Alela Artful Provocateur has become one of my new favourite commanders for Magic The Gathering. It’s very versatile and it spits out faerie tokens whenever you cast enchantments and artifacts. Their main abilities is already a threat as it has flying, deathtouch, and lifelink. Your other flying creatures get +1/+0 which encourages you to create a flying army. So after tinkering around and seeing what this deck could do when playing with friends in not only EDH but also in standard (thanks MTG Arena), I think I found a way to make the most use of this commander, as well as increasing your chances to win.

So here is my current decklist for one of my favourite and versatile commanders in EDH Commander.

PS: We are not affiliated to the game store in which the cards are linked. I just love shopping there and have some of the cards on sale/pre-order. I just want to support the store.

Decklist

A lot of the cards found in this Alela Artful Provocateur aren’t really faeries but some cards do spit them out. One of the things you may notice is that there are no basic lands. That is intentional and I will explain more on why I did that later. Lastly, all of the creatures have a flying ability. Whether they may be faeries or other creature types, it is crucial that they fly without any assistance.

Alela Artful Provocateur Win Cons

Alela has 4 possible win-cons, depending on if you want to end the game or not. Some take time to have it ready while others, it will be quick. But nevertheless, having many win conditions in a deck is useful and will help guarantee you victory.

Win-Con 1: Welcome to Hogwarts

One of my favorite cards to come out of Strixhaven is Strixhaven Stadium. This card encourages you to cause some damage to your opponent in order to take them out of the game. Also, it gives you colorless mana so it does help with casting spells.

One of the best ways to deal combat damage is to have creatures that fly because other creatures can’t block them unless they also have flying or the ‘reach’ ability. And with Alela, we have cards that help spit out more flying attackers.

For starters, cards like Bitterblossom and Stolen By The Fae help spit out faeries. Tezzeret, Artifice Master and Serra the Benelovent also have abilities to bring out other flying creatures as well like Angels and Colourless Thopthers, allowing you to summon armies of flying creatures.

Meanwhile, cards like Dramatic Finale allows you to replace destroyed flying creatures with flying inklings which is really cool. It does somewhat remind me of that one Doctor Who episode where Missy created an army of cybermen with the dead. The reason why we have flying creatures is because of one of Alela’s abilities that allows creatures with flying to gain +1/+0.

Also, Alela has the ability to also create faerie tokens once you cast Enchantments and Artifacts. So if you see the deck list, we have a total of 28 Enchantments and Artifacts, giving you multiple chances to summon faeries. Notable creatures are Jhoira’s Familiar, Starnheim Courser, As Foretold, and Foundry Inspector as they help lower the cost of enchantments and/or artifacts, making it easier to summon faeries.

Win-Con 2: Dark Magic

Do you guys watch Winx Club?

In the show, fairies and witches casts spells. There is a win-con combo that I learned from a Puffin Forest video. It’s a lock that constantly drains the life of a target opponent. Just note, this win condition takes a lot of mana to pull off. In fact, you need a total of 10 mana, 3 of them needs to be black.

The win combo is Exquisite Blood and Sanguine Bond.

The win-con is a lock, unless you have a spell that breaks enchantments. Basically, once these two cards are out, I need to attack the opponent and from there, I constantly gain life while my opponent looses life in a loop. From there, you win.

But like all powerful spells, it cost a lot to cast both of them.

Win-Con 3: You are a pirate

This next win con is slightly simple. You just need to summon treasure tokens.

The first card you need out is Revel in Riches. With this card, whenever you kill your opponents’ creatures, you get a treasure token. And once you have 10, you win on your next upkeep. But you want to spit out more treasure tokens. Spell Swindle is a useful counterspell that summons treasure tokens. All you to need to do is counter a spell with a high CMC (Converted Mana Cost) and you’re set.

Win-Con 4: Easy Street

As mentioned earlier, there are no basic lands in this deck. And that’s because it’s a set up for the most powerful win con ever. It’s so powerful that even my friends warned me about it, Wizards of the Coast banned it in Modern, and it’s easy to pull off.

I’m talking about the Thassa’s Oracle and Tainted Pact combo.

The set up is simple. You need 4 mana on the field. Next, use tutor cards such as ‘Solve the Equation‘ and ‘Demonic Tutor‘.

Once you have both cards on hand, make sure you have some counterspells on you just in case someone tries to counter it.

You first cast Thassa’s Oracle. Then while that’s on the stack and no one counters it, put down Tainted Pact. From there, exile your library (unless it’s countered) and you win.

That’s it, quick and simple.

Upgrades

Here are some other cards to consider when upgrading this deck to make it more effective.

Starnheim Unleashed is the first to consider as it allows you to spit out multiple angel warrior tokens if foretold. Another is Expedition Map as it allows you to get some lands to your hand and get you some free faeries if Alela is out.

And lastly, some upgrades for the upcoming Modern Horizons 2 drop.

Skyblade’s Boon is the first to consider as it’s an enchantment that you can bring back from the graveyard to the battlefield. Nettlecyst is another card worth considering as well as it’s basically an artifact version of ‘All that glitters‘. And lastly Soul Snare is a good removal card and a reprint worth considering.

And this is now my new main commander deck when playing Magic The Gathering. I will admit, this deck is weak against certain and high powered decks but it does the job. All I needed to do is increase my odds of winning. Let me know what you guys think in the comments bellow.