A Fresh Approach To Emmara In Commander

Ron Foster might be one of the most significant people in the history of
Magic whose name you don’t know. Ron worked in Organized Play for eighteen
years and was an early, vocal, and dedicated advocate of opening the
Japanese market to the game. A fluent speaker of the language, he often
served as a translator on the Pro Tour and other high-level events; even
more importantly, he was one of the language’s first card set translators.
To say that Japanese Magic (and thereby Magic overall) owes a great debt to
Ron is an understatement. He’s an inveterate fan of the format and has been
for many, many moons. He’s also as good a human being as you might run
across; I unfortunately only got to see him for a few minutes the last time
I was out on the West Coast. Ron lives in Seattle with his with Reiko, his
wife, and their two kids, aged eleven and seven.

When I asked folks
three weeks back
which of the new Guilds of Ravnica guild leaders they’d like me to
build, Ron sent me his take on Emmara, Soul of the Accord. He asked for
some thoughts on it, so I figured I’d share them with you fine people. The
shell has some possibilities, so let’s see what we can do to make it saucy.
Here’s the deck that Ron sent to me:

Emmara, Soul of the Accord

Ron Foster

Test deck on 11-08-2018

Commander

Creatures (23)

Planeswalkers (5)

Lands (39)

Spells (33)

First Takes

The first card I looked for on the list was Glare of Subdual. Finding it, I
knew we were of a mind. Now the question would be could we get Emmara
tapped and untapped as often as possible. Seeing that Ron wanted to also
accomplish that, I knew we were on the same page. Seedborn Muse and Quest
for Renewal are going to get us headed in the right direction. The only
thing I’d truly focus on is to have more ways to tap Emmara, perhaps to do
different things, following the lead of Earthcraft.

What’s nice about Emmara is her casting cost. Creatures, and especially
commanders, get killed with some frequency. Subsequent castings of her
aren’t going to be onerous, since she starts at two mana.

The commitment to the Elspeth and planeswalkers gets my motor running. The
Elspeth cards are all simply good in their own right. Elspeth Tirel is
obviously exciting in a token deck. Garruk Wildspeaker and Nissa, Genesis
Mage do the added work of mana acceleration, and Garruk can be a killer
with its Overrun ability.

Ron has been playing since the very beginnings of Magic, and it shows in
this deck. There are choices from long forgotten sets which make so much
sense that you go “oh, yeah, that card” every time. Willow Satyr, baby.
Willow Satyr.

Things I’d Want to Be Able to Do

Honestly, there aren’t too many different things that I’d want to do with
the deck; it does exactly what it wants to. The short list includes:

More recursion:
Those enchantments are important, so making sure there’s a way to get them
back might be nice. It doesn’t have to be Replenish. We already have Emeria
Shepherd and Emeria, the Sky Ruin on the list, so one or two more pieces
might be strong. Sun Titan is a fine choice, and to go with it, Angelic
Renewal.

Battlefield
wipes:
The deck is all about creating the tokens, so we’d have to be careful about
Wrath effects, but something like Citywide Bust could be interesting. Even
Austere Command might have some legs, since you get to choose what you
want. We have to face the fact that sometimes, even if we have lots of
creatures, someone else will have more and/or better ones than we do. A
Wrath of God, or perhaps for this deck, Winds of Rath, might be worthwhile.

A little fat:
Control decks can be great at making sure you don’t get killed, but you
need ways to smash face as well. This deck does it by going wide, but I
wouldn’t mind seeing one or two giant things to go over the top with. I’d
think because the deck has Moat in it, we’d want a flyer. There are only
twenty-ish creatures in the color identity with a power of six or greater,
Avacyn, Angel of Hope being the most noteworthy. If we get the Seedborn
Muse/Quest for Renewal things going, maybe go way out on a limb with Eater
of Days? More conventionally, there’s Akroma, Angel of Wrath or the
moderately expensive Vengeful Archon. Outside the box, we could go with
Silver Seraph, which gives the team +2/+2 when we have threshold or
Admonition Angel, which provides some board control. Skysovereign, Consul
Flagship leads us to the idea that there might be other Vehicles that could
help us tap as much of the team as we wanted. Remember that the crew
ability says “tap any number of creatures you control with total power X or
greater,” so we’d add some flexibility if we wanted to tap something.

Sacrifice outlets:
I know that this is just one of my things, but people will mess with your
stuff, and the best way to make sure they won’t is to be able to sacrifice
it for some benefit. If we’re creating lots of small tokens, we could think
about turning them into something bigger, better, or that does something we
need to do. Evolutionary Leap is the first one that came to mind,
especially with the limited number of creatures in the deck. All of them
become significant to the deck’s operation, so getting any of them in
exchange for a 1/1 is good stuff. Carnage Altar or Phyrexian Vault work for
card draw. Culling Dias can potentially draw lots of card. Perilous Forays
thins the deck of basic lands. Martyr’s Cause prevents all damage from a
single source and can be way more annoying than most people give it credit
for. Altar of Dementia mills people, and so forth.

Classic win conditions:
Continuing the theme of Garruk Wildspeaker and his built-in Overrun,
redundancy in that regard is a compelling idea. The deck might not generate
the kind of mana you’d need to reliably hard cast Craterhoof Behemoth, but
could certainly cast Overrun or Overwhelming Stampede. This deck might be
one of those in which Triumph of the Hordes might not be out of line-on the
lower end of the power structure that will surprise you with a kill.

Other Cards to Think About Adding

I don’t have specific swaps in mind because there aren’t any cards in the
existing deck that I absolutely hate. This is more a list of things to
consider and then build a plan for what you’d take out.

Crawlspace: Not getting attacked by swarms is a great deal. The deck can
already deal to some extent with one or two big creatures, but letting
swarms get pointed in another direction will keep you alive much longer.
It’s one of my favorite cards for control decks.

Doubling Season: Ron specifically told me that he avoided putting in
Doubling Season “so as not to be too greedy.” Doubling Season is a
borderline card with some issues, especially with planeswalkers, but I
think it’d be fine in this deck without being abusive.

Gideon, Ally of Zendikar: Gideon will make more tokens for the war effort,
but I’d focus on the emblem. With some of that recursion we talked about,
we could get the emblem a few times.

God-Favored General: While we’re untapping stuff, we might want to make
more stuff to untap-especially if we’re untapping lands as well. That also
leads us to Pheres-Band Raiders, which makes slightly bigger things for one
more mana. It could also lead us to Oreskos Sun Guide, which gives us two
life when it’s untapped. Green/white isn’t great for inspired, but there
are choices.

Holdout Settlement or Survivor’s Encampment: Two-color decks don’t usually
have colored mana issues, so I’d use one of these primarily for the tapping
part. The lands wouldn’t be that much of a drag by producing colorless
mana, because there aren’t too many things that have heavy color
requirements.

Thousand-Year Elixir: Another one that Ron mentioned in his notes to me, he
said that he’d add it if he added Rhys, the Redeemed to the deck. I see it
as just a good addition anyway.

Oath of Ajani: A nicely-costed card that might be useful on two different
paths, Oath of Ajani can make a decently-sized team deadly. The reduced
casting cost of planeswalkers is good enough, and when you have five of
them, especially if you’re doing any recursion, could be really valuable.

Volrath’s Gardens: In the theme of ancient cards you might not have heard
of, Volrath’s Gardens fits into some of what the deck wants to do.

Summary

Ron’s deck is a nice twist on existing themes, especially given that it
uses some cards many players might not have seen or heard of. It provides a
window into viewing some older cards and perhaps finding a springboard or
two for leaping into new ideas. It’s quite representative of what the
format can do.

Question of the Week

I flipped the script on this week’s question, since fellow Commander Rules
Committee members Scott Larabee and Toby Elliott were visiting to help take
care of me while I’m on the mend. Toby, by the way, has already cooked some
very nice meals. One of them was pozole, which Scott approached with some
skepticism, since DeeDee, his wife, cooks a strong and authentic version of
at home. She told him that she was impressed that Toby would give it a try;
Scott said that she was even more impressed when he knocked it out of the
park. Anyway, I put the following question in front of the two of them (and
also emailed it to the RC’s fourth member, Gavin Duggan; I didn’t give him
enough lead time to give a proper response).

Commander enjoys its status as the most popular casual format ever.
What might you see as a threat to its long-term prospects?

Toby said ”

I think at this point, the long-term fate of Commander is largely tied
to Magic itself and that it will ebb and flow as Magic does. Within
those margins, Commander could lose its mantle as the premier casual
format. Making it easy for people to find the niche they’re looking for
is important and Commander has the luxury of a clear path to its
audience

.”

Scott added “I

think the biggest threat would be the format becoming overly
competitive. As long as Commander continues to be a majority-casual
format, I think the format will enjoy a long healthy life. As long as
people feel they can play a game of Commander, have a great time player
their deck, and participating in a great social experience, and don’t
see any long-term issues

.”

Check out our comprehensive Deck List Database for lists of all my decks:

SIGNATURE DECKS

Purple Hippos and Maro Sorcerers

;

Kresh Into the Red Zone

;

Halloween with Karador

;

Dreaming of Intet

;

You Did This to Yourself

.

THE CHROMATIC PROJECT

Mono-Color

Heliod, God of Enchantments

;

Thassa, God of Merfolk

;

Erebos and the Halls Of The Dead

;

Forge of Purphoros

;

Nylea of the Woodland Realm

;

Karn

Evil No. 9.

Guilds

Lavinia Blinks

;

Obzedat, Ghost Killer

;

Aurelia Goes to War

;

Trostani and Her Angels

;

Lazav, Shapeshifting Mastermind

;

Zegana and a Dice Bag

;

Rakdos Reimagined

;

Glissa, Glissa

;

Ruric Thar and His Beastly Fight Club

;

Gisa and Geralf Together Forever

.

Shards and Wedges

Adun’s Toolbox

;

Angry, Angry Dinos

;

Animar’s Swarm

;

Borrowing Stuff at Cutlass Point

;

Ikra and Kydele

;

Karrthus, Who Rains Fire From The Sky

;

Demons of Kaalia

;

Merieke’s Esper Dragons

;

Nath of the Value Leaf

;

Queen Marchesa, Long May She Reign

;

Queen Marchesa’s Knights

;

Rith’s Tokens

;

The Mill-Meoplasm

;

The Altar of Thraximundar

;

The Threat of Yasova

;

Zombies of Tresserhorn

.

Four Color

Yidris: Money for Nothing, Cards for Free

;

Saskia Unyielding

;

Breya Reshaped

;

Yidris Rotisserie Draft Deck

.

Five-Color

Children of a Greater God

Partners

Tana and Kydele

;

Kynaios and Tiro

;

Ikra and Kydele

.

THE DO-OVER PROJECT

Adun Oakenshield Do-Over

;

Animar Do-Over

;

Glissa Do-Over

;

Karador Do-Over

;

Karador Version 3

;

Karrthus Do-Over

;

Kresh Do-Over

;

Steam-Powered Merieke

Do-Over;

Lord of Tresserhorn Do-Over

;

Mimeoplasm Do-Over

;

Phelddagrif Do-Over

;

Rith Do-Over

;

Ruhan Do-Over

.

If you’d like to follow the adventures of my Monday Night RPG group (in a
campaign that’s been alive since 1987) which is just beginning the saga The Lost Cities of Nevinor, ask for an invitation to the Facebook
group “Sheldon Menery’s
Monday Night Gamers.”