Alela: Artifacts, Treasure and Sacrifice [primer]

Commander / EDH Artifact Sacrifice Tokens WUB (Esper)

MattouWolf

Land (29)

• 1x Academy Ruins
• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Darkslick Shores
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Gemstone Caverns
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hall of Heliod's Generosity
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Morphic Pool
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Scrubland
• 1x Sea of Clouds
• 1x Spire of Industry
• 1x Tundra
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Urza's Saga
• 1x Watery Grave

Creature (8)

• 1x Walking Ballista
• 1x Esper Sentinel
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat
• 1x Opposition Agent
• 1x Sai, Master Thopterist
• 1x Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1x Pitiless Plunderer
• 1x Thopter Assembly

Artifact (26)

• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Grim Monolith
• 1x Idol of Oblivion
• 1x Isochron Scepter
• 1x Liquimetal Torque
• 1x Sword of the Meek
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Progress
• 1x Thopter Foundry
• 1x Time Sieve
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Bident of Thassa
• 1x Krark-Clan Ironworks
• 1x Bolas's Citadel

Instant (13)

• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Abjure
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Silence
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dramatic Reversal
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Fierce Guardianship
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Spell Swindle

Commander (1)

Enchantment (21)

• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x All That Glitters
• 1x Bitterblossom
• 1x Blind Obedience
• 1x Frogify
• 1x Aura of Silence
• 1x Estrid's Invocation
• 1x Imprisoned in the Moon
• 1x Mirrormade
• 1x Monologue Tax
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Anointed Procession
• 1x Coastal Piracy
• 1x Grave Pact
• 1x Mechanized Production
• 1x Reconnaissance Mission
• 1x Smothering Tithe
• 1x Cathars' Crusade
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Kindred Discovery
• 1x Revel in Riches

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent

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Alela midrangy deck, focusing on gathering value with tons of free creatures created by playing artifacts / enchantments. Few combo wins included but you can just as easily win with creature damage.

KEY FEATURES OF THIS BUILD:

• Draw power
• Amazing synergy with artifacts(thopters/treasure) and focusing on them
• Swarm of pesky and lethal fairies
• All the best mana rocks, we will need and use tons of mana to speed up our game-plan.
• Interesting combo wins

I decided to go for the more versatile win conditions in this build, I already have a fast focused build that plays with just Razaketh, the Foulblooded as your only creature.
I'll probably have to build one extra simple build just focused on making more fariries and making them as strong as possible with enough protection and counter spells.
This is probably the most fun deck version out of all three having numerous win cons and ways to get there ^^ enjoy playing it if you decide to build it.

Changes

June/12/2021

IN Esper Sentinel Urza's Saga Liquimetal Torque

OUT Buried Ruin Mycosynth Lattice Prying Blade

July/14/2021

IN Estrid's Invocation

OUT Hullbreacher - banned

DRAW POWER

We got some insane draw power in this deck in cards like:

1. Kindred Discovery
2. Reconnaissance Mission
3. Coastal Piracy
4. Bident of Thassa
5. Skullclamp

And some more draw power:

1. Mystic Remora
2. Rhystic Study
3. Esper Sentinel
4. Idol of Oblivion
5. Sensei's Divining Top rearrange, exchange top card with SDT. Second ability may be activated in response to its first ability.
6. Bolas's Citadel not really a draw but enables us to play cards from top of library.
7. Sai, Master Thopterist

SACRIFICE

As we generate enough creature tokens once Alela, Artful Provocateur , Bitterblossom , Sai, Master Thopterist , Mechanized Production or Thopter Foundry + Sword of the Meek are on the field, we can use sacrifice outlets to get us some mana and remove opponents creatures, or generate more Treasure tokens.
Anointed Procession is quite useful here, generating us twice as much tokens.

Main sacrificial outlets:

• Phyrexian Altar
• Ashnod's Altar
• Krark-Clan Ironworks works only for artifacts, Mycosynth Lattice makes all permanents artifacts

Minor sac outlets, one use per turn or pay mana to use etc.

• Phyrexian Tower
• Skullclamp
• Abjure
• Diabolic Intent
• Bolas's Citadel

Opponent's creature removal:

• Grave Pact
• Dictate of Erebos

Damage and lifegain:

• Zulaport Cutthroat

Treasure token generator:

• Pitiless Plunderer

DRAMATIC SCEPTER COMBO

Having Isochron Scepter with imprinted Dramatic Reversal on it and mana rocks than generate atleast we can infinitely cast Dramatic Reversal each time all of our nonland permanents.

There's few win outlets as a 3rd combo piece in our deck:

• Aetherflux Reservoir
• Blind Obedience - need / mana to activate extort effect on each cast
• Walking Ballista use infinite mana to kill everyone off with ballista's ability
• Idol of Oblivion will give us infinite draw if we had created token this turn, and from then on we can find an answer to win the game.
• Not included anymore, but you can also mill infinitely all your opponents to death with Codex Shredder

A bit more fun combinations: Thopter Foundry + Sword of the Meek creates us infinite thopter artifact tokens we can use to win next turn with combat damage or Mechanized Production at our upkeep.
immediately we can grab a win if we also have Time Sieve or Bolas's Citadel or Zulaport Cutthroat + sac outlet on the field.

BOLAS'S CITADEL + SENSEI'S DIVINING TOP + AETHERFLUX RESERVOIR

Bolas's Citadel is strong card on its own, but fun starts when we stumble upon Sensei's Divining Top which enables us to keep diging deeper into our library by drawing unwanted lands or high mana cost spells. And Once we find Aetherflux Reservoir we have infinite combo by constantly playing Sensei's Divining Top and getting storm life through Aetherflux Reservoir .

THOPTER FOUNDRY + SWORD OF THE MEEK

Another very fun combo of Thopter Foundry + Sword of the Meek that's kinda easy to assemble since we can access Sword of the Meek from graveyard whenever we create 1/1 creature (Alela, thopter foundry, sai etc)
On its own, 2 card combo can make us as many thopters as our available mana allows
- we need to pay for each iteration.

Win combinations:

1. Zulaport Cutthroat + sac outlet for creatures/artifacts
2. Aetherflux Reservoir + sac outlet
3. Time Sieve can work without sac outlet if we have mana
4. Mechanized Production instant win at beginning of our upkeep if we have enough mana to generate thopters
5. Walking Ballista + sac outlet
6. Pitiless Plunderer + sac outlet + Mechanized Production or Revel in Riches - sacrificing thopters with sac outlet will give us infinite treasure tokens through Pitiless Plunderer giving us free win at our next upkeep through either Mechanized Production or Revel in Riches

Sac outlets generating infinite mana:

• Phyrexian Altar
• Ashnod's Altar
• Krark-Clan Ironworks

Cathars' Crusade on the field is also a wincon if we have enough creatures able to land damage to all of our opponents this turn,

Sai, Master Thopterist + Phyrexian Altar + Ashnod's Altar or Krark-Clan Ironworks gives us infinite draw and mana
Sai, Master Thopterist + Pitiless Plunderer infinite draw only
Sai, Master Thopterist + Pitiless Plunderer + Ashnod's Altar or Krark-Clan Ironworks = infinite draw and mana

THOPTER ASSEMBLY + TIME SIEVE

Thopter Assembly is here mostly to win us a game together with Time Sieve
With all the sac outlets, we can make sure Thopter Assembly is the only thopter on the field at the begining of our upkeep.
It returns to our hand and creatures five 1/1 thopter artifacts we can sacrifice with Time Sieve getting us infinite turns if we have 6 mana to recast Thopter Assembly

PRECIOUS TREASURES

Since we have some really amazing treasure generating cards, I've decided to include some more of them and add wincons that inlude having tons of treasure count or by sacing them to get extra turn. Even if we don't stumble upon those wincons, having treasures as mana ramp works really great in this deck.

Treasure generating cards:

1. Smothering Tithe - our most powerful treasure creating card, really amazing tax card.
2. Revel in Riches - we have quite a few ways of generating tokens through this card (check sacrifice section) and it is also our wincon card the moment we reach ten treasure tokens.
3. Hullbreacher - nice flash creature that can give us treasures and prevent opponents from drawing extra cards.
4. Pitiless Plunderer - amazing card synergy with our sacrificial part of the deck (check sacrifice section again)
5. Monologue Tax - quite interesting taxing card that can make us pretty decent number of treasures or stall opponents in their casting if they are afraid.
6. Prying Blade - cheap equipment that can give us 1 treasure per turn if we land damage, not the best card but I wanted to widen my treasure theme a little bit. (not in deck anymore)
7. Spell Swindle - a bit costly counterspell but works for our treasure theme and helps alot with mana ramp if we counter high mana cost spell.
8. Anointed Procession - and a card that makes no treasures on its own, but doubles every treasure we create, proving again to be quite a powerful addition to our deck.
9. Mechanized Production - we can actually enchant our treasure token, so it gets produced every turn on our upkeep, getting us closer to Mechanized Production wincon.

WINCON:

• Revel in Riches - if we control treasures at the beginning of our upkeep, we win.
• Mechanized Production - similar, we win at our upkeep if we control treasures, since they count as artifacts.

ALternative wincon:

• Time Sieve can usually get us to other win cons or win through battle damage if we have enough treasures for few extra turns.

CARD CHOICES

Mycosynth Lattice (not in deck anymore, swtiched with Liquimetal Torque ) is here mostly to:
- provide more artifacts for Time Sieve
- to give us more damage and lifesteal if Alela, Artful Provocateur is enchanted with All That Glitters
- in rare case to provide more mana for Krark-Clan Ironworks if we can cast big enough Walking Ballista to kill enemies.
- If we have alot of fairies, we can use Mechanized Production on them and win when we reach 8 fairy artifact tokens.
- And finally, don't know if this work, but we can copy our Mechanized Production with Mirrormade or Phyrexian Metamorph and choose 1st Mechanized Production ,
at our upkeep, loop is producing infinite Mechanized Production copies, thou eight are quite enough to win us game.
Liquimetal Torque replaced Mycosynth Lattice as it mostly does same thing we want is cheaper by mana and is mana rock. ------------------------------
Darksteel Citadel - good in combination with Mechanized Production as it is really hard to destroy.
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Opposition Agent - staple in black color, steals tutoring from opponent and give them to you at instant speed
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Phyrexian Metamorph - here to copy something really useful, amazing choice would be Dockside Extortionist to give us our precious treasures ^^
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Cathars' Crusade - the only stat boosting enchantment I've left in this build besides All That Glitters as it is the strongest one pumping up our creatures pretty fast if unanswered.
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All That Glitters - our deck is full of enchantments and artifacts, and sometimes we can eliminate players with pure commander damage, or heal ourselves for tons of life against burn enemies.
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Bitterblossom - more valuable fairy tokens
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Sai, Master Thopterist - with tons of artifacts in our deck, we can generate a lot of free thopter artifact tokens, that are valuable in our build.

Top Ranked	Achieved #26 position overall 3 years ago Achieved #21 position in Commander / EDH 3 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH WUB (Esper) 3 years ago
Date added	3 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	26 - 0 Mythic Rares 53 - 0 Rares 12 - 0 Uncommons 7 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.52
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Construct 0/0 C, Copy Clone, Eldrazi 10/10 C, Faerie 1/1 U, Faerie Rogue 1/1 B, Thopter 1/1 C, Thopter 1/1 U, Treasure