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Elsha and her Divining Top [cEDH Primer]

Commander / EDH Combo Competitive Multiplayer RUW (Jeskai, America) Spellslinger

ImGefest AlexDruz

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Land (29)

Enchantment (5)

Creature (4)

Instant (25)

Sorcery (14)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Elsha of the Infinite

Artifact (21)

Planeswalker (1)

Maybeboard

Sorcery (2)

Enchantment (1)

With the the release of Core Set 2020, Jeskai finally got a commander they deserved thanks to Kykar, Wind's Fury. In my opinion, this card was so appealing to the public, that it heavily overshadowed a new and exciting commander from Commander 2019, Elsha of the Infinite. Her ability to give a built-in card advantage at instant speed makes her a very flexible and adaptive commander in a pretty strong color pairing which is, by its nature, very strong for spellslinger builds. Compared to Kykar, Wind's Fury's ability to store mana and then make a burst of it for an explosive turn, Elsha of the Infinite opens a huge window of control possibilities. Each cantrip automatically digs you 1 or sometimes even more cards deeper into the library, using fetchlands can always change you the top card of library if needed, instant-speed casting offers great options for finding exact timings for makings powerful and threatening plays, and a wide spread of card types which can be cast from the top of your library can make up for not giving mana like Kykar, Wind's Fury thanks to a big number of great mana rocks and moxes.

As a result, Elsha of the Infinite can be played in many, many different ways, from a surprisingly fast decks aiming for an early win via executing one of her deadly combos, to an obnoxiously powerful control deck with a great grind potential and a number of versatile stax pieces. The deck can be very easily adjusted to different metas, but this exact list of mine is built with an extremely creature-heavy local meta in mind, so feel free to resculpt answer slots according to your perception of the game and opponents.

Casting Elsha of the Infinite is a very important task for the deck to start doing well, and even though there is a combo which doesn't require Elsha to be on the battlefiled (combos will be covered later), I personally prioritize ramp over tutors and ongoing card advantage engines such as Rhystic Study in my opening hand, the only exception is Mystic Remora, which can get us both ramp and hand size.Despite the task of getting our commander as early as possible, it's important to keep in mind that many, many players will be eager to disrupt us for casting a 5-CMC general, especially earlier than turns 3-4, so having at least 1 cheap answer to countermagic or removal, such as Dispel, Red Elemental Blast, Swan Song or Mental Misstep is always a nice bonus for safety reasons. Land count in opening hand is a factor for us, but it isn't as crucial as for high-CMC generals without blue or stax generals, since we have a wide assortment of cantrips in order to get land drops for each of our turns.
There are several combos, each has its own pros and cons

Scepter plan

  1. Cast Aetherflux Reservoir;

  2. Make sure your mana rocks tap for 2 or more mana total;

  3. Cast Isochron Scepter, with its imprint trigger exile Dramatic Reversal.

  4. Activate Isochron Scepter's ability for , to untap your mana rocks.

  5. Repeat step 3 to cast Dramatic Reversal as many times as you need triggering Aetherflux Reservoir to gain life each time in order to gain a gigantic amount of HP, then activate Aetherflux Reservoir's ability to deal 50 damage to your opponents until you win.

You can change the order of steps 1,2 and 3, this is especially relevant if you do already have Aetherflux Reservoir from the turn prior to the cast of Isochron Scepter

Pros:

  • doesn't require Elsha of the Infinite to be on the battlefield

  • easy to assemble since the deck is loaded with mana rocks

  • all the pieces can be tutored easily with the majority of our tutors

  • doesn't require any colored mana at all, so can be cast from a trigger of Mana Drain or veary early in the game with the support of very efficient mana rocks such as Mana Vault, Chrome Mox or Mana Crypt, Lotus Petal and Ancient Tomb

  • the majority of combo pieces are relevant in isolation

Cons:

  • requires a lot of mana (at least if you have mana rocks on the battlefield)

  • Aetherflux Reservoir is a very threatening card by itself, so be ready to get a LOT of disruption at any point of assembling the combo

  • expected from this kind of deck, so can be hated in certain metas with cards like Stony Silence, Suppression Field, Null Rod, mass artifact destruction.

The Top Plan

  1. Cast Elsha of the Infinite;

  2. Cast Sensei's Divining Top;

  3. Cast Cloud Key, naming artifact, or cast Etherium Sculptor;

  4. Activate Sensei's Divining Top's ability to draw a card, then put Sensei's Divining Top on top of your library;

  5. Cast Sensei's Divining Top from the top of your library

  6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until you draw your entire deck, at the same time the storm count raises sky high, somewhere to 65-75.

From there, you have several options:

Pros

  • combo pieces themselves don't look as threatening as Aetherflux Reservoir

  • all the pieces can be tutored easily with the majority of our tutors

  • the majority of combo pieces are relevant in isolation

  • combo pieces can be cast in different turns, so the finished doesn't require too much mana (usually, that's for Cloud Key or for Etherium Sculptor and for Grapeshot

cons:

  • requires colored mana if Grapeshot is the finisher

  • requires our general on the battlefield, which can be a problem in some long games or in situations where we are the top hate target

  • can't be executed at all under any Rule of Law effects on the table

In the early game, any slow-down or stax effects is extremely relevant, so Grand Arbiter Augustin IV is a great option on turns 1 and 2 in my experience, so feel free to spend your Gamble on GAAIV. In creature-heavy metas, Torpor Orb and especially Cursed Totem are huge punches to the table. If you expect a very fast combo win, Silence can be devastating for these kind of decks, guaranteeing at least 1 turn of delay for the table to get ready to answer win attempts. Rest in Peace is a #1 priority target if you know your meta likes cards like Drown in the Loch, it saved my Elsha from dying a number of times. Muddle the Mixture is a great tutor for all card types, since it can give us both combo pieces for the Scepter Plan, Etherium Sculptor for The Top Plan, ramp in form of any mana rocks and Dockside Extortionist, stax pieces such as Rest in Peace, Cursed Totem, Torpor Orb, board wipes in form of Pyroclasm, removal as Abrade and recursion as Underworld Breach. Pithing Needle is one of the best tutor targets against any decks focused heavily around abilities of their commanders, such as Urza, Lord High Artificer, Yisan, the Wanderer Bard, Prime Speaker Vannifar, Tasigur, the Golden Fang, Thrasios, Triton Hero, Najeela, the Blade-Blossom, Kenrith, the Returned King and many, many more things besides only commanders.

  • ALWAYS attack player who's eager to pay a lot of life, like Doomsday Zur the Enchanter, Turbo Ad Nauseam lists, players with Sylvan Library; the damage will add up overtime, and don't forget about your Prowess triggers, Elsha of the Infinite is a very strong and resilient beater.

  • Don't be too afraid to cast your Aetherflux Reservoir and Sensei's Divining Top, there are ways to recast these combo pieces via Underworld Breach and Academy Ruins (the latter gave me the opportunity to win at instant speed via putting Sensei's Divining Top on the top of my library at instant speed to start the chain several times).

  • Wait until the best moment, do NOT just cast sorceries at sorcery speed from the top unless you have you have a very good reason such as winning now on your main phase of savins you from inevitable problems in a current rotation of the table.

  • Be cautious with fetchlands, this is one of the best tools in this deck's arsenal of making unpredictable moves and grinding value from well-thought synergies.

    • In my opinion, this is one of the most important topics for discussions and places to polish your personal creation. My meta is creature-heavy, that's the reason behind cards like Supreme Verdict, Pyroclasm, Anger of the Gods, Torpor Orb, Cursed Totem and, partly, Grapeshot (the latter sometimes works as a sudo-Fire Covenant. There are also Doomsday Zur the Enchanter with its absolutely ridiculous activations of Necropotence, and Power Scepter Urza, Lord High Artificer with its beloved Winter Orb and Static Orb package, that's why Wear / Tear makes sence in this particular deck. Also, Abrade is a very flexible answer for both creature case and Urza case. Pithing Needle is also great against Urza, Lord High Artificer, Yisan, the Wanderer Bard and my meta rival Prime Speaker Vannifar, and keep in mind that Pithing Needle can be easily cast from the top of our library at instant speed in response to cast of these commanders. If your meta sees more use of artifact ramp, take into consideration cards like By Force, Vandalblast; Tormod's Crypt is obnoxiously strong against decks like The Gitrog Monster Dredge, Scepter Control Tasigur, the Golden Fang, Razakats. In a very reactive meta, Overmaster is a great choice for safety reasons, and Alms Collector can provide you great interaction against Notion Thief decks.

  • Why no Laboratory Maniac, Thassa's Oracle or at least Jace, Wielder of Mysteries? I tried these variants, but creatures are pretty vulnerable to removal and can't be cast from the top of the library, and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries is VERY mana intensive, so in my evaluation he's only worth running with a High Tide, and now the deck isn't that fast to try to combo off very early, so I decided not to include it.

  • Why Aetherflux Reservoir? Well, partly it's my desire to have at least 1 combo in the 99 that doesn't require having Elsha on the battlefield, but I also took into account my extremely creature-heavy meta, so basically Aetherflux Reservoir is sometimes a life boost for me.

  • Why Underworld Breach? Even though it's not the best recursion available, it's certainly way easier manawise to cast then Pat in Flames I used before, and it's not as restrictive as Past in Flames, so I can easily recast combo pieces such as Isochron Scepter, Sensei's Divining Top, Aetherflux Reservoir, Cloud Key, Etherium Sculptor from my graveyard after being countered, and moreover, I can continuously cast my best tutors to get all the combo pieces I need by a very small price of exiling just 3 cards per time, which are usually cantrips and\or fetchlands.

  • Grand Arbiter Augustin IV? Is this STAX? No, it is by no means a stax deck, but he's a great early game slow-down for my opponents AND a cost reducer for the vast majority of my spells at the same time. GAAIV is especially brutal in the early turns and in metas with not that many answers. He's also obnoxiously powerful against storm decks like Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain cheerios, Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder storm, Turbo Ad Nauseam lists and very, very fast combo decks like Fish Hulk. It is also a great tool against creature-heavy metas, where all dorks now cost as a signet or talisman, so this is one of my favourite cards in the opening hand against these opponents.

    • Feel free to leave your thoughts and suggestions in the comments below. Thanks for attention!

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