Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Emmara, Soul of the Accord!

Emmara is a two mana 2/2 that whenever they become tapped you create a 1/1 white Soldier creature token with lifelink.

Emmara is a very simple to understand Commander, indicative of the fact that Emmara became the face Commander of one of the Starter Commander decks that they made some time ago. While Emmara is a very straightforward Commander, I do think that there is a way we can make a powerful version.

The goal of this deck is to take what would normally be a lower powered Commander and work to make it a stronger deck, which means that this deck is aiming for a Bracket 3 to 4 type of strength, which often comes with Game Changers and much more expensive cards.

The first thing we need are cheap ways we can tap Emmara, ideally as soon as she enters the battlefield.

Evendo, Waking Haven is one of the more ideal options for this deck because even though it enters tapped, we can Station it when we get Emmara in which then makes a 1/1 that we can use to help fuel the Station ability, which basically turns it into a Gaea’s Cradle.

We can also use cards that tap creatures in order to make mana like Springleaf Drum which taps itself and an untapped creature we control to add a mana of any color, Jaspara Sentinel which can do the same thing but also has the utility of reach, and Cryptolith Rite which lets all of our creatures tap for a mana of any color to make use of all the tokens we will be making.

Nature’s Chosen is a neat bit of tech because we can tap the enchanted creature to untap a creature, artifact, or land only if the creature is white and only once each turn but we can also untap the enchanted creature once each turn for free, which means that we can slowly untap our things on our opponents turns to start accumulating more and more tokens.

To also help untap our permanents for whatever we need, we can use Seedborn Muse which untaps all permanents we control during each other player’s untap step, which we can use for a variety of reasons like casting a Convoke spell like a Clever Concealment to protect our things by phasing them out or to help Crew utility Vehicles like Smuggler’s Copter to help draw us a card then discarding a card when it attacks or blocks.

Now that we have reliable way to start generating tokens through Emmara, we need to make even more tokens.

Mondrak, Glory Dominus is among one of the several token doublers that we have access to, further helped by that fact that we can either pay one and two white or more often one and four life and sacrifice two other artifacts or creatures in order to put an indestructible counter on it to make it more difficult to deal with.

Doubling Season is also a powerful option for us because not only does it help by making double the number of tokens, it also doubles the number of counters we add on permanents we control, which works well for +1/+1 counters sure, but also for any Station counters we add help with this as well.

Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation is also a solid choice because it makes triple the number of creature tokens we would make, and also happens to turn itself into a tapped land if it would die, with that land being Temple of Civilization which adds a white mana but also happens to turn itself back into Ojer Taq for only three mana.

Queen Allenal of Ruadach is a pretty solid pick as well because her power and toughness is determined by the number of creatures we control and if one or more creature tokens we control would be made, we make those tokens plus a 1/1 white Soldier token are made instead, which further widens our battlefield.

Since we are going wide, we should also consider Elspeth, Storm Slayer as well because she makes twice the number of tokens as well as a static ability, makes a 1/1 white Soldier creature token (actually two because of her ability), puts a +1/+1 counter on each creature we control and gives them flying until the end of turn while also having the option for us to destroy a creature an opponent controls with mana value three or greater.

Ocelot Pride also becomes an excellent way for us to get a ton of tokens because at the beginning of our end step if we gained life, such as with one of the tokens that Emmara makes, then we make a 1/1 Cat and then if we have the City’s Blessing, then we make a token copy for each token that entered the battlefield this turn, which if we’ve done our job right means that we make an absurd number of extra tokens we can use to win.

The last thing we need is a way to clear the board of our opponents things while also making sure our creatures deal enough damage to win the game.

Aura Shards is one of the best ways to make use of all the creature tokens we have being made since whenever a creature we control enters, then we may destroy target artifact or enchantment, and that can help clear a lot of enchantments that may be restricting our combats or mana rocks our opponents need.

To help deal with the creatures, we can use Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite as a way to give other creatures we control +2/+2 and give creatures our opponents controls -2/-2, which helps clear utility creatures pretty handily while also giving our creatures a solid boost to deal a ton of damage or clear out the rest of the creatures our opponents control.

Cathar’s Crusade can be used as a way to get a ton of +1/+1 counters on our creatures, Divine Visitation can turn all of the creature tokens we would make into a 4/4 Angel token with flying and vigilance, and Valor in Akros to give creatures we control +1/+1 until end of turn whenever a creature we control enters.

To help us secure a victory, we can use Concordant Crossroad to give all creatures haste so they can attack as soon as they enters combined with Hour of Reckoning to destroy all nontoken creatures to clear the board and either a Craterhoof Behemoth to give each creature +X/+X and trample with X being the number of creatures we control or a Moonshaker Cavalry to give each creature we control flying and +X/+X with X being the number of creatures we control.

Emmara is a straightforward Commander that can be made very simply, but can also be made to be a powerful Commander by using the best cards we have available to us. This Daily Commander was to show that something as simple to understand as Emmara can be made even stronger.

Even when dealing with the potential issue of our creatures being removed by a board wipe isn’t too bad because building a higher Bracket deck gives us access to Teferi’s Protection to protect us from our opponent’s trying to stop us.

The other potential issue is that over time the play pattern becomes much more predictable, especially if you include cheap tutors to get what you need, which can leave you feeling bored about playing the deck very quickly. You may not feel this way, but it is something to consider before investing in some of the more expensive pieces of the deck.

I do enjoy seeing a Commander that was chosen to be one of the Starter Commanders being made into a much more optimal version because it sets the goal for people to build their decks up to. While I personally am not one to enjoy playing hyper optimized engines and super expensive cards, there are people who love doing so.

For newer players who may have bought the Emmara Starter Deck this blog serves as more of what to strive for, slowly getting the expensive cards to make the best version of that deck as possible.

It’s a slow build up, but there is no rush and you may find a different way to play Emmara that uses none of the expensive cards I mentioned and have a wonderful time with it.

That’s my favorite part about Commander.

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

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual