Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Halana and Alena, Partners!

Halana and Alena are a four mana 2/3 with first strike, reach, and at the beginning of combat on your turn you put X +1/+1 counters on another target creature you control, where X is Halana and Alena’s power and gains haste until the end of turn.

Halana and Alena are about going quick and going strong, making your creatures bigger while also giving them haste so they can go in and attack as soon as possible, especially if you give a big creature haste.

The plan is going to be not only buff our creatures with Halana and Alena’s ability, but to also get them bigger so the boosts that we give our creatures get much more substantial.

The first thing that we need to look at are supplementary ways to buff our creatures, ideally Halana and Alena to make their buff more effective.

Warden of the Grove works very well in this instance because whenever another nontoken creature we control enters, it endure X, where X is the number of counters on this creature, which if we pack on the counters to the Warden, then when Halana and Alena enter, they can become massive.

We can also make use of counter doublers like Hardened Scales which gives an additional +1/+1 counter when one would be added, Kami of Whispered Hopes which also adds an additional +1/+1 counter to creatures when they would get one but also adds mana equal to its power, and Branching Evolution to add double the number of +1/+1 counters on creatures you control.

There is also Tribute to the World Tree, which whenever a creature enters under the battlefield under your control, if it’s power is 3 or greater then you draw a card, but if their power is less, like Halana and Alena’s power, then you put two +1/+1 counters on that creature instead.

Invigorating Hot Spring can also be an additional way for us to give creatures we control +1/+1 counters as well as a benefit for having +1/+1 counters in giving modified creature we control haste, which if we manage to use in tandem with Tribute to the World Tree can mean a decent number of creatures come in with haste.

While it doesn’t give Halana and Alena counters, Unnatural Growth is also a way for us to make them bigger in, once we sequence our triggers correctly, that we let Unnatural Growth resolve first at the beginning of our combat to double their power, and then we let Halana and Alena’s ability trigger next in order to give more +1/+1 counters to a creature we control.

The next thing that we should look at are ways to get benefits for having a bunch of creatures with counters on them.

Thundering Raiju is an excellent way to not only give Halana and Alena a +1/+1 counter whenever it attacks, but we also deal X damage to each opponent where X is the number of modified creatures we control that aren’t Thundering Raiju, which if we are playing correctly should be a decent number of them.

While a bit higher on the price range, there is also Kodama of the West Tree who gives modified creatures we control trample, and whenever a modified creature we control deals combat damage to a player, we get to get a basic land and put onto the battlefield tapped, which a really good effect for us if we can stick it early.

Lion Umbra is a way for us to gives a creature we control umbra armor, +3/+3, vigilance and reach, provided we fulfill the condition of targeting a modified creature, but with the number of counters we are throwing around that shouldn’t be an issue, especially since we can give it to Halana and Alena to potentially keep them from being destroyed.

Red XIII, Proud Warrior gives modified creatures we control vigilance and trample while also being able to get an Aura or Equipment from graveyard to hand when they enter, Akki Ember-Keeper creates a 1/1 Spirit token whenever a nontoken modified creature we control dies, and Chishiro, the Shattered Blade makes a 2/2 Spirit with menace whenever we play an Aura or Equipment and at the end of our turn we put a +1/+1 counter on each modified creature we control.

Now the way we win the game is with big creatures, but we can also leverage Halana and Alena’s ability into getting even more value from it.

Due to the way that the ability is worded, whenever combat starts it would trigger their ability, meaning extra combats will have the ability trigger again.

Last Night Together is a way for us to get two creatures we control bigger, untaps them, and gives them vigilance, haste, indestructible until the end of turn and after this main phase there is an additional combat phase where the two creatures that were picked can attack, and if we pick Halana and Alena as one, we can make a big creature even bigger to swing for the game.

Akki Battle Squad can take advantage of the fact that we have so many modified creatures since whenever one or more modified creatures we control attack, we can untap the modified creatures we control and gain an additional combat phase to trigger Halana and Alena’s ability again.

If we are willing to splurge a little bit, there is also Bloodthirster, which whenever it deals combat damage to a player we can untap it to gain an additional combat phase, which has the caveat that it cannot attack a player it already attacked this turn, which can potentially give us three combat phases that Halana and Alena can grow the Bloodthirster to get even more damage through.

If we want potentially a ton of combats, we can also make use of Anzrag, the Quake-Mole, which if it gets blocked we untap each creature we control and get an additional combat phase, along with the in-built way to be able to be blocked, which we can get for much cheaper with a Lure effect.

Maester Seymour is another creature that we can use to take advantage of all the extra combats we should be getting by giving +1/+1 counters to another creature we control at the beginning of combat, which can be used to make Halana and Alena bigger, which can make Seymour bigger, and it becomes a way to get a massive number of counters to make a massive swing to win with any number of our creatures.

Halana and Alena is an engine Commander, in which that they make the deck run because of the fact that they distribute the counters to our creatures and makes them able to attack immediately and makes them into a massive threat.

They are an aggro Commander and are subjected to the usual blowouts like Cyclonic Rift and Settle the Wreckage, but the way the deck wins is by going sideways and hoping damage gets through, and if not dealt with can potentially make for a bunch of short games.

Thank you for reading, see you tomorrow for the next Daily Commander!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual