“You hide behind your laws in arrogance.”
Art:Selvala, Explorer Returned
by Tyler Jacobson
Wanna skip the primer? Here is a link to the moxfield deck.
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Selvala is a very cool commander who has been in the format for quite a long time. Selvala is a meta-dependent commander, but in certain metas, it can be an extremely strong and adaptive combo deck. If you like creatures and combos, this is certainly the deck for you. I have been having a blast with Selvala at my LGS and have had quite a bit of success with it. Selvala captures everything I love about magic, which is differing from the norm and a little bit weird. Without further adieu, let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Selvala, Explorer Returned Parlay Storml!
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Why Selvala, Explorer Returned?
Selvala is a key combo piece and one of the strongest cards in our deck; being able to draw out our opponents with ease, Selvala is a strong card draw/selection for the deck. They can come down super early and while they may not be threatening they can be quite strong and help us assemble combos with ease. We do need to be careful as we need Selvala for a payoff for many of our combos as we don’t run cards like Walking Ballista
in the list. Selvala is awesome and should be cast early and protected at all costs.
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 do have some controlling, arguably staxy effects, but as a reminder, we are not a stax deck. We have Collector Ouphe
, Aven Mindcensor
, and Dauntless Dismantler
, which are great ways to slow down and in the case of Ouphe outright stop our opponents depending on what kind of strategy they are on. Grand Abolisher
is a key creature for our deck and a card we want to have out when we start thinking about comboing off, the same is true for Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar
which is a fairly new addition to the deck but is very strong and serves essentially the same purpose. We have some big mana sources like Priest of Titania
, Karametra's Acolyte
, and Circle of Dreams Druid
, which are just few examples but can make some huge mana for the deck. The main goal of our creature package is to be cheap, hyper-aggressive and produce a ton of mana.
Battles:
Invasion of Ikoria // Zilortha, Apex of Ikoria
is a very strong creature tutor for the deck and not much more. It is a great way to easily grab the creature we want; we almost never flip the battle.
Instants:
Enlightened Tutor
is a cheap one-mana way to grab a combo piece like Concordant Crossroads
or Umbral Mantle
. The same is true for Worldly Tutor
, which is the same thing but for a creature. We have some very important combo protection like Silence
and Autumn's Veil
, which gives us strong protection when we attempt to combo off. The same is true for Veil of Summer
. I really like To Arms!
in the deck as it allows us to untap everything, which can be a great way to produce a ton of mana. We also have some instant speed removal like Path to Exile
and Swords to Plowshares
which are great ways to take out key creatures/commanders. Force of Vigor
is a strong and frequently free card that can slow down our opponents or hose an artifact combo deck.
Sorceries:
Finale of Devastation
is an outlet for when we have infinite mana, and we can use it as a creature tutor as needed as well. Green Sun's Zenith
is a key card in our deck because when we attempt to draw out our opponents with Selvala, we can constantly cast and reuse Zenith to fill our library so we don’t lose. Mobilize
is awesome since we can re-tap Selvala, and, with all of our mana creatures, can represent a ton of mana for the deck. Open the Armory
is another card that not all decks run, but I like it as a consistent way to grab Umbral Mantle. Natural Order
is another very strong card we can ramp into very easily and grab a combo piece/creature.
Artifacts:
We have a strong trio of artifacts that are combo pieces like Thousand-Year Elixir
, Umbral Mantle, and Staff of Domination
. All of these are extremely strong combo pieces and great mana producers. We also have some strong mana rocks that help us speed out Selvala, like Mana Crypt
, Jeweled Lotus
, and Chrome Mox
.
Enchantments:
Three of our enchantments are strong pieces of ramp in Utopia Sprawl
, Wild Growth
, and Carpet of Flowers
, which are all amazing one mana cards that can help us speed out Selvala. Kenrith's Transformation
is one of the few pieces of interaction we have but can be very strong against a ton of creatures/commanders in the format and there really is no bad target with this. Some lists run it, and some don’t, but I like Sylvan Library
in the deck because it’s an extra card draw, and we can set up the top of our deck.
Land Base:
Even though we are only two colors, we have a ton of speed in our landbase like Gemstone Caverns
, a ton of fetch lands, and strong duals like Temple Garden
, and Savannah
. We also have cards like City of Brass
and Mana Confluence
, which allow us to produce our colors as needed, and the life loss rarely matters. The best land in our deck by far is Gaea's Cradle
and its also the reason we run Crop Rotation
in the deck, this thing is a mana powerhouse. Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth
helps us an absolute ton and doesn’t do much to help our opponents. I play in a meta that is heavy on cards like Path to Exile and Assassin's Trophy
, which is why we are a little heavier on basics than many lists.
Strengths of the Deck:
- We are aggressive and can establish combos and subsequently wins very quickly with backup protection like Veil of Summer
or Silence. - We are quite strong against a lot of the decks in the format because there are so many different ways we can combo off, cards like Praetor's Grasp do little but slow us down.
- We have so many different combos it allows us to keep a wider range of hands and mulligan less aggressively since we can combo off in various ways.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- We are pretty light on interaction and beyond cards like Drannith Magistrate or Grand Abolisher / Collector Ouphe we don’t have a ton of ways to stop opponents or slow them down.
- We absolutely need Selvala to win as one of our outlets, consist removal or a huge cost in the command zone can slow us down quite a bit.
- We are extremely weak to the other hyper-aggressive combo decks in the format, Food Chain being the prime example.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
We have an absolute ton of combos in the deck, and below all of them are explained. These combos are the main win condition in our deck and allow us to make infinite mana, utilize Selvala to draw out our opponents or make infinitely big attackers. We have a ton of combos that utilize the same combo pieces so as to not repeat myself we have a list compiled from the wonderful Puffuel and NathanOfTheGiltLeaf on Moxfield who has an awesome Selvala List, its a little different than mine but they have an awesome build as well.
List of Combos:
Umbral Mantle + any creature that taps for 4 (can also be used with Selvala for extra draws)
Mirror Entity
+ Wirewood Symbiote
+ any creature that taps for 3 (one of the easiest combos to use Selvala as the mana producer)
Ashaya, Soul of the Wild
+ Quirion Ranger
+ any creature that taps for 2 (easiest combo to use Selvala as the mana producer)
Cloudstone Curio
+ Haste, which is typically Concordant Crossroads + a creature that costs X and taps for X1 + a creature that costs X and taps for X
Cloudstone Curio + Wirewood Symbiote + a creature that costs X + any creature that taps for X1G
Cloudstone Curio + Village Bell-Ringer
r + a creature that costs X + a board that taps for X2W
We also have some combos with Emiel the Blessed
:
Temur Sabertooth
or Emiel the Blessed, one of Thousand-Year Elixir, or Concordant Crossroads, and a creature that costs X to tap for at least G2X ( if using Emiel)
Temur Sabertooth or Emiel the Blessed, Village Bell-Ringer, and a combination of creatures to tap for at least ( if using Emiel)
Conclusion:
Selvala is a very cool commander who can be quite the powerhouse in CEDH, while this deck is not the best in the format, it has many strong matchups and can actually fare quite well, for example, in my Dimir heavy meta at my LGS I found a ton of success with Selvala and found I could sneak out combos and the game when my opponents would least expect, I love decks that are a little unorthodox and deviate from the norm, and that’s why I love Selvala so much. Thanks for reading to the end and for all of your support!