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Artifact (1)

Enchantment (2)


After seeing Horde of Notions while looking through ideas for five-color commanders, I decided I wanted to build a Horde deck. The Horde's ability just demands elemental tribal, especially with cards you want to pull back from the graveyard as a surprise. That said, quite a few of the usual board-management effects, such as artifact or enchantment destruction, are handled via elementals that the Horde can recast from the graveyard at effectively instant-speed.

For utility, we have creatures like Embodiment of Spring and Fertilid, which can tutor necessary basic lands to the board; Flamekin Harbinger, which tutors elemental cards to the top of the library; and Bloodwater Entity, which returns spent instants and sorceries to the top of the library. Incandescent Soulstoke can speed elementals onto the battlefield for immediate use, which the Horde can recover from the graveyard later, and Mulldrifter is a good go-to for some immediate card draw. Hydromorph Gull and Hydromorph Guardian can be used as counterspells to protect my other creatures as well.

Big finishers and impressive effects included Muldrotha, the Gravetide, who's not only a large body but also lets me recast permanents from my graveyard not unlike the Horde (though a bit slower); Omnath, Locus of Rage, who gives me 5/5 elementals for landfall triggers and does direct damage when elementals die; and Maelstrom Wanderer, who gives all my creatures haste and cascades twice when he hits the board.

One-shot spells include Kindred Summons to cheat more elementals to the battlefield, Animist's Awakening to hunt for more lands in a pinch, and The Great Aurora for a thematic board reset. Late enough in the game, and Animist's Awakening becomes extra-fun when you can dump a lot of mana into it to reveal even more cards (likely hitting more lands), which will trigger the deck's few landfall effects). If you meet the Spell Mastery condition, the lands are untapped and can be used for more spells, and with the Horde of Notions' and Muldrotha, the Gravetide's ability to recast creatures from the graveyard, Bloodwater Entity can recover the Awakening for another run.

Phyrexian Altar and Perilous Forays both provide sac outlets for elementals with ETB effects as well as a bit more ramp as needed, Kindred Discovery gives me additional card draw, and Swiftfoot Boots and Broken Fall give me protection for the Horde itself.

Finally, for an alternate win-con, and the reason I was searching for a five-color commander in the first place, we have the full megacycle of Guildgates and the Maze's End to tutor out any that don't come up on normal draws or with the Animist's Awakening.

I feel this deck should be a fun one to play.

In my initial plan of this deck, I also intended to include some other cards that, unfortunately, are currently occupied in our collection. I'll have to pick them up. But I plan to have Chromatic Lantern (better able to reach the Horde's casting/activation cost), Ingot Chewer (better artifact removal than Stingmoggie), Merciless Eviction (better sweep effect), and Part the Waterveil (decent Awaken effect, plus taking an extra turn).

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After test plays that indicated I still had some trouble with getting the right mana fast enough (not to mention Ravnica sets that worked with the Gate subtheme), I've made four swaps to the deck.

I replaced Cruel Ultimatum with Circuitous Route. Ultimatum was kind of fun, but tricky to cast (due to that 3 {B} requirement) and not entirely on brand for the deck, while Circuitous Route can not only fetch basics I need in a pinch, but also fetch Gates to further the Maze's Endfoil alternate win.

I replaced Nameless Inversion with Tempt with Discovery. Inversion was probably the least effective of my single-target removal, since it only gave a -3 to toughness and would have to be recast from the graveyard in the same turn to get more effect, while Discovery allows me to at least one land, and more if people take me up on the Tempting Offer.

I replaced Evolving Wilds with Plaza of Harmony. Evolving Wilds is good for a one-time mana-fixing (and an extra Landfall trigger if I have one of the rare cards on the board that cares), but Plaza of Harmony gets me the fixing quicker, plus a bit of lifegain if I've already got Gates out.

Finally, I removed a basic Island and replaced it with Gateway Plaza for an eleventh Gate (options!) plus mana fixing in the vein of Rupture Spire or Transguild Promenade.

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Revision 1 See all

(4 years ago)

+1 Omnath, Locus of the Roil main
-1 Woodland Wanderer main
Date added 6 years
Last updated 4 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

7 - 0 Mythic Rares

27 - 0 Rares

23 - 0 Uncommons

25 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 4.36
Tokens Elemental 2/2 G, Elemental 4/4 G, Elemental 4/4 W, Elemental 5/5 RG, Elemental X/X G, Insect 1/1 G, Morph 2/2 C, Shapeshifter 1/1 C
Folders Commander/EDH Decks
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