“Sounds dangerous. I’m in.”
Art:Chulane, Teller of Tales
by Victor Adame Minguez
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Chulane is such a fun commander for CEDH. While they are certainly not as popular as they once were, there are still a ton of OG Chulane fans out there. As a newcomer myself I was intrigued by this commander a lot and thought how interesting it would be to have a Bant deck in CEDH. If you enjoy decks with a ton of adaptive combos as well as a decent amount of Stax effects, welcome to the party. It’s pretty fun for us here, but not so much for our opponents. Not playing Red or Black does cut off certain cards, but with the amount of power we have in the command zone combined with support in Bant, this deck is very powerful. I have been having so much fun with this one and am very excited to showcase this one today. Without further adieu, let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Chulane, Teller of Tales Combo!
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Why Chulane, Teller of Tales?
Chulane is a huge part of our deck and one of the cards we typically like to speed out with all of our supplemental mana production. Chulane not only serves a very important role in the deck as a combo piece but also as a genuine value engine. We cast a ton of small creatures and can get a ton of card draw and mana advantage off of Chulane. Because of all of this value, Chulane is a huge target for removal and a card that often gets countered. We do have protection for Chulane, but I always try to pack a protection spell when running Chulane out.
Deck Overview:
This section contains information about cards in the deck and how they function within the deck! I also highlighted some of my favorite cards in the deck! The infinite combos and loops in the deck are listed below in the “Main Win Conditions” Section.
Creatures:
We have a ton of strong creatures. Let’s start with an awesome pair in Collector Ouphe
and Dauntless Dismantler
, which are all great ways to stop artifact-heavy decks and can hurt a large majority of the decks in the format as the average deck is decently heavy on artifacts. Recruiter of the Guard
, Ranger-Captain of Eos
and Spellseeker
are all great tutors that also trigger Chulane, a true win-win for the deck. We have some strong mana production like Birds of Paradise
, Avacyn's Pilgrim
, and Delighted Halfling
, which help us pay for counters and protection and help us speed out Chulane. Lavinia, Azorius Renegade
is another card that is just nasty in CEDH, wanted to cast that Force of Will
by pitching, that’s a no from me. Our creature package mostly serves as a way to stop our opponents and make a ton of additional mana, and speed out our gameplan and Chulane while setting up a combo win.
Battles:
We are only rocking one battle and that is Invasion of Ikoria // Zilortha, Apex of Ikoria
, which is by far the most popular battle in the format and in this deck, is a great and cheap way to grab strong cards like Collector Ouphe or Aven Mindcensor
or even Archivist of Oghma
. I have never flipped the battle ever, so for the purposes of this deck, it is nothing more than a strong tutor.
Instants:
There isn’t a ton to say about many of the instants in our deck, we are very strong on counters and feature format staples like Force of Negation
, Fierce Guardianship
and Mental Misstep
. We have some matchup-specific counters like Mindbreak Trap
and Flusterstorm
. As well as some combo protection for us like Silence
and Veil of Summer
. Whether stopping opponents or protecting ourselves, I like our instant package a lot. I think it complements the deck very well and gives us a way to fight back against any deck .
Sorceries:
Holy Tutors! Our sorcery package is full of great ways to grab a creature like Green Sun's Zenith
, Neoform
, and Eldritch Evolution
which are all cheap and strong ways to grab some of our stax creatures or one of our strong mana producers like Faeburrow Elder
. Wargate
is arguably the best tutor we have cause, while expensive, we can use it to grab pretty much any combo piece.
Artifacts:
Many of you may be shocked at how low we are on artifacts, but because of cards like Null Rod
and Collector Ouphe, we are running as lean as we possibly can. Sol Ring
, Mana Crypt
, and Mana Vault
are great early game pieces that we can use to speed out Chulane and if we turn them off with our Stax pieces we don’t really care.
Enchantments:
Mystic Remora
and Rhystic Study
are game-changing cards and a great way to get a ton of card advantage. A little bit of a different but still strong source is Sylvan Library
, which gives us a great card selection, and with an abundance of fetches in the deck, we are able to get a ton of value out of the library. Stony Silence
and Deafening Silence
are two of the best stax pieces in our deck that we try to establish in the early game so we can really hurt opponents who are trying to combo off using primarily artifact mana, or in the case of Deafening Silence go off at all. We can play through both of these pieces of Stax just fine, but they really only affect our opponents.
Land Base:
We have quite a nice landbase in this deck, which is full of all the quickest and best lands we can pack. The biggest and worst is certainly Gaea's Cradle
, which is a ridiculous mana producer for the deck and can allow us to make a ton of mana and dump our hand, perfect if we have a creature-heavy hand. Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth
is another great card that helps us get our colors established and is just a great piece of utility for the deck. We have a ton of fetches in the deck, as well as the dual lands and shocks, which allow us to be quite quick and efficient. We are also helped a ton by how much mana our creatures produce.
Strengths of the Deck:
- With the right hand, we can be extremely strong against some of the fastest and most popular decks in the format.
- Our combos are quite adaptive, typically only switching out creatures with a consistent piece; this allows us to go off from many different angles.
- Bant offers us a strong trifecta, great mana production, a great control package, and a litany of strong creature tutors.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- We don’t have access to the greatest tutors, and while we do have some decently strong ones, we have nothing compared to the power level of a Demonic Tutor
. - We are stax-y but not fully dedicated to that; if against very fast decks, we need to be pretty aggressive with mulligans in those matchups.
- A large majority of our value is dependent on value which can leave us in a bad spot if we can’t get them out early.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
We are a combo-focused deck, so of course, we have some combos! Our combos revolve around three things Aluren
, Earthcraft
, and the man of the hour Chulane, Teller of Tales himself. Once we have our combos assembled, we have quite a few ways to end the game, like Finale of Devastation
or looping with Noxious Revival
and Eternal Witness
. We also have Destiny Spinner which can make every single land in our deck hasty and allow us to swing out. All of our combos are easily adaptive, and a lot of them have us tutoring for creatures, which is a huge strength for Bant. Below are all of the combos in the deck explained:
Chulane, Teller of Tales + Mana Breach
+ Shrieking Drake
Requires:
Chulane, Teller of Tales must be on the battlefield. Mana Breach must be on the battlefield. Shrieking Drake must be in hand. Land you control that can produce U.
Steps:
- Activate a land by tapping it, adding U.
- Cast Shrieking Drake by paying U.
- Mana Breach and Chulane triggers.
- Resolve the Mana Breach trigger, returning a land to your hand.
- Resolve the Chulane triggers, causing you to draw a card and put land from your hand onto the battlefield.
- Shrieking Drake enters the battlefield triggers, returning itself from the battlefield to your hand.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite card draw. Infinite draw triggers. Near-infinite ETB. Near-infinite landfall triggers. Near-infinite LTB. Near-infinite storm count.
Chulane, Teller of Tales + Overburden
+ Shrieking Drake
Requires:
Chulane, Teller of Tales must be on the battlefield. Shrieking Drake must be in hand. Overburden must be on the battlefield. You have a basic Island in hand. Mana needed: U
Steps:
- Cast Shrieking Drake by paying U.
- Chulane triggers, causing you to draw a card and put a basic Island from your hand onto the battlefield.
- Shrieking Drake enters the battlefield, triggering itself and Overburden.
- Holding priority, activate a basic Island by tapping it, adding U.
- Resolve the Shrieking Drake trigger, returning it from the battlefield to your hand.
- Resolve the Overburden trigger, returning a basic Island from the battlefield to your hand.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite card draw. Infinite draw triggers. Near-infinite ETB. Near-infinite landfall triggers. Near-infinite LTB. Near-infinite storm count.
Requires:
Aluren must be on the battlefield. Shrieking Drake must be in hand.
Steps:
- Cast Shrieking Drake without paying its mana cost.
- Shrieking Drake enters the battlefield, triggering to return itself to your hand.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite ETB. Infinite LTB. Infinite storm count.
Requires:
Aluren must be on the battlefield. Whitemane Lion must be in hand.
Steps:
- Cast Whitemane Lion without paying its mana cost.
- Whitemane Lion enters the battlefield, triggering to return itself to your hand.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite ETB. Infinite LTB. Infinite storm count.
Requires:
Aluren must be on the battlefield. Cloudstone Curio must be on the battlefield. You control a nontoken nonartifact creature with mana value 3 or less. You have a nonartifact creature card with mana value 3 or less in your hand.
Steps:
- Cast any nonartifact creature with mana value three or less from your hand by paying 0 due to Aluren.
- When the creature enters the battlefield, Cloudstone Curio triggers, returning another nontoken nonartifact creature with mana value three or less.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite ETB. Infinite LTB. Infinite storm count.
Requires:
Shrieking Drake must be in hand. Earthcraft must be on the battlefield. You control a basic Island.
Steps:
- Activate a basic Island you control by tapping it, adding U.
- Cast Shrieking Drake by paying U.
- Shrieking Drake enters the battlefield, triggering itself.
- Holding priority, activate Earthcraft by tapping Shrieking Drake, untapping a tapped basic Island.
- Resolve Shrieking Drake’s trigger, returning it from the battlefield to your hand.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite ETB. Infinite LTB. Infinite storm count.
Shrieking Drake + Earthcraft + Chulane, Teller of Tales
Requires:
Shrieking Drake must be in hand. Earthcraft must be on the battlefield. Chulane, Teller of Tales must be on the battlefield. You control a basic Island.
Steps:
- Activate a basic Island you control by tapping it, adding U.
- Cast Shrieking Drake by paying U.
- Chulane triggers, causing you to draw a card and allowing you to put a land card from your hand onto the battlefield.
- Shrieking Drake enters the battlefield, triggering itself.
- Holding priority, activate Earthcraft by tapping Shrieking Drake, untapping a tapped basic Island.
- Resolve Shrieking Drake’s trigger, returning it from the battlefield to your hand.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite card draw. Infinite ETB. Infinite LTB. Infinite storm count. Near-infinite ETB. Near-infinite landfall triggers. Near-infinite LTB. Near-infinite storm count. Put all land cards in your hand and library onto the battlefield.
Conclusion:
Chulane is a very fun commander and, at least in my local meta, gets almost no representation; if you are someone who is interested in piloting Chulane or you used to pilot Chulane, go back out into the world and spread the fun and good word of Bant. Chulane is a deck that I think is decently well-positioned within the meta currently, and almost no one plays them; if you are an interested Chulane player or have been rocking with them for a long time, I hope this article helped you! Thanks for reading to the end and for all of your support!