Do you hate your commander just being a pretty sidepiece to the rest of your deck, or just a generic value engine that synergizes with other generic value engines?
Then this might be the deck for you! As much as generic value engines synergizing and comboing can be fun, I love feeling like I'm actually piloting a commander that I want to win with. This deck is entirely focused on enabling Emmara's tap ability to generate a wide token army to finish the game with. This is nowhere near a tier 1 deck, but it's great fun to play around with Emmara and stacking the triggers correctly. This deck is probably around a 6, since it is built entirely on Emmara, and if your opponent's have optimized decks that can just hate on her, you're not getting anywhere. It does have very consistent avenues of play though, they just aren't super strong. 1/1's are cool, but they can only do so much.
TAP/UNTAP
One of the main focuses of the deck are repeatable tap and untap outlets that also offer utility, both giving you the ability to tap Emmara several times in one turn cycle to net you several tokens as well as mana or other possible effects each turn.
Some easy ways to tap Emmara without needing to attack include Springleaf Drum, Paradise Mantle Holdout Settlement, Survivors' Encampment, Cryptolith Rite, Citanul Stalwart, Citanul Hierophants and Nullmage Shepherd.
Seedborn Muse, Drumbellower, Instill Energy, Seeker of Skybreak, Halo Fountain and Wirewood Lodge give you an untap to tap her again for a different free tap outlet.
There are two cards that fulfill both the role of tapping and untapping Emmara. One being Nature's Chosen, which gives you a free untap and a tap + untap of either her or possibly a land during each of your turns, both tapping and enabling additional tap outlets during your turn. The other being Thornbite Staff which goes infinite with Ashnod's Altar, one of the coolest ways to win with Emmara pinging down all of your opponents.
TUTORS
To find these tap outlets more consistently we have Enlightened Tutor, Stoneforge Mystic, Eladamri's Call, Chord of Calling and Idyllic Tutor, ensuring that we can access some kind of free tap outlets for Emmara.
RAMP
Some of these tap/untap combos also go towards ramping. As we are in green, there are some generically good ramp spells as well, such as Harrow, Nissa's Expedition (which is also a convoke spell to tap Emmara with), Farseek, Kodama's Reach and Cultivate. These are coupled with some already mentioned artifacts, as well as the usual Sol Ring and Arcane Signet to ensure we can generate enough mana to play all of our spells. Some of these are flex slots which can possibly be changed for more draw spells. Mirari's Wake serves as both ramp and an anthem. Just generically good with Emmara.
CARD DRAW
To ensure we don't fall too behind on cards, we have some draw engines that synergize with Emmara's ability: Mentor of the Meek, Welcoming Vampire, Idol of Oblivion and Halo Fountain, Tocasia's Welcome and one of the best draw engines in the entire game: Skullclamp which obviously works fantastically well in this deck can all help us not fall behind on cards. Harmonize is just generically good card draw.
TOKENS
Emmara's ability generates tokens, so we want to make sure that we support this ability, or use it to its fullest extent somehow. For this purpose, we have some classic doubling effects in the deck. Anointed Procession, Parallel Lives and Mondrak, Glory Dominus are tutorable doubling effects that can get us ahead on board. Divine Visitation gives Emmara's token production some needed steroids, creating a very threatening board presence, very fast.
To increase token production, Halo Fountain is a premiere way to generate an additional token every turn cycle while utilizing Emmara's ability. King Darien XLVIII, Castle Ardenvale and Prava of the Steel Legion can help us make additional tokens each turn, although these are just incidentally supplemental effects and aren't the main focus of the deck. March of the Multitudes and Secure the Wastes serve as explosive cards that can help us set up a finisher on our preceding opponent's end step.
PROTECTION
We are planning on having a huge board that we need to protect from boardwipes. Sadly, there are some boardwipes this deck can not resist. Languish, Toxic Deluge, The Meathook Massacre, Farewell, Merciless Eviction, Cyclonic Rift (or other bounce spells for that matter) or an opposing Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite simply kill our board, and there is nothing we can do about it. The only spell that helps in those instances is Teferi's Protection, which is an all around Commander all-star, and much needed for this deck to be somewhat consistent.
For all other boardwipes we have several ways to protect our board. Heroic Intervention, Akroma's Will, Flawless Maneuver and King Darien XLVIII protect our board. But as the favored board wipes in most decks aren't just generic wrath of gods, we don't want to overstack our deck with protection. Since Emmara is so cheap, and artifacts and lands usually stick around, we can often rebuild our board after recasting Emmara. With her, we actually have some resiliency against getting wiped, since her setup is so cheap and easy to perform.
INTERACTION
We of course also need some interaction to take care of opposing threats so we have room to do what we want to do. Krosan Grip and Sundering Growth just take care of enchantments. Aura Shards is basically an enchantment board wipe in this deck. Swords to Plowshares should be in any white deck. Dusk / Dawn and Hour of Reckoning try to hit as many creatures on the opponent's boards as possible without touching our own army. Austere Command is another all star as it is incredibly flexible and can deal with opposing threats while leaving our army mostly alone. Generous Gift, Grasp of Fate and Conclave Tribunal can hit any nonland permanents.
WINNING
This deck has a surprising amount of ways to potentially win in a game. Obviously, all of those scenarios hinge on you protecting Emmara and generating a token army, which is why I again, don't recommend playing this deck with 8 or higher level decks. Obviously, the best way to win is by going wide and running your opponent's down. For that to work, we have some lords in the form of King Darien XLVIII, Prava of the Steel Legion, Intangible Virtue, Mirari's Wake and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, which all make your token army twice as threatening.
Craterhoof Behemoth + Eladamri's Call
or Chord of Calling + Craterhoof Behemoth
often also just ends the game on the spot. A surprising win via creature damage can also be achieved with Akroma's Will on a big enough board.
We also Throne of the God-Pharaoh in our deck to kill our enemies without needing to deal creature damage. Cryptolith Rite + Throne of the God-Pharaoh
or Citanul Hierophants + Throne of the God-Pharaoh
can tap all your creatures without needing to attack, killing your opponents over two or three turn cycles on a big enough board.
As mentioned Ashnod's Altar + Emmara, Soul of the Accord + Thornbite Staff
goes infinite killing your enemies right there unless they can take out a combo piece.
We also snuck in a Strixhaven Stadium which can kill an enemy out of nowhere without needing to get their life total to zero.
Lastly, Halo Fountain is possibly my favorite card in this deck as it feels like it was made to be played with Emmara. It also serves as an alternate win condition.
