Introduction
Welcome all to this deck list! Emmara, Soul of the Accord is a weenie token commander in Selesnya colors. It is a very active, fun and consistent deck with a straight forward win condition, in which you try to look harmless for the longest time possible before you kill everyone in a single turn. If you like token strategies and value engines while also favoring a more defensive playstyle, this could be the deck for you!
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 mass removal, and 8+ in your average playgroup. It can reliably win on turn 5-6 if no one has removal. I do recommend however practicing and reading the following section thoroughly.
Strategy
The main reason to use Emmara, Soul of the Accord as a token commander is her ability to start pumping out tokens as early as turn 2-3. To take full advantage of this, we need to ensure that we can get her out on turn 2 every single game. For this purpose, we prioritize lands that can enter untapped and can produce G/W mana.
Once Emmara is out, we need to have a way to tap her. Attacking is only somewhat viable on Turn 3, as there will typically be at least one person with no creatures out yet. As such, we need to have cards that tap Emmara without putting her in danger. Being in Selesnya colors, we gain access to the largest pool of cards that allow us to tap creatures for mana. Cards like Cryptolith Rite and Earthcraft are the bread and butter of this deck. In addition to allowing you to safely tap Emmara and generate tokens, these cards also turn your tokens into ramp, allowing you to rapidly accumulate value and transition into your finishers.
The other way in which we generate value is through card advantage. While Selesnya usually struggles with this, Emmara is unique because she has extremely strong synergy with Skullclamp. Briefly, if you have Skullclamp out and you have something that can tap Emmara for mana, her effect essentially becomes “Whenever Emmara becomes tapped, draw 2 cards”. Beyond Skullclamp, White has recently received several draw engines that synergize extremely well with the 1/1 tokens that Emmara generates. Cards like Mentor of the Meek, Welcoming Vampire and Tocasia's Welcome will allow you to draw a card every time you tap Emmara, and running cards like Seedborn Muse and Drumbellower will then allow you to take full advantage of the “once each turn” clause.
Once we have set up our value engines, we want to make sure that Emmara’s token production can keep up with potential boardwipes and scale into the lategame. As such, we once again take advantage of our Selesnya colors and run as many token multipliers as we can, including cards like Anointed Procession, Parallel Lives and Doubling Season.
In the mid to late game, many token decks typically incorporate anthems into their board as finishers. Anthems are cards that provide a constant buff to your tokens (e.g., Collective Blessing). While powerful, these effects permanently turn off all of the draw engines that synergize with Emmara, including Skullclamp. Additionally, making your tokens bigger will immediately draw attention to you, and likely trigger a boardwipe. If you do get boardwiped with an anthem out, you will have severely gimped your ability to recover. As such, our finishers only consist of cards that temporarily buff our tokens, ideally only during combat. Cards like Craterhoof Behemoth and Moonshaker Cavalry not only allow you to continue using your draw engines during the main phase, but they also provide enough power to win the game in one swift blow.
To master Emmara, Soul of the Accord is to fully understand her ability to create boards that look (and technically are) harmless until you add one more piece and suddenly you can kill everyone in a single turn. Commander/EDH is a format where players have to prioritize threats, and this plays beautifully into Emmara’s playstyle. In my experience, even if you are playing with friends that are already familiar with the deck, they will find it hard to justify blowing up a board only because you have 6 1/1 tokens and a Cryptolith Rite. They will also struggle finding worthwhile candidates for target removal, since even high-value cards like Skullclamp and Earthcraft do not themselves represent an actual threat to the table, and you can always easily compensate for their destruction. Nevertheless, boards will get wiped for other reasons, and as such we run cards like Flawless Maneuver, Heroic Intervention and Selfless Spirit, which can also be tutored into the battlefield at instant speed using Chord of Calling. If all else fails, we can use Sun Titan and Eternal Witness to get some of our engine pieces back.
Due to being so reliable, this deck will typically win in the absence of removal. As such, we run little removal ourselves, with those slots spent on protection instead. To compensate, the few removal cards that we do run (Aura Shards, Nullmage Shepherd) have high synergy with Emmara and have repeatable effects for maximum value. The only exception to this rule is Swords to Plowshares, which we run almost exclusively to deal with the occasional Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite.
Present and Future
The current version of this deck summary has been written just after the Duskmourne spoilers have concluded. This latest set has been amazing for the deck, providing a whopping 3 auto-includes: Enduring Vitality, Enduring Innocence and Dazzling Theater / Prop Room. This last one is possibly the best Emmara card released in years, providing two desired effects in a single card. I will add it to the list as soon as the website has it in the database, likely replacing Wand of the Worldsoul
In my last update, which was written just after Battle for Baldur’s Gate released, I hoped for more cards like Welcoming Vampire, Cryptolith Rite and Parallel Lives. In the sets since then we got exactly that, with incredible cards like Tocasia's Welcome, Elven Chorus, and Mondrak, Glory Dominus being welcome additions to the deck. We even got another Craterhoof Behemoth in Moonshaker Cavalry! The additions are too many to list here, but the message is clear: the deck is now officially spoiled for choice.
With this in mind, current and future attempts at improving the deck will primarily consist of altering the ratios of the number of cards in each category. Once the ratios have been figured out, any future cards that make it into the deck will have to be direct upgrades over cards that are currently listed.
All in all, this has been a great year for Emmara. While I don’t envision that Foundations will bring any upgrades, I have high hopes for the Tarkir and Lorwyn sets of 2025. Let’s see if the future proves me right!
Recent Changes
10/03/2024
Removed Avacyn, Angel of Hope
Removed Dawnglade Regent
Removed Stoneforge Mystic
Added Galadriel's Dismissal
Added Guardian of Faith
Added Invasion of Ikoria
09/24/2024
Removed Open the Armory
Removed Steelshaper's Gift
Removed Springleaf Drum
Added Archdruid's Charm
Added Recruiter of the Guard
Added Relic of Legends
