Selvala "Twiddlestorm Explorer" cEDH Primer

Commander / EDH Combo Competitive GW (Selesnya) Primer

Nathan_of_the_Gilt_leaf

Creature (27)

• 1x Arbor Elf
• 1x Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Boreal Druid
• 1x Dosan the Falling Leaf
• 1x Elvish Archdruid
• 1x Elvish Harbinger
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Elvish Visionary
• 1x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Karametra's Acolyte
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Marwyn, the Nurturer
• 1x Mirror Entity
• 1x Priest of Titania
• 1x Quirion Ranger
• 1x Ranger-Captain of Eos
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Seeker of Skybreak
• 1x Stoneforge Mystic
• 1x Temur Sabertooth
• 1x Village Bell-Ringer
• 1x Wirewood Channeler
• 1x Wirewood Symbiote

Artifact (9)

• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Cloudstone Curio
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Staff of Domination
• 1x Thousand-Year Elixir
• 1x Umbral Mantle

Land (31)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Bountiful Promenade
• 1x Brushland
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 6x Forest
• 1x Gaea's Cradle
• 1x Horizon Canopy
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 2x Plains
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Razorverge Thicket
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Savannah
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wirewood Lodge
• 1x Wooded Bastion
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Enchantment (13)

• 1x Carpet of Flowers
• 1x Conclave Tribunal
• 1x Concordant Crossroads
• 1x Deafening Silence
• 1x Instill Energy
• 1x Kenrith's Transformation
• 1x Leyline of Abundance
• 1x Nature's Chosen
• 1x Rest in Peace
• 1x Smothering Tithe
• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x Utopia Sprawl
• 1x Wild Growth

Commander (1)

Instant (15)

• 1x Autumn's Veil
• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Benefactor's Draught
• 1x Chord of Calling
• 1x Eladamri's Call
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Force of Vigor
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Noxious Revival
• 1x Silence
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x To Arms!
• 1x Veil of Summer
• 1x Vitalize
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Eldritch Evolution
• 1x Finale of Devastation
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Mobilize

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Attention: this decklist & primer is no longer updated, and will be inactive. For an up-to-date version, visit https://www.moxfield.com/decks/4FAartw-BEKZq-5pONsN8A

Selvala Twiddlestorm primer

a competitive Selvala, Explorer Returned combo deck

Introduction

Many attempt to speak with nature. Selvala speaks less, and nature answers more.

This deck is built around assembling one of many infinite mana combos, each which can immediately win the game if Selvala is on the battlefield. It can win at pretty much any point in the game, as early as turn 3 or as late as it needs. Many different combos provide resilience- single target removal only slows this deck down for a turn or two. This is a deck for someone who likes figuring out intricate lines of play, likes resilient / not-glass-cannon combo decks, and doesn't like (or at least want) to play blue.

Pros:
- adaptable to different matchups and situations
- proactive, aggressive gameplan
- filled with many backup plans; not reliant on one combo
- doesn't play dead cards like Nomads en-Kor or Torch Courier
- consistent
Cons:
- needs commander to win most of the time
- loses to a few different single cards (e.g. Cursed Totem)


An important ruling on Selvala is necessary to understand before continuing:

Selvala's parley ability is a mana ability. It doesn't use the stack and can't be responded to. (2014-05-29)

What this means is that once you declare that you are activating Selvala, no player can respond, and the ability must be resolved. This has some fringe relevance against cards like Runic Armasaur or if an opponent wants to activate Sensei's Divining Top in response, but most importantly for this deck is its interaction with one of the most important cards in the deck, Umbral Mantle, and one of its rulings:

When you activate an ability, you untap the creature with that ability as a cost. The untap can't be responded to. (The actual ability can be resonded to, of course.) (2008-05-01)

Because of this, if Umbral Mantle is equipped to Selvala, you can activate Selvala and use her mana to untap her without opponents being able to respond (keep in mind that since the +2/+2 part of the ability is still on the stack, you won't be able to cast sorcery-speed spells). Interactions like this help make the deck competitive and really fun to play.

Gameplan

Selvala

Selvala, Explorer Returned is an important part of our gameplan. She ramps and draws us cards, which both make going off easier. She is also the main payoff for when we have infinite mana. We want to activate Selvala as early as possible, which is why there are as many one-drop ramp effects as we can play:
- Arbor Elf
- Avacyn's Pilgrim
- Birds of Paradise
- Elvish Mystic
- Fyndhorn Elves
- Llanowar Elves
- Chrome Mox
- Sol Ring
- Carpet of Flowers
- Wild Growth
- Utopia Sprawl
- Green Sun's Zenith (for Dryad Arbor)
- Mana Crypt
- Mox Diamond
and technically:
- turn 0 Leyline of Abundance and turn 1 Dryad Arbor

All of these cards let us play Selvala on turn two, which lets us start activating as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, Selvala does draw your opponents cards, along with reveal information about our cards. For those reasons, it is important to try to win as soon as possible once Selvala is on the table. You can't give your opponents enough cards to deal with you, and you want Selvala to stay alive so you can win once going infinite. Thankfully, our opponents drawing a lot of cards from Selvala can work in our favor, as often if you activate Selvala multiple times on your turn but fail to win, you have given your opponents the cards they need to interact with each other, preventing you from being at too far of a disadvantage.

In addition, cards like Grand Abolisher, Silence, Autumn's Veil, Dosan the Falling Leaf, and more allow you to freely try to combo off on your turn without being interrupted by opponents trying to use their new cards (drawn from Selvala) to stop you.

Haste enablers, consisting of Lightning Greaves, Concordant Crossroads, and Thousand-Year Elixir, make Selvala (and your other mana creatures) a lot better at doing what they do, and a lot harder to stop. Cards like Instill Energy and Nature's Chosen allow you to use Selvala multiple times each turn at a very low cost, letting you look through even more cards.

Combos

This deck contains many infinite mana combos that all can win the game on the spot with Selvala, Explorer Returned in play (and not summoning sick). Listed here are all of them, in a loosely relative order of easiest to hardest to complete. Detailed in the next panel, titled "Winning," are the ways you actually win the game after getting infinite mana.

- Umbral Mantle and a creature to tap for at least
tap the creature for mana, untap it with Umbral Mantle

- Staff of Domination and a creature to tap for at least
tap the creature for mana, untap it with Staff of Domination, untap Staff of Domination

- Mirror Entity, Wirewood Symbiote, and a creature to tap for at least
activate Mirror Entity for = 1, making all of your creatures 1/1 and all creature types, return Wirewood Symbiote to your hand using it's own ability (as it is now an elf) untapping the mana creature, recast Wirewood Symbiote

- Temur Sabertooth, one of Lightning Greaves; Thousand-Year Elixir; or Concordant Crossroads, and a creature that costs to tap for at least
tap the creature for mana, activate Temur Sabertooth to return it to your hand, recast the creature

- Cloudstone Curio, one of Lightning Greaves; Thousand-Year Elixir; or Concordant Crossroads, a creature that costs , and a creature that costs to tap for at least
tap the creature for mana, cast the other creature, returning the mana creature to your hand with Cloudstone Curio, recast the mana creature, returning the other creature to your hand with Cloudstone Curio

- Temur Sabertooth, Wirewood Symbiote, an elf that costs , and another creature to tap for at least
tap the creature for mana, activate Temur Sabertooth to return a used Wirewood Symbiote to your hand, recast Wirewood Symbiote, use Wirewood Symbiote to return the elf to your hand and untap the creature, recast the elf

- Cloudstone Curio, Wirewood Symbiote, an elf that costs , and another creature to tap for at least
tap the creature for mana, cast the elf, return a used Wirewoood Symbiote to your hand with Cloudstone Curio, recast Wirewood Symbiote, return the elf to your hand to untap the creature using Wirewood Symbiote

- Temur Sabertooth, Village Bell-Ringer, and a combination of creatures to tap for at least
tap your creatures for mana, activate Temur Sabertooth to return Village Bell-Ringer to your hand, recast Village Bell-Ringer, untapping all of your creatures

- Cloudstone Curio, Village Bell-Ringer, a creature that costs , and a combination of creatures to tap for at least
tap your creatures for mana, cast the creature, return Village Bell-Ringer to your hand with Cloudstone Curio, recast Village Bell-Ringer, return the creature to your hand with Cloudstone Curio, untap all of your creatures

- Cloudstone Curio, Nature's Chosen, Instill Energy, and a creature to tap for at least
untap the creature using one of the enchantments, tap it for mana, cast the other enchantment, returning the first one to your hand with Cloudstone Curio

Other noteworthy interactions

Listed here are some other interactions to remember other than the aforementioned infinite combos:

• Umbral Mantle and Marwyn, the Nurturer with at least an additional is infinite, even if Marwyn has only 1 power. This works because one activation of Umbral Mantle (using Marwyn and the floating) gives Marwyn +2/+2, which then lets you tap Marwyn for , then you can continue activating for infinite mana.

• Selvala, Explorer Returned and Umbral Mantle is not usually game-winning on its own, but usually draws you the cards you need to win. Selvala will usually give you at least , but can give you as much as (assuming there are 4 players), which can then be used to activate Umbral Mantle again, untapping Selvala, and continuing the loop. Staff of Domination works with Selvala too, but because you need to pay to untap the staff, it's a little harder to keep going. Either Smothering Tithe or Leyline of Abundance each make it much easier to win through this loop. Generally, you can shortcut the Selvala + Umbral Mantle loop as follows:
- the amount of in your mana pool will change by X - 3 for each Selvala activation, where X is the number of nonland cards revealed for each activation
- change the formula to X - 2 if you have a Leyline of Abundance on the battlefield
- do not change the formula if you have a Smothering Tithe on the battlefield, instead just add the Treasure tokens based on how many opponents pay the (usually no one will pay)

• To complicate the interaction between Selvala and Umbral Mantle even more, Umbral Mantle actually gives the ability to the creature to which it is equipped. This means that if Umbral Mantle is already equipped to a creature, you can activate the ability through Null Rod effects, but not through Cursed Totem effects (although you anyway couldn't activate Selvala through the Cursed Totem). However, Instill Energy and Nature's Chosen have the abilities on the enchantments, meaning that you can activate those abilities through Cursed Totem effects (not that you would likely need to).

• Mirror Entity and Wirewood Symbiote is a very powerful combo in this deck, as they interact with Selvala similarly to Umbral Mantle. You can perform the loop mentioned in the previous panel to untap Selvala and use her mana to continue through the loop. As with Umbral Mantle, you can shortcut this loop as follows:
- the amount of in your mana pool will change by X - 2 for each Selvala activation, where X is the number of nonland cards revealed for each activation
- change the formula to X - 1 if you have a Leyline of Abundance on the battlefield
- do not change the formula if you have a Smothering Tithe on the battlefield, instead just add the Treasure tokens based on how many opponents pay the

Winning

Once representing infinite mana from one of the aforementioned combos listed, You still have to actually win the game. We will do this by activating Selvala, Explorer Returned an arbitrarily large number of times. In effectively all scenarios where you can make infinite mana with this deck, it can translate to activating Selvala infinite times (this is why this deck does not play the Devoted Druid + Vizier of Remedies combo- it doesn't actually win the game immediately in this deck). For example, if you made infinite mana with Priest of Titania and Umbral Mantle (the most common combo used in this deck), you can then equip the Umbral Mantle to Selvala, which can untap her however many times you want, letting you win the game.

The way you actually win the game involves Green Sun's Zenith. After your board state can represent an arbitrary amount of Selvala activations, you will want to find a Grand Abolisher, Silence, or something similar to prevent opponents from interacting this turn. This is important because you will be having them draw their entire decks by the end of the game. Once you feel safe enough to combo off, activate Selvala enough times to draw your entire deck (each opponent will also draw that many cards). You can then cast Green Sun's Zenith (for any value of ), shuffling it back into your library, and activate Selvala again, revealing the zenith. Continue repeating this loop until each opponent has drawn their entire library and "mills" out.

While the Green Sun's Zenith kill is the most effective, I understand not wanting to have to play it out or explain it to your opponents. Luckily, War of the Spark gave us Finale of Devastation, Core Set 2020 gave us Leyline of Abundance, and we've already had Mirror Entity for a while, which are already good enough in this deck as a creature tutor, ramp spell, and combo piece respectively, but can just be used to make all of your creatures massive enough to kill your opponents.

Opening Hand Guide

Click the spoilers below to reveal what I would do with each of the given hands, to help you learn how and why to mulligan with this deck. I think that this is a better way of guiding opening hands in general, but if a more thorough description would be more helpful, please let me know.

Disclaimer: All of these hands were auto-generated using the playtest feature on this site, and were not pre-determined, to try to have them represent natural hands that one would draw playing this deck. However, as the decklist changes, I may have to edit some hands that are no longer options given the most recent update. I will try to keep this section as updated as possible, but each hand may not always be reflective of the entire decklist.

TL;DR:
- Casting Selvala on turn two (or more accurately, activating Selvala on turn three) is the highest priority, and the most important part of the game. Almost never keep a hand that doesn't have a way to cast Selvala on turn 2, or a Concordant Crossroads / Lightning Greaves that also lets her activate on turn 3.
- Look for some amount of combo pieces or tutors. This deck doesn't play much card draw, so a hand that has a start on a combo goes a long way.
- Try to avoid keeping hands with cards like Mobilize, Swords to Plowshares, or Noxious Revival that will inevitable get stuck in your hand and not progress your gameplan unless you think that they will be relevant given the rest of your hand or your matchups.
- Interaction like Grand Abolisher, Silence, or Veil of Summer is good, but too many in an opening hand isn't useful. One is plenty.

Hand #1 Show

This is an example of a very good opening hand. You have enough lands to cast Selvala on turn two, and between Carpet of Flowers, Wild Growth, and Llanowar Elves, you are pretty much guaranteed to be able to. Autumn's Veil is good as protection in case your Selvala is attacked, and Wirewood Symbiote with let you keep drawing gas with Selvala. This hand is keepable in almost any matchup.

Hand #2 Show

This hand is a little sketchy, but still a keep. Llanowar Elves or Arbor Elf gets you to the turn two Selvala, and the Leyline of Abundance makes recasting a countered or destroyed Selvala easier. Lightning Greaves, like any haste enabler, is always great, but this hand doesn't really do much past that. Considering that this hand doesn't have any combo pieces, tutors, or even untappers to reuse Selvala and draw more cards, I would reconsider keeping this hand against other fast combo decks, but it's definitely a keep against slower decks.

Hand #3 Show

This is the kind of hand that is tempting, but unfortunately a mulligan. An opening hand with Priest of Titania or Umbral Mantle alone is great, and in the same hand it's even better, but you cannot cast a turn two Selvala with this hand, which makes it a bit too slow to justify keeping. Even if you were able to reslove the Priest of Titania + Umbral Mantle combo on turn three, and there were enough elves on the battlefield, you can't even guarantee winning the game, because the only other nonland card in the hand is a creature tutor.

Hand #4 Show

Here is another sketchy keep, but probably a keep nonetheless. Avacyn's Pilgrim checks the "turn two Selvala" box, and Cavern of Souls even ensures that it resolves. Umbral Mantle is one of the single best cards in the deck, and compliments Selvala nicely, making this hand tempting. However, the only other nonland card is Kenrith's Transformation, so if an opponent removes the Umbral Mantle, or even Selvala, you might not end up doing much for some time. I would probably not keep this if I expect my opponents to try to destroy my permanents early, but this hand is still keepable if you only expect counterspells (because of Cavern of Souls).

Hand #5 Show

This hand is great. Boreal Druid and exactly 2 lands gets you your turn 2 Selvala, Priest of Titania gets you closer to a combo, and Eladamri's Call can be whatever you need to win. To Arms! is a ritual effect if you need the extra mana, and Kenrith's Transformation deals with any pesky Notion Thiefs or Linvalas. This hand has a reliable turn four kill set up, which usually can justify keeping a hand.

Hand #6 Show

Typically, one-land hands are unkeepable with this deck. As previously stated, the most important part of an opening hand is the ability to cast Selvala on turn 2 / activate on turn 3, so not having a second land is just as bad as not having turn 1 ramp most of the time. Even though both Elvish Visionary and Kenrith's Transformation cycle to help you find another land, and Mirror Entity is half of one of the easier to assemble combos in the deck, it is too slow to justify keeping a one-lander.

Hand #7 Show

This hand is fine, but not great. Elvish Mystic gets the turn 2 Selvala, Eladamri's Call can become part of any combo, and Wirewood Lodge could help refuel your hand after casting Selvala, but this hand doesn't do anything else. You might consider taking a mulligan if you are playing against very fast combo decks, because you don't have interaction. Otherwise, be conservative with the Eladamri's Call, because you aren't very close to any combo, so you should save the tutor for when you know what you need to win.

Hand #8 Show

This hand ramps you very much very quickly and has plenty of options, but unfortunately without much of a payoff. Between Mana Crypt and Green Sun's Zenith, you could play a turn 1 Priest of Titania, but I would recommend holding the tutor to find a something like a Wirewood Symbiote that, in conjunction with the Quirion Ranger, lets you reuse Selvala many times. This hand is probably a keep in any matchup, but might not be as effective against a table full of control decks, because this hand relies on your Selvala resolving.

Hand #9 Show

This hand probably isn't keepable against faster decks, considering that it doesn't have any interaction, but is fine against any slower decks. Carpet of Flowers will usually give you a turn 2 Selvala, and even if it doesn't, this hand can grind pretty well because of Sylvan Library drawing you two extra cards each turn (it's almost always correct to just pay 8 life in this deck- your commander incidentally gains life, and you have nothing else on which to spend life). Mirror Entity is good because it means you only need to find a Wirewood Symbiote to try to go off, but because you are starting with 4 lands in hand, try to be conservative with your resources until the Sylvan Library provides you enough card advantage.

Hand #10 Show

This is another trap hand. Even though it has Priest of Titania and Cloudstone Curio, and Instill Energy to make better use of your Selvala, it doesn't cast Selvala until turn 3. Additionally, there aren't even any other elves to contribute to Priest of Titania, so the combo with Cloudstone Curio isn't even reliable. It is important when playing this deck (as with pretty much any cEDH deck) to not get used to the habit of keeping any hand with "lands and spells," because many hands with this deck will look similar to this one and won't yield good results.

Card Discussions

Combo Pieces

Noteworthy inclusions:

Marwyn, the Nurturer- Unlike the other big mana producing creatures, Marwyn goes infinite with Umbral Mantle without anything else (i.e. elves) on the battlefield.

Mirror Entity- This is part of the easiest to assemble combo (along with Wirewood Symbiote), which combined basically gives you “: Untap target creature,” but also can help protect against toughness based sweepers.

Priest of Titania- The most mana efficient of the big mana producing creatures; you should find yourself tutoring for this often.

Umbral Mantle- Simply the best card in the deck; it combos easily with the big mana producing creatures, or just Selvala. Again, you should find yourself tutoring for this often (usually through the medium of Stoneforge Mystic).

Other inclusions:

Elvish Archdruid, Karametra's Acolyte, and Wirewood Channeler
Temur Sabertooth
Village Bell-Ringer
Wirewood Channeler
Wirewood Symbiote
Cloudstone Curio

Noteworthy exclusions:

Sword of the Paruns- While it may seem like the obvious combo piece successor to Umbral Mantle, I have found that the Sword is too mana intensive. To elaborate, it costs to start the combo with Umbral Mantle ( to cast, to equip, and for the first untap), but for Sword of the Paruns ( to cast, to equip, and for the first untap).

Angel's Grace- Contrary to what you may have thought, this is not necessary for winning the game, as described under the “Gameplan” panel. The only real benefit it provides from a combo perspective is allowing an Umbal Mantle combo to win without every passing priority to opponents, but this scenario is rarely relevant.

Devoted Druid and Vizier of Remedies- I have omitted this combo from the deck because it does not fit well with how the rest of the deck is designed. By that I mean that since this combo doesn’t translate to infinite Selvala activations, and thus needs another combo piece to actually win the game.

Tutors

Noteworthy inclusions:

Fauna Shaman and Elvish Harbinger- While these may seem strange since they are mostly just a worse Survival of the Fittest and Worldly Tutor respectively, they are played also because they contribute to the critical mass of elves necessary for Priest of Titania effects.

Ranger-Captain of Eos- The only relevant creatures this can find are Quirion Ranger and Wirewood Symbiote, but Wirewood Symbiote is a powerful combo piece and his second ability works as effective protection for combo turns.

Stoneforge Mystic- This is one of the most powerful tutors in the deck because it turns almost any creature tutor into a tutor for Umbral Mantle, or Lightning Greaves in a pinch.

Green Sun's Zenith- This works as a 1-mana ramp spell because of Dryad Arbor and a win condition as described under the “Gameplan” panel in addition to being an effective creature tutor.

Enlightened Tutor- In Selesnya colors, this is really the only tutor for artifacts or enchantments, both of which there are many relevant spells in the deck. For example, this can find Concordant Crossroads if you need haste, Conclave Tribunal if you need removal, Umbral Mantle if you’re close to comboing, and more.

Other inclusions:

Eldritch Evolution
Finale of Devastation
Worldly Tutor
Chord of Calling
Eladamri's Call

Noteworthy exclusions:

Summoner's Pact- In my opinion, this is really only playable in Protean Hulk decks that will win the game once tutoring. This deck, however, cannot take advantage of the immediate mana advantage of a 0-mana tutor, and it ends up being a 4-mana tutor.

Altar of Bone- This is both a worse version of Eladamri's Call and a worse version of Eldritch Evolution. It’s sorcery speed, not very mana efficient, and is card disadvantage.

Open the Armory and Steelshaper's Gift- I don’t find these equipment tutors to be very useful, considering that Stoneforge Mystic already works well as a tutor for Umbral Mantle.


Deciding what to tutor for with this deck can be pretty overwhelming. It's hard to know exactly what cards let you combo on the spot, and what cards are best when you know you can't combo. Listed here is a general order of how you should play tutors (mostly only creature tutors) in this deck. This is not a strict order, but merely a guideline to follow when stuck:

1. If Selvala is not yet on the battlefield, prioritize casting Selvala to casting any tutor effect
2. If Selvala is on the battlefield, prioritize activating Selvala to try to draw into what you need before using a tutor (unless the tutor puts the card on top of your library like Worldly Tutor or Elvish Harbinger; in that case cast the tutor first so you can draw the card using Selvala)
3. If Selvala has already been used this turn, prioritize tutoring for a creature that can tap for multiple mana (usually Priest of Titania because of its cost efficiency)
4. If you already have a creature to tap for multiple mana, prioritize tutoring for a major combo piece (usually Umbral Mantle, but often can be Temur Sabertooth, or anything else that could easily win you the game)
5. If you already have a creature to tap for multiple mana and at least 1 combo piece, prioritize tutoring for any other cards needed to win the game (i.e. another elf if Priest of Titania doesn't tap for enough mana, Village Bell-Ringer if you have Temur Sabertooth, etc.)
6. If you already have lethal on board, prioritize tutoring for protection for the combo (with creature tutors, this is almost always Grand Abolisher, unless the tutor is Green Sun's Zenith, in which case you can get Dosan the Falling Leaf)

Ramp

Noteworthy inclusions:

Arbor Elf, Avacyn's Pilgrim, Birds of Paradise, and Elvish Harbinger- All of these are able to produce , which is relevant because they can enable to Village Bell-Ringer based combos.

Elvish Archdruid, Karametra's Acolyte, Priest of Titania, Wirewood Channeler, and Marwyn, the Nurturer- These are the “big mana producing creatures,” and are the core of most combos in this deck.

Green Sun's Zenith- This works as a 1-mana ramp spell in conjunction with Dryad Arbor, meaning that it allows you to cast Selvala on turn 2.

Other inclusions:

Boreal Druid
Elvish Mystic
Fyndhorn Elves
Llanowar Elves
Chrome Mox
Mana Crypt
Mox Diamond
Sol Ring
Carpet of Flowers
Smothering Tithe
Utopia Sprawl
Wild Growth
Leyline of Abundance

Noteworthy exclusions:

Selesnya Signet, Talisman of Unity, Aracne Signet, and Bloom Tender- Since 2-mana ramp doesn’t accelerate into Selvala, and once Selvala is in play you likely will be able to generate more mana than you’ll need, these ramp spells are unnecessary.

Mana Vault and Lotus Petal- While they do count as 1-mana ramp spells that enable a turn-2 Selvala, I found that they didn’t do enough else and were very underwhelming overall.

Interaction

Noteworthy inclusions:

Conclave Tribunal- A pet card of mine, this is surprisingly effective as a 1-mana, sometimes free Oblivion Ring effective.

Reclamation Sage- This lets creature tutors become removal for artifacts and enchantments while contributing to the elf count for Priest of Titania.

Other inclusions:

Beast Within
Force of Vigor
Nature's Claim
Swords to Plowshares
Kenrith's Transformation
Silence
Ranger-Captain of Eos

Noteworthy exclusions:

Winter Orb, Static Orb, Armageddon, and other “stax” effects- See the “FAQ” panel.


This deck plays minimal interaction for your opponents' threats, so it's important to use it only when necessary:

Creature removal should be reserved for Linvala, Keeper of Silence and Notion Thief (either which stops us from winning, especially Linvala) unless necessary to stay alive (for example, a player is about to untap with Hermit Druid or resolve a free discard outlet with The Gitrog Monster on the battlefield).

Artifact and Enchantment removal (all the same spells in this deck) can be used a little more freely, as there are more in the deck and fewer important targets. Cursed Totem, like Linvala, Keeper of Silence, shuts down our deck entirely, and Null Rod and Stony Silence make cards like Umbral Mantle worse, but other than those, artifact and enchantment removal can be used to slow down opponents, but keep in mind that there are still threats like The Chain Veil and Necropotence that are necessary to destroy.

Protection

Noteworthy inclusions:

Dosan the Falling Leaf- It may seem weird since it’s symmetrical, but the extra permanent-based protection and the ability to find protection with Green Sun's Zenith makes it worth it.

Grand Abolisher- Simply the best of its effect, it is a one-sided, permanent effect. If you are in a position where you can tutor for protection spells, this is the best one.

Mirror Entity- It’s not in this deck as a protection spell, rather as a combo piece, but still in fringe scenarios can protect your board from toughness based removal.

Ranger-Captain of Eos- The protection is definitely useful, but this also works well as a tutor for Qurion Ranger or Wirewood Symbiote.

Other inclusions:

Autumn's Veil
Noxious Revival
Silence
Veil of Summer

Untappers

Noteworthy inclusions:

Village Bell-Ringer- While it can be used as a ritual, this is also here as a combo piece with Temur Sabertooth or Cloudstone Curio.

Wirewood Symbiote- Like the Village Bell-Ringer, it’s both an extra Selvala activation and a combo piece with Temur Sabertooth, Cloudstone Curio, or most often Mirror Entity.

Thousand-Year Elixir- This is mostly in the deck as a haste enabler, but the efficient untap effect is definitely welcome.

Other inclusions:

Benefactor's Draught
To Arms!
Vitalize
Mobilize
Instill Energy
Nature's Chosen
Wirewood Lodge
Seeker of Skybreak
Quirion Ranger

Noteworthy exclusions:

single-use, single-target untap effects (e.g. Emerald Charm, Stony Strength)- The floor on single-use untap effects is already low, but these kinds of cards just don’t have a high enough ceiling to justify playing. At least cards like Mobilize and Vitalize net enormous amounts of mana to make up for the lower average card quality.

Haste Enablers

Noteworthy inclusions:

Concordant Crossroads- Designed before color pie philosophy was conceived, it’s the most efficient of it’s effect in these colors, but be careful with it, because the symmetry can cost you the game if played incorrectly.

Lightning Greaves- This is definitely awkward to reequip whenever you need a new creature to have haste, but it gets the job done, and can be tutored by Stoneforge Mystic if you need to find a haste enabler.

Thousand-Year Elixir- This is one of the only other playable haste enablers in Selesnya colors, and conveniently also can give some mana advantage with the untap ability.

Noteworthy exclusions:

Swiftfoot Boots- While it seems similar to Lightning Greaves, the equip cost of really adds up when you consider needing to reequip often, so I found that it wasn’t worth playing overall.

Meta Decisions

Listed here are some cards to consider swapping out depending on the meta in which you expect to play:

Carpet of Flowers- This casts Selvala on turn two, so only cut this if there are extremely few blue players at your meta

Kenrith's Transformation- It's only ok creature removal, but drawing a floor gives it a high floor; it could be cut if you don't play against any relevant creatures

Beast Within- Catch-all permanent removal spell, but unnecessary if your opponent's don't play relevant permanents

Veil of Summer- Just like Carpet of Flowers and Kenrith's Transformation, you should really only cut this if it does literally nothing, otherwise it's amazing

Autumn's Veil- Bad (but still additional) Veil of Summer effect


Listed here are some cards to consider swapping in depending on the meta in which you expect to play:

Interaction / Blue heavy metas

Sylvan Safekeeper- Additional, repeatable protection for your creatures

Conqueror's Flail- A Grand Abolisher effect that can be tutored with Stoneforge Mystic, although a little mana expensive

Mandate of Peace- Reeeeeeally bad Silence, but still effective on your own turn, and very rarely relevant on your opponents' turns

Seedtime- Time Walk in the right meta

Permanent Destruction

Generous Gift- Another Beast Within

Path to Exile- Slightly worse Swords to Plowshares, but really only necessary if your meta plays lots of obnoxious creatures (looking at you, Notion Thief)

Krosan Grip- Uncounterable removal for artifacts or enchantments

Fairgrounds Warden- Creature removal that can be found with creature tutors, probably necessary in metas with too many copies of Notion Thief

Linvala, Keeper of Silence- Just a Cursed Totem effect that we can actually play, and is good against most of our bad matchups

Creature light metas

Copperhorn Scout- Another repeatable untapper for Selvala, but only playable if opponents don't play creatures

Curse of Bounty- Not very good in general, but if your opponents can't take advantage of it, it's actually pretty good

Oakhame Adversary- This usually is only found in stax / control decks, but if your opponents don't have many blockers, it still gets the job done

Matchups

Listed here are summaries for how some matchups play out, based on my testing. I am refraining from commenting on decks I have not played a significant amount of games against, and as such, this is not a comprehensive list of the top cEDH decks. To find such a list, including great examples of each deck mentioned here, check out the cEDH decklist database under the "Other Links" panel under the "Additional Content" panel.

I will try to keep this section as up to date as possible, but please be patient, as it takes time to edit this section based on changes to the primary decklist and to the cEDH meta.

Matchup ratings are on an arbitrary scale of 1 (unwinnable) to 10 (unlosable).

TL;DR:
Good matchups: blue based decks, creature based combo decks, aggro/tempo decks
Good enough matchups: Stax/control decks, slower combo decks
Bad matchups: Hulk / other hyperactive combo decks, Linvala, Keeper of Silence

10: Midrange Yisan (Yisan, the Wanderer Bard)
9: Selvala Brostorm (Selvala, Heart of the Wilds)
8: Momir Hackball (Momir Vig, Simic Visionary)
7: Teferi Chain Veil (Teferi, Temporal Archmage), Tasigur Control (Tasigur, the Golden Fang)
6: Opus Thief (Tymna the Weaver / Kraum, Ludevic's Opus), Najeela Tempo (Najeela, the Blade-Blossom)
5: Doomsday / Shimmer Zur (Zur the Enchanter), Blood Pod (Tymna the Weaver / Tana, the Bloodsower)
4: -
3: Varolz Hulk (Varolz, the Scar-Striped)
2: Gitrog Dredge (The Gitrog Monster), Food Chain Sliver (The First Sliver)
1: TnT Hulk (Tymna the Weaver / Thrasios, Triton Hero)

Chain Veil Teferi (Teferi, Temporal Archmage) Show

Mono has a pretty difficult time dealing with creatures, making this matchup better. This deck plays plenty of artifact destruction, and Teferi can't usually win fast enough to get under that interaction, and sometimes is just too slow to interact with your combo. Obviously be prepared for countermagic both when interacting with them and when they interact with you. Finally, remember to attack the planeswalker, as you will always have available creatures and they will never have blockers.

Potential meta additions: Krosan Grip, Copperhorn Scout
Potential meta cuts: Swords to Plowshares, Kenrith's Transformation
Matchup rating: 7

Midrange Yisan (Yisan, the Wanderer Bard) Show

Mono is another color "combination" that has a difficult time dealing with creatures, but unlike the decks, doesn't have countermagic to supplement a lack of creature removal. Yisan is also significantly slower than Selvala, so between a lack of adequate interaction or a hyperactive gameplan, this is a very good matchup. Just beware if the game goes a little longer than expected- they are usually a better grindy deck than you are, so feel free to add some extra creature removal.

Potential meta additions: Path to Exile, Fairgrounds Warden
Potential meta cuts: Autumn's Veil, Carpet of Flowers
Matchup rating: 10

Selvala Brostorm (Selvala, Heart of the Wilds) Show

This is very similar to the Yisan matchup- the mono deck doesn't have many answers to you, and isn't quite as fast as you. Selvala Brostorm is definitely faster than Yisan, so try to win faster. If you at least activate your Selvala before they do, your other opponents usually will be able to answer Selvala Brostorm if you can't.

Potential meta additions: Path to Exile, Fairgrounds Warden
Potential meta cuts: Autumn's Veil, Carpet of Flowers
Matchup rating: 9

Gitrog Dredge (The Gitrog Monster) Show

Gitrog Dredge is one of the fastest decks in the format, and the easiest way to beat Selvala is to simply win faster, thus making this one of your worst matchups. Unless you have creature removal, your only plan for interacting with them is to draw your other opponents into an answer. If you expect to play against a lot of Frog Horrors, you either want to put more meaningful interaction into your deck, or consider playing something other than Selvala. Also, Darkblast is a bitch.

Potential meta additions: Path to Exile, Linvala, Keeper of Silence
Potential meta cuts: Autumn's Veil, Carpet of Flowers
Matchup rating: 2

Varolz Hulk (Varolz, the Scar-Striped) Show

This is another pretty bad matchup for the same reasons The Gitrog Monster is- it's just faster most of the time, and you don't have an easy way to interact. Varolz is a little slower, but also a little harder for you to interact with because of that deck's resilience. This means that your only plan, again, is to draw your blue opponents some cards and hope that they can slow Varolz down enough to let you set up.

Potential meta additions: Linvala, Keeper of Silence
Potential meta cuts: Carpet of Flowers
Matchup rating: 3

Momir Hackball (Momir Vig, Simic Visionary) Show

This matchup can be interesting because they are another creature based combo deck, meaning they are bad against similar cards that you are, but they also have blue to interact better with opponents. This actually usually works in your favor, because they are incentivized to counter the Cursed Totems and Linvalas of the world for you. Most cEDH pods will also prioritize Momir as a higher threat than Selvala, so when playing against this deck, you can usually just wait for the Momir player to be disrupted, then you will have time to win.

Potential meta additions: Path to Exile
Potential meta cuts: Nature's Claim
Matchup rating: 8

Doomsday / Shimmer Zur (Zur the Enchanter) Show

This matchup can be hard because you don't have very good interaction for their combos. You often will need to hold up interaction for their Zur, Necropotence, or Shimmer Myr. If you manage to untap with Selvala, you could probably pull together a win, but you might have to hold off on casting Selvala to hold up interaction, and even if you do activate Selvala, you might accidentally hand the Zur player the win. Alternatively, putting some Stax pieces into your deck could improve your odds against this deck.

Potential meta additions: Krosan Grip, Collector Ouphe
Potential meta cuts: Concordant Crossroads, Mobilize
Matchup rating: 5

Tasigur Control (Tasigur, the Golden Fang) Show

Most Tasigur decks don't do very much early in the game, which can help you set up a combo early on, but they do still play plenty of interaction. Against a Tasigur deck, avoid being a clear threat to help your chances of being interacting with. It's ok to slow down a little to let the Tasigur player focus on other issues. Additionally, be conservative with your resources. Don't overcommit to your board only to get Toxic Deluge'ed, or play an Eldritch Evolution right into a Counterspell. Finally, as with any deck playing against Tasigur, make sure that you never (and that your other opponents never) give the Tasigur player the card that they want when activating. Once they get into that position, their victory is inevitable.

Potential meta additions: Sylvan Safekeeper, Mandate of Peace
Potential meta cuts: Eldritch Evolution, Kenrith's Transformation
Matchup rating: 7

Blood Pod (Tymna the Weaver / Tana, the Bloodsower) Show

This is one of the only matchups where your life total could actually matter, so remember to gain life from Selvala (I often forget about it because it saves time to not keep track of it and it's usually irrelevant). Your creature removal is very important in this matchup because this is one of the only common cEDH decks that consistently plays Linvala, Keeper of Silence and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, so avoid blowing your removal on unnecessary targets. Since you are basically unable to win if Elesh Norn resolves, and you can't counter it, you should try to win before it drops (and it's usually safe to assume that it will).

Potential meta additions: Generous Gift, Path to Exile, Fairgrounds Warden, Sylvan Safekeeper
Potential meta cuts: Concordant Crossroads, Carpet of Flowers, Mobilize, Seeker of Skybreak
Matchup rating: 5

Oracle Hulk (and other TnT Hulk variants) (Tymna the Weaver / Thrasios, Triton Hero) Show

This is one of Selvala's worst matchups, and is unfortunately one of the most prominent archetypes in the meta right now. Just like against The Gitrog Monster or Varolz, the best way to beat Selvala is to win faster, and Flash Hulk is the fastest potential win in the format. In order to win this matchup, you either have to get lucky and draw the little amount of adequate interaction in this deck, or get lucky and have your opponents interact enough that the Flash Hulk player is slowed down enough to let you get set up. Either way, You have to be lucky to win this matchup.

This matchup has changed ever so slightly, however, with the rise of Oracle Hulk, the new cEDH menace. While they are no slower than the previous builds of TnT Hulk, they are weaker to specifically this deck now because they use Thassa's Oracle's triggered ability as opposed to Laboratory Maniac's static ability. If you leave Selvala's ability open at all times, Oracle Hulk players will have to play around you using it once they have an empty library. This means that the Spellseeker line becomes much worse, but the breakfast combo line is still very potent. The other advantage is that Angel's Grace actually prevents them from winning the game now, so if you need to beat Oracle Hulk, it might finally be playable in this deck.

Potential meta additions: Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Angel's Grace
Potential meta cuts: Dosan the Falling Leaf, Smothering Tithe
Matchup rating: 1

Opus Thief (Tymna the Weaver / Kraum, Ludevic's Opus) Show

This matchup depends entirely on which cards your opponents draw. Narset is very hard for Selvala to beat, and Smothering Tithe can be bad if the Opus Thief player has interaction available, but we generally don't care about Alms Collector, and Notion Thief isn't always bad; it is actually sometimes our own wincon: If we have Selvala and Umbral Mantle and an opponent has a Notion Thief, if the other players have nonlands on top of their decks, then you can activate Selvala infinitely to mill out the Notion Thief player. That being said, they still play plenty of interaction, and the Wheel effects can be brutal as often as they are helpful. As long as they don't assemble their combo, you can usually grind out a win.

Potential meta additions: Sylvan Safekeeper, Generous Gift
Potential meta cuts: Mobilize, Vitalize
Matchup rating: 6

Najeela Tempo (Najeela, the Blade-Blossom) Show

As long as you can keep Najeela off the table, this isn't a horrible matchup. If you avoid letting them untap with Najeela in play, they will have a hard time winning the game, and you can get set up to win. The cards to look out for are Linvala, Keeper of Silence and Collector Ouphe, which are both meta options for that deck that they may be playing, so be prepared with extra creature removal. While they do play plenty of interaction in their deck, the biggest one to worry about is Fire Covenant, and almost all of them can be stopped with a Sylvan Safekeeper or Veil of Summer effect.

Potential meta additions: Sylvan Safekeeper, Path to Exile, Fairgrounds Warden
Potential meta cuts: Dosan the Falling Leaf, Mobilize, Concordant Crossroads
Matchup rating: 6

Food Chain Sliver (The First Sliver) Show

Another bad matchup, but unlike the hulk decks or other blisteringly fast combo decks, this deck has multiple angles of attack against Selvala. You have to try to stop their interaction, a Food Chain combo, and a Demonic Consultation combo and still try to win afterwards. The best way to win this matchup is to try to stop an early Food Chain combo (or get someone else to do it), slow them down, and try to set up enough to win before they can recover.

Potential meta additions: Krosan Grip
Potential meta cuts: Kenrith's Transformation
Matchup rating: 2

FAQ

Q: Why aren't you playing "stax" effects?

A: While this deck has the ability to break the symmetry of many stax effects like Static Orb and Winter Orb, this is not a stax deck. It is a resilient combo deck, and I don't want to waste card slots in my deck for cards that don't contribute to my game plan at all. I have tried Winter Orb, Static Orb, and Armageddon before, and they are really just underwhelming effects that usually hand the game over to whichever opponent is affected the least by the stax cards (especially after I've activated Selvala a bunch of times, basically giving them cards then removing their opponents' ability to interact). In the "Alternate Lists" panel under the "Additional Content" panel is a quickly thrown together stax list if you are more interested in that archetype.

Q: How does this deck actually win the game without cards like Walking Ballista as infinite mana outlets?

A: It is more detailed in the "Winning" panel under the "Gameplan" panel, but briefly: Every infinite mana combo in this deck can allow you to activate Selvala an arbitrary amount of times after making the infinite mana (with very few scenario exceptions), which is also the reason I am not playing Devoted Druid and Vizier of Remedies. Because of this, you can activate Selvala until you are able to play Grand Abolisher or something similar to prevent opponents from interacting. Once you feel safe to win, you can draw your entire deck with Selvala, then loop Green Sun's Zenith as follows:
1. Cast Green Sun's Zenith for any value of , shuffling it into your library
2. Activate Selvala, revealing and drawing the Green Sun's Zenith (since it is the only card in your library), each opponent will also draw a card
3. Untap Selvala through whatever infinite mana loop you have assembled
4. Repeat the previous steps until each opponent has "milled out"

Q: How can Selvala be competitive if your primary gameplan involves giving your opponents many cards?

A: This issue is actually often a self-correcting problem because of the whole concept of a multiplayer game. While yes, you are drawing your opponents cards to likely win the game, there are still [usually] two other opponents who are drawing cards. If you aren't posing enough of a threat to warrant their use of interaction on you, then they will have those extra cards to help prevent each other from winning. This concept allows you to "politic" in a way few other cEDH decks can. With cards like Wirewood Symbiote that let you activate Selvala an additional time on opponents' turns, you can maneuver yourself into a position where your opponents are using all of their cards on each other, leaving you in the clear to win.

Q: Why are you playing white? What advantages does this have compared to Selvala, Heart of the Wilds Brostorm?

A: The commander is a very important part of this deck's gameplan. It helps you ramp and draw into your combo pieces, and wins the game once you assemble the infinite mana combo. In addition, white gives access to Stoneforge Mystic, one of the best tutors in the deck, and other tutors like Eladamri's Call and Enlightened Tutor. More importantly than tutors though, white allows this deck to beat cards like Notion Thief and Linvala, Keeper of Silence. Mono-green doesn't really have many efficient ways to remove creatures, but white gives this deck access to Swords to Plowshares and my pet removal spell in this deck, Conclave Tribunal. I have found that this Selvala deck is very often more consistent, more powerful, and overall more competitive than the Selvala, Hear of the Wilds deck.
It's important to note that these two decks, while they may seem similar on the surface, are actually fairly different in gameplay, and should not be considered variants of each other in most contexts.

Additional Content

My current list (may be different from this one because I'm trying out cards, don't own cards like Mana Crypt, etc.):

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Selvala, Explorer Returned cEDH (current list)

Commander / EDH* Nathan_of_the_Gilt_leaf

251 VIEWS | IN 2 FOLDERS

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Budget list (current build is <$400 USD):

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Selvala, Explorer Returned cEDH (budget list)

Commander / EDH Nathan_of_the_Gilt_leaf

SCORE: 5 | 662 VIEWS | IN 6 FOLDERS

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"Explorers Returned" discord server- for Selvala, Explorer Returned cEDH discussion


comprehensive cEDH decklist database

Other players' lists:
Do You Like to Draw Cards ? by shadowmage
G/W Selvala Fast Combo(cEDH) by walkingballista

Top Ranked	Achieved #27 position overall 5 years ago Achieved #22 position in Commander / EDH 5 years ago Achieved #5 position in Commander / EDH Primer 5 years ago
Date added	6 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	10 - 0 Mythic Rares 41 - 0 Rares 26 - 0 Uncommons 15 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	1.96
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Treasure
Folders	cEDH, CEDH, cEDH_Resources, Research, EDH, EDH, Dope but real expensive, Different Takes, Cool Decks to Try, liked