Brewing Stella Lee, Wild Card in cEDH

Stella Lee, Wild Card

by Fajareka Setiawan

"I kill with my heart, for it is the true weapon of the gunslinger" - Stephen King

There's a new sheriff in the cEDH metagame, and her name is Stella Lee, Wild Card. Stella is one of the new face commanders from the Outlaws of Thunder Junction Commander decks, and with a suite of simple yet powerful combos and synergies she's quickly captured the minds of cEDH players and brewers alike. I guess you could say she's taking the cEDH scene by... storm. 

Stella Lee, Talk of cEDH Town

Stella has a lot going for her besides just wearing a cool hat. Starting at three mana makes it easy to consistently cast her on turns one and two every game, and having four toughness means you won't have to re-cast her as often, as her backside is big enough to not be bothered by Bolt

Stella is designed to encourage "storm-esque" gameplay. She isn't particularly synergistic with cards that use the actual storm mechanic, but she does reward the play patterns of the storm archetype, such as casting multiple cheap spells in one turn. Because she comes down so quickly at three mana, you can get her into play while you're still building up to your storm turn. Then, once you get started slinging spells, Stella has a few ways to help you storm off. 

Storms A-Brewin'

Her first ability triggers off the second spell cast each turn and exiles the top card of your deck, allowing you to play it until the end of your next turn. This means if you exile a spell you don't want to cast on the turn you see it, you have a whole turn cycle to plan your sequencing around it. This ability can trigger each turn, too, not just on your own, so getting into stack wars on opponents' turns can reward you with more cards for your storm turn as well.

Between instant-speed cantrips and draw engines, such as Mystic Remora

Stella's second ability is the real power behind the card. After casting three spells in a turn, you can tap Stella to make a copy of a spell you control on the stack. At the surface level, this means you can copy a spell in response to an opponent interacting with it, or copy a big payoff spell, such as a Jeska's Will

Surprisingly, there are myriad instants and sorceries that fit this criteria, and quite a few that are cEDH-viable. Let's take a look at some A + B combos that can be easily assembled and executed with our Wild Card.

Shoot First

The primary combo card for the deck is Cerulean Wisps

From here there are a few different ways to win, which we'll cover a little later in this article. As a note, there are two other spells that do the same thing as Wisps: Refocus

Besides drawing our deck, we can also just kill the table with Twisted Fealty

By copying Fealty with Stella and targeting her with it, we can untap her and give her a Wicked Role. When we do this a second time, the old Wicked Role falls off and our opponents each lose one life. We can repeat this until we win the game. Another cool upside of this card is it gives haste, which means if we have the mana we can use it to burst out a Stella combo all in one turn. 

Sidearms

There are a few other notables that combo with Stella as well; some are being used widely by brewers, and others are a little more niche. While these cards don't win the game outright, they still can set us up for victory. 

With Dramatic Reversal

Shore Up

Hidden Strings

Involuntary Employment

Mark of Munity

Bloody Betrayal

Bond of Passion

The majority of these aren't better than a generically good cEDH card in the list, such as a counterspell, but they are good to keep in mind when brewing. My personal list, which is linked below, is on the cantrip untappers plus Twisted Fealty

Quickdraw

Speaking of instant speed, this deck can win very comfortably on an opponent's turn, or even in response to their own win attempt. Having the versatility to pick a window not on its own turn is one of the things that makes this deck so initially appealing. All our draw combos are instants, which means we can put them on the stack and win after or during a counterspell war. All we need is a single blue mana open for Borne Upon a Wind

It won't always be better to combo off on an opponent's turn. The longer you wait, the more cards and mana your opponents have access to, but if you untap on your turn and feel like you're staring down the barrel of a Force of Will

Rounding up our Wincons

Now that we know how to win, we gotta figure out how we can get there. Luckily, the play patterns for this deck are surprisingly simple. In opening hands, you want to look for a way to stick Stella early, turn one or turn two, and also have some kind of follow up, whether that be a win, a tutor, or some other payoff, like a wheel. Generally, by the time turn four rolls around, you want to have a win attempt loaded in the chamber, ready to fire when the timing is right.

Stella's first ability can really help here, too, netting us extra cards from our setup turns that we can use on our storm turn. Interestingly enough, this deck rewards "slow rolling" out our fast mana so we can use it to trigger Stella. It's often correct to hold a zero-mana rock back for the turn we cast Stella instead of dropping it in the first turn of the game. If Stella is spell number one, then something like Mox Opal

This play pattern can also help us if we suspect we won't be able to untap with our commander. Using cards like Crimson Wisps

Being able to target our commander with haste spells or untap spells, even if they don't win on the spot, is extremely useful for dodging interaction as well. With extra untap spells, we can use Stella's ability to aid us in stack wars or double copy a value spell such as a wheel with Breach out, or even just have three copies of Consider on the stack.

Because of the extreme usefulness of this effect, many lists are running Twinflame

This strategy is certainly risky, but a win is a win, and with a deck that has as many options as Stella, utilizing versatile spells that can support those options is essential. Many lists are also on Dualcaster Mage

Alternate Wincons

Besides the "classic" Stella combos, this deck has a few other ways to win as well. Dualcaster Mage + Twinflame and friends is one we already mentioned that slots in nicely, but the best secondary wincon the list has to offer is by far Underworld Breach

Stella supports Breach particularly well as she encourages spamming cantrips that fill the graveyard and can copy breach tutors to protect them or use them to find multiple pieces. We do also have an Intuition pile in the deck (consisting of our three infinite draw effects) and that tutor layers nicely for Breach as well. The deck runs Muddle the Mixture

Twinflame, as mentioned above, also can combo with Stella. Start with three spells being cast and a Twinflame on the stack, strived, targeting Stella plus one other creature. Copy Twinflame using Stella. Copy resolves and makes a new untapped Stella and a hasty version of your creature. Tap your new Stella and copy Twinflame. Repeat and attack for lethal. This combo is useful as it can be found off Spellseeker and gets around effects such as Notion Thief and Narset Parter of Veils. 

Note that none of the combos discussed so far care about Orcish Bowmasters

Some iterations of the deck also play Expansion // Explosion

If you prefer to win with something more obscure, this deck has access to a really crunchy Timetwister

Your payoff spell resolves first dealing three damage to a player or whatever, then your twister copy resolves, shuffling your payoff spell back. Then your untap spell resolves and you draw your deck again, leaving the original Twister on the stack. Repeat this loop by putting another untap/draw spell on the stack until you win somehow. Alternatively, you can just use Breach to recur Twister which makes you lose some cards each time, but still can kill the table with Lightning Bolt

Besides just cards that win outright, there are lots of other hypothetical ways to use Stella's abilities to surge ahead in games. Extra turn spells might be powerful here, as Stella can copy them after we ramp into them. Big payoff cards, like Mind's Desire

Stella's List of Wild cEDH Cards

Lastly, since this is a brewing article, let's highlight some of the cards that are "unique" to Stella that you might not see in other decks. Not all of these will likely end up on final iterations of lists for her, but they're great to keep in mind when brewing. 

General consensus among the community is that Personal Tutor

Strike It Rich

Finale of Promise

Valakut Awakening

Tidal Bore

Minamo, School at Water's Edge

Into the Sunset

That's more or less everything you need to know before brewing with Stella. There are a lot of lists floating around out there, and you can even find some on edhtop16 if you wanted to see which ones are being entered in tournaments. You can read my list below, it's been on an absolute tear in my cEDH leagues as of late. 

There are a lot of players brewing Stella Lee in cEDH, a lot of cards being tested, and a lot of opinions being thrown around about the commander. I wouldn't be surprised if the community consensus on Stella shifted even more in the next few months as more people begin to experiment and brew with her. One thing is for certain, though: with such easy access to cheap and efficient combos right out of the command zone, Stella Lee is here to stay in the cEDH scene. Why not take a shot at brewing her? 

If you'd like to hear more from me, check out Elder Drunken Highlander!