Choose Your Own Adventure With Etali

The Elder Dinosaurs from Rivals of Ixalan make awesome Commanders, and I’ve been having a great time building decks around each of them. I wrote about Ghalta, Primal Hunger here; Zetalpa, Primal Dawn here; and Tetzimoc, Primal Death here. Then I dipped outside of the five-card cycle and wrote about Zacama, Primal Calamity, and last week I wrote about Nezahal, Primal Tide. This week I finish up the Elder Dinosaurs with Etali, Primal Storm.

Etali scales in power based on how many players are around the table, so that makes it a great card for Commander. Our angle of attack is pretty simple: we want Etali to hit the battlefield as soon as possible and start attacking. Let’s get cracking.

Ramp

Six mana isn’t terribly expensive for a Commander, but it’s not nothing, so we’ll want a fair amount of ramp so we can get Etali out early (which is why I’ve included Mana Vault). My deck is going to focus on attacking, so Curse of Opulence seems like a good inclusion. Scuttlemutt provides mana but it can also attack, and when you run across something that has protection from red that would otherwise stymie you, Scuttlemutt can change colors to help out.

Haste

Ideally we can cast Etali early, and we can shave a turn off the wait by giving Etali haste, so I’ve gone deep on the haste enablers here. Generator Servant provides ramp and haste. Urabrask the Hidden slows down your opponents from deploying blockers.

Attacks!

So we’ve got Etali out early and attacking. Now what?

How about getting extra attacks!

Cards like Aggravated Assault, Combat Celebrant, and Hellkite Charger give us more attacks and more triggers. Since we’re going down this path, why not have other creatures and effects that reward us for each attack step? Neheb, the Eternal gives you mana for each postcombat main phase. Sword of the Animist, Sword of Feast and Famine, Prophetic Flamespeaker, Wildfire Eternal, and Grenzo, Havoc Raiser provide all sorts great combat damage triggers you want to take advantage of.

Key to the City gives you the ability to attack with Etali even if your opponents all have the ground blocked with creatures that might otherwise kill your commander.

Top of the Library Cards

I don’t usually play Sensei’s Divining Top since it’s so time-consuming, but Etali’s ability is much better when you can at least make sure the top of your library has a spell worth casting off the trigger. Scroll Rack and Seer’s Lantern can help with that too. Strionic Resonator let you double Etali’s triggered ability for double the fun!

Since we’re adjusting the top of our library, Vance’s Blasting Cannons seems like a good card to add to the mix.

Spells

Commander is all about the big plays, and sometimes Etali’s triggered ability is going to reveal some big haymaker spell you can cast for free. So why not copy it? Reverberate, Reiterate and Dualcaster Mage let you copy something sweet that you cast for free. Howl of the Horde works even better, since Etali is going to give you that raid trigger. Paradox Engine untapping stuff seems pretty good if you’re casting multiple spells in a turn.

Sunbird’s Invocation doesn’t combo with Etali’s trigger, but it plays nicely with the themes of playing cards off the library, so I tossed it in. It can certainly add to the chance of big, swingy plays.

Removal

I’m a little light on removal spells, but I am hoping to hit some off Etali or Grenzo triggers.

Good Stuff

We will round things out with some quality cards. Skullclamp, The Immortal Sun, and Magus of the Wheel provide some raw card draw. Disrupt Decorum is a fun card that can help make sure your opponents don’t gang up on you if you’ve pulled too far ahead casting spells from their decks.

Here is the full list including the lands:

Etali, Primal Storm

Bennie Smith

Test deck on 02-12-2018

Commander

Creatures (22)

Lands (17)

What do you think? How would you go about building this deck differently? Do you think the big red Dinosaur has what it takes?

It occurred to me while building the deck that there is a lot of overlap between this and my Neheb, the Eternal deck. Both decks revolve around attacking and do good things with additional attack steps…which then had me think about Aurelia, the Warleader, the commander that has an extra attack step built right in. I think I am going to break down my Etali and Neheb decks and add the two cards to my Aurelia deck. Here’s the current list if you are interested:

Aurelia, the Warleader

Bennie Smith

Test deck on 02-12-2018

Commander

Creatures (24)

Lands (17)

What do you think of Aurelia with Neheb and Etali added to the mix?

For more Commander goodness, be sure to check out the 2018 edition of Sheldon Menery’s Can’t Get Angry and Mark Nestico’s Commander deck built around Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca.

Last but not least… did you hear about the Commander Celebration going on at SCG CON June 8th through 10th? I’ll be there, along with Sheldon and the Commander VS. crew Jonathan, Stephen, Justin, and Jeremy. If you’re within driving distance of Roanoke, Virginia, come down for a fantastic fun weekend and play Commander with us! I am super-stoked and hope to see a lot of you there!

New to Commander?

If you’re just curious about the format, building your first deck, or trying to take your Commander deck up a notch, here are some handy links:

Commander Primer Part 1
(Why play Commander? Rules Overview, Picking your Commander)
Commander Primer Part 2
(Mana Requirements, Randomness, Card Advantage)
Commander Primer Part 3
(Power vs. Synergy, Griefing, Staples, Building a Doran Deck)
Commander Starter Kits 1
(kick start your allied two-color decks for $25)
Commander Starter Kits 2
(kick start your enemy two-color decks for $25)
Commander Starter Kits 3
(kick start your shard three-color decks for $25)