A Bear in the Garden

Commander / EDH GW (Selesnya) Theme/Gimmick

Pal00ka

Power 4+ (35)

• 1x Adarkar Valkyrie
• 1x Angelic Skirmisher
• 1x Archetype of Endurance
• 1x Avacyn, Guardian Angel
• 1x Conclave Naturalists
• 1x Entourage of Trest
• 1x Felidar Sovereign
• 1x Garruk's Harbinger
• 1x Garruk's Packleader
• 1x Genesis
• 1x Ghalta, Primal Hunger
• 1x God-Eternal Rhonas
• 1x Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma
• 1x Greenwarden of Murasa
• 1x Heliod, God of the Sun
• 1x Karametra, God of Harvests
• 1x Knight of Autumn
• 1x Kogla, the Titan Ape
• 1x Loxodon Hierarch
• 1x Nylea, God of the Hunt
• 1x Pelakka Wurm
• 1x Rampaging Baloths
• 1x Resolute Archangel
• 1x Sandstone Oracle
• 1x Soul of New Phyrexia
• 1x Soul of the Harvest
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Surrak, the Hunt Caller
• 1x Thalia's Lancers
• 1x Thought-Knot Seer
• 1x Thunderfoot Baloth
• 1x Ulvenwald Hydra
• 1x Ulvenwald Observer
• 1x Wayward Swordtooth
• 1x Wickerbough Elder

Mana (35)

• 1x Arch of Orazca
• 1x Blighted Woodland
• 1x Bonders' Enclave
• 1x Canopy Vista
• 12x Forest
• 1x Fortified Village
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 11x Plains
• 1x Sunpetal Grove
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Temple of Plenty
• 1x Wastes
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

CA (18)

• 1x Angelsong
• 1x Arch of Orazca
• 1x Bonders' Enclave
• 1x Cream of the Crop
• 1x Elemental Bond
• 1x Entourage of Trest
• 1x Forsake the Worldly
• 1x Garruk's Harbinger
• 1x Garruk's Packleader
• 1x Garruk's Uprising
• 1x Kavu Lair
• 1x Pelakka Wurm
• 1x Sandstone Oracle
• 1x Shamanic Revelation
• 1x Soul of the Harvest
• 1x Temple of Plenty
• 1x Ulvenwald Observer
• 1x Urza's Bauble

Support (18)

• 1x Angelic Skirmisher
• 1x Archetype of Endurance
• 1x Asceticism
• 1x Avacyn, Guardian Angel
• 1x Garruk's Uprising
• 1x Gleam of Resistance
• 1x God-Eternal Rhonas
• 1x Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma
• 1x Heliod, God of the Sun
• 1x Instill Energy
• 1x Knight of Autumn
• 1x Loxodon Hierarch
• 1x Nylea, God of the Hunt
• 1x Panharmonicon
• 1x Soul of New Phyrexia
• 1x Surrak, the Hunt Caller
• 1x Thunderfoot Baloth
• 1x Ulvenwald Hydra

Ramp (12)

• 1x Blighted Woodland
• 1x Emerald Medallion
• 1x Gleam of Resistance
• 1x Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma
• 1x Karametra, God of Harvests
• 1x Land Tax
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Rampant Growth
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Sword of the Animist
• 1x Ulvenwald Hydra
• 1x Wayward Swordtooth

Commander (1)

Interaction (18)

• 1x Angelsong
• 1x Aura of Silence
• 1x Avacyn, Guardian Angel
• 1x Blind Obedience
• 1x Conclave Naturalists
• 1x Day of Judgment
• 1x Disenchant
• 1x Forsake the Worldly
• 1x Hour of Revelation
• 1x Knight of Autumn
• 1x Kogla, the Titan Ape
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Shatter the Sky
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Thought-Knot Seer
• 1x Urza's Bauble
• 1x Wickerbough Elder
• 1x Wrath of God

Utility (18)

• 1x Adarkar Valkyrie
• 1x Angelic Skirmisher
• 1x Eerie Interlude
• 1x Ephemerate
• 1x Felidar Sovereign
• 1x Genesis
• 1x Gleam of Resistance
• 1x Greenwarden of Murasa
• 1x Heliod, God of the Sun
• 1x Instill Energy
• 1x Knight of Autumn
• 1x Loxodon Hierarch
• 1x Pelakka Wurm
• 1x Rampaging Baloths
• 1x Resolute Archangel
• 1x Shamanic Revelation
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Thalia's Lancers

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Maybeboard

Other (2)

• 1x Garruk's Harbinger
• 1x Land Tax

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Goal

• A stompy list where we want each creature we cast to have an immediate impact on the board and then be a combat threat the following turn to snowball out of control.

Categories

• Card Advantage are mainly spells based on power and toughness since all of our creatures are 4+/X+, like Shamanic Revelation, Garruk's Uprising, and Ulvenwald Observer.


• Ramp mainly low CMC spells like Nature's Lore, Emerald Medallion, and Land Tax that we can cast either with Selvala's parley ability, saving our actual mana for our creatures, or before said creatures can be cast since their average CMC is 4+.


• Interaction are spells that mess with our opponents like Radiant's Judgment, Wickerbough Elder and Thought-Knot Seer.


• Support are spells that protect or make our creatures more lethal in the combat step, like Archetype of Endurance, Heliod, God of the Sun, Surrak, the Hunt Caller.


• Utility are spells that gain life Resolute Archangel, recur cards from the bin Greenwarden of Murasa, and tutor for a legendary creature Thalia's Lancers.

Themes

• Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma is our “Secret Commander” and hence why every creature in the list has power 4+/X.


• ETB/passive-ability focus because many power 4+/X creatures are CMC4+ and we need immediate value for such costs; I chose those with relevancy to our categories so Entourage of Trest for card advantage, Conclave Naturalists for interaction, Nylea, God of the Hunt for support, and Loxodon Hierarch for utility.

Commander

• Selvala, Explorer Returned leads because her ability to come down early to get us ahead on both , life, and card advantage really helps the deck tick. Instill Energy is especially good with her for an extra activation but equally good on another creature to give Haste to smash in immediately.


• Karametra, God of Harvests was our previous leader but she was too slow. If I didn't have a ramp spell we were not doing much till T6 which was sometimes our death knell. She is still great and fits our parameters so into the ramp category she goes!

Game Plan

• Get Selvala out early and with fortunate activations and draws we can churn out value creatures to pull ahead of our opponents.


• Find a card advantage outlet like Elemental Bond so we can draw as we cast our creatures, control the board to a degree Wickerbough Elder while trying not to overcommit too early unless we have protection Soul of New Phyrexia.


• We have ideally found our mother-bear Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma, have a sizable board and sources of Support like trample Thunderfoot Baloth or haste Surrak, the Hunt Caller and protection Archetype of Endurance so we can get in the red while not being left too exposed.

Winning

• Going wide via a combination of trample enablers Nylea, God of the Hunt, +X/0 God-Eternal Rhonas, and extra keywords Angelic Skirmisher.


• Felidar Sovereign on upkeep is slow but we can keep our life total high via Selvala, Resolute Archangel, Pelakka Wurm and Shamanic Revelation.

Musings

• Definitely will have to casually drop pre-game that this is not a competitive Selvala list. That will become quickly evident but people may want to kill us anyway once they see how we can churn out threat after threat.


• Thought-Knot Seer may seem an odd inclusion but I have found its hand-hate to be crucial in stymieing a combo or blowout removal.


• Blind Obedience pulls double duty in draining and buffing life but in stymieing our opponents from immediately having blockers, which works perfectly within our strategy.


• Genesis is especially helpful because we are so creature heavy. Making our graveyard an extension of our hand late-game in case we flood out could swing the game back in our favor. Especially with a couple ways to avoid being overrun Angelsong.

Thoughts to improve are welcome and appreciated!

Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Exclude colors	UBR
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	10 - 0 Mythic Rares 43 - 0 Rares 14 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	4.05
Tokens	Beast 4/4 G, City's Blessing, Enchantment Cleric 2/1 W, Monarch Emblem