Alela, The Ultimate 75% primer

Commander / EDH WUB (Esper)

GreekAlchemist2

Land (36)

• 1x Academy Ruins
• 1x Adarkar Wastes
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Choked Estuary
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Concealed Courtyard
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Fetid Heath
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hall of Heliod's Generosity
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 2x Island
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Morphic Pool
• 1x Nimbus Maze
• 3x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Port Town
• 1x Prairie Stream
• 1x Sea of Clouds
• 1x Spire of Industry
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 2x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Deceit
• 1x Temple of Enlightenment
• 1x Temple of Silence
• 1x Watery Grave

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Dance of the Manse
• 1x Idyllic Tutor
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain

Artifact (22)

• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Bident of Thassa
• 1x Bolas's Citadel
• 1x Cursed Totem
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Grafdigger's Cage
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mindslaver
• 1x Nihil Spellbomb
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Spear of Heliod
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Progress
• 1x The Immortal Sun
• 1x Thran Dynamo

Creature (9)

• 1x Archon of Sun's Grace
• 1x Baleful Strix
• 1x Consecrated Sphinx
• 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1x Serra Ascendant
• 1x Spellseeker
• 1x Spellstutter Sprite
• 1x Tymna the Weaver *f-etch*
• 1x Zur the Enchanter *f-etch*

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Tezzeret the Seeker

Commander (1)

Enchantment (18)

• 1x Aura of Silence
• 1x Cathars' Crusade
• 1x Coastal Piracy
• 1x Curiosity
• 1x Curious Obsession
• 1x Divine Visitation
• 1x Etchings of the Chosen
• 1x Favorable Winds
• 1x Grasp of Fate
• 1x Imprisoned in the Moon
• 1x Luminarch Ascension
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Sigil of the Empty Throne
• 1x Smothering Tithe
• 1x Spreading Seas
• 1x Staggering Insight

Instant (9)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Disdainful Stroke
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Negate
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Swords to Plowshares

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Alela Introduction, a Commander Tempo deck

Alela is a broken card. For 4 mana you get a 2/3 flyer with a bunch of keywords, however the most important ones is the cards ability to make an army when you cast artifacts/enchantments and buffing that army by +1/+0. The commander by itself pushes the deck in a tempo/snowball type of strategy which you accrue more advantage every turn she is on the battlefield

Hence this deck is designed to abuse Alela as much as possible. The deck is very commander-centric, but it doesn't go in the direction of playing sub-optimal cards just to make tokens. All the card in this deck have their purpose based on the belief that there is better investment for your mana other than the generic: egg that draws a card and makes a faerie token

Lastly this deck is the closest to what other formats call a tempo deck. Many of our cards provide accumulatively more value the longer they stay on the battlefield. So playing Alela, a cheap value engine and protecting our board with countermagic is one of the best and more fun ways for this deck to win

Card Advantage, what makes this deck so good

Alela by itself solves most of the issues you want in an EDH deck. It provides an evasive army and frees up the rest of your deck to be other things than creatures or wincons. We take full advantage of that by running:

Bident of Thassa, Coastal Piracy which very easily can draw you 5+ cards per turn

Curious Obsession, Staggering Insight and Curiosity to push more the tempo plan of the deck

Rhystic Study, Mystic Remora,Phyrexian Arena, well do i have to explain this ?

Also we get the luxurious option of running Skullclamp, The Immortal Sun as they synergise so well with the commander

Bolas's Citadel needs a mention by itself as playing this card with Alela on board is a dream come true, just remember to save your land drop the turn you play it so you can get rid off 1 land from the top of your library.

Also Tezzeret the Seeker is usually a 5 mana fetch Bident of Thassa or a situational better artifact

Ramp

We are very incentivised to hold our spells for after Alela is on the battlefield so we play all the 2cmc mana rocks to try to get Alela out a turn earlier

Arcane Signet

Azorius Signet

Dimir Signet

Fellwar Stone

Sol Ring

Talisman of Dominance

Talisman of Progress

There is the exception of Thran Dynamo, Gilded Lotus that are meant to be played after Alela is on the field for the purpose that this deck has many ways to ensure massive card advantage, but in order to make use of it we need alot of mana

Smothering Tithe is just too good to not run

Interaction Part 1: instants sorceries and equipment

Alela is a very important card for this deck and we want to try to maximize the time she is on the battlefield, so most of the cards listed here, especially the counters, are better used as a way to protect our board from removal and wipes primarily

To reiterate the above point, take a moment to think what threatens this deck. Big creatures we can champ block for days. We also have among the best card advantage engines, so if all players get to play their engines we will usually draw more cards and have an advantage. Hence it is better to protect our engines, especially Alela than stop other people from doing their game plan.

For counters:

Arcane Denial

Negate

Swan Song

Spellstutter Sprite

Counterspell

Disdainful Stroke

For equipment:

Swiftfoot Boots

Lightning Greaves

Etchings of the Chosen also fits the role of protecting our creatures for only 1 mana.

And also we run Dance of the Manse for recursion which is also tutorable with Spellseeker, making it more useful than Replenish

Then for removal:

Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile and Cyclonic Rift for instant speed interaction

As well as some of the most hilarious interaction in EDH in the form of Grasp of Fate,Spreading Seas and Imprisoned in the Moon which are all tutorable with Zur the Enchanter

Interaction Part 2: Minor stax

Stax really doesn't affect this deck much and it also comes on the form of artifacts and enchantments so here are a few cards that can really save you from some strategies:

Aura of Silence

Spreading Seas

Cursed Totem

Grafdigger's Cage

Nihil Spellbomb

Creatures

Creatures in this deck are supporting or similar to the commander. Alela already does what we want creatures to do in EDH, so we only run 9 extra to push the gameplan of the deck more and save the rest of the slots for other cards

Archon of Sun's Grace is deceptively a powerhouse pretty much a second Alela

Consecrated Sphinx , Baleful Strix, Spellseeker, Tymna the Weaver,Zur the Enchanter for value engines

Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, this can close games fast

Serra Ascendant big bad flyer, the life gain is relevant for Bolas's Citadel

Spellstutter Sprite this is a counter all things considered, not a creature

Winning the game Part 1: Damage

Winning by attacking is very much a viable plan of this deck,

We can buff our board Favorable Winds,Etchings of the Chosen,Spear of Heliod,Cathars' Crusade

Or we can buff our token quality Divine Visitation, Luminarch Ascension, Sigil of the Empty Throne

Winning Part 2: Combos

We have 2 non-tutorable combos:

Bolas's Citadel + Sensei's Divining Top + Aetherflux Reservoir This is run because the first 2 cards already work very well with out deck already and the cost of running the reservoir is very small

Also we have the mindslaver lock when it comes down to 1v1 Mindslaver + Academy Ruins, for the cheap cost of 12 mana and a Blue you get all your opponents turns. Mindslaver is just too fun not to run

Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	11 - 0 Mythic Rares 50 - 0 Rares 20 - 0 Uncommons 12 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.73
Tokens	Angel 4/4 W, Angel 4/4 W w/ Vigilance, Bird 2/2 U, Faerie 1/1 U, Pegasus 2/2 W, Treasure
Folders	Decks to try