Emmara, Soul of the Tapped (EDH - Optimized)

Commander / EDH GW (Selesnya)

Aexislord

Lands (36)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Boseiju, Who Endures
• 1x Bountiful Promenade
• 1x Branchloft Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Brushland
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 4x Forest
• 1x Gaea's Cradle
• 1x Holdout Settlement
• 1x Horizon Canopy
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 5x Plains
• 1x Plaza of Heroes
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Razorverge Thicket
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Savannah
• 1x Sungrass Prairie
• 1x Sunpetal Grove
• 1x Survivors' Encampment
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills
• 1x Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth

Removal (3)

• 1x Aura Shards
• 1x Nullmage Shepherd
• 1x Sundering Vitae

Haste (2)

• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Thousand-Year Elixir

Token Generators (2)

• 1x Avenger of Zendikar
• 1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion

Draw (8)

• 1x Bennie Bracks, Zoologist
• 1x Halo Fountain
• 1x Huatli, Radiant Champion
• 1x Idol of Oblivion
• 1x Mentor of the Meek
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Tocasia's Welcome
• 1x Welcoming Vampire

Protection (8)

• 1x Avacyn, Angel of Hope
• 1x Clever Concealment
• 1x Dawnglade Regent
• 1x Flawless Maneuver
• 1x Heroic Intervention
• 1x Knight-Captain of Eos
• 1x Selfless Spirit
• 1x Teferi's Protection

Ramp (6)

• 1x Growing Rites of Itlimoc  ^Flip
• 1x Harvest Season
• 1x Mox Amber
• 1x Nissa's Expedition
• 1x Paradise Mantle
• 1x Primal Growth

Token Multipliers (6)

• 1x Anointed Procession
• 1x Doubling Season
• 1x Mondrak, Glory Dominus
• 1x Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation  ^Flip
• 1x Parallel Lives
• 1x Queen Allenal of Ruadach

Finishers (4)

• 1x Craterhoof Behemoth
• 1x Finale of Devastation
• 1x Moonshaker Cavalry
• 1x Tooth and Nail

Recursion (2)

• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Sun Titan

Commander (1)

Tutors (7)

• 1x Chord of Calling
• 1x Eladamri's Call
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Idyllic Tutor
• 1x Moon-Blessed Cleric
• 1x Steelshaper's Gift
• 1x Stoneforge Mystic

Tap for Mana (6)

• 1x Citanul Hierophants
• 1x Cryptolith Rite
• 1x Earthcraft
• 1x Elven Chorus
• 1x Song of Freyalise
• 1x Wand of the Worldsoul

Turn One Tappers (5)

• 1x Citanul Stalwart
• 1x Jaspera Sentinel
• 1x Loam Dryad
• 1x Saruli Caretaker
• 1x Springleaf Drum

Untap (4)

• 1x Drumbellower
• 1x Nature's Chosen
• 1x Quest for Renewal
• 1x Seedborn Muse

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Introduction

Welcome all to this deck list! Emmara is a weenie token commander in Selesnya colors. As opposed to other token commanders, she is meant to generate small tokens in a slow and steady manner, not so much explosively, while getting as much value out of them as possible, particularly through tapping them for mana and drawing cards. From here, you want to use what Selesnya is good at to protect your board, until you can plop a Craterhoof Behemoth and end the game. It is a very active, fun and consistent deck.

Power

This deck has been optimized to be played in a regular 4 player EDH game. It purposefully avoids infinite combos but does not limit budget in any way. I have tested this deck literally thousands of times and whatever build you see is what I deemed to truly be the most optimal with the currently available card pool. If I had to put a number to this deck, I would give it an 6-7 in a playgroup where there is tons of removal, specially mass removal, and 8+ in your average playgroup. It can essentially win on turn 5 20% of the time if no one has removal. I do recommend however practicing and reading the following section thoroughly.

Strategy

As I mentioned before, Emmara is a slow and steady token weenie commander that favors building a board that provides value, and then bunkering down to protect said board until you can Craternuke Behemoth your way to victory, ideally through a maxed out Finale of Devastation.

Your best play turn 1 will always be to place something that can tap her on turn 2. This is any of the cards in the "Turn One Tappers" category. However, in general you need to find a way to tap Emmara to start producing tokens ASAP since those little 1/1 tokens are your main source of value. Earthcraft is the best card in the "Tap For Mana" section, but any of those cards is fine. After that, you want to set up a draw engine. Most of the time the best card in the "Draw" section will be Skullclamp (which is why we run all Equipment tutors and avoid any anthems), though it has a catch. You need to sacrifice tokens to draw. This detracts from your overall strategy unless you already have a "Token Doublers" card in play, so until then you need to play carefully. Finally, by turn 5-6 you should have a decent board with all your basic pieces in place, ideally with some "Protection" cards. The best protection you can have is to have Avacyn + Dawnglade Regent (this is normally your Tooth and Nail targets) + Gaddock Teeg. This makes you immune to essentially every board wipe in the game except for Toxic Deluge and Elesh Norn (at least that I can remember).

The deck is strongest at being consistent, defensive and rather innocuous until it is too late for your opponents (unless you play against them repeatedly, of course). You want to avoid drawing attention to you while getting ready to 1HKO everyone.

The deck is weakest in a meta heavy in removal, both targeted and mass. Overall, we go for a "let your opponents worry about removal because in a game with no removal you will win 90% of the time" approach, meaning we don't run much removal ourselves, though the little we run is repeatable and has really good synergy.

Present and Future

As of the latest build, I have finished evaluating the new cards from Neon Dynasty and New Capenna, as well as most of the ones from Battle for Baldur's Gate. We have gained much needed draw from Bennie Bracks, Zoologist, Halo Fountain (which has also given us a new win condition) and Rumor Gatherer. We also gained more untapping potential with Drumbellower and White Plume Adventurer. Jaheira could have been amazing but there is so much competition for each slot in the current deck build, the fact that she doesn't allow us to tap Emmara means she doesn't make the cut. Busybody is just a worse Sisay, and I am still waiting for the White dragon reveal from BfBG.

While I cannot deny that there have been valuable additions in the last few sets, Selesnya has been suffering from multiple identity disorder. WotC has released GW cards meant for group hug, +1/+1 counters, human tribal and other weird stuff (Coven, I'm looking at you), but nothing really for tokens specifically. The latest card added to the deck that is Selesnya colors is Emmara herself, so since 2018 no new impactful Selesnya cards have been added to the pool. I hope this trend changes soon. Additionally, new support for weenie strategies such as Bess, Soul Nourisher are a nod in the right direction and I hope this trend continues, albeit focusing more on value. I also hope that WotC realizes that not limiting effects like Welcoming Vampire to once per turn doesn't break the game, specially if you include clauses like "one or more", at the very least.

In the future, I particularly hope for more Cryptolith Rite effects, creatures with token doubling effects in Selesnya colors (Adrix and Nev, Twincasters should have been Selesnya colors) and other fun sources of tapping (I will never forgive WotC for making Prosperous Partnership RW instead of GW, it makes no sense T-T). I also hope for better versions of Mentor of the Meek and Welcoming Vampire, as well as fun, big Selesnya threats.

Look forward to future updates in this section!

Top Ranked	Achieved #48 position overall 4 years ago Achieved #32 position in Commander / EDH 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH GW (Selesnya) 4 years ago
Date added	4 years
Last updated	5 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	15 - 0 Mythic Rares 55 - 0 Rares 13 - 0 Uncommons 8 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.27
Tokens	Citizen 1/1 GW, Eldrazi 10/10 C, Emblem Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Emblem Huatli, Radiant Champion, Plant 0/1 G, Soldier 1/1 W, Soldier 1/1 W w/ Lifelink, Monarch Emblem
Folders	ideas, Decks show, Selesnya Cool Stuff, EDH Stuff, tree, Decks I Want to Build