Aphelia, Viper Whisperer Snakes

Commander Overview

Aphelia is one of the coolest commanders from Foundations Jumpstart, it deals with Snakes primarily, well Gorgon’s too but we don’t have very many of those, Aphelia does two essential things for our deck gives all of our creatures deathtouch, this makes attacking into us an absolute nightmare and more importantly makes us a nightmare in combat, Aphelia’s second ability is where stuff gets to get really crazy allowing us to hit our opponents for one and actually deal half of their health and with cards like Bloodletter of Aclazotz we can one-shot an opponent. Aphelia is such a cool commander, and being supportive of one of the more unsupported creature tribes is amazing. If you love snakes and love being an absolute menace throughout the game, this is the deck for you.

We are firmly a bracket 2 deck and go well against other bracket 2 decks. There isn’t a ton of complicated stuff going on here, and we just want to attack. We don’t meet a single requirement of the higher brackets.

How to Play the Deck

This is one of the easiest decks to play and is perfect for a player of any skill level, as long as the person piloting understands the basics of the game and combat this is a very straightforward deck, dropping our cheap snakes and attacking is pretty much all we do, Aphelia is a huge part of our deck and is one of the primary ways we take opponents down and out, because of this Aphelia does get targeted a lot but we do have some protection. There aren’t a ton of complicated things we do in this deck; we swing sideways and hit our opponents to deal half their life.

Synergy’s in the deck

Our whole deck is very synergistic with Aphelia; all of our snakes work well with her. Still, we do have some other snakes that are great for the deck, like Marsh Boa and Mire Boa. The swampwalk is not relevant against every opponent. Still, since we have Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in the deck, we can guarantee a hit. With Aphelia and mana, we can make an opponent lose half of their life. The same is true for cards like Cover of Darkness and Dauthi Embrace; they make our snakes very hard to block and help a ton with the game plan. These synergies are strong, and you will run into them quite a bit while piloting the deck.

Phases of the Game

Early-Game: We actually have a pretty strong early-game in this deck, combining Aphelia only costing two and our snakes having a very low overall cost and almost all of them having deathtouch. We can be a true menace in the early game and deal some good early damage. We don’t have to be super aggressive, but early damage does make halving our opponents’ life totals better.

Mid-Game: Our mid game is not very different than our early game except just better stuff, the core gameplan remains the same but we can get out better creatures and enchantments that help the gameplan a ton like Phyrexian Arena which provides consistent card draw or Cover of Darkness which makes our snakes very hard to block. The mid-game is also typically the first time we can activate Aphelia’s second ability, which can accelerate the game quickly.

Late-Game: The core gameplan remains the same for us, but the late-game is when we can start dropping some powerful cards like Bloodletter of Aclazotz, which is a one-shot if we’ve activated our commander’s second ability or we can have a very buffed up Champion of Lambholt which prevents our opponents from blocking. Dropping a huge Stonecoil Serpent in the late-game is great too, even though the core gameplan doesn’t change; things get a lot easier during the late-game.

Card Breakdowns

Ramp

We do have some ramp in the deck, only having a few sources including Cultivate and Kodama’s Reach but we don’t need much more than that truthfully, we have an extremely low cost throughout the deck and hitting a land drop every turn is enough to drop creatures a lot, we have a ton of one and two mana snakes in the deck and dumping our hand and filling our board is very easy for the deck to do.

Card Draw/Card Advantage

We are pretty good at card draw, this is pretty much a requirement for a deck like this, since we have such a low overall cost it is very easy for us to do dump our hand and be left with nothing so having a consistent stream of card draw with cards like Night’s Whisper or Read the Bones is very important for us. We also have some consistent card draw in Phyrexian Arena, which is one of the strongest cards in our deck. Consistently getting a second card is invaluable to our deck. We also have Seshiro the Anointed, which is expensive but is a great source of card draw, and we can easily draw a ton of cards, especially if an opponent has no blockers.

Removal

Being in Golgari allows us to have access to some good removal, and that’s on top of the fact that we have creatures that almost all have deathtouch, and if they don’t have deathtouch, Aphelia gives it to them! Creature decks, beware, we are extremely strong against them. We do have some traditional removal like Infernal Grasp and Putrefy as well as Tragic Slip. It is easy for us to kill pretty much any creature of any size.

Protection

Aphelia is one of the few creatures that we care to protect. Bloodletter of Aclazotz is a good option as well. Still, Aphelia is number one; they are the heart of our deck, and we are not that impressive without them. Because of this, opponents target Aphelia quite a bit. In contrast, we can’t protect them from everything. We do have both Snakeskin Veil and Tamiyo’s Safekeeping; these are cheap and easy ways for us to keep them on the battlefield in the face of single-target removal.

Utility / Support

Our support cards are pretty much everything that isn’t a snake that helps us. Our snakes are helpful as well, but cards like Sylvan Library that provide card selection can help us set up our turn very easily. If it’s a card we desperately need, we can easily pay four or eight life and grab it. Sphere Grid is one of my favorite support cards in the deck. It’s extremely effective in the early game, giving us the ability to buff our small snakes and giving them trample, which is very strong in the late game when opponents actually have blockers. Dauthi Embrace is another support card that’s great for our deck. I love being able to pay two and basically give them unblockable. While it’s less effective against mono-black decks, it is cheap and great against a majority of the field.

Our creatures are small, but we can get pretty big, especially with the help of Banner of Kinship in a deck that has cheap creatures that we can easily dump on the board. This card becomes so crazy. I also love our mini equipment suite with cards like Quietus Spike, which is essentially our commander’s ability. We also have Silver Shroud Costume and Prowler’s Helm, which make our creatures nearly unblockable and work very well with Aphelia.

Mana Base

I love our mana base, being in Golgari feels so good since we can be in both Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, while both are great. Urborg is truly amazing since we have a couple of snakes with Swampwalk. We have the classics like Overgrown Tomb, Verdant Catacombs, and Undergrowth Stadium to help us access our colors early. Command Tower is also extra good in this deck since we can search for it or recur it early with Tower Winder. Our land base is pretty simple, but can be very powerful for us.

Win Conditions

Our only win condition is combat. Aphelia does accelerate this a bit, thankfully, because swinging with mostly 1/1’s does not feel good, but that’s the only way we close out games. It’s quite easy to do in practice, and we can end games decently early.

Strengths of the Deck

We are a nightmare to block against or attack into, since we have so much deathtouch in the deck, and even if our snakes don’t have deathtouch, Aphelia gives it to them.

We are a very well-rounded deck; we have a good mix of aggressive stuff and defensive stuff. Being so well-rounded prepares us for a litany of situations, both in and out of combat.

Weaknesses of the Deck

We are entirely reliant on our commander.

We can have a tough matchup against removal-heavy decks or control decks, pretty much any strategy that stops our commander from being on the field.

Deck Testing/Matchups

I tested this deck against three different decks

Game 1: Vs Arachne, Psionic Weaver. Matchup Record: 3-0

Mono-White decks struggle against us a lot, and Arachne is no different. While they do make our snakes cost more, one more mana on an extremely cheap creature type doesn’t change much. Some of their hatebears can be annoying, but I had no trouble with this matchup.

Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Putrefy, Krosan Grip and Cover of Darkness

Game 2: Vs Rienne, Angel of Rebirth. Matchup Record: 2-2

This was a split matchup, and in my opinion, it depended a lot on hands. They have a decent amount of stuff they don’t care if it dies, so they are a lot less scared of our deathtouch than other decks are. We are a lot faster than they are, so speed really is the name of the game here.

Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Changeling Outcast, Champion of Lambholt and Kindred Dominance

Game 3: Vs Kitsa, Otterball Elite. Matchup Record: 1-4

This was a terrible matchup for us; it was hard to keep anything on the board, and their commander’s ability to copy is truly nasty. It’s hard to resolve or keep anything on the board. This was a tough one; we have almost no recourse against mono-blue decks.

Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Sosake’s Summons, Putrefy and Tragic Slip

Conclusion

Thanks so much for reading to the end! I hope you all enjoyed this deck. Focusing on less popular creature types is always a lot of fun, and Aphelia is such a strong commander for the snakes. I enjoy the ease of access of any skill level being able to play this deck, and I love the theme as well! If you’ve been on the fence, play a couple of games, and I’m sure you will fall in love with this list as I did.