It’s no secret among my playgroup that I generally steer away from white and green unless I have a good reason to play them. However I recently built and piloted a deck featuring both of those colors! Welcome back to the Commander Corner, and I’m finally escaping my comfort zone.

Yes, I am generally fond of combo decks and various storm strategies. Which makes it all the more interesting that today’s deck is green, white, creature-focused, and almost devoid of combo potential. That’s right! Today, we’re covering…



Looking through my collection I came across some preconstructed decks I hadn’t yet sleeved, and one of those featured Leinore. I had already seen Katilda, Dawnheart Prime and Selvala, Explorer Returned earlier that day, and I had set out to build Selvala as a more combo-focused deck. That’s where things got interesting.

I realized I didn’t have a lot of the extra untap cards which allowed Selvala, Explorer Returned to really pop off. Without the combo potential I lost interest. Then, I decided the mana production of Katilda, Dawnheart Prime seemed like a nice way to go off without having to constantly untap my commander. The only problem with Katilda was card draw.

It’s what ultimately brought me to Leinore, Autumn Sovereign. I get card draw, some interesting synergies with +1/+1 counters, and a list of creatures that weren’t that different from what Katilda already asked of me. However, I still had more room for freedom in deckbuilding than either of the other decks allowed, and that was refreshing.



Hate-Bears & Protection

The crux of this deck is playing creatures that can beat down your opponents while also disrupting their plans on some level. Leinore allows you to draw cards pretty consistently if you have the requisite creature count, and the +1/+1 counter ability means that you’ll also have some neat synergies with cards that are otherwise a bit meek at certain commander tables.

The previously mentioned Collector Ouphe is only the tip of the iceberg, as creatures like Drannith Magistrate, Sungold Sentinel, Aven Mindcensor, and more create roadblocks or additional complications for your opponents while also supporting your gameplan of attacking and drawing extra cards.

Just as well, having additional protection in the creature category from cards like Mother of Runes, Sigarda, Heron’s Grace, Shalai, Voice of Plenty, and Giver of Runes goes a low way towards keeping your card advantage and aggressiveness consistent.



Spells & Removal

Admittedly, my build of this deck is rather light on interaction that isn’t based around creatures. There’s nearly fifty creatures in this deck, which means you’re struggling to make room for noncreature spells without cutting the much-needed creatures that advance your gameplan.

Fear not, as there’s some decent options in the creature slot to shore this up at least a little bit. Outland Liberator, Haywire Mite, and Bounty Agent all do a reasonable job of interacting with problematic permanents. There’s plenty of other creatures with comparably useful abilities that I didn’t run as well, so consider combing through Gatherer or EDHREC at your leisure.

When it comes to noncreature spells, everything has a very specific purpose. There’s generally three focuses: Flexibility, protection, and advantage. If a card doesn’t have at least one of these going for it, it’s probably not making the cut. Felidar Retreat, for instance, creates creatures or pumps my entire team, both of which work just fine with my commander. Grand Crescendo makes me a small army at instant-speed, but can also protect my board for as little as two-mana if necessary.

Just as well, I happened to have Flawless Maneuver, Force of Vigor, and Alhammarret’s Archive laying around, so I slotted those in as well. One standout card is Curse of Clinging Webs, which doubles as a consolation prize after boardwipes if you’ve enchanted yourself. It randomly hoses graveyard-based decks like Meren of Clan Nel Toth.



The Deck

I spent perhaps two days building the initial deck and some additional time cutting and replacing cards after a few games with this one, so it may be a bit more rough-hewn compared to other lists I’ve made. That said, I’m very happy with the results I’ve seen and the play patterns this deck creates. I hope you enjoy this list.

Commander

Leinore, Autumn Sovereign

Creature – 46

Instant – 6

Sorcery – 2

Artifact – 6

Enchantment – 4

Land – 35

Synergies & Power Plays

You may have noticed that Katilda, Dawnheart Prime and Selvala, Explorer Returned both make appearances in the deck despite being rejected commanders during my deckbuilding process. Ultimately, I think they both perform quite well. Selvala is a nice value group-hug creature which breaks parity by creating mana. Katilda has a massive twenty-four human creatures in the deck to support her mana production and mass-pump ability.

Duelist’s Heritage, in addition to making your own attacks more potent, provides a pathway for political leverage on opposing turns with any creature which really wants to hit players. For instance, I enabled an opposing Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow to get double strike, and by extension double triggers, in order to have a better shot at taking out a player we were both struggling against. Orzhov Advokist fulfills similar roles within the deck.

Seasoned Dungeoneer takes and retakes the initiative with great efficiency, but also enables attacks the first turn it comes down with another twelve creatures that satisfy its party-themed attack trigger. As you can imagine, this only gets sweeter with cards like the aforementioned Duelist’s Heritage.

Leinore, Autumn Sovereign herself, alongside Luminarch Aspirant, work exceedingly well with creatures like Mikaeus, the Lunarch, Heronblade Elite, Champion of Lambholt, Sanctifier en-Vec, Seasoned Dungeoneer, Garruk’s Harbinger, and Gyre Sage. Just as well, you might run into the issue of having lots of mana with few cards to cast. Don’t worry, as I’ve included a handful of mana sinks to help out, including Katilda, Dawnheart Prime, Shalai, Voice of Plenty, Mirror Entity, and a handful of others.

It might be surprising to see no boardwipes and so few noncreature spells in a deck I made myself, but I still really enjoy this deck. Stick to your strengths if you play this deck. That is to say, play creatures and smash opponents. I hope you’ve enjoyed the deck tech as much as I’ve enjoyed playing the deck. Until next time, I’ve been Luka “Robot” Sharaska, and this has been the Commander Corner.

[Luka V. Sharaska (they/them) earned the nickname “Robot” by having a monotone voice, a talent for calculating odds, and a perfect poker face. Robot has been playing Magic for more than a decade, starting during the days of New Phyrexia in 2011.]

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