Over the years, many of Magic’s most devastating designs have been hate cards that specifically target one color. From land destruction effects like Boil to life draining options such as Karma, color hosers can singlehandedly win you games in the right setting.
Of all of the cards that fit the mold, one particular green enchantment sticks out as being heavily underrated. Despite being a bit tough to maximize, with the right support, this efficient hidden gem is capable of keeping tons of threatening attackers at bay.
Sweet Interactions with Elephant Grass
In a Commander setting, go-wide archetypes including Tokens and Typal shells are extremely popular. In order to keep your head above water, many players will turn towards board wipes as well as Propaganda and Ghostly Prison to slow their opponents down. Elephant Grass has a lot in common with both of those enchantments, but with a couple key twists, outside of offering this effect to decks that cannot play the previously mentioned enchantments.
The good news is that any opposing black creatures get completely shut down, regardless of whether your opponent has mana to spare. Couple that with Elephant Grass’s efficiency, and you’ve got a powerful design that’s even making an impact in Premodern Enchantress sideboards. The problem, of course, is that the Cumulative Upkeep ability is quite taxing, making it difficult to take full advantage of Elephant Grass over a long period of time in EDH.
Fortunately, if you pair this enchantment with Solemnity, you never have to worry about Elephant Grass accumulating age counters in the first place. This is an awesome two-card synergy to utilize in many Enchantress shells in EDH, especially if you’re playing Sterling Grove. For non-white decks, even a simple counter-removing effect like Power Conduit can help you keep your one-mana enchantment in play and not have to worry about taxing your mana too much.
From there, both Painter’s Servant and Darkest Hour let you take further advantage of Elephant Grass’s second clause. Turning all creatures black, these combinations provide a force field so long as you can keep the enchantments in play. Still, as cool as these interactions are, drawing Elephant Grass without another support piece can certainly be awkward. The good news there, at least, is that there are a handful of Commanders that also pair nicely with the narrow enchantment.
Unique Commander Synergies
Much like with Power Conduit, Elephant Grass has plenty of utility alongside Xavier Sal, Infested Captain. Not only do you get to reap the rewards from the enchantment, but you also get to make copies of your best creature tokens in the process. Turning a negative into a positive is a great way to go about things.
Even in games where you can’t keep Elephant Grass around for a long time, there are some other archetypes where the short-lived reward is worthwhile. In Hansk, Slayer Zealot shells, for example, keeping back the Zombies that Hansk gives your opponents is necessary for your survival. Meanwhile, in conjunction with Thantis, the Warweaver, you can force your opponents to attack each other, rather than ganging up on you.
Given how cheap Elephant Grass is to play, it’s also a decent addition to Muldrotha, the Gravetide decks. As long as Muldrotha stays on the battlefield, you can always choose to not pay the upkeep cost for the enchantment and instead just recast it every turn. Ultimately, Elephant Grass may not be as simple a Commander inclusion as Propaganda or Ghostly Prison, but its incredible upside makes it a neat consideration if you can swing it.
Stick with us here at mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage. Be sure to check out our deckbuilder for your next big brew!