Consultation Alela

Commander / EDH Competitive Primer Reanimator WUB (Esper)

TWCE

Land (30)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Cephalid Coliseum
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Emergence Zone
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forbidden Orchard
• 1x Gemstone Caverns
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Morphic Pool
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Scrubland
• 1x Sea of Clouds
• 1x Snow-Covered Island
• 1x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1x Tarnished Citadel
• 1x Tundra
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Windswept Heath

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Coastal Piracy
• 1x Dance of the Dead
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Necromancy
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Rhystic Study

Instant (22)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Chain of Vapor
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Demonic Consultation
• 1x Dovin's Veto
• 1x Dramatic Reversal
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Frantic Search
• 1x Intuition
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mental Misstep
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Silence
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Tainted Pact
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Creature (11)

• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Dark Confidant
• 1x Gilded Drake
• 1x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  ^Flip
• 1x Leonin Relic-Warder
• 1x Nezahal, Primal Tide
• 1x Notion Thief
• 1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded
• 1x Thassa's Oracle
• 1x Tymna the Weaver *f-etch*

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Jace, Wielder of Mysteries

Commander (1)

Artifact (17)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Bident of Thassa
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Grim Monolith
• 1x Lion's Eye Diamond
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Progress

Sorcery (11)

• 1x Careful Study
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Gitaxian Probe
• 1x Imperial Seal
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Timetwister
• 1x Windfall
• 1x Yawgmoth's Will

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Maybeboard

Utility (16)

• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Dispel
• 1x Drown in the Loch
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Mox Amber
• 1x Negate
• 1x Plunge into Darkness
• 2x Smothering Tithe
• 1x Spellseeker
• 1x Steal Enchantment
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Verity Circle
• 1x Zealous Persecution

Stax (13)

• 1x Aura of Silence
• 1x Blind Obedience
• 1x Chalice of the Void
• 1x Containment Priest
• 1x Cursed Totem
• 1x Grafdigger's Cage
• 1x Hushbringer
• 1x Leyline of the Void
• 1x Linvala, Keeper of Silence
• 1x Rest in Peace
• 1x Suppression Field
• 1x Tangle Wire
• 1x Torpor Orb

Polymorph (3)

• 1x Bitterblossom
• 1x Polymorph
• 1x Proteus Staff

Reanimation (5)

• 1x Consecrated Sphinx
• 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1x Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
• 1x Loyal Retainers
• 1x Vilis, Broker of Blood

Storm (4)

• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Auriok Salvagers
• 1x Copy Artifact
• 1x Isochron Scepter

AdNaus (3)

• 1x Ad Nauseam
• 1x Angel's Grace
• 1x Cabal Ritual

Wheel (3)

• 1x Alms Collector
• 1x Narset, Parter of Veils
• 1x Whispering Madness

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Consultation Alela, aka Definitely Not Razakats, seeks to combine the powerful tutor ability of Razaketh, the Foulblooded with the best win condition in the current cEDH meta, Thassa's Oracle. Alela's ability to generate tokens greatly synergizes with Razaketh's tutor ability, and her Esper color identity naturally lends itself to the powerful combo of Thassa's Oracle and Demonic Consultation. If you want to combine the best reanimation target (sans-Protean Hulk) with the best win condition in cEDH, Consultation Alela is the deck for you.

Strategy and Mulliganing

Unlike the very similar Razakats, this deck doesn't have a Tymna the Weaver available in the command zone. Due to this distinct lack of card advantage in the CZ compared to most other cEDH decks, we want to end the game as quickly as possible. Thus in terms of mulliganing, we're generally looking for hands that enable one of our two strategies:

1) Ramping out Alela reasonably quickly (turns 2-3) and then reanimating Razaketh, the Foulblooded, or

2) Assembling a Consultation combo of Thassa's Oracle/Jace, Wielder of Mysteries and Demonic Consultation/Tainted Pact.

Both of these will quickly win the game once assembled, which, given our color identity, shouldn't be too difficult to do.

If a more mid-range type of game is to be expected, you should mulligan into some sort of lasting card advantage engine. These are Tymna the Weaver, Coastal Piracy, Rhystic Study, and Bident of Thassa. Sans-Rhystic Study, if one of these resolves, they will swing the game in your favor due to Alela and her tokens' natural evasiveness, as well as the sheer amount of tokens that Alela can quickly generate.

Razaketh's Consultation

The main win con of this deck is casting either Demonic Consultation or Tainted Pact to exile your library with either a Thassa's Oracle ETB or Jace, Wielder of Mysteries in play. This can be assembled efficiently through Razaketh, the Foulblooded's tutor ability and Alela's ability to generate tokens.

1. Have Alela, Razaketh, and one other creature in play. Reanimating Razaketh through Animate Dead, Dance of the Dead, or Necromancy with Alela in play provides this creature (faerie token). If this is the starting state (i.e., nothing else on board, no more mana available, no relevant cards in hand), we will need a minimum of 5 tutors (10 life).

2. Sacrifice the extra creature to Razaketh, tutoring for a free color-producing rock (Chrome Mox, Lion's Eye Diamond, Lotus Petal, Mox Diamond, or Mox Opal). Playing the rock will trigger Alela, giving you a faerie token. Repeat this until you have at least available. If these are already in play, find your mana-neutral rocks (leaving up ) and cast Dramatic Reversal to get your colored mana back.

3. Afterwards, you should have at least Alela, Razaketh, a sac fodder (unless you tutored for Reversal), and in rocks/lands available. Tutor for Thassa's Oracle and cast it using . Holding priority on the ETB, sacrifice either Alela or the Oracle to find Demonic Consultation or Tainted Pact (if you have an extra available). Using the () available, cast your Consultation effect to exile your library. The Oracle ETB will then resolve, winning you the game.

4. If for some reason the Oracle line is unavailable (e.g. there's a Torpor Orb effect out), you can instead find one of the mana-positive rocks (Grim Monolith, Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, Sol Ring), use these to cast a color-producing rock (e.g. Arcane Signet), and cast Jace instead, winning again via Consultation.

Note that this line gives you at least one extra tutor as a flex slot (in step 3), and any extra creatures available also act as life-bounded tutors.

Schrödinger's Cat

The deck has a secondary win con through the combination of Leonin Relic-Warder, Blood Artist, and either Animate Dead, Dance of the Dead, or Necromancy. Here Leonin will be reanimated and perform a sacrifice loop with itself and the reanimation effect, causing infinite drains with Blood Artist. Refer to the Razakats primer for more information on LRW lines.

Maybeboard

While the current build of abusing Razaketh, the Foulblooded is a powerful strategy, Alela and the general Esper shell allows for flexibility in deck-building that will be discussed here.

1. Ad Nauseam: Angel's Grace allows us to stop other Oracle win attempts, and helps with the Naus plan. With the current setup of reanimation targets, the average CMC is a bit too high for me to want to run Ad Naus. Ad Naus also conflicts with the deck's primary strategy of abusing Razaketh. However if removing the reanimation for other strategies, I can see this package being more viable.

2. Polymorph: While decks like Alela, The Pirate's Gospel take Alela into the direction of Polymorph effects, I've found that having strong reanimation targets, as well as great utility pieces like Aven Mindcensor, Gilded Drake, and Notion Thief, are worth having the additional creatures. Both are already weak to Grafdigger's Cage, and although this build is weaker to graveyard hate, it still allows a very resilient Demonic Consultation win con in Thassa's Oracle.

3. Reanimation: In the spirit of Razakats, this shell also lends itself towards powerful reanimation targets. In the current meta I've found that a slimmer list of reanimation targets is enough. In the mid to late game, Razaketh provides a compact win condition. In the early game, Nezahal, Primal Tide provides a big body, card draw, and inherent protection, which I've found edges it over the other reanimation targets.

4. Stax: Another strategy that Alela leans herself towards is stax. While these stax pieces can be very powerful in the right meta, I've found that in the current one it's more useful to abuse certain strategies rather than try to stax them out. If focusing on just the Consultation plan (sans reanimation), many of these pieces can be slotted in and do well in the correct meta.

5. Storm: If you want yet another backup line in storm instead, this is it. However I think that the Consultation and cat loops are good enough win cons for the current build and meta.

6. Utility: These are mainly up to pilot preference/meta, and I could see them to fine in the main deck with a few changes.

7. Wheels: Both of these allow for a further Wheel plan along with Notion Thief. Personally I think that without the red wheels, this strategy is a lot less valuable.

Changelog

Ikoria

Changes:
+ Reconnaissance Mission, Drannith Magistrate

Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Exclude colors	RG
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	15 - 0 Mythic Rares 49 - 0 Rares 21 - 0 Uncommons 12 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	1.96
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Emblem Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Faerie 1/1 U, Spirit 1/1 C