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Elesh Norn’s Great Society

Commander / EDH Mono-White Stax

Hipsterling

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Creature (32)

Enchantment (11)

Instant (9)

Land (34)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

Artifact (9)

Sorcery (3)

Planeswalker (1)

Sideboard

Creature (4)

Land (1)

Sorcery (1)

Maybeboard

Instant (1)

Looking for an oppressive mono white deck helmed by Elesh Norn herself? Look no further. This deck is themed around having creatures and spells that would serve to create a society fit for Elesh Norn herself. These take the form of magistrates, prelates, dictates, prisons, karma, creators, marshalls, annexes, and monuments to name a few. Elesh Norn gives +2/+2 to your creatures and -2/-2 to all opponents' creatures because a great leader strengthens even the weakest of subjects.

Two combos that are included in here utilize Kormus Bell + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth . This turns all lands into 1/1 creatures. When you pair that up with Elesh Norn, it means all opponents are locked out of lands indefinitely as they will die to having 0 toughness as a state based action. The other card that works with this combo is Linvala, Keeper of Silence who prevents the lands from tapping for mana as they are now creatures and creatures cannot use activated abilities. Weathered Wayfarer can help you search out Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth if you need it. Enlightened Tutor would be a good include so you can fetch out Kormus Bell as well. Under Elesh Norn’s rule, even the lands will rise up to serve her, whether by fighting for her or refusing to serve her enemies.

Scout’s Warning is one of my favorite cards that sees no play. With your commander in the command zone, you essentially have an instant speed board wipe/combat trick for 8 mana. Yes that’s a lot, but no one ever expects this card. Avacyn turns into an expensive Flawless Maneuver that protects everything. And the text that puts this card over the edge is “Draw a card” replacing itself and putting people on edge even when you plan on doing nothing.

Elesh Norn's Great Society is meant to stall out your opponents' decks by adding in taxes, tariffs, and sanctions while you build up your army and eventually crush your opponents beneath law and destiny.

There are a few non-bos in the deck which is something to be wary of when sequencing plays. These include Torpor Orb, Hushbringer, and Tocatli Honor Guard with any creature with an ETB trigger. These can create feel bad situations if they're on the battlefield and then you play a Sanctum Prelate, Angel of Invention, Karmic Guide, Ranger-Captain of Eos, Recruiter of the Guard, Protector of the Crown, or Sun Titan. However, the goal of the Great Society is to make all creatures equal. This can be problematic, but it is for the greater good. (Could this deck be improved accordingly? Yes. Will I at this time? No.)

Recruiter of the Guard will enlist any creature with toughness 2 or less from your deck into the Great Society's army. Unfortunately, toughness is more limiting than Imperial Recruiter's power, but there are still plenty of good targets for your Recruiter. These include: Aven Mindcensor, Containment Priest, Esper Sentinel, Eight-and-a-Half-Tails, Hushbringer, Karmic Guide, Mother of Runes, Sanctum Prelate, Selfless Spirit, Thalia Guardian of Thraben, Thalia Heretic Cathar, Vryn Wingmare, and Weathered Wayfarer.

What’s greater for a society than the sharing of every creature’s keywords? In Elesh Norn’s Great Society the creatures with abilities can share their wealth with everyone else under the leadership of Odric, Lunarch Marshall. Everyone will fly to new heights, everyone will be trained to be vigilant, everyone will be eager to strike first and sometimes even twice. There is no downside to sharing this property. Everyone wins. No one is brought down because everyone is brought up right and understands their role to play.

Ranger-Captain of Eos is a nice tutor for Mother of Runes, Esper Sentinel, and Weathered Wayfarer. Weathered Wayfarer is important because it can get you half of the land animation combo. In any Event, the etb trigger is nice, but the activated ability is nicer if you haven’t locked yourself out of using it: pseudo-Silence on a body. Sun Titan and Ranger-Captain of Eos make a good team because you can keep bringing the Ranger back to tutor up all your one drops.

Esper Sentinel and Elesh Norn herself impose high taxes on your opponents for playing their noncreature spells.

While Elesh Norn does not respect any god except herself, she will not reject boons. To her, that is a god paying respect, paying tribute even, to her and her ascent to being “the” god empress. As such, the Hall of Heliod’s Generosity is located within her empire to allow her dictates and authority to be reinstated. Should anyone try and thwart our plans, take note: the divine are on our side.

Mangara, the Diplomat ensures jolly cooperation with foreign powers. If someone deigns to attack the society you’ve built, you will be rewarded with cards. If players get too greedy and play a lot of spells, then you will be rewarded. He is a bit of a non-bo with Deafening Silence and Archon of Emeria, but is still worth the include.

The Great Society’s secret goal is to make Elesh Norn a god. An immortal and benevolent leader is the perfect ruler. Hidden away within the lands of this kingdom is the Tyrite Sanctum. With enough effort Elesh Norn can ascend to divinity and then absorb the power of the sanctum itself and become indestructible. Long live the god empress Elesh Norn!

Mono-white has a lot of powerful effects that are just too white mana intensive to be reliable in other decks. This is the deck to finally show the world what mono-white can do. Many people believe that white is the weakest color for EDH. That's only because these people use familiar metrics of card draw and ramp to judge it. In reality it is one of the most politically intensive colors to play. It seeks perfect balance, just as everything should be to quote a titan named Thanos. And equality draws hate from the players in the lead. But you need to leverage those that are lagging behind to back you up. You are never the threat; you are only ever a speedbump, an equalizer, the last bastion holding off the archenemy. You're buying the other players time. But you're not really. You're scheming.

This version of the deck is not optimized for competitive. There is no Heliod, Sun Crowned combo here. Nor is there a Walking Ballista. In most instances, the EDH community will push you to play Heliod as your commander, run Enlightened Tutor, and win that way. You're only looking for one card to win with Heliod at the helm. That's fun... until that's all you're doing with your deck. I want to play for longer. I like flavor. And that was the goal of this deck. Which is why there are no other gods in this deck except the god empress herself.

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99% Casual

Competitive