Alela, Artful Provocateur

The Legendary Esper Faerie Warlock from the Throne of Eldraine Brawl decks has been the most difficult to balance out of the four. With multiple keywords and abilities which lean towards certain themes and strategies, it’s a lot to focus on just one.

The main theme of this decklist leans towards the artifact value strategy which provides mana rocks for ramp and utility artifacts with multiple support creatures. There are so many other alternative theme options and support cards that can be played and I’ll be listing off several of them below. We’ll go through the decklist first and take a look at some useful cards.

Synergies

Alela’s effect technically synergizes with all the artifacts and enchantments you cast but I want to point out a few in particular.

Grand Architect: A mana generator that can only be used for artifacts but is also a blue creature anthem. While the ability to generate this 2 mana for artifact spells and abilities by tapping a blue creature is a bit limiting it just so happens that the faerie tokens Alela makes are blue. An extensive amount of mana that can come in quite handy to chain off multiple artifact spells and abilities at once.

Trading Post: An astoundingly useful card that shows it’s value in full with this deck. Casting it can generate you a token which can be sacrificed to recover an artifact to cast and generate a token. A constant stream of value and utility with tokens, recursion, draw, and life gain if need be.

Cranial Plating: How is it that a common equipment is so devastating? Oh right, Mirrodin block is insane that’s how. With even just a few artifacts this equipment gives a huge power boost. Your stock of treasure tokens from Smothering Tithe, all your mana rocks, all equipment you may have, it’s a devastating hit that can be done. The instant speed attach ability makes it extra threatening as just one faerie coming through could suddenly gain a ton of power. A very effective and suitable equipment in this deck and with Alela it’s a nice touch of lifegain and Commander Damage.

Theme Options

Alela instantly splits herself on multiple themes just reading her card but I had to decide on one so I went artifacts. With her abilities, the themes that stand our besides artifacts are enchantments, flyers, tokens, faeries, or just Esper value/combos. Even then there are so many packages and ways to build those themes that I couldn’t begin to start. May as well give it a try though so take a look at some of the themes and categories below.

Combos

While these combos were not added to the deck I did add them to the theme options so I may as well go over them.

Nim Deathmantle + Ashnods’s Altar: Any creature that enters the battlefield and generates 2 extra bodies can create go infinite with this. You can create infinite death triggers, enter the battlefield triggers, tokens, and colourless mana. Grave Titan is the main example but Myr Battlesphere works too and can work with Phyrexian Altar.

Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter: It might be redundant to explaining the Dramatic Scepter combo but I’ll do it anyway. With other mana rocks generating at least 3 mana it gives you infinite mana and untaps of your nonland permanents. This also creates infinite cast triggers in case you wanted to play Aetherflux Reservoir, Tendrils of Agony or any other Storm cards.

Grindstone + Painter’s Servant: Again redundant but I’ll explain Painted Stone. Grindstone mills 2 cards from target opponents library and if they share a colour repeat the process. Since Painter’s Servant makes all cards one colour it triggers this repetition until your opponent is milled out. It’s a bit difficult if there is a shuffle effect from an Eldrazi Lord like Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and it only hits one opponent at a time but it’s a low-cost colourless combo.

Sun Titan + Angelic Renewal: Infinite sacrifice fodder combo just add your preferred sacrifice outlet. Sacrificing Sun Titan triggers Angelic Renewal which you sacrifice to bring back Sun Titan which brings back Angelic Renewal.

Palinchron + Deadeye Navigator: Untaping seven land with Palinchron’s enter the battlefield effect and then blinking it for 2 mana typically nets you 5 mana The alternative is using Phantasmal Image as it only takes six mana to copy Palinchron and bounce it which should net 1 mana each instance. As long as you net mana you repeat and go infinite whether it’s 1 mana or 5 mana.

Sharuum the Hegemon + Phyrexian Metamorph: Another infinite combo for enter the battlefield and die triggers. Phyrexian Metamorph copies Sharuum which goes to the graveyard due to the Legendary rule. As a copy of Sharuum, Phyrexian Metamorph’s enter the battlefield trigger can bring back Sharuum and then you put Phyrexian Metamorph into the graveyard as it’s a copy of Sharuum. Repeating this process back and forth as much as you’d like. Usually seen in tandem with effects like Blood Artist, Auriok Champion, and Altar of the Brood. Sharuum is a great card that can start this chain even if Phyrexian Metamorph is in the graveyard.

Krark-Clan Ironworks + Junk Diver: You actually need two Junk Diver effects like Myr Retriever or Workshop Assistant and enough discount effects to do this. There are several roundabout ways to do this as well but you can create infinite mana and artifact casting chain. Alela or Sai would be perfectly happy with all those cast triggers as well.

Summary

Well that was a bit long for combos and there are a good number of cards to go over in the other themes but I have to stop rambling at some point. My favorite Commanders are the ones with multiple variation possibilities and Alela is definitely one of those. With some Commanders, you can assume the way they were built immediately but even with multiple Alela’s in a game, there is a good chance that they are built quite differently.

Have you given this deck a try yet? Let me know if there was a particular theme you picked. I especially wonder about the balance for this deck. While Alela can be a lot of value I’ve found several decks to be either heavily reliant on her or not use her at all which questions why to use it over other Esper Commanders. Regardless this is a flexible and versatile deck which is great for players like myself who want more of a challenge in deckbuilding and balancing. Give it a try and leave a comment of what you think is the best theme or what you’ve built.