Magic The Gathering Commander Deck Brew: Hunt For Clues With Eloise, Nephalia Sleuth

This week we’re building a deck based on Eloise, Nephalia Sleuth, here’s everything you need to know.

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Previous deck: Saryth, the Viper’s Fang // Next deck: Adeline, Resplendent Cathar

One of the first cards to be introduced for Innistrad: Midnight Hunt was Consider, and it caused something of a small controversy. While the card mechanically does the exact same thing as the Surveil keyword (look at the top card of your library, either keep it on top or put it into your graveyard), Wizards of the Coast decided it fit better to not use ‘Surveil’, and instead limit the number of keywords present in each set. While hardly the biggest outrage of the year for Magic the Gathering, there were a lot of discussions about the point of keywording phrases like Surveil if they’re then not going to be used in future sets.

Despite all that, Wizards still brought Surveil to one of the Midnight Hunt Commander precon decks, thanks to an exclusive card that debuted with the precon. And it’s through this card that we’re building this week’s deck: Artifact Token Aristocrats with Eloise, Nephalia Sleuth.

Eloise, Nephalia Sleuth is a 4/4 Human Rogue that costs three generic, one blue and one black. As long as she’s out, whenever a creature token dies, you investigate (create a Clue token that can be sacrificed to draw a card). Whenever you sacrifice a token, you can surveil the top card of your library. Though seeing Surveil come back is exciting, it is that first ability we’re primarily going to be building around. Finding ways to kill and re-kill our own creatures to make as many token artifacts as we can, and then finding interesting ways to finish the board off with them is our goal.

Ramp

Despite having some of the most disruptive cards in the Commander format, Dimir (blue and black) really struggles with some of the basics, like ramp.

Primarily, our ramp is coming through mana rocks. Sol Ring and Arcane Signet aside, Talisman of Curiosity and Dimir Signet both help significantly. Lots of clue tokens potentially also mean lots of draw, and so a Thought Vessel is always a good idea.

One that fits nicely into our strategy is Burnished Hart. It sacrifices to find lands, which then also triggers Eloise to make a clue token. With the handful of ways we have in this deck to recurse our dead creatures, Burnished Hart doubles up as a useful sacrifice tool as well as repeatable ramp.

There are a few temporary mana sources worth using, as well. Ashnod’s Altar, Soldevi Adnate, Culling the Weak, and Dark Ritual can provide immediate boosts of mana, which, especially in the early game, can help immensely to speed things up. As we’ll go through later on, Ashnod’s Altar in particular is a key part of the deck, serving a few different combos that can win the game – if you’re only running one sacrifice outlet in your Eloise deck, make sure it’s Ashnod’s Altar.

Draw

Most of our card draw will be powered by Eloise’s clue tokens, but that doesn’t mean we can add a few more ways as well.

Solemn Simulacrum is a really useful tool here, as we’re going to be sacrificing creatures a lot for Eloise’s death trigger. Ramp and draw combined, finding ways to recurse it will push you ahead so much. Double it up with a Morbid Opportunist from Midnight Hunt, and you’ll be able to draw a card whenever a creature dies (but only once per turn).

Costly Plunder is an instant that lets us both sacrifice an artifact or creature (helping our Eloise engine) and draw two cards. Deadly Dispute is even better, doing the exact same while also creating a treasure token at the same time.

Though not draw, there are a few really useful ways to set up our draws to be as good as possible. One of those is Contraband Kingpin – whenever an artifact enters the battlefield under your control, you scry one (look at the top card of your library, either keep it on top or put it onto the bottom). With how many artifact tokens we’re planning to make, it’s not unreasonable to think we could effectively scry through the entire deck multiple times to find the exact piece we need next.

Put Eloise To Work

To make lots of clue tokens with Eloise, we need to make our own creatures die. To do that, we need lots of creatures to sacrifice.

Poppet Stitcher, Jadar Ghoulcaller of Nephalia, and Crowded Crypt all make 2/2 Zombies with Decayed, a keyword that means a creature can’t block, and when it attacks, it sacrifices itself at the end of the turn. You can either swing out with these (combined with a Grim Hireling for more treasure tokens) or use the sacrifice outlets we’ll go over shortly for lots and easy Eloise triggers.

There’s also Reassembling Skeleton and Gravecrawler, two creatures you can be cast directly from your graveyard. This is where our first infinite death triggers combo comes in, as a Gravecrawler combined with Rooftop Storm lets us recast Gravecrawler for free as much as we want. Add in an Ashnod’s Altar and its infinite death triggers and infinite colourless mana, which can then be used to sacrifice as many of the clue tokens as we need to draw into something that helps us win.

Next, we need ways to sacrifice the creatures we want to kill off for Eloise. The aforementioned Ashnod’s Altar is always a good choice, as is Viscera Seer to help us flick through our deck to find the exact card we want to draw next. Soldevi Adnate is also useful, although she has to tap to do it which makes her less effective.

Make More Artifact Tokens

Eloise isn’t the only way to make tokens. And why limit ourselves to just clues? Any artifact token makes this deck work, so let’s live the bourgeoisie life and make more of everything.

An absolute star of this deck is Academy Manufactor from Modern Horizons 2. A three generic 1/3 Artifact creature, whenever you make a clue, food, or treasure token, you instead make one of each. That means for every clue token we make with Eloise, or treasure from Grim Hireling, or any of the other myriad ways to make one of those tokens, we make a clue, a treasure, and a food. Academy Manufactor is such a winner for this deck that there are a few ways specifically to tutor for it, such as Trophy Mage, Whir of Invention, Kuldotha Forgemaster, and Tamiyo’s Journal.

We’re also going to run Erdwal Illuminator, to double the number of clue tokens we make the first time each turn. Throw in the aforementioned Tamiyo’s Journal (which also makes a clue token on each of your upkeep steps), Trail of Evidence, Pitiless Plunderer, Spell Swindle, and Confirm Suspicions, and we’ll be making a lot of artifact tokens every turn.

Time To Win

This deck has a lot of different ways to win.

The funniest one is by using Eloise’s death trigger with March of the Machines. March of the Machines is an enchantment that turns all artifacts into artifact creatures with power and toughness equal to their mana cost. As artifact tokens have a mana cost of zero, as soon as it becomes a creature it will die, triggering Eloise to make another clue token. That token will die, and so on and so forth… forever. Combine this infinite death loop with something like Zulaport Cutthroat, Bastion of Remembrance, Marionette Master, Syr Konrad the Grim, Disciple of the Vault, or Blood Artist, which all cause opponents to lose life whenever a creature you control dies, and you can take out the entire table in a single turn.

Alternatively, we don’t even need Eloise to win. Ashnod’s Altar or Viscera Seer, Gravecrawler, and Rooftop Storm with any of the creatures listed just above will be enough to win. Simply sacrifice Gravecrawler the Ashnod’s Altar for a death trigger, recast it for free with Rooftop Storm, and repeat until you’ve won.

If an infinite death trigger drain combo is too much for your table, Rise and Shine is another delightful card from Modern Horizons 2 that can be overloaded to turn all of your artifacts into 0/0 creatures with four +1/+1 counters on them. If you’ve gotten Eloise and Academy Manufactor to produce enough tokens, you could easily smash the board in combat with all of your tokens.

Revel in Riches is always a nice way to win, and it feels earned in an Eloise deck that normally only makes clue tokens. Focus on building up the number of treasure tokens with Academy Manufactor or Grim Hireling, then play Revel in Riches for an easy win on your upkeep.

There’s even a way to mill your opponents out, with Fleeting Memories. Set up an infinite mana combo with Ashnod’s Altar, Rooftop Storm, and Gravecrawler, and then use the infinite clue tokens with Fleeting Memories to mill an opponent out. This does run the risk of drawing yourself out first if it happens too late in the game, but if you can set it up in the early or mid-stages, it’s an entirely feasible (if janky) way of winning.

If all else fails, there is the potential for nearly infinite turns here with Time Sieve. Time Sieve is an artifact that can give you an extra turn for the price of tapping it and sacrificing five other artifacts. With a sacrifice outlet, Jadar, Erdwal Illuminator, and Academy Manufactor, you could make enough artifacts each turn to sacrifice and take another quite easily. You’d still need to find other ways to actually win, be it through combat or drawing into one of the combos, but infinite turns almost always mean a game over either way.

Powering The Deck Down

Infinite death trigger combos might be too strong for your Commander playgroup, and so there are a few ways to scale the deck back if need be.

First, take out the free sacrifice outlets like Viscera Seer and particularly Ashnod’s Altar. This lets you still use things like Gravecrawler and Reassembling Skeleton, just without the instant-speed free sacrifices that make their combos work.

Alternatively, you could take out the tutors and rely on drawing enough through Eloise to find Academy Manufactor. Remove Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, Trophy Mage, and Solve the Equation to help make the deck less consistent.

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For the full deck for Eloise, Nephalia Sleuth, check out this deck’s Moxfield page.

Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/magic-the-gathering-mtg-commander-deck-brew-eloise-nephalia-sleuth/