Conditions Allow - Cynette, Jelly Drover EDH

Ben Doolittle • January 2, 2025

Deckbuilding
(Cynette, Jelly Drover
 | Art by Daisuke Tatsuma)

You Jelly

Jumpstart has returned in a big way thanks to Jumpstart 2025, and I'm thrilled. A big part of that is the number of new mono-color legendary creatures to brew in Commander. Today I'm building around one of the less assuming options, Cynette, Jelly Drover

.

Cynette, Jelly Drover

gives your flying creatures +1/+1, and whenever she enters or dies, you make a 1/1 Jellyfish token with flying. Mono-blue doesn't usually play with dies triggers, and the data for Cynette on EDHREC bears that out. Essence Flux
 and Displacer Kitten
 are amongst her most played cards.

In the spirit of Conditions Allow, however, I want to lean into that death trigger as much as possible. Not by actually sacrificing Cynette, Jelly Drover

, but by taking advantage of the legend rule and Clones
.

A Clone in the Hand

Every time you clone Cynette, Jelly Drover

you'll get two Jellyfish tokens, as the clone enters then immediately dies to the legend rule. This lets you quickly amass an army of flying, gelatinous 2/2s. With a large array of clone effects to choose from, you're sure to never run out of ways to make more creatures to overwhelm your opponents' defenses.

That's especially true when you factor in the seven Coastal Piracy

effects available in mono-blue now. Along with Tide Skimmer
 and Loyal Drake
, you'll have a steady supply of clones to make more Jellyfish, which then draw you even more cards. This powerful draw engine also ensures you'll eventually draw one of the key cards for Cynette, Jelly Drover
.

Clones that become nonlegendary copies of Cynette, Jelly Drover

are extremely valuable for this deck because they stick around to give all your Jellyfish a boost in power. More importantly, every clone you play after Spark Double
 should copy that nonlegendary Cynette, Jelly Drover
, quickly growing your Jellyfish into an unstoppable aerial army. I also want to specifically call out Auton Soldier
, which not only becomes a nonlegendary copy of your commander but gives it myriad as well. That's not only two additional Jellyfish every time it attacks, but a +2/+2 buff to your whole team every combat. 

Of course, I'm including a few actual anthems as well, most notably Coat of Arms. Shadow Puppeteers is a powerful finisher for this deck as well. Jumping right from two to five power is a big boost. Finally, both Patchwork Banner and Heraldic Banner pull double duty as mana rocks and anthems for a little extra oomph.

So Far So Normal

So far, I've described a fairly typical mono-blue tempo deck. It plays well, as long as none of its key pieces are destroyed. However, Cynette, Jelly Drover has one key difference from commanders like Talrand, Sky Summoner: she leaves a Jellyfish behind when she dies, and because our gameplan revolves around creating nonlegendary copies of Cynette, Jelly Drover, by the time your opponents need to board wipe, you should have several copies of Cynette leave behind a brand new army of Jellyfish right away.

Additionally, many of your clone effects can be cast again from the graveyard. Quasiduplicate, Cackling Counterpart, and Vizier of Many Faces can all be cast from your graveyard to help you recover from the Wrath of God. The real star here is Mirrorhall Mimic, which becomes an Aura that clones whatever it enchants during your upkeep when cast with disturb. 

This is also the perfect place for one of my pet cards, Back from the Brink. This enchantment essentially gives all of your creatures flashback. It's a great way to help mitigate commander tax and to replay key cards, like Sakashima of a Thousand Faces and Grazilaxx, Illithid Scholar. Your graveyard will also be full of clones ready to come back and rebuild your Jellyfish army.

It's this particular interaction that makes me like this approach to Cynette, Jelly Drover more than a blink-focused strategy. Not only does it feel more unique and take full advantage of her effect, it's a little more resilient to interaction.

Classic Blue

Which isn't to say I'm not including a full suite of counterspells. This deck can rebuild from a board wipe, but it's usually better to stop one altogether. Three Steps Ahead and Sublime Epiphany even double as clones, really compounding the advantage you get from countering a key spell. That said, when you really want to swing the game in your favor, there's nothing quite like countering a big spell with Access Denied. Cynette, Jelly Drover buffs all your flying creatures, including a swarm of Thopter tokens.

Rounding things out is a suite of removal, plenty of mana rocks to ensure a turn-three Cynette, and one or two actual draw spells. While there are plenty of Coastal Piracy effects for this deck to run, being able to smooth out any rough patches in the early game is important enough to make space. 

Jellies

View on Archidekt

Commander (1)

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Cynette, Jelly Drover is a straightforward commander who knows what she wants to do. I don't get to write about many cards like that on this series, and it's exciting to really dig into some fundamentals of deck design without having to get weird once in a while. Cynette, Jelly Drover may not be the flashiest of commanders from Jumpstart 2025, but she certainly packs a punch. If you're interested in what fliers can do, don't overlook this adorable drover.

Ben Doolittle

Ben Doolittle

Ben was introduced to Magic during Seventh Edition and has played on and off ever since. A Simic mage at heart, he loves being given a problem to solve. When not shuffling cards, Ben can be found lost in a book or skiing in the mountains of Vermont.