![]() ![]() No other card exemplifies this aspect of our game plan better than Near-Death Experience. We often rely on the survival of one piece or the resolution of one spell to claim victory, and losing it often spells our demise. One aspect of Selenia that makes me hesitant is how high risk/reward she is. While swapping life totals gives us a redundant path to victory, that's not the only way that Selenia can seize a win. This card not only lets us drain our life total, but it can also turn Selenia into a threat with commander damage. Unspeakable Symbol is probably most well-known as a signature card for Marchesa, the Black Rose, but being able to trade life for power is never a bad option. Wall of Blood and Hex Parasite both appear in about half of the listed decks, but another option only appears in 8 of the 121. Luckily for us, Selenia isn't the only option we have when it comes to draining our life total quickly. These effects only target one opponent, but I think the added political element makes it worth it. We also have some repeatable effects on permanents, such as Soul Conduit and Magus of the Mirror. Repay is especially strong for our strategy, since it's able to hit each opponent, while Reverse lets us play politics and leverage each player's life total according to that player's threat. Repay in Kind and Reverse the Sands, while expensive, are the hardest of these to interact with by being sorceries. Surprisingly, there is a decent density of these effects in the game, and each one makes it into nearly 70% of Selenia lists. Most of the prominent game-ending effects for the deck revolve around switching our life totals with another player. This puts our opponent's life total in the red-zone, and from there it should be trivial to finish them off. Life is a GameĪs I touched on a bit earlier, our life total is this deck's ultimate resource, but how do we use it? Activating Selenia's ability over and over lets us drain ourselves down to near zero, and then we swap life totals with an opponent. Why would we do that though? Selenia's whole gameplan revolves around the concept of life ultimately being a resource to further our own goals. We can activate her ability over and over again to drain our own life total. The real kicker for Selenia's unique gameplan is the cost of her ability: "Pay 2 Life". While she doesn't have the greatest stats-to-cost ratio, she is still a resilient flying threat. "Pay 2 life: Return Selenia, Dark Angel to its owner's hand."įirst and foremost, this ability lets us protect Selenia, Dark Angel from nearly all forms of removal. However, the more my friend explained how she worked, the more the idea latched onto my mind. At a glance, she seemed like a color-shifted, worse Wydwen, the Biting Gale. Value? What value could this commander possibly bring? A 3/3 flyer isn't great for it's cost, and her other ability seems very lackluster. That was until one of my good friends explained her value. At first glance, I pushed the thought of even attempting to brew Selenia out of my mind. Hailing from Dominaria, our newest entrant offers a very. ![]() Rise to the occasion and meet our newest entrant in our series: Selenia, Dark Angel! Selenia, Dark Angel She only has 121 decks currently listed of EDHREC, and she is the 11th most played black-white commander. Pulling from the ever-present themes of self-sacrifice and "greatness at any cost," this week's commander is dying to get a chance to shine. So far, only one commander with black has been featured in this series, and I figured what better way to begin to balance the colors than to pick a legend from "the black set," Torment. It's been too long, but I'm glad to be back! In this installment of the Underdog's Corner, I try and equalize the featured commander's color balance. Each article makes the argument for a single commander that deserves more play, as well as highlighting key cards and synergies. This article is Round 9 of the Underdog's Corner, a series spotlighting various lesser-used commanders and their place in the format.
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