Alela, Cunning Conqueror Commander Deck Guide

Alela, Cunning Conqueror | Illustration by Livia Prima

Faeries was a very feared creature type that’s been left behind in the last decade, particularly as MTG’s power level went up. With the release of the Fae Dominion Commander precon in Wilds of Eldraine, faeries got new toys to play with. Alela, Cunning Conqueror quickly rose to ’s tier 1-1.5, and now it's the time to bring the powerful faeries to EDH in style, led by a mighty Dimir commander.

Here’s a decklist that combines 2008’s faerie power with some powerful new toys. Is Alela a faerie game-changer? Is it at least fun to play?

Let’s find out.  

The Deck

Scion of Oona | Illustration by Eric Fortune

This Alela, Cunning Conqueror deck is a mix of a faerie typal/tokens and “play spells on your opponents’ turns” deck. Your commander Alela, Cunning Conqueror gives you a 1/1 faerie rogue token with flying whenever you cast the first spell on their turns. You have the potential of making a lot of pesky, annoying, evasive tokens, and here’s how you're going to put this to good use.

There’s a good number of cards that incentivize you to have many faerie tokens, from Scion of Oona (faerie typal), to Anowon, the Ruin Thief (rogues), and Skullclamp (card draw).

The Commander: Alela, Cunning Conqueror

Alela, Cunning Conqueror is one of the top 10 Dimir commanders according to EDHRec, and the #1 faerie typal commander.  With over 6000 decklists posted online, this card is a very interesting and powerful commander. It’s also one of the Fae Dominion EDH precon main legends.

This card is a 2/4 flying faerie warlock (now officially an outlaw!) that has two main abilities. First, whenever one of your faeries deals damage to a player, you’ll goad one of their creatures. You can only goad one target creature per opponent in an attack, but you can attack all your opponents with separate faeries for maximum goad potential.

For that, you need many faeries, and that’s where the second ability comes in. Each time you cast a spell on your opponent’s turn, you’ll create a flying Faerie Rogue token. This spell can be a simple cantrip like an Opt, a permanent with flash, or even a counterspell for an opponent’s key spell.

Faerie Typal

Ever since the original Lorwyn block in 2008, there have been strong incentives to build faerie typal decks in all sorts of formats, including Modern and Pauper. Let’s see some worthy inclusions:

• Scion of Oona is exactly what you want in a deck like this. It’s a faerie lord that has flash and gives shroud to other faeries, including your commander.
• Tegwyll, Duke of Splendor gives you cards when your faeries die.
• Obyra, Dreaming Duelist is also a flash faerie that can deal a nice amount of damage to your opponents if you’re pumping faeries (hi Oona, Queen of the Fae).
• Mistbind Clique only requires you to champion a single token, and when it ETBs, it can time walk an opponent, as long as they haven’t cast any spells yet. The card excels in 1v1 games, but it has its uses in Commander, too.
• Nettling Nuisance gives the player hit by your faeries a goaded 4/2 creature.
• Spells like Spell Stutter, Spellstutter Sprite, and Faerie Fencing scale based on the number of faeries you control.
• Glen Elendra Liege isn’t a faerie lord, but it gives between +1/+1 and +2/+2 to your faeries. It’s extra useful in this deck, as your commander makes multicolored tokens.

Rogue Matters

The faerie tokens Alela creates are also rogues, so there’s a little incentive to run rogue-matters cards. The main one is Anowon, the Ruin Thief, a card that not only buffs your tokens, but you can mill your opponents and sometimes draw cards. Oona's Blackguard makes your rogue creatures ETB with +1/+1 counters and make them discard cards.

Saboteur Matters

Besides surviving, your main objective is to deal damage to your opponents with faeries so that you can goad their best creatures and force them to attack someone else. It feels good when you know that the 9/9 green creature with trample your opponent has won’t go your way. When you play cards like Bident of Thassa and Kindred Discovery, you’re drawing cards off your attacks.

Cards with the prowl mechanic like Notorious Throng and Anowon, the Ruin Thief incentivize you to hit with rogues. You also have Feywild Visitor as a good saboteur card. Changeling Outcast is awesome here: since this shapeshifter has changeling, it’s both a faerie and rogue. It's also unblockable, and small enough for opponents to ignore it.

Flash Matters

To keep pumping faeries, you’re going to need many instants or permanents with flash. There are more than 20 cards in this deck that can be cast during your opponents’ turns. You also have cards that can bounce faeries to your hands like Stolen by the Fae, Quickling, or Wydwen, the Biting Gale. Brazen Borrower fits this bill perfectly by being two spells in one card. Finally, cards like Siphon Insight and Mystical Teachings can get more spells, turning excess mana into card advantage.

Tokens and Token Producers

You can produce a real faerie air force to keep attacking your opponents. Besides your commander, Notorious Throng, Oona, Queen of the Fae, Bitterblossom, and Faerie Slumber Party all generate tokens. These tokens can be used to attack, sacrificed to Skullclamp, or be buffed by your lords.

The Mana Base

For dual lands, the usual advice is to play whatever blue and black lands you have. This deck plays around 34 lands, so some 15-20 duals gives you a working mana base. Dimir doesn’t have natural mana dorks, so you’ll have to play some mana rocks. The typical blue and black mana rocks are here: Dimir Signet, Arcane Signet, and Talisman of Dominance.

You also have creature lands that turn into faeries: Mutavault and Faerie Conclave. Secluded Glen is a perfect dual land in a faerie deck, allowing you to play it untapped many times.

Interaction and Sweepers

You’re playing a flash tempo deck, so interaction is a strong aspect of this deck. You’re playing counterspells and removal that can also make a 1/1 flier, so this deck is excellent at ambushing in combat. But probably the main interaction you have is to goad good enemy threats.

On the sweeper aspect, you’re not playing board wipes much since you want to establish board presence and a token army. There are some tools to mess with your opponent’s board like Aetherize, Faerie Slumber Party, and Tegwyll's Scouring.

The Strategy

The main strategy with this deck isn’t to die. And hold your cards until there’s a big advantage to play them. If you have your commander out, any counterspell or cantrip you play gives you a token to attack them later, but that doesn’t mean you have to play them at the first opportunity. If someone lays down a big creature, hit them with a small token.

The best aspect of playing a flash deck is to surprise players when they don’t expect it. For example, if you spend 5 mana to play a 2/2 and a 3/1 with flash on your opponent’s end steps, producing two 1/1 tokens along the way, you can crack back at someone for at least 7 damage, plus your commander and whatever buffs you have. Then you play something like a Bident of Thassa and draw a bunch of cards.

Combos and Interactions

If you have mana to spare, cards like Siphon Insight and Mystical Teachings can ensure you have enough spells to play at your opponents’ turns.

Cards like Unwind and Frantic Search are there just because they do something interesting and untap your mana to play another spell later if you want to.

Flash permanents like Misleading Signpost and Instruments of War can really mess up a combat, either buffing your creatures or redirecting theirs.

Rule 0 Violations Check

This deck passes any Rule 0 conversation. It’s somewhat annoying to play against the tempo deck with lots of interactions, that’s all. You’re not even playing tutors or combo pieces in this budget build.

Budget Options

This deck’s budget is already in the $150-200 range, but you can still replace the most expensive cards.

• Faerie Mastermind is an expensive card that does so much. You can replace it with Notion Thief, which isn’t a faerie, but it has flash and draws you some cards.
• Mistbind Clique can be replaced with Rankle, Master of Pranks.
• Bitterblossom can be replaced with Archmage of Echoes.
• Mutavault can be replaced with any land you like.

None of these replacements are perfect; we’re just trying to play cheaper cards. Other cheap faerie suggestions are Halo Forager, Cloud of Faeries, Dream Spoilers, and Barrow Naughty.

More Expensive Options

Cards like Orcish Bowmasters are good options if you want to boost card quality. The mana base can get a lot better with the addition of Polluted Delta, Underground Sea, Morphic Pool, and other expensive dual lands. Vampiric Tutor, Mana Drain, and Cryptic Command are nice options to improve the quality of the instant spells you’re running.

Other incredible and expensive options are Roaming Throne to double your faerie triggers and eternal blue EDH staple Cyclonic Rift. Better mana rocks like Mana Crypt can be used, too. Finally, there’s cards like Deadly Rollick and Fierce Guardianship that can be excellent options for a removal spell and a counterspell.

Other Builds

Another possibility to build this deck is to go fully saboteur and fill the deck with rogues. You’ll lose some of the flash/tricky aspects, but you can build a deck that’s more similar to how rogues play in Pioneer. You can then have a mill aspect to strengthen your rogues and more incentives to deal damage with them.

Blue-black naturally can combo off well with cards like Vampiric Tutor and Thassa's Oracle, but may change the commander as well if going for that route. Finally, there’s a great potential to explore flying-matter synergies with this commander.

Commanding Conclusion

Stolen by the Fae | Illustration by Alexander Lee

Alela, Cunning Conqueror’s decks tend to be very similar because there’re not that many good faerie cards with flash out there. It’s fun to play with flash cards since your opponents won’t trust what you’re doing, and messing with you can be a losing proposition. There’s a great joy in making enemies fight each other thanks to the goad mechanic, which is something I’ve always found amusing in decks like Marisi, Breaker of the Coil. Give this deck a try, will you (or modify it to something akin to your tastes, of course).

What do you think about this deck? Are you used to playing decks like rogues and faeries? Let me know in the comments section below, or over at the Draftsim Discord.

Thanks for reading and keep flashing cards on your opponents’ end steps.