Niccolo Machiavelli- The Prince

Commander / EDH Casual Combo Control Counterspell Infinite Combo Midrange Multiplayer Ninja UB (Dimir)

fragarach97

Creature (26)

• 1x Baleful Strix
• 1x Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1x Cavern Harpy
• 1x Clever Impersonator
• 1x Cloud of Faeries
• 1x Consecrated Sphinx
• 1x Dauthi Voidwalker *f-pre*
• 1x Deadeye Navigator
• 1x Dimir Infiltrator
• 1x Faerie Artisans
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Opposition Agent
• 1x Palinchron
• 1x Phantasmal Image
• 1x Shadowmage Infiltrator
• 1x Shriekmaw
• 1x Silent-Blade Oni
• 1x Snapcaster Mage
• 1x Trophy Mage
• 1x Twilight Prophet
• 1x Higure, the Still Wind
• 1x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  ^Flip
• 1x Thada Adel, Acquisitor
• 1x Vendilion Clique
• 1x Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Dire Undercurrents
• 1x Imprisoned in the Moon
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Rhystic Study

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Narset, Parter of Veils
• 1x Tamiyo, the Moon Sage

Land (36)

• 8x Island
• 6x Swamp
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Creeping Tar Pit
• 1x Darkwater Catacombs
• 1x Dimir Aqueduct
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Fetid Pools
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x River of Tears
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 1x Sunken Ruins
• 1x Temple of Deceit
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold

Sorcery (9)

• 1x Baral's Expertise
• 1x Beseech the Queen
• 1x Black Sun's Zenith
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Rite of Replication
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Windfall
• 1x Yawgmoth's Will

Commander (1)

Artifact (12)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Cloudstone Curio
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Dowsing Dagger  ^Flip
• 1x Relic of Progenitus
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1x Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1x Sword of Once and Future *f-pre*
• 1x Sword of Sinew and Steel
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Thought Vessel

Instant (10)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Cryptic Command
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Evacuation
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Mystic Confluence
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

---

Maybeboard

Land (3)

• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Tolaria West
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Ashiok, Dream Render

Instant (1)

• 1x Wretched Confluence

---

"Vela snuffs out every trace of Krond's reign, leaving pure nightfall in her wake."

In a world of politics, backstabbing, and deals, Vela sits atop a throne of those she has trampled to reach the top. Though she lacks a spark herself, one Planeswalker she triumphed over in the past held on their body a book... a book called 'The Prince'. From this, Vela learned much she did not know and repurposed that which she did to become the shadowy Queen of the Commander Table.

For the past years she has honed her power, built her army in the shadows, and added to her arsenal. She has claimed many a sword for herself and her personal armory, purchased the loyalty of some of finest spies, assassins, and ninjas, and has mastered some of the most powerful spells in the multiverse. With Bolas out of the picture, Vela sees a power vacuum, one that she can at the very least fill within her own Plane. Planeswalker she may not be, but she can strengthen her hold in her own. Once Krond's out of the picture and night reigns... then she will be ready in case another New Phyrexia arises.

Deck Theme

"I am The Night Clad, The Queen of the Night. How many of you have already fallen to me... thinking that they can outlast that which shall outlast the very plane itself. When the sun finally dies, there in that darkness shall my reign be eternal. In that coldness, with naught but the light of long-dead stars to remember the day by, I shall keep this land in its perfect entropy. Krond's reign is ephemeral, someday it shall end... and beckon the eternity of mine own. So you think can you stop the coming night? Trophy mage, fetch me my sword. I shall end their hubris personally."

Why Vela?

Many years ago, when I was first thinking over who my first deck would be, I scrounged around in my LGS' $2-$10 card bin seeing if I could find anyone that scratched my deck building itch. That's when I saw Vela. The foil, Commander's Arsenal Vela that eventually became my first commander and, to this very day, is my favorite deck I've ever had the pleasure of piloting.

Now it wasn't love at first sight, I simply picked her up to keep her as a potential option because I adored how open-ended she was. When I did settle on her though... that was when I fell in love. I looked through so many resources seeing what cards could synergize with her, looked to capitalize on every piece of text on the card, but still make a deck that could function if Vela simply wasn't the best option available to me. Over the period of the next several years, my Vela has grown into the beauty you see above. I love this deck to death, and would likely trade my first born child away instead of it.

As for why specifically, ignoring the mushy nonsense... Vela symbolizes what I value the most in any deck: flexibility. You can build her in several ways, and mix and match each part of all of her possible playstyles without them bumping heads (though this requires some deftness and trial and error). She can switch gears from control, to combo, to aggro so fast some people might mistake you for a red deck. On top of that, the aforementioned open-endedness of the card makes it so there are a bunch of possible cards that are both enhanced by Vela and also greatly enhance her. She's like a puzzle box to build (and pilot in the case of my build), but isn't that the best part of the format?

Why Not Veladrazi?

Veladrazi seems to be the most common way of playing her nowadays, if her EDHRec page is anything to go by, and I can understand why. It's a very budget-friendly way of playing the deck and a lot the cards for it are easy to find in bulk, however because of that dominating her page on the website I fear she might become type-cast as a commander for Eldrazi, when in due reality I think there's plenty of other ways to play that don't break the bank.

As a personal take, I consider Veladrazi to be one of weaker ways of playing the deck as well. I think there's a lot interesting directions you can take her, and that's just one of them that seems to be dominating the perception of what Vela can do.

Her Modus Operandi

This deck is best defined as a choose-your-own-adventure-book of win conditions. Each hand holds within it several paths to victory, if one win-condition gets stopped it's incredibly easy to switch gears to another. You can kill with combo, take out everyone's hands, and even kill with commander damage through swords and Vela's evasion. There is an element of politics as well, you can make deals to assist in taking down the dominant player, making yourself a valuable asset on the table. Politics, however, is a self-serving game. Vela will take the reigns sooner rather than later.

Make your promises and keep them, make deals and keep everyone to their word, leverage your adaptability as a weapon; you can afford setbacks while not everyone else can. Make your deals and keep your word, as "he who is highly esteemed is not easily conspired against."

Remember, you're not just playing a deck, you're playing a puzzle box seeking out its skeleton key, the right solution that will bring you the victory that is rightfully yours.

"If an injury has to be done to a man, it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared."

This is not necessarily how Vela wins the game, albeit she can win with these methods, consider this to be ways she makes her victory far more likely and puts herself in pole position.

Silent-Blade Oni: Or, as I call him, Vela's favorite tax collector. I have a funny story of a Momir Vig player who could have blocked him and a cloned copy, decided not to, and then I took a Mana Reflections and Mystical Tutor and won because of that. Making sure he connects is child's play at this point in Vela's lifespan, the more copies of him connect the faster I can make people lose to their own combos.

Dire Undercurrents: This appears, at first, as just an incidental value card... Then we drop Cavern Harpy or Grave Titan and instantly put our opponents in topdeck mode while we reap a constant supply of card advantage. There are also several other powerful options that turn the card's consistency up to eleven. I'm looking at you, Faerie Artisans and Cloudstone Curio.

Thada Adel, Acquisitor: What's that? You didn't open with Sol Ring? That's fine! Just yoink someone else's! This is one of those cards that has utility at every point of the game. Early game you can snatch Sol Rings, mid-game you can steal Mindslaver's or Gilded Lotus, and late you can see who's playing Blightsteel Colossus. But how does it fit into this category? Simple: using her costs us nothing, yet strips our opponents deck of valuable artifacts that they may have planned on fetching later. You can also gut Artifact-based combo decks such as Breya or Sharuum of certain vital pieces without needing to cast them, as Thada exiles the artifacts she steals if you don't cast them. On top of that, it would be foolish of us not to take note of everything in our opponents deck.

Baral's Expertise: The Expertise cycle is actually one of my favorites, even if it's only this one and Rishkar's that are really super good. This is capable of creating massive tempo swings and has been flashed back with Jace, Vryn's Prodigy   on more than one occasion. Expertise is a card you play to buy yourself time, or to put yourself into a position to start taking a dominant position on the field.

Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow: Kill her on sight, or this game's going to over dizzyingly quick. Of course it isn't just ripping a Grave Titan or Beseech off the top that's the problem for our opponents, it's our ease of access to our small, but strong core of ninjas, the array of equipment she can use to bury our opponents in advantage, and how she is GOING to pull us into one of our more potent win conditions if not dealt with immediately.

Pact of Negation: Once Vela has asserted dominance over our bickering opponents, she must keep her reign alive. This is how. Pact of Negation is her echoing shout for silence... those who dared to draw her ire then are executed by a Palinchron-Deadeye combo, personally puts them to death while dual-wielding Mirrodin swords, or ends them with Rite of Replication. Her word is absolute and final, as is her victory.

Mirrodin Swords: This deck has profoundly easy access to them via the tutors, the sheer quantity I run, as well as Trophy Mage being so easy to cycle. On their own, they are all strong and capable of making merry hell, but once I get two on the board (heaven forbid more than that) things get a little bit silly.

Cyclonic Rift: Because Cyclonic Rift.

"Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception."

Fitting our colors, we are a very deceptive deck that uses politics and trickery to our advantage. We have three opponents, and we will have to crush them beneath our heels at some point.

Rite of Replication: The trick everyone falls for at least once... This is our trump card. When kicked targetting Vela, the stacked triggers of six Vela's seeing five leave play at once causes each opponent to lose a whopping thirty life. Only cast when you can either win with it, or you have to in order to preserve yourself.

Grave Titan: This card draws boardwipes like shit draws flies... little do our opponents know, that's exactly what we want. When they do boardwipe, they're going to take an unholy amount of damage from Vela. If our opponents aren't keen on us chunking their life total with their own Wrath, we'll either do it ourselves, create an army by swinging and cloning the Titan, or tutor and use Dire Undercurrents to strip them of their precious cards. At first you may read this card and struggle to think about how it fits in, but it is another incredibly flexible piece that does far more than you might expect at first glance.

Snapcaster Mage: Snappy is already an incredibly strong card, but in this deck him returning to our hand is an inevitability and thus we get WAY more utility out of him that most other decks.

Cloud of Faeries: A simple flier and flexable cycler... that is also a combo piece. Infinite flickers with Deadeye Navigator turns into infinite damage with Vela, draws out everyone's decks with Dire Undercurrents, creates infinite mana in some circumstances, and is overall very flexible as we can cycle her away when a combo win with her isn't likely. On top of that, flying makes her an excellent Ninjutsu fodder creature. Overall, this 1/1 flier for two is capable of putting in a ton of work without anyone realizing it. There is also a very powerful combo I will get into later that isn't infinite...

Muddle the Mixture/Dimir Infiltrator: Now this deck is all about flexibility, and these two cards embody that. Though they seem very simple, our ability to transmute them into a variety of powerful two drops is keys. Time to heft the board? Turn Muddle into Cylconic Rift and watch people quit. Don't have anything to Ninjutsu? Turn Infiltator into a Phantasmal Image to grab half an infinite combo or clone the strongest creature on board. Need to reuse a boardwipe or a tutor to go for the combo kill? Fetch Jace or Snappy and flash back what you need. Even without transmutation, Muddle The Mixture is a counter that protects our pieces or disrupts, while Infiltrator is a low-cost evasive body to sneak in our Ninja package.

Yawgmoth's Will: As opposed to being a combo piece (although it can also be that), this card is more of... added insurance. I can protect combos by casting this with counterspells in the graveyard, recover from a boardwipe, recur important combo pieces... the list goes on. If you haven't noticed the theme of the deck is 'flexibility', then I don't know what to tell you.

Dauthi Voidwalker: A dirty enough card on its own, but in tandem with Dire Undercurrents this might as well read: "Add 1 card from your opponent's hand to yours". This is to say nothing of its extra utility, with Shadow making it an amazing Ninjutsu fodder. And it's grave hate. And it steals and opponent's spell. And it can be recycled with Volrath's Stronghold. I could go on for another handful of paragraphs, but I won't.

Opposition Agent: If Silent-Blade Oni is Mr. Steal-Yo-Shit, then this is Mrs. Steal-Yo-Shit. Realistically speaking, Opposition Agent requires now introduction, but in tandem with everything I've got on hand then I have a critical mass of ways to take my opponent's things.

Seize Your Crown

"He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command."

These are our combos. Be it incidental synergies that bring us closer to victory, or the way Vela wins. Unquestionably.

Deadeye Navigator + Palinchron : A ubiquitous infinite mana combo. In this deck, it turns into infinite flickers which in turn becomes infinite damage with our commander.

Cloud of Faeries + Deadeye Navigator : Not necessarily an auto-win button like above, as we must already control our commander, but that's a simple enough condition to meet. Still, there are ways to abuse this combo even if we don't have infinite damage.

Cavern Harpy + Dire Undercurrents : Absolutely disgusting. Your opponents don't need their hands, do they? Might as well part them from it while drawing a disgusting amount of cards.

Dire Undercurrents + Grave Titan : As I said above, your opponents don't need those cards anyways.

Cavern Harpy + Cloud of Faeries + Dire Undercurrents : Like the combos I listed above, only on steroids. It's hard to lose when you get this far ahead of everyone.

Palinchron + Phantasmal Image : Oh look yet another way to generate infinite mana and go for a combo kill with Vela. What an absolute surprise. You can substitute Image with any clone in the deck if Curio's on the field and you control your commander or have a land to tap for two or more mana, both of which are very feasible.

Cloudstone Curio + Trophy Mage : A value engine that will get you every last one of some of the best cards in your deck, and all you need to get it going it Trophy Mage and another creature in hand. It's a bit of something that chugs along rather than nets you a ton of advantage out of nowhere, but once you your swords out of your deck you're about to be off to the damn races.

Rite of Replication + Vela the Night-Clad : Our greatest trump card. I've already explained how this works above, so I won't repeat myself here.

Narset, Parter of Veils + Windfall : You get one card. I hope you're happy with it.

Dauthi Voidwalker + Narset, Parter of Veils + Windfall : You get one card, and I get everything you just pitched. Not to mention the resource denial of not allowing you to ever recover anything from the graveyard ever again.

There are many more interactions and synergies in the deck, it'd take me forever to list them all. Curious as to what they are? Build the deck yourself and find out!

Maybeboard

Wretched Confluence: I love this card to bits, but it may be unnecessary. That said, I can't just say no to this sort of power and, more importantly, flexibility. Have you noticed that that's kinda this deck's whole thing yet? Still, leaning heavy no.

Ashiok, Dream Render: I'm a blue deck. Not letting you have fun is in my damn job description.

Tolaria West: A possible include for its ability to tutor Volrath's Stronghold and Path of Negation. Not to mention the very real possibility of including the combination of Urborg and Cabal Coffers.

Cabal Coffers + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth : NOW THAT'S A LOTTA MANA!

This deck is not particularly easy to pilot and requires a keen sense of intuition and the ability to go with the flow rather and work with what the deck gives you, and it's not particularly fast either. If either of those are dealbreakers, then my Vela deck isn't for you. If, however, you find thrill in snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, take satisfaction in knowing that victory is yours and nobody else knows it yet, in finding win conditions you didn't even know existed years after building the deck... then join Vela's side.

The night is eternal, and shall outlast even the stars that dot its sky.

Top Ranked	Achieved #25 position overall 7 years ago Achieved #7 position in Commander / EDH 1 year ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Combo 1 year ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Counterspell 1 year ago
Date added	8 years
Last updated	1 year
Key combos	Deadeye Navigator + Palinchron Palinchron + Phantasmal Image Cabal Coffers + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth Cloud of Faeries + Deadeye Navigator Rite of Replication + Vela the Night-Clad Cavern Harpy + Dire Undercurrents Dire Undercurrents + Grave Titan Cavern Harpy + Cloud of Faeries + Dire Undercurrents Cloudstone Curio + Trophy Mage Narset, Parter of Veils + Windfall Dauthi Voidwalker + Narset, Parter of Veils + Windfall
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	15 - 0 Mythic Rares 47 - 0 Rares 11 - 0 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.25
Tokens	City's Blessing, Copy Clone, Emblem Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Emblem Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, Plant 0/2 G, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	EDH builds, Notable Decks, A+ Description, Possible decks, EDH, DEcks I like, Future junk, commander, Commander Decks, definitely