Galadriel, Light of Valinor Commander Deck Guide

Galadriel, Elven-Queen | Illustration by Axel Sauerwald

One of my biggest issues with popular discourse on Lord of the Rings is that people usually focus on Éowyn as the only strong female character in the trilogy. And I can understand, to a point, why that is. She stands out thanks to her storyline which focuses on her martial ability and her desire to go to war.

But Éowyn isn’t the only strong female character. Even Arwen can be argued to be considerably strong from an emotional sense, but today we’re focusing on one of Middle-earth’s most powerful characters: Galadriel.

The thing about Galadriel is that her strength isn’t quite too obvious at first. She’s not a warrior or a warlord; she’s a ruler who strives for peace. But her realm is one of the most prosperous in Middle-earth. She’s been around since pretty much the beginning of time, actually being part of the first group of elves to make it to Middle-earth. She established the kingdom of Lothlórien, successfully ruling over it throughout the three ages of the world. She even carries one of the three rings gifted to the elves by Sauron, the Dark Lord.

A great sign of what a strong character she is lies in the fact that her husband, Celeborn the Wise, is considered one of the greatest elves. But let me ask: How many of you even knew who Celeborn was? By the way, yes, he does show up in the movies, but he’s so utterly eclipsed by Galadriel’s power and importance that no one remembers him.

What I’m getting at is Galadriel’s power isn’t military or martial prowess. She’s not a warrior. She’s a ruler and her strength lies in her intelligence and emotional control. Although, in The Silmarillion, Tolkien describes her as particularly athletic and strong. Galadriel’s power lies in the ability to successfully rule her people, guiding and protecting them against Morgoth and Sauron’s onslaughts against Middle-earth.

Galadriel, Light of Valinor is a card strongly focused on building up your board and keeping it strong, as well as benefiting your hand and your mana generation. This card very cleanly represents the things that make Galadriel so powerful: prosperity in the form of mana generation, empowering her people through +1/+1 counters and showing her intelligence and cunning through scrying and drawing cards.

I know I’m very passionate about Lord of the Rings, but let’s get to the other thing I’m very passionate about: Magic and Commander.

The Deck

Galadriel of Lothlórien | Illustration by Magali Villeneuve

The Commander

Galadriel, Light of Valinor wants you to go wide. This card cares about creatures entering the battlefield consistently, ideally two or three per turn. Your commander’s alliance ability makes it so that you depend on creatures entering your battlefield by strongly rewarding you for each creature that does.

This commander’s relatively high mana value and low starting stats makes it so that you’ll need to ensure it isn’t removed right as it hits the battlefield, but if you successfully avoid that, you’re in for an explosive next turn.

This obviously takes the rest of the deck in a creature-focused direction. This is made considerably easier thanks to your commander essentially enabling seamlessly a strong elf typal strategy. Not every creature in the deck needs to be an elf, but having a substantial number of them definitely helps. Elves are known for easily getting massive boardstates, be it with low-costed creatures or tons of tokens.

The Creatures

There’s three main purposes for the creatures in this deck, though most of them cover at least two. One is mana dorks, while the others are support for elf typal and support for +1/+1 counters.

Galadriel, Light of Valinor’s three abilities are obviously good and very efficient, but the option of giving all your creatures +1/+1 counters can quickly turn your board into a big threat. This means you need some consistent support for that strategy.

Aragorn and Arwen, Wed grants an extra way to give all your creatures +1/+1 counters. Kami of Whispered Hopes increases the number of +1/+1 counters, allowing your creatures to grow exponentially while also serving as a mana source.

Master Biomancer and Arwen, Weaver of Hope place +1/+1 counters on your creatures as they enter the battlefield, which makes their effects somewhat slower but not any less important. Additionally, the number of counters they place increases based on their own stats, so having ways to make them grow ensures the creatures you play afterwards enter the battlefield bigger and bigger.

Typal Support

No typal deck works without some proper support for that type. Elves luckily have one of the most solid bases for building a typal deck, which makes it pretty easy to build.

The deck has a handful of lord cards to consistently make your elves even stronger. Canopy Tactician, Elvish Archdruid, Elvish Champion, Imperious Perfect, and some more cards all serve to help your elves grow. Galadhrim Brigade can copy itself as you cast it, allowing for extra lords. While Joraga Warcaller makes other elves grow relative to the number of +1/+1 counters it has, which obviously synergizes incredibly with the strategy of this deck and its commander.

You also have Haldir, Lórien Lieutenant as a great finisher if you’ve built up your board well enough. This card synergizes really well with your +1/+1 counters strategy, and it can use that to create an overwhelming attack force. Ezuri, Renegade Leader’s second ability can cover a similar niche, though its place in the deck focuses more around its first ability since it’ll allow you to protect your most important creatures, commander included.

Token Generators

Going wide is great with low mana value creatures, but you also need a relatively consistent source for tokens, and this deck has a handful of those. Imperious Perfect can consistently create a token per turn, which is decent enough but gets made better thanks to Galadriel, Light of Valinor’s ability.

Wolverine Riders also helps to dish out tokens while its lifegain ability serves as a way to keep your life total high. Lys Alana Huntmaster and Elvish Warmaster are also great sources for elf tokens, helping fill up your battlefield considerably quickly.

Elvish Promenade can make your boardstate overwhelming really quickly. Additionally, Galadhrim Ambush and Elven Ambush not only serve as token generators, but they’re also ambushes you can use to surprise your opponents if they decide to attack you.

Arboreal Alliance not only gets what could become a considerably strong token, but it also gives you a way to populate, either to copy that token or any other tokens you control.

Additional Utilities

Eternal Witness may not be an elf, but having a way to return cards from your graveyard is always a great functionality to have in your deck. Similarly, Coiling Oracle and Reclamation Sage are great to have in your deck.

Rumor Gatherer also adds some utility while synergizing well with the purpose of getting tons of creatures into the field each turn.

Ephemerate, Ghostly Flicker, and Teleportation Circle all work great with the various ETB triggers this deck has, and the instants serve as ways to protect your creatures.

Sweepers

Cyclonic Rift and Raise the Palisade are the only two mass removal spells in this deck. You can always replace them for more traditional options like Wrath of God but I opted for these since they enable some finisher moves by allowing you to overpower your opponents.

The Mana Base

The deck only has 28 lands, which is definitely a bit under what the usual EDH deck should have, but it makes up for it by having a considerable number of mana dorks and rocks. Of 35 creatures, there’s 15 that are either mana dorks or allow you to fetch lands. And this isn’t counting Gala Greeters’s ability to create Treasures or Galadriel, Light of Valinor’s own ability to generate 3 green mana.

This pairs up with ramp spells like Cultivate, Farseek, or Rampant Growth to fetch lands, mana rocks like Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, and a few others.

It’s worth noting that there are only a handful of basic lands in this deck. Since most elves only generate green mana, I opted to include mostly dual lands to avoid getting mana screwed.

The Strategy

The main strategy for this deck is basically an elf typal. You want good synergies and tons of elves swarming the battlefield to put pressure on your opponents. Since your commander has an alliance ability, the deck’s strategy is also built to accommodate around the three options this card brings to the table. +1/+1 counters are a big focus, making that already overwhelming field-state even stronger and bigger.

There’s also a considerably present focus on cards that either have ETB effects or effects that trigger when other creatures enter the battlefield. This is also to support the commander’s abilities, while trying not to depend too much on it for the deck to work.

Other than that, this is a deck mostly based on creatures. There are also some counterspells and removal to maintain some interaction with your opponents.

Combos and Interactions

While this deck definitely aims at having some strong synergies that allow for explosive and powerful turns, it ultimately doesn’t rely on combos.

There are some fun interactions like Rishkar, Peema Renegade basically turning all your creatures into mana dorks thanks to Galadriel, Light of Valinor’s +1/+1 counters. This focus on counters also makes cards like Haldir, Lórien Lieutenant and Joraga Warcaller much better than they already could’ve been.

Rule 0 Violations Check

Rule 0 varies greatly depending on how your playgroup works, so what most groups won’t consider a groan-worthy card, others may have banned. There’s groups out there who have things like Sol Ring banned, after all.

That said, this deck doesn’t have any infinite combos, prison effects, or anything that significantly slows play. Some may groan at the sight of Cyclonic Rift and with good reason, but this card is ultimately meant to serve as a game ending card, or at the very least a card that throws you into a winning stretch in the following turns.

There’s a pretty solid argument in favor of adding Craterhoof Behemoth to the deck as a way to finish the game with a brutal hit. I don’t personally love cards like it, so I opted to keep it out, but if you replace something for it, keep in mind it may end up stirring some trouble in certain playgroups.

Budget Options

A few of the most expensive cards in the deck, like Cyclonic Rift, Galadriel's Dismissal, or Raise the Palisade can ultimately be replaced by other wrath effects that may be a bit less expensive.

Things like Aragorn and Arwen, Wed or Arwen, Weaver of Hope can be somewhat hard to properly replace. If the need arises, I’d advise in favor of opting for anything that either supports elf typal or a +1/+1 counters strategy.

When it comes to lands, you can always opt for cheaper dual lands like tap lands and guildgates, or just plain old basic lands. Basic lands are honestly better than we give them credit for.

In the case of expensive mana dorks and mana rocks, I’d say you should either replace them with other mana dorks or rocks, or just lands. Since the mana base in this decks strongly depends on mana dorks, replacing them with other creatures most likely ends up having huge issues with your mana.

Other Builds

Galadriel, Light of Valinor is a commander that ultimately needs to be built while always keeping it in mind. Any alternative builds for this deck should probably still focus on ETB effects and triggers, as well as putting focus on either +1/+1 counters or maybe even a scry-heavy strategy.

Basically anything that gives strong support for this commander’s alliance ability should work relatively well.

Commanding Conclusion

Canopy Tactician | Illustration by Ekaterina Burmak

I’d say that Bant is one of my least favorite mana identities, but even with that, I really like Galadriel, Light of Valinor. It’s a great representation of Galadriel’s character, properly depicting her strengths, and it actually allows for a deck that very much feels like placing her at the head of Lothlórien and its people. I tried building this deck partly with that in mind, as flavorful decks are some of my favorite.

But enough about what I think. How would you build a Galadriel, Light of Valinor deck? Would you have included any cards I chose to leave out? What other commanders do you want to see us build? Leave a comment letting us know! And while you’re here, make sure to pay our Discord server a visit. There you’ll find an amazing community of MTG fans to share your hobby with!

That’s all from me for now. Have a good one, and I’ll see you next time!