For the most part, competitive Commander, or cEDH, is an incredibly expensive way to play Magic. Decks there regularly cost thousands of dollars, with some brews even passing the $10,000 mark. That said, this doesn’t have to be the case, as the recent success of Ashling, the Limitless in a cEDH tournament has proven. By adding just 53 cards to Ashling’s Dance of the Elements precon, this new brew managed to claim first place in one of Magic’s most cutthroat formats.
Ashling, The Limitless In cEDH
As a cEDH Commander, Ashling, the Limitless is mainly concerned with playing the value game. Zape Sayto’s list, which claimed first place at a recent cEDH event in Barcelona, is structured like a full-on Elemental Typal deck. 35 of the 38 creatures here are Elementals, which means the deck can take full advantage of Ashling’s Evoke-granting ability.
By itself, this ability makes it easy to generate huge value from Elementals like Mulldrifter and Maelstrom Wanderer. Throw in cost reducers like Urza’s Incubator, and it gets downright nasty. You can start chaining through your deck with a setup like this, snowballing into a monumental value and damage swing.
Once you add Mana Echoes and Faces of the Past into the mix, this becomes even easier. These enchantments essentially let the deck play a combo game, providing enough mana to keep casting Elementals as long as you have them in hand. Draw engines, like Elemental Bond and Up the Beanstalk, make sure you’re well-stocked in this regard.
When it’s not popping off like this, Sayto’s Ashling, the Limitless deck is more than capable of playing fair. Plenty of the Elementals here, like Shriekmaw and Ingot Chewer, serve as answers for problem permanents. You can even use Flamekin Harbinger to access this toolbox at your leisure, letting the deck play a surprisingly strong reactive game.
If you do end up pushing for value, this list even features a bit of a sacrifice sub-theme to make great use of Ashling’s token copies. Cards like Ashnod’s Altar and Metamorphosis, for example, can trade them in for mana. You can also use Birthing Ritual to turn them into real Elementals from your deck instead.
A Surprisingly Easy Upgrade
If you own the Dance of the Elements precon deck already, you have 47 of the cards here right off the bat, which leaves just 53 cards to pick up. Many of the necessary cards here are just bulk Elementals, like Aethersnipe. You will need a few mid-range cards like Ashnod’s Altar at around $10, and two heavy hitters in Roaming Throne and Mana Echoes.
These are by far the biggest hurdles to completing this list, weighing in at $45 and $40, respectively. Even with these cards in the mix, however, the whole upgrade should only cost you around $250 in total. Add $30 for the Dance of the Elements precon, and that’s just $280 overall. That’s pretty reasonable for any Commander deck nowadays, but especially one that can compete at the cEDH level.
One To Watch?
While it’s great to see Ashling top a cEDH tournament, the deck’s future in the format is unclear at present. Impressive as the result is, it was achieved in a relatively small event, with 19 participants. Going forward, the deck will likely need to evolve to compete with the current kings of the cEDH metagame.
Right now, the big decks are Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy, Tymna/Kraum, and Rograkh/Thrasios, which are much faster than Ashling. Kinnan can ramp into an infinitely large Finale of Devastation to close things out as early as turn two. The Partner pairs, similarly, have access to both Thassa’s Oracle and Underworld Breach combos, which can end the game just as fast.
Ashling, by contrast, is slower but seems more consistent. It can win in a big, combo-esque Haste chain turn, or it can grind things out just by dropping Elementals on curve. The big cEDH decks above don’t tend to generate much of a board presence and have trouble interacting with creature spells. Despite this, the pure speed differential could cause problems.
There are definitely more combo-centric ways to build Ashling as well, mind you. With access to all five colors, you can slot in all of the best cEDH combos if you’d like. While such a list may go against the spirit of Sayto’s dedicated typal brew, it may be what Ashling needs depending on how the cEDH metagame develops.
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