For the most part, Artifact and Aristocrat decks are two totally separate entities in Commander. There’s little overlap between these archetypes, either in terms of cards used or win conditions pursued. Eloise, Nephalia Sleuth turns this principle on its head, however, marrying the two strategies neatly in a single MTG Commander. Whether you want to grind out value or pop off with funky combo lines, this underrated Dimir legend is well worth considering.
Eloise, Nephalia Sleuth MTG
Eloise, Nephalia Sleuth offers two abilities that work nicely together. Each time one of your creatures dies, you’ll get a Clue token, which you can then sacrifice to trigger the Surveil ability. By itself, this gives you a ton of card advantage and selection, provided you’re playing a reasonable number of creatures.
To take this further, you’ll want to lean hard into token generation. This lets you get the most out of both of Eloise’s abilities, since the first just needs any creatures, while the second specifically needs tokens. Cards like Bitterblossom and Field of the Dead are great options here, providing steady streams of fodder that can later become Clues and offer free Surveils. If you go down this route, sacrifice outlets like Altar of Dementia are a must-include, so you can trade your tokens in on demand when you need cards.
Eloise can easily generate a ton of Clue tokens this way, which lets you tap into a range of lesser-seen Clue support cards. Tamiyo’s Journal becomes an easy repeatable tutor in an Eloise deck, for instance, while Unshakable Tail becomes a grindy value engine. You can also bring in Forensic Gadgeteer to reduce the activation cost on your Clues, letting you easily build up huge card advantage.
Once you’ve got a good Clue engine going, Eloise will also let you dig through a good chunk of your deck with Surveil, opening up some potential graveyard shenanigans. A Reanimator sub-theme makes a nice addition here, leveraging big hitters like Tangletrove Kelp alongside reanimation tools like Havengul Laboratory.
You can also greatly up your Surveil capacity by including cards that produce disposable artifact tokens, such as Treasures or Blood, since those trigger Eloise’s second ability, too. Pitiless Plunderer is a particularly good example here, getting you extra value from both of Eloise’s abilities.
Connecting The Dots
As powerful as Eloise, Nephalia Sleuth is when played fair, it really gets going when you start exploring its infinite combo potential. Alongside March of the Machines, for example, it creates an endless loop as soon as one of your other creatures dies. This will create a Clue, which will enter as a 0/0 creature due to March, die, then create another Clue. By itself this will actually draw the game, but if you have something like Blood Artist or Pactdoll Terror around, you’ll wipe out the rest of the table instead.
Eloise can also go infinite with Stridehangar Automaton and any sacrifice outlet. Simply sacrifice a creature to get things started, and you’ll get a Clue and a Thopter. Feed the Thopter to your sacrifice outlet, and you’ll be able to repeat the process indefinitely. This gets you infinite Clue tokens, as well as infinite instances of Surveil 1, letting you perfectly sculpt your deck. If you use a mana-producing sacrifice outlet, like Ashnod’s Altar, it’ll net you infinite mana and card draw, as well.
Cracking The Case
While it’s a little pricey at five mana, Eloise, Nephalia Sleuth makes for a fantastic Dimir Commander. It’s a powerful self-contained engine when played straight as a Clues-matter deck, but its abilities are also flexible enough to fuel a wide range of brews. Whether you want to try classic Reanimator or something more niche like Dimir Tokens, Eloise has you covered.
Despite this versatility and power, Eloise doesn’t actually see a ton of play in Commander. According to EDHREC data, just over 1,400 players run it in the command zone, which feels criminally low. It does a little better in the 99, with around 7,700 players running it, but that’s still well below what you’d expect for a legend of this caliber.
The silver lining to Eloise’s relative obscurity is that the card is easily affordable, available for just $0.16 on TCGplayer. If you want to get a little fancier, the extended art printing is only a little more at $0.44. At these prices, Eloise is an easy pickup for anyone looking to try something different in their next Commander game.
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