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My take on Inalla is a tribal, grixis control deck that focuses on utilizing card draw and wizards with ETB (Enters the Battlefield) triggers to buy our deck time to eventually combo off or win through synergistic cards
There are only two real imitations to Inalla:

  • The biggest restriction with Inalla is that she drives up your mana curve. While doesn't seem like a lot, keep in mind that this means you're effectively one turn behind your opponents at all times.
  • The second, less important cost is that when you attempt to clone a legendary creature with Inalla, the legendary rule removes them from the game before anything can really happen. (i.e. You can't clone Azami, Lady of Scrolls, tap her, and then have her immediately die.) That being said, there may be some niche situations in which you'll create the token of the legendary creature.
##### Commandment I: Thou shalt not play weak cards just because they're on theme. First and foremost, you'll see that if you read over my list, I'm actually a massive hypocrite on this point. That being said, I think it's important that you don't run bad wizards just because they fit into your theme. As one of my favorite examples, Champion of Wits is a fairly common inclusion in many decks, and I can certainly see the appeal. It's an ETB effect that synergizes very well with this deck, though at the same time... why would you not just use Concentrate? Looting for 4 is terrible when you're in and have access to a huge suite of card draw that doesn't require you to also discard half of your hand. Listen, I of all people understand that sometimes, it's very fun to pick cards that aren't perfectly optimal, but fit nicely within the stylistic direction of the deck. That being said, you're just handicapping yourself after a certain point. Cloudkin Seer? Sure, it's a little overcosted when you want to draw two cards, but it's on theme and you get an incidental 2/1 flyer. Riverwise Augur? Paying is highway robbery! At that point, you may as well go for Painful Truths and draw more cards at 60% of the cost, or you may as well go for Mercurial Chemister and draw cards every turn at the exact same cost. **Commandment II: Thou shalt throw thy wizards under the bus.** Listen man, I don't know about you, but I'm not planning to win off of the back of Archaeomancer's 1/2 body when my opponents are probably windmill slamming a Craterhoof Behemoth for exactly three point five kagillion damage. So unless you have Docent of Perfection   or Azami, Lady of Scrolls online, you're going to want to feed your wizards into Magus of the Abyss or chump block anything remotely threatening that looks in your general direction. Honestly, there's probably a pretty sweet version of this deck featuring aristocrats style gameplay, in which you chuck your Inalla tokens and weenie wizards into the meat grinder for that sweet, sweet value. On a similar note, we can actually leverage this to play into a bunch of board wipes. If you run the math, only half of the creatures on this list generate long-term value when they remain on the board; this means we're more than fine to run out a early game Trinket Mage, ramp ourselves a bit, and then promptly toss out a Crux of Fate as soon as things get a bit hairy. If you play your cards right (har har), you can eke out value from your ETB wizards, wipe the board, and then slam down some long term investments.
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I cannot stress how important card draw is to this deck. It's not only how we offset how our removal often only targets singular permanents, but also how we tear through our deck to find our win pieces.
  • Mercurial Chemister and Arcanis the Omnipotent: While these wizards are slow and expensive, and Arcanis has no synergies with Inalla herself, they're powerhouses that net you several cards per turn. It's also nice that Mercurial Chemister can act as an inefficient, but repeatable source of removal when needed.
  • Sea Gate Oracle and Watcher for Tomorrow: 3-4 mana for two cards would normally be kinda bad, but the card filtration is very much appreciated.
  • Trinket Mage, Tribute Mage, and Trophy Mage: Tutors for two of your mana rocks. While it's admittedly a bit slow to slam these guys on turn four to get a mana rock on turn five, it's still a pretty sweet deal overall. They add great value in the early game.
  • Mark of Eviction: One of my pet cards. It's admittedly kind of slow, but at the same time, repeteadly bouncing your opponent's creatures to their hands for only is too good to pass up. I'll trade one of my mana for 6 of theirs in virtually every game.
  • Terminate: Dirt-cheap, unconditional removal. I love it!
  • Go for the Throat: Dirt-cheap, more conditional removal. For the instances in which the threat isn't a Metalwork Colossus.
  • Counterspell, Wizard's Retort, and Negate: Nothing spectacular here, though I think Wizard's Retort is pretty neat, even if it's not a perfectly optimal choice per se.
  • A massive suite of board wipes: We're a control deck, and I expect that whatever our opponents are playing is probably going to be relatively scary. Nope. Not having that.
  • Azami, Lady of Scrolls: Azami is really one of the most ridiculous payoffs in the deck. She taps _any_ of your wizards, including ones with summoning sickness, and easily synergizes with Inalla's tokens. If she's left unanswered, you're pretty much guaranteed to win the game. The only real drawback is that cloning her with Inalla does absolutely nothing, as the legend rule takes effect.
  • Vedalken AEthermage: We don't actually care about the Aethermage itself, so much as we do its ability to nab any other creature in the deck for only 3 mana at instant speed. It's almost comparable to a 30-cent Demonic Tutor.
  • Bloodline Necromancer:
  • Docent of Perfection  :
  • Galecaster Colossus
  • Magus of the Abyss: Initially, I actually wasn't sold on this card. However, I've come to the simple realization that this card is a great addition to an Inalla list! At a very minimum, this card acts as a slowed version of Fleshbag Marauder in other lists. However, the Magus has an obvious advantage in that if we can feed it bodies, it'll stay around and control our opponent's boards. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm not personally planning on trying to beat my opponents to death with a Harbinger of the Tides while they're windmill slamming Craterhoof Behemoth for approxamitely four point five kagillion damage. Nobody cares about your Grizzly Bears in commander... Which means I'm more than happy to throw my crappy little creatures under the bus to slow down the rest of the table. Granted, you obviously don't want to do this if Docent of Perfection   or Galecaster Colossus is online, but I'll gladly play this on turn five and then use my earlier wizards as cannon fodder.
  • Teferi's Veil: This card is mechanically weird, but it actually allows you to cheat in a _significant_ way. Phased cards are treated as if they're not in play, so that means you can create an Inalla token, attack with it, and it then ignore's Inalla's exile trigger. It lets you keep your Inalla tokens _forever_ for the low, low price of .
  • Flameshadow Conjuring and Molten Echoes: These act as additional copies of Inalla. Obviously, Molten Echoes is strictly better than Flameshadow Conjuring, but I've been happy to draw either.
These cards would be good additions to this list, but I can't justify their high price point.
These are some cards I frequently see in other Inalla lists, but I don't personally run.
  • Dire Fleet Ravager: We're a control deck... Why on earth would you blast yourself for over half of your life total so card:Krenko and Xenagos, God of Revels can whack you for lethal?
  • Riverwise Augur: You can pay for a Brainstorm and a Grizzly Bears, and if you pay an additional , you can get a second Brainstorm. Altrenatively, you play Ancient Craving and draw one more card at a cheaper cost.
  • Izzet Chronarch and card:Scholar of Ages: You're paying at least 5 to get your spells back to hand, and then still have to pay their mana cost. At this point, you can just play Memory Plunder or Spelltwine. Mind you, I'm also a hypocrite here because I somehow think Archaeomancer's marginally cheaper cost justifies it as a selection.
  • Champion of Wits: In a best case scenario, you're paying 4 to draw 4 and discard 4. Compare this to Ancient Craving, where you pay 4 and get to unconditionally draw 3. It's simply not efficient unless you have one of your major synergistic pieces out.

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97% Casual

Competitive

Date added 5 years
Last updated 2 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

4 - 1 Mythic Rares

36 - 2 Rares

25 - 0 Uncommons

21 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.12
Tokens Ape 3/3 G, Boar 2/2 G, City's Blessing, Copy Clone, Elemental 1/0 U, Frog Lizard 3/3 G
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