An idealized update for my Emmara Vehicles EDH deck.
Emmara is such an inspiring leader that she can summon an army of attendants merely by stepping in and out of a car. In order to support her in this endeavor, we want to provide her a car and get her to get in it as many times as possible per turn. This deck wins through combat after flooding the board with tokens, by grinding out value and life churning through said tokens, or by shooting down the whole table with a single combo. It is very resilient to enemy interaction and, while it does have a decent interaction package of it's own, it typically forces opponents to delay or disrupt their own plans to deal with us.
Tapping Emmara:
Tapping Emmara is the goal of the deck. Each time we do so we get at least 1 lifelink 1/1 soldier token. We aim to win by either establishing a tapping loop or, more likely, just drowning our opponents in a flood of sideways cardboard.
The 8 vehicles in the deck are all reasonable attacks, blockers, or provide some other value. But their main purpose is to allow Emmara to tap as many times a turn as we are able to untap her. Alongside the vehicles are numerous other ways to tap our elven pied-piper, whether to generate mana or just to engage in bloody combat.
Gustcloak Savior and Reconnaissance allow Emmara to lead her armies into battle without fear of actually having to fight. Furthermore they make it much easier to smash said armies into opposing board states and just takesies-backsies any problematic blocks. Tokens are expendable, but these make them less so.
Springleaf Drum, Holdout Settlement, Survivors' Encampment, Cryptolith Rite, Citanul Hierophants, and Earthcraft all allow Emmara (and others) to cosplay as a Bird of Paradise.
Selesnya Evangel can team up to generate twice the token fun, and both she and Stonybrook Schoolmaster can act as Emmara's understudies in a pinch.
Finally, Glare of Subdual gives us complete control of combat, given enough tokens.
Undoing the last step:
Untapping Emmara is a little trickier, but we do have a number of ways to do that.
Seedborne Muse and Quest for Renewal give us extra untap steps, but it's important to note that these don't stack.
Copperhorn Scout untaps the whole team once a turn, and does so very effectively when supported by Gustcloak Savior or Reconnaissance.
Honor-Worn Shaku and Thousand-Year Elixir pull double duty by untapping things and providing other utility.
Curse of Bounty lets us untap whenever we attack a specific target and provides a useful political tool.
Thronbite Staff and Umbral Mantle, under specific circumstances, give us what we really want: infinite untaps. But we'll discuss that in a little more depth further on.
Resource management:
Between 13 pieces of mana ramp, 7 sources of repeatable card advantage, and Emmara's low starting cost, we can build and rebuild our board quickly and repeatedly.
Notable inclusions:
Toski, Bearer of Secrets, Path of Discovery, and Idol of Oblivion can all draw absurd amounts of cards over the course of a game. Never crack the idol though, it's not worth it.
Harvest Season and Growing Rites of Itlimoc
both get better as we get more creatures, but don't be afraid to use them early on. They don't need much to be good.
Selvala, Explorer Returned makes the whole table happy, gives you mana and cards, and holds certain equipment very effectively. She is worth protecting if we can.
Ashnod's Altar and Skullclamp would like to remind you that soldier tokens are expendable pieces of cardboard that cannot get mad at you.
Dealing with problems:
We have Aura Shards for repeatable artifact/enchantment hate. We have Swords to Plowshares, Beast Within, and Conclave Tribunal for when really need that thing gone. (We also have Kabira Takedown
in a pinch). And when we need to clear the board, Hour of Reckoning and Martial Coup let us do so while maintaining an advantageous board.
On the defensive side, Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots protect the VIPs while Heroic Intervention, Flawless Maneuver, Selfless Spirit take care of everyone else.
Winning the game
First we'll want to grow our armies with Anointed Procession and/or Parallel Lives. Next, make them bigger with Cathars' Crusade and Divine Visitation. Kamahl, Fist of Krosa is a repeatable Overrun and can threaten our opponents' lands alongside Thornbite Staff or Blasting Station. Beastmaster Ascension and Return of the Wildspeaker are excellent at ending the game out of nowhere. (Fun fact: Soldiers are not humans, and neither is Skysovereign, Consul Flagship!)
Speaking of Thornbite Staff and Blasting Station these can be used to convert tokens into damage through a number of infinite combos. The combos have many replaceable parts but all require a) a method of untapping Emmarra (Thornbite Staff, Umbral Mantle, etc.), b) a way of tapping Emmara (any vehicle, Cryptolith Rite, Earthcraft, etc.), and c) a way to turn tokens into advantage (Ashnod's Altar, Blasting Station, etc). Open the Armory finds the staff or mantle, and Enlightened Tutor finds essentially any combo piece or utility that we could need.
Some notable combos include:
Infinite damage combos:
Emmara, Soul of the Accord + Thornbite Staff + Blasting Station + any vehicle
Emmara, Soul of the Accord + Thornbite Staff + Ashnod's Altar
Infinite enters triggers (handy with Champion of Lambholt and Path of Discovery):
Emmara, Soul of the Accord + Umbral Mantle + Earthcraft + token doubler
Emmara, Soul of the Accord + Umbral Mantle + Cryptolith Rite + Ashnod's Altar
Emmara, Soul of the Accord + Umbral Mantle + Citanul Hierophants + Ashnod's Altar
Infinite mana:
Emmara, Soul of the Accord + Umbral Mantle + Cryptolith Rite + Ashnod's Altar + Thousand-Year Elixir
Emmara, Soul of the Accord + Umbral Mantle + Citanul Hierophants + Ashnod's Altar + Thousand-Year Elixir
Closing remarks
I hope anyone who finds this deck enjoys it as much as I have. It is positively explosive and impressively resilient. And I'll never get over the absurdity of killing the table by getting in and out of a car.
Enjoy!
