Best commander to abuse aluren?
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Sept. 1, 2016, 4:55 p.m. by chirz2792
A friend recently gave me an Aluren for my birthday. Now my question is: Where should I put it? What kind of commander would support a deck built around Aluren? Obviously green would be one of the colors but what about the others(if any)?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated and thanks in advance.
griffstick says... #3
Gaddock Teeg is the first thing that comes to mind
September 1, 2016 5:06 p.m.
Animar, Soul of Elements can be pretty stupid as he typically runs a good deal of cheap creatures, so you can actually storm out using bouncing creatures like AEther Adept or Man-o'-War to return themselves to your hand over and over, putting infinite counters on Animar allowing you to either drop a super early bomb or simply go for a commander dmg kill. Or just for laughs actually run storm cards like Brain Freeze or Mind's Desire and have a more unique wincon.
It also makes Omnath, Locus of Mana super resilient to board wipes since you can replay him at instant speed using the mana you've saved to cover additional costs before the phase changes.
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary can go infinite pretty easily with Aluren.
September 1, 2016 5:17 p.m. Edited.
@geekmp3: I did see that and I got a few good ideas from it but so far I'm the only person in my playgroup who isn't building leovold and I don't want our group to become nothing but leovold decks.
September 1, 2016 5:28 p.m.
@griffstick: Teeg is an interesting thought. Would it be better as a hatebears deck that uses Aluren to get around those effects or more of a combo deck?
@Necrotize: Momir and animar both seem interesting. Of the 2, which do you think would be better?
@Lhurgoyf: I hadn't even thought about Recycle. That's going to lead to some shenanigans. Thanks!
September 1, 2016 5:33 p.m.
As mentioned, Animar, Soul of Elements with cards like Shrieking Drake, Dream Stalker, Man-o'-War, etc
Or also run Cloudstone Curio and rock their socks off with any two creatures cmc 3 or less
Purphoros, God of the Forge is a solid wincon as part of the combo
September 1, 2016 5:35 p.m.
griffstick says... #10
follow this link list of commanders who most commonly used Aluren and most paired cards with it as well
September 1, 2016 5:38 p.m.
@_SeriosSkies_: I'm not really a fan of elves as a tribe but I'll look into it.
@greyninja: Hmm... That sounds like it could be fun. I'm starting to lean towards animar.
September 1, 2016 5:41 p.m.
@griffstick: Thanks! That link is super helpful. It seems like most of the best cards to abuse Aluren are in 
/
. Momir seems like he'd be pretty strong but so does animar. I'm wondering if Derevi, Empyrial Tactician would add anything to the deck or not.
September 1, 2016 5:50 p.m.
UpperDeckerTaco says... #13
Something with white and maybe red in it....and maybe potentially green.
September 1, 2016 5:58 p.m.
iBleedPunk says... #14
September 1, 2016 6:01 p.m.
It depends on what you want. Animar Aluren would likely be going for either a fast commander damage victory or a fast beatdown with one of the big eldrazi legends or Blightsteel Colossus.
Momir Aluren would likely abuse it to get combo creatures at instant speed and win with some infinite combo.
Both are fairly competitive and it really comes down to preference.
September 1, 2016 6:22 p.m.
@NicolBolas666: I don't know if slivers would be the best place for Aluren. They seem good enough without it.
@NecroPony: Ezuri's an interesting option but I never really liked him all that much.
@Necrotize: Both good options but which do you think would be more resilient of the 2?
September 1, 2016 9:26 p.m.
Probably Momir simply because it'd be a combo deck. It can take multiple turns to kill someone with commander damage. Comboing out in blue usually means you can win the turn you decide to assemble the pieces. Momir would be more susceptible to disruption, but since he's only two colors, you could run a cheaper mana base and still run a good amount of counterspells. Animar would likely no want to have many non-creatures in case there's a lot of removal getting thrown about and you need to rebuild a board state.
September 2, 2016 6:38 a.m.
Selvala, Explorer Returned elfball. You can implement the best elfball draw cards and try to combo of with Cloudstone Curio and Aluren or any haste enabler and a good mana elf like Priest of Titania but then you need a way to draw cards.
September 2, 2016 8:55 a.m.
chirz2792 this puts you at a very advantageous position then! You know what your opponents are going to do. You know where they will be. You have a map, essentially. Time to build the counter-Leo deck! Break the Meta! :D
September 2, 2016 10:21 a.m.
@Necrotize: The manabase isn't an issue. I actually have most of the dual colored lands sitting in a binder. You make a good point about more counterspells with momir but I'm curious if not having red would affect the deck in any way.
@AlexoBn: Hmm...Selvala's an interesting thought. I'm not really a fan of elves though and I'd have to assemble the manabase from scratch because all of my selesnya lands are in my Saffi Eriksdotter deck. I'll look into it though.
@geekmp3: That's a good point! I already know that one of them is doing the whole hand disruption lock with Teferi's Puzzle Box and another is doing BUG goodstuff so i'm already at a huge advantage :).
September 2, 2016 4:18 p.m.
The addition of red really isn't too much of a draw for animar decks. All the cards you really care about are either blue, green or colorless. There are usually very few red cards in my experience. The only commonly run red cards in Animar are Imperial Recruiter, Purphoros, God of the Forge for combo purposes, and sometimes Flamekin Harbinger. Red(other than Purphoros) plays a very minor role in infinite combo Animar, which is probably the most competitive variant.
September 2, 2016 5:18 p.m. Edited.
You can take a look at my elfball list: Ain't nobody got time for a long match you do not need any of the dual lands because the deck is mainly green.
September 3, 2016 1:51 a.m.
@Necrotize: Hmm...out of curiosity, how necessary is Imperial Recruiter in a deck like animar? Can it function without it or is it kind of necessary for the deck to compete?
@AlexoBn: That's one hell of a list :). I'm reconsidering selvala after looking at it. Thanks!
September 3, 2016 7:43 p.m.
He's just a tutor, so all he does is increase consistency when it comes to comboing off. Could easily be replaced by something worse like Gamble or any of the green creature tutors. Only reason he's so great is because he's likely going to cost 
to cast and he pumps Animar up at the same time. Honestly, unless you're drowning in cash, there are more important cards to drop 200-300 dollars on that will make more of an impact.
September 3, 2016 7:52 p.m. Edited.
@Necrotize: I really appreciate all the help you've given me. You answered all the questions I had about animar. I have a question regarding momir. How is he typically built? I've seen a couple of lists online and from what I've seen they're usually elfball lists. Is there another way to build him that's as effective as those lists or does he need the elves to get going quickly?
September 4, 2016 9:20 a.m.
@chirz2792: He can be built as Elfball, but I'm more partial to a toolbox deck that aims to combo out, usually with Deadeye Navigator + Palinchron off of Tooth and Nail, but you can also go for more interesting combos since you have green available. Palinchron + Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger is also infinite mana. Aluren + Cloudstone Curio + Tidespout Tyrant and 2 random cheap creatures in play lets you bounce everyone's permanents. Mana Vault + Sol Ring + Tidespout Tyrant is infinite mana in a really easy to assemble combo. Elfball has the same issue in Momir as it does in every deck, you're vulnerable to boardwipes, and you have to amass a huge board state to kill everyone. And even then, certain strategies can still delay you indefinitely. But if you go for combo/control, you can dictate the pace of the game somewhat and can use Momir to get cards you need for the situation at hand. Momir gets a huge target on his head if you're using him to tutor up elf lords twice a turn.
Then you can fill it with useful sub-3cmc creatures that have relevant ETB effects that you can abuse at instant speed with Aluren and get Momir triggers off of. Things like Reclamation Sage, Uktabi Orangutan, Trinket Mage, etc.
September 4, 2016 9:48 a.m. Edited.
chirz2792 thanks a lot. The deck is super fast. At first I thought it would just perform in 1 vs 1 but in multiplayer Selvala is getting so much stronger that it allows for really fast wins. Nonetheless I'll playtest some of the new conspiracy cards (new Selvala ie). Also aluren is on my "yet to test" list
September 4, 2016 12:03 p.m.
Momir vig is super good in a combo deck. I played it as wizard tribal with mind over matter and some other funny ways to win. Tooth and nail seems like the best approach to win with the deck
September 4, 2016 12:06 p.m.
Thanks for all of the input everybody! I think i'm going to go with momir vig. I'll post a list when I have one if you're interested. It'll probably be anywhere from a day to a week.
September 5, 2016 9:32 p.m.
Well, here it is! Momir Vig's Aluren Deck. Tell me what you think and any help is greatly appreciated :D.
geekmp3 says... #2
Did you see the featured queue today? Leovold, Try-Hard of Trest
September 1, 2016 5:02 p.m.