Tell me some tales, daddy

Commander / EDH Combo Competitive Control GWU (Bant) Infinite Combo

kakkapylly69

Creature (23)

• 1x Arbor Elf
• 1x Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Collector Ouphe
• 1x Destiny Spinner
• 1x Drannith Magistrate
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Faeburrow Elder
• 1x Gilded Drake
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Laboratory Maniac
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Noble Hierarch
• 1x Priest of Titania
• 1x Quirion Ranger
• 1x Seedborn Muse
• 1x Shrieking Drake
• 1x Thassa's Oracle
• 1x Thrasios, Triton Hero
• 1x Venser, Shaper Savant
• 1x Whitemane Lion

Sorcery (10)

• 1x Farseek
• 1x Finale of Devastation
• 1x Gitaxian Probe
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Neoform
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Regrowth
• 1x Sevinne's Reclamation
• 1x Windfall

Instant (23)

• 1x Chain of Vapor
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dispel
• 1x Dovin's Veto
• 1x Eladamri's Call
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mental Misstep
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Negate
• 1x Noxious Revival
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Rapid Hybridization
• 1x Silence
• 1x Submerge
• 1x Summoner's Pact
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Carpet of Flowers
• 1x Mana Breach
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Rest in Peace
• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x Wild Growth

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
• 1x Oko, Thief of Crowns

Commander (1)

Land (31)

• 1x Boseiju, Who Endures
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 7x Forest
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Hall of Heliod's Generosity
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Hinterland Harbor
• 6x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 4x Plains
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Rejuvenating Springs
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Windswept Heath

Artifact (4)

• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Grafdigger's Cage
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Null Rod

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Chulane is the sugar daddy of the format. He buys you cool things and let's you draw cards!

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Introduction

Thanks for taking your time to read this Primer. Chulane is by far my favorite BWG (or Bant) commander, and I've had tons of fun playing him in casual metas while slowly coming up with a stronger version for a less casual environment. One thing to note right at the beginning is that this is more of a glass cannon build for Chulane, albeit super fun to play! It's not really cEDH viable, but it's definitely a powerful deck made for those "not too casual" metas that haven't reached the cEDH level quite yet. This particular build is also a bit more budget friendly (ignore the foils) than a lot of other heavily optimized decks.

One of my absolute favorite things about the deck, besides the color identity, is the tutor line-up. We get to play cards like Manipulate Fate and Foresight, which in addition to tutoring our Food Chain targets into exile, also draw us a card. Besides fetching us the two Food Chain targets from the deck, both of these tutors also exile a third card of our choice, which is almost always the other tutor we no longer have use for. So we're getting a cantrip effect and reducing the amount of dead draws in the future.

Another thing that make this deck fun to play is that our main win con relies on cards being exiled, which is a place our opponents usually can't interact with. These cards also work from exile even if the game gets grindier and we need a wall of flesh to block with or a decent attacker (Misthollow Griffin). There's also a small upside to having these "can be cast from exile" - creatures in play, which is that they make popular spot removal cards such as card:Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile a bit worse since they can't permanently affect these creatures. The deck is not really capable of playing any resilient graveyard strategies due to the color identity, so we are a bit underpowered during certain situations compared to decks that are able to run cards like Underworld Breach.

Being a Food Chain deck does however mean that we are very weak against removal that affects enchantments. Food Chain is the best way for us to close the game and losing it can be devastating for our win plan. Therefor we do run recursion in the form of Noxious Revival, Riftsweeper and Eternal Witness, which help us get our Food Chain back from various different zones.

Win conditions

Jace / Lab Man - combo

You need to have the following cards on the field: Chulane, Teller of Tales + Intruder Alarm + any ETB bounce creature, for example Whitemane Lion + 2 mana from dorks, with at least one of them producing the mana required to cast the chosen creature, in this case {W} since we're using Whitemane Lion. Generally it's good to have Noble Hierarch or Birds of Paradise as one of the two mana sources, since they both produce all 3 colors in your deck.

First, you tap your two mana dorks to cast Whitemane Lion from your hand triggering Chulane's ability which draws you a card, and lets you put a land card from your hand on the battlefield untapped. Then, after it resolves and Whitemane Lion hits the board, Intruder Alarm goes off untapping your two mana dorks. You then proceed to bounce Whitemane Lion back to your own hand with it's own effect. Now you can cast him again with the two mana dorks, trigger Chulane, and repeat. You keep doing this until you draw your entire library.

Now you should have plenty of lands on the field untapped, and you can cast Jace, Wielder of Mysteries or Laboratory Maniac, either of which will win you the game.

( NOTE: With Lab Man though, you need to be careful. You have to leave one card in your deck before you cast him, so that you don't deck yourself before his effect becomes active.)

There are other ways of drawing your deck as well, such as having: Chulane, Teller of Tales + Shrieking Drake + Mana Breach on the field with an Island in play.

You begin the loop by casting Shrieking Drake, triggering Chulane and Mana Breach. With the Mana Breach trigger you then bounce one Island back to your hand, then proceed to draw with Chulane, who lets you play the Island again untapped. When Shrieking Drake enters the battlefield, you target it with it's own effect bouncing it back to your hand. Now you have an untapped Island in play again so you can cast the Shrieking Drake starting the loop, which will draw you your entire deck.

Now, for you to win off of this, you're gonna have to have enough mana to cast either Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, or have a Laboratory Maniac on the field already.

Other cards which will help you assemble these bounce castle - loops are: Aluren and Cloudstone Curio. Aluren is the most straightforward of the two. It lets you cast your stuff for free. Where as Cloudstone Curio requires a similar set-up to the two combos listed above.

• This is the primary win condition in the deck.

Aetherflux - combo

As a backup plan we have Aetherflux Reservoir

If for some reason your Jace and Lab Man get taken away by, for example, Praetor's Grasp - type effects, you will always have the option to storm your opponents away with Aetherflux Reservoir, since you can so easily begin those insane loops with Chulane. Your storm count will become enough to bolt people away pretty much always.

For example, build the loop with Shrieking Drake and Mana Breach, which I have listed above, make sure you have Aetherflux on the field and storm off . . . "You win the game!"

• A secondary win condition if things go south.

Single card discussion

The unfortunate appearance of Oko

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Oko has become a personal staple of mine in EDH, and probably for a lot of other players as well. I now tend to run him in most decks that have the necessary colors.

So let's take a closer look at this balanced af elk breeder that never should've seen the light of day.

Pretty much all three abilites can be relevant in a game but I'm going to focus on the last two, the +1 and the -5 - abilites.

+1:

"Target artifact or creature loses all abilities and becomes a green Elk creature with base power and toughness 3/3."

First of all, this being a +1 instead of -1, breaks the card without a doubt. He would be very strong even with it being a -1. Oko already enters with a pretty significant loyalty count of 4, so getting to bump it to 5 makes it a pretty hard target to kill with just attacks in a cEDH table, especially in the early game. He has to be removed immediately. Not only does this ability let you bypass things like 'indestructible', get rid of combo pieces, but it also acts as a permanent commander removal. Your opponents cannot choose to put their commander into the command zone when you target them with Oko's ability, since it doesn't remove them from the board. It just makes them into 3/3 Elks.

Now they have to either:

• Spend their own removal spell on their ... Elk

• Wait for / play a boardwipe

• Make a deal with another player so that their comm... Elk gets blocked and sent back into the command zone.

But let's be honest, the last option will almost never happen in a cEDH pod. I mean who would want to give someone their Yarok back? It's better off cosplaying as an Elk.

-5:

"Exchange control of target artifact or creature you control and target creature an opponent controls with power 3 or less."

So...a Guilded Drake. Cool!

Now, Oko having those lovely +2 and +1 abilities means that you can use this ability after one turn. It does require that you have a creature / artifact of your own to give to your opponent. But then again Oko's +2 ability gives you a Food token, so it shouldn't be an issue.

There are plenty of targets being played that you want to steal with this. Imagine getting a Grand Abolisher or just point blank stealing a Thrasios for yourself.

This card does too many things to not be played. I would however wait until it gets banned / restricted from every other format, so that the prices crash for a little while. It has already gone down significantly after the Pioneer ban.

Entering the fringe with Venser

There's also a really cool way of dismantling your opponents' boards to a state where they will most likely scoop. However, it's a pretty slow combo to build and you shouldn't spend resources to get to it unless it's the last resort you've got. If you manage to pull it off though, you can feel proud of yourself.

You need to have Venser, Shaper Savant and Retraction Helix or Banishing Knack in your hand and the following cards on the field:

Chulane, Teller of Tales + Priest of Titania + Noble Hierarch + Arbor Elf + Intruder Alarm and 2 {U} from your lands, one of them being a Forest due to Arbor Elf.

You start with casting Retraction Helix on Chulane, giving him the ability to bounce things for free for the rest of the turn. Then you use your mana dorks to cast Venser. As Venser enters the battlefield, it triggers Intruder Alarm which untaps your mana dorks giving you the mana to cast Venser again. You bounce something from your opponents with Venser and then use Chulane, who now has the free bounce effect from Retraction Helix / Banishing Knack, to bounce Venser back to your hand. Then you cast Venser again which untaps your dorks and Chulane. Now you have a loop which lets you bounce all permanents from your opponents back to their hands.

NOTE: You can only do this during the turn you use Retraction Helix / Banishing Knack, but it's safe to say that people will probably scoop it up then.

More to come ...

How to play the deck

First of all, this is not a fast combo deck! We are not aiming for a turn 2-3 victory here. Rather we are aiming to slow down our opponents with cards like Null Rod, Grafdigger's Cage, Mana Breach and Back to Basics, and then combo off during the mid game once everyone else has exhausted all of their resources.

We also have to be very careful when casting cards like Aluren or Intruder Alarm because they both affect our opponents as well, which might end very badly if we're not well prepared.

To achieve a victory in the safest way possible, I would suggest setting up a play where we cast Silence during our upkeep / before we want to combo off. This way our opponents can no longer use most interactions against us during that turn, so for example them getting to untap stuff with Intruder Alarm won't be as problematic for us. But if we have the luxury to drop Grand Abolisher instead, we're just guaranteed to win that way since it takes away every interaction during our turn, including abilities, where as Silence only affects spell casts.

The deck does run some recursion in forms of Regrowth, Noxious Revival and Hall of Heliod's Generosity. But it is limited, so take time to consider whether it's worth casting them or not.

Strengths and weaknesses

> Under construction. Will update soon!

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Thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope you enjoyed the deck!

{G} Feedback is greatly appreciated! {G}

Top Ranked	Achieved #39 position overall 5 years ago Achieved #26 position in Commander / EDH 5 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Control 5 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH GWU (Bant) 5 years ago
Date added	5 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	10 - 0 Mythic Rares 35 - 0 Rares 23 - 0 Uncommons 15 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	1.84
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Elk 3/3 G, Food, Frog Lizard 3/3 G
Folders	checkitout, Decks I Like, Chuls, comander, Commander decks, Favs, Chulane teller of tales, fav, EDH, Chulane/Uro