmatic Force on his turn and killed it on the Jarad player's upkeep. Next turn I play a Reveillark without a way to kill it, knowing that I at least have a blocker for Prossh and if it dies I can get Fiend Hunter back to exile something. My next turn I play a Blasting Station I drew, because with so many creatures on the board, she could start to get huge out of nowhere.

At this point in the game, the Prossh player had 31 Kobolds and a Blood Artist on board and everyone was afraid of attacking each other for fear of the clapback. I managed to be sneaky and talk the Prossh player into killing the Jodah player because he was at exactly 31 life. We know he runs cards like Omniscience and Enter the Infinite, and with Avacyn on the board he could drop an Obliterate at any point. He was suspicious of my Blasting Station but I promised him I didn't have any combos and everything in my hand was an even CMC, and he set me back with a Vandalblast leaving me with only 5 lands.

So, the Prossh player did the thing. He sacrificed all 31 Kobolds, used all 31 Blood Artist triggers and killed the Jodah player. He was at 60 life somehow or another, so he wasn't threatened by the Jarad player's sizable board. I haven't mentioned the Jarad player much at this point because even though he had a huge, scary board, he hadn't been doing much and was afraid to attack. I inform the Prossh player that Elenda gained 31 +1/+1 counters. He doesn't think to attack with the beefed up Prossh and passes turn because he was so busy thinking about the Blood Artist triggers, but I had the Reveillark on board to block and Prossh didn't have Trample so I can say with a clean conscience that I didn't deserve to be dead after the fact. The Jarad player didn't want to attack into my 32/32 Elenda and cause me to gain 32 life and didn't have any removal. I'm getting low on life and there's a ton of creatures on board. I play a land, a Suture Priest and Teysa Karlov now that the Void Winnower is gone.

Prossh player only has Blood Artist and Prossh left and no sac outlet, so he can't generate more Kobolds. I attack into the Jarad player to force the life gain. On the Jarad player's next turn he sacrifices a bunch of creatures to Jarad to try to lower my life total back down. Elenda gets bigger and becomes a 41/41. At the end of the Jarad player's turn, I sacrifice Reveillark to the Blasting Station and deal 1 damage to the Prossh player, bringing back Fiend Hunter. When it enters the battlefield, I stack the triggers so that Blasting Station untaps first, then Fiend Hunter's trigger goes onto the stack. I target the Prossh player's Blood Artist, then sacrifice the Fiend Hunter to the Blasting Station in response so that the Blood Artist stays exiled.

I'm still not drawing into any removal or board wipes, but both my remaining opponents are expending a lot of their resources to try to find a way to deal with Elenda. They can chump block her all day long, and though I'd keep gaining an absurd amount of life, I don't know if either of them have infinite combos in their deck. Jund and Golgari don't have ways to exile her, but keeping her on the board seems risky. Next turn I'll just kill the Prossh player. I pass turn and the Prossh player plays a draw spell but doesn't have a hand otherwise.

The Jarad player doesn't have anything to deal with my board and passes, so at the end of his turn I sacrifice Elenda to Blasting Station. Teysa doubles her trigger, I create 82 1/1 Lifelink Vampires and gain 82 life from Suture Priest. On my turn, I draw Cruel Celebrant, which is the perfect insurance against any board wipes. Since I created all the Vampires at the end of Jarad's turn, I can swing into the Prossh player's practically empty board and kill him on the spot, gaining 82 more life. With the Cruel Celebrant on the board insuring victory even if he wipes the board, the Jarad player offers me his hand and says good game.

PHEW.

Some politic work did the heavy lifting here and allowed me to survive despite having next to nothing to do most of the game. I sat with Doom Foretold and Ashen Rider in my hand most of the game. Ashen Rider is a temporary card as somethings came up and I unfortunately had to sell some cards. Doom Foretold is most likely coming out and I'm going to consider the test a failure. I definitely got caught up in the "new shiny Orzhov" card moment, because when I think about it, I wouldn't run Magus of the Abyss in this deck, so it doesn't make sense for me to try to run Doom Foretold. I need to take a hard look at Elenda, as she has actually shifted dramatically from when I originally made this thread. I'll be updating the list above soon!

RowanKeltizar · Post by **RowanKeltizar** » 4 years ago

Hey @Kelzam, I enjoyed reading your last post. Some fun stuff.

I recently built an Elenda deck as well. I wanted to build vampire tribal but didn't want to go with Markov because I already have a Mardu deck and I think Markov is a bit overdone. Elenda's ability seemed like a really interesting thing to build around. Our lists are definitely quite different. Interesting to see where you took her. You undoubtedly have more experience with her than me, so I wanted to tap your brain a bit.

This list is posted exactly as I currently own it in paper. Because it's fairly new I am missing some obvious includes such as Enlightened Tutor. Any feedback would be appreciated.

SPOILER

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Decklist

1 Elenda, the Dusk Rose

VAMPS

1 Butcher of Malakir

1 Champion of Dusk

1 Bloodlord of Vaasgoth

1 Necropolis Regent

1 Mavren Fein, Dusk Apostle

1 Bloodghast

RAMP/MANA

1 Azor's Gateway

1 Sol Ring

1 Talisman of Hierarchy

1 Nyx Lotus

1 Everflowing Chalice

1 Wayfarer's Bauble

TUTORS

MASS REMOVAL

SPOT REMOVAL

1 Go for the Throat

1 Swords to Plowshares

1 Despark

1 Utter End

1 Return to Dust

1 Mortify

1 Vindicate

CONTROL

1 Authority of the Consuls

1 Blind Obedience

1 Ghostly Prison

CARD ADVANTAGE

1 Skullclamp

SUPPORT/LIFEGAIN

1 Blade of the Bloodchief

1 Beacon of Immortality

1 Ivory Tower

1 Blood Tribute

1 Darksteel Plate

1 Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord

1 Call the Bloodline

WIN CONS

1 Exsanguinate

1 Debt to the Deathless

1 Sanguine Bond

LANDS (36)

1 Command Tower

1 Isolated Chapel

1 Fetid Heath

1 Concealed Courtyard

1 Bojuka Bog

1 Barren Moor

11 Plains

11 Swamp

Approximate Total Cost:

WISH LIST

There are a ton of cards that would be good to acquire for this deck. It's one of my newer decks, so I haven't invested much in it yet till I get a good feel for what works and what doesn't.

Vampiric Tutor - big money, but I would drop it for this deck because it's on theme!!
Enlightened Tutor - derp! only goes in every white deck ever
Anointed Procession - although not fully utilized here as in other decks, I think it would still be worth having
Ancient Tomb - nice ramp on theme
Nim Deathmantle, Reanimate - should work well for what we are doing
Martyr's Bond - I could see this card finding a home here
Ad Nauseam - this is explicitly a combo deck, but I feel that a lifegain deck could use this card anyway
Kindred Dominance - one of the better one sided wipes for the deck I think
Land Tax, Smothering Tithe - powerful tax cards that are on theme
Hatred - hoping for a reprint, but definitely high on my priority list
Exquisite Blood - for obvious reasons
Austere Command - one of the best removal spells in the game
Patriarch's Bidding - certainly a card that would be good in this deck. Hoping for a reprint.,,,

Besides a bit of vampire tribal, the concept of my build is largely finding ways to weaponize lifegain or make the most use of the absurd amounts of life that Elenda can provide. Good examples of this are Bolas's Citadel and Sanguine Bond. Lifegain can be a really nice cushion in multiplayer since swarms of creatures hitting you might not actually make you lose. Commander damage is still an issue, but Orzhov has such nice targeted removal.

There are a few cards I was surprised to see weren't in your list and never talked about. I notice you have an "exclusions section" but nothing is in it. So here are a few cards I was wondering why you chose to omit:

Blade of the Bloodchief - I threw this card in the deck for thematic reasons but quickly realized just how powerful it can be with Elenda. It is so incredibly efficient to cast and equip. It makes all of your one-of sacs that much more potent, giving Elenda 3 counters instead of just 1. This card alone makes me want to slot in a bit of an equipment subtheme, maybe a few equipment tutors. I honestly can't picture the deck without it at this point.

Sanguine Bond - probably the main piece that allows me to weaponize my life gain. Something I don't ever see myself taking out.

Bolas's Citadel - unless dealt with, this card basically allows me to win the game, generating an obscene board presence or eventually topdecking my combo pieces. Because we are playing a lifegain deck, there is usually no ceiling to how many spells we can cast off this. The only thing that stops it is a second topdecked land, at which point if you have a fetchland or another shuffle effect, you can keep going. The tap ability is just icing really, but can knock out a player who is just barely clinging on.

Nim Deathmantle - haven't played it yet, but I think it has some potential with Elenda. Sure, it's a bit mana intensive, but I think it does what we need it to do. Probably some infinite combo potential as well.

Hatred - Haven't played with it yet, but plan on picking one up. Makes Elenda one shot someone usually, then make you a ton of tokens. Because Elenda has lifelink, you get all that life back. I see this as more of a way to generate tokens outside of having to sac creatures or kill our opponents stuff.

Divine Reckoning, Tragic Arrogance, Force of Despair - I've found that these types of removal spells to be really good with Elenda for the obvious reason that they skip over her and kill almost everything else. I'd even consider Cataclysm to seal the deal, since Elenda should be so huge that not much can stop her. Of course, you are leaning a bit more toward going wide than I am, but I think these types of one sided wipes might be worth building around since they are so efficient at giving Elenda counters.

Attrition - I don't have one yet, but I will probably slot it in for Dictate of Erebos. It is both a sac outlet and repeatable removal. Lower on curve too. All of our sacs with this should be giving Elenda 2 counters instead of just 1.

Black Market - I have found this to have good synergy. Sure, it gets removed, but so do other key pieces. Mostly I see it as an alternative way to get enough mana for a huge Exsanguinate.

Shadowspear, Sword of Vengeance - the most efficient ways to give Elenda trample that I can think of, and I do think that with a more voltronish approach, trample is pretty darn necessary for her. Less so for your list though, I know. But that equipment subtheme definitely sounds fun to me. Haste is also something that Orzhov has a hard time with.

Sevinne's Reclamation - this has granted me a lot of resilience. I'm running it in all of my white decks now simply because it is so effective at getting back key combo pieces (such as Ashnod's Altar or Skullclamp) if you have some fetchlands it can even ramp you. Land ramp in Orzhov, who knew?

Kelzam · Post by **Kelzam** » 4 years ago

Hey there Rowan! Thanks for posting! I'm going to talk about the cards you were asking about first, then I'll be taking a look at your list here in a bit

RowanKeltizar wrote: ↑
4 years ago
Hey Kelzam, I enjoyed reading your last post. Some fun stuff.

There are a few cards I was surprised to see weren't in your list and never talked about. I notice you have an "exclusions section" but nothing is in it. So here are a few cards I was wondering why you chose to omit:

Blade of the Bloodchief - It's true that this can make Elenda very big, but my biggest reason for not including it is that it only really works with Elenda. When I build aristocrat style decks, I try to avoid cards that don't interact with a web of other things or that won't be immediately effective. More often than not she gets really big passively through normal game play happening. I feel like her gaining 3 counters per creature dying will also draw attention to her a lot faster than her incrementally growing.

Sanguine Bond - When I made the deck I tried to keep my average CMC as low as possible so that I have a lot of options available to me. It's partially again taking into consideration the political ramifications. If I play Sanguine Bond, is everyone going to automatically assume Exquisite Blood will follow soon and nuke me? If I have 5-mana, do I want to spend it on life gain? I actually get a similar effect from Vizkopa Guildmage in the deck, but Vizkopa is easier to recur as a Creature, and it's 2nd ability stacks. It's less obvious to most players until everyone is about to die after I swing a 12/12 Elenda in to someone, and activate Vizkopa 2-3 times in response to blocks :D But also, it's another card that may well not make an impact when enters the battlefield, and for 5 CMC that doesn't sit too well with me.

Bolas's Citadel - This is a card I've overlooked a lot because I use Necropotence a lot in the deck to keep my hand full. I have Bolas's Citadel in about 3 other decks but haven't given it much consideration for Elenda because... well, I honestly find it kind of boring because it's so good. Not to be pretentious, but there's been a glut of cards like Bolas's Citadel in relatively recent times that just give you everything you need when you play them and this is definitely one of those cards. I don't blame anyone for playing it, and I may eventually try it out to see what happens. I do enjoy it more in decks with Blue so I can Mana Severance and remove Lands from the deck so I don't hit dead spots with it.

Nim Deathmantle - This card is pretty good and definitely has a place in a deck like this, but the main point was the mana intensity as you mentioned. I have a low average CMC goal for the deck and it works against that.

Hatred - This is a more personally philosophical choice. Frankly, I'm too empathetic to just one-shot one of the players at my store out of the game super early with a Hatred out of nowhere. Although I love building resilience into decks and making it extremely hard for players to take me out, I'm not a super aggressive player and I feel like people would laugh the first time and then get feel pretty slighted every time thereafter. I think knocking someone out with Hatred is akin to using Sorin Markov's -2, and as far as the casual nature of the format that feels pretty bad.

Divine Reckoning, Tragic Arrogance, Force of Despair - My initial build of the deck had Divine Reckoning, but over a lot of testing with it, I found that there was an obvious choice on the board my opponents would keep in the mid to late game and they were fine with losing everything else. The amount of kills I'd get to buff up Elenda was inconsistent because of everyone else playing board wipes as well, so it could be between 4-5 creatures or 8-10. I'd maybe get one swing in with her before she'd get removed, or whatever opponents had chosen to keep was something I didn't want to leave myself open to, so I'd have to hold her back to block. Tragic Arrogance isn't a card I've had too much experience with, but it's been so-so when I've played it. There's been several occasions where there just aren't great choices to make and the impact has been minimal, again because of board wipes and removal everyone else is playing. I haven't given much thought to Force of Despair because of the timing limitations.

Attrition - I tried this in my initial build, but I personally would rather stick with Dictate of Erebos, as it can eventually get around Hexproof and Indestructible. If Dictate triggers, you also get a 1-for-3 or 4, as opposed to a 1-for-1 + a couple counters on Elenda.

Black Market - I'm not so much worried about it being removed as it coming out later in the game. I prefer the average lower CMC in the deck, and for more expensive cards to immediately have an impact or do something when they hit the board. Truthfully, by the time this has a meaningful amount of counters on it, I tend to have all the mana I need.

Shadowspear, Sword of Vengeance - Right so, Elenda already having Lifelink has us mostly playing Shadowspear for the trample effect, and occasionally the activated ability. When I look at my list, I have a hard time imagining what to cut for it. I need to update the list, but I'm currently running Shizo, Death's Storehouse, as well as Sword of Light and Shadow and Sword of Feast and Famine which give her protection so she can often just charge through at least one player at the table without being blocked.

Sevinne's Reclamation - I don't run fetchlands, but I do already run Sun Titan, which through reanimation shenanigans and attacking every turn does the same effect. Ditto with Restoration Specialist! If I could find a cut I were willing to make for it, I'd probably consider running it to have because most of the more important cards in the deck are indeed 3 mana or less. I'm already having to make room for a few other cards I eventually hope to get too, though (Teferi's Protection).

RowanKeltizar · Post by **RowanKeltizar** » 4 years ago

Something I've always liked when reading primers is some kind of acknowledgement of other legitimate directions that particular commander can take, even if that's not the direction you personally chose. Some people even put together alternate decklists. It gives the potential builder some awareness of those options when trying to put together a deck of their own. Just a suggestion.

The other critique I have is that your list is definitely more on the costly side at $700. That is to be expected for a deck that you've owned for a while and is at a certain level of competitiveness, but, someone just starting to build the deck might be at a bit of a loss as to where to start. I try to put together a shell that costs less than $200 for people to have something to start with, that still more or less accomplishes the same thing. In order to do this, the average cost of each non-land card has to be somewhere around $3.

I make these comments just as someone who is actually trying to build the deck, with limited budget and limited experience with the commander.

The following is also just me thinking out loud as I theorycraft the deck. Take it or leave it, but you may want to add some of this to your primer in the relevant sections: "why aren't you running" and "retirees and honorable mentions" to avoid having to explain it later.

Blade of the Bloodchief - It's true that this can make Elenda very big, but my biggest reason for not including it is that it only really works with Elenda. When I build aristocrat style decks, I try to avoid cards that don't interact with a web of other things or that won't be immediately effective. More often than not she gets really big passively through normal game play happening. I feel like her gaining 3 counters per creature dying will also draw attention to her a lot faster than her incrementally growing.

The lack of synergy with the rest of your deck is certainly an issue. In my list, the only other creatures are vampires, so there is a bit more synergy there, some of which have lifelink. I can beef up a life-linker in place of Elenda if she isn't on the field. But Elenda, unlike some other commanders will see a lot of battlefield time. I don't know, I think this is still a good option for some people, especially if they are going more voltron, or equipment.

I would think if anything, our opponents will probably target the sword, in which case it just soaked up some removal for us. If they hit Elenda, then we just got some tokens. I've never really subscribed to the philosophy: "lets not play big threats because it will make us a target" My approach is more: "Don't get too far ahead of the rest of the table unless you can deal with the consequences" or simply: "develop your board state at the same pace as the rest of the table."

Nim Deathmantle - This card is pretty good and definitely has a place in a deck like this, but the main point was the mana intensity as you mentioned. I have a low average CMC goal for the deck and it works against that.

I think... and correct me if I'm wrong, this goes infinite with Elenda, the Dusk Rose and Ashnod's Altar. If Elenda has enough counters, sac her to Altar. Tap for 2 more mana to bring her back to play with deathmantle, then sac the tokens to put more counters on Elenda, then sac Elenda, then bring her back...etc... you need to net at least one more token each time than you started with. Don't forget that Deathmantle attaches, giving her +2/+2 right off the bat, making 3 tokens when you sac her.

But besides, that, Elenda costs at least 4 to replay through most other means of recursion that you have already. Say you brought her back to your hand with Phyrexian Reclamation. That's 6 mana to put her back on the battlefield, vs the 4 that deathmantle takes, assuming it's already on the field. Worth noting: if you are casting Elenda from your hand you make yourself vulnerable to counterspells. With deathmantle, you aren't casting anything.

Hatred - This is a more personally philosophical choice. Frankly, I'm too empathetic to just one-shot one of the players at my store out of the game super early with a Hatred out of nowhere. Although I love building resilience into decks and making it extremely hard for players to take me out, I'm not a super aggressive player and I feel like people would laugh the first time and then get feel pretty slighted every time thereafter. I think knocking someone out with Hatred is akin to using Sorin Markov's -2, and as far as the casual nature of the format that feels pretty bad.

I generally agree with you. It's probably more of a 1v1 type of card, however, if someone is about to win, or has seriously screwed with everyone at the table, they might just deserve to be one shotted. I wouldn't do it to just anyone at any point. For that reason it probably should go into the situationally good cards pile, therefore not as likely to make the cut. Pretty bad to have in your opening hand. Worth noting though: you don't have to attack. You can pay some life to buff her up then just sac her for the tokens. 5cmc is definitely on the high end though. Certainly pros and cons.

Divine Reckoning, Tragic Arrogance, Force of Despair - My initial build of the deck had Divine Reckoning, but over a lot of testing with it, I found that there was an obvious choice on the board my opponents would keep in the mid to late game and they were fine with losing everything else. The amount of kills I'd get to buff up Elenda was inconsistent because of everyone else playing board wipes as well, so it could be between 4-5 creatures or 8-10. I'd maybe get one swing in with her before she'd get removed, or whatever opponents had chosen to keep was something I didn't want to leave myself open to, so I'd have to hold her back to block. Tragic Arrogance isn't a card I've had too much experience with, but it's been so-so when I've played it. There's been several occasions where there just aren't great choices to make and the impact has been minimal, again because of board wipes and removal everyone else is playing. I haven't given much thought to Force of Despair because of the timing limitations.

I definitely hear where you're coming from. I think if you are using these types of wipes, you either need enough spot removal, or a way to get damage through with Elenda (trample, fear, etc....) In my limited experience though, they have been really effective at giving her counters and keeping her on the table. Best to not include too many of these however, as I agree with your points, they are a bit situational. When they work, they work well, but they can be a miss.

I have found Force of Despair to really be an all star. So much so that I run it in all three of my black decks. I always feel a lot safer with it in my hand. There are several opponents that I regularly play against who can have very explosive turns, putting down multiple huge threats, or swarms of creatures. Najeela, the Blade-Blossom being one of those commanders. Any green deck also tends to do this. >.> But besides that, even if it only hits one relevant creature, we are using it to pretty good effect as a "spot removal" Potentially free, but three mana isn't too bad for the effect. If you have a black card you are willing to exile you can tap out, otherwise just leave the mana open.

Attrition - I tried this in my initial build, but I personally would rather stick with Dictate of Erebos, as it can eventually get around Hexproof and Indestructible. If Dictate triggers, you also get a 1-for-3 or 4, as opposed to a 1-for-1 + a couple counters on Elenda.

I find myself sitting on Dictate of Erebos and Grave Pact instead of casting them in both decks that run them. Partly because of the mana cost, but generally they aren't getting me much closer to my own end-game. In theory they are good, but often I skip over casting them. Not sure why. For that reason, I am personally looking at other options.

The theory with Attrition is that you will be saccing tokens, and hitting your opponents big threats and utility creatures, but mainly I like that it is another sac outlet for us. With something like Bloodghast, you have a pretty scary removal engine.

Shadowspear, Sword of Vengeance - Right so, Elenda already having Lifelink has us mostly playing Shadowspear for the trample effect, and occasionally the activated ability. When I look at my list, I have a hard time imagining what to cut for it. I need to update the list, but I'm currently running Shizo, Death's Storehouse, as well as Sword of Light and Shadow and Sword of Feast and Famine which give her protection so she can often just charge through at least one player at the table without being blocked.

Shadowspear might be a good budget alternative to some of the options you mentioned, although, the price on it is going up. Yes, the lifelink is redundant, and it bothers me. Maybe it's not doing enough, I haven't had enough experience with the activated ability yet.

But I do think exploring an equipment subtheme is worth discussion. Thankfully in white we have access to: Steelshaper's Gift, Open the Armory, and Stoneforge Mystic among a few others, but those are the better ones. Elenda doesn't have any great evasion. I WISH she had flying, but oh well. Equipment serves to get her damage through and protect her (in addition to the aforementioned combo pieces).

Jonas Ukulore · Post by **Jonas Ukulore** » 3 years ago

Commanders hitting CZ now fire deathtriggers. This must be great news for Elenda?

Kelzam · Post by **Kelzam** » 3 years ago

Regarding the rules update, I can say based on an extensive amount of experience playing her, that I feel like it'll actually end up being a meager difference. At least I feel it is. With a combination of Anointed Procession + Ashnod's Altar and either Phyrexian Altar or Pitiless Plunderer, you can go near infinite looping her out of the Command Zone. Without Anointed Procession, you have to have a way to be massively buffing her power with a static effect as she dies. Despite Smothering Tithe, Orzhov doesn't have the best ramp outside of getting into a loop.

I find Elenda's real power to be in a deck's small incremental gains such as sacrificing a Snake from Ophiomancer on every turn, or sacrificing Elenda every turn while she has Gift of Immortality attached to her. In most cases you want to be reanimating her from the graveyard somehow, or getting her back with Phyrexian Reclamation to avoid paying the Command tax. With the lack of ramp outside the occasional Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth + Cabal Coffers (which really isn't worth it without Urborg in a 2 color deck), or entering an end game board state with mana generation effects such as the altars, Plunderer, etc., you really want to avoid casting her from the Command Zone because you have to tie up all of your mana into getting her back out there.

I'm sure there'll be games where people can manage to set up the Magical Christmas Land Perfect Scenario where the change comes to fruition as being very powerful for her. But really, in the end, I don't foresee it amounting to a noticeable difference. I think Roalesk, Apex Hybrid and Kokusho, the Evening Star probably gain the most from the change since a double proliferate is a huge impact for Simic which has great ramp capabilities (Gyre Sage); and Kokusho in Mono-B has access to Caged Sun and all of those effects, as well as Coffers, Urborg, Deserted Temple, Vesuva, Crypt Ghast, etc.

With all of that said, I'm full glad that they made the change because it's so intuitive that they would trigger when they die. I've had so many players, both new and old, that start Commander or were playing all this time and assumed the rules worked this way, to begin with. Telling them that it didn't work never made a game better or did anything other than disappoint people.

With the sudden interest in Elenda I'm going to be trying to finish fleshing the primer out and updating the list this tonight and tomorrow

Edit: P.S. - I actually wrote a lengthy post a while back responding to you, @RowanKeltizar, but apparently the forums ate it and I never realized the post didn't go through. I'll be adding a budget version as you suggested, and some alternate builds

RowanKeltizar · Post by **RowanKeltizar** » 3 years ago

Weird, I never received the @tag notification, but popped in here anyway to see if you replied!

I absolutely agree with you about the rules change. You don't want to pay commander tax on Elenda, and Elenda will and should die frequently to get those death triggers. I foresee the only time I would choose to put her in the command zone instead of the yard is if I don't have any reanimation or recursion effect in hand or in play, which is rare since those cards are so necessary to Elenda's strategy. It is certainly an improvement but like you said, meager if you are building the deck properly.

I do have one card I wanted to bring up with you in regards to this commander: K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth I think I jumped the gun and purchased this card when he was first released and way overpaid for it. He hasn't been nearly as popular as I would have thought. Originally, I had wanted to have him in case I wanted to build mono-black but he's sat in my binder for months not getting any use. So. I decided to throw him in Elenda just to see what happened.

Aaaand... I think he's fantastic! he allows us to do something that Ozhov doesn't usually get to do, which is cheat things into play directly from our hand (dropping Necropotence for free feels nice!) and generally reduce the cost of all our black spells. It gives us a sweet outlet for all our lifegain effects. You could probably view this card as 4: You don't have to pay the black mana cost for spells you cast.

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