Elenda, the First Vampire

Commander / EDH Aristocrats Lifegain Primer Vampires WB (Orzhov)

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Sorcery (11)

Land (37)

Instant (4)

Planeswalker (2)

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Artifact (12)

Enchantment (9)

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Creature (2)

Elenda, The First Vampire: Vampire Tribal EDH

Elenda, the Dusk Rose, leads a vampire tribal commander/EDH deck, focusing on life-drain & death-trigger synergies. The build revolves around getting +1/+1 counters on Elenda, then amassing a board of tokens to utilize, and close out with mass life-draining spells. Tribal synergies and flavor are favored over more efficient cards, in order to form a more cohesively themed deck. Sorin Markov is effectively second-in-command, with him often depicted in the art or flavor-text of non-creature spells.

Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord & Anguished Unmaking are stand-ins for Oathbreaker.

Introduction

Commander - "The First and the Faithful."

Elenda, the Dusk Rose is a commander which can have various synergies to build around. She can be a tribal commander for both vampires and knights. She can be utilized for aristocrats style builds, because she has triggered abilities when another creature dies and when she dies. She can be utilized for +1/+1 counter builds because of her first triggered ability, or for token builds because of her second triggered ability. She can be utilized for life gain builds because both she and the tokens she creates have lifelink. And while you can focus on one particular strategy, this deck tries to synthesize these strategies around her, while maintaining flavor with a heavy vampire tribal theme. The other reasons to choose her include:

**Color Identity** - Elenda's colors give you access to all of the advantages in these colors, including targeted _permanent_ removal ( such as Anguished Unmaking and Vindicate), the best and most efficient board wipes, the best tutors, as well as access to sufficient reanimation / recursion. The strengths in one color help to supplement the weaknesses in the other. A true yin-yang combination.

**Mythology** - Also known as [The First Vampire](https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-story/race-part-1-2017-10-11 "The Race, Part 1"), [The Bat of the East](https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-story/glimpse-far-side-sun-2018-01-17 "Glimpse the Far Side of the Sun"), and [Saint Elenda](https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-story/who-tells-stories-2018-02-07 "Who Tells the Stories"), she is the progenitor of the vampires of the Legion of Dusk on Ixalan. Initially from the Church of Dusk, tasked with retrieving and protecting The Immortal Sun after it was stolen, she placed herself under an enchanted sleep at the Tomb of the Dusk Rose, while awaiting the awakening of the Golden City of Orazca. In her absence, her legend only grew throughout the realms of Ixalan until she became a pivotal part of its history.

**Aesthetics** - The art on Elenda, the Dusk Rose by Chris Rahn is amazing. The golden color scheme of the background art is especially vibrant, really stands out in _foil_, and supplements the gold frame. The fact that your commander card looks like a treasure in and of itself, is evocative of the Legion of Dusk conquistador and treasure token sub-themes in the deck.

**Underestimated** - A CMC commander that comes out as a 1/1 is not threatening on the surface. This allows you to play under-the-radar in the early game, until you're ready for an unexpected blowout. She's also a far less popular commander, therefore your deck strategy is much less likely to be known.

Color Identity - "Hair like a raven's wings and nails like lightning's edge!"

are the colors often associated with the Orzhov Syndicate of Ravnica, which embodies the balance between good and evil, existing in the zone of the morally gray, seeking power and luxury, building hierarchy and structure in order to enact order upon the world, but playing by their own rules. While the two colors are diametric opposites, together they form a powerful combination, complementing each other's weaknesses. There are many reasons to run this color combination, including the following:

**Permanent Removal** - Black excels at creature removal, while white excels at artifact or enchantment removal. Together the are potent enough to eliminate any threat that might block your path to victory, removing them from the game entirely.
Examples: Anguished Unmaking, Vindicate, Utter End, Despark

**Tutelage** - The most powerful and most efficient tutor spells exist within these colors, enabling you to find the cards you need when you need them, and allowing for deck flexibility and consistency when required.
Examples: Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, Enlightened Tutor

**Board Wipes** - The most powerful and most efficient board wipes also exist within these colors. While we don't run them due to the complexities of our commander, there are a wide range of options available to our disposal should we need them.
Examples: Damnation, Wrath of God, Toxic Deluge

**Life Drain** - A powerful effect exclusive to these colors, that represent either vampiricism or life being paid as a tithe to the church. Utilizing these effects can give us massive life swings to our advantage, creating a healthy buffer of life, that can also be utilized to our advantage.
Examples: Exsanguinate, Debt to the Deathless

**Pay Life** - Black knows that life is a resource, which can be used as payment to us, but also in turn used to pay for power and knowledge. White emphasizes the continuity of life, and helps restore it through lifelink or life gain. Together they work synergistically by amassing us life to utilize for gain.
Examples: Necropotence, Greed

**Sacrifice** - Both colors know the benefits of sacrifice, either for themselves or for the greater good. Nothing is forbidden from being utilized as a resource, including our own creatures. This gives us a variety of ways to protect our own board, while getting incremental gains.
Examples: Pitiless Pontiff, Ashnod's Altar

**Resurrection** - Both colors acknowledge the transience of death, that it is not the end of the journey, merely a stop along the way. Creatures are frequently brought back from death, either via immortality or necromancy. This gives our creatures resilience and reusability, utilizing our graveyard as an additional resource.
Examples: Gift of Immortality, Bloodline Necromancer

**Wealth** - In combination, these colors often represent taxes, luxury, and the accumulation of wealth. This is embodied in our deck through the use of Treasure tokens.
Examples: Smothering Tithe, Revel in Riches

**Tribal** - The most frequent tribes seen in these colors include vampires, knights, clerics and spirits. Elenda, the Dusk Rose is a vampire knight who is a part of the Church of Dusk, embodying many of these tribes simultaneously, making her a worthy tribal leader. Each tribe has unique benefits of their own, but they all commonly provide multiple tokens for us to utilize.
Examples: Etchings of the Chosen

**Patience** - These colors like to play the long game, gradually taxing or draining our opponents, gaining incremental advantages through a war of attrition, until the right moment to strike. We are weaker in the early game without the explosive land ramp of green, or the impulsive action of red.
Examples: Blind Obedience, Attrition

Alternate Options - "Others of our order."

As previously mentioned above, Elenda, the Dusk Rose can be a complex commander to pilot, but she brings a broad range of options and strategies to the table. There are several alternative commanders within to consider, I will discuss them below, including how they may vary the gameplay strategy of the deck.

**Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim** - Ayli is an incredibly strong substitute as commander. She boasts a very low mana cost, being a deathtouch combat deterrent, being a sacrifice outlet, having life gain synergies, and having targeted nonland permanent removal. As such, she has a lot of resilience, being able to be re-cast several times per game, and utility with her multiple abilities. If your opponents can make accurate threat assessments, she will draw more hate, but if played politically, she is incredibly powerful. She is however... not a vampire. She would be my top recommendation for a substitute if flavor is not an issue for you.

**Teysa Karlov** - She currently fits as part of the 99, however as commander she favors an aristocrats strategy by doubling your death triggers, and a token strategy by providing them with deathtouch and lifelink keywords. As such, she skews the deck list in favor of that direction, over the life gain synergies in the deck. She has a similar mana cost as Elenda, however she is less likely to be a synergistic piece of a game winning combo, she instead helps you get there faster once she's out. She's also not a vampire, but given her nobility and near-immortal age, she is essentially an honorary one.

**Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter** - He pilots most similarly to Elenda, in that he utilises +1/+1 counter synergies, and will often run a similar deck list. Having a sacrifice outlet available from the command zone when needed can be a huge benefit, however this is balanced by his significantly higher mana cost. The high mana cost ends up being a significant flaw, particularly if he is removed, and needed to be re-cast. As such, he generally plays slower, and generally only participates in the end game as a combo finisher.

**Vona, Butcher of Magan** - Vona pushes the deck more towards a life gain direction. When she hits the battlefield, her ability to destroy nonland permanents makes her a more obvious target and threat, and can potentially draw you hate. As such, despite her potent ability, without haste enablers or untappers, it can be difficult to get many activations without a decent amount of protection. Combined with the limitation of only being able to activate the ability during your turn, she has less flexibility as a political tool, and gives you less time to setup your game plan.

Psychography - "Those who would use its power for their own selfish ends."

The psychographic profile is a term coined by MtG Head Designer Mark Rosewater, that separates players into categories which determines why a player may enjoy playing a deck, or playing the game. A Timmy/Tammy plays to experience something, a Johnny/Jenny plays to express something, a Spike plays to prove something. More in-depth information can be found here. There may be a little something in this deck for everyone, but it is definitely geared more toward Johnny/Jenny players. The following are reasons why you might enjoy playing this deck.

**Vampires** - This deck tries to embody the culture of the vampires of Ixalan, namely the _Legion of Dusk_. This includes spells which drain the life from our opponents, as well as seeking and hoarding treasure, while destroying anything in our path. If you want a deck that is high on flavor (and I don't mean the taste of blood!), then this is for you.

**Combos** - This deck has plenty of combos and synergies to utilize. And these range between simple but fast two card staple combos, to more complex multi-card synergies. For example, try pulling off: Elenda, the Dusk Rose + Ashnod's Altar + Animation Module + Cruel Celebrant. If you enjoy putting together different pieces of the combo puzzle, then this is for you.

**Strategic** - This deck is helmed by a complicated commander. Her death trigger ability means that you'll have to strategically choose when to let her hit the graveyard, or when to return to the command zone. Oftentimes, knowing when to cast her, knowing when to wipe the board, and knowing when to sacrifice her, is dependent on the board state of your opponents and tactical timing. If you enjoy biding your time, setting yourself up for the major endgame play, then this is for you.

**Power Level** - Utilizing the power level descriptions from [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDVrAb_GfxU) and [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70YVH75fQKY), I would describe the goal of this deck list as aiming to achieve a power level sitting between focused and optimized (_or a rating of 6-7 out of 10_). It sits at a point that maintains an element of theme and flavour, while also being relatively efficient and having multiple synergies / strategies / avenues to winning. It is balanced to be able to have an enjoyable match-up against most decks you'll come across. However, due to the limitations of the commander herself, as well as the flavor restrictions, this deck will never come close to reaching the realms of competitive decks in cEDH.

Strategy

Adding Counters - "This dark power that we took into ourselves."

With Elenda out, focus should be on getting +1/+1 counters on her to power her up. This can be achieved either by killing our opponents creatures, or sacrificing our own. We can accelerate this with synergies from certain cards.

**Animation Module** - Slow, but can be a mana-sink for additional counters when we need them.

**Blade of the Bloodchief** - When attached to Elenda, each creature death nets us three +1/+1 counters instead of one, accelerating her power accumulation dramatically.

**Cordial Vampire** - Not only will this double the amount of +1/+1 counters on Elenda with each creature death, it will power up the rest of our board if necessary.

**Patron of the Vein** - Doubles the amount of +1/+1 counters gained on Elenda when an opponent's creature dies, and also serves to hose your opponents' graveyard strategies.

**Teysa Karlov** - As the Panharmonicon of death triggers, not only will she double the amount of +1/+1 counters placed on Elenda, when Elenda dies with her on the field, it will double the amount of tokens she produces, essentially netting us four for the price of one!

**The Ozolith** - A safety net that allows us to keep any +1/+1 counters, should Elenda be removed from the board. Also synergises with Cordial Vampire and Patron of the Vein, by allowing us to move counters from sacrifice fodder to Elenda.

**_Indulgent Aristocrat_** - Not included in this list, but a useful substitute, due to the low CMC, and the ability to add +1/+1 counters when required.

Sacrifice Outlets - "Her sacrifice is our survival."

Sacrifice outlets form the crux of our strategy in a number of important ways. Initially, by sacrificing our own creatures, they will set up death triggers, including getting counters onto Elenda. Once Elenda has built up enough power, we need ways to get her to the graveyard at will in order to produce tokens. Certain outlets will also reap their own benefits, and have their own synergies.

**Ashnod's Altar / Phyrexian Altar** - Can generate mana to fuel our strategies. Allows us to go infinite with Elenda, and either Animation Module or Nim Deathmantle.

**Etchings of the Chosen** - Also provides a form of protection to your creatures by being able to provide targeted indestructible.

**High Market** - Useful sacrifice outlet, as lands are much harder to dispose of than creatures. Life gain trigger can also set up life drain loops when needed.

**Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet** - Keep in mind that Kalitas' ability will prevent opponent creature deaths from triggering Elenda due to the replacement effect. However, your own creature sacrifices will still initiate death triggers.

**Pitiless Pontiff** - Helpful blocker to deter attacks due to indestructible and deathtouch.

**Skullclamp** - Can be utilized as a sacrifice outlet on the vampire tokens to draw cards when needed. When desperate for , you can sacrifice an unpowered Elenda and her subsequent two tokens for six cards, which is high value card draw.

**Viscera Seer** - Costless sacrifice outlet, who can smooth out draws with the scry ability. Low CMC means that he can come down early to set up.

**Yahenni, Undying Partisan** - Costless sacrifice outlet, who also benefits from death triggers and +1/+1 counter gains. Can function as an indestructible beat-stick and blocker when needed.

**_Indulgent Aristocrat_** - Not included in this list, but a useful substitute, due to the low CMC, and the +1/+1 counter synergies.

Death Triggers - "Drinkers of life, devourers of names."

Given that Elenda is heavily reliant on death triggers, we will utilize vampires that also have synergies with death triggers to maximize our gains.

**Blood Artist / Cruel Celebrant** - The incremental life drain over the course of the game will set your opponents up to be finished off by a massive swing. Suitable substitutes include Falkenrath Noble or Vindictive Vampire (excluded due to high CMC), and Zulaport Cutthroat (excluded due to tribal requirements).

**Revel in Riches** - For each creature that dies over the course of the game, we will slowly build our mana pool. Revel in Riches allows us to utilize the mana more flexibly, and is an alternate win condition.

**Blade of the Bloodchief / Cordial Vampire / Yahenni, Undying Partisan** - Each death powers up a beatstick for you to either block or threaten with.

**Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet / Patron of the Vein** - Helps to power your board, but also counters graveyard reanimation strategies of your opponents by exiling their creatures. (Patron of the Vein still allows death triggers to resolve, while Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is a replacement effect.)

**Teysa Karlov** - She is an absolute powerhouse in this deck. By doubling death triggers, she doubles the gains of the above cards.

Board Wipes - "Empires are temporary."

The suite of board wipes that Elenda will like to see running differs from the typical deck. Unfortunately, when Elenda is taken out by a board wipe she will only create a number of tokens equal to her power at that time, as she won't be on the board to gain the +1/+1 counters from her death trigger prior to creating tokens. This creates the unusual problem where a complete board wipe will often be to her detriment. The elegant solution is to run conditional board wipes that keep her on the board, from which you may sacrifice her afterwards. Oftentimes, this does mean you need to think strategically about utilizing targeted removal to pick off the remaining threats.

**Austere Command** - The flexibility of this board wipe means that you can use this as a complete board wipe when Elenda isn't on the field, get rid of problem artifacts and/or enchantments, or clear out go-wide token strategies while powering up Elenda.

**Cataclysmic Gearhulk** - Cataclysm on a body. When cast at the right time, even without Elenda on the field, you can often pull out ahead.

**Divine Reckoning** - Flashback allows this card to pull double duty. Keeping Elenda on the field will often mean she becomes a huge-bodied threat against whatever remains.

**Single Combat** - By denying players the ability to cast more creatures or planeswalkers, you slow your opponents ability to rebuild their boards. Keep in mind that this also affects you until the end of your _next_ turn too, so it's often wise to cast this in the post-combat main phase. If properly setup with a sacrifice outlet, you can subsequently sacrifice Elenda prior to your next turn and go wide while your opponents have minimal blockers.

**Tragic Arrogance** - Even better than the above board wipes, because _you_ get to choose what your opponents keep. The asymmetry of this allows you to organize a board state to your advantage, and will often set you up to take out an opponent.

Resurrection - "The way to immortality."

Previously, in order for Elenda's death trigger to take effect, you had to forego the command zone replacement effect. With the Core 2021 rules change, commander death triggers now take effect before a state based action returns them to the command zone (similar to how tokens set off death triggers, but don't remain in the graveyard). However, having her death trigger go off several times in a game, will result in a high amount of commander tax, so having a couple of options to bring her back from the graveyard is helpful.

**Bloodline Necromancer** - Has the added benefit of bringing an extra body, and a vampire for synergy at that.

**Bojuka Bog** - Useful to hose an opponent's graveyard reanimator strategy, but if desperate, you can target your own graveyard, and utilize the command zone replacement effect to pull Elenda back to the command zone rather than exile.

**Gift of Immortality** - So long as Elenda isn't targeted twice within the same turn, this is a reusable way to bring Elenda back from the graveyard.

**Nim Deathmantle** - Another reusable way to bring Elenda back from the graveyard, provided you keep enough mana open.

**Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord** - Can bring Elenda back on demand if desperate, but if you can keep him around long enough to use his +2 ability a couple of times, he is reusable as well.

Win Conditions - "Our most holy mission."

While the deck has a number of combos with Elenda, it is not wholly reliant on her to finish out games. Often, a timely cast spell will result in a sufficient life swing, which either kills on resolution, or leaves the opponents with minimal life for us to close out.

**Elenda, the Dusk Rose + Animation Module + Ashnod's Altar / Phyrexian Altar** - Animation Module can initiate the combo itself for mana, or whenever a +1/+1 counter is placed on Elenda. With a servo token on the field, it can be sacrificed to Ashnod's Altar, spend to create another servo token, netting you a +1/+1 counter on Elenda, and a surplus of mana. Repeated, this generates infinite mana, infinite +1/+1 counters on Elenda, and infinite vampire tokens when Elenda is sacrificed. Phyrexian Altar accomplishes the same thing, but you won't get a surplus of infinite mana until you sacrifice Elenda and the infinite tokens. With Blood Artist or Cruel Celebrant on the field, you can drain the life of your opponents completely.

**Elenda, the Dusk Rose + Phyrexian Altar / Ashnod's Altar + Nim Deathmantle ** - By stacking the death trigger of Elenda first, you can utilize the mana from sacrificing her and the vampire token to Ashnod's Altar to pay for the Nim Deathmantle ability to bring back Elenda. Given that Nim Deathmantle gives +2/+2, each subsequent time you sacrifice Elenda, you will generate a surplus of 2 vampire tokens. This again, allows you to generate infinite mana, infinite +1/+1 counters on Elenda, infinite vampire tokens, and infinite death triggers. Phyrexian Altar requires an additional creature to create an infinite loop, and 2 additional creatures to create a surplus of infinite tokens.

**Elenda, the Dusk Rose + Phyrexian Altar + Teysa Karlov** - This combo can be initiated as long as you have sufficient sacrifice fodder to off-set commander tax. Assuming no additional commander tax, this combo works with just an additional creature on the field. Sacrifice the excess creature to Phyrexian Altar, due to Teysa Karlov's trigger, Elenda gets 2 +1/+1 counters. Sacrifice Elenda to Phyrexian Altar, due to Teysa Karlov's trigger, you will get 6 vampire tokens. Sacrifice 4 tokens, and you have sufficient mana to recast Elenda with her commander tax. Repeat this loop for infinite mana, infinite +1/+1 counters on Elenda, infinite vampire tokens, and infinite death triggers (and infinite commander tax).

**Elenda, the Dusk Rose + Phyrexian Altar + Cordial Vampire + Anointed Procession** - This combo replaces Teysa Karlov with two other cards to achieve the same effect. Assuming no additional commander tax, this combo works with just an additional creature on the field. Sacrifice the excess creature to Phyrexian Altar, due to the trigger of Cordial Vampire, Elenda gets multiple +1/+1 counters. Sacrifice Elenda to Phyrexian Altar, due to Anointed Procession's trigger, you will get double vampire tokens. Sacrifice 4 tokens, and you have sufficient mana to recast Elenda with her commander tax. Repeat this loop for infinite mana, infinite +1/+1 counters on Elenda, infinite vampire tokens, and infinite death triggers (and infinite commander tax).

**Elenda, the Dusk Rose + Phyrexian Altar + Blade of the Bloodchief** - Similarly, this combo can be initiated, provided that Elenda has the Blade of the Bloodchief equipped, and there is sufficient sacrifice fodder. Assuming no additional commander tax, this combo works with 2 additional creatures on the field. Sacrifice the excess creatures to Phyrexian Altar, due to the trigger of Blade of the Bloodchief, Elenda gets 6 +1/+1 counters. Sacrifice Elenda to Phyrexian Altar, creating 7 vampire tokens. Sacrifice 4 tokens, and you have sufficient mana to recast Elenda with her commander tax, and re-equip Blade of the Bloodchief. Repeat this loop for infinite mana, infinite +1/+1 counters on Elenda, infinite vampire tokens, and infinite death triggers (and infinite commander tax).

**Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond / Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose / Marauding Blight-Priest / Vizkopa Guildmage** - The triggers from Exquisite Blood and Sanguine Bond will loop off each other infinitely, as soon as either you gain life or an opponent loses life from any source, resulting in infinite life for you, and an instant loss for your opponents. Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose and Marauding Blight-Priest share redundancy with Sanguine Bond, but also benefit from being creatures which can be tutored by Forerunner of the Legion.

**Blood Tribute + Sanguine Bond / Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose / Vizkopa Guildmage** - As long as you pay the kicker cost for Blood Tribute, the life gain trigger will allow you to instantly kill an opponent. With Vizkopa Guildmage, you'll end up hurting your other opponents quite hard too.

**Debt to the Deathless / Exsanguinate + Sanguine Bond / Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose / Vizkopa Guildmage** - If = for Exsanguinate, or = for Debt to the Deathless, the synergy will allow you to instantly kill an opponent (provided that you still have 3 opponents). This is also an outlet to dump infinite mana from the earlier combo synergies.

**Malakir Bloodwitch / Sanctum Seeker + Sanguine Bond / Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose / Vizkopa Guildmage** - With sufficient vampires on the field (ten vampires required for three opponents at full life), the synergy will similarly allow you to instantly kill an opponent. Suitable substitutes include Gray Merchant of Asphodel (excluded because he does not synergize with Elenda's vampire tokens).

**Revel in Riches + Smothering Tithe ** - This is an alternative win condition, which happens to synergize well with the deck given that you are aiming to utilize death triggers. If Smothering Tithe has generated sufficient treasure tokens, flashing in Revel in Riches with Emergence Zone during your opponent's end step, means your opponents won't have time to stop you.

Gameplan

Mulligan (T0) - "She was born mortal, a warrior nun."

Under the current London Mulligan rules, each time you mulligan, you draw seven cards, then put a number of cards equal to the number of times you have mulliganed this game on the bottom of your library in any order. Given the multiplayer format of Commander/EDH, you also get one "free" mulligan per game. This allows for greater card selection and consistency in the opening hand, and should therefore be taken full advantage of.

**Mana Source** - Prioritize having 4 mana sources (either land or 1-2 CMC ramp) in your starting hand, or else you risk becoming mana screwed. Without any land ramp, it is important to be able to consistently hit your early land drops. With 37 lands in the deck, statistically there is over 70% chance to hit your first three land drops, and you should prioritize your mulligans to improving this.

**Color Source** - Also try to have at least 1 source of each color. Once you have 2 sources, focus on putting down your Swamp over Plains, because only one card in the deck needs double , whereas there are multiple cards that will lean heavily in .

**Converted Mana Cost** - Don't keep expensive CMC cards that you won't be able to play early, because they'll sit there doing nothing. The deck has plenty of ways to either draw out or tutor for the game winning pieces it needs later on. They're safer tucked away in your library, than in your hand where they are vulnerable to discard effects.

Early (T1-4) - "She gave us life!"

The goals of the early game are to ramp, set yourself up, and minimize your chances of drawing hate from your opponents. I've targeted a mana curve sitting between 3-3.5, with almost a third of the cards hitting a CMC between 1-2. This should allow for plenty of early plays if you keep the right hand.

**Ramp** - Almost always a goal for any deck in the early game, try to have an early ramp piece in your hand, because one of your opponents will inevitably have one, and you'll quickly fall behind without. Just be wary that a turn one Sol Ring will draw hate, which we want to avoid. Otherwise Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone, Mind Stone, Orzhov Signet, and Talisman of Hierarchy are all suitable.

**Setup** - You want early pieces to help accelerate Elenda doing what she does best. Cards such as Animation Module, Blade of the Bloodchief or Cordial Vampire look relatively harmless on their own, but will help further Elenda's strategy when she drops. Similarly, Blood Artist or Cruel Celebrant will help with incremental life drain moving forward.

**Sacrifice** - An early sacrifice outlet also gives you a safety net before dropping Elenda. If she gets targeted, you can sacrifice her, and either get some early tokens or return her to the command zone. Viscera Seer, Pitiless Pontiff, Etchings of the Chosen, or Yahenni, Undying Partisan all fit in this category. I would advise against dropping Ashnod's Altar / Phyrexian Altar early, because it is a combo piece that can draw hate, or be removed before being properly utilised.

**Deter** - You have plenty of low cost removal in the deck (_such as_ Go for the Throat, Anguished Unmaking, Mortify, Vindicate, Gatekeeper of Malakir), with which you can use to threaten anyone wanting to point creatures your way. Most of the time though, you'll want to save them for game changing threats. You also have plenty of low cost vampires to occupy your field and make you less of an easy target. Generally, you'll not want to trade creatures because the utility takes priority over damage mitigation, especially because you'll likely be able to gain the life back later.

Mid (T5-8) - "She searched for centuries and returned."

Heading into the mid game, your aim should be finding the right time to drop Elenda, the Dusk Rose for maximum gains. This is usually in situations when you have some early synergy pieces in play to help her gain counters, ways to either protect or resurrect her, or when your opponents have a healthy board that you can take advantage of with a board wipe.

**Recharge** - After dropping all your early plays, you'll need ways to refill your hand. Sign in Blood helps to smooth your draws, while Syphon Mind and Champion of Dusk are more substantial. Greed, Necropotence, and Twilight Prophet are more sustainable over time.

**Sustain** - Having an insurance line for Elenda being targeted is important, otherwise she'll become a wasted play. Cards such as Gift of Immortality, Nim Deathmantle or Etchings of the Chosen will keep her on the field and sustain your gameplan. Similarly, Bloodline Necromancer or Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord can bring her back on demand if she hits the graveyard.

**Purge** - An optimal scenario which can set you up for the end game, is when your opponents feel that they've got themselves going with a board full of creatures, while you have a board wipe in hand (_such as_ Divine Reckoning, Single Combat, Tragic Arrogance _or_ Cataclysmic Gearhulk). This will often pave the way for Elenda to accumulate a large amount of counters, and either swing big, or produce lots of tokens to swing wide. Similarly, having either Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet or Revel in Riches out during a board wipe will often put you at an advantage to set you up for a finisher.

Late (T9+) - "She was a genius! She was a visionary!"

At this point, you should be digging for your win conditions, and have sufficient mana to cast them and win the game on the spot. Even if you don't kill all your opponents at once, usually a massive life drain spell will give you enough of a life total buffer to finish off whoever is left the next turn.

**Tutor** - The deck contains two tutors, of which Vampiric Tutor is more flexible, efficient, and powerful. You generally want to save tutoring until you know which win condition you're aiming for. Of note, the primary targets for Forerunner of the Legion will be Malakir Bloodwitch (_who can be a repeatable drain with_ Nim Deathmantle), or Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose (_who acts as a redundancy copy of_ Sanguine Bond).

**Combo** - The majority of the win condition combo pieces fall into one of two categories, either as a combo enabler, or a combo finisher. Having one of each will help you end the game. The redundancy in each category means that you'll often find a line towards a win at some point in the game.
- _Combo Enablers:_ Sanguine Bond / Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose / Vizkopa Guildmage
- _Combo Finishers:_ Exquisite Blood / Blood Tribute / Exsanguinate / Debt to the Deathless / Malakir Bloodwitch / Sanctum Seeker

Metagame

Notable Exclusions - "I see I must teach them what they forgot."

Exclusions will often either be due to a lack of synergy either mechanically or flavorfully with the theme of the deck. However, if one wishes to forego flavor, and optimize the deck further, the following cards are for consideration.

**Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim** - Life gain synergies, as well as being an additional sacrifice outlet will often result in the conditions of her second activated ability being met. As a reuseable Anguished Unmaking, she is a strong card under these conditions.

**Cathars' Crusade** - Synergizes with Elenda's death trigger to produce a big bodied board. And can help supplement Elenda with +1/+1 counters as you build your board further. However, has less synergy with the rest of the deck. Can be a suitable substitute as an alternative win condition.

**Defiant Bloodlord** - Effect redundancy for Sanguine Bond. Has many synergies with lifegain cards within the deck, however has been cut due to the high CMC compared to similar cards.

**Despark / Path to Exile / Swords to Plowshares** - Very efficient removal, but exiling creatures will deny us of death triggers. Anguished Unmaking was kept due to flavor and broader utility.

**Dictate of Erebos / Grave Pact** - Synergizes well with other aristocrats and death trigger strategies, helps to keep our opponents boards clear while we move in for the kill.

**Gray Merchant of Asphodel / Kokusho, the Evening Star / Torment of Hailfire** - These are additional finishers that work very similarly to Exsanguinate or Malakir Bloodwitch. Also the creatures can utilize recursive loops with Nim Deathmantle for added synergy.

**Karmic Guide + Reveillark** - A mainstay EDH / commander combo. With a sacrifice outlet in play, we can infinitely resurrect Elenda, creating infinite vampire tokens and infinite death triggers (synergizing with Blood Artist or Cruel Celebrant).

**Ogre Slumlord / Pitiless Plunderer / Requiem Angel** - Common inclusions as token producers, if going heavy on the token producing strategy. Essentially allows for more sacrifice fodder to power up Elenda.

Budget Options - "I foresook sustenance to bring myself closer."

I've done my best to keep this deck affordable, and most of the key synergies in this deck are usually relatively obtainable. Keep in mind that prices do fluctuate over time. However, here I will list a number of suitable replacements for some of the more expensive cards listed (priced approximately $5 or more) as budget alternatives for the deck.

**Ashnod's Altar / Phyrexian Altar + Nim Deathmantle** - Another set of infinite combo pieces which synergise well with Elenda. The alternative combo is slightly cheaper, and has the benefit of being amenable to reanimation strategies.
Alternatives: Karmic Guide + Reveillark

**Austere Command** - A flexible board wipe with a lot of utility. Can be replaced by any number of board wipes available in our colors.
Alternatives: Slash the Ranks, Merciless Eviction, Martial Coup, Kaya's Wrath, Fumigate

**Smothering Tithe** - Mana ramp that will give us accrued value over time. It also has synergies with the rest of the deck, either through treasure tokens or death triggers.
Alternatives: Pitiless Plunderer, Sifter of Skulls

**Bloodline Keeper / Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet** - Token producers who are flavorful by being vampires. Can be replaced by other token producers to fulfil the same role.
Alternatives: Legion's Landing , Ogre Slumlord, Requiem Angel

**Exquisite Blood** - Forms one half of the Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond combo. There is no similar effect on another card. Unfortunately effects that fulfill a similar role are also more expensive. The best budget substitutes would be ones that synergize well with the Sanguine Bond effect.
Alternatives: Revival / Revenge, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Wound Reflection, Archfiend of Despair

**Exsanguinate** - The ability to mass drain your opponents causes a massive life swing, which can be vital to ending the game in your favor. This card also acts as a potential mana sink to win the game when you've obtained infinite mana.
Alternatives: Revival / Revenge, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Scholar of Athreos, Profane Command

**Necropotence / Skullclamp / Twilight Prophet** - Repeatable card draw is incredibly useful for digging out your win conditions. While these are the most efficient, there are multiple alternatives available.
Alternatives: Erebos, God of the Dead, Arguel's Blood Fast , Vampiric Rites

**Sorin Markov** - Sorin's ability to set an opponent's life total is pretty infamous in commander. Changing life totals also counts as gaining or losing life, and will trigger abilities based off of this. Interestingly, there are a number of suitable alternatives that are also rather flavorful.
Alternatives: Axis of Mortality, Repay in Kind, Tree of Perdition

**Vampiric Tutor** - The most expensive card in the deck is a tutor mainly included for flavor, and can be foregone completely. Most tutors tend to run on the expensive side, so alternatives depend on budget. Forerunner of the Legion already exists in the deck as a partial tutor too.
Alternatives: Diabolic Intent, Diabolic Tutor, Razaketh's Rite

Weaknesses - "The horrors that we wrought."

The deck faces certain limitations due to the balance of the color pie, as well as the mechanics of Elenda herself. However, if faced with certain threats more commonly in your meta, it is worth consideration to have on hand certain substitutions in your sideboard.

**Storm / Combo** - The deck has no way to stop combos that are reliant on instants or sorceries. Your best bet is to remove key pieces or mana enablers before they can storm off. However, while noone expects counters from or , you actually have options such as Lapse of Certainty or Mana Tithe as a surprise counter. Otherwise, all hope rests on another player.

**Voltron** - The suite of board wipes we run help to protect Elenda, but they will also help protect your opponents' voltron commanders as well. Either run Arcane Lighthouse and Detection Tower, then use your targeted removal, or replace your board wipes with less conditional ones, such as Damnation and Wrath of God.

**Reanimator / Aristocrats** - Our deck generally likes to see our opponents creatures hit their graveyards, as it helps power our synergies, so it doesn't help when it is their strategy too. Cards like Relic of Progenitus, Crook of Condemnation, Graveyard Shovel, and Scrabbling Claws help us target specific threats in an opponent's graveyard, while also being alternative ways to bring Elenda back from our graveyard to the command zone.

**Targeted Removal** - Elenda typically doesn't need to stay on the battlefield for long to accumulate counters if you play strategically. As such, we forego the staple suite of Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots for protection. In addition, added synergies make cards such as Spirit Bonds or Together Forever useful.

**Leyline of the Void / Rest in Peace** - Elenda is heavily reliant on death triggers, as is much of the deck. While the deck has answers to these cards, consider running heavier enchantment removal, including Return to Dust and Utter End in addition.

Oathbreaker - "The most devoted of the devoted."

Oathbreaker is a 60 card singleton format, which is a variant on Commander / EDH. Players start with 20 life, which results in faster games. Rather than a commander, you have a planeswalker in your command zone who is your "Oathbreaker", along with an instant or sorcery card which is your "Signature Spell" that can be cast anytime your Oathbreaker is on the field. Both the Oathbreaker and Signature Spell each accumulate an additional mana tax for each time they've been previously cast.

The mana base of this deck has been designed so that by removing all but one of each basic Swamp and Plains, you are left with 24 lands in the deck. Along with 27 more cuts, this commander deck can be modified into an Oathbreaker deck. I would suggest cutting the cards which are heavily reliant on Elendra, as well as the higher CMC cards. An example decklist would be as follows:

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Update 1.03 - Commander Legends — Nov. 20, 2020

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Decklist Changes - Predominantly optimizing the mana base, more untapped mana is useful as we lower the mana curve to try and setup faster.

Evolving Wilds > Brightclimb Pathway ^Flip - Optimizing mana base with untapped flexible mana.

Terramorphic Expanse > Vault of Champions - Optimizing mana base with untapped flexible mana.

Shambling Vent > Fabled Passage - Optimizing mana base with untapped flexible mana.

Reliquary Tower > Westvale Abbey ^Flip - Alternate win condition added, with synergy for token strategies. Unlimited hand size was only useful with Necropotence in play.

Mind Stone > The Ozolith - Powerful addition from Ikoria, which allows us to keep any progress in +1/+1 counters, should Elenda be removed. Lowered mana curve allows us to sacrifice some mana ramp.

Cliffhaven Vampire > Marauding Blight-Priest - Lowers the mana curve, while effectively fulfilling the same role. The flying and bulkiness on Cliffhaven is negligible.

Update 1.02 - Core Set 2021 — July 3, 2020

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Update 1.01 - Thrones of Eldraine — Oct. 4, 2019

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Top Ranked	Achieved #3 position overall 4 years ago Achieved #2 position in Commander / EDH 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Primer 4 years ago
Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Key combos	Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond Ashnod's Altar + Nim Deathmantle Blood Tribute + Sanguine Bond Animation Module + Ashnod's Altar Revel in Riches + Smothering Tithe
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 0 Mythic Rares 45 - 0 Rares 23 - 0 Uncommons 8 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.29
Tokens	City's Blessing, Eldrazi Spawn 0/1 C, Human Cleric 1/1 BW, Servo 1/1 C, Treasure, Vampire 1/1 W, Vampire 2/2 B, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	tribal, Decks i will prob build., References, Commander, Tribal, Commander Decks, EDH, aristocrats, Vampire Tribal, Cool decks
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