Hidden Gems for Ashling, the Limitless
Among a slew of new commanders,
The Dance of the Elements precon deck has plenty of good utility from the go, but here are my five choices for cards you might have overlooked or underappreciated and might want to consider in your Ashling Commander deck.
#1. Tornado Elemental
Creatures, in general, have gotten better since Tornado Elemental’s original printing in
Your deck needs to address fliers one way or another and Tornado Elemental can be a nice silver bullet against players who want to soar over your defenses. When you evoke it, the card will deal six damage to all fliers and be sacrificed. Then Ashling will make a token copy, doing another six damage. There shouldn’t be too many fliers that will survive that.
As icing on this windy cake, you can attack and guarantee six damage to an opponent. That’s not too shabby for four mana.
| Tornado Elemental | ||
| Tornado Elemental |
#2. Cloud Key
Cost reductions like Cloud Key apply to evoke costs because you are still casting the spell. Choose “creature” with Cloud Key and your Elementals can now be evoked for three mana. You can stack cost reductions with other cards like
If your cost reduction reaches four, evoking becomes free and you will have successfully transcended to another plane of existence (Lorwyn).
| Cloud Key | ||
| Cloud Key | ||
| Cloud Key (Schematic) |
#3. Ephemerate
If you want to bypass the sacrifice trigger and keep your Elemental around permanently, flicker it away before the sacrifice happens. This can be done with a lot of instants, but few are as cheap as Ephemerate (in mana cost and on the black market).
For the uninitiated, you evoke an Elemental for four mana with Ashling. The creature enters and triggers any abilities it has, including sacrificing it. Before the sacrifice resolves, you have a chance to activate abilities and cast instants. Use Ephemerate to exile the Elemental. It will leave the battlefield and re-enter, but the game rules see the card as a different object than the one it’s telling you to sacrifice and you no longer have to. Viola! Magic.
| Ephemerate | ||
| Ephemerate (Borderless) | ||
| Ephemerate | ||
| Ephemerate |
#4. Dictate of Erebos
You don’t want to be the only one sacrificing creatures. That’s not fair. Not in this economy. May as well force all your friends to sacrifice their precious underlings every time you have to.
I would have suggested the more classic
But if you’re not flickering your Elementals (or other shenanigans, like ending the turn early to avoid the sacrifice), then use your sacrifice as an advantage. Thanks, Erebos!
| Dictate of Erebos | ||
| Dictate of Erebos | ||
| Ellie's Rage - Dictate of Erebos |
#5. Mirror of the Forebears
Depending on which Elementals you choose to put in your deck, Mirror of the Forebears can slot in nicely for some extra tricks. It’s nice to have a select number of colorless cards in a five-color deck to help your game run smoothly. This artifact comes down early, can turn into some big evoked Elementals for a turn, and then go back to being shiny and reflective for the next turn, all for the price of one generic mana.
Give it a go and report back on how nasty this toy can be.
| Mirror of the Forebears |
That’s all for this edition of Hidden Gems. And don’t forget to check out our Premium membership for more entertainment and Magic market insights!
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Adam Berg
Adam started playing Magic on his 14th birthday, when Judgment just released and the game's first Gorgon was born (It's a girl!). Since then, he's delved deep into Commander, written for television and film, and learned how to drive. He's published two YA Fantasy novels, Rainbringer and The Broken Pantheon. His favorite card is Repay In Kind, which is really all you need to know.