Elminster the Budget version

Commander / EDH Flying Scry Tokens WU (Azorius)

Huskystopsign

Sorcery (28)

• 1x Arcane Endeavor
• 1x Boon of the Wish-Giver
• 1x Clone Legion
• 1x Concentrate
• 1x Descend upon the Sinful
• 1x Distorting Wake
• 1x Dream Cache
• 1x Dusk / Dawn
• 1x Eternal Dominion
• 1x Foresee
• 1x Fumigate
• 1x Hour of Reckoning
• 1x Interpret the Signs
• 1x Migratory Route
• 1x Mystic Speculation
• 1x Omen
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Portent
• 1x Preordain
• 1x River's Rebuke
• 1x Serum Visions
• 1x Sift
• 1x Storm Herd
• 1x Sublime Exhalation
• 1x Tamiyo's Epiphany
• 1x Tidings
• 1x Treasure Cruise
• 1x Ugin's Insight

Instant (11)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Commit / Memory
• 1x Contraband Livestock
• 1x Dig Through Time
• 1x Frantic Search
• 1x Mental Journey
• 1x Mystic Confluence
• 1x Otherworldly Gaze
• 1x Rain of Revelation
• 1x Reality Shift
• 1x Telling Time

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Dictate of Heliod
• 1x Felidar Retreat
• 1x Intangible Virtue
• 1x Netherese Puzzle-Ward
• 1x Path of Bravery
• 1x Soothsaying
• 1x Valor in Akros

Land (36)

• 1x Ash Barrens
• 1x Azorius Chancery
• 22x Island
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 10x Plains
• 1x Reliquary Tower

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Jace, Architect of Thought
• 1x Jace, Mirror Mage

Commander (1)

Artifact (10)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Crystal Ball
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Marble Diamond
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Sky Diamond
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

Creature (5)

• 1x Angel of the Ruins
• 1x Eternal Dragon
• 1x Junk Winder
• 1x Realm-Cloaked Giant
• 1x Timeless Dragon

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This is a budget version of Elminster for Commander. The goal is to manipulate the top of your library to flip high mana value cards and generate a board of tokens.

Scry 2+ is invaluable to this deck, the kicker Jace and Crystal Ball let us reduce our big draw/utility spells to almost 2-3 cost once Elminster is out or allow us to dig for land drops/answers in a pinch. A handful of the draw spells like Foresee, Tamiyo's Epiphany and Ugin's Insight can become pseudo-cantrips and discount a large follow up spell.

Clone Legion, Eternal Dominion and Storm Herd are our high end spells. These are important for the deck because most of the draw spells are from 4-6 mana, which can be a bit on the low end for generating Elminster’s tokens. It’s important to remember that Elminster only reduced the cost for Instants and Sorceries, so big mana creature cards like Avacyn have been excluded in favor of anthems.

Sol Ring and the other two mana rocks are great here, they let us drop 4 cost draw spells or have spot removal and cantrips up early for defense or to dig for land drops/answers. Mana Vault and Jeweled Lotus are explosive upgrades which should be the focus if you decide this deck is your jam. Dropping Elminster on turn 2 and setting up a big chunk of tokens for the next turn has been absurd in practice.

The Brainstorm and Portent spells let us put the big spells where they are needed, or put something irrelevant on top to scry away and dig for another card. Jace, the Mind Sculptor can help fulfill this role, as well as Scroll Rack and Sensei's Divining Top but are a huge chunk of money when cards like Soothsaying are so cheap.

There is less spot removal in this deck, since our Commander doesn’t get hit by wraths that is the primary way to control the board. Dusk / Dawn is an invaluable choice here because it lets our tokens survive and counts as 9 mana value off the top. Commit / Memory is a bounce spell that also counts as 10 potential tokens, and Realm-Cloaked Giant can also be a Giant body that also clears the board at 7.

The support for tokens is generally a handful of cards you want to wait to deploy until you’re ready to flip a second wave off the top. Junk Winder should cost 2-3 mana, and then generating tokens off Elminster lets you defensively or offensively tap and freeze potential blockers or attackers. Valor in Akros and Cathars' Crusade can be represent explosive increases to your tokens’ stats. Intangible Virtue and Path of Bravery give fairly small buffs but the incidental lifegain and vigilance are very relevant to giving you a bit of resilience to counter attacks and direct damage. Cathars’ Crusade is probably the best upgrade for this deck, there is room for Mirror Entity but it has the downside of being susceptible to our wrath based strategy which prefers noncreature cards.

Date added	1 year
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 19 - 0 Rares 25 - 0 Uncommons 18 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	4.23
Tokens	Angel 4/4 W, Bird 1/1 W, Boar 2/2 G, Cat Beast 2/2 W, Copy Clone, Faerie Dragon 1/1 U, Goat 0/1 W, Manifest 2/2 C, Ox, Pegasus 1/1 W, Timeless Dragon 4/4 B