Alena and Ardenn

Commander / EDH RW (Boros)

chubbedforsubs

Artifact (25)

• 1x Argentum Armor
• 1x Barbed Battlegear
• 1x Bearded Axe
• 1x Blazing Sunsteel
• 1x Butcher's Cleaver
• 1x Colossus Hammer
• 1x Darksteel Axe
• 1x Demonmail Hauberk
• 1x Ghirapur Orrery
• 1x Ghostfire Blade
• 1x Hero's Blade
• 1x Ingenuity Engine
• 1x Loreseeker's Stone
• 1x Loxodon Warhammer
• 1x Meteoric Mace
• 1x Ogre's Cleaver
• 1x Piston Sledge
• 1x Sanctuary Blade
• 1x Seer's Sundial
• 1x Slayer's Plate
• 1x Staff of Domination
• 1x Staff of Nin
• 1x Stitcher's Graft
• 1x Sunforger
• 1x Tormentor's Trident

Instant (5)

• 1x Abrade
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Eerie Interlude
• 1x Tibalt's Trickery
• 1x Wear / Tear

Enchantment (3)

• 1x All That Glitters
• 1x Forging the Tyrite Sword
• 1x Quest for the Holy Relic

Creature (23)

• 1x Akiri, Fearless Voyager
• 1x Akroma, Angel of Fury
• 1x Brass Squire
• 1x Champion of the Flame
• 1x Danitha Capashen, Paragon
• 1x Daring Archaeologist
• 1x Fireblade Charger
• 1x Goblin Gaveleer
• 1x Godo, Bandit Warlord
• 1x Heavenly Blademaster
• 1x Hellkite Igniter
• 1x Kazuul's Toll Collector
• 1x Koll, the Forgemaster
• 1x Metalwork Colossus
• 1x Reyav, Master Smith
• 1x Sandstone Oracle
• 1x Sram, Senior Edificer
• 1x Steel Hellkite
• 1x Taj-Nar Swordsmith
• 1x Tiana, Ship's Caretaker
• 1x Valduk, Keeper of the Flame
• 1x Wyleth, Soul of Steel
• 1x Zirda, the Dawnwaker

Sorcery (6)

• 1x Divine Gambit
• 1x Jaya's Immolating Inferno
• 1x Open the Armory
• 1x Rip Apart
• 1x Saheeli's Directive
• 1x Search for Glory

Commanders (2)

Land (36)

• 1x Alpine Meadow
• 1x Arch of Orazca
• 1x Axgard Armory
• 1x Battlefield Forge
• 1x Boros Garrison
• 1x Furycalm Snarl
• 1x Lorehold Campus
• 11x Mountain
• 1x Needle Spires
• 10x Plains
• 1x Scabland
• 1x Slayers' Stronghold
• 1x Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
• 1x Temple of Triumph
• 1x Thriving Bluff
• 1x Thriving Heath
• 1x Wind-Scarred Crag

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This is my entry for the April Budget Magic Brews, Alena and Ardenn

Do you like mana ramp?

How about having multiple game plans that can you can switch on a dime?

Wanna meme on people who say Boros sucks and can't do anything right?

Well, do I have the weirdest little deck for you! Alena and Ardenn is a deck that because of one weird interaction and a healthy balance of enablers, pay-offs, backup plans, and strong individual cards, can keep up with those pesky green ramp decks with ease, while being able to push through to have a presence throughout the game through being able to play multiple roles at the table.

While Alena has a fairly unique ability to produce large amounts of mana for playing big creatures, she alone only rewards high power from creatures you play that turn. Interestingly, how she does this is by checking if there is a dude that had entered this turn, and looking at their power as she is tapped for mana.

This means you can pump a dude that entered this turn, but before you tap Alena, to produce more mana

Because of this, I had paired her with Ardenn as a partner to fulfill three rolls:

1. To have him attach multiple equipment to a fresh dude for free to gain absolutely offensive amounts of mana

2. To have an early and varied gameplan that can both be used as a sword and shield to push forward into Alena-based shenanigans

3. To play Boros and make it good without being Feather

Past that, the core game plan is to survive and keep people in check with aggressive moves until you can play Alena and start ramping like a mad man. The nice thing about this is that the deck gives you many avenues to do this, from playing a Colossus Hammer and using Ardenn to start smashing with a massive, two-hit commander damage threat, to running more towards Sunforger to have a small yet potent interaction package to mess with other strategies. Realistically, you can either go voltron, general aggro, or toolbox-y midrange with what the deck has to get there, with a strong amount of consistency brought on by the decent amount of equipment tutors afforded at the budget the deck was made. These lanes are also quite interchangeable with other equipment you can grab as the game goes on. Once you get to Alena, you have many haymakers to start throwing at your opponents, like Hellkite Igniter having massive swings and Loreseeker's Stone helping refill and fire off more and more pressure to snowball into a win. The biggest thing to keep in mind with the deck is the balance between resources you put on the field vs. how many to keep in hand. You always want to be wary of board wipes and their ilk, and the biggest way is knowing when you can hold back to have gas for later.

Key Cards:

Tutors: Axgard Armory , Quest for the Holy Relic , Forging the Tyrite Sword , Open the Armory , Search for Glory , Godo, Bandit Warlord , Taj-Nar Swordsmith

Best Alena Enablers: Colossus Hammer , Ogre's Cleaver , All That Glitters

Sunforger Package: Abrade , Chaos Warp , Eerie Interlude , Tibalt's Trickery , Wear / Tear

Draw Engines: Wyleth, Soul of Steel , Loreseeker's Stone , Seer's Sundial , Staff of Nin , Ghirapur Orrery , Akiri, Fearless Voyager , Sram, Senior Edificer

I-need-a-win-right-now-and-Alena-taps-for-5-or-more-holy-crap: Staff of Domination

Date added	3 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	2 - 0 Mythic Rares 33 - 0 Rares 34 - 0 Uncommons 8 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.39
Tokens	City's Blessing, Elemental 3/1 R w/ Trample, haste, Morph 2/2 C, Spirit 1/1 W, Treasure
Folders	alena, ardenn