Five Color Elementals with Modern Horizons 2
We are close to a week after the Modern Horizons 2 release which has wrapped up to be a fantastic set. MH2 has unique cards for every format other than Standard. I wanted to make another commander deck that is highly influenced by MH2. I really loved the Mythic Elemental theme within MH2, and wanted to incorporate that into a Commander deck. Back in 2019 I was playing a few copies of Cavalier of Gales in an Esper Planeswalker control deck that fared pretty well. However, I did not have much of a chance to play any of the other Elemental Cavalier's up until now.
I decided to make the deck 5 colors to be able to incorporate pretty much any cool, mythic, or powerful Elemental into the deck. This is taxing on the mana base because we have quite a few cards with double, and even triple single color mana costs. Be aware that this made it into a very expensive mana base. You can get by with a less expensive mana base, but it would drastically slow the deck down. You can play gates, the new indestructible artifact lands, or the come into play tapped gain 1 life lands.
I chose Horde of Notions as my commander because, well it just doesn’t see a ton of play. I remember it back in the Lorwyn / Morningtide era where casual players would try and make an elemental deck work in standard. At that time Commander was around but it hadn’t really fully taken off yet. I also had the opportunity of being able to draft Horde of Notions during the Top 8 draft of a Super Sunday Series. This was way back in 2015 at Grand Prix Las Vegas. Oh do I miss the large magic events, they were always such a great time. Bring back Magic the Gathering Grand Prix's!
Horde of Notions is slightly powerful on its own with Trample, Vigilance, and Haste. However, the real power is in the activated ability of being able to play Elementals out of your graveyard. One thing that elementals are known for is having the Evoke ability. This pairs well with being able to play your Elementals cheaper for a triggered ability, and then having them in your graveyard later for reanimating with Horde of Notions. There are a ton of different synergies within the elemental tribe, such as searching for lands, making lands creatures, and entering the battlefield triggered abilities. Due to this I randomly had to throw in Venser, the Sojourner.
During Construction I went for most of the Elementals within Magic 2020. So the deck is sporting: Cavalier of Dawn, Cavalier of Flame, Cavalier of Gales, Cavalier of Night, and Cavalier of Thorns, Risen Reef, Yarok, the Desecrated, Leafkin Druid, Creeping Trailblazer, Chandra's Embercat, and Omnath, Locus of the Roil.
I also am running all of the mythic rare Elementals found in Modern Horizons 2. The most noteworthy card that surprised me in MH2 is Foundation Breaker. We also have to pay homage to the original elementals so the deck is running most of the Flamekin. Although there are many powerful Elementals, I think the most powerful in the deck are: Nyxbloom Ancient, Bane of Progress, and Maelstrom Wanderer.
Mana acceleration is pretty much given consideration on any deck I build. This deck actually isn't running any ramp spells via instants and or sorceries. We do have several elemental ramp creatures that act like elves, and there are also several artifact mana rocks. Something most Elemental decks are themed around is Landfall triggers, and being able to search up more lands per turn. This deck can do that, but it was not the main focus of the deck. I went for more Elemental creatures in general. I was less focused on the Landfall mechanic itself, and more focused on triggered abilities of the creatures.
We also need to have some tutors and card draw to make this deck versatile and competitive. I decided to run Demonic Tutor and Worldly Tutor as my search spells. I also wanted to add some raw power and card advantage via: Smothering Tithe, Rhystic Study, Elemental Bond, and Kindred Discovery.
As for removal there is not any direct spot removal per say, but it does run: Supreme Verdict, Kindred Dominance, and Patriarch's Bidding. I like running wrath effects that kill everyone's stuff but mine. I also see Bane of Progress putting in lots of work, but I'll have to be careful not to destroy any of my own permanents.
You'll see glimpses of other powerful cards throughout the deck that I haven't directly mentioned. The deck will need quite a bit more play testing before I get it down to where it runs the most efficiently, and that all the cards make absolute sense. I enjoy building spicy decks and this is surely one of them. I hope this article gives you some great deck ideas, and I'd love to see your elemental deck builds!
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