CUT #25 Finals - Alela vs Brenard

Travis Stanley • September 29, 2023

Deckbuilding

Welcome to CUT, the deckbuilding series where we take deckbuilders from the community, give them challenges, and put their deckbuilding skills head to head. Last week we introduced three deckbuilders with challenges centered around Wilds of Eldraine! This week we get to see who got the most votes and moved on to this article! Let's see who made it to the finals:

Congratulations to Arnaud and Jordan! Before we get to your creations for this round, I want to give a huge thank you to Adelaide the Proxy Queen for joining us, and I hope to see her again soon!

Here are the challenges that Arnaud and Jordan had to face this round:

  • Commander must be from Wilds of Eldraine Commander decks (Set Booster exclusives count)
  • Must play at least 10 "Adventure" cards
  • Must play at least 5 cards with the words "book" , "tale" , or "story" in the name
  • Max 16 Rares/Mythics (including your commander)

First up, we have Jordan!


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Hey there! My name is Jordan, and I'm an actor and music producer, but more contextually important: I am an MTG content creator! I run the EDH Jank Center on Youtube, and I'm also a writer for EDHREC! My channel is all about janky, budget, and under-utilized cards. It is my belief that every card can shine given the right deckbuilding context, and I'm continuing to bring that spirit to the CUT series!

Today I'll be building around Alela, Cunning Conqueror First of all, I just want to say thank you to everyone who voted in the last round, I really appreciate it! And props to the other deckbuilders who made some amazing lists as well. Anyone who knows me knows that I love me some forced combat. It's probably my favorite strategy in all of Magic. There's really nothing better than watching my opponents beat each other up while I accrue value..

Which is precisely why I chose the commander I chose! This new version of Alela lets us sit back, relax, and react on our opponents' turns, all the while churning out an army of little Faeries for us to attack (and subsequently goad) with. Because of its reactionary nature and reliance on forcing attacks between our opponents, this deck essentially conforms its shape to whatever is happening on board in real time. This means every game will be different, and that's my favorite kind of deck to build and play with. Oh, and by the way: the price of this deck comes out to $32.70 without basic lands! With the intro out of the way, let's get into it... The deck works like this:

  1. Cast some cheap, evasive Faeries early
  2. Get Alela out
  3. Assess the board and goad the scariest creatures
  4. Monitor the game with mana up, react accordingly
  5. Outlast our opponents with our instant-speed/flash shenanigans
  6. OR swing with a big army of Faeries

With the general idea out of the way, let's have a chat about the nitty gritty challenges Travis has given us:

The Challenges

1. Commander must be from Wilds of Eldraine Commander Decks

I honestly just remembered that there was one commander that Goads and once I found that, the rest was history.

2. Must play at least 10 "Adventure" cards

Luckily for me, a good number of Adventure cards also happen to be Faeries, and an even larger number of them had instants as the actual "Adventure" spell. These spells also counted for a lot of our removal package, which I absolutely loved because it allowed me more room to add cards in other areas! Here are the 10 cards I included:

3. Must play at least 5 cards with "book", "tale", or "story" in the name

This is the kind of challenge that tickles my brain because I love trying to fit random weirdness like this into decks. I was very lucky, however, because my choices for this challenge ended up helping the deck out! Here they are with some brief explanations:

  • Suspicious Bookcase: I will die on the hill of this being one of the best cards in Magic purely for the flavor of it being a bookcase. ANYWAYS this card allows us to ensure damage is dealt for our Faeries if an opponent has flying blockers OR if we need to get a big boi like Hezrou through for damage!
  • Bury in Books: this draft common came in clutch here because it fits the stipulation but also is a cheeky piece of removal since people are going to want to come after us every chance they get.
  • Tale's End: yet another amazing fit for this deck. It's instant speed, and it allows us to counter a whole slew of things that can threaten our gameplan in commander.
  • Storyteller Pixie: It's a Faerie but I think we're running enough Adventure spells to actually make this more than just an attacker for us. Yay for utility!
  • Tales of the Ancestors: I think for a forced combat build, you actually want your opponents' hands to be full, that way they play their creatures that we then force to attack. I unfortunately didn't have enough room to really pursue the group hug avenue because of the last stipulation (more on that in a second), but I thought this was a nice li'l spell to replenish the hands of the entire table!

4. Max 16 mythics and rares (including commander)

Here is a list of all the rares and mythics in the build:

We actually ended up being one short, but I'm alright with that, call me an overachiever.

The Rest of the Deck

The rest of the list is filled with cards that protect us or punish opponents for attacking us. Classics like Cunning Rhetoric and Revenge of Ravens are the standouts. I also really love Curse of Verbosity and Curse of Disturbance to keep our opponents incentivized to look elsewhere for their attacks. Additionally, we have a few Shapeshifter/clone effects sprinkled in in order to take advantage of our opponents playing huge threats. Cards like Cryptoplasm are perfect here because they allow us to change with the flow of the game! Lastly, I'd just like to highlight what is my favorite card in this build, which is Jon Irenicus, Shattered One. An amazing commander in its own right, this card takes the 1/1s that our commander makes and makes them bigger, donates them to our opponents, and goads them forever! This will ideally accelerate our opponents' deaths, thus making it easier for us to close out the game! Thank you, Travis, for having me, and thank you so much for reading. Hope you enjoyed it and remember: every card deserves a chance to shine!

Thanks, Jordan! Hopefully Alela can goad up a victory for you! Make sure you go and check Jordan out on EDHREC and over on Youtube!

Next, we have Arnaud!


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Hey there. Arnaud here, your local specialist for silly budget brews over at EDHREC. Well, turns out that the conditions were not challenging enough last time, Travis had to step up and make our life more difficult. I initially wanted to give Gylwain, Casting Director a try, but I feared the final iteration would look too similar to what the precon already provided.Instead, I tried a different route, going with Brenard, Ginger Sculptor. This list is a silly jumble of various ideas.

First, I wanted a heavy emphasis on Golems as a whole. The commander provides a hefty buff, and it would be a shame not to try and benefit from it. Second, as Brenard makes copies of our best creatures, why not capitalize on enter-the-battlefield effects? Initially, the list also had Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines and Panharmonicon, but it was them or the token-doublers, and I ended up keeping the latter in the end: twice the effect, but also twice the bodies. In terms of Adveeeeeeeeeeenture time, I kept stuff that basically ramps, protects our stuff, or removes threats. As for the Challenging Adventure Tale of the Storybook, I really wanted to keep more, but that would have made the deck far too clunky. I still believe that Story Circle is a widely underrated gem. Can you spot the one spell that technically fits the bill yet feels like an intruder? Tactics-wise, this is fairly straightforward: either play your commander with a bunch of Splicers, or get some creatures killed to double-up on their effects. I hope you people like this approach!

Thanks, Arnaud! Perhaps Brenard can bake up a sheet of victory cookies for you! After you've voted go and check out Arnaud's latest article over on EDHREC!

With Arnaud's entry, that wraps us up for CUT #25! Make sure to go and vote for your favorite deck down below. Keep an eye out for the next CUT, as we will find out who wins CUT #25, and we will introduce three new deckbuilders, all centering their decks around Doctor Who. You don't wanna miss it! If there is someone you'd like to see on CUT, or if you or a friend would like to participate on CUT send an email to the.only.travis.stanley@gmail.com or @ me on X (Twitter) @chipman007. As always, remember, if you don't love it CUT it!