“Nature gives so much more than it asks for in return.”
Art:Ellivere of the Wild Court
by Dmitry Burmak
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Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Ellivere of the Wild Court is honestly a weird commander to see at a CEDH table. You almost never see commanders who aren’t the typical meta commanders outside of a few fringe decks. Ellivere is a real force to be reckoned with and the perfect commander for a Stax deck since we can easily draw and play through our own Stax effects while absolutely shutting down storm and naus strategies from our opponents. While we play no combos in our deck, we are built to beat a lot of the most popular combos within the format. If you want something different in CEDH or just love playing Stax, this is the deck for you! Without further adieu, let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Ellivere of the Wild Court Stax!
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Why Ellivere of the Wild Court?
Ellivere is an all-star within our deck. Not only does she make a bunch of our creatures better and more pervasive attackers, but she is also a card draw engine for the deck, which is typically a weakness for Selesnya, so having that ability in the command zone is awesome. Ellivere also can come down as early as turn one when paired with Jeweled Lotus
, which can be an awesome card to commit to the board early.
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!
Creatures:
Just like pretty much any Selesnya deck, we start off with a little mana ramp in Avacyn's Pilgrim
and Birds of Paradise
, which are both awesome ways to get some extra mana. We are a Stax deck, so we have some Stax creatures like Collector Ouphe
, Drannith Magistrate
, and Kataki, War's Wage
which can be extremely strong against a variety of strategies and can slow them down an absolute ton. Samurai of the Pale Curtain
is an awesome card that I like a ton against pretty much any graveyard strategy. Since the main combat damage/focus of our deck is the Virtuous Role tokens, cards like Halvar, God of Battle // Sword of the Realms
, can make our creatures into crazy strong attackers that can hit like a truck. Since we are an enchantment deck Destiny Spinner
is an amazing way to protect our enchantments from our opponent’s pesky counterspells. Archon of Valor's Reach
is a bit of an expensive stax piece but can be very devastating on a turn where we have Grand Abolisher
out or have a Silence
effect up.
Battles:
Invasion of Ikoria // Zilortha, Apex of Ikoria
seems to be 50/50 between many Ellivere players, I love utility and being able to have outs and find what we need, so an additional tutor that is quite cheap is a huge win for the deck, unlike other decks we can also reliably flip it which makes our combat gameplan that much easier.
Instants:
To start off, we have some ways to stop our opponents from stopping us in Autumn's Veil
, Veil of Summer
, and Silence, which are all awesome ways to stop our opponents from interacting with us at all for a turn which can be more than enough time to set up key stax pieces or continue to establish our board. We also have some strong removal in Nature's Claim
, Path to Exile
, and Swords to Plowshares
which can be great ways to take our and exile key combo creatures or commanders.
Sorceries:
We only have three sorceries in the deck, but they are very strong to start off. We have Eldritch Evolution
which is a great way to get some of the bigger creatures in our deck and can be a great way to grab some utility creatures as well. Green Sun's Zenith
is another amazing tutor that we can use to grab anything green that we want, and how can we say no to that!? This may come as a surprise, but we finish out our sorcery package with another tutor in Finale of Devastation
, which is arguably the best since we often cast this with X more than ten and just swing out and kill our opponents with it, even if we cast it normally as a tutor it is still very strong.
Artifacts:
Jeweled Lotus is particularly strong in the deck since it can give us Ellivere on the first turn of the game, which can be very strong. The One Ring
is an additional card draw/protection for the deck and can be a strong piece to have at our disposal. We also have some artifact stax effects like Grafdigger's Cage
and Null Rod
which can shut down commanders like Old Stickfingers
and Urza, Lord High Artificer
or pretty much any graveyard or artifact focused strategy. Even though we do have artifact Stax/ hate, we still run some rocks for fast mana like Sol Ring
. Weathered Runestone
is a card I like a lot in the deck, and it can hose a ton of strategies and is basically a second cheaper copy of Drannith Magistrate.
Enchantments:
We have some strong Stax effects in our enchantment package, like Stony Silence
and Rule of Law
, which can be very difficult for a lot of decks to play through, and the beauty of it is that we can easily play through these effects. Some lists don’t run it, but I love Sylvan Library
in this deck, even if we don’t take the cards setting up the top and basically getting a scry while increasing the count for Ellivere is well worth it to me. Kenrith's Transformation
is an awesome two-mana “removal” spell that can deal with even the worst of creatures /commanders that our opponents have and reduces them to a simple no-ability elk. Touch the Spirit Realm
is an awesome enchantment since it can provide an Oblivion Ring
style effect or can be a strong piece of protection for our board if single-target removal comes our way.
Land Base:
To start off, we have two insanely broken lands in the deck in Gaea's Cradle
and Serra's Sanctum
, which are both lands we try to get as soon as possible utilizing cards like Crop Rotation
since they both can produce a crazy amount of mana even with only three or four creatures/enchantments these cards are crazy strong. Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth
is an awesome piece of mana fixing for the deck. Since we are only two colors, mana, fixing isn’t entirely necessary, but it is a strong land and absolutely worth including in the deck. We also have Boseiju, Who Endures
and Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
, which can be a strong and cheap way to deal with opponent’s threats and have a little bit of a gotcha moment since many won’t expect any interaction beyond our Stax pieces. Beyond these, we have the classic on-color duals and fetches as well as some faster mana like City of Brass
as well as some counterspell protection in Cavern of Souls
. I really like this land base, we are not a combo deck and cannot afford to run thin on mana so we are running 30 which is a little higher than the average.
Strengths of the Deck:
- Our stax effects can come down as early as the first turn and put a hamper on storm and naus style decks or really any combo deck
- Our deck is very strong against many artifact strategies as well like Stony Silence
and Null Rod - Our commander is a strong card draw engine for the deck
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- We are not playing the three best colors in CEDH, which is no doubt a drawback of the deck. This doesn’t mean we are weak by any means, but we don’t have access to some of the most popular cards/combos within the format
- We are very weak to enchantment hate but we do have ways to protect and stop enchantment hate. Continuous enchantment hate, especially against our stax effects, can slow us down
- We have to win through combat; while we can get some big swing wins, winning through combat is much less quick/powerful than winning through a combo. While we are extremely strong in the late-game, until we get stax effects established, we can be a little slow.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
There are no infinite combos or loops within the deck, which, in all honestly, is quite surprising for CEDH, but since we are only playing Selesnya colors, it is not entirely surprising. We end the game through combat and swinging with the aid of bombs like Finale of Devastation and Craterhoof Behemoth
as well as Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
which are all strong ways to smash opponents in combat. We are a Stax deck allowing us to go into the late game, slow the game down, and flat-out shut down certain archetypes.
Conclusion:
Ellivere of the Wild Court is an awesome breath of fresh air of CEDH and looks very different from the typical CEDH deck. I have been testing this list for quite a while, and while I certainly don’t win every game, I have a pretty decent success rate with this deck at my LGS and within my playgroup. This deck is perfect for any Stax lover and anyone who loves Selesnya, this deck would also be perfect for someone who is sick of the typical M.O. of many CEDH decks with a lot of the same combos. Ellivere makes our opponents play fairly and allows us to play through our own Stax pieces easily. Thanks for reading to the end and for all of your support!