Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

Legendary Creature — Praetor

Vigilance

Other creatures you control get +2/+2.

Creatures your opponents control get -2/-2.

Discussion (51)

SideBae on Bloodpod EDH

17 hours ago

Contamination is a good idea. I've seen it run, and I'll test it out and see how it plays.

The issue I see with Living Plane is that it's four mana and isn't particularly good if I don't have Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite too. But again, I'll test it out. I have a similar concern about Worldgorger Dragon.

I don't think Smothering Tithe would work -- I run three Null Rod effects, and ideally there'll always be one out.

Thanks for the suggestions!

jasonkrivera on Bloodpod EDH

20 hours ago

Looks like a fun deck!

Be careful to enchant Utopia Sprawl on a basic Forest, so Blood Moon doesn't make the Sprawl fall off.

Contamination completely shuts down non-black decks unless they have mana rocks, similar to Blood Moon.

Living Plane + Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite or other toughness reducing effects prevents your opponents from playing lands.

Smothering Tithe is probably overused but it'll help smooth your mana while you're denying everyone else their mana (so they can't pay the tax as they draw cards).

Since you're playing Animate Dead, you may as well throw in Worldgorger Dragon as another combo option?

Joe_Ken_ on Aurelia's Angelic crusade

4 days ago

DespairFaction I recently opened a foil version of Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite from a pack and was curious if you think it should have a spot in this deck in exchange of one of the high drop angels potentially. I’ll probably be doing all the updates for this deck later this week to fix it up.

griffstick on Help with Long Game Voltron ...

2 weeks ago

I spelled it soulbound that's why it was auto corrected to southbound which is a common term when telling someone how to find you on the road specifically ones that use jug handle uturns. I believe states outside of NJ call them roundabouts. Anyway, some other combos are Lavinia, Azorius Renegade + Knowledge Pool this makes it so that your opponents can't cast spells anymore.

There is Rest in Peace + Helm of Obedience exiling library one player at a time.

You could play Nature's Revolt and Linvala, Keeper of Silence rendering there lands useless or Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite killing them all.

jakeyuki12 on Boros Aurelia

2 weeks ago

@DespairFaction Hey PJ! Thanks for the feedback.

All the hatebears have been performing really well so far. Just having an early aggressive and evasive creature that can hold equipment and get the train going, the fact that it slows down opponents makes them great.

Captain Lannery Storm has always been a great card in my deck. Turn 3 when she comes out I can always seem to find a free attack that helps me ramp early on. Swiftblade Vindicator has been excellent as it holds equipment incredibly well. I don't think the low toughness has ever been a problem for me, so once again an early, aggressive creature is just what this deck wants. As for Wayfarer's Bauble (Commander's Quarter's echoes are heard in the distance) I've always liked how it can get a land. Drawing it late game is just like drawing a copy of Rampant Growth late game, something that never stops us from running it.

Winds of Abandon has actually incredibly overperformed in this deck. The floor of the card is a bad Path to Exile (which is still great) while the ceiling is a one-sided boardwipe that can only be protected against by a counterspell or Teferi's Protection. It's the white version of Cyclonic Rift. Not nearly as powerful, but I'll take one-sided exile board wipes any day. With that in mind, I really like all the pieces of removal I've got in this deck, what I really was talking about is that I want just one or two more slots I feel to get just a tad bit more instant speed interaction in the deck.

The draw power of the deck works really well. Outpost Siege has always been ol' reliable for me. The way I play this deck, a steady flow of a bit of impulsive draw every turn is exactly what I want. Commune with Lava,Prophetic Flamespeaker, and Light Up the Stage could probably get me more impulsive draw, but I don't like overextending in this deck, and I feel the Siege tends to be more reliable every turn. Tome of Legends does seem like it could be pretty good in this deck considering how often our general attacks. Let me know how that one works for ya.

The deck doesn't tend to struggle with other aggressive/stompy decks because of all the board wipes that are in the deck. I think Winter Orb probably works better in the weapons of war build than this build since the larger focus on equipment makes getting Sword of Feast and Famine easier.

The creatures are definitely the cards in this deck that I feel are most flexible. Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite is an amazing card, and I've definitely thought about picking it up and trying it before, it could probably swap places with Urabrask the Hidden. I really wanted Neheb, the Eternal to work, but every time I played it I rarely had anything to do with the red mana haha. All in all though I want this deck to be aggressive, so I don't want the top end of this deck to get too heavy, or I find my hands getting more and more clunky.

I do have to point out though that this isn't a deck meant to compete with cEDH decks. If you stuck it in a cEDH pod and have a strong, competent pilot really thinking about and making the correct plays, it would definitely seem really threatening to all the decks that aren't used to the aggression, but it could never win as fast as it relies on combat damage. I think it would sneak out 1 in 5 games in a cEDH pod. If we were to use the command zone deck rating scale, I would say this deck edges on the end of optimized, an 8.5 or so. I will say that adding back Helm of the Host would probably make this deck a tad stronger, but I took it out because I got bored of it haha.

So, TL;DR, I'm feeling pretty good about most of the deck, the creatures are the ones I feel best about swapping out, and I feel I want a few more pieces of instant speed interaction.

DespairFaction on Boros Aurelia

2 weeks ago

On the opposite side of the coin Ive been doing a lot of Aurelia deck reviews lately, so based on my past experience heres what changes I would make. The first issue that jumped out at me is the number of 3 drops. This always becomes a problem when you run a lot of the swords, however when deck building I will often shift the swords to the 5 CMC slot visually just because that is much more inline with how they perform. Anyway with this being the case I always want to make sure my 3 CMC cards are essentially over performing because its so crowded, and the other thing is that you do want to have some number of bigger plays as the game goes later or if someone ramps hard. I recently destroyed all the tokens of Avenger of Zendikar with an Elesh Norn which was 7 drop vs 7 drop...you won't get that by running entirely 3 drops. When the game gets big, you want some ability to go big as well.

I would probably cut captain lannery storm as a result. I would add signet or talisman in its place. Combat celebrant has generally also underperformed for me so In place of that, the card you need more than anything else in this deck is Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite its removal, and its team pump for a deck full of small creatures. In short its a game winner.

Depending on how winds of abandon is performing, that would most likely be the slot for generous gift/chaos warp. By running both of those I notice that glacial chasm and spore frog aren't nearly the problems they used to be for me. In general I don't love that wind's of abandon gives something back to opponents, it can be a problem sometimes, so I might go for Volcanic Offering instead since blowing up key lands or just slowing your opponents while also taking out the 2 best creatures in play of your opponents.

Next Outpost Siege has never been my favorite, Light Up the Stage is a bit more immediate, but lately Ive been really hot on Commune with Lava especially when you've got feast and famine in play since you can float mana. Commune has the ability to grab 2 early if you just need a land or you can scale X to go bigger in the late game. You'll need to play it a few times it does require a small amount of skill to get it just right, but Id go that route over outpost. Tome of Legends is a card that i am currently trying to get tested, but i never seem to draw it, however it looks very promising in Aurelia. Beyond that, I've also used Prophetic Flamespeaker in the past. It wears equipments well and will get you to look at some extra cards, and it works best in a low curve deck like this because of the nature of impulse draw.

Here are things that I very much want to add but don't have room for but you might want to consider. Blackblade Reforged it deletes players from the game, especially if you have double strike. Umezawa's Jitte its easily the most complicated equipment since its range of performance goes from does nothing up to wins the game. Neheb, the Eternal It just makes so much mana and its good on attacking and blocking also. Archangel of Thune predominantly to make your hate bears bigger and close the game quicker.

Here are some very interesting cards to think about that Ive used or have been trying to test more. Backdraft Hellkite slow but flashback on your spells. Helm of Possession Turn your 2 drops into someones consecrated sphinx or commander. Its somewhat skill intensive, but stealing other peoples stuff is absurdly powerful. You currently don't have a fog effect other than teferi's in the deck which makes me nervous, maybe its a meta call but I really like a fog that can be brought back with mist veil plains so Comeuppance or Dawn Charm depending if you value the lower CMC vs more power. Also as a nice, this deck does look a bit soft to other aggro or big stompy decks.

Next, lets talk about stax. You've got some light stax to medium stax happening in this deck. If you want to bring it to the next level here are some super nasty options. God-Pharaoh's Statue this thing makes it super hard for your opponents to cast anything and just grinds them to hault.. they won't be comboing off through this. Next, my personal favorite its very good as you get toward the Cedh side of things, is Winter Orb once again it crushes combo decks, crushes tatyova and golos style decks and other big ramp decks, and really any deck that doesn't have just tons of big creatures in play. Its very skill intensive, but the key to break parity is Feast and famine and Neheb. Next Blind Obedience its nasty, and if you draw enough cards its a win condition, plus life gain which is also relevant. If you find that other aggro or stompy decks are problem, take a look at Angelic Arbiter you basically don't lose to creature decks. Aura of Silence is also very real, sometimes a little slow but can come back with sun titan...happens occasionally.

I personally wouldn't mind seeing another protection spell in the deck. Many choices available here Eerie Interlude, Legion's Initiative Brought Back and even just Cloudshift Ephemerate bring some amount of protection but can also be used for the 3rd combat trick amongst other things.

Alright those are my thoughts for now. I am sure thats plenty to think about. Let me know if you have any questions :) -PJ, Commander Replay

Goretast on Derevi, Queen of the Hated

2 weeks ago

Difficult to say without knowing your meta because you are stax heavy. I'll rabble off some thoughts:

Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker seems meh

Hushbringer might be cut if you run Curio/Aluren because it will use some ETB effects you want

Avacyn, Angel of Hope too expensive

Dig Through Time doesn't seem the best because it will be too expensive if you get it early and has bad synergy with Rest in Peace

Fauna Shaman not a fan of the cost of tutoring (I would add Eladamri's Call instead)

Survival of the Fittest same as Fauna Shaman, too much loss of value

Captain Sisay is okay if you have super grindy games but not the best

Teferi, Hero of Dominaria has some synergy but is weak compared to what you'll be adding

Swiftfoot Boots isn't that good, but something like Veil of Summer might be better

You could get away with cutting 1 land max if you have to

Seedborn Muse is a "win more" card that is too weak by itself

Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite too expensive but a meta call for you

I have a Chulane deck that is incredibly similar to this with stax/combos if you want to check it out for some card suggestions [Primer] Chulane's Bounce House [cEDH]

Ste3u on How can I improve my ...

4 weeks ago

Thanks so much Dark_Paladin; Smothering Tithe I absolutely must add it, as for Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite who should I take off to make room?